our Eyes cannot but see for fear of giving Offence Though I hope it will be none to any that have a just Concern for Truth and Piety to take notice of the Books and Pamphlets which now fly so thick about this Kingdom manifestly tending to the multiplying of Sects and Divisions and even to the promoting of Scepticism in Religion among us In which number you say you shall not much need my pardon if you reckon the First and Second Letter concerning Toleration Wherein by a broad Insinuation you impute the spreading of Atheism among us to the late Relaxation made in favour of Protestant Dissenters and yet all that you take notice of as a proof of this is the Books and Pamphlets which now fly so thick about this Kingdom manifestly tending to the multiplying of Sects and Divisions and even to the promoting of Scepticism in Religion amongst us and for instance you name the First and Second Letter concerning Toleration If one may guess at the others by these The Athcism and Scepticism you accuse them of will have but little more in it than an Opposition to your Hypothesis on which the whole business of Religion must so turn that whatever agrees not with your System must presently by Interpretation be concluded to tend to the promoting of Atheism or Scepticism in Religion For I challenge you to shew in either of those two Letters you mention one word tending to Epicurism Atheism or Scepticism in Religion But Sir against the next time you are to give an account of Books and Pamphlets tending to the promoting Scepticism in Religion amongst us I shall mind you of the third Letter concerning Toleration to be added to the Catalogue which asserting and building upon this that True Religion may be known by those who profess it to be the only True Religion does not a little towards betraying the Christian Religion to Scepticks For what greater advantage can be given them than to teach that one may know the True Religion thereby putting into their hands a Right to demand it to be demonstrated to them that the Christian Religion is true and bringing on the Professors of it a necessity of doing it I have heard it complain'd of as one great Artifice of Scepticks to require Demonstrations where they neither could be had nor were necessary But if the True Religion may be known to Men to be so a Sceptick may require and you cannot blame him if he does not receive your Religion upon the strongest probable Arguments without Demonstration And if one should demand of you Demonstration of the Truths of your Religion which I beseech you would you do either renounce your Assertion that it may be known to be true or else undertake to demonstrate it to him And as for the decay of the very Life and Spirit of Christianity and the spreading of Epicurism amongst us I ask what can more tend to the promoting of them than this Doctrine which is to be found in the same Letter viz. That it is presumable that those who conform do it upon Reason and Conviction When you can instance in any thing so much tending to the promoting of Scepticism in Religion and Epicurism in the first or second Letter concerning Toleration we shall have reason to think you have some ground for what you say As to Epicurism the spreading whereof you likewise impuâ—…e to the Relaxation of your moderate Penal Laws That so far as it is distinct from Atheism I think regards Mens Lives more than their Religions i. e. speculative Opinions in Religion and Ways of Worship which is that we mean by Religion as concern'd in Toleration And for the Toleration of corrupt Manners and the Debaucheries of Life neither our Author nor I do plead for it but say it is properly the Magistrate's Business by Punishments to restrain and suppress them I do not therefore blame your Zeal against Atheism and Epicurism but you discover a great Zeal against something else in charging them on Toleration when it is in the Magistrate's power to restrain and suppress them by more effectual Laws than those for Church-Conformity For there are those who will tell you that an outward Profession of the National Religion even where it is the True Religion is no more opposite to or inconsistent with Atheism or Epicurism than the owning of another Religion â—…specially any Christian Profession that differs from it And therefore you in vain impute Atheism or Epicurism to the Relaxation of Penal Laws that require no more than an outward Conformity to the National Church As to the Sâ—…cts and Un-christian Divisions for other Divisions there may be without prejudice to Christianity at whose Door they chiesly ought to be laid I have shew'd you elsewhere One thing I cannot but take notice of here that having named Sects Heresiâ—…s Epicurism Atheism and a Dâ—…ay of the Spirit and Life of Christianity as the fruits of 〈◊〉 for which you had the Attestation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you add these words Not to speak of what our 〈◊〉 at this 〈◊〉 cannot but 〈◊〉 for fear of giving offence Whom is it I beseech you you are so afraid of offending if you should speak of the Epicurism Atheism and Dâ—…ay of the Spirit and Life of Christianity â—…gst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I see he that is so modeâ—… in one he will not take upon 〈◊〉 what they cannot know he calls moderate Peâ—…is or Force may yet in another paâ—…t of the same Letter by broâ—…d Insinnations use 〈◊〉 wherein 't is a hard matter to think Law-makâ—…rs and Govâ—…nners are not meant But whoever be meant it is at least advisable in Accusations that