me without Vanity in Mr. Chillingworth's the Protestants and Mr. Chillingworth's very words Chap. IV. § 65. will exactly serve for my Answer You trifle affectedly confounding the Apostles Belief of the whole Religion of Christ as it comprehends both what we are to do and what we are to believe with that part of it which contains not Duties of Obedience but only the necessary Articles of simple Faith Now though the Apostles Belief be in the former sense a larger thing than that which we call the Apostles Creed Yet in the latter sense of the word the Creed I say is a full Comprehension of their Belief which you your self have formerly confessed though somewhat fearfully and inconstantly And here again unwillingness to speak the Truth makes you speak that which is hardly sense and call it an Abridgment of some Articles of Faith For I demand those some Articles which you speak of which are they Those that are out of the Creed or those that are in it Those that are in it it comprehends at large and therefore it is not an Abridgment of them Those that are out of it it comprehends not at all and therefore it is not an Abridgment of them If you would call it now an Abridgment of Faith this would be sense and signifie thus much That all the necessary Articles of the Christian Faith are comprised in it For this is the proper Duty of Abridgments to leave out nothing necessary So that in Mr. Chillingworth's judgment of an Abridgment it is not sense to say as you do p. 47. That we are not to think that the Apostles Creed expresly contains in it all the necessary Points of our Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract or an Abridgment of Faith But on the contrary we must conclude it contains in it all the necessary Articles of Faith for that very reason because it is an Abridgment of Faith as the Unmasker calls it But whether this that Mr. Chillingworth has given us here be the nature of an Abridgment or no this is certain that the Apostles Creed cannot be a form of Profession of the Christian Faith if any part of the Faith necessary to make a Man a Christian be left out of it And yet such a Profession of Faith would the Unmasker have this Abridgment of Faith to be For a little lower in the 47. p. he says in express terms That if a Man believe no more than is in express terms in the Apostles Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian Wherein he does great Honour to the Primitive Church and particularly to the Church of England The Primitive Church admitted converted Heathens to Baptism upon the Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed A bare Profession of that Faith and no more was required of them to be received into the Church and made Members of Christ's Body How little different the Faith of the Ancient Church was from the Faith I have mentioned may be seen in these words of Tertullian Regula fidei una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis Credendi scilicet in unicum deum omnipotentem Mundi conditorem filium ejus Iesum Christum natum ex Virgine Maria Crucifixum sub Pontio Pilato tertia die resuscitatum à Mortuis receptum in Coelis Sedentem nunc ad dextram Patris Venturum judicare vivos Mortuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem Hâc lege fidei manente caetera jam disciplinae conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis Tert. de Virg. Velan in Principio This was the Faith that in Tertullian's time sufficed to make a Christian. And the Church of England as I have remarked already only proposes the Articles of the Apostles Creed to the Convert to be baptized and upon his Professing a Belief of them asks whether he will be Baptized in THIS FAITH which if we will believe the Unmasker is not the Faith of a Christian. However the Church without any more ado upon the Profession of THIS FAITH and no other Baptizes them into it So that the Ancient Church if the Unmasker may be believed baptized Converts into that Faith which is not the Faith of a Christian. And the Church of England when she Baptizes any one makes him not a Christian. For he that is Baptized only into a Faith that is not the Faith of a Christian I would fain know how he can thereby be made a Christian So that if the Omissions which he so much blames in my Book make me a Socinian I see not how the Church of England will escape that Censure Since those Omissions are in that very Confession of Faith which she proposes and upon a Profession whereof she Baptizes those whom she designs to make Christians But it seems that the Unmasker who has made bold to Unmask her too reasons right that the Church of England is mistaken and makes none but Socinian Christians or as he is pleased now to declare no Christians at all Which if true the Unmasker were best look to it whether he himself be a Christian or no For 't is to be fear'd he was baptized only into that Faith which he himself confesses is not the Faith of a Christian. But he brings himself off in these following words All matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this brief Platform of Belief Answ. If that be enough to make him a true and an Orthodox Christian he does not consider whom in this way he brings off with him For I think he cannot deny that all Matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to that Abstract of Faith which I have given as well as to that brief Platform in the Apostles Creed So that for ought I see by this rule we are Christians or not Christians Orthodox or not Orthodox equally together But yet he says in the next words When he calls it an Abstract or Abbreviature it is implied that there are more Truths to be known and assented to by a Christian in order to making him