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lefs to the purer and better fort. Whoever confider's with what Eagernefs and Rigour fome Men prefs Obedience to their own Conftitutions and Difcipline, (conniving in the mean while at all Nonconformity to the Divine Law) how strictly they enjoin the Obfervation of unreasonable, unfcriptural Ceremonies, and the Belief of those unfathomable Explanations of what they ftiffly hold themfelves to be incomprehenfible; 1 fay, who confiders all this, is vehemently tempted to fufpect they drive a more felfish Defign than that of inftructing the ignorant, or converting the Sinner. That any should be hated, deSpis'd, and molested; nay, fometimes be charitably burn'd and damn'd, for rejecting thofe Fooleries fuperadded, and in many Cafes fubftituted to the most bleffed, pure, and practi cable Religion that Men could wish or a 3

enjoy,

enjoy, is Matter of Aftonishment and Grief to fuch as prefer the Precepts of God to the Inventions of Men, the plain Paths of Reafon to the infuperable Labyrinths of the Fathers, and true Chriftian Liberty to Diabolical and Antichriftian Tyranny.

But the common Method of teaching and fupporting this Mystery of Iniquity is ftill more intolerable. How many voluminous Systems, infinitely more difficult than the Scripture, must be read with great Attention by him that would be Mafter of the prefent Theo logy? What a prodigious Number of barbarous Words, (mysterious no doubt) what tedious and immethodical Directions, what ridiculous and difcrepant Interpretations must you patiently learn and obferve, before you can begin to understand a Profeffor of that Faculty? The last and eafieft part of your Labour will be, to

find his Sentiments in the Bible, tho the holy Penmen never thought of them, and you never read that facred Book fince you were a SchoolBoy. But a Diftrust of your own Reafon, a blind Veneration for thofe that liv'd before you, and a firm Refolution of adhering to all the Expofitions of your Party, will do any thing. Believe only, as a fuxe Foundation for all your Allegories, that the Words of Scripture, tho never To equivocal and ambiguous without the Context, may fignify every where whatever they can fignify And, if this be not enough, believe that every Truth is a true Senfe of every Palfage of Scripture, that is, that any thing may be made of every thing: And you'll not only find all the New Teftament in the Old, and all the Old in the New but, I promile you, there's no Explication, tho never fo violent,

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violent, tho never fo contradictory or perplex'd, but you may as easily eftablifh as admit.

But I will not repeat what I have exprefly written of this Matter in an Epiftolary Differtation, now lying by me, entituled, Syftems of Divinity exploded. In the following Dif courfe, which is the first of three, and wherein I prove my Subject in general, the Divinity of the New Teftament is taken for granted; fo that it regards only Chriftians immediately, and others but remotely, who are pray'd to weigh my Arguments by the faid Suppofition. In the next Difcourfe, equally concerning Chriftians and others, I attempt a particular and rational Explanation of the reputed Myfteries of the Gospel. And in the third, I demonftrate the Verity of Divine Revelation against Atheists, and all Enemies of reveal'd Religion.

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This feems to me to be the beft Method; for the Order of Nature is in your Systems of Divinity quite inverted. They prove the Authority and Perfection, before they teach the Contents of Scripture; whereas the first is in great measure known by the laft. How can any be fure that the Scripture contains all things neceffary to Salvation, till he first reads it over? Nay, how can be conclude it to be Scripture, or the Word of God, till be exactly ftudies it, to fpeak now of no other Means be must ufe? This Confufion then I have carefully avoided; for 1 prove first, that the true Religion must neceffarily be reasonable and intelligible. Next I fhew, that thefe requifite Conditions are found in Christianity. But feeing a Man of good Parts and Knowledg may easily frame a clear and coherent System, I demonftrate, Thirdly, that the

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