AN Impartial Account Of the Word MYSTERY, As it is taken in the Holy Scripture.  
LONDON: Printed in the Year, M.DC.XCI.   

An Impartial Account of the Word MYSTERY, as it is taken in the Holy Scripture.  
SIR,  
MYSTERY and Persecution are the Tutelar God and Goddess of the new Systems, framed by Worldly Christians. Upon those two Antichristian Principles they ground all their Arguments: Mystery makes up the Premises, and Persecution the Consequence or the Conclusion. They are indeed the two Characters of the Great Whore, arrayed in Purple and Scarlet Colour, because she is tainted with the Blood of the Martyrs: and she has upon her Forehead a Name written, Mystery, because under such a pretence she displays her most horrid Blasphemies. You tell me, Sir, that there have been in these last Ages several Learned Men, who have writ against Persecution, and unanswerably confuted so dismal an Opinion, and so contrary both to the Principles of Reason and Religion; and you are willing that I should only communicate my Thoughts to you concerning Mystery. I readily comply with your Wishes, taking care of not running myself into too tedious a Discussion.  
The word Mystery, which signifies in the general a Hidden Thing, is commonly taken for a Divine Secret: and I observe, that according to this Sense put upon it in Religion, both the profane and Sacred Writers afford us a different Notion of it. 1. In the Pagan Theology the secret Worship of false Gods was thus styled, such as was revealed only to some privileged Men, initiated into their Ceremonies, and so much concerned therein, as to conceal the Turpitude and Infamy thereof; but was kept secret from those, who were called profane, because they had knowledge and Honesty enough to discover the Shamefulness and Ridiculousness of it. Such were the Mysteries of Ceres, and the little Mysteries of her Daughter Proserpina. In egypt in the Temple of Isis and Serapis stood Harpocrates, the God of Silence, placed near the Images of those two Gods; with his Fingers upon his Lips, to let devout Men know that it was a kind of sacrilege to divulge the Secrets of Religion, and that the Priests might learn to keep secret that Isis and Serapis had been Men. So sacred and dangerous was the Discovery of Mysteries to Ecclesiastical Men of that time, as well as to ours: and such is the love of superstitious People, of what Religion soever they be, for Cabal and Mystery; because they take delight in admiring what they do not understand, and in reverencing the very Silence of any thing that goes under the Name of Mystery. The Heathens carried this Abuse so far, that they bestowed the Name of Mystery upon the very Passions and Lewdness of their Gods, as it is observed by Athenagoras( legate. pro Christ.) then Mystery was the Cloak of Debauchery, as it is now adays the veil of Absurdities.  
That Silence was accounted so sacred, that Horace, tho he was no Bigot, looked upon the breaking of it as the highest Crime, Lib. 3. Od. 2.  
Est& fideli tuta Silentio  
Merces: vitabo, qui Cereris sacrum  
Vulgarit Arcanae, sub iisdem  
Sit trabibus, fragilemque mecum  
Selvat Phas●lum.  
A strict Silence, says he, shall certainly be rewarded: for my part, if any Man had revealed the sacred Mysteries of Cires, I would not venture to converse familiarly with him, tho we dwelled in the same House, or sailed in the same Ship. There were a● that time Rewards and Punishments established to keep the Priests in a Religious Silence. And you must observe, Sir, that indiscreet Men were then dealt with, just as our Excommunicared Men are now adays, or the pretended heretics, who pay no respect to Mysteries. They shunned their Company, and were afraid to meet with them under the same Roof. That politic Mystery does not much differ from a Religious Mystery. As those who are troubled with an Ulcer do carefully wrap up the affencted Member, lest any thing should hurt it, or its Nastiness should offend Peoples Eyes: Thus in Religion Men take care to disguise and adorn the most monstrous Opinions, which are like the Ulcer, or the Itch thereof, and show a particular regard to them. They look upon them as the beloved part and the chief of Religion: And lest they should be attacked in that weak place, they fence it with the Name of Mystery. They will allow no body to touch them, nor to cast their Eyes upon them; and as soon as any Man is ready to bring to light the Shamefulness of those darling Opinions, they cry out presently. He is an heretic, a Blasphemer, an Impious Man. He that undertakes to attack an Orthodox that way, is looked upon as one who designs the utter ruin of Religion. They are so far in the right seeing they cannot otherways defend their Opinions, than by frighting Children with the Wolf's Skin.  
However the Custom of hiding Mysteries sprung rather from that politic Silence, than from Pythagoras's Philosophy, either among the ancient heretics who were ashamed of the Mystery of the across, or of the Mystery of the Crucified,( as the Fathers style it, Vid. Justin. Dial. cum Tryph.) and durst scarce confess that he was a Man, or among those who are styled the Fathers of the Church, who kept secret from uninitiated Cathecumeni the dreadful Mysteries, as they call them, being ashamed of the Simplicity wherewith the Sacrament of the Eucharist had been instituted. The former under the colour of a Mystery, have so far amnihilated the Sufferings and the Flesh of Christ, that they left nothing to be perceived in him but an Infinite and Eternal Nature, which removed from the Jews the Scandal of his across. Thus St. Hilary, the great Defender of the Nicene Faith, affirms, that our Blessed Saviour was free from Fear, Pain and Sorrow, vindicating against the Arians his eternal Divinity at the cost of his Humanity, which he thinks to be but a Fantasm: Putatur, says he, dolere, quia patitur; caret vero doloribus ipse, quia Deus est:( in Psal. 138.) One would think that he feels some Pain, because he suffers; but indeed he is free from Pain, because he is God. As for the ancient Cathechists, they have been so careful to prevent their Proselytes by those great words of Dreadful Mysteries, that those poor People when admitted unto the Lord's-Supper, thought they neither saw Bread nor Wine, nor any thing that might appear vile to the Eyes of wise Heathens by reason of its meanness. From these two Sources sprung up those two Mysteries which have the highest place in the Christian Religion, I mean, Consubstantiality and Transubstantiation.  
2. I come in the second place to the sacred Writers. By the word Mystery, they mean only a Doctrine, or an Event, which is as yet shut up in God's Decree, or does appear to Men only under the covering of a prophetic Prediction, a Parable, a Symbol, a Type, or such like Aenigmatick Figures; but is afterwards brought to light either by a clearer Revelation, or the Accomplishment thereof: So that the same Truth that has been a Secret during a certain time, and in respect of such a People, becomes in the time fixed by the Decree, and in respect of another People, an uncovered Truth. It is therefore absolutely necessary to dist●ngu●sh. the times, the time of the Mystery, and the time of the Revelation; and the Persons too; that which is a Mystery to some, being a clear and distinct Revelation to others. This I desire you to observe, that you may perceive at first sight, that the Scripture does never call Mystery, a Thing incomprehensible in itself, tho never so much revealed. This Notion of a Mystery is unknown to all sorts of Authors, both Sacred and Profane. A Mystery is called so by the former, only in respect of certain Circumstances of Time, Persons, the manner of the Revelation, &c. Take your Concordance, and see all the places of the New Testament, wherein that word is made use of, you will be amazed to meet with none that excites in the Mind the Idea of a Truth inconsistent with the Natural Lights of Sense and Reason. I will confine myself to the New Testament, because, as our Divines do pretend, that Dispensation is most fruitful in such Mysteries.  
To make this the more intelligible, I shall rank all those places under three Heads. The first contains those wherein the Doctrines, the Success, or the Events of the Gospel are covered with Parables and Symbolical Terms. The second contains those wherein are mentioned some Secrets, wherewith God has entrusted some privileged Prophets of his new Covenant. The third sets before us these, wherein are described God's general Dispensations concerning Mens Salvation, advancing from a dark and imperfect State, to a clear and perfect Revelation.  
1. The Doctrines, the Success, or the Events of the Gospel are called Mysteries, because they are covered with Parables and Symbolical Terms. The first place that offers itself to our Enquiry, is Matth. 13.11. wherein our Saviour tells his Disciples, that it is given unto them to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but unto others all things are done in Parables. Here the Doctrines of the Kingdom of God are called Mysteries, not because they are Incomprehensible inthemselves and absolutely incredible to Reason, but accidentally. 1. Because they are wrapped up in Parables. 2. Because they are propounded to incurable Men, and unworthy to be taught in the most intelligible way. But after all, they are revealed and discovered Mysteries to those who were teachable, and inquired for Instruction: Such were the Disciples of Christ, to whom it is given to know the Mysteries, God revealing them to those who love him, as the Apostle saith. We red the same, Mar. 4.11. wherein about the same matter relating to Parables, Christ calls Mysteries the admirable ways of the Divine Wisdom in order to the discovering of ●is Will, and the various Success which shall attend his Revelation, both in respect of the Jews and the Gentiles. The third place is to be found Luke 8.10▪ and is the same with the two fore going. Unto you it is given, says Christ to his Disciples, to know the Mysteries, &c. whereby you may further see that they are Mysteries to be known by those, who already made a right use not only of those clear and easy Precepts, which are the first Elements of Piety, but of the most important and necessary Truths in order to Salvation.  