really so than what we meet with here The quite contrary whereof as has been shewn is implied by its being called an Abstract But what is that to the purpose 'T is not sit Abstracts and Abbreviatures should stand in Unmasker's way They are Sounds Men have used for what they pleased and why may not the Unmasker do so too And use them in a Sense that may make the Apostles Creed be only a broken scrap of the Christian Faith However in great Condescention being willing to do the Apostles Creed what honour he could he says That all Matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this brief Platform of Belief But yet when it is set in competition with the Creed which he himself is making for it is not yet finish'd it is by no means to be allow'd as sufficient to make a Man a Christian. There are more Truths to be known and assented to in order to make a
who unprovoked mix with the management of their Cause Injuries and ill Language to those they differ from This at least I am sure Zeal or Love for Truth can never permit Falshood to be used in the Defence of it Your Mind I see prepar'd for Truth by resignation of it self not to the Traditions of Men but the Doctrine of the Gospel has made you more readily entertain and more easily enter into the meaning of my Book than most I have heard speak of it And since you seem to me to comprehend what I have laid together with the same Disposition of Mind and in the same Sence that I received it from the Holy Scriptures I shall as a mark of my respect to you give you a particular Account of the Occasion of it The Beginning of the Year in which it was Published the Controversie that made so much noise and heat amongst some of the Dissenters coming one Day accidentally into my Mind drew me by degrees into a stricter and more through Enquiry into the Question about Justification The Scripture was direct and plain that 't was Faith that justified The next Question then was what Faith that was that justified What it was which if a Man believed it should be imputed to him for Righteousness To find out this I thought the right way was to Search the Scriptures and thereupon betook my self seriously to the Reading of the New Testament only to that Purpose What that produced you and the World have seen The first View I had of it seem'd mightily to satisfie my mind in the Reasonableness and Plainness of this Doctrine But yet the general Silence I had in my little Reading met with concerning any such thing awed me with the Apprehension of Singularity Till going on in the Gospel History the whole tenour of it made it so clear and visible that I more wonder'd that every body did not see and imbrace it than that I should assent to what was so plainly laid down and so frequently inculcated in Holy Writ though Systems of Divinity said nothing of it That which added to my Satisfaction was that it led me into a Discovery of the marvellous and divine Wisdom of our Saviour's Conduct in all the Circumstances of his promulgating this Doctrine as well as of the necessity that such a Law-giver should be sent from God for the reforming the Morality of the World Two Points that I must confess I had not found so fully and advantageously explain'd in the Books of Divinity I had met with as the History of the Gospel seem'd to me upon an attentive Perusal to give Occasion and Matter for But the Necessity and Wisdom of our Saviour's opening the Doctrine which he came to publish as he did in Parables and figurative ways of speaking carries such a Thread of Evidence through the whole History of the Evangelists as I think is impossible to be resisted and makes it a Demonstration that the Sacred Historians did not write by concert as Advocates for a bad Cause or to give Colour and Credit to an Imposture they would Usher into the World Since they every one of them in some place or other omit some Passages of our Saviour's Life or Circumstances of his Actions which shew the Wisdom and Wariness of his Conduct and which even those of the Evangelists who have recorded do barely and transiently mention without laying any Stress on them or making the least remark of what Consequence they are to give us our Saviour's true Character and to prove the Truth of their History These are Evidences of Truth and Sincerity which result alone from the Nature of things and cannot be produced by any Art or Contrivance How much I was pleased with the growing Discovery every Day whilst I was employed in this search I need not say The wonderful Harmony that the farther I went disclosed it self tending to the same Points in all the parts of the sacred History of the Gospel was of no small Weight with me and another Person who every Day from the beginning to the end of my search saw the Progress of it and knew at my first setting out that I was ignorant whither it would lead me and therefore every Day asked me what more the Scripture had taught me So far was I from the thoughts of Socinianism or an Intention to write for that or any other Party or to publish any thing at all But when I had gone through the whole and saw what a plain simple reasonable thing Christianity was suited to all Conditions and Capacities and in the Morality of it now with divine Authority established into a legible Law so far surpassing all that Philosophy and humane Reason had attain'd to or could possibly make effectual to all degrees of Mankind I was flatter'd to think it might be of some use in the World especially to those who thought either that there was no need of Revelation at all or that the Revelation of our Saviour required the Belief of such Articles for Salvation which the settled Notions and their way of reasoning in some and want of