is as good as an other which is the prevailing doctrine of these days Therefore Mr. Bold one whom I shall afterwards account with was much mistaken when he said he never hardly appear'd on a fashionable subject Rep. p. 3. for this Opinion and that One religion is as good as another is the Modish doctrine every where This Country Gentleman is in the Fashion and doth not know it And thence you may judge of the Truth of what Mr. Lock saith of him that he takes not up his Opinions from Fashion Pref. to his Vindicat. Now this is a fair step towards Rome for if one Religion be equivalent to an other and our Salvation is not concerned in the belief of the Necessary Articles of our Faith then we are at liberty to embrace what Form and Model of Articles we please and those of the Church of Rome will perhaps be thought as good as any There is a strange passage in this Writer p. 217 218. which speaks his favourable opinion of the Pontifician way I have often wondred saith he to hear men of several Churches so heartily exclaim against the Implicit Faith of the Church of Rome when the same Implicit Faith is as much practis'd and required in their own though not so openly profess'd and ingeniously own'd there First he lets us know that from that Converse which he hath had with persons of several Churches whether of the Communion of the Church of England or those of the Dissenters he finds that they are against the Church of Rome Secondly that though they are against the doctrine of Implicit Faith in the Church of Rome yet they like it well enough in their own Thirdly they not only like it but practise it yea the very same Implicit Faith Fourthly they not only practise but require it they command and enjoyn those of their Communion to believe all they say with an Implicit Faith But fifthly they do not this with so good a grace as those of the Roman Church do For those latter are very open and ingenuous in their profession and practise of implicit Faith but the former are not so Protestants have not that Candor and Fairness which are to be seen in Papists they neither so openly profess nor so ingenuously own this doctrine but yet as strictly practise it and require the practise of it as they do I leave it with the Reader to determine from the Premises which of these two those of the Roman or of the Reform'd Churches have the happiness to be most in favour with this Gentleman In the known stile of the Roman Priests and Writers he declares that the Scripture serves but like a Nose of Wax p 213. And as the Heads of the Church of Rome deny the Bible to the Common people so he is advancing towards this apace for he lops off three of the Evangelists for one he saith will suffice and all the Epistles And further to shew his good will to the Roman Catholicks and to their Beloved Notion of Transubstantiation he tells us p. 408 409. that if a man understands those words of our Saviour's Institution This is my body and This is my blood in a Literal sense he must believe the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are changed really into his Body and Blood though he knows not how And afterwards he saith He is obliged to belive it to be true and to assent to it And presently afterwards To deny assent to this as true would be to deny our Saviour's Veracity and consequently his being the Messiah sent from God Here he lets us know that his One Article is quite renounced if Transubstantition be not admitted You see what his making of Iesus is the Messias to be the Sole Article of Christian Faith comes to But this doctrine of Transubstantiation is so grateful to him that he brings it over again p 413 414. assuring us that the Old Gentleman at Rome who hath an Antient Title to Infallibility may make Transubstantiaâ—on a Fundamental Article necessarily to be believ'd as well as I make the Divinity of Christ and his Satisfaction c. for these he means by the Sense of any Disputed Texts of Scripture because the Texts concerning these Points are disputable with him Fundamental Articles necessarily to be believ'd It is brought to this issue it seems that Transubstantiation is as Fundamental an Article of the Christian Faith as any that can be nam'd besides Iesus's being the Messias Thus by the Over-ruling Providence of Heaven this sort of Writers discover the inward bent of their thoughts and inclinations though they labour to hide them from the world This Gentleman would be thought to have no kindness for Rome and yet his own words confuâ—â— him As I observ'd before that he stoutly Rails whilest he is remonstrating against that practice so here he stiffly patronizes Popery even when he had pretended to shew himself displeas'd at my charging him with it And I