We may place here all the Doctrines and all the Events, covered either with Types and Figures, or with prophetic Visions and Enigms, or with some weak Beginnings, which are like a Seed, wherein they are not yet perceptible. Such is that great Mystery concerning Christ and his Church, of which the Union of the Husband and his Wife is a Type and a Figure, because it is an Emblem of the most intimate and indissoluble Union, Ephes. 6.32. Such is the Mystery of the seven Stars, whereby are meant the seven Angels, or the seven Bishops of the Churches, of whom the Stars were a Type and an Emblem, Apoc. 1.20. Such is the Mystery of God concerning the future State of his Church, represented in the Visions of St. John, but which is to have its Accomplishment in the time established by his Decree, Apoc. 10.7. Such is the Mystery of the Woman and of the Beast, Apoc. 17.7. and the Mystery of Iniquity, 2 Thess. 2.7. The one hidden in prophetic Characters, whereby it is drawn out beforehand but after an obscure way. The other, which is but beginning, working secretly by Mystical Arts, till he may act openly by his Tyranny and his Persecution. He comes in like a Fox, be will reign like a Lion, as it is reported of one of his most profligate Children.  
II. The Mysteries wherewith God has entrusted some privileged Prophets of the new Covenant, are called Mysteries, because they are particular Prerogatives, wherewith God was pleased to favour their Ministry. Such are those Gifts of the Prophets to know some future things, which St. Paul calls Mysteries, 1 Cor. 13.1. Such are those peculiar Dispensations, wherewith God entrusted St John in the Visions of the Apocalypse, several of which he calls Mysteries, as I have shewed before. It may be also that this is a Reason why St. Paul calls so often the Vocation of the Gentiles, a Mystery which was revealed to him, Eph. 3.7, 8. meaning thereby that he had a more intimate and full Instruction concerning that astonishing Dispensation, than any of the other Apostles, because he was the Apostle of the Gentiles. However we may reckon among the secret things which God has imparted to him by a particular favour, what he says Rom. 11.25. I would not, Brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this Mystery, that Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. Here you see that what was before a Secret of God, being revealed to the Apostle by the Holy Ghost, has been declared to the Romans by the same Apostle, and thereby ceased to be a Mystery. The Apostle will have them to know it, to apprehended it, and to make use of it to their benefit and advantage. I would not, says he, that ye should be ignorant of it, lest you should be wise in your own Conceits. Why does he call it a Mystery? Because it was a secret Instruction wherewith his Apostleship had been adorned. To this we may add another Revelation of the same kind, which is called a Mystery, because it is a Secret imparted to the Apostle, concerning the change of those who shall be alive in the day of the Resurrection. Behold( says he 1 Cor. 15.51.) I show you( or I teach you) a Mystery, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. It does clearly appear from this place, that to teach, or to tell a Mystery, does not signify, as our Divines pretend, to teach unintelligible Doctrines, full of Difficulties and Contradictions: For what will it avail to teach them as such? But on the contrary, to teach or to tell a Mystery, according to St. Paul in this place, is as much as to reveal some Decrees of God, which will not be fulfilled till the end of the World; it is to set them before us, as if we did see the Execution thereof; it is to resolve Difficulties, instead of raising them; it is to free the Mind of his Reader from a Doubt that naturally arises concerning those, who shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ. Must they dy to put off by Death Flesh and Blood, and to put on a Celestial Body by the Power of the Resurrection? No, says the Apostle, I will teach you a Mystery, which will resolve all your Difficulties, and answer all your Doubts upon this Point, viz. That those who shall then be found alive, shall not need to dy, but they shall be changed, which is another way of putting off Corruption. You may see thereby, Sir, that when the Apostles tell Mysteries, they do instruct, resolve Difficulties, discover Secrets, and enlighten our Minds: But when our Divines teach us Mysteries, they cast us into a Labyrinth of Difficulties, which confounded our ideas, and out of which one cannot escape but by putting out his own Eyes.  
III. The Scripture calls Mysteries God's general Dispensations, when they proceed from an obscure and typical State, to a full and perfect Revelation, and from the Promise to its Accomplishment. Under this Head are contained ten or twelve parallel Places, wherein the word Mystery is taken in the same sense, viz. Rom. 16.25, 26. 1 Cor. 2.7, 10.& 4. 1. Eph. 1.9, 10.& 3.3, 4, 5, 9, 10.& 6.19. Col. 1.26, 27.& 2.2.& 4.3, 4. 1 Tim. 3.9, 16. Some of those places are explained, and show us, that what was a Mystery in the precedent Ages, as the Vocation of the Gentiles, &c. is clearly revealed under the Gospel: The Doctrines of Salvation, which were before hidden either in God's Decree, or in the Promises made to the Fathers, or in the Types of the Law, or in the Predictions of the Prophets, as in their Seed, are now delivered in a most evident manner by the Apostles and the Prophets of the Lord, to whom they have been fully revealed by the Spirit of the Lord. Any that can but red, will soon perceive in these places so clear and so palpable a Truth. The other are more generally expressed, wherein that Mystery is called only, the Mystery of God, the Mystery of Christ, the Mystery of the Gospel, the Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of Godliness. But besides the words of delivering and manifesting, which are often joined in those general Expressions, every body may plainly see, that those great Titles are Encomiums and Honourable Names, wherewith the Apostles adorn the Evangelical Dispensation, and that being put together, the meaning of them is only, that the Gospel is the Secret of God's Will, which has been revealed by Christ, and propounded to our Faith to be the Rule of our Piety and Obedience.  
But perhaps you are willing, Sir, that I should explain those places▪ one after another. This will be no hard matter after the two general Reflections which I made already. I begin with those wherein the Vocation of the Gentiles is more expressly contained.  
Rom. 16.25, 26. Now to him that is of Power to stablish us according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ( according to the Revelation of the Mystery, which was kept secret since the World began; but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the Prophets, according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God, made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith.) &c. St. Paul calls in this place the Gospel the Revelation of a Mystery, a Mystery hidden both to Men and Angels in all the precedent Ages, but at that time a Mystery manifested by his preaching, which has unfolded the ancient Prophecies, and brought to light the Secret of the Vocation of the Gentiles, which had been but obscurely foretold by the Prophets.  
1 Cor. 2.7, 10. But we speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery, even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our Glory. Ver. 10. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. The Apostle speaks still in the place of the Gospel's Dispensation, which he calls the Wisdom of God in a Mystery, which God kept to himself in the Secret of his Counsel before there were either Men or Angels, to whom he might communicate it, but which he prepared nevertheless from that very time, for the Glory and Happiness of his Children, and which at last he has revealed by his Spirit, that we may have a clear and efficacious knowledge of it, and be thereby lead to the worshipping of him.  
Eph. 1.9, 10. Having made known unto us the Mystery of his Will, according to his good pleasure, which be purposed in himself: That in the Dispensation of the fullness of Times, be might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on Earth, even in him. The Mystery spoken of in this place is a Mystery of God's Will. This Will consists in saving the Gentiles, by calling them to the Faith of Christ, and in reducing also all the Inhabitants of Heaven and Earth into one Family, and under one Head, viz. Christ. God, who from all Eternity designed this great Work with himself, has dispensed it by his own Son in the fullness of Times, as the Apostle speaks here; or when the fullness of Time was come, as he says Gal. 4.4. That is to say, in the Time fixed by God's Decree, which is a time of Revelation and of Light, as the foregoing Times were Times of Mystery.  