Understanding in others made impossible to them Upon these two Topicks the Objections seemed to turn which were with most Assurance made by Deists against Christianity But against Christianity misunderstood It seem'd to me that there needed no more to shew them the Weakness of their Exceptions but to lay plainly before them the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles as delivered in the Scriptures and not as taught by the several Sects of Christians This tempted me to publish it not thinking it deserved an Opposition from any Minister of the Gospel and least of all from any one in the Communion of the Church of England But so it is that Mr. Edwards's Zeal for he knows not what for he does not yet know his own Creed nor what is required to make him a Christian could not brook so plain simple and intelligible a Religion But yet not knowing what to say against it and the Evidence it has from the Word of God he thought fit to let the Book alone and fall upon the Author What great Matter he has done in it I need not tell you who have seen and shew'd the Weakness of his Wranglings You have here Sir the true History of the Birth of my Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures and my Design in publishing it c. What it contains and how much it tends to Peace and Union amongst Christians if they would receive Christianity as it is you have discovered I am SIR Your most humble Servant A. B. My Readers will pardon me that in my Preface to them I make this particular Address to Mr. Bold He hath thought it worth his while to defend my Book How well he has done it I am too much a Party to say I think it so sufficient to Mr. Edwards that I needed not have troubled my self any further about him on the account
those and those only which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian may a Man not justly doubt whether those Propositions which the Unmasker has set down contain all those things and whether there be not other things contain'd in other Texts of Scripture or in some of those cited by him but otherwise understood that have as immediately a respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation as those he has set down And therefore I have reason to demand a compleater List. For at best to tell us that all things that have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation is but a general Description of Fundamentals with which some may think some Articles agree and others others And the terms immediate respect may give ground enough for difference about them to those who agree that the rest of your Description is right My demand therefore is not a general Description of Fundamentals but for the Reasons abovementioned the particular Articles themselves which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. It is not my Business at pâ—â—sent to examine the validity of these Arguments of his to prove all the Propositions to be necessary to be believed which he has here in his Socinianism Unmask'd set down as such The use I make of them now is to shew the reason they afford me to doubt that those Propositions which he has given us for Doctrines necessary to be believed are either not all such or more than all by his own rule And therefore I must desire him to give us a compleater Creed that we may know what in his sense is necessary and enough to make a Man a Christian Nor will it be sufficient in this case to do what he tells us that he has done in these words p. 21. I have briefly set before the Reader these Evangelical Truths Those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator called for p. 16. With Submission I think he mistakes the Vindicator What I called for was not that most of them should be reduced to certain Propositions but that all of them should and the reason of my demanding that was plain viz. that then having the Unmasker's Creed in clear and distinct Propositions I might be able to examine whether it was what God in the Scriptures indispensibly required of every Man to make him a Christian that so I might thereby correct the Errors or Defects of what I at present apprehended the Scripture taught me in the case The Unmasker endeavours to excuse himself from answering my Question by another exception against it p. 24. in these words Surely none but this Upstart Racovian will have the confidence to deny that these Articles of Faith are such as are necessary to constitute a Christian as to the Intellectual and Doctrinal part of Christianity such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by him Not that a Man is supposed every moment to actually exert his assent and belief for none of the Moral Vertues none of the Evangelical Graces are exerted thus always Wherefore that Question in p. 16. though he says he asks it seriously might have been spared Whether every one of these Fundamentals is required to be believed to make a Man a Christian and such as without the actual belief thereof he cannot be saved Here is seriousness pretended when there is none for the Design is only to Cavil and if he can to expose my Assertion But he is not able to do it for all his Critical Demands are answer'd in these few words viz. That in the Intellectual as well as Moral Endowments are never supposed to be always in act They are exerted upon Occasion not all of them at a time And therefore he mistakes if he thinks or rather as he Objects without thinking that these Doctrines if they be Fundamental and Necessary must be always actually believed No Man besides himself ever started such a thing This terrible long Combate has the Unmasker managed with his own Shadow to confound the Seriousness of my Question and as he says himself is come off