proved repetition, though ushered in with "it is clear "then;" words that should have a proof going before them.

Unm. "But yet you pretend, that you have forgot "that any such thing was said by you.'

Answ. I have indeed forgot, and notwithstanding all your pains, by so many repetitions, to beat it into my head, I fear I shall never remember it.

Unm. "Which shows that you are careless of your "words, and that you forget what you write."

Answ. So you told me before, and this repeating of it does no more convince me than that did.

Unm. "What shall we say to such an oblivious au"thor?"

Answ. Show it him in his book, or else he will never be able to remember that it is there, nor any body else be able to find it.

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Unm." He takes no notice of what falls from his own pen.

Answ. So you have told him more than once. Try him once with showing it him, amongst other things which fell from his own pen, and see what then he will say that perhaps may refresh his memory.

Unm. And therefore, within a page or two, he "confutes himself, and gives himself the lye."

Answ. It is a fault he deserves to be told of, over and over again, But he says, he shall not be able to find the two pages wherein he "gives himself the lye," unless you set down their numbers, and the words in them, which confute, and which are confuted.

I beg my reader's pardon, for laying before him so large a pattern of our unmasker's new-fashioned stuff; his fine tissue of argumentation not easily to be matched, but by the same hand. But it lay all together in p. 26, 27, 28; and it was fit the reader should have this one instance of the excellencies he promises in his first paragraph, in opposition to my "impertinencies, "incoherences, weak and feeble strugglings." Other excellencies he there promised, upon the same ground, which I shall give my reader a taste of in fit places : not but that the whole is of a piece, and one cannot miss

some of them in every page; but to transcribe them all, would be more than they are worth. If any one desires more plenty, I send him to his book itself. But saying a thousand times, not being proved once, it remains upon him still to show,

VII. Where, in my "Reasonableness of christianity," "I pretend that I contend for one single article, "with the exclusion of all the rest, because all "men ought to understand their religion."

And in the next place, where it is that I say,

VIII." That there must be nothing in christianity "that is not plain and exactly level to all men's "mother-wit."

Let us now return to his 8th page: for the bundling together, as was fit, all that he has said, in distant places, upon the subject of One article, has made me trespass a little, against the jewish character of a well bred man, recommended by him to me, out of the Mishna. Though I propose to myself to follow him, as near as I can, step by step as he proceeds.

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In the 110th and 111th pages of his "Thoughts concerning the causes of atheism," he gave us a list of his "fundamental articles:" upon which, I thus applied myself to him, Vind. p. 168, &c. "Give me leave "now to ask you seriously, Whether these you have "here set down under the title of "fundamental doc"trines," are such (when reduced to propositions) that every one of them is required to make a man a chris65 tian, and such as, without the actual belief thereof, "he cannot be saved? If they are not so, every one of "them, you may call them "fundamental doctrines,' "as much as you please, they are not of those doctrines "of faith I was speaking of; which are only such as are required to be actually believed, to make a man a christian." And again, Vind. p. 169, I asked him, "Whether just these, neither more nor less," were those necessary articles?

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To which we have his answer, "Socinianism un"masked," p. 8, &c. From p. 8 to 20, he has quoted near forty texts of scripture, of which he saith, p. 21, "Thus I have briefly set before the reader, those evangelical truths, those christian principles, which belong "to the very essence of christianity: I have proved "them to be such, and I have reduced most of them "to certain propositions, which is a thing the vindi"cator called for."

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Answ. Yes: but that was not all the vindicator called for, and had reason to expect. For I asked, "Whether those the unmasker gave us, in his Thoughts "concerning the causes of atheism," were the fundamental articles, "without an actual belief whereof, a "man could not be a christian; just all, neither more "nor less ?" This I had reason to demand from him, or from any one, who questions that part of my book; and I shall insist upon it, until he does it, or confesses he cannot. For having set down the articles, which the scripture, upon a diligent search, seemed to me to require as necessary, and only necessary; I shall not lose my time in examining what another says against those fundamentals, which I have gathered out of the preachings of our Saviour and his apostles, until he gives me a list of his fundamentals, which he will abide by; that so, by comparing them together, I may see which is the true catalogue of necessaries. For after so serious and diligent a search, which has given me light and satisfaction in this great point, I shall not quit it, and set myself on float again, at the demand of any one, who would have me be of his faith, without telling me what it is. Those fundamentals the scripture has so plainly given, and so evidently determined, that it would be the greatest folly imaginable, to part with this rule for asking; and give up myself blindly to the conduct of one, who either knows not, or will not tell me, what are the points necessary to be believed to make me a christian. He that shall find fault with my collection of fundamentals, only to unsettle me, and not give me a better of his own, I shall not think worth minding, until, like a fair man, he puts himself upon equal terms, and makes

