considered with the same Spirit that dictates them at least with a single Eye for to an evil Eye they look as the Cloud which guided the Israelites did appear to the Egyptians tho' it was all Light to the first yet to the last it was all Darkness and Confusion XXIV 6. It is farther objected If these Communications are from God how comes it that they have not their Accomplishment according as it was promâ—s'd to her The Apostle foretold that in the last Days there should come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were since the Beginning of the Creation For the removal of this Prejudice there is adduc'd an excellent Passage of a Devout Author which I shall transcribe here likewise since it gives so great Light in this Matter The Visions and Words of God says that Author tho' they are always true and certain in themselves yet are not always so after our way of understanding them and that for Two Reasons the one proceeds from the Imperfection of our way of understanding them and the other from the Reasons and Grounds upon which the divine Words and Visions are establish'd for oft-times they are Comminations and of a conditional Nature or Condition for Example that such shall amend such a thing shall be done tho' nevertheless the divine Word to take it in the Letter is absolute and does not express this Condition These two things I prove by Authorities of Holy Scripture First it is evident that the Word of God is not always and does not always come to pass after our way of understanding it because of the weakness and imperfection of our Understanding For God being Immense and Profound it is no wonder that in his Words and Revelations there is ordinarily a sense and meaning far beyond our common way of conceiving them and which shall be so much the more true and certain in themselves the less probability and certainty they seem to us to have We find very often in the Scripture that the Ancients found many of the Divine Words and Prophecies to fall out quite otherwise than they conceiv'd and hop'd for after their gross way of understanding them For Example God said to Abraham after he had led him into the Land of the Canaanites I will give thee this Land Gen. 13. 15 17. and he often repeats this to him nevertheless Abraham waxed Old and God did not give it to him therefore when God said to him the same Words once again Abraham seeing no effect of them ask'd him Lord whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it Gen 15. 7 8. Then God made known to him that it was not his Person that should possess that Land but his Children and Posterity and that not till after 400 Years Abraham thereby understood that God's Promise was most true in it self because God giving it to his Children and that out of Love to him this was to give it to himself Abraham was therefore mistaken in his way of conceiving it and if he had acted at first according to his way of understanding that Promise he might have really deceived himself the Promise not being expresly annext to that time And they who had seen Abraham die without possessing that Land after that God had promis'd it to him might have remain'd confounded and believed that it was false This also befell Jacob when Joseph made him come from Canaan to Egypt with all his House to save him from the general Famine God appear'd to him in the way and said to him Fear not Jacob go down into Egypt I will go with thee and I will surely bring thee up again Gen. 46. 3 4. Yet this came not to pass as we would have taken it after our way of conceiving things for we know Jacob died there It was in his Posterity that this was to be accomplish'd and it was long after that God brought back his Race Now he who had known whilst Jacob liv'd that God had made this Promise to him would without doubt have believ'd and thought that Jacob going down to Egypt in Life must by the Favour of God come out of it in Life also Yet he would have been mistaken and would have wonder'd to see him die in Egypt without seeing any Accomplishment of what he might have hoped for We may therefore be mistaken in the Words of God which yet are most true in themselves We read in the History of the Judges that all the Tribes of Israel being assembled to fight against Benjamin and to punish a Crime to which they had consented God having appointed who should fight first they were so perswaded of the Victory that having been defeated with the loss of 22000 of their Men they were greatly astonish'd at it and wept before the Lord till Midnight for they couldnot conceive how having look'd on the Victory as so certain they should be so greatly defeated And having ask'd if they should fight again And God having answered them Yes they reckon'd at this time the Victory to be altogether certain But being put to flight again with the loss of 18000 Men they were so amazed that they knew not what to think of it when they saw that with 40000 and withal the express Command of God they could not stand before 26000. But they were mistaken in their way of conceiving God's Word who would needs chastise and humble them by allowing them to fight yet without promising them the Victory except at the third time when they overcame but with much pains and a stratagem which they behov'd to make use of After this and many other ways it falls out that Souls deceive themselves as to the Revelations and Word of God taking it too literally God's main design when he speaks is to shew and give the Spirit which is contain'd and hid under these