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he, it is probable, was as forward to be made use of "by them, and prefently accepted of the office that was affigned him" and more there to the fame purpose. All which I know to be utterly falfe.

It is a pity that one who relies fo intirely upon it, fhould have no better an invention. The focinians fet the author of the "Reafonablenefs of christianity," &c. on work to write that book; by which discovery the world being (as Mr. Edwards fays) let into the project, that book is confounded, baffled, blown off, and by this fkilful artifice there is an end of it. Mr. Bold preaches and publishes a fermon without this irrefragable gentleman's good leave and liking. What now must be done to difcredit it, and keep it from being read? Why, Mr. Bold too was fet on work, by

the

manager of the Reasonablenefs of Chriftianity," &c. In your whole ftorehouse of stratagems, you that are fo great a conqueror, have you but this one way to destroy a book, which you fet your mightiness againft, but to tell the world it was a job of journey-work for fomebody you do not like? Some other would have done better in this new cafe, had your happy invention been ready with it for you are not fo bashful or referved, but that you may be allowed to be as great a wit as he who profeffed himfelf " ready at any time to say a good

or a new thing, if he could but think of it." But in good earneft, fir, if one fhould ask you, Do you think n books contain truth in them, which were undertaken by the procuration of a bookfeller? I defire you to be a little tender in the point, not knowing how far it may. reach. Ay, but fuch bookfellers live not at the lower end of Pater-nofter-row, but in Paul's church-yard, and are the managers of other-guife books, than the "Reasonablenefs of Chriftianity." And therefore you very rightly fubjoin, Indeed it was a great mafter

piece of procuration, and we can't but think that "man muft fpeak truth, and defend it very impartially " and fubftantially, who is thus brought on to under"take the caufe." And fo Mr. Bold's fermon is found to have neither truth nor fenfe in it, because it was printed by a bookfeller at the lower end of Pater-nofter

row;

ter.

row; for that, I dare fay, is all you know of the matBut that is hint enough for a happy diviner, to be fure of the reft, and with confidence to report that 'for certain matter of fact, which had never any being but in the fore-cafting fide of his politic brain.

But whatever were the reasons that moved Mr. B to preach that fermon, of which I know nothing; this I am fure, it shows only the weakness and malice (I will not say, and ill breeding, for that concerns not one of Mr. Edwards's pitch) of any one who excepts against it, to take notice of any thing more than what the author has published. Therein alone confifts the errour, if there be any; and that alone those meddle with, who write for the fake of truth. But poor cavillers have other purposes, and therefore must use other fhifts, and make a buftle about fomething befides the argument, to prejudice and beguile unwary readers.

The only exception the creed-maker makes to Mr. Bold's fermon, is the contradiction he imputes to him, in faying: "That there is but one point or article.

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neceffary to be believed for the making a man a chri"ftian: and that there are many points befides this, "which Jefus Chrift hath taught and revealed, which

every fincere chriftian is indifpenfably obliged to en"deavour to understand:" and "that there are parti"cular points and articles, which being known to be "revealed by Christ, chriftians must indispensably af"fent to." And where, now, is there any thing like a contradiction in this? Let it be granted, for example, that the creed-maker's fet of articles, (let their number be what they will, when he has found them all out) are neceffary to be believed, for the making a man a christian, Is there any contradiction in it to fay, there are many points befides thefe, which Jefus Chrift hath taught and revealed, which every fincere chriftian is indifpenfably obliged to endeavour to underftand? If this be not fo, it is but for any one to be perfect in Mr. Edwards's creed, and then he may lay by the bible, and from thenceforth he is abfolutely difpenfed with from ftudying or understanding any thing more of the fcrip

ture.

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But

But Mr. Edwards's fupremacy is not yet fo far efta-. blished, that he will dare to fay, that christians are not obliged to endeavour to understand any other points revealed in the fcripture, but what are contained in his creed. He cannot yet well difcard all the rest of the fcripture, because he has yet need of it for the completing of his creed, which is like to secure the bible to us for fome time yet. For I will be anfwerable for it, he will not be quickly able to, refolve what texts of the fcripture do, and what do not, contain points neceffary to be believed. So that I am apt to imagine, that the creed-maker, upon fecond thoughts, will allow that faying, that there is but one, or there are but twelve, or there are but as many as he fhall fet down, (when he has refolved which they fhall be) neceffary to the making a man a chriftian; and the faying, there are other points befides, contained in the fcripture, which every fincere chriftian is indispensably obliged to endeavour to understand, and must believe, when he knows them to be revealed by Jefus Chrift, are two propofitions that may confift together without a contradiction.