not only safe and sound but triumphant But for all that Sir may not a Man's Question be serious though he should chance to express it ill I think you and I were not best to set up for Criticks in Language and Nicety of Expression for fear we should set the World a Laughing Yet for this once I shall take the liberty to defend mine here For I demand in what Expression of mine I said or supposed that a man should every moment actually exert his assent to any Proposition required to be believed Cannot a Man say that the Unmasker cannot be admitted to any Preferment in the Church of England without an actual assent to or Subscribing of the 39 Articles unless it be suppos'd that he must every moment from the time he first read assented to and subscribed those Articles till he received Institution and Induction actually exert his assent to every one of them and repeat his Subscription In the same sense it is literally true that a Man cannot be admitted into the Church of Christ or into Heaven without actually believing all the Articles necessary to make a Man a Christian without supposing that he must actually exert that assent every moment from the time that he first gave it till the moment that he is admitted into Heaven He may Eat Drink make Bargains study Euclid and think of other things between nay sometimes Sleep and neither think of those Articles nor any thing else and yet it be true that he shall not be admitted into the Church or Heaven without an actual assent to them That Condition of an actual assent he has perform'd and until he recall that assent by actual Unbelief it stands good and though a Lunacy or Lethargy should seize on him presently after and he should never think of it again as long as he lived yet it is literally true he is not saved without an actual assent You might therefore have spared your pains in saying That none of the Moral Virtues none of the Evangelical Graces are exerted THUS always till you had met with some body who had said THUS That I did so I think would have enter'd into no bodies thoughts but yours it being evident from p. 298 and 300. of my Book that by Actual I meant Explicit You should rather have given a direct Answer to my Question which I here again seriously ask you viz. Whether IX Those you called Fundamental Doctrines in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism or those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity so many as you have given us of them in your Socinianism Unmask'd for you may take which of your two
Religion disguise the Faith of the Gospel and betray Christianity it self If they did not I am sure I have not For I have not omitted any of the main Articles which they Preached to the Unbelieving World Those I have set down with so much care not to omit any of them that you blame me for it more than once and call it tedious However you are pleased to acquit or condemn the Apostles in the case by your Supream Determination I am very indifferent If you think fit to condemn them for disguising or betraying the Christian Religion because they said no more of Satisfaction than I have done in their Preaching at first to their Unbelieving Auditors Iews or Heathens to make them as I think Christians for that I am now speaking of I shall not be sorry to be found in their Company under what censure soever If you are pleased graciously to take off this your censure from them for this omission I shall claim a share in the same Indulgence But to come to what perhaps you will think your self a little more concerned not to censure than what the Apostles did so long since for you have given instances of being very apt to make bold with the Dead Pray tell me does the Church of England admit People into the Church of Christ at hap-hazard Or without proposing and requiring a Profession of all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian If she does not I desire you to turn to the Baptism of those of riper Years in our Liturgy Where the Priest asking the Convert particularly whether he believes the Apostles Creed which he repeats to him Upon his Profession that he does and that he desires to be baptized into that Faith without one word of any other Articles Baptizes him and then declares him a Christian in these words We receive this Person into the Congregation of Christ's Flock and sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be asham'd to CONTINUE Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant In all this there is not one word of Satisfaction no more than in my Book nor so much neither And here I ask you whether for this omission you will pronounce that the Church of England disguises the Faith of the Gospel However you think fit to treat me yet methinks you should not let your self loose so freely against our first Reformers and the Fathers of our Church ever since as to call them Betrayers of Christianity it self because they think not so much necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as you are pleased to put down in your Articles but omit as well as I your main Article of Satisfaction Having thus notably harangued upon the occasion of my saying Would any one blame my Prudence and thereby made me a Socinian a Iesuit and a Betrayer of Christianity it self he has in that answer'd all that such a Miscreant as I do or can say and so passes by all the Reasons I gave for what I did without any other notice or answer but only denying a Matter of Fact which I only can know and he cannot viz. My design in Printing my Reasonableness of Christianity In the next Paragraph p. 45. in answer to these words of St. Paul Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to doubtful Disputations which I brought