Words which Men after their way of conceiving do not so easily comprehend for it is much more ample than the Letter beyond its Bounds and Extraordinary So that whosoever will tie himself to the Letter of God's Word and to the Appearances of the divine Visions do what he will he cannot miss to be much mistaken and to come short of and be confounded as to the full and true meaning because he has followed his way of conceiving and has not given place to the Spirit emptying himself of his own Sentiment the Letter kills says St. Paul but the Spirit quickneth On this Occasion therefore we ought to loose our selves from the Letter and yield to a Faith which will make our Sentiments pass for Darkness For this Faith finds the Spirit which Sense cannot comprehend For this Cause the Sayings and Predictions of the Prophets did not succeed to many of the Children of Israel according to their Hope for they took them too much in the Letter and because they came not to pass as they
their Purity notwithstanding their Contradiction to Mens Lives in whose hands they are to be a standing Miracle and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be the last and most perfect Doctrine that is to come into the World and the Standard by which all others are to be examin'd and tried and desires no body may receive her Sentiments but in so far as they are agreeable thereunto and condemns the Practice of the Roman Church in with-holding the Use of the Scriptures from the People as a heinous Injustice and Impiety Tho' she does not think that God has bound up himself only to this way of communicating his Light but may when he pleases immediately communicate the same to any Person without the Use of the Holy Scriptures and such Persons may forbear the reading of them as she did without despising them as one needs not be taken up with reading his Friend's Letter when he is immediately conversing with him And for an Evidence of it she appeals to the Truths which she declares are communicated to her by God if they are not the same in Substance with those contained in the Holy Scriptures XI The Author comes next to some of her Opinions which she her self has often declared are not necessary to be believed and which if Men please they may count them Dreams and Fancies He calls them wild and barbarous and indeed as he conceives and represents them he would make some of them appear Extravagant enough tho' a candid Interpretation of them will render them both amiable and useful Thus what Wildness or Barbarity is there in Asserting that Jesus Christ and his Church are one that it is his Spirit internally animating influencing and informing the Souls of Men that makes them Members of his Mystical Body which is the Church or in Asserting that the last Judgment by which she means the Universal Plagues by which God will in a Course of many Years destroy the Wicked from off the Earth is at hand Few who seriously consider the State of the World will think this a wild and barbarous Notion but the Scoffers who walk after their own Lusts and say Where is the Promise of his coming She maintains no Mahumeâ—an Paradise but such a one as Man would have enjoy'd in the State of Innocence when as yet he had no Lust or Concupiscence Vnto the Pure all things are Pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing Pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled She says with our Saviour That the Saints after the Resurrection neither marry nor are given in Marriage but are as the Angels in Heaven She condemns human Learning no farther than it fosters Pride Amusement Self-conceit and the Lust of the Eye or Curiosity and destroys Charity and the Love of God There is no greater Absurdity in saying that Jesus Christ thought fit to appear in our human Nature void of human Learning no Mathematician no Philosopher nor Critick than to say that he appear'd poor and despised of all not having where to lay his Head since he thought fit to deny himself of all that we make the Object of our Vanity and Concupiscence XII What the Author is pleas'd to say of M. Poiret that he was craz'd and is still so reputed being utterly false can do him no Hurt with such as are either acquainted with himself or his Writings but it shews that Mens Passions will make them rashly utter false and extravagant Things which they themselves do not believe For the Author himself in the next Page reckons him among the Men of Sence and Learning who have written in Defence of A. B. abroad It is no wonder then that some in Britain admire his Books for he is no superficial rambling Writer as they discover more than an ordinary Degree of Sence and Learning so they direct to the solid Knowledge and Practice of true Christianity Freed from the false Glosses of Parties and the Disguises of Self-Love and corrupt Nature the Charge of his denying the Divine Prescience is clear'd in the Apology * They do also endeavour to make him odious by publishing an Expression which they say he used in a private Conversation with two Gentlemen of their Acquaintance M. Poiret himself says it is not easie for him to remember the Conversations he hath with all who come to see him nor if he had such an Expression to any but that if he had those Gentlemen may think he had Reason for what he spoke and he is well pleased that all the World know it that as he is fully perswaded that God is so he is perswaded that A. B. was illuminated and inspired by his Holy Spirit Both these are Truths but it does not follow that he