the Trinity or Incarnation do contradict? Is it our feeing, hear ing, feeling, tafte or fmell? Whereas Tranfubftantiation does contradict all of these. Therefore the comparison is exceedingly fhort, and out of purpose. But to return.

If the Chriftian religion be a cheat, and nothing elfe but the invention of priests; and carried on by their craft, it makes their power and wisdom greater than that of men, angels, or devils; and more than God himself ever yet fhewed or expreffed, to deceive and impofe upon the fenfes of mankind, in fuch public and notorious matters of fact.

XIV. And this miracle, which the Deifts must run into tỏ avoid these recorded of Mofes and Chrift, is much greater and more aftonishing than all the Scriptures tell of them.

So that these men who laugh at all miracles are now obliged to account for the greatest of all, how the fenfes of mankind could be impofed upon in fuch public matters of fact...

And how then can they make the priests the moft contemptible of all mankind, fince they make them the fole authors of this the greatest of miracles.

XV. And fince the Deifts (these men of sense and reason) have fo vile and mean an idea of the priests of all religions, why do they not recover the world out of the poffeffion and government of fuch blockheads? Why do they fuffer kings and states to be led by them; to establish their deceits by laws, and inflict penalties upon the impofers of them? Let the Deifts try their hands; they have been trying and are now-bufy about it. And free liberty they have. Yet have they not prevailed, nor ever yet did prevail in any civilized or generous nation. And though they have fome inroads among the Hottentots, and fome other the most brutal part of mankind, yet are they ftill exploded, and priests have and do prevail against them, among not only the greatest, but best part of the world, and the most glorious for arts, learning and war.

XVI. For as the devil does ape GOD, in his institutions of religion, his feafts, facrifices, &c. fo likewife in his priests, without whom no religion, whether true or falfe, can ftand. Falle religion is but a corruption of the true. The true 'was before it, though it be followed close upon the heels.

The revelation made to Mofes is elder than any hiftory extant in the heathen world. The heathens, in imitation of him, prétended likewise to their revelations: but I have given those marks

which diftinguish them from the true: none of them have those four marks before-mentioned. "

Now the Deifts think all revelations to be equally pretended, and a cheat; and the priests of all religions to be the fame contrivers and jugglers; and therefore they proclaim war equally against all, and are equally engaged to bear the brunt of all.

And if the conteft be only betwixt the Deifts and the priests, which of them are the men of the greateft parts and fenfe, let the effects determine it; and let the Deifts yield the victory to their conquerors, who by their own confeffion carry all the world before them.

XVII. If the Deifts fay, that this is because all the world are blockheads, as well as thofe priests who govern them; that all are blockheads, except the Deifts, who vote themfelves only to be men of sense; this (befides the modefty of it) will spoil their great and beloved topic, in behalf of what they call Natural Religion, against the Revealed, viz. appealing to the commen reason of mankind: this they fet up against revelation; think this to be fufficient for all the ufes of men, here or hereafter, (if there be any after state) and therefore that there is no use of revelation: This common reafon they advance as infallible, at least as the furest guide, yet now cry out upon it, when it turns again them; when this common reason runs after revelation, (as it always has done) then common reafon is a beaft, and we must look for reason, not from the common fentiments of mankind, but only among the beaux, the Deifts.

XVIII. Therefore, if the Deifts would avoid the mortification (which will be very uneafy to them) to yield and subunit to be fubdued and hewed down before the priests, whom of all mankind they hate and defpife; if they would avoid this, let them confefs, as the truth is, that religion is no invention of priests, but of divine original; that priests were inftituted by the fame Author of religion; and that their order is a perpetual and living monument of the matters of fact of their religion, inftituted from the time that such matters of fact were faid to be done, as the Levites from Mofes, the Apostles and fucceeding Clergy from Chrift, to this -day; that no heathen priests can say the fame; they were not appointed by the gods whom they ferved, but by others in after ages; they cannot ftand the teft of the four rules before-mentioned, which the Chriftian priefts can do, and they only. Now the Chriftian priesthood, as inftituted by Chrift himself, and con

tinued by fucceffion to this day, being as impregnable and flagrant a teftimony to the truth of the matters of fact of Chrift, as the facraments, or any other public inftitutions: befides that, if the priesthood were taken away, the facraments and other public inftitutions, which are administered by their hands, must fall with them; therefore the devil has been moft bufy, and bent his greatest force in all ages against the priesthood, knowing that if that goes down all goes with it.