as a reason why I mention'd not Satisfaction amongst the Benefits receiv'd by the coming of our Saviour Because as I tell him in my Vindication p. 5. My Reasonableness of Christianity as the title shews was designed chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians He replies and I desire him to prove it XX. That I pretend a design of my Book which was never so much as thought of till I was sollicited by my Brethren to Vindicate it All the rest in this Paragraph being either nothing to this place of the Romans or what I have answer'd elsewhere needs no farther Answer The next two Paragraphs p. 46. â—49 are meant for an Answer to something I had said concerning the Apostles Creed upon the occasion of his chargeing my Book with Socinianism They begin thus This Author of the New Christianity Answ. This New Christianity is as old as the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles and a little older than the Unmasker's System Wisely objects that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles which I mention'd p. 12 13. Answ. If that Author wisely objects the Unmasker would have done well to have replied wisely But for a Man wisely to reply it is in the first place requisite that the Objection be truly and fairly set down in its full force and not represented short and as will best serve the Answerers turn to reply to This is neither wise nor honest And this first part of a wise Reply the Unmasker has failed in This will appear from my words and the occasion of them The Unmasker had accused my Book of Socinianism for omitting some Points which he urged as necessary Articles of Faith To which I answer'd That he had done so only to give it an ill Name not because it was Socinian for he had no more reason to charge it with Socinianism for the Omissions he mentions than the Apostles Creed These are my words which he should have either set down out of p. 12. which he quotes or at least given the Objection as I put it if he had meant to have clear'd it by a fair Answer But he instead thereof contents himself that I object that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which the Unmasker mention'd Answ. This at best is but a part of my Objection and not to the purpose I there meant without the rest join'd to it which it has pleased the Unmasker according to his laudable way to conceal My Objection therefore stands thus That the same Articles for the Omission whereof the Unmasker charges my Book with Socinianism being also omitted in the Apostles Creed he has no more reason to Charge my Book with Socinianism for the Omissions mention'd than he hath to charge the Apostles Creed with Socinianism To this Objection of mine let us now see how he answers p. 47. Nor does any considerate Man wonder at it i. e. That the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which he had mention'd For the Creed is a form of outward Profession which is chiefly to be made in the Publick Assemblies when Prayers are put up in the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read Then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make any Enlargement But we are not to think it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Another indispensible requiquisite in a wise Reply is that it should be
Man really a Christian. Which what they are the Church of England shall know when this new Reformer thinks fit And then she may be able to propose to those who are not yet so a Collection of Articles of Belief and Baptize them anew into a Faith which will really make them Christians But hitherto if the Unmasker may be credited she has failed in it Yet he craves leave to tell me in the following words p. 48. That the Apostles Creed hath more in it than I or my Brethren will subscribe to Were it not the Undoubted Privilege of the Unmasker to know me better than I do my self for he is always telling me something of my self which I did not know I would in my turn crave leave to tell him that this is the Faith I was baptized into no one tittle whereof I have renounced that I know And that I heretofore thought that gave me title to be a Christian. But the Unmasker hath otherwise determin'd And I know not now where to find a Christian. For the Belief of the Apostles Creed will not it seems make a Man one And what other Belief will it does not yet please the Unmasker to tell us But yet as to the Subscribing to the Apostles Creed I must take leave to say however the Unmasker may be right in the Faith he is out in the Morals of a Christian It being against the Charity of one that is really so to pronounce as he does peremptorily in a thing that he cannot know and to affirm positively what I know to be a downright Falsehood But what others will do it is not my talent to determine That belongs to the Unmasker Though as to all that are my Brethren in the Christian Faith I may answer for them too that they will also with me do that without which in that sense they cannot be my Brethren P. 49. The Unmasker smartly convinces me of no small Blunder in these words But was it not judiciously said by this Writer that it is well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in my days P. 12. I tell you Friend it was impossible they should for the Learned Usher and Vossius and others have proved that that Symbol was drawn up not at once but that some Articles of it were adjoyn'd many years after far beyond the extent of any Man's Life and therefore the Compilers of the Creed could not live in my days nor could I live in theirs Answ. But it seems that had they liv'd altogether you could have liv'd in their days But says he I let this pass as one of the Blunders of our thoughtful and musing Author