prefume, is a Work which may be perform'd in less than two Months by fuch as will quit the Jargon of the Jews; and fuch as will not, must be content to live in Doubt, that Torture of Fools and unlefs God be kinder to them than they are to themselves, must die in Ignorance; and what is worse, they who reft on their Inftruction muft do fo too. If I ask a Chriftian concerning his Religion, he must produce or fend me to the Rudiments of Christianity: Now as Christianity was firft revealed in the Hebrew Language, its Rudiments can only be found. there; or he must produce fome Whim or Tradition which will not ftand the Teft, fo that to these Scriptures we must come at laft; why may we not as well come to them at first ?

My Lord, I hope, from the conscious Integrity of my Design, and because I feek a kind of Refuge and Protection in your Lordship from that Contempt and Rage, which I know I have to undergo for treating Things thus openly, and for stepping out of the common Track, to ftand justify'd.

The Owls have fcream'd, the Waves fwell, nay, I have heard the Rushing of the Billows; fo that the Tempest is nigh, and nothing but your Lordship's receiving this without Displeasure, can fecure me from being toft in it.

That

That your Lordship may live long an Ornament to Christianity, and an Inftrument in the Hand of your great Lord and Mafter, of much Good to his Church, is, my Lord, the earnest Prayer of,

Your Lordship's

Moft Humble,

And most Obedient Servant,

JOHN DOVE.

THE

PREFACE.

MANY

ANY a Man might have been wife if he had not thought himself fo; if the Reader be one of thofe conceited wife Ones, I advise him to stop bere, and read no further: This is no Artifice to prompt him, and cajole him to read, I cannot. I have fomewhere read of a Delphic Devil, who told Lies in Heroics; I have not imitated him, fo that if the Sublime be wanting it is no wonder; but I promife, as much as may be, to fubftitute Pertinence and Truth in its ftead. The fublime Nonfence I bave read in my Time has given me a Qualm, and made me nauseate it, fo that it has perhaps driven me into the contrary Extreme; befides, it is of a Piece with Dr. Fofter's moral Senfe, unfixed, vague, and uncertain; therefore whether it be not quite as Sublime to mention an Oyster, a Wren, or a Robin, as to lug in a Centaur or a Sphinx, I fhall leave the Criticks to determine: But if nothing will please but what is of that caft, give me leave to recommend D. J. Gill's Comment on the New Teftament, and Dr. J---s Fofter's last Quarto upon Nothing. This I prefume will cure any Man; if it fails, let him read my Scrawl afterwards; if that

fails

fails too, I will pronounce him incurable. Or if he be of the Bigot Make (a kind of buzzing Hornets but blind) and for ftoning every Man who cannot believe bis Whims; I advife him to keep his Eyes fhut, or to remember the old Roman, whofe Skull was fo barden'd by being fo often pelted in going to the Circus, that it broke all the Bricks and Tiles that were thrown at him, and that poffibly mine may be of the like Confiftence. Or if the Reader has got an Andlogy of Faith in his Head, i. e. a Syftem contrived by Men banging together in a kind of Concatination, made up of fenfelefs Phrafes, fuch as Supreme God, Communicated Divinity, Eternal Generation, &c. I advife him to ceafe reading; for as it will do him no good, why should be read to vex himself? or if be is for the Demonftrative Hobby-Horfe, and will admit nothing as Creed, but what must be proved by a Syllogifm or à Diagram, or a Mathematical, or a moral Demonftration, let him leave off here; for fuch Demonftrations relate not to Divinity nor Nature, and are generally too of a Piece with the blind Man's of Batterfea, who could demonftrate that be bad feen a Ghoft with a high-crown'd Hat on. But him that is jaded with Folio's and Commentators, and heartily fick of what the World calls Learning, and can diftinguish between it and Common Senfe, I invite to read; for tho' I promife not prefent Satisfaction in every Point, I promife a Method by which it may be arrived at, in all Points within the reach of the Understanding, by fuch as will fee with their own Eyes, and examine the original Records, and reft on no Man's Autho

rity

rity, otherwise they will be disappointed; and if they are, after thofe Premonitions, they will be more to blame for reading than I for writing.

I have no Apology to make for what I have written, if it will not justify itself from the Afperfions of its Enemies, let it and its Author too fall under their Cenfure; for he that has fet at nought the Opinions of Men, is not like to be frighted at their Cenfure. I have an Apology to make for the Abruptnefs and want of Connection to be found in Page 73; but when I tell the Reader that that Part of my Copy was loft between myself and my Printer, and that want of Time or fomething prevented my rectifying it, I hope he will excufe it; and any other little Miftakes that may be found happening from the Incompatibility of Business and Writing.

I really did not know till this Pamphlet was in the Prefs, but that I had as much Right to be a Fool, as another Man, and to add to the Number of thofe in print too: But Experience makes Men wife, when Books will not. The barbarous Infults I have met with from various Perfons no way concerned, has taught me that fome Men drive the fame Trade with the Devil, being not content to fin themselves, but would make others fin too; the only Harm I wifh fuch is, that they had a Patent to prevent me and their Neighbours from Sharing with them in fuch Qualities.

I have one Request to the Reader, which is, that be would correct the following Errata's of the Prefs before