could produce several other passages out of his Writings which makes it appear that our Prester Iohn is inclined to receive the Roman Missionaries I could make it evident that he is Indifferent as to the Reform'd Religion and the Doctrines professed by the Owners of it and that he inspires mens minds with a dis-esteem of those Articles which the Christian Churches since the Reformation have unanimously asserted and vindicated and that he represents them as Ridiculous You must not saith he give ear to what the Preachers and Pulpit Orators of these Churches tell you about more Articles than One as necessary to be known and believed in order to making you Christians If you assent to this Single Proposition Iesus is the Messias I declare to you that you are as to matter of Faith as Good Christians as St. Peter and St. Paul were When your Parish-Priests endeavour in their Popular Harangues to perswade you that this is not the sum Total of the Christian Faith but that there are other Necessary and Fundamental Doctrines which are of the Essence of Christianity you must roundly tell them from me that the Catalogue of Fundamentals every one alone can make for himself no body can collect or prescribe it to an other but this is according as God hath dealt to every one the measure of light and faith and hath open'd each mans understanding that he may understand the Scripture These are the express words of our Vindicator p. 85. and from them it undeniably follows that though no body must be a Creed-maker yet every one may be a Fundamental-maker Mr. Hobbs was pleased to give this power to the King only but this Gentleman is more liberal and grants it to every Subject He may make what Catalogue of Fundamentals he pleases and put this into it among the rest that the Pope is Infallible and that the Religion of the Church of Rome is to be prefer'd to that of the Reformed Fundamentals depend not upon the Scriptures but upon mens Understandings and
A Brief Vindication OF THE Fundamental Articles OF THE Christian Faith AS ALSO Of the Clergy Universities and Publick Schools from Mr. Lock 's Reflections upon them in his Book of Education c. With some Animadversions on two other late Pamphlets viz. Of Mr. Bold and a Nameless Socinian Writer By Iohn Edwards B. D. LONDON Printed for I. Robinson at the Golden Lion and I. Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1697. THE Epistle Dedicatory TO BOTH UNIVERSITIES HONOURED SIRS A Late Writer hath taken the confidence to make very Disrespectfull Indecent Rude and Scurrilous Reflections upon You and hath with that Scorn and Insolence which are peculiar to him and cannot be supposed to be in any other Man censured your Studies and Ways and Methods of Learning which are at this day own'd and practis'd by you They have always born the brand of Infamy who have shew'd their ill will to these Publick Schools of Education and Professed Seminaries of Arts and Literature Pope Paul the Second and Sixtus the Fourth who succeded him were infamous on this account for both of them were obâ—erv'd to bear a Hatred to Universities and publickly to declare their abhorrence of Academick Men and Learning Mr. Hobbes is a Modern Instance who was wont to decry the University-Studies and Learning because he had espoused a Set of Notions which were destructive not only to Academick but all Religious Principles But a later Instance we have in one Mr. Lock who though he infinitely comes short of the forenamed Person in Parts or Good Letters yet hath taken the courage to tread in his Old Friend's steps and publickly to proclaim his dislike of University-Men and to remonstrate against the Methods they take in bringing up of Youth The Name of Publick Schools and Academies is as hatefull to him as that of Athâ—nasius to a Socinian Nor is he pleas'd with our Old Christianity but hath offer'd a New Scheme to the World the same the very same in words as well as to the Thing with what Mr. Hobbes propounded as the Perfect and Compleat Model of Faith viz. To believe in Christ is nothing else than to believe that Jesus is the Christ and no other Faith besides this Article is required to Eternal life De Cive cap. 18. The belief of this Article Jesus is the Christ or Messias is all the Faith required for Salvation Leviathan Part. 3. Chap. 43. This is the Doctrine which is revived and furbish'd up in the pretended Reasonableness of Christianity and you see whence it is borrow'd When that Writer was framing a New Christianity he took Hobbes's Leviathan for the New Testament and the Philosopher of Malmsbury for our Saviour and the Apostles See how naturally a Man passes from arraigning and vilifying the Universities to affront and abuse Religion