Answ. And I tell you Friend that unless it were to shew your reading in Usher and Vossius you had been better let this Blunder of mine alone Does not the Unmasker give here a clear Proof that he is no Changeling Whatever Argument he takes in hand weighty or trivial material or not material to the thing in question he brings it to the same sort of sense and force He would shew me guilty of an absurdity in saying It was well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in his days This he proves to be a Blunder because they all lived not in one anothers days Therefore it was an absurdity to suppose they might all live in his days As if there were any greater absurdity to bring the Compilers who lived possibly within a few Centuries of one another by a Supposition into one time than it is to bring the Unmasker and any one of them who lived a Thousand Years distant one from another by a Supposition to be Contemporaries For 't is by reason of the Compilers living at a distance one from another that he proves it impossible for him to be their Contemporary As if it were not as impossible in Fact for him who was not born till above a Thousand Years after to live in any of their Days as it is for any one of them to live in either of those Compilers days that died before him The Supposition of their living together is as easie of one as the other at what distance soever they lived and how many soever there were of them This being so I think it had been better for the Unmasker to have let alone the Blunder and shew'd which was his Business that he does not accuse the Compilers of the Creed of being all over Socinianized as well as he does me since they were as guilty as I of the omission of those Articles viz. That Christ is the Word of God That God was incarnate The eternal and ineffable Generation of the Son of God That the Son is in the Father and Father in the Son which expresses their Unity for the omission whereof the Unmasker laid Socinianism to my Charge So that it remains still upon his Score to shew XXI Why these Omissions in the Apostles Creed not as well make that Abstract as my Abridgment of Faith to be Socinian Page 53. The Unmasker desires the Reader to observe that this lank Faith of mine is in a manner no other than the Faith of a Turk And I desire the Reader to observe that this Faith of mine was all that our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd to the Unbelieving World And this our Unmasker cannot deny As I think will appear to any one who observes what he says p. 76 and 77. of his Socinianism Vnmask'd And that they preach'd nothing but a Faith that was in a manner no other than the Faith of a Turk I think none amongst Christians but this bold Vnmasker will have the irreverence profanely to say He tells us p. 54. That the Musselmen or as he has for the Information of his Reader very pertinently proved should be writ Moslemim without which perhaps we should not have known his Skill in Arabick or in plain English the Mahometans believe that Christ is a good Man and not above the Nature of a Man and sent of God to give instruction to the World And my Faith he says is of the very same Scantling This I shall desire him to prove or which in other words he insinuates in this and the neighbouring Pages viz. XXII That that Faith which I have affirm'd to be the Faith which is required to make a Man a Christian is no other than what Turks believe and is contain'd in the Alchoran Or as he expresses it himself p. 55. That a Turk according to me is a Christian for I make the same Faith serve them both And particularly to shew where 't is I say XXIII That Christ is not above the Nature of a Man or have made that a necessary Article of the Christian Faith And next where it is XXIV That I speak as meanly of Christ's Suffering on the Cross and Death as if there were no such thing For thus he says of me p. 54. I seem to have consulted the Mahometan Bible which did say Christ did not
strain in his Book Only to shew how well he understands or represents my sense I shall set down my Words as they are in the Pages he quotes and his Inferences from them Vindicat. p. 22. Socin Unmask'd p. 108. I know not but it may be true that the Antitrinitarians and Racovians understand those places as I do But 't is more than I know that they do so I took not my sence of those Texts from those Writers but from the Scripture it self giving Light to its own meaning by one place compared with another What in this way appears to me its true meaning I shall not decline because I am told that it is so understood by the Racovians whom I never yet read nor embrace the contrary though the generality of Divines I more converse with should declare for it If the sence wherein I understand those Texts be a Mistake I shall be beholding to you if you will set me right But they are not popular Authorities or frightful Names whereby I judge of Truth or Falshood The professed Divines of England you must know are but a pitiful sort of Folks with this great Racovian Rabbi He tells us plainly that he is not mindful of what the generality of Divines declare for p. 22. He labours so concernedly to ingratiate himself with the Mobb the Multitude which he so often talks of that he hath no regard to these The generality of the Rabble are more considerable with him than the generality of Divines He tells me here of the Generality of Divines If he had said of the Church of England I could have understood him But he says The professed Divines of England And there being several sorts of Divines in England who I think do not every where agree in their Interpretations of Scripture which of them is it I must have regard to where they differ If