are easier suggested than made out to cast abroad the Slander in general and leave others to apply it for â—…ear those who are named and so justly offended with a false Imputation should be intitled to ask as in this case how it appears that Sects and Herosies have multiplied Epicurism and Atheism spread themselves and that the Life and Spirit of Christianity is decay'd more within these two years than it was before and that all this Mischief is owing to the late Relaxation of the Penal Laws against Protestant Dissenters You go on And if these have always been the Fruits of the Relaxation of moderate Penal Laws made for the preserving and advancing true Religion You think this Consideration alone is abundantly sufficient to shew the â—…fulness and Benefit of such Laws For if these Evils have constantly sprung from the Relaxation of those Laws 〈◊〉 evident they were prevented before by those Laws One would think by your saying always been the Fruits and constantly sprung that moderate Penal Laws for preserving the true Religion had been the constant Practice of all Christian Common-wealth and that Relaxations of them iâ—… favour of a free Toleration had frequently happen'd and that there were Examples both of the one and the other as common and known as of Prince that have persecuted
oblige them to receive it and to leave them without Excuse if they do not To all therefore who rejecting the true Religion so tendered are without Excuse your moderate Force is useful and necessary But is it to all those competent i. e. sufficient means That 't is evident in matter of Fact it is not for after all many stand out 'T is like you will say which is all you have to say that those are such who having resisted this last means moderate Force God always refuseth his Grace to without which no means is â—…fficacious So that your Competent at last are only such means as are the utmost that God has appointed and will have used and which when Men resist they are without Excuse and shall never after have the Assistance of his Grace to bring them to that Truth they have resisted and so be as the Apostle 2 Tim. III. 8. calls such Men of corrupt Minds reprobate concerning the Faith If then it shall be that the Day of Grace shall be over to all those who reject the Truth manifested to them with such Evidence as leaves them without Excuse and that bare Preaching and Exhortation shall be according to the good Pleasure of the benign Disposer of all things enough when neglected to make their Hearts fat their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes that they should not perceive nor understand nor be converted that God should heal them I say if this should be the Case then your Force whatever you imagine of it will neither be coâ—…petent useful nor necessary So that it will rest upon you to prove that your moderate Degrees of Force are those means of Grace which God will have as necessary to Salvation tried upon every one before he will pass that Sentence in Isaiah Make his Heart fat c. and that your Degree of moderate Force is that beyond which God will have no other or more powerful means used but that those whom that works not upon shall be left reprobate concerning Faith And till you have proved this you will in vain pretend your moderate Force whatever you might think of it if you had the ordering of that Matter in the Place of God to be useful necessary and competent means For if Preaching Exhortation Instruction c. as seems by the whole Current of the Scripture and it appears not that Isaiah in the Place above-cited made their Hearts far with any thing but his Words be that means which when rejected to such a Degree as he sees fit God will punish with a Reprobate Mind and that there be no other means of Grace to come after you must confess that whatever good Opinion you have of your moderate Force after this Sentence is passed it can do no good have no Efficacy neither directly nor indirectly and 〈◊〉 a Distance towards the bringing Men to the Truth If your moderate Force be not that precise utmost means of Grace which when ineffectual God will not afford his Grace to any other then your moderate Force is not the compâ—…tent means you talk of This therefore you must prove that Preaching alone is not but that your moderate Force join'd to it is that means of Grace which when neglected or râ—…ted God will assist no other means with his Grace to bring Men into the Obedience of the Truth and this let me tell you you must prove by Revelation For it is impossible to know but by Revelation the just Measures of God's Long-suffering and what those means are which when Mens Corruptions have rendred ineffectual his Spirit shall no longer strive with them nor his Grace assist any other means for their Conversion or Salvation When you have done this there will be some Ground for you to talk of your moderate Force as the means which God's Wisdom and Goodness is ingaged to furnish Men with but to speak of it as you do now as if it were that both necessary and competent means that it would be an Imputation to the Wisdom and Goodness of God if Men were not furnished with it when 't is evident that the greatest part of Mankind have always been destitute of it will I fear be not easily cleared from that Impiety you mention for though the Magistrate had the Right to use it yet where-ever that moderate Force was not made use of there Men were not furnished with your competent means of Salvation 'T is necessary for the Vindication of God's Justice and Goodness