as your own Belief, tell us what you wouldjfay to fuch a Man as Agrippa, to make it evident to his Reason, that your Creed is the true Religion taught by Christ and his Apostles, and that his is not fo ?

Alas, replied Paulinus with a little warmth, What can be faid to a Man who will not believe his own Eyes and Ears? A Man who hears and reads fo many glorious Expreffions scatter'd throughout the Gofpels and Epiftles, which dictate to him the fpecial and peculiar Leffons of Chriftianity, and yet will not receive them? Does not the New Teftament speak in most express Language, and that very frequently, of the Propitiation of Chrift for our Sins? Muft this bleffed Do&trine of Grace be entirely left out of the laft and most perfect Edition of a Gospel made for Sinners, tho' it was put into all the foregoing Editions of it in Emblem, and was foretold and prefigur'd by all former Difpenfations? Is it not held forth to a guilty World by the Sacrifices which attended every Difpenfation of Grace till Christ came? And is not the Lord's Supper an appointed Memorial of it under the Difpenfation of Chrift? And muft Agrippa make a new Religion for us, by banishing this important Article, which has been exhibited and continued in every Religion that God has made?

Where is the Doctrine of Juftification by Faith in the Name of Christ, or Forgiveness thro

Faith in his Blood, to be found in Agrippa's Creed? Muft this be all conftrued into Juftification by thofe good Works which the Law of Nature required us to perform, and which the Son of God came from Heaven only to fet in a fairer Light, and which St. Paul often affures us, can never juftify us before God? Muft the Regeneration, Renovation and Sanctification of our Souls by the Holy Spirit fignify nothing else than the Change of our Inclinations from Vice to Virtue by our own mere Confideration of thofe Truths in which Chrift inftructs us as a great Restorer of Natural Religion, and which were confirm'd by the Miraculous Powers of the Holy Spirit? Is this all the Meaning of thofe plain Expreffions, juftified by the Blood of Christ and fanctified by the Spirit? Do we believe the New Teftament is from God? Why then do we not believe the Articles which this Divine Book teaches us in fuch plain and exprefs Words? Why do we ftrain and torture the facred Language to make it fpeak things fo different from its own Sense?

Is it worth while for our Minifters to be at all this pains in the Pulpit and the Study, by the Printing-Prefs and by private Converfation, to defend the New Teftament from the Infults, the Cavils and Clamours of Infidels, if it teaches us fo little beyond what the Light of Nature teaches? Or have we fo much to expect or fo much to fear from

the

the Deifts, that fome of us, who are called Chriftians, fhould be at fo much Labour to pervert the glorious Truths of the New Testament to their Taste, and to drop those which they do not like? Have we any good and fufficient Reafon to fubdue the Words of Chrift and his Apoftles down to the Meaning and Senfe of Infidels, or to be fo follicitous to ingratiate thofe divine Doctrines with Unbelievers, by reducing them to fuch a Similitude to their Opinions, and finking them almoft down to their Size and Dimensions? Can we ever expect thanks from our bleffed Lord in the great Day for this fort of Service?

For my part, I am fully perfuaded, that the Books, which have been written in Vindication of the Atonement of Chrift in the two laft Centuries, carry fuch abundant Force and Evidence in them, that they can never be anfwer'd. Let Agrippa try to refute fome of the chief Difcourfes which have been publifh'd in former Years by Proteftant Divines on this Subject: Let him destroy all the Arguments ufed by Dr. Owen, Dr. Bates, and Dr. Edwards in their Writings on this 'Theme, and in confutation of the Socinian Tenets: Let him give an effectual Answer to the first Part of Truman's Great Propitiation, to Bishop Stillingfleet or Bifhop TillotJon's Writings on the Sacrifice of Christ, and feveral others, before he grow to fuch an Affurance of his Sentiments. I will not pretend

to

to run over all this Controverfy again, nor have I any of these Authors at hand, being abfent from my Study. Yet if I were within. reach of Agrippa, I would put into his Hands. a few fuch Questions as thefe, which my own Thoughts and my Memory fuggested to me fince I first read his Creed: A deep Concern for fuch an important Truth hung about my Soul, and fet my Pen at work in thefe Queries.

Pray, Paulinus, let us be favour'd with the rehearsal of them, fays Cavener in great hafte; the reft repeated the fame Requeft, and Paulinus began to read.

SECT. II.

Queries to prove the Doctrines denied by

Query 1. D

Agrippa.

OES not St. Paul appear to be a Man of good Senfe by all his Writings? But furely Agrippa's Explication of his Epiftles, fuppofes him to be one of the moft ftrange, odd, irrational Writers that ever ufed a Pen. What? Has the Christian Religion fo little in it beyond the Restoration of the Religion of Nature? And could not Paul teach the Reftoration of Natural Religion but in fuch very improper Terms, and fuch foreign and diftant Language, as that wherein he reprefents the Gofpel

Gofpel of Chrift? Is this his plaineft and his clearest manner of inftructing the Heathen World in the Religion of Nature, or of reftoring it where it was loft, to tell them, they must be reconciled to God by the Death or the Blood of Christ, that he has made Peace by the Blood of his Cross, that Christ crucified is the Wisdom and Power of God for the Salvation of Men? that he died for our Offences, that he gave himself a Ransom for Men, that God has fet him forth to be a Propitiation thro' Faith in his Blood, that we must trust in his Name, that we must be justified by his Blood and by Faith in him, that by the Obedience of one many fhall be made righteous, that by his own Blood be obtain'd eternal Redemption for us; that the Blood of Chrift, who thro' the Eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God, fhould purge our Confciences from dead Works, i. e. from Works deferving Death; and that Christ appear'd in the End of the World, to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himfelf? And do St. Peter and St. John, whom I fuppofe Agrippa acknowledges to be infpired Writers, intend nothing more than the fame plain Doctrines and Dictates of natural Reafon, when they teach the great Truths of the Gofpel in the fame ftrange Language, when they tell us that Chrift fuffer'd, the Fuft for the Unjust, to bring us to God; that he bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree, that the Blood of Jefus Chrift cleanses us from all Sin,

that