up the defects of mine, by a complete one of his own. For a deficiency, or errour, in one necessary, is as fatal, and as certainly excludes a man from being a christian, as in an hundred. When any one offers me a complete catalogue of his fundamentals, he does not unreasonably demand me to quit mine for nothing: I have then one, that being set by mine, I may compare them; and so be able to choose the true and perfect one, and relinquish the other.

He that does not do this, plainly declares, that, (without showing me the certain way to salvation) he expects, that I should depend on him with an implicit faith, whilst he reserves to himself the liberty to require of me to believe, what he shall think fit, as he sees occasion; and in effect says thus, "Distrust those funda"mentals, which the preachings of Our Saviour and his

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apostles have showed to be all that is necessary to be "believed to make a man a christian; and, though I "cannot tell you, what are those other articles which are necessary and sufficient to make a man a christian, "yet take me for your guide, and that is as good as if "I made up, in a complete list, the defects of your fun"damentals?" To which this is a sufficient answer, "Si quid novisti rectiùs, imperti; si non, his utere

The unmasker, of his own accord, p. 110 of his "Thoughts concerning the causes of atheism," sets down several, which he calls "fundamental doctrines." I ask him, whether those be all? For answer, he adds more to them in his "Socinianism unmasked:" but in a great pet refuses to tell me, whether this second list of fundamentals be complete: and, instead of answering so reasonable a demand, pays me with ill language, in these words, p. 22, subjoined to those last quoted, "If "what I have said will not content him, I am sure I "can do nothing that will; and therefore, if he should capriciously require any thing more, it would be as great folly in me to comply with it, as it is in him to move it." If I did ask a question, which troubles you, be not so angry; you yourself were the occasion of it. I proposed my collection of fundamentals, which I had,

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with great care, sought; and thought I had found clear in the scripture; you tell me no, it is imperfect, and offer me one of your own. I ask, whether that be perfect? Thereupon you grow into choler, and tell me it is a foolish question. Why! then I think it was not very wise in you so forwardly to offer one, unless you had one ready, not liable to the same exception. Would you have me so foolish, to take a list of fundamentals from you, who have not yet one for yourself; nor are yet resolved with yourself, what doctrines are to be put in, or left out of it? Farther, pray tell me, if you had a settled collection of fundamentals, that you would stand to, why should I take them from you, upon your word, rather than from an anabaptist, or a quaker, or an arminian, or a socinian, or a lutheran, or a papist; who, I think, are not perfectly agreed with you, or one another in fundamentals? And yet, there is none amongst them, that I have not as much reason to believe, upon his bare word, as an unmasker, who, to my certain knowledge, will make bold with truth. If you set up for infallibility, you may have some claim to have your bare word taken, before any other but the pope. But yet, if you demand to be an unquestionable proposer, of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a man a christian, you must perform it a little better, than hitherto you have done. For it is not enough, sometimes to give us texts of scripture; sometimes propositions of your own framing, and sometimes texts of scripture, out of which they are to be framed ; as p. 14, you say, "These and the like places afford us "such fundamental and necessary doctrines as these:" and again, p. 16, after the naming several other texts of scripture, you add, "which places yield us such pro"positions as these ;" and then in both places set down what you think fit to draw out of them. And p. 15, you have these words: " and here, likewise, it were easy "to show, that adoption, justification, pardon of sins,

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&c. which are privileges and benefits bestowed upon us by the Messiah, are necessary matters of our be"lief." By all which, as well as the whole frame, wherein you make show of giving us your fundamental arti