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THE

INTRODUCTION:

BEING

AN ANSWER TO THE FOURTH APPENDIX TO J. S.'S "SURE
FOOTING;" INTENDED AGAINST THE GENERAL WAY OF

PROCEDURE IN THE "DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY."

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Wi
HEN our blessed Saviour was casting out the evil spirit
from the poor demoniac in the Gospel, he asked his name;
and he answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many."
Legion' is a Roman word, and signifies an army,' as
'Roman' signifies Catholic;' that is, a great body of men,
which though in true speaking they are but a part of
an imperial army, yet when they march alone, they can do
mischief enough, and call themselves an army royal. A
squadron of this legion hath attempted to break a little fort.
or out-work of mine; they came in the dark, their names
concealed, their qualities unknown, whether clergy or laity
not to me discovered, only there is one pert man amongst
them, one that is discovered by his "Sure Footing." The
others I know not; but this man is a man famous in the
'new science of controversy' (as he is pleased to call it); I
mean in the most beauteous and amiable part of it, railing
and calumny; the man I mean is the ò albáns, the con-
fident,' the man of principles, and the son of demonstration;
and though he had so reviled the great champion in the
"Armies of the living God," that it was reasonable to think
he had cast forth πάντα τὰ βέλη τοῦ πονηροῦ τὰ πεπυρωμένα, “ all
the fiery darts of the wicked one;" yet I find, that an evil
fountain is not soon drawn dry, and he hath indignation

a Dr. H. H.

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enough and reviling left for others, amongst whom I have the honour not to be the least sufferer and sharer in the persecution. He thought not fit to take any further notice of me but in an appendix'; the viper is but little; but it is a viper still, though it hath more tongue than teeth. I am the more willing to quit myself of it, by way of introduction, because he intends it as an organum catholicum' against the general way of the procedure which I have used in the 'Dissuasive;' and therefore I suppose the removing this, might ETOIμágεIV Thν odov, make my way smoother' in the following discourses.

I will take no other notice of his evil language, his scorn and reproach, his undervaluing and slighting the person and book of the 'Dissuader' (as he is pleased sometimes to call me); but I shall answer to these things as St. Bernard did to the temptation of the devil, endeavouring to hinder his preaching by tempting to vanity: "I neither began for you, nor for you will I make an end:" but I shall look on those rhetorical flowers of his own but as a fermentum, his spirit was troubled, and he breathed forth the froth as of an enraged sea;' and when he hath done, it may be he will be quiet; if not, let him know God will observe that which is to come, and require that which is past.'

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But I will search and see what I can find of matter that is to be considered, and give such accounts of them as is necessary, and may be useful for the defence of my book, and the justification of myself against all ruder charges. And after I have done so, I shall proceed to other things. which I shall esteem more useful.

The first thing I shall take notice of, is his scornful and slight speaking of Scripture, affirming that he is soonest beaten at this weapon,' that it is Sampson's hair;' it is the weakest part in the man: and yet if it be the weakest, it is that which St. Paul calls the weakness and foolishness of preaching,' more strong and more wise than all the wisdom of man. When the devil tempted our blessed Saviour, he used Scripture; but Christ did not reprove his way of arguing, but in the same way discovered his fraud. Scriptum est,' said the tempter; yea, but 'scriptum est,' said Christ,

b The fourth Appendix to 'Sure Footing.'

to other purposes than you intend; and so would J. S. have proceeded, if he had been at all in love with the way. But he thinks he hath a better; and the wonder is the less that the gentleman does not love the Scriptures, or at least gives too much suspicion that he does not; for he hath not yet proved himself by his writings to be so good a Christian as to love his enemies, or his reprovers: but, however he is pleased to put a scorn on Scripture expressions, it were much better, if he and his church too would use them more, and express their articles they contend for, and impose them on the Christian world, in the words and expressions of Scripture, which, we are sure, express the mind of God with more truth and simplicity, than is done by their words of art and expressions of the schools. If this had been observed, Christendom at this day had had fewer controversies, and more truth, and more charity; we should not have been puzzled to unriddle the words of transubstantiation,' and hyperdulia,' and 'infallibility,' and 'doctrines ex cathedra,' and fere de fide,' and 'next to heresy,' and 'temerarious,' and ordo ad spiritualia,' and 'St. Peter's chair,' and' supremacy in spirituals,' and 'implicit faith,' and very many more profane or unhallowed novelties of speech, which have made Christianity quite another thing than it is in itself, or than it was represented by the apostles and apostolic men at first, as the plain way of salvation to all succeeding ages of the church for ever.

But be it as it will; for he will neither approve of Scripture language, nor is he pleased that I use 'any handsome expressions,' for that is charged upon me as a part of my fault; only to countenance all this, he is pleased to say that all these are 'but division upon no grounds;' and therefore to 'grounds and first principles' I must be brought, and by this way he is sure to blow up my errors from the foundation;' that is his expression, being a metaphor, I suppose, taken from the gunpowder treason, in which indeed, going upon popish grounds they intended to blow up something or other that was very considerable, from its very foundations.

To perform this effect, J. S. hath eight several mines, all which I hope to discover without Guy Faux's lantern.

The First Way.

His first way is, that I have not one first or self-evident principle to begin with, on which I build the Dissuasive;' but he hath, that is he says he hath; for he hath reproved that oral tradition, on which he and his church rely, is such a principle; he thought (it may be) he had reason then to say so; but the scene is altered, and until he hath sufficiently confuted his adversaries, who have proved his self-evident principle to be an evident and pitiful piece of sophistry, his boasting is very vain. However, though he hath failed in his undertaking, yet I must acquit myself as well as I can. I shall therefore tell him that the truth, fulness, and sufficiency of Scripture in all matters of faith and manners, is the principle that I and all protestants rely upon. And although this be not a first and self-evident principle, yet it is resolved into these that are. 1. Whatsoever God hath said is true. 2. Whatsoever God hath done is good. 3. Whatsoever God intends to bring to pass, he hath appointed means sufficient to that end. Now since God hath appointed the Scriptures to instruct us, and make us wise unto salvation, and to make the man of God perfect, certain it is, that this means must needs be sufficient to effect that end. Now that God did do this, to this end, to them that believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, is as evident as any first principle. And let these Scriptures be weighed together, and see what they do amount to. "Search the Scriptures; for therein ye think to have eternal life." The Jews thought so, that is, they confessed and acknowledged it to be so; and if they had been deceived in their thought, besides that it is very probable Christ would have reproved it, so it is very certain he would not have bidden them to have used that means to that end. And if Christ himself and the apostles did convince the Jews out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, proving that Jesus was the Christ: if Christ himself and the apostles proved the resurrection, and the passion, and the supreme kingdom of Christ out of the Scriptures: if the apostle proved him to be the Messias, and that he ought to suffer and to rise again

C
© John, v. 59.

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