Every christian is to partake of that bread, and that cup, which is the communion of the body and blood of Chrift. And is not every fincere chriftian indifpenfably obliged to endeavour to understand thefe words of our Saviour's inftitution, "This is my body, and this is my blood?" And if, upon his ferious endeavour to do it, he understands them in a literal sense, that Chrift meant, that that was really his body and blood, and nothing elfe; muft he not neceffarily believe that the bread and wine, in the Lord's fupper, is changed really into his body and blood, though he doth not know how? Or, if having his mind fet otherwife, he understands the bread and wine to be really the body and blood of Chrift, without ceafing to be the true bread and wine: or else, if he understands them, that the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed given and received, in the facrament, in a fpiritual manner or, laftly, if he underftands our Saviour to mean, by those words, the bread and wine to be only a reprefentation

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reprefentation of his body and blood; in which way. foever of thefe four, a christian understands these words of our Saviour to be meant by him, is he not obliged in that fenfe to believe them to be true, and affent to them? Or can he be a christian, and understand these words to be meant by our Saviour, in one fenfe, and deny his affent to them as true, in that fenfe? Would not this be to deny our Saviour's veracity, and confequently his being the Meffiah, fent from God? And yet this is put upon a chriftian, where he understands the fcripture in one fenfe, and is required to believe it in another. From all which it is evident, that to fay there is one, or any number of articles neceffary to be known and believed to make a man a chriftian, and that there are others contained in the fcripture, which a man is obliged to endeavour to understand, and obliged alfo to affent to, as he does understand them, is no contradiction.

To believe Jefus to be the Meffiah, and to take him. to be his Lord and King, let us fuppofe to be that only which is neceffary to make a man a chriftian: may it not yet be necessary for him, being a chriftian, to study the doctrine and law of this his Lord and King, and believe that all that he delivered is true? Is there any contradiction in holding of this? But this creed-maker, to make fure work, and not to fail of a contradiction in Mr. Bold's words, mif-repeats them, p. 241, and quite contrary, both to what they are in the fermon, and what they are, as fet down by the creed-maker himself, in the immediately preceding page. Mr. Bold fays, There

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are other points that Jefus Chrift hath taught and "revealed, which every fincere chriftian is indifpenfably obliged to understand; and which being known to be revealed by Christ, he muft indifpenfably affent From which the creed-maker argues thus, p. 240, Now if there be other points, and particular "articles, and those many, which a fincere christian is obliged, and that neceffarily and indifpenfably, to un"derstand, believe and affent to; then this writer hath, "in effect, yielded to that propofition I maintained, "viz. that the belief of one article is not sufficient to "make

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"make a man a chriftian; and confequently he runs counter to the propofition he had laid down."

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Is there no difference, I befeech you, between being indifpenfably obliged to endeavour to understand, and being indifpenfably obliged to understand any point?" It is the first of these Mr. Bold fays, and it is the latter of thefe you argue from, and fo conclude nothing against him: nor can you to your purpofe. For until Mr. Bold fays (which he is far from faying) that every fincere chriftian is neceffarily and indifpenfably obliged to understand all thofe texts of fcripture, from whence you fhould have drawn your neceffary articles, (when you have perfected your creed) in the fame fenfe that you do; you can conclude nothing against what he had faid, concerning that one article, or any thing that looks like running counter to it. For it may be enough to conftitute a man a chriftian, and one of Chrift's fubjects, to take Jefus to be the Meffiah, his appointed King, and yet, without a contradiction, so that it may be his indifpenfable duty, as a fubject of that kingdom, to endeavour to understand all the dictates of his fovereign, and to affent to the truth of them, as far as he underftands them.

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But that which the good creed-maker aims at, without which all his neceffary articles fall, is, that it should be granted him, that every fincere chriftian was neceffarily and indifpenfably obliged to understand all those parts of divine revelation, from whence he pretends to draw his articles, in their true meaning, i. e. just as he does. But his infallibility is not yet fo eftablished, but that there will need fome proof of that propofition. And when he has proved, that every fincere chriftian is neceffarily and indifpenfably obliged to understand thofe texts in their true meaning; and that his interpretation of them is that true meaning; I fhall then ask him, Whether " every fincere chriftian is not as ne"ceffarily and indifpenfably obliged" to understand other texts of fcripture in their true meaning, though they have no placé in his fyftem?

For example, To make ufe of the inftance abovementioned, is not every fincere chriftian neceffarily

and

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