Eph. 3.3, 4, 5, 9, 10. How that by Revelation he made known unto me the Mystery( as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye red ye may understand my knowledge in the Mystery of God) which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of Men, as it is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, heirs, and of the same Body, and Partakers together of his Promise in Christ, by the Gospel. Ver. 9. ●nd to make all Men see, what is the Fellowship of the Mystery, which from the beginning of the World has been hide in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places, might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God. This place may serve for a Commentary upon all the other, so clearly the Apostle explains his Mind in it. The Mystery spoken of by him is a Secret concerning the Salvation of the Gentiles, fellow-Heirs of the Divine Promises with the Jews, and Partakers of the same Graces, and Members of the same Body, in the Fellowship of the same Spirit. This was a Secret unknown to Men and Angels, but thoroughly made known to the Apostles by God's Revelation, to the Prophets of the New Testament by the Holy Ghost, and even to Angels by the means of the Church. Indeed St. Paul calls this Mystery the Incomprehensible Riches of Christ. But does he mean thereby, that they are such Doctrines as Reason cannot attain to, so obscure and so contrary to its Light? God forbid we should ascribe to him so unreasonable a Sense! In his Sense, and according to the Genius of all his Epistles, they are Graces and Blessings of Christ so rich and so plentiful, that they are extended even to the Nations, which had been hitherto accounted the most profane and unworthy of God's Mercy. They are Blessings so much above our Admiration and our Praises, that our Minds are confounded with the Excellency, the Extent, and the number of them. In such a Sense we grant that there are some Mysteries in the Christian Religion, some incomprehensible Secrets; Secrets of Salvation, and Mysteries of Love, which may be compared to a bottonles Sea.  
Col. 1.26, 27. Even the Mystery which has been hide from Ages, and from Generations, but now is made manifest to his Saints: To whom God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of Glory. This Text needs no Paraphrase. The Apostle calls here a Mystery the Will of God, whereby he is willing to save all Nations indifferently, which he will make a proper and peculiar People to himself, not by Circumcision and other Ceremonies of the Law, but by the putifying of them only through the Faith of Christ. He makes here the same Distinction as in all the other places which we have examined and which puts an end to our Question, viz. That what was a Mystery, or a Doctrine hidden in all the Ages which preceded the Gospel, is now discovered to the Saints, to the Apostles and to the Prophets of the Lord, to whom God has been pleased to make known the glorious Riches of his Mercy, which he bestows upon the Gentiles. And he adds in express words, that this Mystery is nothing but Christ himself, whom they have received, and who has brought to them by his magnificent Promises the certain hopes of Glory.  
I come now to those Texts wherein the Mystery of the Gospel is mentioned in a more general manner.  
1 Cor. 4.1. Let a Man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. Who does not perceive at first sight, that the Title which the Apostles ascribe to themselves, of being the Stewards of the Mysteries of God, is the same with the immediately foregoing of being the Ministers of Christ? As if they should say, We are the Ministers of Christ, who dispense the Treasures of his knowledge, and the Purposes of God concerning the Salvation of Mankind: Purposes hitherto kept secret, but we have been entrusted with the Revelation of them. God had as it were made a rich Store of Graces, which he kept in his own Bosom, out of which the Apostles his faithful Stewards dispense them to those for whom they were designed. And God by their preaching lays his Bowels of Mercy open to us, and displays to our Eyes the vast Riches of his Grace, and of his Salvation.  
Eph. 6.19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my Mouth boldly, to make known the Mystery of the Gospel. The preaching of St. Paul is here called in express words the Mystery of the Gospel, that is, the Revelation of Salvation. The Apostle says, that tho he be loaded with Chains, for having declared to the Gentiles the Secret of Mercy, yet he goes on in the performance of his Ministry with freedom and boldness, laying open to all Men the blessed Immortality attainable by the Faith of Christ.  
Col. 2.2. That their Hearts might be comforted, being knit together in Love, and unto all the Riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ. It cannot be doubted but that this Mystery of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ, spoken of in this place, is also the Gospel-Dispensation concerning the Salvation of all Mankind, which the Father has revealed to us by the Ministry of his Son. For besides, that this is the ordinary Style of the Apostle, as often as he is discoursing of this Divine Will, and that it is the Sense, which he has fixed upon the words [ Mystery of God and of Jesus Christ] as we have seen in the places before explained. Besides that, I say, this does appear from the very words of the Text, which offers to us an Object that may be known to us, and which we may have not only the knowledge of, but a firm and certain knowledge, not only some knowledge, but Riches of knowledge, that is, a full knowledge, which takes off all Obscurity and Doubts.  
Col. 4.3. Withal, praying also for us, that God would open unto us a Door of Utterance, to speak the Mystery of Christ, for which I am also in Bonds. This place is parallel to Eph. 6.19. which we have explained. You see in both places the Apostle in Bonds, he entreats his Brethren to pray for him, that God would be pleased to unloose his Tongue, to open a Door to him, and to grant him an opportunity of freely preaching the Mystery of Jesus Christ, or of the Gospel; that is to say, the Doctrine of Salvation by the Faith of Christ. And he mentions, ver. 4. not only the preaching of it, but also the discovering of it to Men, as a Secret which he ought to make them Partakers of.  
1 Tim. 3.9. Holding the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience. Ver. 16. And without controversy, great is the Mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, received up into Glory. The Mystery of Faith and the Mystery of Godliness signifies here the Mystery of the Christian Faith and Godliness in the same Sense( the reason of Contraries being observed) as the Mystery of Iniquity, 2 Thess. 2.7. The Christian Faith was in preceding Ages a hidden Secret, and kept under the obscurity of the Prophecies, and shadows of the Law: and the Apostle will have it in this place, by a fine and elegant Allusion, to be held and kept in a good Conscience as in a precious Vessel; that is to say, that Faith and Righteousness be indissolubly united, otherwise Faith will soon become shipwrecked, unless it be made steadfast by a good Conscience. Wherefore we are exhorted to make sure our Vocation and Election by good Works.  
I have confounded those two places, because there seems to be no more Mystery in the one than in the other; yet I think myself obliged to examine more particularly the latter, and that because it seems to favour a little the Notion of a Mystery which I am confuting. Without controversy, great is the Mystery of Godliness, God was manifested in the Flesh, &c. 1 Tim. 3.16. This seems to countenance the Mystery of the Incarnation, as they call it. It seems, I say, for there is no reality in it.  
For, First, It is more likely that the word God has been foisted into the Original. We have good reason to believe this, and I intend to show you that the Apostle speaks here of the Mystery of Godliness, or rather of the Gospel.  
1. Many Greek Copies, the most ancient and the most considerable, the Oriental Versions, the Vulgar, and some Fathers, red constantly which instead of God, Great is the Mystery of Godliness,[ which] was manifested in the Flesh, &c. This is therefore the Secret of the Gospel, the great Secret of Salvation, which was preached up and delivered, not by Angels, as the Law was, but by Mortal Men; not by a conquering messiah, as the Jews expected he should be, but by one that underwent Sufferings and Temptations. Cannot the Orthodox triumph over the heretics without falsifying the Text of the Scripture, and leaving to the World a Shameful Monument of their want of Sincerity? The Latin Church has not falsified her Version, nor suffered that it should be falsified. Her Faith concerning this Mystery could not allow her to do that. Nor have the heretics falsified it, who were Masters of the ancient Copies, that remain to this day, and upon which, or such like, the Oriental and Occidental Versions of the Church were made. This is therefore a Miracle of God's Providence, who was pleased to preserve to us the precious Remainders of his Truth, notwithstanding the Endeavours of those who never loved it.  
2. It is plain, that this Title, the Mystery of Godliness, is like the other which we have cited, and are undeniably ascribed to the Gospel, viz. the Mystery of God, the Mystery of Christ, the Mystery of the Gospel, the Mystery of Faith. In effect, in St. Paul's style, the word Mystery is constantly bestowed upon the great Secret of the Divine Love, concerning the Salvation of Mankind, especially of the Gentiles, which is the ordinary matter of his Transports, and Admiration. If the Doctrines, which go now under the Names of Astonishing Mysteries, had been looked upon as such by that holy Man, how could he lay them aside, without showing his Astonishment, and bestowing his Encomiums upon them? If it be replied, that he has done so in this place; then they must confess that this is the only place. But is there any likelihood that the holy Apostle should admire at every step the profound Riches of God's Mercy towards the Gentiles, as ravishing Mysteries, and that he should have cried out, O Mystery: but once, contemplating the incomprehensible Depths of the Trinity and the Incarnation?  
