pertinent Now what can there be more impertinent than to confess the Matter of Fact upon which the Objection is grounded but instead of destroying the Inference drawn from that Matter of Fact only amuse the Reader with wrong Reasons why that Matter of Fact was so No considerate Man he says doth wonder that the Articles and Doctrines he mentioned are omitted in the Apostles Creed Because that Creed is a form of outward Profession Answ. A Profession of what I beseech you Is it a Form to be used for Form's sake I thought it had been a Profession of something even of the Christian Faith And if it be so any considerate Man may wonder necessary Articles of the Christian Faith should be lest out of it For how it can be an outward Profession of the Christian Faith without containing the Christian Faith I do not see unless a Man can outwardly profess the Christian Faith in words that do not contain or express it i. e. profess the Christian Faith when he does not profess it But he says 't is a Profession chiefly to be made use of in Assemblies Answ. Do those solemn Assemblies privilege it from containing the necessary Articles of the Christian Religion This proves not that it does not or was not designed to contain all Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian unless the Unmasker can prove that a From of outward Profession of the Christian Faith that contains all such necessary Articles cannot be made use of in the Publick Assemblies In the Publick Assemblies says he when Prayers are put up by 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 an Enlargement Answ. But that which contains not what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian can no where be properly used as a form of outward Profession of the Christian Faith and least of all in the solemn Publick Assemblies All the sense I can make of this is That this Abridgment of the Christian Faith i. e. imperfect Collection as the Unmasker will have it of some of the Fundamental Articles of Christianity in the Apostles Creed which omits the greatest part of them is made use of as a form of outward Profession of but part of the Christian Faith in the Publick Assemblies when by reason of reading of the Scripture and Prayers there is not time or opportunity for a full and perfect Profession of it 'T is strange the Christian Church should not find time nor opportunity in Sixteen hundred Years to make in any of her Publick Assemblies a Profession of so much of her Faith as is necessary to make a Man a Christian. But pray tell me has the Church any such full and compleat form of Faith that hath in it all those Propositions you have given us for necessary Articles not to say any thing of those which you have reserved to your self in your own Breast and will not communicate of which the Apostles Creed is only a scanty form a brief imperfect abstract used only to save time in the Croud of other pressing Occasions that are always in hast to be dispatch'd If she has the Unmasker will do well to produce it If the Church has no such compleat form besides the Apostle's Creed any where of Fundamental Articles he will do well to leave talking idlely of this Abstract as he goes on to do in the following words But says he we are not to think that it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of our Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Of what I beseech you is it an Abstract For here the Unmasker stops short and as one that knows not well what to say speaks not out what it is an Abstract of But provides himself a Subterfuge in the generality of the preceding terms of necessary and weighty Points and Important Doctrines jumbled together which can be there of no other use but to cover his Ignorance or Sophistry For the Question being only about necessary Points to what purpose are weighty and important Doctrines join'd to them unless he will say that there is no difference between necessary and weighty Points Fundamental and important Doctrines And if so then the distinction of Points into necessary and not necessary will be foolish and impertinent And all the Doctrines contain'd in the Bible will be absolutely necessary to be explicitly believed by every Man to make him a Christian. But taking it for granted that the diction of Truths contain'd in the Gospel into Points absolutely necessary and not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is good I desire the Unmasker to tell us what the Apostles Creed is an Abstract of He will perhaps answer that he has told us already in this very Page where he says it is an Abridgment of Faith and he has said true in words but saying those words by rote after others without understanding them he has said so in a sense that is not true For he supposes it an Abridgment of Faith by containing only a few of the necessary Articles of Faith and leaving out the far greater part of them And so takes a part of a thing for an Abridgment of it Whereas an Abridgment or Abstract of any thing is the whole in little and if it be of a Science or Doctrine the Abridgment consists in the essentâ—al or necessary Parts of it contracted into a narrower compass than where it lies diffus'd in the ordinary way of delivery amongst a great number of Transitions Explanations Illustrations Proofs Reasonings Corollaries c. All which though they make a part of the Discourse wherein that Doctrine is deliver'd are lest out in the Abridgment of it wherein all the necessary parts of it are drawn together into a less room But though an Abridgment need to contain none but the essential and necessary parts yet all those it ought to contain Or else it will not be an Abridgment or Abstract of that thing but an Abridgment only of a part of it I think it could not be said to be an Abridgment of the Law contain'd in an Act of Parliament wherein any of the things required by that Act were omitted which yet commonly may be reduced into a very narrow compass when strip'd of all the Motives Ends Enacting Forms c. expressed in the Act it self If this does not satisfie the Unmasker what is properly an Abridgment I shall referr him to Mr. Chillingworth who I think will be allow'd to understand sense and to speak it properly at least as well as the Unmasker And what he says happens to be in the very same Question between Knot the Jesuit and him that is here between the Unmasker and me 'T is but putting the Unmasker in the Jesuit's place and my self if it may be allow'd
