being once fully perfuaded of his doctrine, and the advantages which all chriftians agree are received by him," fuch converts will not lay by the fcriptures, but by a conftant reading and ftudy of them get all the light they can from this divine revelation, and nourish themselves up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine, as St. Paul fpeaks to Timothy. But fome men will not bear it, that any one fhould speak of religion, but according to the model that they themselves have made of it. Nay, though he propofes it upon the very terms, and in the very words which our Saviour and his apoftles preached it in, yet he fhall not efcape cenfures and the fevereft infinuations. To deviate in the leaft, or to omit any thing contained in their articles, is herefy, under the most invidious names in fashion, and 'tis well if he efcapes being a downright atheift. Whether this be the way for teachers to make themfelves hearkened to, as men in earneft in religion, and really concerned for the falvation of men's fouls, I leave them to confider. What fuccefs it has had, towards perfuading men of the truth of christianity, their own complaints of the prevalency of atheism, on the one hand, and the number of deifts on the other, fufficiently show.

Another thing laid to my charge, p. 105 and 107, is my forgetting, or rather wilful omitting, fome plain " and obvious paffages," and fome "famous teftimo"nies in the evangelifts; namely Matth. xxviii. 19, "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of "the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And John i. 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and "the word was with God, and the word was God." And verfe 14, "And the word was made flesh." Mine, it feems, in this book, are all fins of omiffion. And yet, when it came out, the buz, the flutter, and noife which was made, and the reports which were raifed, would have perfuaded the world, that it fubverted all morality, and was defigned against the chriftian religion. I must confefs, difcourfes of this kind, which I met with, fpread up and down, at first amazed me; knowing the fincerity of thofe thoughts, which perfuaded me to publifh it (not without fome hope of doing fome fervice

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fervice to decaying piety, and mistaken and flandered christianity. I fatisfied myself against thofe heats, with this affurance, that, if there was any thing in my book against what any one called religion, it was not against the religion contained in the gofpel. And for that, I appeal to all mankind.

But to return to Mr. Edwards, in particular, I muft take leave to tell him, that if" omitting plain and ob"vious paffages, the famous teftimonies in the evangelifts," be a fault in me, I wonder why he, among fo many of this kind that I am guilty of, mentions fo few. For I must acknowledge I have omitted more, nay, many more, that are "plain and obvious paffages, and "famous teftimonies in the evangelifts," than those he takes notice of. But if I have left out none of those "paffages or teftimonies," which contain what our Saviour and his apoftles preached, and required affent to, to make men believers, I fhall think my omiffions (let them be what they will) no faults in the prefent case. Whatever doctrines Mr. Edwards would have to be believed, if they are fuch as our Saviour and his apostles required to be believed, to make a man a christian, he will be fure to find them in those preachings and “ famous teftimonies," of our Saviour and his apostles, that I have quoted. And if they are not there, he may rest satisfied, that they were not propofed by our Saviour and his apostles, as neceffary to be believed, to make men Chrift's difciples,

If the omiffion of other texts in the evangelifts (which are all true alfo, and no one of them to be difbelieved) be a fault, it might have been expected that Mr. Edwards fhould have accused me for leaving out Matth. i. 18-23, and Matth, xxvii. 34, 35, 50, 60, for these are

plain and obvious paffages and famous teftimonies in the evangelifts;" and fuch, whereon these articles of the apoftles creed, viz, "born of the virgin Mary, fuf"fered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and "buried," are founded. Thefe, being articles of the apostles creed, are looked upon as "fundamental doc"trines" and one would wonder, why Mr. Edwards fo quietly paffes by their omiffion; did it not appear,

that

that he was fo intent on fixing his imputation of focínianifm upon me, that, rather than mifs that, he was content to drop the other articles of his creed. For 1 muft observe to him, that if he had blamed me for the omiffion of the places laft quoted out of St. Matthew (as he had as much reafon as for any other) it would plainly have appeared, how idle and ill-grounded his charging focinianifm on me was. But, at any rate, he was to give the book an ill name; not because it was focinian; for he has no more reafon to charge it with focinianifm for the omiffions he mentions, than the apostles creed. It is therefore well for the compilers of that creed, that they lived not in Mr. Edwards's days: for he would, no doubt, have found them "all over "focinianized," for omitting the texts he quotes, and the doctrines he collects out of John i, and John xiv, p. 107, 108. Socinianifm then is not the fault of the book, whatever else it be. For I repeat it again, there is not one word of focinianifm in it. I, that am not fo good at conjectures as Mr. Edwards, fhall leave it to him to fay, or to those who can bear the plainness and fimplicity of the gofpel, to guefs, what its fault is.

