It is this opposed Gospel which I love and value above all things, and by the help of my Lord Jesus Christ, I will defend its pure Truths entire and unmangled. And as it is this Gospel which teaches me not to treat any of its Ministers with insolent Contempt, however I may differ from him, in my Sentiments, so I will endeavour to observe its Dictates, in avoiding all base and scurrilous Reflections (being but the Follies of an impotent ⟨p. 3⟩Passion) when I write for those Truths which are calm, peaceful, and gentle, Jam. 3. 17. And indeed ever since the Light of common Reason began to dawn upon my Mind, as well as since God gave me a greater, I always abhorred that Method of managing Controversies in Religion, wherein Arguments are mingled with Invectives, and the Deficiencies of Reason made up with Calumnies and Reproaches. Tho the double injury done both to Truth, and my Friend, the one of which is equally insulted with an haughty fierceness, as the other is openly affronted, might tempt a Man of the greatest Moderation to some passionate Resentments; yet nothing shall move me from my fixed Resolution of not being angry. I write not from an Humour of Strife, nor for Pride and vain Glory, but for Truth, and therefore shall concern my self no further than I find that to be interested; which if I thought to be on my Learned Brother's Side, I should be so far from contesting it with him, that I would join in the Defence. This Truth lies between us, and should not be lost in a crowd of angry Words; tho this is the Fault of most Disputes in Religion, and is a Reproach to what we all profess, that when Philosophers and Heathens discoursed their different Opinions with a Calmness of Mind, we Christians, for whom our Great Lord died, that God might be reconciled to us, and we to one another, are inflamed with all Passions, because we do not think and speak the same Things. We every one of us dispute, because we think we are in the right, when we so order the loud Disputation, that Truth which speaks softly cannot be heard, its still Voice being drowned in the Clamour of our Contentions.
It is this oppos'd Gospel which I love and value above all things, and by the help of my Lord Jesus Christ, I will defend its pure Truths entire and unmangled. And as it is this Gospel which teaches me not to treat any of its Ministers with insolent Contempt, however I may differ from him, in my Sentiments, so I will endeavour to observe its Dictates, in avoiding all base and scurrilous Reflections (being but the Follies of an impotent ⟨p. 3⟩Passion) when I write for those Truths which are calm, peaceful, and gentle, Jam. 3. 17. And indeed ever since the Light of common Reason began to dawn upon my Mind, as well as since God gave me a greater, I always abhorr'd that Method of managing Controversies in Religion, wherein Arguments are mingled with Invectives, and the Deficiences of Reason made up with Calumnies and Reproaches. Tho the double injury done both to Truth, and my Friend, the one of which is equally insulted with an haughty fierceness, as the other is openly affronted, might tempt a Man of the greatest Moderation to some passionate Resentments; yet nothing shall move me from my fixed Resolution of not being angry. I write not from an Humour of Strife, nor for Pride and vain Glory, but for Truth, and therefore shall concern my self no further than I find that to be interested; which if I thought to be on my Learned Brother's Side, I should be so far from contesting it with him, that I would join in the Defence. This Truth lies between us, and should not be lost in a crowd of angry Words; tho this is the Fault of most Disputes in Religion, and is a Reproach to what we all profess, that when Philosophers and Heathens discours'd their different Opinions with a Calmness of Mind, we Christians, for whom our Great Lord died, that God might be reconciled to us, and we to one another, are inflamed with all Passions, because we do not think and speak the same Things. We every one of us dispute, because we think we are in the right, when we so order the loud Disputation, that Truth which speaks softly cannot be heard, its still Voice being drowned in the Clamour of our Contentions.