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
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
or restriction and as they stand in him fit to persuade the Reader that I excluded all other Articles whatsoever but that one of Iesus the Messiah And if in that sence they are not true they are so many Falshoods of his repeated there to mislead others into a wrong Opinion of me For if he had had a mind his Readers should have been rightly informed why was it not as easie once to explain himself as so often to affirm it in general and unrestrained terms This all the boasted strength of the Unmasker will not be able to get him out of This very well becomes one who so loudly charges me with Shuffling Having repeated the same thing over and over again in as general terms as was possible without any the least limitation in the whole Discourse to have nothing else to plead when required to prove it but that it was meant in a limited sence in an Unmasker is not shuffling For by this way he may have the convenience to say and unsay what he pleases to vent what stuff he thinks for his turn and when he is called to an Account for it reply He meant no such thing Should any one publish that the Unmasker had but One Article of Faith and no more viz. That the Doctrines in fashion and likely to procure Preferment are alone to be received That all his Belief was comprised in this one single Article And when such a Talker was demanded to prove his Assertion should he say he meant to except his Belief of the Apostles Creed Would he not notwithstanding such a Plea be thought a shuffling Lyar And if the Unmasker can no otherwise prove those universal Propositions above-cited but by saying he meant them with a tacit restriction for none is expressed they will still and for ever remain to be accounted for by his Veracity What he says in the next Paragraph p. 7. of my splitting One Article into Two is just of the-same force and with the same ingenuity I had said That the Belief of One God was necessary which is not now denied I had also said That the Belief of Iesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah together with those concomitant Articles of his Resurrection Rule and coming again to Judge the World was necessary p. 291. And again p. 301. That God had declared whoever would believe Iesus to be the Saviour promised and take him now raised from the Dead and constituted the Lord and Judge of all Men to be their King and Ruler shall be saved This made me say These and Those Articles in words of the plural number more than once Evidence enough to any but a Caviller that I contended not for one single Article and no more And to mind him of it I in my Vindication reprinted one of those places where I had done so and that he might not according to his manner overlook what does not please him the words THESE ARE ARTICLES were printed in great Characters Whereupon he makes this Remark p. 7. And though since he has tried to split this One into Two pag. 28. yet he labours in vain For to believe Iesus to be the Messiah amounts to the same with believing him to be King and Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messiah including that in it Yet he has the vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these great letters would make One Article Two Answ. Though no Letters will make One Article Two yet that there is One God and Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who rose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the Right-Hand of God shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead are more than One Article and may very properly be called THESE ARTICLES without splitting One into Two What in my Reasonableness of Christianity I have said of One Article I shall always own and in what sence I said it is easie to be understood and with a Man of the least Candour whose Aim was Truth and not Wrangling it would not have occasion'd one word of Dispute But as for this Unmasker who made it his business not to convince me of any Mistakes in my Opinion but barely to mis-represent me my business at present with him is to shew the World that what he has captiously and scurrilously said of me relating to One Article is false and that he neither has nor can prove one of those Assertions concerning it above-cited out of him in his own words Nor let him pretend a Meaning against his direct Words Such a Caviller as he who would shelter himself under the pretence of a Meaning whereof there are no Footsteps whose Disputes are only Calumnies directed against the Author without examining the Truth of Falshood of what I had published is not to expect the Allowances one would make to a fair and ingenuous Adversary who shew'd so much Concern for Truth that he treated of it with a Seriousness due to the weightiness of the Matter and used other Arguments besides Obloquy Clamour and Falshoods against what he thought Error And therefore I again positively demand of him to prove these words of his to be true or confess that he cannot Viz. III. That I contend for One Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest Two other Instances of this sort of Arguments I gave in the 29th Page of my Vindication out of the 115th and 119th Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism and I here demand of him again to shew since he has not thought fit hitherto to give any Answer to it IV. Where I urge that there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly levelled to all Mens Mother Wit and every common Apprehension Or where he finds in my Reasonanableness of Christianity this other Proposition V. That the very manner of every thing in Christianity must be clear and intelligible every thing must immediately be comprehended by the weakest Noddle or else it is no part of Religion espicially of Christianity These things he must prove that I have said I put it again upon him to shew where I said them or else to confess the Forgery For till he does one or t'other he shall be sure to have these with a large Catalogue of other Falshoods laid before him Pag. 25. of his Socinianism Unmask'd he endeavours to make good his saying that I set up One Article with defiance of all the rest in these words For what is excluding them wholly but defying them Wherefore seeing he utterly excludes all the rest by representing them as USELESS to the making â— Man a Christian which is the design of his whole Undertaking it is manifest that he defies them Answ. This at least is manifest from hence that the Unmasker knows not or cares not what he says For whoever but he thought that a bare Exclusion or passing by was Defiance If he understands it so
