I Am so far from inventing, or defending any new dividing Opinions, to trouble the Peace of the Churches, that I heartily lament the fatal Disturbances which are produced by them; and instead of fomenting the prevailing Heat of our Contentions, or blowing a Fire which is but too great, I would willingly contribute all my poor Endeavours to quench the Flames. It is not therefore out of an humour of Disputing that I engage in this Debate, nor to promote the Interest of a Party: I know no Interest, and by the Grace of God will never espouse any, but that of Christ and his Gospel. It is an apprehension of the Injury offered to this, which is the Motive of my undertaking its Defence. It is the Interest of wronged Truth that I assert, which all who love, have indispensable Obligations to vindicate. It is the pure Gospel, by so many various Attacks assaulted, that I stand to guard; and which being Eternal, tho it may be invaded, yet can never be oppressed nor sink for want of Support, tho my Strength prove unequal to so great a Performance. It is that Gospel which was taught by our ⟨p. 2⟩Lord Christ, and his Apostles, which was owned in the first and best Ages of the Primitive Church, and is now professed in all the Confessions of Faith of the Reformed; which not all the Arts, and Power, neither of Rome Heathen, nor which is worse, Antichristian, were able to extirpate; which not two Ages ago was recovered out of the Darkness of Antichrist by the first Reformers, and vigorously asserted by them, against all the Subtleties and cunning Evasions, both of Papists and others, to shift off the Force of Truth; and is from those our worthy Ancestors of the Protestant Religion delivered down to us; which was sealed by the Blood of Martyrs, which was maintained against all the Powers of the Earth armed for its Ruin; and is, and will be (I doubt not) by a greater Power preserved to survive the Ashes of the World, though it is in more danger of being betrayed by its pretended Friends, than ever it was of being conquered by an open War of its declared Enemies.a And indeed the Antichristian Party gain a greater Advantage by Protestants starting such new Opinions, which seem to favour their Errors, than ever they could by their open and undisguised opposition to the Truth.
I Am so far from inventing, or defending any new dividing Opinions, to trouble the Peace of the Churches, that I heartily lament the fatal Disturbances which are produced by them; and instead of fomenting the prevailing Heat of our Contentions, or blowing a Fire which is but too great, I would willingly contribute all my poor Endeavours to quench the Flames. It is not therefore out of an humour of Disputing that I engage in this Debate, nor to promote the Interest of a Party: I know no Interest, and by the Grace of God will never espouse any, but that of Christ and his Gospel. It is an apprehension of the Injury offered to this, which is the Motive of my undertaking its Defence. It is the Interest of wronged Truth that I assert, which all who love, have indispensable Obligations to vindicate. It is the pure Gospel, by so many various Attaques assaulted, that I stand to guard; and which being Eternal, tho it may be invaded, yet can never be oppress'd nor sink for want of Support, tho my Strength prove unequal to so great a Performance. It is that Gospel which was taught by our ⟨p. 2⟩Lord Christ, and his Apostles, which was own'd in the first and best Ages of the Primitive Church, and is now professed in all the Confessions of Faith of the Reformed; which not all the Arts, and Power, neither of Rome Heathen, nor which is worse, Antichristian, were able to extirpate; which not two Ages ago was recovered out of the Darkness of Antichrist by the first Reformers, and vigorously asserted by them, against all the Subtleties and cunning Evasions, both of Papists and others, to shift off the Force of Truth; and is from those our worthy Ancestors of the Protestant Religion deliver'd down to us; which was seal'd by the Blood of Martyrs, which was maintained against all the Powers of the Earth arm'd for its Ruin; and is, and will be (I doubt not) by a greater Power preserved to survive the Ashes of the World, though it is in more danger of being betray'd by its pretended Friends, than ever it was of being conquered by an open War of its declared Enemies.a And indeed the Antichristian Party gain a greater Advantage by Protestants starting such new Opinions, which seem to favour their Errors, than ever they could by their open and undisguised opposition to the Truth.
- aCredita Res, captique dolis, Lachrymisque coactis, Quos neque Tydides, nec Larissaeus Achilles, Non Anni domuere decem, non mille Carinae. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 2. V. 196.