He had with pride and contempt trampled upon the former and now he attacks the latter and treads Christianity it self under his feet It may be few of you have taken notice of the Affronts done to your selves by this Bold Assailant as not busying your selves with such sort of Writers or as thinking such Reflections below your Resentments But I having had occasion to enter the Lists with this Gentleman it falls in my way to take notice of his Double Insolence i. e. to You and to Religion but more especially the latter which he hath miserably shatter'd and unsettled and almost reduced to nothing having baulk'd a great part of the Gospels and wholly laid aside the Epistles and renounced all Articles of Christianity but One as necessary to be believ'd to constitute a Man a Christian and having every where shew'd his disdain of the Ministry and Ministers of the Gospel especially the Clergy of the Church of England So that he deserves to be treated with Satyr rather than Argument And therefore if there be in the ensuing Papers a kind of mixture of the former with the latter I hope it will not be disrelish'd even by the most Serious and Iudicious Readers when they consider on whom it is bestow'd Gentlemen I have now an opportunity of vindicating the Honour of those Renowned and Learned Bodies to which you belong and likewise of asserting and defending the Cause of Christianity wherefore I thought I should be defective as to both these Concerns if I did not offer these Papers to You and humbly request You to take them into your patronage with the Author of them who is Most Learned Sirs Your entire Servant and Honoâ—â—er JOHN EDWARDS The Author to the Bookseller SIR YOu know Books Printed at Cambridge are commonly Licensed by the University and accordingly when I designed the following Papers for the Press there I requested Mr. Vice-Chancellor and the Regius Professor of Divinity to peruse them which they did and then returned them to me with an Imprimatur and two other Heads of Colleges for I applied my self to no more were pleased to sign the same The Form was thus April 17. 1697. Imprimatur Hen. Iames Procan Io. Beaumont Reg. Theol. Prof. Io. Covell S. T. P. Io. Baldersâ—on S. T. P. But since I found it necessary to be printed at London 〈◊〉 that I might not seem neglectful of 〈◊〉 â—avour and Kindness of the worthy Pâ—â—sons before mentioned And that you and the Reader may see that the Ensuing Undertaking was so far approved of by those Learned Gentlemen that they Licensed the Printing of it I have thought fit for their 〈◊〉 and yours to set down their Names Your humble Servant J. E. A Brief Vindication OF THE Christian Faith c. AFter I had observed the rude and surly Genius of a late Penman the Author and Vindicator of a Treatise which he entitules The Reasonableness of Christianity I had a mind to see what was his Humour in some other of his Productions and accordingly I look'd into his Papers of Education and there I soon discover'd that it was his settled Nature and Temper to Traduce all ranks of Persons and that he had taught his Tongue to Revel and that he can't write three Pages without thrice as many Calumnies and Falshoods and so I less wondered at his Rudeness to Me. There I found that he libels the most Learned and Celebrated Societies of Men in this Nation that he strives to blast the reputation of the most Useful Persoâ—s and to ridicule their Publick Employments and Statiens that with an ungovernable pride and disdain he discards some Arts and Sciences and laughs at the Professors of them And in brief I found that he imperiously flies at all and like some Barbarous Invader makes havock wheresoever he comes and spares no Sex Place or Quality of Persons Of which I will now give the Reader some particular Instances and undeniable proofs For I conceive it will not be expected that I should first endeavour to make it clear that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity is the same person that writ concerning Education for all his Friends and Admirers
