each of Them diftinctly; This is the great Foundation, and the main Oeconomy of the Christian Religion; the Doctrine, into which we were baptized; and which every fincere Chriftian ought, according to the beft of his Ability and the Means he has of informing himfelf, to endeavour thoroughly to understand. The Supremacy of God the Father over all, and our Reconciliation and Subjection to him as fuch our Supreme Governour; the Redemption purchafed by the Son; and the Sanctification worked in us by the Holy Spirit ; are the Three great Articles of our Creed: And in maintaining these rightly, fo as feriously to affect mens Understandings, and influence their Lives accordingly, is the Honour of God, and the Intereft of True Religion greatly concerned. Tritheifm, Sabellianifm, Arianifm, and Socinianifm, have, to the great difparagement of Chriftianity, puzled the plain and practical Doctrine of Scripture, with endless speculative Difputes: And it has been no fmall injury to Religion, in the midst of those Difputes; that as on the one hand, men by guarding unwarily against Tritheifm, have often in the other extreme run into

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into Socinianifm, to the diminution of the Honour of the Son of God, and to the taking away the very Being of the Holy Spirit; fo on the contrary, incautious Writers in their zeal against Socinianifm and Arianifm, have no lefs frequently laid themselves open to Sabellianifm or Tritheifm, by negle&ing to maintain the Honour and Supremacy of the Father. The Defign of the following Papers, is to fhow how This Evil may be prevented, and in what manner Both Extremes may rationally be avoided.

There are Others who have thought, that we ought not at all to treat concerning any of these matters, because they are Myfterious. By which if they meant, that the Words of God were myfterious, and that therefore we ought not to be wife beyond what is written; no man could fay that herein they judged amifs. But if they mean, that the Words of Men are mysterious and that we must not reafon concerning Them, nor inquire whether or no, and in what Senfe, they are agreeable to the words of God: What is This, but fubftituting another mystery in the ftead of the true one; and paying de

ference

ference to the mystery of Mans mak ing, instead of the mystery of God? The True Veneration of Myfteries confifts, not in making them our felves; and in receiving blindly the words of Men without understanding them; but it confifts, either in taking care There to ftop, where the Scripture it self has ftopped, without prefuming to go further at all; or elfe, in taking care to understand all words of humane inftitution in Such a fenfe, as that they be fure to fignify neither more nor lefs than the words of Scripture neceffarily and indifputably do. Whofoever puts any Meaning upon words of humane inftitution, which does not appear to Another (upon his fincereft and most careful Examination) to be the fame with the Senfe of the words of Scripture; must not complain that the Other opposes his own Reafon to the Authority of God, when indeed he opposes it only to Thofe who would make Humane Authority the fame with Divine. Affecting to fpeak unintelligibly, where the Scripture it felf has not done fo; is indeed promoting Scepticifm only, not True Religion: Nor

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can there be any other fo effectual a way of confuting all Herefies, as it would be to reftrain men within the bounds of the uncontested Doctrine of Scripture; and give them as few Advantages as poffible, of raising Objections against humane and fallible Forms of speaking.

Laftly; as to Thofe, who, in the Whole, are of Opinion that every man ought to study and confider these things according to his Ability; and yet, in the Particulars of the Explication, have quite different Notions from those which I have thought reasonable and neceffary to set forth in the following Papers; I have, with regard to fuch Perfons as Thefe, endeavoured to exprefs my felf with all Modefty and due Submiffion. And if any Learned Perfon, who thinks me in an Error, fhall in the Spirit of Meeknefs and Chriftianity, propofe a different Interpretation of All the Texts I have produced, and deduce Confequences therefrom different from those which feem to Me unavoidably to follow; I fhall think my felf obliged, either to return him a clear and diftinct Answer in the fame Spirit of Meekness

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and

and Candour, or else fairly and publickly to retract whatsoever is not capable of being so defended. But if, on the contrary, any nameless and careless Writer fhall, in the Spirit of Popery, contend only that men must never ufe their own Understandings, that is, must have no Religion of their own; but, without regarding what is right or wrong, must always plead for what Notions happen at any time to prevail; I fhall have no reason, in fuch case, to think my felf under the fame Obligation of answering him.

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