looks upon both as of equal Moment or that he believes them upon equal Grounds XIII After the Author has formed so grievous and unjust a Charge laying aside a Christian Temper he proceeds in his 8. Sect. to sound the Trumpet and excite others to Fury and Indignation and in his late Book of the History of Sin and Heresie p. 33. he repeats over the same Charge with all the hard Words that Spite and Fury could invent and insinuates his Fears of a Growing Sect and Party It is strange to see Men more alarm'd and enrag'd against Enemies created by their own Fancy than they are against real ones If the Author of the Preface were once out of the Heat that his Imagination has put him in it were easie I should think to convince him that these he calls Bourignianists are no such Enemies as he has fansied to himself I can assure him they do heartily own that our Reconciliation with God is obtain'd only by the Merits and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ That the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures is the Standard by which we are to try and examine all Doctrines That no Inspiration can come from God that does not fill the Soul with Humility and Charity or That instills under the Sheeps Clothing of Devotion and Piety any Heresie or any thing that tends to Schism or to withdraw Obedience from their lawful Bishop or to set up new Sects and that Corruptions in the Church are better amended by living in the Communion of it and there by good Example to reclaim than by open Desertion to set up opposite Factions which heightens Animosities embitters Spirits renders them deaf to one anothers Advices and often proceeds to Blood and Slaughter as the Author of the Preface does so rationally conclude it in the Marks he gives to distinguish between Inspirations from God and Diabolical Enthusiasm And if there be any thing in the Writings of A. B. contrary to these or to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ they do openly disown and disclaim the same and stand up for them no farther than they tend to promote the great Interests of Christianity Truth Holiness and Peace XIV I come now to
to give a hateful Turn to ones Sentiments to make them pass for impious extravagant and ridiculous I shall therefore set down here a brief Summary of her Accessory Sentiments first premising some things that may dispose the Reader to consider them calmly and without prejudice 1. She declares they are reveal'd unto her by God and that now in the End of the World and near the Time of the Restitution of all things many things which were more darkly represented in the Holy Scriptures are now to be manifestly laid open when the Time of fulfilling all is at hand and that such things are now laid before us like a Clustre of Grapes of the Land of Promise to make us conceive something of the Beauty and Glory of the Heavenly Jerusalem 2. She declares as has been said that those Accessory Truths are not necessary to Salvation are not Articles of Faith ought not to be enquired into from a Spirit of Curiosity are not design'd for all but for those who being perswaded of them are thereby stirr'd up so much the more to the Love and Admiration of God and for others they maâ— let them alone XXXII 3. St. Augustin has given us an excellent Rule whereby to judge charitably of Sentiments and Interpretations of the Holy Scripture Whosoever says he so understands the Holy Scriptures or any part of them as that thereby he does not build up the twofold Charity the Love of God and our Neighbour he does not understand them aright But whosoever gives such a Sense of them as is profitable for advancing this Charity and yet what he says is not the particular Sense of the Writer in that place he does not err damnably neither does at all lie And if he err by a Sense which edifies Charity which is the End of the Commandment he so errs as if one by a mistake leaving the Highway should go streight over the Field to the Place whither the Way leads If these Accessory Sentiments then tend to promote the Great End of Religion the Love of God and our Neighbour tho' there were no Evidence for them from the Holy Scriptures they are neither hurtful nor damnable In giving an Account then of her Accessory Sentiments I shall consider them under these Heads Those which relat to 1. The State of the World before Man's Fall 2. The Fall of Man and its Consequences 3. The Methods taken for Man's Recovery by Jesus Christ 4. The Present State of the World 5. The Future State and the Restitution of all things And because the Series and Chain of those Accessory Sentiments cannot be well conceiv'd without some mention of the Essential Ones too I shall not scruple to do it where it is necessary to understand the Connexion of those Sentiments 1. As to the State of the World before Man's Fall the Summ of her Sentiments is as follows 1. VVHEN God created all things at First there was no Deformity in any of his Works all was Beautiful and Luminous no Grossness in the Earth no Whirlwinds and Hurricanes in the Air no Tempests in the Sea no Poison in the Herbs no Venom in Insects The Earth was all transparent throughout in it were to be seen the Plants the Stones and Metals all transparent likewise one might see thorouh it to its Center as easily as through the Air all the Beasts and Plants were all Beautiful in their respective kinds no Deformity in any of them and the Beauty of their Frame and Contrivance was to be seen throughout all being Transparent and Luminous