It is more natural to think, that he has not changed the usual Idea which he ties to the word Mystery. And,  
3. My third Argument will fully convince us of it. The same Quanlities which are ascribed to the doctrine of Salvation contained in the Gospel, and which are( if I may say so) inseparable from it in the Epistles of St. Paul, are here attributed to the Mystery of Godliness. It is called a manifested Secret, an Expression only suitable to God's Will; and manifested in the Flesh, that is, by the F●esh,( as justified in the Spirit signifies justified by the Spirit) God having put this Treasure in Earthen Vessels, or in Fleshly Vessels, which is all one. The Flesh, in the style of the Hebrews, signifies not only infirm and mortal Men, but Men of a low and poor Condition, simplo plain Men without Learning, without Greatness, without any Appearance, such as the messiah and his Apostles were, Men born of mean Parents, Carpenters, or Fishers, and who had never been bread up in Schools. But God has supported the Infirmity of his Ministers by the Greatness of the Miracles which they wrought. This the Apostle means by the words, justified by the Spirit, because by such means the weak and foolish things of God have confounded the Power and the Philosophy of this World, 1 Cor. 1.27. Now if you retain the word God, what would be the meaning of this Expression, God justified by the Spirit? What a strange Language! The Apostle adds, that this Secret was seen of Angels, who desired( said St. Peter, 1 Pet. 1.12.) to look into the Gospel, which has been preached to us, that it was preached to the Gentiles and believed in the World: which words do plainly show that this Mystery is nothing else but the preaching of the Gospel out of the Borders of Judea, and the Vocation of the Gentiles, that great Secret of God's Will, which did so much surprise the Apostles of our Lord, and which is in all the Epistles of St. Paul called a Mystery, whenever he treats of it. This certainly shows that he has not fixed a new Idea upon that word in this place, and that he always understands thereby a Miracle of God's Mercy, who calls his People those that were not his People, not the pretended Mystery of the Incarnation, which never was the Subject of the Apostles preaching, nor the Object of the Faith of the Gentiles. Indeed one must be very subtle to find the Incarnation in the ancient Rules of their Faith, which they professed at their Baptism.  
4. These words received up into Glory, cannot agree with the Exaltation of the incarnate Word. The Greek Pharse cannot bear such a sense( {αβγδ}, does not signify receptus in Glorian, received up into Glory; but receptus in Gloriâ vel cum Gloriâ, received with Glory). From whence it follows, that it must be meant of God's Will revealed in the Gospel, which having been made manifest, was received with Glory and Applause, or embraced in a glorious and triumphing manner. I shall confirm this Explication with the words of Erasmus upon this place. Mihi subolet( says he) Deum additum fuisse adversus Haereticos Arianos. Caeterum mea quidem sententia, simplicissima fuerit interpretatio, si quis Mysterium intelligat praedicationem Evangelii, quod saepe alias Mysterium vocat, prius occultum, nunc manifestum universo Mundo: That is, I am apt to think that the word God was here added against the heretics the Arians. Now this seems to me the most simplo Interpretation, if by the word Mystery we understand the preaching of the Gospel, which the Apostle calls often a Mystery in several other places, a Mystery before hidden and unknown, but now made manifest to all the World.  
Secondly, Suppose we ought to red, God was manifested in the Flesh: that word God, especially when put without an Article, as it is here, signifies only God's Word, Doctrine, or Attributes, manifested by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles; as Aristotle, signifies the Philosophy of Aristotle; Moses, the Law of that Prophet; Christ, the Doctrine, or the Gospel of Christ. This is clear of itself and if we wanted some Testimonies, Doctor Sherlock would afford us one in the very beginning of his Book concerning the knowledge of Christ, where he fully proves this Truth. Christ( says he) signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ, as Moses signifies the Writings and Laws of Moses, and the Prophets the Writings and Sermons of the Prophets, Luke 16.29, 31. And there is nothing more usual in common Speech, then to call any Laws, or Religion, or Philosophy, by the Names of the first Authors. Thus Gal. 6.15. Col. 2.8. Eph. 4.20, 21. where Christ must signify not the Person, but the Religion or Gospel of Christ. It remains therefore that I should produce some places, wherein the word God is put for the Will of God, or the Revelation of his Glorious Perfections. Dr. Sherlock will also ease us of that labour; for he has done it in the same Book: He cites Mat. 11.27. No Man knows the Father save the Son, &c. which he paraphrases thus. God has now committed unto Christ all the secret Purposes of his Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind, which were concealed from Ages. None of the Prophets who lived before, did so fully understand it, nor have we any other certain way of knowing this, but by the Revelation which Christ has made to us. And John 14.7. If ye had known me, ye should have known the Father, also, &c. Whoever knows me, i.e.( says the Author) whoever is acquainted with the Doctrine and Religion I preach, knows my Father, i.e. is thoroughly instructed in God's Mind and Will. So that to know God, is to understand the Will of God, concerning the Salvation of Mankind. And Heb. 1.1. The Brightness of his Father's Glory, and the express Image of his Person. These Discoveries, says that Author, Christ has made of God, being a bright and glorious Reflection of the Nature and Attributes of God, of his Eternal Wisdom, and Truth and Holiness, are as true a Representation of the Divine Nature and Will, as any Picture is of the Person it represents. It is plain that in this sense Christ is called the Image of God, 2 Cor. 4.4. where Christ being the Image of God comes in very abruptly, unless we understand it in this sense, that he is the Image of God, with respect to the glorious Revelations of the Gospel, which contain a true and faithful account of God's Nature and Will. And Joh. 1.18. No Man hath seen God at any time, &c. That is, says the Author, no Man ever before had so perfect a knowledge of the Will of God,( which is here called seeing God, because Sight gives us the clearest Evidence, and the most perfect and particular knowledge) but the Son of God, who perfectly understood all his most secret Counsels, hath perfectly declared the Will of his Father to us. So Joh. 1.16. And of his fullness have all we received, &c. And Col. 2 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead hodily, are explained by the Author thus: 'tis not the Personal fullness we are to attend to, but the fullness and Perfection of the Gospel, from whence we must fetch the knowledge of the Divine Will. The fullness of the Godhead is an Allusive and Metaphorical Expression; for God, who is a Spirit, cannot, in a proper sense, dwell bodily in any thing. I hope now no body will wonder, that by these words, God was manifested in the Flesh, I should understand only the Grace and the Will of God, which have been manisested unto us by the preaching of a Missias, and of a company of Fishermen, who neither were strong nor noble according to the Flesh, no more than their Proselytes, 1 Cor. 1.20. Which shows that our Copies, though differing in words, yet agree in sense; because as often as God manifests his Lesigns, especially the Secrets of his Love, and of his Mercy, such as he reveals them in Christ Jesus, with a shining Glory and a plentiful Profusion, then God manifests himself, and makes himself visible to Men, displaying to their Eyes through those Images all the Riches of his Glory, Wisdom, Power, Love and Faithfulness.  
Now to put an end to the Explication of all those places, there remains only one Question to be answered, viz. Why the Gospel, being the clearest and the most perfect of all Revelations, is called a Mystery? Besides several particular Reasons, which I have before mentioned in examining every place by itself, I shall here infist upon two general ones.  
1. This Speech is like that which we make use of, when we call a Secret still, a Design which we have communicated to some Persons, whilst it lies hidden to some others, and that we say, such and such are entrusted with my Secret, few are entrusted with my Secret. The Gospel being in effect a Secret of God's Will revealed to certain Nations, but hidden to others, to whom, comparatively to those who know it already, it is a Mystery still.  
2. It is called so in the same sense that it is said, the Blind see, being styled blind after they have recovered their Sight; a blind Man seeing, and a Mystery revealed, being like Expressions: and in the same sense that Harlots are said to go before others into the Kingdom of God, being called Harlots even after their Conversion. The Scriptures are full of the like Expressions. Thus Mysterirs, though revealed, are called Mysteries still, to commend thereby the Grace and Love of God towards those to whom he imparts his Secrets. All this is a Confirmation of my foregoing Observation, that the Mystery of God is nothing less than a thing unintelligible and incomprehensible to Reason, and least of all an Object which contradicts and destroys our Natural Ideas. It is called so only with respect to some Circumstances of Time, Place and Person.  