that those who miscarry should do so by their own Fault that their Destruction should be from themselves and they be left inexcusable But pray how will you shew us that it is necessary that any who have resisted the Truth tendered to them only by Preaching should be saved any more than it is necessary that those who have resisted the Truth when moderate Force has been joined to the same Preaching should be saved They are inexcusable one as well as the other and thereby have incurred the Wrath of God under which he may justly leave the one as well as the other and therefore he cannot be said not to have been furnished with competent means of Salvation who having rejected the Truth preached to him has never any Penalties laid on him by the Magistrate to make him consider the Truths he before rejected All the Stress of your Hypothesis for the Necessity of Force lies on this That the Majority of Mankind are not prevailed on by Preaching and therefore the Goodness and Wisdom of God is obliged to furnish them with some more effectual means as you think But who told you that the Majority of Mankind should ever be brought into the strait way and narrow Gate Or that Force in your moderate Degree was the necessary and competent i. e. the just sit means to do it neither over nor under but that that only and nothing but that could do it If to vindicate his Wisdom and Goodness God must furnish Mankind with other means as long as the Majority yet unwrought upon shall give any forward Demander occasion to ask What other means is there left He must also after your moderate Penalties have left the greater part of Mankind unprevailed on be bound to furnish Mankind with higher Degrees of Force upon this Man's Demand And those Degrees of Force proving ineffectual to the Majority to make them truly and sincerely Christians God must be bound to furnish the World again with a new Supply of Miracles upon the Demand of another wise Controuler who having set his Heart upon Miracles as you have yours on Force will demand what other means is there left but Miracles for 't is like this last Gent. would take it very much amiss of you if you should not allow this to be a good and unquestionable way of arguing or if you should deny that after the utmost Force had been used Miracles might not do some Service at least indirectly and at a Distance towards the bringing Men to imbrace
has prevented me on that Subject having writ a Book particularly of his Life Anthony was thought worthy of the Vision of God and led a Life perfectly conformable to the Laws of Christ. This whoever reads the Book wherein is contain'd the History of his Life will easily know wherein he will also see Prophecy shining out For he prophesied very clearly of those who were infected with the Arian Contagion and foretold what Mischief from them was threatned to the Churches God truly reuealing all these things to him which is certainly the principal evidence of the Catholick Faith No such Man being to be found amongst the Hereticks But do not take this upon my Word but read and study the Book it self This Account you have from St. Chrysostom whom Mr. Dodwell calls the Contemner of Fables St. Hierom in his Treatise De Viro Perfecto speaks of the frequency of Miracles done in his time as a thing past question Besides those not a few which he has left upon record in the Lives of Hilarion and Paul two Monks whose Lives he has writ And he that has a mind to see the plenty of Miracles of this kind need but read the Collection of the Lives of the Fathers made by Rosweydus Russin tells us That Athanasius lodg'd the Bones of St. John Baptist in the Wall of the Church knowing by the Spirit of Prophecy the good they were to do to the next Generation And of what Efficacy and Use they were may be concluded from the Church with the golden Roof built to them soon after in the place of the Temple of Serapis St. Austin tells us That he knew a blind Man restor'd to sight by the Bodies of the Millan Martyrs and some other such things of which kind there were so many done in that time that many scaped his Knowledg and those which he knew were more than he could number More of this you may see Epist. 137. He further assures us that by the simple Reliques of St. Stephen a blind Woman receiv'd her Sight Lucullus was cured of an old Fistula Eucharius of the Stone Three Gouty Men recovered A Lad kill'd with a C art-wheel going over him restor'd to Life safe and sound as if he had received no hurt A Nun lying at the point of Death they sent ber Coat to the Shrine but she dying before it was brought back was restor'd to Life by its being laid on her dead Body The like happened at Hippo to the Daughter of BASSUS and two others whose Names he sets down were by the same Reliques raised from the dead After these and other Particulars there set down of Miracles done in his time by those Reliques of St. Stephen the holy Father goes on thus What shall I do pressed by my Promise of dispatching this Work I cannot here set down all And without doubt many when they shall read his will be troubled that I have omitted so many Particulars which they truly know as well as I. For if I should â—…assing by the rest 〈◊〉 only the miraculous Cures which have been wrought by this most glorious Martyr Stephen in the Colony of Calama and this of ours I should fill many Books and yet should not take in all of them But only of those of which there are Collections published which are read to the People For this I took care should be done when