All things were worthy of God and were Representations of his Greatness Magnificence Goodness Beauty Light and Fruitfulness in several ways and according to their different kinds 2. God having resolv'd to form a Creature that should love and enjoy him and in whose Love he would take Delight and Pleasure he creates Man after his own Image endues him with an immortal Soul breathed from himself with Understanding capable to receive him with a Heart to desire and thirst after him and cleave to him with a perfect Liberty and Free-will to do it heartily and freely and without the least Limitation or Constraint And to oblige him the more to love him his most Bountiful God and Lover gives him for an Accessory Felicity and Happiness the whole Creation subjects all his Works to him to be his Servants and to attend upon him puts all things under his Feet that he receiving the Homage and Delight of all the Creatures might return the Praise of all to God in the constant Love and Adoration of so Bountiful a God who would give himself to be lov'd and enjoy'd by him and would take his Delight with him and would give him such a world of beautiful Creatures to serve and attend upon him 3. That Man might partake of this Accessory Happiness and receive the Delight and Homage of all the Creatures and rule over them as their Lord and King he forms to him a Body as the Case and Organ of his Soul by which he might communicate with all the Creatures and rule over them and endues it with Faculties and Senses capable to give them Orders and to take in the Tribute of their Delights and Pleasures the Sense of Seeing to take in their Light and Beauty of Hearing to be entertain'd with their Melody and Musick Smelling to receive their odoriferous Steams and the Taste to relish their Sweetness and Delight the power of Moving of Speech and Gestures whereby to rule and govern them he might go to any place and make known his Will which all obeyed 4. This Body was not created by God after the manner that we see it at present but incomprehensibly more beautiful and more perfect as the Master-piece of all Nature clear subtile agile and transparent its Skin like Moscovy Glass its Flesh like Crystal its Veins like streams of Rubies its Waters like Diamonds its Nerves like the Hyacinth the Substance of the Fruits its Aliment that of all good Odours its Excrements all its Parts within and without its Bones Muscles Sinews Bowels all so bright fram'd with such Art that all the Beauties of the Universe were nothing to the least part of it The Quintessence of all Natural things was the Matter of which it was form'd and all Nature obey'd it If he design'd to go on the Waters they supported him if to the Center of the Earth it yielded to him if through the Air it was a Chariot to him The Sun the Stars the precious Stones and all the Beauties of the Earth were nothing if compar'd with the least Beauty of the Body of Man His Soul was wholly Divine his Understanding clear-sighted penetrating all the Secrets of Nature all things Divine and Supernatural 5. Man when he was created at First was endued with a Principle of Foecundity with a Power to produce his like without the help of another having within
Esay accuses them that they had said Let us eat and drink for to morrow we must die we have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell we are at Agreement for we have made Lies our Refuge and under Falshood have we hid our selves Malachy It is in vain for us to serve the Lord we will call the Proud Happy c. This was not true in the Sight of Men but it was true in the Sight of God who saw that there were no living Impressions in their Hearts of the Divine Providence of a happy or miserable Eternity of the great Happiness of Vertue c. There are generally two sorts of Principles and Sentiments in Men which do widely differ from one another one by which they reason and discourse and preach and write Books and teach Doctrines and this is their speculative Principle The other is that by which a Man acts and governs both his inward Affections and his Life This last only is a Man's true Sentiments and Principle tho' for the most part this is unknown to the Man himself S. Paul before his Conversion and e'er he was enlightned by the Holy Ghost would have been highly offended with any that should have call'd him a Blasphemer a Persecuter of God and good Men and the Chief of Sinners as imputing to him Crimes and Sentiments of which he not only thought himself innocent but that those very things were Vertues in the Sight of God tho' when God opened his Eyes he found he had been truly such So strange is the Blindness of corrupt Man Therefore when God would deliver Men from Death he stops not at the outward Appearance and what Men say and at their dead Reasonings and Sentiments who may tell him We teach Vertue we preach good Works we recommend Mortification of the Old Man we detest Security and Presumption c. while in effect their Lives are regulated by quite contrary Principles and their Hearts live in another Element and therefore he warns them of that which is hid within them and which they do not yet perceive and tells them that tho' they profess to know him yet by their Works they deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good Work reprobate Now it is according to this Measure that A. B. speaks of Men and Parties and of their Sentiments When a whole Society lives according to Principles the contrary of which they affirm with their Mouths it is certain