wilfully prevaricated in representing them; and therefore may hope I shall not want many Excuses: But if I have committed any Mistake, I shall willingly be corrected; for I my self would amend it, if I knew it.

But I would not have you think, that I am provoking you to a Reply, with any Intention of Writing any more upon this Subject: For if what I have said in Defence of our most Holy Faith be right, there will be no need of it: But if in any Thing I have err'd, 'tis better to rely on the Goodness of those in Authority, to whom I humbly Submit my self, to forgive fuch Fault, than to repeat it, by attempting to justify it.

Burley, Νον. 21. 1720

SIR,

SIR,

Was surprized to find in the Prints, an
Advertisement of your Letter to me
concerning the ETERNITY of the
Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost,
I before I had received such Letter from
you, or heard of your Intention to
write ic:

But now I have read it, I must thank
you for the Justice you have done me, 2 Pet. ii. 1.

in ranking me with those, who will not deny the Lord that bought Pfal.
them; and I trust in him, that nothing shall ever remove me Ixxxix.26.
from this Rock of my Salvation; and I am very forry that any Rom. ix.
in this Age have made him to themselves a Rock of Offence.

33.

I wish I could as well deserve the Compliment you make Jam. ii. me, p. 13. and that I and others did shew our Faith by our 18. Works; then that worthy Name by which we are called would not Rom. ii. be blasphemed, at least we should give no Occasion for it: And 24. tho' I am very far from imputing to you any fuch Faults, yet 1 Tim. i. if you consider how many of your Followers have put away a 19. good Conscience before they made Shipwreck of their Faith, and Letter to what Tendency your Doctrine has to produce the fame Effect Bishop of in others, you may find Reason to change once more your Opi- London, nion, and to conclude, that This, which you now profess, p. 18. was never taught by our Saviour, who brought Life and Immor- 2 Tim. i. tality to Light, and came into the World, and sent his Apostles 10. to turn Men from Darkness to Light, and from the Power of Satan Acts xx

to God.

But before I say any more of this, or proceed to the Subject of your Letter, I must observe some Passages in your Introduction; viz.

18.

I. That what Mr. Seaton lately published, was writ, as it P.I * were, in Vindication of my Proceedings in the House of Lords: Now I affure you, he did not know of my Intention to make that

A4

Pfal.xxxv.

II.

P. 1.

P.1

A

that Motion, which I did there; nor did I know that he had any Thoughts of writing on that Subject; nor did I ever fee it till it was in Print. I fay not this as an Excuse for it; it needs none, and I am well pleas'd with it; and I must add, that how unfortunate foever. I have been in falling under the unjust and malicious Censures of the World, I never have employ'd any Advocates to plead my Cause; I committed my Ways to God, and, Thanks be to him, he has brought forth my Righteousness as the Light, even in the Opinion of those, who in their Turns had been my Enemies, and had laid to my Charge Things that I knew not. Besides, in this particular Cafe I needed no Defence; for furely, in a Christian Assembly, 'tis no Fault to be a Christian; and they themselves, who oppos'd the Clause which I offer'd, declar'd their Readiness to subscribe it, and objected only, that it was not proper to the Bill then before the House.

2. 'The Clause which, you say, you had a great Hand in preparing, was never offer'd to the House, so I had no Opportunity of oppofing it, as most certainly I should have done : but indeed I never faw it. Some Lords did in private Difcourse tell me, that such a Clause had been put into their Hands from you; and I am unwilling to tell you how they treated it.

3. You stile the Clause which I offer'd, a new Athanafian Teft ' to be laid upon Christians, whereby, with the People call'd Quakers, they were to profefs, &c.

If you mean that this is a new Test, as being then first to be introduced into our Law, you are much mistaken. For all the Clergy, &c. who are to subscribe our 39 Articles, do fully and exprefsly affert the fame Doctrine; and all who come to, and communicate with our Church, either do own the fame by joining in our Creeds and Litany, or they do most grofly and infamoufly prevaricate with God and Man.

I will not fay, you are also mistaken in your Infinuation, that this Test propos'd was taken from the Quakers; for I am confident you know that it was impos'd upon them as the Condition of their Toleration, and very reasonably fure: For when Indulgence was to be granted to Diffenters, 'twas intended only for Chriftians, and therefore it was neceffary to have fome Affurance of their Faith; fo that it was a very ill-founded Contempt that you cast upon us, as if we had learnt our Creed from Quakers; and I think it is so too, to call it an Athanafian Test: For, great and glorious Champion as he was, of the true Primitive Christian Faith; yet if we have no other and greater Author of our Faith than Athanafius, I and all Mankind must agree with you so far, as that he is not a fufficient Ground of our Faith, nor would it have been the Rock on which our Saviour built his Church.

But

But if, after all, you mean, by New, only that the Faith we profess, is not what we learnt from Chrift and his Apostles, and was also profess'd by the Primitive Christians: This is the Question between us, and I come now to confider it, after I have made one Request to you; viz.

