Having thus, as briefly as I could, washed oft' the paint that was put upon the porch of Mr B.'s fabric, and discovered it to be a composure of rotten posts and dead men's bones, — whose pargeting being removed, their abomination lies naked to all, — I shall enter the building or heap itself, to consider what entertainment he hath provided therein for those whom, in the entrance, he doth so subtilely and earnestly invite to turn in and par- take of his provisions.
VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
CHAPTER I.
Mr Biddle's first chapter examined — Of the Scriptures.
Mr Biddle having imposed upon himself the task of insinuating his abominations by applying the express words of Scripture in way of answer to his captious and sophistical queries, was much straitened in the very entrance, in that he could not find any text or tittle in them that is capable of being wrested to give the least colour to those imperfections which the residue of men with whom he is, in the whole system of his doctrine, in compliance and communion, do charge them withal: as, that there are contradictions in them, though in things of less importance;^ that many things are or may he changed and altered in them; that some of the books of the Old Testament are lost; and that those that remain are not of any ne- cessity to Christians, although they may be read with profit. Their subjecting them, also, and all their assertions, to the last judgment of reason, is of the same nature with the other. But it not being my purpose to pursue his opinions through all the secret windings and turnings of them, so [as] to drive them to their proper issue, but only to discover the sophistry and falseness of those insinuations which grossly and palpably overthrow the foundations of Christi- anity, I shall not force him to speak to any thing beyond what he hath expressly delivered himself unto.
This first chapter, then, concerning the Scriptures, both in the Greater and Less Catechisms, without farther trouble I shall pass over, seeing that the stating of the questions and answers in them may be sound, and according to the common faith of the saints, in those who partake not with Mr B.'s companions in their low thoughts of them, which here he doth not profess; only, I dare not join with him in his last assertion, that such and such passages are the most ' Socin. de Author. Sac. Scrip, cap. i. Racov. anno 1611, p. 13 ; Socin. Lect. Sacr. p. 18 ; Episcop. Disput. de Author. Scrip, thcs. 3 ; Volkel. de Vera Reh'g. lib. v. cap. v. p. 375. " Socinus autcm videtur rectius do SS. opinari." — Ep. ad Radcc. 3, p. 140. " Ego qtiidem sentio, nihil in Scriptis, qute communitcr ab iis, qui Christian! sunt dicti, re- cepta, et pro divinis habita sunt, constanter legi, quod non sit verissimuna : hocque ad divinam providentiam pertinere prorsus arbitror, ut ejusmodi scripta, nunquam depra- ventur aut corrumpantur, neque ex toto, noque ex parte."
86 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
affectionate in the hook of God, seeing we know but in part, and are not enabled nor warranted to make such peremptory determina- tions concerning the several passages of Scripture, set in comparison and competition for affectionateness by ourselves.
CHAPTER II.
Of the nature of God.
His second chapter, which is concerning God, his essence, nature, and properties, is second to none in his whole book for blasphemies and reproaches of God and his word.
The description of God which he labours to insinuate is, that he is " one person, of a visible shape and similitude, finite, limited to a certain place, mutable, comprehensible, and obnoxious to turbulent passions, not knowing the things that are future and which shall be done by the sons of men ; whom none can love with all his heart, if he believe him to be ' one in three distinct persons.""
That this is punctually the apprehension and notion concerning God and his being which he labours to beget, by his suiting Scrip- ture expressions to the blasphemous insinuations of his questions, will appear in the consideration of both questions and answers, as they lie in the second chapter of the Greater Catechism.
His first question is, " How many Gods of Christians are there ?" and his answer is, " One God," Eph. iv. 6 ; whereunto he subjoins secondly, "Who is this one God?" and answers, "The Father, of whom are all things," 1 Cor. viii. 6.
That the intendment of the connection of these queries, and the suiting of words of Scripture to them, is to insinuate some thoughts against the doctrine of the Trinity, is not questionable, especially being the work of him that makes it his business to oppose it and laugh it to scorn. With what success this attempt is managed, a little consideration of what is offered will evince. It is true, Paul says, " To us there is one God," treating of the vanity and nothing- ness of the idols of the heathen, whom God hath threatened to deprive of all worship and to starve out of the world. The ques- tion as here proposed, " How many Gods of Christians are there?" having no such occasion administered unto it as that expression of Paul, being no parcel of such a discourse as he insists upon, sounds pleasantly towards the allowance of many gods, though Christians have but one. Neither is Mr B. so averse to polytheism as not to give occasion, on other accounts, to this supposal. Jesus Christ he allows to be a god. All his companions, in the undertaking against