this may be imputed to that Society When the greatest part of particular Persons in that Society have certain Sentiments as to flatter themselves that they are in the State of Grace or predestinated to Salvation it is certain that the Society in the gross may be said to have these Sentiments If while they live in a worldly and carnal Manner yet they commonly believe they shall be saved by the Use of the Ceremonies and Sacraments this is to be reckoned the real Sentiment of the Society in gross tho' the Speculations of some particular Persons and Doctors do not say so It is the People that makes the Church and not a small Number of learned Heads It is the living and inward Principles Inclinations and Dispositions of the Spirits and Hearts of the People that makes the Sentiments of the Church and not some vain Theories of the Learned which are oft-times dead and barren in their own Hearts When in a Society some particular Persons teach expresly evil Doctrines as the Justifying of horrid Murthers or that we may be saved without the Love of God and direct Souls according to these Doctrines if the whole Body of such a Church knowing this do not openly and loudly extirpate such a Doctrine by their Councils or other proper Means undoubtedly such a Society and particularly they who preside in it are reckoned by God as if they themselves authoritatively taught and maintained these detestable Maxims Now if what A. B. says as to the Principles Sentiments and Evils of Parties or Persons be examined by these Rules it will appear that she imputes nothing to them falsly XXV Another Accusation brought against A. B. is that she gives wrong Explications of several Passages in the Holy Scripture as her applying that of S. Paul We know in part c. to a greater Degree of Knowledge and Illumination than God will give in this last Age of the World Her understanding the Words of our Saviour Joh. 12. 23. of his glorious Appearing in the End of the World when the Context shews it is meant of his Death and Sufferings her singular Exposition of the Lord's Prayer as containing things that we are to obtain only in Perfection when Christ comes to reign in Glory We see what Expositions the Apostles give of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the Fathers of both the Old and New which oft-times seem very different from the Sence that naturally offers S. Augustin's Rule already mentioned has Place here That whosoever gives such a Sence of the Scripture as serves to promote the Love of God and our Neighbours which is the great End tho' it cannot be made appear that the Pen-man of the Scripture did so understand it in that particular Place he does not err damnably nor does he make a Lye But that other remarkable Rule he gives serves fully to remove this Accusation That as to all the Sences that are given of the Holy Scripture which are not repugnant to the Truth it is to be believed they were intended by the Holy Spirit That when many Sences are given of the same Words if it appear from other Places of the Scripture that they are agreeable to the Truth and to Faith there is no Danger For perhaps the Author of those Writings did perceive the same Sence of them and certainly the Spirit of God who wrought by him foresaw without doubt that this would occur to the Reader and the Hearer yea took care that it should occur For what more liberal and bountiful Provision could be made by God in the Divine Oracles than that the same Words should be understood in many Sences all which the other no less Divine Writings might confirm Agreeable to this we have a Divine Maxim of a pious Writer of the last Age That according to the State that Man is in so he understands the Holy Scripture if he be as yet in the State of Nature he explains it of Natural Things if he have ascended higher he understands it of more sublime Things and the higher State he is advanced to he still finds so much the more sublime Testimonies of things in the Scripture Inferiour things are the Image and Similitude of the superiour If a Man therefore be in the lowest Degree the Scripture proposes low things to him but if he be placed in superiour Degrees it points out to him higher things When Paul says Not in Rioting and Drunkenness not in Chambering and Wantonness c. Rom. 13. 19. this concerns
that Men see or know painting out Vertue like to a hideous Old Wife wasted with Penitence tho' all these things may be done in Hypocrisie and a Study of Self-esteem But the Spirit of God gives Liberty to those whom he governs rendring them sincere affable and friendly without any Dissimulation to treat with an open Heart with the Friends of God without any Reserve or Windings but freely and openly tho' with Prudence towards the Wicked This is to be simple as Doves and wise as Serpents and to beware of Men as says the Scripture But her Character is to be had best from her Writings and from the Spirit that guided her The End of the Fourth Part. A LETTER CONCERNING The Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism detected SIR I. YOU tell me that you have seen a written Apology for A. B. and that you thought strange to find no Mention there of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass and Bourignianism detected Sir I am perswaded that the Writer of the Apology did that upon a good Design he saw how hard it was to reason with Men in Passion and not become angry too or inflame them the more He thought it was best not to answer and yet to answer them and by this Means