Doctrine in mens minds that there are More Articles then One in the Christian Religion which are the necessary and indispensable matter of our Faith in order to our being True Christians Only first let me be permitted to observe how the Vindicator to bubble the Reader insinuates that in my Socinianism Vnmask'd I used ill language and railing and again in the same place his Preface he complains of my Stile as rude and scurrilous whereas any impartial Reader may satisfy himself that I always kept my self close to the matter which was before me I attended to the Merits of the Cause and made no Reflections but what his way of Discoursing drew from me I will not deny that I labour'd to assert the Truth with that Concern and Earnestness that Zeal and Ardour which so Good a Cause deserves I don't love to dally with the Grand Articles of our Religion for I look upon Languid and Timerous Assertors of Evangelical Truths as a sort of Betrayers of them There is as much of Iudas as Nicodemus in such persons It is one of the most Ominous Defects and Miscarriages of this Age that such numbers of men are Faint and Indifferent in matters of this nature I thank God I am not of so Phlegmatick a Mold I have not so groveling and dastardly a spirit as tamely to suffer this Upstart Adversary to shock Religion and pervert the Faith and not to stand up in defence of it and to detect his Errors and Cheats Therefore I am now treated as his Mortal Enemy because I tell him the Truth and that without timerous mincing of it It is this that hath rais'd in him an Angry and Malicious Ferment and hath made him rage and huff and fill the world with Clamours One hath rightly observ'd concerning his Second Vindication that it is an Angry piece of work and that he was in a Storm whilst he was writing it It is easily discernable that all along he is swell'd with Coler and Revenge Being touch'd home he equally raves against the Truth and Me. We see the Physick hath work'd as all the Filth and Excrements of his Papers shew Dirt and Ordure and Dunghills are the frequent embelishments of his Stile I am charg'd with popular calumnies falshood absurdity bawling talking at random malicious untruth leger-demain Nay I am a Conjurer though I never took him to be such I am a petulant Scold I am Villainous and I am e'en what he pleases I am sometimes an Innocent with him and sometimes a Iesuite for our Scurrilous Tutour is very happy in his wise and significant tacking of Calumnies together I 'm a Reprobate with him as to my Parts and Breeding I am honour'd with the Epithets of a Buffoon and with an Innuendo a Devil I have Lying and Impudence laid to my charge Yea this Well-bred Governour calls me a downright Impudent Liar And abundance of such Rhetorical Flowers I could present the Reader with out of the Vindicator's Garden for you must know that though he is a deadly Enemy to Poetry yet he is a Great Rhetorician The Strangeness of the Scene is that though he plentifully Rails every where yet he cries out against me as if I did so It is plain that he would suffer no body to Rail but himself He is clearly for the Monopoly of this Trade He seems to be of the Humour of him that would let no body where he was Swear but himself Let him then engross the whole Commodity I 'll not pretend to be a Sharer or Rival with him One that hath spent the greatest part of his time among Nurses and Gossips and the Loquacious Fry is not to seek in the Art of Scolding nay is supposed to Excel in it To such a one I am ready to give the Precedence because I question whether any of the Sisterhood at Billingsgate can outstrip him This Thorow-paced Railer flies to Personal Reflections that is such as he counts to be of that nature or else he would not have fill'd his Papers with them I am a Preacher and a Pulpit-Orator p 61 206 352 386. which are very scandalous imputations with him Wherefore he often insists upon these and touches upon my Parish and Parishioners p 203. and the very naming of an Use of Exhortation p. 393. is a Jest and a piece of Stinging Wit with him In one place p. 14â— he is so Logical that he infers I am no Good Arguer or Writer because I am a Preacher And yet he will grant that a Man may be a Commissioner for Trade to the Barbado's and yet be a Good Writer But whether he can be so as he is a Conceited Tutor I leave to be consider'd He hath such a rude way of treating the most Eminent Persons as you heard before that I could not expect to escape him who am in an other Level But it is observable that whilest he maliciously strikes at me he defames most of the Best Writers of our Age who are known to be Preachers and Pulpit Orators and this hath been the main Employment of their Lives Nay I could take notice that in his Vindication he uses the Testimonies and Authorities though it is true he hath mistaken them of some of those Writers that have been famed for their Preaching and Pulpit Oratory Now if Preachers be no Arguers then why doth he make use of their Authority If they be why doth he vilify them Good Mr. Vindicator be perswaded to leave off these Contradictions and Nonsense But any discerning man may see that here as well as in several other places of his Vindication and some of his other Writings his design was to ridicule the Sacred Office of Preaching and to blast the whole Function We may guess what honourable thoughts he hath of it when he