XIX. With the Deifts, in this caufe, are joined the Quakers and other of our Diffenters, who throw off the fucceffion of our priesthood, (by which only it can be demonstrated) together with the facraments and public festivals. And if the devil could have prevailed to have these dropt, the Christian religion would lose the most undeniable and demonstrative proof for the truth of the matter of fact of our Saviour, upon which the truth of his doctrine does depend. Therefore we may fee the artifice and malice of the devil, in all these attempts. And let those wretched instru ments whom he ignorantly (and fome by a mifguided zeal) has deluded thus to undermine Christianity, now at last look back and see the snare in which they have been taken: for if they had prevailed, or ever fhould, Chriftianity dies with them. At leaft it wil be rendered precarious, as a thing of which no certain proof can be given. Therefore let those of them who have any bless God that they have not prevailed; and quickly leave them; and let all others be aware of them.

zeal for the truth,

And let us confider and honour the priesthood, facraments, and other public inftitutions of Chrift, not only as means of grace and helps to devotion, but as the great evidences of the Chriftian religion.

Such evidences as no pretended revelation ever had, or can have. Such as do plainly diftinguish it from all foolish legends and impoltures whatsoever,

XX. And now, laft of all, if one word of advice would not be loft upon men who think fo unmeasurably of themselves as the Deifts, you may reprefent to them what a condition they are in, who spend that life and fenfe which God has given them, in ridiculing the greatest of his bleflings, his revelations of Chrift, and by Chrift, to redeem thofe from eternal mifery, who fhall believe in him, and obey his laws. And that God, in his wonderful mercy and wisdom, has fo guarded his revelations, as that it is paft the power of men or devils to counterfeit; and that there is no

fo

denying of them, unless we will be so abfurd as to deny not only the reafon but the certainty of the outward fenfes, not only of one, or two, or three, but of mankind in general. That this case is so very plain, that nothing but want of thought can hinder any to discover it. That they muft yield it to be so plain, unless they can fhew some forgery which has all the four marks before fet down. But if they cannot do this, they muft quit their caufe, and yield a happy victory over themselves; or elfe fit down under all that ignominy, with which they have loaded the priests; of being, not only the most pernicious, but (what will gall them more) the moft inconfiderate and inconfiderable of mankind.

Therefore, let them not think it an undervaluing of their worthiness, that their whole caufe is comprifed within fo narrow a compass and no more time bestowed upon it than it is worth.

But let them rather reflect how far they have been all this time from Chriftianity; whofe rudiments they are yet to learn! How far from the way of falvation! How far the race of their lives is run before they have fet one ftep in the road to heaven. And therefore, how much diligence they ought to use, to redeem all that time they have loft, left they lofe themselves for ever; and be convinced, by a dreadful experience, when it is too late That the Gospel is a truth, and of the last confequence,

AUTHOR OF THE SHORT METHOD

*. £. WITH THE DEISTS AND JEWS.

r

I

SIR,

HAVE read over your papers with great fatisfaction, and I heartily blefs God with you, and for you, that he has had mercy upon you, and opened your eyes, to fee the wonderous things this law, to convince you of thofe irrefragable proofs he has affe led for the truth and authority of the Holy Scriptures, fuch as no other writing upon earth' can pretend to, and which are incompatible with any forgery or deceit. He has given you likewife that true fpirit of repentance to bring forth the fruits thereof; that is, to make what fatisfaction you can for the inju ries you have done to religion, by answering what has been pub lifhed formerly by yourself against it; and being converted, you endeavour to strengthen your brethren.

You have laid the true foundation of the being of God, against the Atheist; of his creation of the world, and providence, against the afferters of blind chance. If all be chance, then their thoughts are fotoo; and there's no reafoning or argument in the world. 13. 1 que lo no B

Others, because they know not what to fay, fuppofe the world and all things in it to have been from eternity, and to have gone on, as now, in a conftant fucceffion of men begetting men, trees fpringing from trees, &c without any beginning.nhsten d