I would advise him not to seek Preferment For Exclusions will happen and if every Exclusion be Defiance a Man had need be well assured of his own good Temper who shall not think his Peace and Charity in danger amongst so many Enemies that are at defiance with him Defiance if with any propriety it can be spoken of an Article of Faith must signifie a professed Enmity to it For in its proper use which is to Persons it signifies an open and declared Enmity raised to that height that he in whom it is challenges the Party defied to Battle that may there wreek his hatred on his Enemy in his Destruction So that my Defiance of all the rest remains still to be proved But Secondly There is another thing manifest from these words of his viz. That notwithstanding his great Brags in his first Paragraph his main Skill lies in â—ansying what would be for his turn and then confidently fathering it upon me It never enter'd into my Thoughts nor I think into any body's else I must always except the acute Unmasker who makes no difference between Useful and Necessary that all but the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith were useless to make a Man a Christian though if it be true that the Belief of the Fundamentals alone be they few or many is all that is necessary to his being made a Christian all that may any way persuade him to believe them may certainly be useful towards the making him a Christian And therefore here again I must propose to him and leave it with him to be shew'd Where it is VI. I have represented all the rest as useless to the making a Man a Christian And How it appears that this is the design of my whole Undertaking In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he says pag. 115. what makes him contend for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest He pretends it is this that all Men ought to understand their Religion This reasoning I disowned p. 26. of my Vindication and intimated p. 27. that he should have quoted the Page where I so pretended To this p. 26. he tells me with great confidence and in abundance of words as we shall see by and by that I had done so As if repetition were a Proof He had done better to have quoted one place where I so pretend Indeed p. 27. for want of something better he quotes these words of mine out of p. 301. of the Reasonableness of Christianity The all merciful God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this World and the bulk of Mankind THESE ARE ARTICLES that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend I ask whether it be possible for one to bring any thing more direct against himself The thing he was to prove was That I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because I pretended that all Men ought to understand their Religion i. e. The Reason I gave why there was to be but one single Article in Religion with the exclusion of all the rest was because Men ought to understand their Religion and the place he brings to prove my contending upon that ground for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest is a passage wherein I speak of more than one Article and say these Articles Whether I said These Articles properly or improperly it matters not in the present case and that we have examin'd in another place 't is plain I meant more than one Article when I said these Articles and did not think that the labouring and illiterate Man could not understand them if they were more than one And therefore I pretended not that there must be but one because by illiterate Men more than one could not be understood The rest of this Paragraph is nothing but a repetition of the same Assertion without Proof which with the Unmasker often passes for a way of proving but with no body else But that I may keep that distance which he boasts there is betwixt his and my way of writing I shall not say this without Proofs One instance of his repetition of which there is such plenty in his Book pray take here His Business p. 26. is to prove that I pretended that I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because all Men ought to understand their Religion Pag. 27. of my Vindication I denied that I had so pretended To convince me that I had thus he proceeds Unmasker He founds his Conceit of one Article partly upon this thaâ— a multitude of Doctrines is obscure and hard to be understood Answer You say it and had said it before But I ask you as I did before where I did so Unm. And therefore he trusses all up in one Article that the poor People and bulk of Mankind may bear it Answ. I desire again to know where I made that Inference and argued so for one Article Unm. This is the scope of a great part of his Book Answ. This is saying again shew it once Unm. But his Memory does not keep pace with his Invention and thence he says he remembers nothing of this in his Book Vind. p. 27. Answ. This is to say that it is in my Book You have said it more than once already I demand of you to shew me where Unm. This worthy Writer does not know his own reasoning that he uses Answ. I ask where does he use that reasoning Unm. As particularly thus that he troubles Christian Men with no more but one Article BECAUSE that is intelligible and all people high and low may comprehend it Answ. We have heard it affirm'd by you over and over again but the question still is where is that way of arguing to be found in my Book Unm. For he has chosen out as he thinks a plain and easie Article Whereas the others which are commonly propounded are not generally agreed on he saith and are dubious and uncertain But the believing that Iesus was the Messiah has nothing of doubtfulness or obscurity in it Answ. The word For in the beginning of this Sentence makes it stand for one of your Reasons though it be but a repetition of the same thing in other words Unm. THIS the Reader will find to be the drift and design of several of his Pages Answ. This must signifie that I trouble Men with no more but one Article because one only is intelligible and then it is but a Repetition If any thing else be meant by the word This it is nothing to the purpose For that I said that all things necessary to be believed are plain in Scripture and easie to be understood I never denied And should be very sorry and recant it if I had Unm. And the reason why I did not quote any single one of them was because he insists on it so long together and spins it out after his way in p. 301. of his Reasonableness of
