thofe, whose Business it has been, and 'is, to have produced that indifputable Evidence, which is recorded in the Scriptures. Whether the Faith of those which was or is right, through the Merits of Chrift, will over-ballance a Crime of this nature, let those, who are yet alive, confider.

Thofe who had only rejected all Thoughts of Religion, may be in great measure.. excused; but the illiterate, ignorant, impudent Blufterers, the fecret Ridiculers, Defamers, and fenfelefs Shufflers, who know nothing, nor could take any Advantage, but from the Ignorance of others, fo of leading the Blind out of their Way; who now, when their Opponents have any thing to fay, can fay nothing against it; who, many of them, fcarce have Senfe to direct a Servant to manage a Farm, fo that without paying of Rent, he may gain his own Wages out of it; for fuch to fet up for Directors of others, fhews a diabolical Malignity which I doubt deprives them of any Plea of Abatement. Does any one take it into his Head to imagine what is, or fhould be Statute-Law; and act accordingly, and teach others? does he not con

G 3

fult

fult those who can read and understand the Law?

What fuch deferve as would make the Scriptures an idle Story, fuch, as would have them understood by the Books of the Mahometans, who obftinately oppofe any Attempt to produce the Evidence in the Bible, and to fupprefs fo much of it as is produced, especially he who privately and treacheroufly inferted a falfe, fcandalous, stupid Defcription in print, now in my Cuftody, with a fimple History of the Undertaking, which was then in the Prefs, like that old fhuffling, notorious Sophifter, Author of a Burlesque, which had its Title changed, one of which was, The Philofophy of Divine Revelation no Argument of Impofture, dated from Edinburgh, where if he had play'd his Tricks, he would have been expelled, or had his Defert long ago; who has given us his Image, and needed not give us his Name; let them alfo confider. And whether the Perfon named 2 Par. xxviii.: 12. Abjectus, one temporifing, Caftel. Arab. one inclining to the wrong fide, be the Name of an apoftate Jew or a Mahometan, let Criticks determine. The chief End of his Defign in this Pamphlet, is to reprefent, that the Philofophy in the

Bible is falfe, and that, if the Hebrew Scriptures be not truly conftrued by the Apoftates, they are to be rejected; and he, or his Fellow, if he has one, is fhewing that the Greek Scriptures are not truly conftrued or underftood, fo both must be rejected.

He fays it was not fafe for Mofes, a great Prophet, to give a true Account of natural things; as he fays, for fear Men fhould not believe it; and fo it fhould difparage his other Accounts; but fafe for an Ideot to do it. The Prediction in John v. 38. is fulfilled, as Christ, fo Mofes, came not in his own Name, he receives him not; if another shall come in his own Name, him ye will receive.

I allow him, that not only our Eyes are formed for our Benefit to deceive us, but all our Senses; that Glaffes, or &c. will not help them out, which is a Demonftration we want other Helps; with thofe Helps we can fee one Substance with three Agents in it, and by them an Effence with three Perfons in it, which St. Paul refers to, Rom. i. 20. For the invifible things of him from the Creation of the World Koops are clearly feen, (being understood by the Things that are made)

even his external Power and Godhead; fo that they are without Excufe. I allow him alfo, that it is not fafe for Deifts, Freethinkers &c. to change the Readings of the apoftate Jews, becaufe if the old Reading be discovered, they are all demolished.

The Heathen Greeks had formed and ufed Words for Things and Actions originally typical in the true Church, and carried off by the Heathens at Babel, and applied to the Names, and the Services to them in the Heathen Religion, in their Doctrine &c. and they had wrested and corrupted many of them; and the poor Animal thinks that the Things and Actions, for which thofe Words are used in the New Testament, becaufe the Words have lame Significations among the Heathen Writings, they muft fignify as the Heathens have used or conftrued them; and fo are by him to be corrupted, wrefted, depreciated, nay fet afide. There is other Evidence which fettles the Meanings of thofe Things and Actions, which he has neither Learning nor Senfe to know any thing of.

The Prophets, who writ in Hebrew, have infallibly placed Words, used for common things, to facred things which had the fame Ideas. The Heathen Greek Authors

Authors placed Words to they knew not what; fo the New Teftament must be conftrued by the Old.

The Fool hath faid in his Heart, there was no Aleim; this was, when Redemption was predicted, and exhibited by Types: he must be an infinitely greater Fool, who after 'tis accomplished, prints that the Method they have taken to redeem Men, or thofe of exhibiting the Memory and Benefits of it, are ineffectual.

By the Rule that our aforefaid Author lays down, when Chrift commanded the Jews to fearch the original Scriptures, if they were not truly tranflated and underftood, which the very Precept implies, they were not to be fearched, but rejected as obfelete. Does it follow, that though fome Chriftians fince, have not obeyed or performed that Precept, that therefore it is void? And that we are to follow the Conftructions of the Spawn of thofe, who had, for fix hundred Years rejected Chrift, or the Directions of fuch illiterate Creatures as this Author.

Contrary to what is faid in the Patent, which created the Earl of Northumberland, that as Light emitted from the Sun to the Orbs, reflected back

upon

the