he cannot tell me that he complains here of me for a Fault which he himself knows not how to mend Vindicat. p. 18. Socin Unmask'd p. 109. The list of Materials for his Creed for the Articles are not yet formed Mr. Edwards closes p. 111. with these words These are the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles and they are Essential and Integral parts of the Gospel it self What just these neither more nor less l. 4. If you are sure of it pray let us have them speedily for the reconciling of Differences in the Christian Church which has been so cruelly torn about the Articles of the Christian Faith to the great Reproach of Christian Charity and Scandal of our true Religion This Author as demure and grave as he would sometimes seem to be can scoff at the matters of Faith contain'd in the Apostles Epistles p. 18. l. 4 c. Does the Vindicator here scoff at the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles Or shew the vain Pretences of the Unmasker who undertakes to give us out of the Epistles a Collection of Fundamentals without being able to say whether those he sets down be all or no Vindicat. p. 33. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. I hope you do not think how contemptibly soever you speak of the Venerable Mob as you are pleas'd to dignifie them p. 117. that the bulk of Mankind or in your Phrase the Rabble are not concerned in Religion or ought not to understand it in order to their Salvation I remember the Pharisees treated the Common People with Contempt and said Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him But this People who knoweth not the Law are cursed But yet these who in the censure of the Pharisees were cursed were some of the Poor or if you please to have it so the Mob to whom the Gospel was Preach'd by our Saviour as he tells Iohns Disciples Mat. XI 5. To Coakse the Mob he prophanely brings in that place of Scripture Have any of the Rulers believed in him Where the Prophaneness of this is I do not see Unless some unknown Sacredness of the Unmasker's Person make it Prophaneness to shew that he like the Pharisees of old has a great contempt for the Common People i. e. the far greater part of Mankind as if they and their Salvation were below the regard of this elevated Rabbi But this of Prophaneness may be well born from him since in the next words my mentioning another part of his Carriage is no less than Irreligion Vindicat. p. 25. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. He prefers what I say to him my self to what is offer'd to him from the Word of God and makes me this Complement that I begin to mend about the close i. e. when I leave off quoting of Scripture and the dull Work was done of going through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts which he computes p. 105. to take up three Quarters of my Book Ridiculously and irreligiously he pretends that I prefer what he saith to me to what is offer'd to me from the Word of God p. 25. The Matter of Fact is as I relate it and so is beyond pretence and for this I refer the Reader to the 105. and 114. Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism But had I mistaken I know not how he could have call'd it Irreligiously Make the worst of it that can be how comes it to be Irreligious What is there Divine in an Vnmasker that one cannot pretend true or false that he prefers what I say to what is oâ—â—er'd him from the Word of God without doing it Irreligiously Does the very assuming the Power to deâ—ine Articles and determine who are and who are not Christians by a Creed not yet made erect an Unmasker presently into God's Throne and bestow on him the title of Dominus deusque noster whereby Offences against him come to be Irreligious Acts I have misrepresented his meaning Let it be so Where is the Irreligion of it Thus it is The Power of making a Religion for others and those that make Creeds do that being once got into any one's fancy must at last make all Oppositions to those Creeds and Creed-maker's Irreligion Thus we see in process of time it did in the Church of Rome But it was in length of time and by gentle degrees The Unmasker it seems cannot stay is in hast and at one jump leaps into the Chair He has given us yet but a piece of his Creed and yet that is enough to set him above the state of Humane Mistakes or Frailties and to mention any such thing in him is to do Irreligiously We may further see says the Unmasker p. 110. how counterfeit the Vindicator's Gravity is whil'st he condemns frothy and light Discourses p. 26. Vindic. And yet in many Pages together most irreverently treats a great part of the Apostolical Writings and throws aside the main Articles of Religion as unnecessary Answ. In my Vindic. p. 19. you may remember these words I require you to Publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt
does in the same Address to him p. 248. and write contrary to his Light Had the Creed maker had reason to think in earnest that Mr. Bold was going off to Socinianism he might have reasoned with him fairly as with a Man running into dangerous Errour Or if he had certainly known that he was by any By-ends prevailed on to undertake a Cause contrary to his Conscience he might have some Reason to tell the World as he does p. 239. That we cannot think he should speak truth who is thus brought to undertake the Cause If he does not certainly know that Mr. Bold was THUS brought to undertake the Cause he could not have shewn a more Villainous and Unchristian Mind than in publishing such a Character of a Minister of the Gospel and a worthy Man upon no other Grounds but because it might be subservient to his ends He is engaged in a Controversie that by Argument