That you will not think me so vain, as to imagine my felf capable of managing this great Controversy as I ought; and that therefore you will not determine it (I will not say by the Proofs I shall produce, but) by my Weakness in urging them; for the best Cause may fuffer by an unskilful Advocate. All that I promise my felf is, that what I shall offer will appear more than sufficient to justify me in the Faith which I profess; and since we are obliged to give a Reason of the Faith and Hope I Pet. i. that is in us, and you have fingled out and challenged into the 15. Lifts me the most unfit of all others, I may in Justice demand of you, and all others, into whose Hands these Papers may come, not to impute to me any proud Conceit of my own Performances in a Subject, which we all agree to be incomprehenfible. I have never yet affected to be an Author, even in Things which I might pretend to be vers'd in, tho' I have been fufficiently provok'd to it: But in the Cause of God, I may fay, as in the Cafe of Treason, every Man is an Officer; and therefore I rely upon the Candor of Mankind, at least to forgive in me, what God will accept, the Offer of a Widow's Mite.

I shall now state what I take to be the true Christian Faich, and what, I think, you have declared in your Letter to be yours.

We both agree, that there is but One God, Eternal, Immutable, &c. But the Church of England, and indeed all the Chriftian Churches in the World, and with them I an unworthy Member, do affert and believe, that in the Deity there are Three Perfons neceffarily exifting, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Coeternal

and Coequal.

:

You affert, That the Son is a Creature made by God the Fa- P.25, 29. •ther, by his own Will, when he thought fit, viz. a little before P. 35. the Creation of this World, begotten or born after an ineffable • manner; and that the Holy Ghost is a Creature too made by the P.17, 12,

Son.

35,35.

And you sum up all in this peremptory Affertion, 'That the P. 38. • Light of Nature and common Sense is strong against the Athanafian Doctrine; the Testimonies for it comparatively few and uncertain, but those against it very many and very pregnant.

This I thall examine, and hope to defend our Doctrine against so bold a Charge, and shew that your Doctrine is liable to these very Objections.

And here I must observe, that you are setting up a new, but a very improper and inadequate Rule, by which we are to determine this Controversy: For tho that which may be known Rom.i.19.

of

Matt. xvi.

of God, is manifest to us, yet surely the Light of Nature, Flesh and Blood, could never have discover'd to us Chrift the Son of the Living God; This great Mystery of Godliness, God manifested in 1 Tim. iii. the Flesh, which, even after what has been reveal'd of it, still

17, 18.

16.

Ver. 20.

furpasses our Comprehenfion.

But if the Light of Nature, and even the Revelation, which God made to the Jews from Heaven, could not make the CoHeb. x. I. mers thereunto perfect, but there needed a Second Difpenfation by which we are sanctify'd; are we to be turn'd to these weak Gal. iv. 9. and beggarly Rudiments for our Instruction in the Knowledge of τοιχεία. the Lord Jesus, which passeth Knowledge; and as to a Rule, by which we are to judge of the Revelation which God in the latter Times has given us, by speaking to us by his Son, and neglect the true Light, which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World?

Eph. iii.

19.

Heb. i. 2.

John i. 9.

However, if we must be fathoming this Abyss of the infinite Wisdom of God, methinks those, who attempt it, should frame such a Scheme, as is, at least, consistent with common Sense, how different soever it be from the Revelation of God

Matth. vi. in the Holy Scriptures; for if even the Light (of Nature) that is in thee be Darkness, how great is that Darkness!

23.

Rom. i.20.

Ver. 25.

I ask therefore,

1. If our Saviour be but a Creature, how can Divine Worship be paid to him agreeable to the Light of Nature? Or how can we change the Truth of God into a Lye (which is the Account the Apostle gives of it) agreeably to common Sense : And this in spight of the many express Texts of Scripture, and Gal. iv. 8. the first Commandment, in doing Service to one, who by Nature is no God.

For no Excellency whatsoever, short of the Godhead, can Ifa. xlii. 8. entitle any Person to Divine Worship; for God will not give his Glory to another; and what the Angel said to St. John, is no less Rev. xix. true in this Cafe, See thou do it not, for I am thy Fellow Servant; worship God. So that if he be a Creature, he ought not to be worshipp'd; or if he must be worshipp'd, he must be God.

10.

P. 1.

You may perhaps give me a short Answer, viz. That you do not think our Saviour Christ a proper and diret Object of Divine Worship. Some of your Quotations come very near to it; and you expressly say, and even boast, that you' never 'make the Holy Ghost the direct Object of any Doxology at all. The Foundation of which must be, because you reckon him to be a Creature; and this Reason holds with yon in the Case of the Pfal.xcvii. Son also. But I am unwilling to carry my Suspicion so far, because this Worship of Christ is not only permitted, but com manded even to the Angels; Let all the Angels of God worship Letter to him. And you acknowledge that some of the Scripture-Doxothe Bishop logies are directed to the Father and the Son jointly, fome to of London, Jesus Christ only.

7

Heb. i. 6.