I saw that Signs of divine Power like those of old were FREQUENT also in our Times It is not now two Years since that Shrine has been at Hippo And many of the Books which I certainly knew to be so not being published those which are published concerning those miraculous Operations amounted to near fifty when I writ this But at Calama where this Shrine was before there are more published and their number is incomparably greater At Uzal also a Colony and near Utica we know many famous Things to have been done by the same Martyr Two of those Books he mentions are printed in the Appendix of the Xâ—… Tome of St. Austin's Works of Plantius Edit One of them contains two Miracles the other as I remember about seventeen So that at Hippo alone in two Years time we may count besides those omitted there were published above 600 Miracles and as he says incomparably more at Calama besides what were done by other Reliques of the same St. Stephen in other parts of the World which cannot be suppos'd to have had less virtue than those sent to this part of Africa For the Reliques of St. Stephen discovered by the Dream of a Monk were divided and sent into distant Countries and there distributed to several Churches These may suffice to shew that if the Fathers of the Church of great it Name and Authority are to be believed Miracles were not withdrawn but continued down to the latter end of the 4 th Century long after Christianity had prevailed to be received for the Religion of the Empire But if these Testimonies of Athanasâ—… Chrysostom Palladius Russin St. Hierom and St. Austin will not serve your turn you may find much more to this purpose in the same Authors and if you please you may consult also St. Basil Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nazianzen St. Ambrose St. Hilary Theodoret and others This being so you must either deny the Authority of these Fathers or grant that Miracles continued in the Church after Christianity was received for the Religion of the Empire and then they could not be to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance unless they were to supply the want of what was not wanting and therefore they were continued for some other end Which end of the Continuation of Miracles when you are so far instructed in as to be able to assure us that it was different from that for which God made use of them in the 2d and 3d Centuries when you are so far admitted into the Secrets of Divine Providence as to be able to convince the World that the Miracles between the Apostles and Constantine's Time or any other Period you shall pitch on were to supply the want of the Magistrate's Assistance and those after for some other purpose what you say may deserve to be consider'd Till you do this you will only shew the Liberty you take to assert with great Confidence though without any ground whatever will sute your System and that you do not stick to make bold with the Counsels of infinite Wisdom to make them subservient to your Hypothesis And so I leave you to dispose of the Credit of Ecclesiastical Writers as you shall think fit and by your Authority to establish or invalidate theirs as you please But this I think is evident that he who will build his Faith or Reasonings upon Miracles delivered by Church-Historians wiâ—… find cause to go no farther than the Apostles time or else not to stop at Constantine's since the Writers after that period whose Word we readily take as unquestionable in other
People be wrought on without it If a Papist at Rome a Lutheran at Stockholm or a Calvinist at Geneva should argue thus for his Church would you not say that such as these look'd like the Thoughts of a poor prejudiced narrow Mind But they may mistake and you cannot they may be prejudiced but you cannot Say too if you please you are confident you are in the Right but they cannot be confident that they are so This I am sure God's Thoughts are not as Man's Thoughts nor his Ways as Man's Ways Isai. LV. 8. And it may abate any one's Confidence of the necessity or use of Punishments for not receiving our Saviour or his Religion when those who had the power of Miracles were told that they knew not what manner of Spirit they were of when they would have commanded down Fire from Heaven But you do well to take care to have the Church you are of supported by Force and Penalties whatever becomes of the Propagation of the Gospel or the Salâ—…ation of Mens Souls in other parts of the World as not coming within your Hypothesis In your next Paragraph to prove that God does bless the use of Force you say you suppose I mean by the Words you there cite that the Magistrate has no ground to hope that God will bless any Penalties that he may use to bring Men to hear and consider the Doctrine of Salvation or which is the same thing that God does not at least not ordinarily afford his Grace and Assistance to them who are brought by such Penalties to hear and consider that Doctrine to enable them to hear and consider it as they ought i. e. so as to be moved heartily to imbrace it You tell me If this be my Meaning then to let me see that it is not true you shall only desire me to tell you whether they that are so brought to hear and consider are bound to believe the Gospel or not If I say they are and you suppose I dare not say otherwise then it evidently follows that God does afford them that Grace which is requisite to enable them to believe the Gospel Because without that Grace it is impossible for them to believe it and they cannot be bound to believe