However, all these Mysteries, as long as they continue to be Mysteries, and God his some Reasons to hid his Designs with the Obscurity of Prophecies, and to cover them with a veil, do not bind Christians to have a clear and distinct Faith and knowledge concerning the Objets contained in them, under pain of Damnation. When the Object is veiled, Faith must needs be confused and implicit. This is the unjust practise of Divines, to damn, with their own Authority, the supposed heretics, who refuse to embrace in an explicit manner Mysteries, which supposing them to be true, are so incomprehensible( as they own themselves) that for that very reason they are capable of no Interpretation, nor consequently, fit to be distinctly believed. These false Mysteries have no ground in the New Testament, as I have shewed, to appropriate that Title to themselves, except it be in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chap. 14.2. the only Passage which remains to be examined; where the Apostle, discoursing of him who speaks in an unknown Tongu●, says, that in the spirit he speaketh Mysteries. Indeed their Metaphysical Gibberish is a Barbarous and unknown Tongue, full of those Mysteries in Spirit, and of frighting Absurdities. By the means of Mystery, Divines have made Religion a very difficult thing, that is, an Art which Christians are not able to understand. Ex Religione Ars facta, says Grotius,( De Ver. relic. Christ. lib. 6.) Thereby they raised themselves above common Christians, and are made necessary to the People, improving that Art to their own benefit. If Religion were easy, and without any encumbrance, then every one should be Doctor to himself. But Clergymen have done like Physicians, who have kept still to Hippocrates's extravagant Expressions, and make use of far-fetched Drugs, left their Art become too common in using Herbs of our own Gardens, and Terms of our vulgar Tongue. Christianity is by that means nothing else but the Religion of Learned Men, and of the most subtle and refined Philosophers. Those are esteemed the most excellent Christians, who believe most Mysteries. Men will by no means have a Religion of a level, which neither ascends into Heaven, nor descends into the Deep, and whose whole Mystery is nigh us, in the Faith of the Heart, and in the Confession of the Mouth. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine Heart, that God has raised him from the Dead, thou shalt be saved. Rom. 10.9. This has been rightly observed by Dr. Sherlock himselt in his Book of the Knowledge of Christ, p. 273. Let us leave, says he, those dim Notions to Men who can believe what no Men can understand, who despise every thing that can be understood, as if it were no better than Carnal Reason. Desiring to be Teachers of the Law( says St. Paul, 1 Tim. 1.7.) understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.  
We may therefore conclude, Sir, that the Gospel is so far from being a Mystery and a Secret, that it is the most evident and the clearest of all Revelations. Divine Truth is not hide in a Well, as Democritus saith: it is like a City standing upon a Hill, which may be seen of all Men. Christ has brought all things to light, and as the Woman of Samaria speaks, He has taught us all things. He is called a Word, not a Silence; his Gospel is a Revelation, not a Mystery Indeed he forbids us to cast his holy Doctrine before, Dogs and Swine; but on the other hand, he will have it to be made plain and intelligible to any Man, who hearty desires to know it. We ought to leave that covered and mystical Philosophy to Heraclitus, who was wont to tell his Disciples, Darken your Thoughts, and never express yourselves but enigmatically, left you should be understood of the People. Such an Affectation of Obscurity was the occasion of Aristotle's being called a Sphinx, who did always propound inexplicable Riddles: Nay, it is reported, that by that means he insinuated himself into Alexander's Favour, and comforted that Prince, who was afraid lest the Mysteries of the Acroamatick Philosophy should grow too commom I know it is commonly said, that there are some Mysteries which Christ did not teach, because they were too high and too sublime for the Church, which was then in her Infancy, and consequently, that the perfect Revelation thereof was deferred till the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, and thereupon they city John. 16.12, 13. But Dr. Sherlock will answer this for me; for he says in the Book before mentioned, That this place does not speak of any Doctrine necessary to Salvation, but only of certain Instructions relating to the Nature or Extent of the apostles Ministry; As for Example, the Vocation of the Gentiles, which is often called a Mystery, and cousequently, that the perfect Revelation thereof could not be deferred to a more seasonable time, For, as he goes on, if the Apostles had preached any other thing in matters relating to Salvation, than what Christ had taught them, they should have preached another Gospel, which was to be rejected, Gal. 1.8, 9. He adds, This I do not say to lessen the Authority of the Apostles, who could teach nothing but what they had learned; nor make any Doctrine necessary, but what was made such by Christ: But to awaken those Men who take little notice of the Gospel of our Saviour, while they fetch all their mysterious Divinity out of some abscure Passages of St. Paul's Epistles, 2 Pet. 3.16. Yet upon those obscure places they ground their Faith, without taking care to consider, whether they agree with the Gospel of Christ, which is the first Rule, and yet is perfectly silent about those pretended grounds. If therefore we must examine the very Passages of the Apostles according to this Rule, how much more the mysterious Terms contrived by the Councils and Divines?  
I do not know from whence they fetch that Spirit of Mystery. Certainly the reading of the Gospel will never suggest it, seeing the Holy Ghost does his utmost Endeavour to make the Revelation as plain and intelligible to us as can be. As for Doctrines, the Doctrine of the across, which is a Stumbling-block to the Jews, and Foolishness to the Greeks, it is set therein before us with the greatest Evidence, and we see all at once the whole Wisdom of its Scope, Uses, Effects, &c. As for the invisible Promise of a future Life: he makes us to handle it with St. Thomas in the Wounds of Christ raised from the Dead, after he had suffered for God's sake. As for Precepts; God has sent us a Preacher, who first observes them, before he imposes them upon others, and thró the Pattern of his Obedience which he left to us, he plainly lets us see the possibility thereof. Every thing therefore is plain in the Divine Revelation, and instead of spiritualizing sensible things, it makes the most spiritual and imperceptible things, plain and sensible to us: God himself, though invisible, manifesting himself in Jesus Christ, who is his Character and visible Image. God, who could have sent Angles to us( which would be suitable to the mystical and abstruse Doctrines of Divines) to teach us the Tongue of Angels, and acquaint us with their System, has been willing to accommodate himself to our limited knowledge, by sending us a Man like unto us, who spoken the Language of Men, and who did so far condescend in the System of Doctrine, which he left to us, that we may not only say, that we heard him with our Ears, but saw him with our Eyes, and handled him with our Hands. Besides, God who might have sent us some Philosophers, acquainted with plato's and Aristotle's Notions, was willing to comply with the meanness of our Minds by causing his Gospel to be preached by Publicans and Fishermen of Galilee, who never heard of Consubstantiality and Hypostasis, and yet less of Perichoresis and Apotelesm. Hereupon Dr. Sherlock's Astonishment is worth the noting( Ubi supr. p. 131.) I know not, says he, whence it comes to pass, that Men love to make plain things obscure, and like nothing in Religion but Riddles and Mysteries. God indeed was pleased to institute a great many Ceremonies( and many of them of very obscure Signification) in the Jewish Worship, to awe their Childish Minds into a greater Veneration of his Divine Majesty. But in these last days, God hath sent his own Son into the World to make a plain, and easy, and perfect Revelation of his Will, to publish such a Religion as may approve itself to our Reason, and captivated our Affections by its natural Charms and Beauties. And there cannot be a greater Injury to the Christian Regigion, than to render it obscure and unintelligible. And yet too many there are, who despise every thing which they understand, and think nothing a sufficient Trial of their Faith, but what contradicts the Sense and Reason of Mankind.  
Let us follow the Doctor a step further; he will discover to us the two Sources of that Abuse( ubi supr. p. 69., &c,) by making us observe; That there are two ways of expounding Scripture in great vogue among Men. First, by the sound and clink of Words and Phrases, which is all some Men understand; by keeping a form of sound Words. Secondly, when this will not do, they reason about the Sense of Scripture from their own preconceived Notions and Opinions, and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture, because otherwise it is not reconcilable to their Dreams, which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith— 'tis no wonder, says he, if Men can accommodate Scripture-Expressions to their own Dreams and Fancies. For when Mens Fancies are so possessed with shows and Ideas of Religion, whatever they look on appears of the same shape and colour, wherewith their Minds are already tinctured; like a Man sick of the jaundice, or that looked through a painted Glass, who sees every thing of the same colour that his Eye or Glass gives it. All the Metaphors, and Similitudes, and Allegories of Scripture are easily applied to their purpose. And if any word sounds like the tinkling of their own Fancies, it is no less than a Demonstration that that is the meaning of the Spirit of God; and every little shadow and eppearance doth mightily confirm them in their preconceived Opinions. As Irenaeus observes of the Valentinians, that they used one Artifice or other to adapt all the Speeches of our Saviour to, and all the Allegories of Scripture, malè composito Phantasmati, to the ill-contrived Figment of their own Brain. And thus the Minds of Men are abused with Words and Phrases, and the Scripture is prest to serve every new-fangled conceit in Religion. They Doctor goes on after the same rate, and I make no doubt but you will like what remains to be transcribed upon this Subject, nor could I say any thing more suitable to the matter in hand. The wildest, says he, and most extravagant Opinions that were ever yet vented under the Name of Religion, have pretended the Authority of Scripture for their Patronage. Though any unprejudiced Man would wonder how the reading such places of Scripture should suggest such Notions to them. But this is no wonder, when we consider that Men first contrive their Religion, and possess their Fancy thoroughly with their private Opinions, and then red the Scripture with no other design, than to find some thing there to stamp Divinity on their own Conceits. For it is easy to pervert the plainest Sense, and by the help of a strange Imagination to make any thing of any thing. Such Men dote upon Words and Phrases, Metaphors and Allusions, as best fitted for their purpose: They found their Religion on obscure Texts, or Mystical Interpretations of plain Texts, and by the help of some Arbitrary Distinctions and Limitations, Glosses and Paraphrases, by curtailing of Texts, or trasplacing Words or commas. or separating a single Sentence from the Body of the Discourse, make the Scripture speak their Sense as plainly as the Bells ring what every Boy would have them— At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible, as well as make so many Books so different and contrary to each other, from the various Composition of twenty four Letters— All the Mystery of those Men confists in wresting Metaphorical and Allusive Expressions to a proper Sense— He, who would be an honest Reader of Books, who hath no mind to turn every thing into Burlesque, ought carefully to distinguish between Proper and Allusive, or Metaphorical Expressions, to consider the use of Words and Phrases, and the great variety of Dialects, and the peculiar ways of speaking in every Language, and in every Age, and to use Metaphors no farther than their first Intention, without which we may deal by all Authors, as these Men deal by Scripture, make them speak Non-sense, or( as they use to call them) venerable Mysteries, and overthrow and contradict their own Design. Thus, Sir, by wresting to a proper Sense, the Allusion which St. John makes to the first Chapter of Genesis, they have found a great Mystery in mere Metaphorical Expressions, and the old Creation where the new is only intended. This short, but right and important Consequence, ought to indemnify me for the trouble which the reading of so long a Citation may have given you.  