Christianity where he sets down the short plain easie and intelligible Summary as he calls it of Religion couch'd in a single Article He immediately adds The Allâ—merciful God seems herein to have consulted the Poor of this World and the Bulk of Mankind these are Articles whereas he had set down but one that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend Answ. If my insisting on it so long together was the cause why in your Thoughts of the Causes of Atheism you did not quote any single Passage methinks here in your Socinianism Unmask'd where you knew it was expected of you my insisting on it as you say so long together might have afforded at least one Quotation to your purpose Unm. He assigns this as a Ground why it was God's Pleasure that there should be but ONE POINT of Faith BECAUSE thereby Religion may be understood the better the generality of the People may comprehend it Answ. I hear you say it again but want a Proof still and ask where I assign that Ground Unm. This he represents as a great Kindness done by God to Man whereas the variety of Articles would be hard to be understood Answ. Again the same Cabbage an Affirmation but no Proof Unm. This he enlarges upon and flourishes it over after his fashion and yet he desires to know when he said so p. 29. Vindic. Answ. And if I did Let the World here take a Sample of the Unmasker's Ability or Truth who spends above two whole Pages 26 27. in repetitions of the same Assertion without the producing any but one place for Proof and that too against him as I have shewn But he has not yet done with confounding me by dint of repetition he goes on Unm. Good Sir let me be permitted to acquaint you that your Memory is as defective as your Iudgment Answ. I thank you for the regard you have had to it for often repetition is a good help to a bad memory In requital I advise you to have some eye to your own Memory and Iudgment too For one or both of them seem a little to blame in the reason you subjoyn to the foregoing words viz. Unm. For in the very Vindication you attribute it to the goodness and condescention of the Almighty that he requires nothing as absolutely necessary to be believed but what is suited to vulgar capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men. Answ. I will for the Unmasker's sake put this Argument of his into a Syllogism If the Vindicator in his Vindication attributes it to the goodness and condescenssion of the Almighty that he requires nothing to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men then he did in his Reasonableness of Christianity pretend that the reason why he contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest was because all Men ought to understand their Religion But the Vindicator in his Vindication attributes it to the goodness and condescention of Almighty God that he requires nothing to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men. Ergo in his Reasonableness of Christianity he pretended that the reason why he contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest was because all Men ought to understand their Religion This was the Proposition to be proved and which as he confesses here p. 26. I denied to remember to be in my Reasonableness of Christianity Who can but admire his Logick But besides the strength of Iudgment which you have shew'd in this clear cogent reasoning does not your Memory too deserve its due applause You tell me in your Socinianism Unmask'd that in p. 29. of my Vindication I desired to know when I said so To which desire of mine you reply in these words before cited Good Sir Let me be permitted to acquaint you that your Memory is as defective as your Iudgment for in the very Vindication you attribute it to the goodness and condescention of the Almighty that he requires nothing as absolutely necessary to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men p. 30. Sure the Unmasker thinks himself at cross questions I ask him in the 29th Page of my Vindication WHEN I said so And he answers that I had said so in the 30th Page of my Vindication i. e. when I writ the 29th Page I asked the question when I had said what he charg'd me with saying and I am answer'd I had said it in the 30th Page which was not yet written i. e. I ask the question to day WHEN I had said so and I am answer'd I had said it to Morrow As apposite and convincing an Answer to make good his charge as if he had said to Morrow I found a Horse-shooe But perhaps this judicious Disputant will ease himself of this difficulty by looking again into the 29th p. of my Vindication out of which he cites these words for mine I desire to know WHEN I said so But my words in that place are I desire to know WHERE I said so a mark of his exactness in quoting when he vouchsafes to do it For Unmaskers when they turn Disputants think it the best way to talk at large and charge home in generals But do not often find it convenient to quote Pages set down words and come to particulars But if he had quoted my words right his Answer had been just as pertinent For I ask him WHERE in my Reasonableness of Christianity I had said so And he answers I had said so in my Vindication For where in my question refers to my Reasonableness of Christianity which the Unmasker had seen and charged with this saying and could not referr to my Vindication which he had not yet seen nor to a passage in it which was not then written But this is nothing with an Unmasker therefore what is