Some men are threwd gueffers, and others would be thought to be fo: but he must be carried far by his forward inclination, who does not take notice, that the world is apt to think him a diviner, for any thing rather than for the fake of truth, who fets up his own fufpicions against the direct evidence of things; and pretends to know other men's thoughts and reasons, better than they themselves. I had said, that the epiftles, being writ to those who were already believers, could not be fuppofed to be writ to them to teach them fundamentals, without which they could not be believers.

And the reafon I gave, why I had not gone through the writings in the epiftles, to collect the fundamental articles of faith, as I had through the preachings of our Saviour and the apoftles, was, because those fundamental articles were in thofe epiftles promiscuously, and without distinction, mixed with other truths. And, therefore, we shall find and difcern those great and ne

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ceffary

ceffary points beft in the preachings of our Saviour and the apoftles, to those who were yet ignorant of the faith, and unconverted. This, as far as I know my own thoughts, was the reafon why I did (as Mr. Edwards complains, p. 109.) "not proceed to the epiftles, and "not give an account of them, as I had done of the "gofpels and acts." This, I imagined, I had in the clofe of my book fo fully and clearly expreffed, particularly p. 152. of this Vol. that I fuppofed no-body, how willing foever, could have mistaken me. But this gentleman is fo much better acquainted with me, than I am with myself; fees fo deeply into my heart, and knows fo perfectly every thing that paffes there; that he, with affurance, tells the, world, p. 109, "That I

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purposely omitted the epiftolary writings of the "ftles, becaufe they are fraught with other funda"mental doctrines, befides that one which I mention." And then he goes to enumerate those fundamental articles, p. 110, 111, viz. "The corruption and degeneracy "of human nature, with the true original of it (the "defection of our first parents) the propagation of fin

and mortality, (our reftoration and reconciliation by "Chrift's blood, the eminency and excellency of his

priefthood, the efficacy of his death, the full fatisfac"tion made, thereby, to divine juftice, and his being "made an all-fufficient facrifice for fin. Chrift's

righteousness, our juftification by it, election, adop"tion, fanctification, faving faith, the nature of the "gofpel, the new covenant, the riches of God's mercy "in the way of falvation by Jefus Chrift, the certainty "of the refurrection of human bodies, and of the future "glory."

Give me leave now to afk you feriously, whether thefe, which you have here fet down under the title of "fun"damental doctrines," are fuch (when reduced to pro- · pofitions) that every one of them is required to be be lieved to make a man a chriftian, and fuch as, without the actual belief thereof, he cannot be faved. If they are not fo, every one of them, you may call them "fun"damental doctrines," as much as you please, they are not of thofe doctrines of faith I was fpeaking of, which

are

are only fuch as are required to be actually believed to make a man a chriftian. If you fay, fome of them are fuch neceffary points of faith, and others not, you, by this fpecious lift of well-founding, but unexplained terms, arbitrarily collected, only make good what I have faid, viz. that the neceffary articles of faith, are, in the epistles, promifcuoufly delivered with other truths, and, therefore, they cannot be diftinguished but by fome other mark, than being barely found in the epiftles. If you fay, that they are all of them neceffary articles of faith, I fhall then defire you to reduce them to so many plain doctrines, and then prove them to be every one of them required to be believed by every chriftian man, to make him a member of the chriftian church. For, to begin with the firft, it is not enough to tell us, as you do, that "the corruption and degeneracy of human na"ture, with the true original of it, (the defection of "our first parents) the propagation of fin and morta"lity, is one of the great heads of chriftian divinity." But you are to tell us, what are the propofitions we are required to believe concerning this matter: for nothing can be an article of faith, but fome propofition; and then it will remain to be proved, that these articles are neceffary to be believed to falvation. The apostles creed was taken, in the first ages of the church, to contain all things neceffary to falvation; I mean, neceffary to be believed but you have now better thought on it, and are pleased to enlarge it, and we, no doubt, are bound to fubmit to your orthodoxy.

The lift of materials for his creed (for the articles are not yet formed) Mr. Edwards clofes, p. III, with these words, "These are the matters of faith contained in the "epiftles, and they are effential and integral parts of "the gospel itself." What, juft these? Neither more nor lefs? If you are fure of it, pray let us have them speedily, for the reconciling of differences in the chriftian church, which has been fo cruelly torn, about the articles of the christian faith, to the great reproach of christian charity, and fcandal of our true religion. bragg

Mr. Edwards, having thus, with two learned terms of "effential and integral parts," fufficiently proved the

matter