I know the Doctor in his Vindicetion of the Trinity, inveighs against the heretics who destroy Mysteries, and, as he thinks, do the Person of our Saviour a great Injury( as if Christianity were undone, unless Christ be the supreme God.) But he has been formerly subject to the same Reproaches, without being much moved with them. We may therefore easily vindicate ourselves with his own words, and say, That Christ has occasioned very great Mistakes in some Mens Divinity, who are very zealous to advance Christ's Person, to the Prejudice and Reproach of his Religion. The Foundation of their Riddles and Mysteries, is, that they make the Person of Christ almost the sole Object of the Christian Religion( Ib. p. 10.) Those Men who talk so much of the Person and Personal Excellencies of Christ, frequently without any Sense, and generally without any just ground from Reason or Scripture, are very clamorous, and alarm the World with extreme Jealousies and Fears, as if there were a Party of Men started up, who design to make Christ useless, and to reduce Religion to its first natural State, which knew no Priest, nor Sacrifice, nor Mediator. It seems now that we have both the same Right with the Doctor, to believe that the Dissenters are ill-grounded in expounding literally of the Person of Christ, what is only meant of his Doctrine in a Metaphorical way; and I do believe that the Doctor himself has no ground to take in a literal sense for a second Person in the Godhead, what is only metaphorically said of that Person born of a Virgin, to whom the Father has imparted a Divine Power for the Work of the new Creation. One of the Dissenters, against whom he disputes, having said, Pag. 138. That as there is an Union of Three Persons in One Nature in the Trinity, and of Two Natures in One Person in Christ, which is the Hypostatical Union; so the Mystical Union is an Union of Persons, where both Persons and Natures are distinct: the Doctor laughs at this Mystical Union. How so? Is not the Mystical Union of the Dissenters as well grounded in Scripture, as the Hypostatical Union of Two Natures, or the Essential Union of the Three Persons, which the Doctor thinks to be great Mysteries? And as for Reason, Is the word Mystical more affrighting than the word▪ Hypostatical? Alas! they are Brethren, let them join Hands and live peaceably in the Kingdom of Dreams.  
This puts me in mind of a Reproach made unto us by a Papist, viz. That our Reformation has no certain Principle ( Consider. upon the Schism of the Protest.) The Incomprehensibility of a Mystery, says he, is sometimes looked upon among them as a Demonstration to condemn it; and sometimes it is a Character of Divinity, which makes it adorable. Sometimes the Letter of the Scripture is a sacred Authority which they cannot part with without committing a sacrilege; and sometimes they look upon it as a Letter which killeth. Would to God this were an altogether ungrounded Reproach! We have no fixed Principle to agree about the Notion of a Mystery, and it seems we are rather determined to our choice by Caprichio or Interest, than by the Scripture. What? taking wisely the Scripture to be our Principle, have we adapted, for the expounding of it, this Maxim of Cardinal Cusanus, Secundum currentia tempora scripturas esse interpretandas, That the Scriptures ought to be interpnted according to the current of Times? When we dispute against the Dissenters, we inveigh against Mystery at the very first page. of the Book, thus, ( ubi supr.) It happens too often in Matters of Religion, that Men consider nothing but the sound of Words, and from thence form such uncough Ideas of Religion, as are fitted to the meanness of the Understandings, or gratify their Natural Genius or Disposition, or are calculated to serve an Interest. And thus the Gospel of our Saviour is defaced and obscured by affencted Mysteries, and Paradoxes, and senseless Propositions. And Christ himself, who was the Brightness of his Father's Glory, and the express Image of his Person, who in the most plain and perspicuous manner declared the Will of God to us, is represented with a thicker veil upon his Face than Moses. And the Glory of the second Covenant is much more obscured with a Mist of Words, than the first was with Types and Figures. We add, that to unriddle such Mysteries, we must expect the coming of Elias. But, what an Al●eration is our Theology subject to, when we come to dispute afterwards against the Unitarians? We mention Mystery at the very Title of the Book, and we prejudice the Spirit of the Reader with it, A Vindication of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. Afterwards we spread over those Doctrines a Cloud of Metaphysical and Barbarous Terms. What arises from this? This Inconveniency, viz. That( ubi. sup. p. 93.) such Arbitrary Notions do naturally force Men to pervert the Scriptures to make them speak the Orthodox Language. To this we owe all those nice and subtle Distinctions ( for Example, Self and Matual Consciousness) which constitute the Body of Systematical Divinity, which commonly have no other design than to clude the force of Scripture, or to bribe it to speak on their side. Thus we ourselves fall into that pitiful Ridiculousness, which he had formerly condemned. This we may call, To cry down Mystery, till some other Interest will require the contrary.  
Now, Sir, if I was willing to go on further in this Consideration, I should only insist upon all the Maxims made use of by Protestants against Transubstantiation, and oppose them to their own Mysteries. They have none that may be able to bear the Trial of such a Touch-stone. I shall only set down six of their Maxims, without making any particular. Application of them, for that is out of my way. 1. That Reason is the Faculty whereby Revelations are to be discerned. 2. That all supernatural Revelations do suppose the truth of the Principles of Natural Religion. 3. That all Reasonings about Divine Revelations must necessary be governed by the Principles of Natural-Religion; that is, by those Apprehensions which Men naturally have of the Divine Perfections. 4. That nothing ought to be received as a Revelation from God, which plainly contradicts the Principles of Natural Religion, or overthrows the Certainty of them. 5. That nothing ought to be received as a Divine Doctrine and Revelation, without good Evidence that it is so. 6. That no Argument is sufficient to prove a Doctrine or Revelation to be from God, which is not clearer and stronger than the Difficulties and Objections against it. Now either those Maxims are false, and ill applied to Transubstantiation; or, if there is any strength in them against that pretended Mystery, they overthrow at the same time all the Doctrines, which at this day go under that Name among Protestants. At least I do not see how any rational Man can deny such a Parity. They should do me a kindness to show me, that those six Maxims do not hurt in the least the Mysteries of the Trinity, and of the Incarnation.  
Now, Sir, be pleased to hear some weak Reasons alleged in the behalf of Mystery. It is objected, that there are Mysteries in Nature, and most incomprehensible Truths; as for Example, The Union of our Soul with our Body; and consequently, that we must not wonder, if there are some too in the Deity and Religion. And if those, say they, though incomprehensible, yet are most certain, Why should we call into question the latter? I answer, that there is a vast difference between both. Those are only the Objects of our Curiosity, the search whereof no body is bound to, seeing that Enquiry is rather a Rashness, and an ill use of our Natural Light, which was given us in that respect only for the use of this Life both private and civil. But they will have these to be the Objects of our Faith and Religion, which ought to be the clearer and the more accessible to Reason, in that my Eternal Salvation is concerned in it, if I apprehended and embrace them; or my Eternal Misery, if I reject or do not apprehended them. Will God have me to conceive the Union of my Soul with my Body under pain of Death, or promise of Life? No certainly; but he is willing that I should have a right understanding of the Truths which I ought to believe, under the promise of Eternal Life, if I obey his Commands; and under the threatenings of Eternal Death, if I refuse to acquiesce in them. And consequently, he will have them to be proportionable to our Capacities: and indeed Religion ought to be clearer than those Metaphysical Objects. I confess that there are incomprehensible things, which yet are true, but I deny that they are such as do contradict our natural Ideas; I mean, those clear and certain Notions, for want of which I should not be capable of Religion; so that to be a Christian, I should cease to be a Man.  
