the Apostles, and Apoftolick Men of their Miffion once fo delivered to the Saints.

For that Faith, you acknowledge, we are commanded to contend, as neceffary to Salvation; and for that true Catholick Faith we contend against you, who have added to it new, doubtful, falfe, and impious Doctrines, to the deftruction of Souls, and the dishonour of God and his Church. For that Primitive Faith once delivered to the Church by the Apostles, as neceffary to Salvation, you acknowledge we are to contend; and yet in your very next words you affert, That every Doctrine of this Faith was never thought neceffary to be known by every Chriftian. This, Sir, is very ftrange, that the whole Faith once delivered by the Apoftles to the Church, ought to be contended for, as neceffary to Salvation; and yet that fome parts of it fhould not be neceffary to be known by every Christian. St. Jude, whom you cite, wrote to all the faithful Chriftians of his Time, and by confequence to every one of them concerning the common Salvation; and told them it was needful for him to write unto them, and exhort them that they fhould earnestly contend for the Faith [furely for the whole Faith, and all the Doctrines of it] once delivered to the Saints. They were to contend for all the Doctrines of Faith, which the Apostles delivered to them, as necessary to Salvation: And you dare not deny but that the Apoftles delivered all the Doctrines of the Chriftian Faith; and therefore every one of them was delivered, and neceffary to be known by every Chriftian. The Doctrines of Faith which the Apostles preached, as neceffary for Salvation, were Doctrines of Faith not in the general, but Special Senfe of the Word; not Dotrines which are accidentally to be believed as true, when we happen to know they are revealed; but Doctrines which were neceffarily to be propofed and revealed on purpose that they might

be

be believed: Doctrines, which the Apostles were bound, under the pain of Damnation, to preach, as well as the People to believe, fimply neceffary Truths effential to the Gofpel, without knowing and believing of which a Man could not be a true Chriftian, nor a Society of Chriftians a true Church: And yet of the Doctrines of this Faith, you fay, that every one of them was not neceffary to be known by every Chriftian; but whene known [that is, when they happened to be known] was neceffary to be believed. Thus, Sir, you con found the plain, certain Doctrines of Faith, which the Apostles preached as neceffary to Salvation, and as fuch are clearly revealed in the Scriptures with the dark, obfcure, or uncertain Doctrines? which we are to believe only when we chance to come to the clear and certain knowledge of them; but are not abfolutely neceffary for the Chriftian Clergy to teach, or Chriftian People to know of believe. Nay, you confound them with the Hiftorical, Chronological, Chorographical, and other circumftantial Truths of Scripture, which are not necessary to be known, but only to be believed as true, when they happen to be known, in virtue of this general Principle, That all Divine Revelations are true, and not upon the fpecial account of being neceffary to Salvation.

This will farther appear from your following words: Wherefore there being this material difference among the Doctrines of Faith, that fome are neceffary to be known by every Chriftian, and others not. The Apoftles first, and after their Example, the Paftors of the Catholick Church in fucceeding Ages gathered together Doctrines necessary to be known by all Men, into a certain Form called a CREED. Here you first confound the Doctrines of general and fpecial Faith together, on purpose to deceive the Lady, and alter the ftate of the Controverfy between you and us; which proceeds of Doctrines

of

of Faith in the Special Senfe, that are necessary to be known, and believed in order to Salvation. For this Faith, fay you above, we are commanded to contend as neceffary to Salvation: And therefore to fhew the inconfiftency and fophiftry of your last Period, and how you would fhift the Question, I need but interfert your own words in this manner; Wherefore there being this material difference among the Doctrines of Faith, (which are neceffary to Salvation) that fome are neceffary to be known, and others not, &c. which is as much as to fay, Wherefore there being this material difference among the Doctrines of Faith, which are neceffary to Salvation, though fome are neceffary to it, and others are not, &c, or if you please thus: Wherefore there being this material difference among the necessary Doctrines of Faith, that fome are neceffary, and others not, &c. Sir, do you not blush at this contradiction? Do you not blush at your own diftinction of the Doctrines of Faith which you affert to be necessary, into necessary and non-neceffary? Or rather are you not ashamed to confound the general and Special Notion of Faith knowingly and wilfully, and in contradiction to your felf, rather than not catch a well meaning Lady not used to Sophiftry, by changing the state of the Question from Doctrines of Faith in the general, or large, to the Doctrines of Faith in the fpecial, or ftricter Senfe of the Word. Certainly, Sir, the Apostles taught the World all the neceffary Doctrines of Faith, whether only Speculative, or Speculative and Practical, they kept back none of them from the knowledge of the Saints, because they were abfolutely neceffary to be known, and believed: And therefore if your Trent-Doctrines are abfolutely neceffary to be known and believed, as you profefs in the Creed of Pius IV. they were as neceffary to be known then as now, and must have been taught by the Apostles, and retained in all Churches;