attempts to apply the term Post in way of a rascally Quibble to the Ministry and the Persons concern'd in it p. 422. Therefore his Bitter Reflections on the Ministers of the Gospel and their Office are deservedly taken notice of and censured by a late Writer Occasional Paper Num. 1. and Num. 5. Truly there should be some care taken of this Gentleman for the very mentioning of Preaching though it be from his own mouth inflames his blood renews his Frenzy and makes him Rave This poor crazed Tutor should be look'd after and soundly dosed with Hellebore lest in the fits of his over-heated Brain he should lash out and revenge himself on the Wainscot of our Pulpits and with them of the Reading Pews for the sake of the Epistles of which hereafter And it is well if our whole Bibles escape his fury for the same reason But our Scolding Tutor falls upon me again p. 30. and now the Topick is Preferment and Admission to Preferment in the Church of England p. 24. It may be this is done to invite me to take notice of his Preferments and therefore though he be so rude as to upbraid me for my want of Titles and Dignities
yet I shall be so Civil to him as to acknowledge and recount those which he is Master of I own him to be Censor-General of the Logick and Latin of the Universities Corrigidore and Regulator of all the Publick Schools in Christendom Great Master of the Anti-Academick Order Tutor in Eyre and Controller to the Youth of Seven Counties Curator in Ordinary to Costive Paunches Principal Secretary to the Deists Office Feoffee in Trust for Sozzo's Pupils c. And I beg his pardon that I forgot to mention those Offices and Places before He is at me again p. 67. and obliquely insinuates for he is full of his Squinting Hints that I am for that Maxim The Doctrines in fashion and likely to procure Preferments are alone to be received and so would imply that I am ready to receive any Doctrines in fashion be they never so Unreasonable or Impious and that Gain will tempt me to this or any thing else Why I tell you Sir you are in the wrong box I am not the man you take me for I was never hired to write for the lowering of Guineas I never sought or held a Place with the forfeiture of my Honesty and therefore I defy your Impotent Raillery not only against me but against the Whole Clergy High and Low for you look upon them all as Mercenary and that they receive no Doctrines but what are in fashion and are likely to procure Preferment Which you have learnt from your Brethren of Racovia who tell us that the Church of England men are or would be Pensioners of the World Behold the Insolence of our Libertine who hath had the sway among Children and hath Lord-Mavor'd it over Nurses and Chair-women He hath been so worship'd and obey'd by the Striplings and hath had such an absolute command of their Legs and Hats that he expects the like submission and obeysance from all others and he thinks he may say any thing and not be opposed for he cannot brook Contradiction But I shall force him to it and seeing he hath thought good to Riot thus with his Pen he must not think to go untouch'd Seeing he hath taken the liberty to reflect on my Calling and Function and therein hath abus'd all of the same Character with my self he must not take it ill if I sometimes glance upon the Post he is in and his Studies and Employments If I follow so laudable an Example as his he is oblig'd to pardon me and to remember that he was the Aggressor And though indeed we are forbid to answer such people according to their folly yet in some Circumstances i. e. when Pride and Conceit and such like Ingredients are mix'd with their Folly we are permitted by the Wise Man to answer them according to the merits of their willful and affected folly lest they should be wise in their own conceit lest they should be hardned in their Pride and Arrogance and think themselves Wise because no body checks and bridles their folly Indeed it is almost a Reproach to a man to encounter such an Adversary who hath the second time gull'd the world with false Stories and abandoning all shame and ingenuity given himself up to obstinate resolves of maintaining a Cause which will prove to mischievous to Christendom An Adversary that hath no sense of what he doth but is blinded and infatuated by Prejudice so that he hath left himself no power to judge of his own words or actions Which renders him a person not fit to be treated with that respect and deference which are due to an Ingenuous and Civil Opponent To use him Gently is to handle a Bear with Ceremony and Caution And sometimes he is not worth a Serious Reply for he Cheats the people and then makes Sport of it But however though I shall be somewhat free with him