what it is impossible for them to believe To which I shall only answer That by this irrefragable Argument it is evident that where-ever due Penalties have been used for those you tell us are sufficient and competent Means to make Men hear and consider as they ought there all Men were brought to believe the Gospel which whether you will resolve with your self to be true or false will be to me indifferent and on either hand equally advantage your Cause Had you appeal'd to Eperience for the Success of the use of Force by the Magistrate your Argument had not shewn half so much depth of Theological Learning But the Mischief is that if you will not make it all of a piece Scholastick and by arguing that all whom the Magistrates use Force upon are brought to consider as they ought and to all that are so wrought upon God does afford that Grace which is 〈◊〉 and so roundly conclude for a greater Success of Force to make Men believe the Gospel than ever our Saviour and the Apostles had by their Preaching and Miracles for that wrought not on all your unanswerable Argument comes to nothing And in truth as you have in this Paragraph ordered the matter by being too sparing of your abstract Metaphysical Reasoning and imploying it but by halves we are fain after all to come to the dull way of Experience and must be forced to count as the Parson does his Communicantes by his Easter-Book how many those are that are so broughs to hear and consider to know how far God blesses Penalties Indeed were it to be measur'd by conforming the Easter-Book would be a good Register to determin it But since you put it upon Believing that will be of some-what a harder Disquisition To my saying upon that place out of Isaiah VI. 10. Make the Heart of this People fat lest they understand and convert and be healed Will all the Force you can use be a means to make such People hear and understand and be converted You reply No sir it will not But what then What if God declares that he will not heal those who have long resisted all his ordinary Methods and made themselves morally speaking incurable by them Which is the utmost you say I can make of the Words I quote Will it follow from thence that no good can be done by Penalties upon others who are not so far gone in Wickedness and Obstinacy If it will not as it is evident it will not to what purpose is this said It is said to this purpose viz. to shew that Force ought not to be used at all Those ordinary Methods which resisted are punished with a Reprobate Sense are the ordinary Methods of Instruction without Force as is evident by this place and many others particularly Rom. I. From whence I argue That what State soever you will suppose Men in either as past or not yet come to the Day of Grace no Body can be justified in using Force to work upon them For till the ordinary Methods of Instruction and Persuasion can do no more Force is not necessary for you cannot say what other Means is there left and so by your own Rule not lawful For till God hath pronounced this Sentence here on any one Make his Heart fat c. the ordinary Means of Instruction and Perswasion may by the assistance of God's Grace prevail And when this Sentence is once passed upon them and God will not afford them his Grace to 〈◊〉 them I take it you confess in this place I am sure you must confess your Force to be wholly useless and so utterly 〈◊〉 Unless that can be pertinent to be used which you own can do nothing So that whether it will follow or no from Mens being given up to a Reprobate Mind for having resisted the preaching of Salvation That no good can be done by Penalties upon others this will follow that not knowing whether Preaching may not by the Grace of God yet work upon them or whether the Day of Grace be past with them neither you nor any Body else can say that Force is necessary and if it be not necessary you your self tell us it is not to be used In your next Paragraph you complain of me as representing your Argument as you say I commonly do as if you allow'd any Magistrate of what Religion soever to lay Penalties upon all that dissent from him Unhappy Magistrates that have not your allowance But to console them I imagine they will 〈◊〉 that they are all under the same Obligation one as another to propagate the Religion they believe to be the true whether you allow it them or no. For to go no farther than the first
and I think you will forwardly enough agree that till Christianity was made the Religion of the Empira there were those every where that heard the Preachers of it so little or so little consider'd what they said that they rejected the Gospel and that therefore Miracles or Force are necessary Means to make Men hear and consider You must own that those who preach'd without the Power of Miracles or the Coactive Power of the Magistrate accompanying them were unfurnish'd of competent and sufficient Means to make Men hear and consider and so to bring them to the True Religion If you will say the Miracles done by others were enough to accompany their Preaching to make it be heard and consider'd the Preaching of the Ministers at this day is so accompanied and so will need no assistance of Force from the Magistrate If the report of Miracles done by one Minister of the Gospel some time before and in another place were sufficient to make the Preaching of ten or a thousand others be heard and consider'd why is it not so now For the Credibility and Attestation of the Report is all that is of moment when Miracles done by others in other places