wilfully prevaricated in reprefenting them; and therefore may hope I fhall not want many Excufes: But if I have committed any Miftake, I fhall willingly be corrected; for I my felf 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 faid in Defence of our moft 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 fubmit my self, to forgive fuch Fault, than to repeat it, by attempting to juftify it.

Burley, Nov. 21. 1720

TH

SIR,

SIR,

I

Was furprized to find in the Prints, an
Advertisement of your Letter to me
concerning the ETERNITY of the
Son of God, and of the Holy Ghoft,
before I had received fuch Letter from
you, or heard of your Intention to
write it :

But now I have read it, I must thank

you for the Juftice you have done me, 2 Pet. ii. 1.

in ranking me with thofe, who will not deny the Lord that bought Pfal. them; and I truft in him, that nothing fhall ever remove me lxxxix.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.

your

24.

I wish I could as well deferve the Compliment you make Jam. ii. me, p. 13. and that I and others did fhew our Faith by our 18. Works; then that worthy Name by which we are called would not Rom. ii. be blafphemed, at least we should give no Occafion for it: And tho' I am very far from imputing to you any fuch Faults, yet 1 Tim. i. if you confider how many of Followers have put away a 19. good Confcience 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 profefs, 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 fent his Apostles 10. to turn Men from Darkness to Light, and from the Power of Satan Alts xx to God.

But before I fay any more of this, or proceed to the Subject of your Letter, I muft obferve fome Paffages in your Introduction; viz.

،

18.

1. That what Mr. Seaton lately publish'd, was writ, as it P. x were, in Vindication of my Proceedings in the House of Lords:

Now I affure you, he did not know of my Intention to make

44

that

Pfal.xxxv.

II.

P. 1.

P. I.

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 Excufe 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 unjuft and malicious Cenfures of the World, I never have em ploy'd any Advocates to plead my Caufe; I committed my Ways to God, and, Thanks be to him, he has brought forth my Righteoufnefs as the Light, even in the Opinion of thofe, who in their Turns had been my Enemies, and had laid to my Charge Things that I knew not. Befides, in this particular Cafe I needed no Defence; for furely, in a Chriftian Affembly, 'tis no Fault to be a Chriftian; and they themselves, who oppos'd the Claufe 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 Claufe which, you say, you had a great Hand in preparing, was never offer'd to the Houfe; fo I had no Opportunity of oppofing it, as moft certainly I fhould have done : but indeed I never faw it. Some Lords did in private Difcourfe tell me, that fuch a Claufe had been put into their Hands from you; and I am unwilling to tell you how they treated it.

3. You ftile the Claufe which I offer'd, a new Athanafian Teft to be laid upon Chriftians, whereby, with the People call'd Quakers, they were to profess, &c.

If you mean that this is a new Teft, as being then first to be introduced into our Law, you are much mistaken. For all the Clergy, c. who are to fubfcribe 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 moft grofly and infamoufly prevaricate with God and Man.

I will not fay, you are also mistaken in your Infinuation, that this Teft 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 reafonably 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 caft upon us, as if we had learnt our Creed from Quakers; and I think it is fo too, to call it an Athanafian Teft: For, great and glorious Champion as he was, of the true Primitive Chriftian Faith; yet if we have no other and greater Author of our Faith than Athanafius, I and all Mankind muft agree with you fo 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 profefs, is not what we learnt from Chrift and his Apoftles, and was alfo profefs'd by the Primitive Chriftians: This is the Queftion between us, and I come now to confider it, after I have made one Requeft to you; viz.

That you will not think me fo vain, as to imagine my felf capable of managing this great Controverfy as I ought; and that therefore you will not determine it (I will not fay by the Proofs I fhall produce, but) by my Weakness in urging them; for the best Caufe may fuffer by an unskilful Advocate. All that I promise my felf is, that what I fhall offer will appear more than fufficient to juftify me in the Faith which I profefs; and fince we are obliged to give a Reason of the Faith and Hope 1 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 Juftice demand of you, and all others, into whofe Hands thefe 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 Caufe of God, I may fay, as in the Cafe of Treafon, every Man is an Officer; and therefore I rely upon the Candor of Mankind, at leaft to forgive in me, what God will accept, the Offer of a Widow's Mice.

I fhall now ftate what I take to be the true Chriftian 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 Ghoft, 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 fum up all in this peremptory Affertion, That the P. 38. Light of Nature and common Sense is strong against the Athanafian Dodrine; the Teftimonies 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 fo bold a Charge, and fhew that your Doctrine is liable to thefe very Objections.

but

And here I muft obferve, that you are fetting up a new, a very improper and inadequate Rule, by which we are to determine this Controverfy: For tho' that which may be known Rom. i. 19.

of

Matt. xvi. 17, 18. 1 Tim. iii.

16.

Heb. x. I.

Ver. 20.

of God, is manifeft to us, yet furely the Light of Nature, Flesh and Blood, could never have difcover'd to us Chrift the Son of the Living God; This great Mystery of Godliness, God manifefted in the Flesh, which, even after what has been reveal'd of it, ftill furpaffes our Comprehenfion.

But if the Light of Nature, and even the Revelation, which God made to the Jews from Heaven, could not make the Comers thereunto perfect, but there needed a Second Difpenfation by which we are fanctify'd; are we to be turn'd to these weak and beggarly Rudiments for our Inftruction in the Knowledge of the Lord Jefus, which paffeth 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 fpeaking to us by his Son, and neglect the true Light, which lighteth every Man that cometh John i., 9. into the World?

Gal. iv. 9. τοιχεία. Eph. iii.

19.

Heb. i. 2.

However, if we must be fathoming this Abyss of the infinite Wisdom of God, methinks thofe, who attempt it, fhould frame fuch a Scheme, as is, at leaft, confiftent with common Senfe, how different foever 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 Apoftle gives of it) agreeably to common Senfe : And this in fpight of the many exprefs Texts of Scripture, and Gal. iv. 8. the firft Commandment, in doing Service to one, who by Nature is no God.

For no Excellency whatsoever, fhort of the Godhead, can Ifa. xlii. 8. entitle any Perfon to Divine Worship; for God will not give his Glory to another; and what the Angel faid to St. John, is no less Rev. xix. true in this Cafe, See thou do it not, for I am thy Fellow Servant

10.

P. 1.

worship God. So that if he be a Creature, he ought not to be worshipp'd; or if he must be worshipp'd, he muft be God. You may perhaps give me a fhort Anfwer, viz. That you do not think our Saviour Chrift a proper and direct Object of Divine Worship. Some of your Quotations come very near to ir; and you exprefsly fay, and even boaft, that you never make the Holy Ghoft the direct Object of any Doxology at all. The Foundation of which muft be, because you reckon him to be a Creature; and this Reason holds with yon in the Case of the Pfal.xcvii. Son alfo. But I am unwilling to carry my Sufpicion fo far, because this Worfhip of Chrift is not only permitted, but comHeb. i. 6. manded even to the Angels; Let all the Angels of God worship Letter to him. And you acknowledge that fome of the Scripture-Doxothe Bishop logies are directed to the Father and the Son jointly, fome to of London, Jefus Chrift only.

7.

P. 9, 10.

2. AC