yet worse those words of mine Vindic. p. 29. relate not to the passage he is here proving I had said but to another different from it as different as it is to say that because all Men are to understand their Religion therefore there is to be but One Article in it And to say that there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly levell'd to all Mens Mother Wit Both which he falsly charges on me but 't is only to the latter of them that my words I desire to know where I said so are apply'd Perhaps the well-meaning Man sees no difference between these two Propositions yet I shall take the liberty to ask him again where I said either of them as if they were two although he should accuse me again of excepting against the formality of words and doing so foolish a thing as to expect that a disputing Unmasker should account for his words or any Proposition he advances 'T is his privilege to plead he did not mean as his words import and without any more ado
for not knowing them why do you fill your Books with such variety of Invectives as if you could never say enough nor bad enough against me for having left out some of them And if it be so dangerous so criminal to miss any of them why is it a folly in me to move you to give me a compleat List If Fundamentals are to be known easie to be known as without doubt they are then a Catalogue may be given of them But if they are not if it cannot certainly be determin'd which are they but the doubtful knowledge of them depends upon guesses why may not I be permitted to follow my guesses as well as you yours Or why of all others must you prescribe your guesses to me when there are so many that are as ready to prescribe as you and of as good Authority The pretence indeed and clamour is Religion and the Saving of Souls But your Business 't is plain is nothing but to over-rule and prescribe and be hearken'd to as a Dictator and not to inform teach and instruct in the sure way to Salvation Why else do you so start and fling when I desire to know of you what is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian when this is the only material thing in Controversie between us and my Mistakes in it has made you begin a quarrel with me and let loose your Pen against me in no ordinary way of reprehension Besides in this way which you take you will be in no better a case than I. For another having as good a claim to have his guesses give the rule as you yours or to have his System received as well as you yours he will complain of you as well and upon as good grounds as you do of me and if he have but as much Zeal for his Orthodoxy as you shew for yours in as civil well-bred and Christian-like Language In the next place pray tell me why would it be folly in you to comply with what I require of you Would it not be useful to me to be set right in this Matter if so why is it folly in you to set me right Consider me if you please as one of your Parishioners who after you have resolv'd which Catalogue of Fundamentals to give him either that in your Thoughts of the Causes of Atheism or this other here in your Socinianism Unmask'd for they are not both the same nor either of them perfect asked you are these all Fundamental Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and are there no more but these would you answer him that it was folly in you to comply with him in what he desired Is it of no moment to know what is required of Men to be believed without a belief of which they are not Christians nor can be saved And is it folly in a Minister of the Gospel to inform one committed to his Instruction in so material a Point as this which distinguishes Believers from Unbelievers Is it folly in one whose Business it is to bring Men to be Christians and to Salvation to resolve a Question by which they may know whether they are Christians or no and without a resolution of which they cannot certainly know their Condition and the state they are in Is it besides your Commission and Business and therefore a folly to extend your care of Souls so far as this to those who are committed to your Charge Sir I have a Title to demand this of you as if I were your Parishioner You have forced your self upon me for a Teacher in this very Point as if you wanted a Parishioner to instruct and therefore I demand it of you and shall insist upon it till you either do it or confess you cannot Nor shall it excuse you to say it is capriciously required For this is no otherwise capricious than all Questions are capricious to a Man that cannot answer them and such an one I think this is to you For if you could answer it no body can doubt but that you would and that with confidence For no body will suspect 't is the want of that makes you so reserved This is indeed a frequent way of answering Questions by men that cannot otherwise cover the Absurdities of their Opinions and their insolence of expecting to be believed upon their bare words by saying they are capriciously asked and deserved no other Answer But how far soever Capriciousness when proved for saying is not enough may excuse from answering a material Question yet your own words here will clear this from being a capricious Question in me For that those Texts of Scripture which you have set down do not upon your own Grounds contain all the Fundamental Doctrines of Religion all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian what you say a little lower in this very Page as well as in other places does demonstrate Your words are I think I have sufficiently proved that there are other Doctrines besides that Jesus is the Messiah which are required to be believed to make a Man a Christian why did the Apostles write these Doctrines was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them This Argument for the necessity of believing the Texts you cite from their being set down in the New Testament you urged thus p. 9. Is this set down to no purpose in these inspired Epistles Is it not requisite that we should know it and believe And again p. 29. They are in our Bibles to that very purpose to be believed If then it be necessary to know and believe those Texts of Scripture you have collected because the Apostles writ them and they were not set down to no purpose And they are in our Bibles