C

which we deny, and challenge you to fhew. You declare them to be part of the true Catholick Faith, without which no Man can be saved; and accordingly you promife, vow, and fwear, to Preach and Teach them as fuch, and that you will endeavour they be retained, and firmly profeffed whole and inviolate: And yet we challenge you to fhew they are a part of the Catholick Apo ftolick Faith once delivered to the Saints, or that they have Antiquity, Univerfality, and Succeffion, as they certainly would have had, as well as the old Doctrines of Faith once deliver'd to the Saints. You must pardon me, Sir, if I tell you you tempt me to think you are confcious to your felf, that you could not anfwer my Challenge, and that therefore you used that fallacious diftintion in contradiction to your felf, as well as the Truth, between fome Matters of Faith that are neceffary to be known by every Chriftian, and others that are not. You have alfo couched another Fallacy in your foregoing Period, by confounding the Doctrines of Faith in the Special Senfe of the Word, with Doctrines of Faith in the most Special and strict Senfe of it; that is, in confounding all the Doctrines of Faith, that are ncceflary to Salvation with fome; or the whole Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with part of it felf contained in the Creed: For, fay you, (I am forced to repeat your words again) Wherefore there being this material difference among the Doctrines of Faith, that fome are neceffary to be known by every Chriftian, and others not; the Apofiles first; and after their Example the Paftors of the Catholick Church in Jucceeding Ages gathered ta gether Doctrines neceffary to be known by all Men, into a certain Form called a Creed. But, Sir, did they collect all the Doctrines which they taught as neceffary to Salvation into the Creed, or did they teach no other as neceffary to be believed,

2

.

.

believed in order to Salvation, but those contained in it? I have already obferved to you, that the Faith once delivered to the Saints consists of two forts of Doctrines or Traditions, fpeculative and practical, commonly called in the Schools the CREDENDA and AGENDA of the Chriftian Religion and that the Creed is but a Summary, though a fufficient Summary of the former, but that the Church never had a Summary of the latter; and by confequence that the Creed, as you afterwards fay, were not composed to contain the whole Faith, or all the Doctrines of it, which were once delivered to the Saints.. No, Sir, the whole Faith, you know very well, is contained in the Scriptures, and not in the Creed, which was never intended for an exprefs Collection of all the Doctrines of Faith, but only of fuch as were fufficient to diftinguish a Christian from a Pagan, or a Jew; or the Christian Religion from Polytheism on one hand, and Judaism on the other: And from the Herefies which arofe in the Apoftolick Age, particularly from thofe which in various Forms and Shapes of lying Doctrines, denied Jefus to be the Son of God, and Chrift, and to have really come in the Flesh, but only in Appearance, as is manifeft from the first Chapter of St. John's Gofpel, and his first General Epiftle. And therefore in anfwer to what follows in your Paper, I grant you that, neither the Apoftles, nor the Nicene Fathers, made it an Article of their Creed, that the whole Faith once delivered to the Saints, was contained therein. But however the whole Chriftian Faith was delivered to the Saints, and by what was not expreffed in the Creed, was, and is exprefly contained in the Scriptures as the true Doctrine of the Holy Myfteries or Sacraments; and the Doctrine of Divine Grace, as you should have faid, are of the Faith, though the Creed commonly called the Apostle's-Creed,

and