yet I will not thrust upon the Reader any thing that is indecent rude spiteful or entrenching upon Truth When we deal with such men our Master's Example forbids us to revile again but the Apostle allows us nay commands us to rebuke them sharply I shall not be thought perhaps to be defective in this but none can censure me for Excess if they consider what the Badness of his design as well as the Petulancy of his Stile required But where he gives me any scope for Arguing and Reasoning the case I have with great seriousness applied my self to it and I hope I have establish'd the Truth upon firm and solid grounds I will begin with his Preface to his Vindication where he inserts a very Gracious Epistle to Mr. Bold his late Convert and now Confederate and there pretends to tell him the Birth of his Reasonableness of Christianity It was begot if you will believe the Father of it on the Controversy of Iustification He might have as well have said on the Controversy of Predestination for it as much belongs to one as the other And so you see it was a mere By blow and worthy of the Parent But he is extremely fond of this Spurious Issue and applauds himself for being the Author of it The first view I had of it saith he seem'd mightily to satisfy my mind I wonder that every body did not see and embrace it though Systems of Divinity said nothing of it I was pleas'd saith our Narcissus with the growing discovery every day whilest I was employ'd in this search And more to the same purpose in the same Epistle Then he proceeds to applaud the Godfather of this Brat Mr. Bold Concerning whom he declares that he hath more readily entertain'd and more easily enter'd into the meaning of his Book than most he might have said any he hath heard speak of it And afterwards Mr. Bold hath enter'd into the true sense of my Treatise and his notions perfectly agree with mine And therefore he must needs be as he stiles him a Calm Christian a Grave Divine a Man of Parts a Well-bred Man And he hath if you 'll credit our Encomiast a settled repute c. Would you know the reason of all this Coaksing It is no other than this that same Mr. Bold who was Sponsor for the Bastard brood had in a late Pamphlet mightily extoll'd the Dad of it Mr. Lock He calls him the Ingenious Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity Rep p. 3. and that great and eminent Person p. 27. It is a sign so when one of so little sense and discretion votes him to be such He is no Disparagement to the Cause he saith p 27. and there is a good reason for it I must tell him for as a Person so a Cause that hath nothing of worth in it is not capable of being disparaged Poor Creature he â—hinks it a great matter to have One Pen besides his own wagging on his side He is mightily rejoyc'd that he hath got a Single Patron for his Single Article and is over joy'd at such Fulsom Encomiums thrown upon him and therefore he heaps up
within the Compass of the four Seas By the same way of Arguing I will prove that the doctrine of the Trinity is no part of Christianity as delivered in the Scripture And so you may saith the Vindicator for I hold there is no such thing as the Trinity in Scripture But I will try again by the same Argument I will prove that the Divine Decrees and the Attributes of God and his Providence are no Part of Christianity because these words Decrees Attributes Providence as it is understood of God are not in Scripture Nor do the Sacraments belong to Christianity because that word occurs no where in the Sacred Writings as Barclay Apol. p. 292. profoundly argues Nay The word Christianity is not to be found in Scripture why then doth this man talk of Christianity as delivered in the Scripture You see by this what strange and inconsistent things he obtrudes upon the Reader He will not allow of Satisfaction because the word is not mention'd in the Bible Is there any reason then to own such a thing as Christianity seeing the word is not found there But he will say the Thing is And the same I say of Satisfaction and so the Vindicator shews himself to be a sorry contemptible Wrangler and lets the World know that he hath dealt so much with Children that he 's of that number himself But afterwards p 157. he pretends to own the Thing and to say it may be collected out of his Reasonableness of Christianity Yet still the Stubborn and Stomachful Man which disposition he observes reigns much in Children Educat p. 121 122. will not buckle to the Word Surely this same word satisfying hath been some way or other very mischievous to him that he so starts back at the naming of it But to come close to the business I appeal to any Impartial Man whether it can in any probability be believ'd that a person own