"is God, because he does not interpret some particu "lar texts to the same purpose others do."

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BUT TO THIS Mr. Edwards ANSWERS NOT.

Indeed he takes notice of these words of Mr. Bold, in this paragraph, viz. "Hence Mr. Edwards takes oc"casion to write many pages about these terms [viz. "Messiah and Son of God]; but I do not perceive that "he pretends to offer any proof, that these were not synonymous terms amongst the jews at that time, "which is the point he should have proved, if he designed to invalidate what this author says about that "matter." To this the creed maker replies, p. 257, The animadverter doth not so much as offer one syllable to disprove what I delivered, and closely urged on that head." Answ. What need any answer to disprove where there is no proof brought that reaches the proposition in question? If there had been any such proof, the producing of it, in short, had been a more convincing argument to the reader, than so much bragging of what has been done. For here are more words spent, (for I have not set them all down,) than would have served to have expressed the proof of this proposition, viz. that the terms above mentioned were not synonymous among the jews, if there had been any proof of it. But having already examined what the creed-maker brags he has closely urged, I shall say no more of it here.

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To the creed-maker's making me a socinian, in his eighth chapter, for not naming Christ's satisfaction among the advantages and benefits of Christ's coming into the world; Mr. Bold replies, "1. That it is no proof, because I promised not to name every one of "them. And the mention of some is no denial of "others." 2. He replies, That, "satisfaction is not "so strictly to be termed an advantage, as the effects "and fruits of it are; and that the doctrine of satisfac"tion instructs us the way how Christ did, by divine appointment, obtain those advantages for us."

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And

this was an answer that deserved some reply from the creed-maker.

BUT TO THIS HE ANSWERS NOT.
2 E

VOL. VI.

Mr. Bold says right, that this is a doctrine that is of mighty importance for a christian to be well acquainted with. And I will add to it, that it is very hard for a christian, who reads the scripture with attention, and an unprejudiced mind, to deny the satisfaction of Christ: but it being a term not used by the Holy Ghost in the scripture, and very variously explained by those that do use it, and very much stumbled at by those I was there speaking to, who were such, as I there say, "Who will "not take a blessing, unless they be instructed what "need they had of it, and why it was bestowed upon "them;" I left it with the other disputed doctrines of christianity, to be looked into (to see what it was Christ had taught concerning it) by those who were christians, and believed Jesus to be the Saviour promised, and sent from God. And to those who yet doubted that he was so, and made this objection, "What need was "there of a Saviour?" I thought it most reasonable to offer such particulars only as were agreed on by all christians, and were capable of no dispute, but must be acknowledged by every body to be needful. This, though the words above quoted out of the Reasonableness of christianity, &c. p. 129, show to be my design; yet the creed-maker plainly gives me the lye, and tells me it was not my design. "All the world are faithless, false, treacherous, hypocritical strainers upon their reason and conscience, dissemblers, journeymen, mercenary hirelings, except Mr. Edwards: I mean all the world that opposes him. And must not one think he is mightily beholden to the excellency and readiness of his own nature, who is no sooner engaged in controversy, but he immediately finds out in his adversaries these arts of equivocation, lying, and effrontery, in managing of it? Reason and learning, and acquired improvements, might else have let him gone on with others, in the dull and ordinary way of fair arguing; wherein, possibly, he might have done no great feats. Must not a rich and fertile soil within, and a prompt genius, wherein a man may readily spy the propensities of base and corrupt nature, be acknowledged to be an excellent qualification for a disputant,

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to help him to the quick discovery and laying open of the faults of his opponents; which a mind otherwise disposed would not so much as suspect? But Mr. Bold, without this, could not have been so soon found out to be a journeyman, a dissembler, an hired mercenary, and stored with all those good qualities, wherein he hath his full share with me. But why would he then venture upon Mr. Edwards, who is so very quick-sighted in these matters, and knows so well what villainous man is capable of?