he cannot maintain Nor knew any other way from the beginning to attack the Book he pretends to write against but by crying out Socinianism a Name he knows in great Disgrace with all other Sects of Christians and therefore sufficient to deterr all those who approve and condemn Books by hearsay without examining their Truth themselves from perusing a Treatise to which he could affix that imputation Mr. Bold's Name who is publickly known to be no Socinian he foresees will wipe off that false Imputation with a great many of those who are led by Names more than Things This seems exceedingly to trouble him and he labours might and main to get Mr. Bold to quit a Book as Socinian which Mr. Bold knows is not Socinian because he has read and considered it But though our Creed-maker be mightily concerned that Mr. B d should not appear in the Defence of it Yet this concern cannot raise him one jot above that Honesty Skill and good Breeding which appears towards others He manages this Matter with Mr. B d as he has done the rest of the Controversie just in the same strain of Invention Civility Wit and good Sence He tells him besides what I have above set down that he is drawn off to debase himself and the post i. e. the Ministry he is in p. 245. That he hath said very ill things to the lessening and impairing yea to the defaming of that knowledge and belief of our Saviour and of the Articles of Christianity which are necessarily required of us p. 245. That the Devout and Pious whereby he means himself for one and none is his own beloved Wit and Argument observing that Mr. Bold is come to the necessity of but ONE Article of Faith they expect that he may in time hold that NONE is necessary p. 248. That if he writes again in the same strain be will write rather like a Turkish Spy than a Christian Preacher That he is a Backslider and Sailing to Racovia with a side Wind Than which what can there be more Scurrilous or more Malicious And yet at the same time that he outrages him thus beyond not only what Christian Charity but common Civility would allow in an ingenuous Adversary he makes some awkward Attempts to sooth him with some ill timed Commendations And would have his under-valuing Mr. Bold's Animadversions pass for a Complement to him Because he for that reason pretends not to believe so crude and shallow a thing as he is pleased to call it to be his A notable Contrivance to gain the greater Liberty of Railing at him under another Name when Mr. B d's it seems is too well known to serve him so well to that purpose Besides it is of good use to fill up three or four Pages of his Reflections a great Convenience to a Writer who knows all the ways of baffling his Opponents but Argument and who always makes a great deal of stir about Matters foreign to his Subject which whether they are granted or denied make nothing at all to the Truth of the Question on either side For what is it to the Shallowness or Depth of the Animadversions who writ them Or to the Truth or Falshood of Mr. B d's Defence of the Reasonableness of Christianity whether a Lay-man or a Church-man a Socinian or one of the Church of England answer'd the Creed-maker as well as he Yet this is urged as a matter of great weight But yet in reality it amounts to no more but this that a Man of any Denomination who wishes well to the Peace of Christianity and has observed the horrible Effects the Christian Religion has felt from the Impositions of Men in Matters of Faith may have reason to defend a Book wherein the Simplicity of the Gospel and the Doctrine proposed by our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of Unbelievers is made out though there be not one Word of the distinguishing Tenents of his Sect in it But that all those who under any Name are for imposing their own Orthodoxy as necessary to be believed and persecuting those who dissent from them should be all against it is not perhaps very strange One thing more I must observe of the Creed-maker on this Occasion In his Socinian Creed Ch. VI. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And his Book must be judged of by the Characters and Writings of those who entertain or commend his Notions A professed Unitarian has defended it therefore he is a Socinian The Author of A Letter to the Deists speaks well of it Therefore he is a Deist Another as an Abettor of the Reasonableness of Christianity he mentions p. 125. whose Letters I have never seen And his Opinions too are I suppose set down there as belonging to me Whatever is bad in the Tenets or Writings of these Men infects me But the Mischief is Mr. Bold's Orthodoxy will do me no good But because he has defended my Book against Mr. Edwards all my Faults are become his and he has a mighty Load of Accusations laid upon him Thus contrary Causes serve so good a Natured so Charitable and Candid a Writer as the Creed-maker to the same purpose of Censure and Railing But I shall desire him to figure to himself the Loveliness of that Creature which turns every thing into Venom What others are or hold who have expressed favourable thoughts of my Book I think my self not concerned in What Opinions others have published make those in my Book neither true nor false and he that for the sake of Truth would confute the Errors in it should shew their Falshood and Weakness as they are there But they who write for other Ends than Truth are always busie with other Matters and where they can do nothing by Reason and Argument hope to prevail with some by borrowed Prejudices and Party Taking therefore the Animadversions as well as the Sermon to be his whose Name they bear I shall leave to Mr. B d himself to take what Notice he thinks fit of the little Sence