on purpose to be believed I have reason to demand of you other Texts besides those you have enumerated as containing Points necessary to be believed because there are other Texts which the Apostles writ and were not set down to no purpose and are in our Bibles on purpose to be believed as well as those which you have cited Another reason of doubting and consequently of demanding whether those Propositions you have set down for Fundamental Doctrines be every one of them necessary to be believed and all that are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian I have from your next Argument which join'd to the former stands thus p. 22. Why did the Apostles write these Doctrines Was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them nay did they not require assent to them Yes verily for this is to be proved from the Nature of the things contained in those Doctrines which are such as had immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of their Redemption and Salvation If therefore all things which have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation are
necessary to be believed till there be some other way found to distinguish them than that they are in a Book which is all of Divine Revelation Though therefore Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice are very distinguishable in the Epistles yet it does not follow from thence that Fundamental and not Fundamental Doctrines Points necessary and not necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are easily distinguishable in the Epistles Which therefore remains to be proved And it remains incumbent upon him XVIII To set down the Marks whereby the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles may easily and exactly be distinguished into Fundamental and not Fundamental Articles of Faith All the rest of that Paragraph containing nothing against me must be bound up with a great deal of the like stuff which the Unmasker has put into his Book to shew the World he does not imitate me in Impertinencies Incoherences and trifling Excursions as he boasts in his first Paragraph Only I shall desire the Reader to take the whole Passage concerning this Matter as it stands in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. I do not deny but the great Doctrines of the Christian Faith are dropt here and there and scatter'd up and down in most of them But 't is not in the Epistles we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other Truths and Discourses which were though for Edification indeed yet only occasional We shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to those who were yet Strangers and ignorant of the Faith to bring them in and convert them to it And then let him read these words which the Unmasker has quoted out of them It is not in the Epistles that we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith they were written for the resolving of Doubts and reforming of Mistakes With his Introduction of them in these words He commands the Reader not to stir a jot further than the Acts. If I should ask him where that Command appears he must have recourse to his old shift that he did not mean as he said or else stand Convicted of a malicious Untruth An Orator is not bound to speak strict Truth though a Disputant be But this Unmasker's Writing against me will excuse him from being of the latter And then why may not Falshoods pass for Rhetorical flourishes in one who hath been used to popular Haranguing to which Men are not generally so severe as strictly to examine them and expect that they should always be found to contain nothing but precise Truth and strict Reasoning But yet I must not forget to put upon his Score this other Proposition of his which he has p. 42. and ask him to shew XIX Where it is that I command my Reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts In the next two Paragraphs p. 42. 46. The Unmasker is at his natural Play of Declaiming without Proving 'T is pity the Mishna out of which he takes his good breeding as it told him that a well-bred and well-taught Man answers to the first in the first place had not given him this Rule too about Order viz. That Proving should go before Condemning Else all the fierce Exaggerations ill Language can heap up are but empty Scurility But 't is no wonder that the Iewish Doctors should not provide Rules for a Christian Divine turn'd Unmasker For where a Cause is to be maintain'd and a Book to be writ and Arguments are not at hand yet something must be found to fill it Railing in such cases is much easier than Reasoning especially where a Man's Parts lie that way The first of these Paragraphs p. 42. he begins thus But let us hear further what this Vindicator saith to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles and his putting us off with one Article of Faith And then he quotes these following words of mine What if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly and firmly Christians purposing to work upon those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion Answ. This as he has put it is a downright Falshood For the words he quotes were not used by me to excuse my rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles or to prove there was but one Article But as a reason why I omitted the mention of Satisfaction To demonstrate this I shall set down the whole Passage as it is p. 6. of my Vindication where it runs thus But what will become of me that I have not mention'd Satisfaction Possibly this Reverend Gentleman would have had Charity enough for a known Writer of the Brotherhood to have found it by an Innuendo in those words above quoted of laying down his Life for another But every thing is to be strained here the other way For the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is of necessity to be represented as a Socinian Or else his Book may be read and the Truths in it which Mr. Edwards likes not be received and People put upon examining Thus one as full of happy Conjectures and Suspitions as this Gentleman might be apt to argue But what if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians Proposing to work on those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion To this he tells me p. 43. that my Title says