to preserve the Quiet of his own Mind and yet give them a fair Occasion to reflect upon their own Mistakes Yet since you say that Zeal for the Truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Charity to Mens Souls especially those who may have conceived Prejudices from their Misrepresentations and to the Authors themselves in particular do require a more particular Application to these Writings I shall therefore freely and plainly tell my Sentiments of them with that Candour and Charity to the Persons concern'd that I hope they will take them for the Reproofs of a Friend and so count them better than the deceitful Kisses of Flatterers or the groundless Plaudites of unthinking Persons who are more taken with an Air of Confidence and a bold Way of Representing things than with Truth and Reality II. They who take upon them to write Narratives and to give the World Characters of the Sentiments Spirit and Writings of any Person as those two Authours do of A. B. the one in some Instances only the other more fully ought to have these Qualifications if they would do it aright 1. They ought throughly to be acquainted with the Writings and Sentiments before they can give a just and true Account of them things being cleared express'd and owned in one Place that are not so in another 2. They ought to consider the great Scope and Design of the Writer and the Means by which he prosecutes it and it both the one and the other be good and excellent to give his Words and Sentiments in other things as favourable an Interpretation as they will bear sutable to the main Scope and Substance of the Writings If they be Things wherein they have no Knowledge nor Experience they ought neither to judge nor censure them and if there be even Mistakes in lesser Things they ought not to aggravate nor ridicule them but to extenuate and cover them for the sake of the main things that are so excellent and praise-worthy This same Rule also is to be observed in â—udging of the Lives of Persons to consider the main Scope of them whether it be Time or Eternity and the Means by which they prosecute that great End and not rashly to judge or give a Character of them from some outward Actions which may be good or evil according to the inward Principle they proceed from 3. They ought to look upon the Sentiments and Actions they would judge of with a simple unprejudiced Eye otherwise they cannot judge aright they look in coloured Glasses and so deceive both themselves and others who listen to them 4. Narrators ought to be faithful and sincere not falsifying in the least nor singling out Pieces of Sentences or Purposes or some Circumstances of Actions studying thereby to blacken them and designedly concealing what would serve to clear and justifie them but faithfully and honestly narrating the whole III. Now I am sorry I must say that in this Affair those Authors have been greatly wanting as to these Requisites and so were very unfit for such an Undertaking 1. They were Strangers to the Life or Sentiments of A. B. the one neither knew nor had read any of her Writings but such as were done in English and the other had read few or none of them till he applied himself to confute them and tho' he never knew her himself will now Eighteen Years after her Death essay to blacken her by most horrid Imputations tho' her Innocence and Purity be sufficiently attested by Persons of unquestionable Credit and Integrity 2. In their Narratives they have neither regarded nor mentioned the great Scope of all her Writings which is to perswade Men to the Love of God and to convince them that they are estranged from it Nor the Means by which she prosecutes this End the leading Men to the Imitation of the Life of Jesus Christ in Mortifying their corrupt Nature and living a Life of Penitence And how she makes it appear they do it not Nor does the Doctor in the Character of her Life of represent the great Scope thereof the Travelling towards Eternity nor the Means she used in order thereto 3. It is visible That what they have read of her Writings has been with an evil Eye with a Design to carp at them to pick out such Expressions as might serve them to render her and her Writings hateful and ridiculous to the World They who compare their Narratives with her Writings will easily be convinc'd of this when they find them skipping over the most excellent Matters and fixing only upon such Things as they thought capable of being perverted and empoisoned by their false Turns and malicious Glosses while hundreds of indifferent Persons have acknowledged that they could not read any of her Writings without being touch'd with a serious Sense of Divine Things and that they see the practical Part of Christianity represented in them with a Clearness beyond any that is to be seen in most practical Writers And 4. It is no less evident that they have not been faithful and ingenuous but have either singled out some mangled Sentences concealing the Context that might clear them or tack'd together a Number of Passages of different Places to make them ridiculous or most untruly translated them of which I shall hereafter give some Instances IV. One would have thought that the Author of the Preface to the Snake in the Grass who exposes others for their furious spiteful and foul Language and gives a necessary Caution That in Answering his Book they should not after their usual Fashion carp at some Ward or Expression and neglect the whole Substance of the Matter and who had sufficient Caution given him