such or such a Truth or Doctrine of the Gospel and yet will not express it by that Word or Name which all the Professors of the Orthodox Faith have agreed to call it by This is the Case of the Vindicator he pretends to allow of the Satisfaction of Christ and yet he absolutely refuses to use the Word But till he can give us any Reason for this refusal we shall believe that the true Cause why he will not admit of the Word is because he disbelieves the Thing it self P. 159 he would be fastning two Properties of a Iesuite as he saith upon me but every one saith they are his Own and therefore I will not injure him by laying claim to them And this I 'll tell him moreover that he hath an Other Property of one of that Order which he hath not named and that is Trudging up and down and having no Home And if a man can be of Loiola's Order and a Mendicant too then I 'm sure he may put in for both What he jabbers p. 163 164. about Satisfaction not being named at the Admission of those of Riper Years to Baptism he might have seen answer'd if he had had two eyes in my Socinianism Unmask'd p. 47. P. 168. he comes to make little Whimsical Remarks on what I had said of the Apostles Creed he raises Trifling Objections he sets up a Phantom a mere Shadow and then encounters it he is wanton and freakish and in brief the Kitling plays with his own Tail He insists upon the terms Abstract and Abridgment p. 173 174. and spends a great many vain words about them but can't for his heart disprove what I asserted viz. that the foresaid Creed is an Abstract or Abridgment of the Christian Faith which is more fully express'd in the Holy Scriptures not only in the Gospel but in the Epistles which our Vindicator cannot endure to hear of At last I am to be the Iesuite again and he is to take Mr. Chillingworth's place and so the Protestant is to confute the Papist and there 's an end of that silly Fantastick Fiction of our Masker not worthy of one of the poor raw Boys that he hath drag'd up in his time Further it is to be noted that after he had banded as fiercely as he could against my notion of Abridgment and to thwart me had produced Chillingworth's sense of the word he confesses that he is ignorant whether what Chillingworth had given be the nature of an Abridgment or no. p. 177. Which shews how fickle and restive he is and that he builds upon precarious hypotheses and is not careful whether there be any Ground for what he saith This would make one doubt whether this Writer be in his right mind or no. Hath not former Thoughtfulness disorder'd his Brain that he thus talks P. 177. he would seem to pay some honour to the Primitive Church and the Church of England though no man believes it no not himself and to vindicate their practise in admitting persons to Baptism upon the Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed as if no more were to be believ'd by them than what is in express terms in that Form of Confession But the Catechism of our Church may satisfy him that more is comprehended in that Form of Faith than is expresly there mention'd else it would not have been said that we are chiefly to learn in these Articles of our Belief to believe in God the Father in God the Son and in God â—he Holy Ghost He may look long enough into the Creed and never find there these words God the Son and God the Holy Ghost but Our Church lets us know that these terms are really contain'd in that Profession of Faith Whence it follows that when persons are baptized into the Faith of the Apostles Creed they are baptized into the Faith of the Trinity and consequently into more than is in express words mention'd in this Symbol of our Faith Which is the thing that this Quarrelsome Animal objects against but is not able after all his fluttering to effect any thing Besides it is evident that our Church thinks not this Creed to be absolutely Perfect and Compleat because she adds other Creeds to it as the Nicene and Athanasian Which it is probable she would not have done if every thing to be believ'd were in express direct and full words set down in the other Form of Belief And again as to what he saith of the Primitive Practise of admitting persons to Baptism upon the bare confession of the Apostles Creed he betrays his Ignorance having not learnt from several Eminent Writers that this Creed is not exactly the same that it was in the First Ages of Christianity but that some Articles have been added to it But the heedless Masker attends to none of these things but goes on Chattering and loves to hear his Clack move But you must pardon him for he that is used to the Conversation of Nurses and the whole Posse of the Chatting Crew can't be thought to moderate his Intemperate Organ P.