I should not here, in this my Vindication, have given the reader so much of Mr. Bold's reasoning, which, though clear and strong, yet has more beauty and force, as it stands in the whole piece in his book; nor should Į have so often repeated this remark upon each passage, viz. "To this Mr. Edwards answers not;" had it not been the shortest and properest comment could be made on that triumphant paragraph of his, which begins in the 128th page of his Socinian creed; wherein, among a great deal of no small strutting, are these words: "By "their profound silence they acknowledge they have

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nothing to reply." He that desires to see more of the same noble strain, may have recourse to that eminent place. Besides, it was fit the reader should have this one taste more of the creed-maker's genius, who passing by in silence all these clear and apposite replies of Mr. Bold, loudly complains of him, p. 259, "That "where he [Mr. Bold] finds something that he dares "not object against, he shifts it off." And again, p. 260,"That he does not make any offer at reason;

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there is not the least shadow of an argument-As if "he were only hired to say something against me, [the creed-maker,] though not at all to the purpose: and truly, any man may discern a MERCENARY stroke all along;" with a great deal more to the same purpose. For such language as this, mixed with scurrility, neither fit to be spoken by, nor of, a minister of the gospel, make up the remainder of his postscript. But to prevent this for the future; I demand of him, that if in either of his treatises, there be any thing against what I have said, in my Reasonableness of christianity, which

he thinks not fully answered, he will set down the proposition in direct words, and note the page of his book where it is to be found: and I promise him to answer it. For as for his railing, and other stuff besides the matter, I shall hereafter no more trouble myself to take notice of it. And so much for Mr. Edwards.

THERE is another gentleman, and of another sort of make, parts, and breeding, who, (as it seems, ashamed of Mr. Edwards's way of handling controversies in religion) has had something to say of my "Rea"sonableness of christianity," &c. and so has made it necessary for me to say a word to him, before I let those papers go out of my hand. It is the author of "The "Occasional Paper," numb. 1. The second, third, and fourth pages of that paper, gave me great hopes to meet with a man, who would examine all the mistakes which came abroad in print, with that temper and indifferency, that might set an exact pattern for controversy, to those who would approve themselves to be sincere contenders for truth and knowledge, and nothing else, in the disputes they engaged in. Making him allowance for the mistakes that self-indulgence is apt to impose upon human frailty, I am apt to believe he thought his performance had been such: but I crave leave to observe, that good and candid men are often misled, from a fair unbiassed pursuit of truth, by an over-great zeal for something, that they, upon wrong grounds, take to be so; and that it is not so easy to be a fair and unprejudiced champion for truth, as some, who profess it, think it to be. To acquaint him with the occasion of this remark, I must desire him to read and consider his nineteenth page; and then to tell me,

1. Whether he knows, that the doctrine proposed in the "Reasonableness of christianity, &c." was borrowed, as he says, from Hobbes's Leviathan? For I tell him, I borrowed it only from the writers of the four Gospels and the Acts; and did not know those words, he quoted out of the Leviathan, were there, or any thing like them. Nor do I know yet, any farther than as I believe them to be there, from his quotation.

2. Whether affirming, as he does positively, this, which he could not know to be true, and is in itself perfectly false, were meant to increase or lessen the credit of the author of the "Reasonableness of christianity," &c. in the opinion of the world? Or is consonant with his own rule, p. 3, " of putting candid constructions on "what adversaries say?" Or with what follows, in these words?"The more divine the cause is, still the greater "should be the caution. The very discoursing about

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Almighty God, or our holy religion, should compose our passions, and inspire us with candour and love. "It is very indecent to handle such subjects, in a manner that betrays rancour and spite. These are fiends "that ought to vanish, and should never mix, either "with a search after truth, or the defence of religion."

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3. Whether the propositions which he has, out of my book, inserted into his nineteenth page, and says,

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66 are consonant to the words of the Leviathan," were those of all my books, which were likeliest to give the reader a true and fair notion of the doctrine contained in it? If they were not, I must desire him to remember and beware of his fiends. Not but that he will find those propositions there to be true. But that neither he nor others may mistake my book, this is that, in short which it says:

1. That there is a faith that makes men christians. 2. That this faith is the believing "Jesus of Naza"reth to be the Messiah."

3. That the believing Jesus to be the Messiah, includes in it a receiving him for our Lord and King, promised and sent from God: and so lays upon all his subjects an absolute and indispensable necessity of assenting to all that they can attain the knowledge that he taught; and of a sincere obedience to all that he commanded.

This, whether it be the doctrine of the Leviathan, I know not. This appears to me out of the New Testament, from whence (as I told him in the preface) I took it, to be the doctrine of our Saviour and his apostles; and I would not willingly be mistaken in it. If therefore there be any other faith besides this, absolutely re