They distinguish to no purpose, the manner of the Mystery from the Mystery itself. This Distinction may hold in things which our Reason cannot apprehended, because it has not in itself the Ideas and the Proof thereof; as for Example, the manner of the Resurrection. But it is false and wrongly applied to those things which our Reason cannot apprehended, because they contradict its most distinct and certain Ideas; as for. Example, that three Divine Persons are but one God. Then the manner of the Mystery only is not to be called in question, since the Mystery in itself, propounded with its greatest Simplicity, is surrounded with Contradictions, which way soever it be viewed.  
Moreover they will say, that the Mystery lies only in the Objects of Religion, but that the way of revealing them is clear and easy. But if the Revelation is so clear, Why do Men contrive new Words unknown to Scripture, to explain it more clearly? Divines are very happy to have found out Expressions more fit to express the Truths of God, than the Holy Ghost himself, who knows the deep things of God. And if the Objects are in themselves so obscure and unintelligible, why do they broach new Terms, to endeavour to make us understand that which is incomprehensible? Besides, how can a Book be accounted clear, which is easy to be understood in its Terms, but is altogether obscure in the Objects which it contains? Holy Obscurity! Lightsome Darkness! The Words made use of to explain the Things are very clear, but the Things explained by those Words are very obscure: And what is more admirable, though the Words be very clear, yet we perceive thrô that Light, that the Things are very obscure; and though the Things be very obscure, yet thrô that Obscurity we perceive, that the Words are very clear. Thus they have found the way to reconcile Light with Darkness: This is a new kind of Oracles never heard of before. The Oracles of the false Gods contained things very intelligible in themselves, but expressed with obscure and equivocal Terms. On the contrary, those of the true God contain Truths incomprehensible and unintelligible in themselves, but expressed with clear and easy Terms. At this rate the ancient Fathers could not fairly inveigh so much against the Ambiguity and the Riddles of the Heathenish Oracles.  
But after all, how come they to know that the Things are obscure, if the Words that teach them are plain and easy? Or, how do they know that the Words are plain and easy, if the Things contained in them are obscure? Clear and easy Words in unintelligible Things are mere Words without Sense. And Things which are unintelligible, though expressed with plain and easy Words, are called a Galemaufrey: They pay a strange Honour to Scripture, by ascribing to it such Mysteries and such a Clearness. The Objects of that Book remaining still in the dark, the Book must needs be dark too, though the Words be never so clear. On the contrary, if I was to commend the Clearness of Scripture, without banishing that holy Obscurity which the Orthodox are so well pleased with, I would say that though most of its Terms be obscure and unusual in other Languages and other Books, yet the Things are so clear in it, at least as far as they are to be believed in order to Salvation, that the Evidence of those Objects mentioned in so many places, and grounded upon sensible Facts, takes off the Obscurity of certain Expressions which in themselves are very dark, because they pass from a Profane to a Divine Use, which is less natural to them. But this is not the right way to find Mysteries, and Men are resolved at any rate to have some covered with a dreadful and sacred Horror.  
The Author of the History of Oracles has prettily said, that he who has never so little studied the Spirit of Men, knows what an Impression wonderful Things make upon it. Indeed, Plato, who is all over sublime and wonderful, became thereby a Philosopher in fashion among the learned Christians of the first Ages, and the Agreeableness which they thought to perceive between his Philosophy and the Religion of Christ, caused them to look upon him as a kind of a Prophet, who had found out several important Matters of Christianity, especially the Trinity, which cannot be denied to be clearly contained in his Writings. Bewitched with such a monstrous Prejudice, we look upon his Works, as so many Commentaries upon Scripture, and fancy that the nature of the Word was such as he fancied it to be. The Ancient first of all lay hold of this seeming Conformity, the Modern have followed them. Whatever was spoken by the Ancient, either good or bad, is obnoxious to frequent Repetitions; and what they were not able to make good themselves by sufficient Reasons, is now proved by their sole Authority. If they foresaw this, it was well to spare themselves the labour of an exact Reasoning. Those Prejudices being brought into Religion, found the way as it were to be confounded with it, and to get a Veneration which is due to it only. This Author clearly enough discovers to us the Source of Mystery springing out of the wonderful and incomprehensible Language of Plato, and at the same time the holy Reverence paid to Mysteries arising from a blind Respect paid to a false Antiquity. I add, that that which makes Mystery the more commendable, is the need Men stand in thereof to hid their Errors; for this is the last Hold whither they repair, when they are at a loss, and have nothing to say in their own defence. Mystery is a Supplement ready at hand, when we fall short of Reason. In a word, Mystery is a salue for all Diseases. It dazzles the Eyes of simplo Men, or rather bewitches them in so great a measure, that by seeing they perceive not the Ridiculousness of the Opinions imposed upon their Belief, and it makes wise Men willingly to shut them; for they do not love to be disturbed in the Enjoyment of their Temporal Advantages, and are afraid of Socrates his Fate.  
In the mean time I hope, Sir, we shall no more be troubled with this dreadful Word, and Mystery will be no longer in fashion, since Dr. Sherlock has so clearly and easily explained to us the Trinity, and a Papist a Friend of his who has well studied his System, has happily made use of it to uncover the whole Secret of Transubstantiation. Self and Mutual-Consciousness are one of those Keys fit to open any Door, and which lays the Sense of the most abstruse Opinions so open to us, that those who after his opening, shall be so bold as to call them Mysteries still, must be accounted very mean Divines, not to say heretics. I hope further, that when we shall ask Evidence and Reason in matters of Faith, they will no more cry our that it is to run down Mysteries, to form a plain and easy Religion. For at this rate the Doctor himself should be a great Destroyer of Mysteries, since he has made the Trinity( if we must believe him upon his word) a plain and easy Truth, free from Contradiction, and agreeable to Reason. Is not the Reasonableness of this Demand, and the pretensions of heretics, justified by the many Endeavours that are used, to take off the Difficulties of this Mystery, and to make it parallel with the most common Doctrines, which are neither wonderful, nor incomprehensible? I perceive what this is. The Name of Mystery is only a provisionary Title bestowed upon the Trinity, till some other System he found out, whereby it may be made clearer and more agreeable to Reason. It may be the Doctor is that blessed Christian, to whom Heaven had reserved the Discovery thereof. If it be so, the heretics will be convinced of Error, but at least they shall enjoy the pleasure of seeing Mystery falling down, and of being satisfied about the Evidence and the Reasonableness which they ask.  
Besides, the Papists will be able at the same time to show us the possibility of Transubstantiation. Or, if we will lay aside the Papists, we may make use of the Hypothesis of the Ubiquitarians or Lutherans, who are our Brethren, and apply the Doctor's Philosophy thereunto. They will easily show us, that it implies no Contradiction. For the eternal Word of God being present every where, the Body which he assumed to himself by Personal Union, is present every where; not that it is divided and separated by infinite Parts, but because it is united to an Infinite Mind. And tho we should suppose as many sacred Hosts as there are Altars in the World, yet there is but one Body of Christ; those sacred Hosts being numerically One by reason of their Mutual Sensation with one another, and with the Original Body of Christ, which is in Heaven. But that this may not be thought a mere Ar●itrary and groundless Conjecture, 
Vindic. of the mist. of of the Holy Trin. p. 50.  I shall show you that this is the true Scripture Notion of the Plurality of Sacramental Bodies in one Natural Body. When Christ delivered the Bread to his Disciples, he  told them, This is my Body; not my Bodies, but my Body: as for Example, he  told Peter, This is my Body; he  told James, This is my Body; he  told John, This is my Body; yet there are not three Bodies, but one Body.( Ib. p. 82.) Each Host is the ●ody of Christ, for each Host hath the whole and entire Operations of the Body, having by this Mutual Sensation the other Hosts in itself; so that each Host is in some sense the whole Plurality of the Hosts by their In-being and In-dwelling. The Body delivered to James is in the Body delivered to Peter; and the Body delivered to Peter is in the Body delivered to James; and the Body delivered to John is in the Bodies delivered to Peter and James; and the Bodies delivered to Peter and James are in the Body delivered to John; and therefore if that Trinity of Hosts delivered to Peter and James and John be the Body, the Host of Peter is the Body, the Host of James is the Body, the Host of John is the Body, they being all mutually in each other; and yet this is a plain Demonstration that they are not three Bodies, but one Body, because neither of them is the one Essential Body, but as thus intimately united to all the rest, and then they can be all three but one Essential Body. Natural Reason teaches nothing about the Sacramentality of the Body-head; it teaches one Body, but whether this one Body be one or many Sacramental Bodies, it says not. And therefore it may be either without contradicting the Natural Notions we have of one Body. And then there is free scope for Revelation: And if Revelation teaches that there is but one Essential Body, and that there are many Sacramental Bedies, each of which in Scripture have not only the Title, but the Nature and Attributes of the Body ascribed to them, then we must of necessity believe a Plurality in Unity, many Sacramental Bodies in one Essential Body. For what the Scripture affirms, and Reason does not deny, is a proper Object of our Faith. And then the Objection against this Faith, that these many Sacramental Bodies must be many distinct Bodies, if each of them is the Body, is senseless and ridiculous. For it is demonstrable, that if there be many Sacramental Bodies, and one Essential Body, each Sacramental Body must be the Body; and yet there cannot be many distinct Bodies, but one Body. For if each Sacramental Body be not the Body, all cannot be the Body, unless the Body-head have Sacramental and Personal Bodies in it, which are not the Body; and if all are but one Essential Body, they cannot be many distinct Bodies. So that all the Absurdities and Contradictions are vanished only into Nicodemus his Question, How can these things be? The right Answer is, God knows. Must we deny things that we cannot conceive and comprehend, though it be expressly taught by God himself? Must be deny what we red in the Bible to be there, because Reason does not teach it, and cannot frame an Adequate Idea of it?( ib. p. 180.) If you say that the Sacramental Bodies are not the one Essential Body, as the Original Body which is in Heaven, is. I answer, That neither the Original Body, nor the Sacramental and Begotten Bodies considered separately from each other, are the one Essential Body; they being only Personal Bodies, both the Original and Sacramental Ones; but the Original and begotten Bodies considered as united to each other by Mutual Consciousness, is the one Essential Body.  
