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

My Lord, I hope, from the confcious Integrity of my Design, and because I seek 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 stand justify'd.

The Owls have scream'd, the Waves swell, nay, I have heard the Rushing of the Billows; fo that the Tempest is nigh, and nothing but your Lordship's receiving this without Difpleasure, can secure me from being tost in it.

That

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

Your Lordship's

Most Humble,

And most Obedient Servant,

JOHN DOVE.

THE

PREFACE.

MANY a Man might have been wife if he

had not thought himself so, if the Reader be one of those conceited wife Ones, I advise him to stop here, and read no further: This is no Artifice to prompt him, and cajole him to read, I cannot. I have somewhere read of a Delphic Devil, who told Lies in Heroics; I have not imitated him, so that if the Sublime be wanting it is no wonder; but I promise, as much as may be, to substitute Pertinence and Truth in its stead. The sublime Nonfence I bave read in my Time has given me a Qualm, and made me nauseate it, so that it has perhaps driven me into the contrary Extreme; besides, it is of a Piece with Dr. Foster's moral Sense, 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 shall leave the Criticks to determine: But if nothing will please but what is of that cast, give me leave to recommend D. J. Gill's Comment on the New Teftament, and Dr. J---s Foster's last Quarto upon Nothing. This I prefume will cure any Man; if it fails, let him read my Scrawl afterwards; if that

fails too, I will pronounce him incurable. Or if he be of the Bigot Make (a kind of buzzing Hornets but blind) and for stoning every Man who cannot believe his Whims; I advise him to keep his Eyes shut, or to remember the old Roman, whose Skull was so harden'd by being so often pelted in going to the Circus, that it broke all the Bricks and Tiles that were thrown at him, and that possibly mine may be of the like Consistence. Or if the Reader has got an Analogy of Faith in his Head, i. e. a System contrived by Men banging together in a kind of Concatination, made up of senseless Phrafes, such as Supreme God, Communicated Divinity, Eternal Generation, &०. I advise 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 Demonstrative Hobby-Horse, and will admit nothing as Creed, but what must be proved by a Syllogism or a Diagram, or a Mathematical, or a moral Demonstration, let him leave off bere; for Such Demonstrations relate not to Divinity nor Nature, and are generally too of a Piece with the blind Man's of Battersea, who could demonstrate that he had seen a Ghost with a high-crown'd Hat

But him that is jaded with Folio's and Commentators, and heartily fick of what the World calls Learning, and can distinguish between it and Common Sense, I invite to read for the I promise not present Satisfaction in every Point, I promise 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 rest on no Man's Authority

rity, otherwise they will be disappointed, and if they are, after those 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 Aspersions of its Enemies, let it and its Author too fall under their Censure; for be that has set at nought the Opinions of Men, is not like to be frighted at their Cenfure. I have an Apology to make for the Abruptness and want of Connection to be found in Page 73; but when I tell the Reader that that Part of my Copy was lost between myself and my Printer, and that want of Time or something prevented my rectifying it, I hope he will excuse it, and any other little Mistakes that may be found happening from the Incompatibility of Business and Writing.

I really did not know till this Pamphlet was in the Press, but that I had as much Right to be a Fool, as another Man, and to add to the Number of those in print too : But Experience makes Men wise, when Books will not. The barbarous Insults I have met with from various Persons no way concerned, has taught me that some Men. drive the Same Trade with the Devil, being not content to fin themselves, but would make others fin too; the only Harm I wish such 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 Press before