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REMARKS

ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε

SCRIPTURES, &c.

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MONGST the many complaints made against me, occafioned by the publication of my Differtations, this I apprehend to be the principal; namely, that I have fallen foul of the Bible, and have not paid it the deference which I ought; and that, in confequence thereof, I have dug up foundations, and greatly unsettled the minds of men. So that the present questions are, how, or in what respect have I fallen foul of the Bible? What foundations have I dug up? And what minds have I unfettled thereby? And firft, how, or in what respect, have I fallen foul of the Bible? And wherein have I fallen fhort of paying it the deference it has a right to claim? Why, truly, I have taken the liberty to enquire into the conduct and behaviour of

fome of our Old-Teftament Saints, which ftand upon record in it. I have alfo withheld my affent from fuch facts therein related, and from fuch propofitions therein contained, as have the marks of incredibility upon them, when having no other evidence to fupport them, than the bare authority of the writer. And is this all? To which it may, perhaps, be thought fufficient to anfwer, that this minifters juft ground for complaint. Upon which I obferve, that the Bible is held forth, and recommended to us, as a proper guide, by way of example, doctrine and precept, to our understandings, our affections and actions; and therefore, most affuredly, the Bible of all other books ought Atrictly to be examined, and most carefully to be enquired into; and we ought to lend each other all the affiftance we can in making the inquifition, because otherwife we are in great danger of being misled. As I am required to follow the examples of those, who through faith and patience inherit the promifes; and as the characters of thofe I am required to imitate, are compounded of good actions and bad; fo the very nature of the thing calls upon me, and obliges me diligently to examine, and carefully to distin

guish and separate thofe mens virtues from their vices; because otherwise I am in darger of following them, as well in their bad deeds as in their good; which must render the cafe, without fuch inquifition, moft hazardous to me, and to all others who have the Bible put into their hands. The Bible is a collection of Books, wrote at different, and, fome parts of it, at very diftant times, by a variety of perfons, upon many fubjects; whofe authors, as they plainly appear to have had very different fentiments, and fometimes, perhaps, to have differed from themfelves, fo it is not unlikely but they may have had very different views, as that has been pretty much the cafe of writers at all times; and, therefore, I think, it is not doing justice to the Deity, to call it, in the grofs, the revealed will and word of God, whatever fome parts of it may be conceived to be. The Bible is fuch a compofition as that the most oppofite tenets are extracted from it, as the many controverfies that now, and at all times paft, have fubfifted in the Chriftian Church do plainly demonstrate; and by this means, it has been the groundwork of moft of the herefies and fchifms that have taken place in Christendom, and has occafi

oned great confufion, each one appealing to the Bible, as the Standard which their pretenfions are to be tryed by. And tho' the various denominations of Chriftians have racked their inventions or conceiving powers, in order to reconcile its most difagreeing parts; yet alas! it is as eafy to make the two Pole-Stars meet in a point, as fairly to make all the parts of this composition center in any one of the many fyftems that have been grounded upon it. This collection of writings has been the parent of doctrines moft dishonourable to God, and most injurious to men; fuch as the doctrines of abfolute unconditional election and reprobation, of religious perfecution, and the like. This being the cafe, it furnishes out a reason, more than fufficient, to engage every confiderate man, who would fee with his own eyes, would follow the guidance of his own underftanding, and thereby would act confonant to his intelligent nature, carefully to read, and attentively to confider what he reads in the Bible, thereby to prevent his being mifled; and this, I prefume, is a fufficient Apology for my doing as I have done, with relation thereto.