are the Argument that prevails But this I fear will not serve your turn in the business of Penalties and whatever might satisfy you in the case of Miracles I doubt you would not think the Salvation of Souls sufficiently provided for if the Report of the Force of Penalties used some time since on one side of the Tweed were all that should assist the Preachers of the True Religion on the other to make Men hear and consider St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus instructs him what he and the Presbyters he should ordain in the Cities of Crete were to do for the propagating of the Gospel and bringing Men heartily to imbrace it His Directions are that they should be blameless not Rioters not self-willed not soon angry not given to Wine nor filthy Lucre not Strikers not unruly Lovers of Hospitality and of good Men sober just holy temperate To be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince Gain-sayers In all things to be a Pattern of good Works In Doctrine shewing Uncorruptedness Gravity Sincerity sound Speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil to say of you These things speak and exhort and râ—…buke with all Authority Avoid foolish Questions and Genealogies and Contentions A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject To repay you the favour of your Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which if I may take your liberty of receding from ONr Translation I would read avoid The Cretans by the Account St. Paul gives of them were a People that would require all the Means that were needful to prevail with any Strangers to the Gospel to hear and consider But yet we find nothing directed for the Support and Propagation of the Gospel in this Island but Preaching Exhortation Reproof c. with the Example of a good Life In all this Epistle writ on purpose to instruct the Preachers of the Gospel in the Means they were to use among the Cretans for their Conversion not a word about Miracles their Power or Use Which one would think strange if They were the Means appointed and necessary to make Men hear and consider and without which they would not do it Preaching Admonition Exhortation Intreaties Instruction by the common Light of Reason were known and natural to be used to perswade Men. There needed not be much said to convince Men of it But if Miracles were a necessary Means it was a Means wholly new unexpected and out of the Power of other Teachers And therefore one would think if they were appointed for the Ends you propose one should hear something of that Appointment Since that they were to be used or how and when was farther from common Apprehension and seems to need some particular Direction If you say the same Spirit that gave them the Power of Mivacles would also give them the knowledg both that they had it and how to use it I am far enough from limiting the Operations of that infinitely wise Spirit who will not fail to bring all the Elect of God into the Obedience of Truth by those Means and in that manner he shall think necessary But yet our Saviour when he sent abroad his Disciples with the Power of Miracles not only put it in their Commission whereby they were informed that they had that extraordinary Gift but added Instructions to them in the use of it Freely you have received freely give A Caution as necessary to the Cretan Elders in the use of Miracles if they had that Power There being nothing more liable to be turn'd to the advantage of Filthy Lucre. I do not question but the Spirit of God might give the Power and stir up the Mind of the first Spreaders of the Gospel to do Miracles on some extraordinary occasion But if they were a necessary means to make Men hear and consider what was preached to them till Force supplied their place and so were ordinarily to accompany the preaching of the Gospel unless it should be preach'd without the means appointed and necessary to make it prevail I think in that case we may expect it should expresly have made a part of the Preachers Commission it making a necessary part of the effectual Execution of his Function But the Apoâ—…le it seems thought fit to lay the stress upon instructing others and living well themselves upon being instant in season and out of season And therefore directs all his Advices for the ordering the Cretan Church and the propagating the Gospel there to make them attend to those necessary things of Life and Doctrine without so much as mentioning the appointment need or use of Miracles I said But whatever Neglect or Aversion there is in some Men impartially and throughly to be instructed there will upon a due Examination I fear be sound no less a Neglect and Aversion in others impartially and throughly to instruct them 'T is not the talking even general Truths in plain and â—…ear Language much less a Man 's own Fancies in Scholastical or uncommon ways of speaking an hour or two once a week in publick that is enough to instruct even willing Hearers in the way of Salvation and the Grounds of their Religion And that Politick Discourses and Inveâ—…tives from the Pulpit instead of Friendly and Christian Debates with People at their Houses were not the proper means to inform Men in the Foundations of Religion and that if there were not a neglect in this part I thought there would be little need of any other Means To this you tell me in the next Paragraph You do not see how pertinent my Discourse about this matter is to the present question If the shewing the Neglects observable in the use of what is agreed