before he reads, I hope there will not be found many more to obscure the Sense. That there are Italicks where there should be none, and that they are wanting where they should be, I own : Those that know the Difficulty of getting any thing printed correct, the Care and Time required for that purpose, well know how to excuse those Mistakes, and others of the like kind; fome of which I see, and doubt not but they will see more. I am sorry I did not follow the Rev. Mr. Leechman of Glasgow, whose Sermon on Prayer out-does every thing in point of Printing I ever saw; there is not an Italick in the whole, and scarcely a Capital but at the Beginning of the Period.

P

Age I

ERRATA.

line 12, read Occurrences. p. 3. line 34, for his r this. P. 4. 1. 14 put a Comma after Morality. P. 7 1. 28. dele the Comma aster ox. P. 9 1. 27 before Law put this. P. 251. 12 put a comma after said. P. 32 1. 34 for a r. an. P. 48 1. 35 for there r. here. P. 55 1.32 r. Sons; Daughters. P. 63 1. 2 dele 2 to and put a Comma. P. 84 1. 2, r. try'd. P. 91 1. 12 for never r. ever. P. 107 1. 11 for 18 .1 80. ירה . לרה dele the Simicolon after Infidels.

A

CREED

Founded on Truth, &c.

S

OME Time ago, when a certain D. D. well known in the learned World, was at my House, and we talked fome Points over in a cursory Manner, he made me promise to write to him, that he might more distinctly confider what we then only touch'd on. I should have contented myself with a private Address, had not fome Occurrences since rendered it necessary to vindicate myself in a more publick Way; was it only to let some others know what fort of Heresies those are with which they have infinuated me chargeable.

In doing this, if I can convey my Meaning intelligibly, and justify what appears to me the naked Truth, I shall not fear the Scorner's Contempt, nor the Sneer of him who fickens for Want of the Embellishments

B

:

THAT the contrary and confused Accounts given of the sacred Texts by the most learned Critics and Commentators; the various Systems of Divinity, defended with Zeal, void of Reason or Truth; the Prevalence of Infidelity, Atheism, Immorality, &c. the defective Vindications of the Bible, published under the name of Christianity, the Authors of which have oftener exposed the Characters of Mofes and the Prophets, and the Truth of the Divine Records, than justified either; the Mistakes about the Object of Worship, the State of Man before and after the Fall, about the Means of our Reconciliation, the Law, the Gospel, &c. the fetting up Morality, Repentance, &८. to fatisfy for Sin; Reason, the Law of Nature, &c. for our Guides in Matters of Faith and Practice, with many other Things of like Importance, are from the fame Source,

THAT besides this, the not attending to the true Origin of our Ideas has produced Mistakes of another Kind: Hence Men have formed Imaginations of certain logical and metaphysical Ideas within themselves, without confidering how they came there; hence Imagination has been mistaken for Reason, and romantic Invention for Truth; their Minds all the while ignorant of the Mechanism and Operations of Nature, tho' it be an universal Truth, that from hence all our Ideas are to be taken by the Medium of our Senfes, the Reflection of the Mind being not a Source of new Ideas, but a Power to compare and compound a-new such as are already in it, in order to come at Ideas of spiritual Things. That in proportion as this Truth appears to the Mind, so will the Neceffity of a true natural Philofophy, and also the Necessity of a Divine ReveJation.

THAT

THAT there is no System of Philosophy extant which in every Point will account for the Phænomena of Nature, but in the pure Hebrew Scriptures, and that in them there is such a System, and the Means of coming at it in our Hands; and that these Natural Truths contained in these Scriptures, are fo connected with Divinity, that they will admit of no Separation; that notwithstanding, there is no coming at this Connection, no investigating those Truths, but by the Data in Christianity.

THAT the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Revelation of the Mind and Will and Works of the Elahim to us; and being written by the immediate Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are every Word of infallible Certainty and Truth, and contain all that is necessary for us to know, in order to our Comfort and Happiness here and hereafter,

THIS is not taken for granted; for the present Structure of the World, the Frame of the Universe, all the Works of God, not only bear Witness to his Greatness, Glory, Goodness, &c. but also to the Truth and Divinity of his Revelation; and the more they are examined into, the clearer will their Evidence be, Rom. i. 20. For the invisible Things of him, from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the Things that are made, even his eternal Power and God-head. But by the foregoing Verse, this is, when God hath shewed it, reveal'd it to them.

THAT in our present embodied State we can have no immediate Ideas of spiritual Things or the invisible World, our Ideas being admitted only through the Inlets of our Senses; therefore the only Way whereby we can come at any Knowledge of of Divine Things, must be by comparing them with fome Resemblances in the natural World, borrowed from those sensible Objects with which we are converfant.

THAT the Elahim has been graciously pleased to unfold Nature to us in his Word, therein giving us a compleat System of natural Philosophy, designed not only to direct us to the Use and Enjoyment of the Comforts the material World affords, for the Support and Benefit of the animal Frame; but chiefly that by the Knowledge of Nature revealed in the Scriptures, we might be led to the Knowledge of the Elabim; and from the material World there described, might receive the best Information we are capable of, of what the Elahim are, our present depraved Nature, our Restoration by Christ, and how we may attain to the Perfection and Felicity of Body and Soul in the Enjoyment of the Elahim.

THAT the Doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Divine Effence revealed in the Bible, was design'd by the Elahim to be represented to us in this System by the three grand Agents of Fire, Light, and Spirit; whose three-fold Condition and Oneness of Substance, and their mutual and triune Agency for the Maintainance and Preservation of the natural World, in its Beauty, Order, and Exiftence, give us the best Idea we can have of the Persons in the Effence, as to their Mode of Existence; their joint Concurrence in the Support and Government of the spiritual World, and their Union and diftinct economical Actions in the Work of our Redemption.

THAT Letters were not known 'till near 2,600 Years after the Creation, nor then but by Revela