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 mi. nisters 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 proa bably, 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 use. fulness. 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.

TO THE

SEVENTH VOLUME.

77

90

Author, why he omitted several Christ, why he owned himself to be

passages in the Evangelists, 361 the Son of God before the High
- should be judged of by Priest,
what he says, and not the con- why he would not expressly
trary,
398, &c. own himself a king before Pilate,

77, 78
B.

- his innocency attested even by

Pilate and Judas, 80, 86
Belief, what it is to believe in why he spoke obscurely of his
our Saviour, and in his name, destroying Jerusalem, (Matt.
17, &c. xxiv.)

88
- it is necessary to believe - Judas being gone, he spake
every thing known to be revealed more explicitly of his kingdom,
in Scripture,

156
- what must be believed ex to the last he required of his
· plicitly, and what implicitly, disciples only to believe him to

227, &c. be the Messiah, 96, &c.
we must believe the manner - expressly applied the promises
of things, when revealed, 239 of the Messial to himself after
Bold, (Mr.) the author's letter of his resurrection, 99, &c.
thanks to him,

185 much oftener mentioned his
vindicated from contradicting kingly office than any other,
himself, 389, 391, 394

113, &c.
his opponent's scurrilous re- - how he fulfilled the moral
flections on him, 395, &c. law,

122
how falsely his words are what we may think to be the
cited,

412 state of those who never heard
several remarkable passages of him,

132
in him not answered, 409, 410, the necessity of his coming to

&c. make God known, 135—To
groundlessly charged with not teach men their duty, 138—TO
answering his opposer, 419, &c. instruct in the right forms of di-
- why so much of his reasoning vine worship, 147, &c.—To give

is mentioned by the author, 419 sufficient encouragement to a
Book, two ways of making one good life, 148–And to assure
unanswerable,

192 men of divine assistance, 151
Booksellers, stirred up against our his deity not understood by
author by his adversary,378,379 the Jews by the phrase “Son of

God,"

370
C.

the word Christ often used as
a proper name,

374
Christ, the meaning of his answer, Christians, what is necessary to be
(John vi. 70)

56 believed to make men so, 226, &c.
why he did not expressly re-

whether all things of
veal his Messiahship to his dis this sort were revealed in our
ciples,

35, &c. Saviour's time, 345, &c.
his Messiahship more clearly

what was sufficient to
discovered a little before his suf make men such in Christ's time,
ferings, 57-Yet even then he is so still,

358
did not expressly declare it to the - are obliged to believe
Jewish rulers,

all that they find our Saviour
- how wisely he answered his taught,

404
captious enemies,

74

all things necessary to be

69

418

D.

believed by them, not necessary times as hard to be understood,
to their being such, 405, &c.

178, 244
Christians, why they must believe Edwards, Dr. John, represents fun-

whatever they find revealed by damentals both as essential and
Christ,

408 integral parts of religion, 245
Christianity, the fundamental ar-

charged with assuming
ticles of it easy to be under the power of the Pope to himself,
stood,
175

296
Commission of our Lord, was to

his harangue for the atheisti-
convince men of his being the cal rabble,

300
Messiah,

of his arguing from one to
Commission of the apostles, and of none,

303-305
the seventy, of the same tenour,

his reasons of but one ar-

335, 336 t icle being so often required,
Covenant, changed, when the con considered,

308, &c.
ditions of it are changed, 344 - accused of unfairness in
Creed, of the apostles, not new citations,

391
modelled by the author, 201 - charged with insisting on

contains all things necessary what concerns not the subject,
to be believed to make a man a

409
Christian,

277

blamed for readiness to find
- the compilers of it may be unknown faults in his opposers,
charged with Socinianism by the.
same rule the author is, 272, 273 Epistles, of the apostles, why writ-

ten, and how to be understood,

152

not designed to teach funda-
Defiance, what it signifies, 206 mental articles of faith, - ibid.

of any truth, unjustly - wisely explain the essentials
charged on the author, 197, 205 of Christianity,

154
Deists, what is necessary to make the author's notion of them
men such,
229 vindicated,

170, &c.
the Reasonableness of Chris no contempt cast on them by
tianity written chiefly for such, him,

249
268 passing by any of them, no
Devils, why they cannot be saved argument of despising them,
by believing,
102

250, &c.
doctrines necessary and not
necessary hard to be distinguish-
ed in them,

258, 259
Edwards, Dr. John, complained Evangelists, numerous citations out
of, for his charge of atheism, of them ill termed a tedious col-
161 lection,

251, 252
- his accusing the author of - - though they wrote for
Socinianism refuted, 167 believers, yet relate Christ's
- his commendation of him- doctrine to unbelievers, 253
self,

192

no good reason to sup-
- his rule for good breeding pose them defective in relating
out of the Mishna,

194 fundamentals, 316, 317
sometimes represents the

contain all doctrines ne-
word Messiah as easy, and some- cessary to make a man a Christian,

318, &c.