nothing for me i. e. shews not that I designed my Book for those that disbelieved or doubted of the Christian Religion Answ. I thought that a title that professed the Reasonableness of any Doctrine shew'd it was intended for those that were not â—ully satisfied of the Reasonableness of it unless Books are to be writ to convince those of any thing who are convinced already But possibly this may be the Unmasker's way And if one should judge by his manner of treating this Subject with Declamation instead of Argument one would think that he meant it for no body but those who were of his Mind already I thought therefore The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture a proper Title to signifie whom it was chiefly meant for And I thank God I can with satisfaction say it has not wanted its effect upon some of them But the Unmasker proves for all that that I could not design it chiefly for Disbelievers or Doubters of the Christian Religion For says he p. 43. How those that wholly disregard and disbelieve the Scriptures of the New Testament as Gentiles Iews Mahometans and Atheists do I crave leave to put in Theists instead of Atheists for a reason presently to be mention'd are like to attend to the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture is not to be conceived
to set down only the one first and leading Article and omit all the rest in instances where more were not only propos'd but believed and imbraced and upon that the Hearers and Believers admitted into the Church 'T is not for Historians to put any distinction between leading or not leading Articles But if they will give a true and useful account of the Religion whose Original they are writing and of the Converts made to it they must tell not one but all those necessary Articles upon assent to which Converts were Baptized into that Religion and admitted into the Church Whoever says otherwise accuses them of falsifying the Story misleading the Readers and giving a wrong account of the Religion which they pretend to teach the World and to preserve and propagate to future Ages This if it were so no pretence of conciseness could excuse or palliate There is yet remaining one Consideration which were sufficient of it self to convince us that it was the sole Article of Faith which was preach'd And that if there had been other Articles necessary to be known and believed by Converts they could not upon any pretence of conciseness be supposed to be omitted And that is the Commissions of those that were sent to Preach the Gospel Which since the Sacred Historians mention they cannot be suppos'd to leave out any of the material and main Heads of those Commissions St. Luke records it Ch. IV. 43. that our Saviour says of himself I must go unto the other Towns to tell the good news of the Kingdom for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Errand am I SENT This St. Mark calls simply Preaching This Preaching what it contain'd St. Matthew tells us Ch. IV. 23. And Iesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the Kingdom and healing all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases amongst the People Here we have his Commission or End of his being sent and the Execution of it Both terminating in this that he declar'd the good News that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come and gave them to understand by the Miracles he did that he himself was he Nor does St. Matthew seem to affect such conciseness that he would have left it out if the Gospel had contained any other Fundamental Parts necessary to be believed to make Men Christians For he here says all manner of Sickness and all manner of Disease when either of them might have been better left out than any necessary Article of the Gospel to make his History concise We see what our Saviour was sent for In the next place let us look into the Commission he gave the Apostles when he sent them to Preach the Gospel We have it in the X. of St. Matthew in these words Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And as ye go PREACH SAYING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils Freely have ye received freely give Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your Purses nor Scrip in your journey neither two Coats neither Shooes nor yet Staves for the Workman is worthy of his meat And into whatsoever City or Town ye shall enter enquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence And when ye come into any house salute it And if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it But if it be not worthy let your peace return to you And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words When ye depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that City Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Be ye therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves But beware of Men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues And ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And the Brother shall deliver up the Brother to Death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against the Parents and cause them to be put to Death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake But he that endureth to the end shall be saved But when they persecute you in this City flee ye into another For verily I say unto you ye shall not have gone over the Cities of Israel till the Son of man be come The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Fear them not therefore For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light And what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house tops And fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and body in Hell Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth I came not to send peace but a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter-in Law against the Mother in Law And a man's foes shall be they of his own houshold He that loveth Father and Mother more than me is not worthy of me And he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall
pleased to dose it no more nor no less than what is in his System He hath put himself into the Throne of Christ and pretends to tell you which are and which are not the indispensable Laws of his Kingdom Which parts of his divine Revelation you must necessarily know understand and believe and in what sense and which you need not trouble your head about but may pass by as not necessary to be believed He will tell you that some of his necessary Articles are Mysteries and yet as he does p. 115. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism that they are easy to be understood by any Man when explained to him In answer to that I demanded of him who was to explain them The Papists I told him would explain some of them one way and the Reformed another The Remonstrants and Anti-remonstrants give them different senses And probably the Trinitarians and Unitarians will profess that they understand not each other 's Explications But to this in his reply he has not vouchsafed to give me any answer Which yet I expect and I will tell him why Because as there are different Explainers there will be different Fundamentals And therefore unless he can shew his Authority to be the sole Explainer of Fundamentals he will in vain make such a pudder about his Fundamentals Another Explainer of as good Authority as he will set up others against them And what then shall we be the better for all this stir and noise of Fundamentals And I desire it may be consider'd how much of the Divisions in the Church and bloody Persecutions amongst Christians has been owing to Christianity thus set up against Christianity in multiplied Fundamentals and Articles made necessary by the Infallibility of opposite Systems The Unmasker's Zeal wants nothing but Power to make good his to be the only Christianity for he has found the Apostles Creed to be defective He is as infallible as the Pope and another as infallible as he and where Humane Additions are made to the Terms of the Gospel Men seldom want Zeal for what is their own To conclude What was sufficient to make a Man a Christian in our Saviour's time is sufficient still viz. the taking him for our King and Lord ordained so by God What was necessary to be believed by all Christians in our Saviour's time as an indispensable Duty which they owed to their Lord and Master was the believing all divine Revelation as far as every one could understand it And just so it is still neither more nor less This being so the Unmasker may make what use he pleases of his Notion That Christianity was erected by Degrees it will no way in that sence in which it is true turn to the advantage of his select Fundamental necessary Doctrines The next Chapter has nothing in it but his great Bug-bear whereby he hopes to fright People from Reading my Book by crying out Socinianism Socinianism Whereas I challenge him again to shew one word of Socinianism in it But however it is worth while to write a Book to prove me a Socinian Truly I did not think my self so considerable that the World need be troubled about me whether I were a follower of Socinus Arminius Calvin or any other Leader of a Sect amongst Christians A Christian I am sure I am because I believe Iesus to be the Messiah the King and Saviour promised and sent by God And as a Subject of his Kingdom I take the rule of my Faith and Life from his Will declar'd and left upon Record in the inspired Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists in the New Testament Which I endeavour to the utmost of my power as is my Duty to understand in their true sense and meaning To lead me into their true meaning I know as I have above declar'd no infallible Guide but the same Holy Spirit from whom these Writings at first came If the Unmasker knows any other infallible Interpreter of Scripture I desire him to direct me to him Till then I shall think it according to my Master's Rule not to be called nor to call any Man on Earth Master No Man I think has a right to prescribe to my Faith or Magisterially to impose his Interpretations or Opinions on me Nor is it material to any one what mine are any farther than they carry their own Evidence with them If this which I think makes me of no Sect entitles me to the Name of a Papist or a Socinian because the Unmasker thinks these the worst and most invidious he can give me and labours to fix them on me for no other reason but because I will not take him for my Master on Earth and his System for my Gospel I shall leave him to recommend himself to the World by this Skill who no doubt will have reason to thank him for the rareness and subtility of his Discovery For I think I am the first Man that ever was found out to be at the same time a Socinian and a Factor for Rome But what is too hard for such an Unmasker I must be what he thinks fit When he pleases a Papist and when he pleases a Socinian and when he pleases a Mahometan And probably when he has consider'd a little better an Atheist for I hardly scaped it when he writ last My Book he says hath a tendency to it and if he can but go on as he has done hitherto from Surmises to Certainties by that time he writes next his Discovery will be advanced and he will certainly find me an Atheist Only one thing I dare assure him of that he shall never find that I treat the things of God or Religion so as if I made only a Trade or a Jest of them But let us now see how at present he proves me a Socinian His first Argument is my not answering for my leaving out Matth. XXVIII 19. and Iohn I. 1. Pag. 82. of his Socinianism Unmask'd This he takes to be a Confession that I am a Socinian I hope he means fairly and that if it be so on my side it must be taken for a standing Rule between us that where any thing is not answer'd it must be taken for granted And upon that score I must desire him to remember some Passages of my Vindication which I have already and others which I shall mind him of hereafter which he passed over in Silence and hath had nothing to say to which therefore by his own rule I shall desire the Reader to observe that he has granted This being premised I must tell the Unmasker that I perceive he reads my Book with the same Understanding that he writes his own If he had done otherwise he might have seen that I had given him a reason for my omission of those two and other plain and obvious Passages and famous Testimonies in the Evangelists as he calls them where I say p. 11. That if I have leâ—t out none of those Passages or