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me, "Whether I have not reason, here again, to mind him of his fiends, and to advise him to beware of them?" And to show him why I think I have, I crave leave to ask him these questions:

1. Whether I do not all along plainly, and in express words, speak of the priests of the world preceding, and in our Saviour's time? Nor can my argument bear any other sense.

2. Whether all I have said of them be not true?

3. Whether the representing truly the carriage of the Jewish, and more especially of the heathen priests, in our Saviour's time, as my argument required, can expose the office of the ministers of the Gospel now? Or ought to have such an interpretation put upon it?

4. Whether what he says of the "air and language I use, reaching farther," carry any thing else in it but a declaration, that he thinks some men's carriage now hath some affinity with what I have truly said of the priests of the world before Christianity; and that therefore the faults of those should have been let alone, or touched more gently, for fear some should think these now concerned in it?

5. Whether, in truth, this be not to accuse them, with a design to draw the envy of it on me? Whether out of good-will to them, or to me, or both, let him look. This I am sure, I have spoke of none but the priests before Christianity, both Jewish and heathen. And for those of the Jews, what our Saviour has pronounced of them justifies my reflections from being bitter; and that the idolatrous heathen priests were better than they, I believe our author will not say and if he were preaching against them, as opposing the ministers of the Gospel, I suppose he will give as ill a character of them. But if any one extends my words farther than to those they were spoke of, I ask whether that agrees with his rules of love and candour?

I shall impatiently expect from this author of the Occasional Paper an answer to these questions; and hope to find them such as becomes that temper, and love of truth, which he professes. I long to meet with a man, who, laying aside party, and interest, and prejudice, ap

pears in controversy so as to make good the character of a champion of truth for truth's sake; a character not so hard to be known whom it belongs to, as to be deserved. Whoever is truly such an one, his opposition to me will be an obligation. For he that proposes to himself the convincing me of an error, only for truth's sake, cannot, I know, mix any rancour, or spite, or illwill, with it. He will keep himself at a distance from those fiends, and be as ready to hear, as offer reason. And two so disposed can hardly miss truth between them in a fair inquiry after it; at least, they will not lose good-breeding, and especially charity; a virtue much more necessary than the attaining of the knowledge of obscure truths, that are not easy to be found; and probably, therefore, not necessary to be known.

The unbiassed design of the writer, purely to defend and propagate truth, seems to me to be that alone which legitimates controversies. I am sure it plainly distinguishes such from all others, in their success and usefulness. If a man, as a sincere friend to the person, and to the truth, labours to bring another out of error, there can be nothing more beautiful, nor more beneficial. If party, passion, or vanity direct his pen, and have a hand in the controversy; there can be nothing more unbecoming, more prejudicial, nor more odious. What thoughts I shall have of a man that shall, as a Christian, go about to inform me what is necessary to be believed to make a man a Christian, I have declared, in the preface to my Reasonableness of Christianity, &c. nor do I find myself yet altered. He that, in print, finds fault with my imperfect discovery of that, wherein the faith which makes a man a Christian consists, and will not tell me what more is required, will do well to satisfy the world what they ought to think of him.

C

INDEX

TO THE

SEVENTH VOLUME.

Abridgment of Faith, what it is,
275.

248

Acts of the Apostles, book so called,
the author did not charge his
readers against stirring beyond
it,
how wisely as well as faith-
fully written by St. Luke, 328,
329
Actual assent to fundamental arti-
cles, how necessary, 223, 224
Adam, wrong notions concerning
his fall,
4, 5, &c.
what he fell from, ibid.
Allegations between contending
parties, to be esteemed false un-
til proved,
192
Apostles, the wisdom of the Lord
in choosing such mean persons,83
their minds illuminated by
the Holy Spirit,
92, &c.
Article of faith, how the author
pleaded for one only, 174, 196
Articles of Christianity, and such
as are necessary to make a man a
Christian, different,
352

of religion, have been several
hundreds of years explaining,
and not yet understood, 177
Atheism, want of seriousness in
discoursing of divine things may
occasion it,
304.

how falsely The Rea-
sonableness of Christianity is
charged with promoting it, 305
Author of The Reasonableness
of Christianity falsely charged
with making one article neces-
sary in formal words,

194

falsely accused of denying
some articles of Christianity,

Author falsely charged with new
modelling the Apostles' Creed,
201

the several articles made

necessary by him, 202, &c.
falsely charged with saying
"all things in Christianity must
be level to every understand-
ing."
205, 214, &c.
requires proof of his mak-
ing all but one article useless to
make a man a Christian, 205, &c.
denies his contending for
but one, that men may under-
stand their religion, 205, 214
not guilty of folly in re-
quiring from his opponent a
complete list of fundamentals,
215-222

his opponent compared to
a judge unwilling to hear both
sides,

243

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197

&c.

360

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much oftener mentioned his
kingly office than any other,
113, &c.
how he fulfilled the moral
122

law,

what we may think to be the
state of those who never heard
of him,
132

the necessity of his coming to
make God known, 135-To
teach men their duty, 138-To
instruct in the right forms of di-
vine worship, 147, &c. To give
sufficient encouragement to a
good life, 148-And to assure
men of divine assistance, 151

his deity not understood by
the Jews by the phrase "Son of
God,"
370

the word Christ often used as
a proper name,
374
Christians, what is necessary to be
believed to make men so, 226, &c.
whether all things of

this sort were revealed in our
Saviour's time,

345, &c.
what was sufficient to
make men such in Christ's time,
is so still,

358

are obliged to believe
all that they find our Saviour

taught,

404

all things necessary to be

believed by them, not necessary
to their being such, 405, &c.
Christians, why they must believe
whatever they find revealed by
Christ,
408
Christianity, the fundamental ar-

ticles of it easy to be under-
stood,
175
Commission of our Lord, was to
convince men of his being the
Messiah,
332
Commission of the apostles, and of
the seventy, of the same tenour,
335, 336
Covenant, changed, when the con-
ditions of it are changed, 344
Creed, of the apostles, not new-
modelled by the author, 201

contains all things necessary
to be believed to make a man a
Christian,
277

the compilers of it may be
charged with Socinianism by the
same rule the author is, 272, 273
D.

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times as hard to be understood,
178, 244
Edwards, Dr. John, represents fun-
damentals both as essential and
integral parts of religion, 245
charged with assuming
the power of the Pope to himself,
290

cal rabble,

none,

his harangue for the atheisti-
300
of his arguing from one to
303-305
his reasons of but one ar-
ticle being so often required,
considered,
308, &c.
accused of unfairness in
citations,
391
charged with insisting on
what concerns not the subject,
409

blamed for readiness to find
unknown faults in his opposers,
418
Epistles, of the apostles, why writ-
ten, and how to be understood,
152

not designed to teach funda-
mental articles of faith, ibid.
wisely explain the essentials
of Christianity,

154

the author's notion of them

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229

him,

passing by any of them, no
argument of despising them,
250, &c.

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doctrines necessary and not
necessary hard to be distinguish-
ed in them,
258,259
Evangelists, numerous citations out
of them ill termed a tedious col-
lection,
251, 252
though they wrote for
believers, yet relate Christ's
doctrine to unbelievers, 253
no good reason to sup-
pose them defective in relating
fundamentals,
316, 317

contain all doctrines ne-

cessary to make a man a Christian,

318, &c.

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