Thus, Sir, an Ubiquitarian will prove the Possibility of his Mystery by Dr. Sherlock's Philosophy. But it may be Dr. walls is the Man most fit to demonstrate this Possibility, and that it is better proved from Mathematical Ideas than Plato's. Let us suppose further that it is so; an Ubiquitarian will not dislike this neither. For if the Doctor can rightly make use of the three Dimensions of Matter to take away the Contradictions which seem to be contained in the Trinty, why shall not an Ubiquitarian be allowed to make use of the Idea of the Divisibility of Matter to Infinity, to resolve the Objections that are made against him about the Divisibility and the Ubiquity of Christ's Body upon many Altars at the same time? He may answer, that, as a Cube may be divided in infinitum, and yet the Matter divided loses none of its Dimensions, every part having still the Essential Properties of Matter, the Length, the Breadth, and the Thickness. Thus the Original Body of Christ may be multiplied into a Million of other Sacramental and Personal Bodies, without losing any of its Essential Properties, not even its Unity: There being no Contradiction that a Body Hypostatically united to an Infinite Spirit, should be wherever that Spirit is; or that a Body, to which the Bread is Hypostatically united, should be with respect to the Substance wherever the Bread is. So that though there be but one Christ, yet there are many Bodies, and those many Bodies are unum, non unus. 
Dr. Wall. third Let.  These many, who are one what, or many somewhats, are but one Christ. For these somewhats are called Bodies in a Metaphorical manner, whereby we mean no more, but somewhat analogous thereunto: And which( because of such Analogy) we so call, as knowing no better words to use instead thereof. And therefore there is but one Christ, though there may be many Sacramental and Personal Bodies, because the same Christ may be said to sustain divers Persons, and those Persons to be the same Christ, that is the same Christ as sustaining divers Capacities, Personalities, Sacramentalities, Corporalities; as is said of Tully, Ego solus trees Personas sustineo, meam, adversarii,& Judicis. And all People, that can tell Money, know that twelve Pence are but one Shilling; every Baker that can make Bread knows that many Grains of Corn make but one Loaf, and what in one Consideration is many, may in another Consideration be but one. So true it is, that with never so little Philosophy, and by the means of a Comparison of three Groats and one Shilling, the meanest ploughman may see clearly into the darkest Mysteries. But, alas! we are Christians, and yet we expound Revelation by the Principles which Philosophy affords us; and we endeavour to find in it such things as may support our Prejudices, without examining whether the Sacred Writers were Philosophers; or, suppose they were, whether they followed Cartesius, Aristotle, or Plato's Ideas; or, whether they were Mathematicians. Must all our Disputes, even the most material, depend only upon mere metaphysics, and that by running ourselves into Mysteries, we fall into such a Confusion of Words, and incomprehensible Notions, whereby that Divine Light, which ought to enlighten the most simplo Men, is altogether darkened? No, the Holy ghosts Intent was not to make us Philosophers, he always accommodates himself to our most common Ideas, and the Expressions of Scripture, which seem to have occasioned the Notion of a Mystery, are only Figures, and Expressions common either to our style, or the time wherein it was written. The only sight of its usefulness and scope will convince us of its Simplicity and Clearness.  
1. It was given us to excite and preserve among Men the Natural Principles of Morality and Religion, which Nature or the Universal Tradition has engrafted in their Hearts. And how could it confirm to us the Truth of those Natural Notions, and even strengthen them by a new Light, if the first Duty which it imposes upon us, did consist in calling into Question our clearest Notions, and our most certain Principles? For Example, When I hear Men talk of a God, or of one sole God, I have a Natural Idea of those two words, One and God, and this Idea is common both to me and all Men, who are come to the knowledge of one God. Shall we believe that Scripture speaks a new Language, that it may not be understood, when it speaks of one sole God, and that it requires from me a confused and uncertain Faith, which is only grounded upon so subtle and slippery Ideas, as the quickest Imagination cannot retain? The Name of God can be ascribed to none but in a proper or figurative way( for as to the Metaphysical and Mysterious Sense, it is neither the Language of God, nor of Angels, nor of Men, as such, I mean, as they have not corrupted their Mind by an unnatural Study.) In a proper Sense the supreme Being goes under that Name by reason of its Nature: In a figurative Sense Christ has this Name bestowed upon him by reason of his Power and Authority. Those two Senses are so clear and so often reiterated in Scripture, and at the same time so agreeable with our Notions, that one must have only his Eyes and a New Testament to be convinced thereof.  
2. Revelation was given us to abridge our Studies and inquiries, by making easy to us the knowledge of our Happiness, and the means whereby we may be fitted to attain to it. I confess Philosophers might have clearer Notions about this Point than simplo Men, if we must come to it by long Reasonings: But since Revelation made those Truths common to those who cannot reach to an exact Reasoning, the meanest Men have as much knowledge about this matter, as the most learned can have. For Example, One might know by Nature and Reasoning, the Justice, the Goodness, and the Power of God in rewarding just Men: One might also from God's general Promises infer by several Consequences the particular Reward of the Resurrection of the Dead. Thus Abraham by Reasoning concluded that God might raise his Son from the Dead, whereof yet he had no formal and particular Promise( {αβγδ}, ratiocinatus est, Heb. 11.19.) Thus also our Saviour argues against the Sadduceans about that general Promise, I am the God of Abraham, &c. from whence he infers the Resurrection of those patriarches. But now adays we have so clear and so express a Revelation about the Truths of our Salvation, that the most simplo Men can apprehended them without reasoning, so far are they from standing in need of flying to Philosophical and Speculative Distinctions. In this new Covenant which God has contracted with the House of Jacob according to the Promise of Jeremiah, no body needs to inquire from his Brother, his Neighbour, &c. after what manner the Lord ought to be known and worshipped; for we are all taught of God, who has put his Word nigh us, &c. i.e. it is so agreeable to our Capacities, that to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent( which is our Eternal Life) we need to consult neither the School-men, nor Dr. Sherlock, nor Dr. Wallis's Notions, nor the Distinction of Essence and Persons, or of Self and Mutual-Consciousness, or of the three Capacities with respect to three Dimensions of a Cube. We have no more to do, than to open the Gospel, to frame a distinct Faith of one sole God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, who sent his Son to us, and of one Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father has highly exalted, by giving him a Name which is above every Name, &c.  
God, who will have all Men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of his Truths, has made his Revelation so intelligible, as to make it plain and easy to all Men, as well to Idiots, as to the most subtle Philosophers. Therefore it is, God never uses any Term to teach us his Mysteries, but what we have a clear and distinct Idea o●. All that he requires from us is, that we should spiritualize those Notions, when the Terms made use of by him are taken from Earthly Things; or that we should svit our Notions to the Nature of the Objects which he speaks of, when the words used by him are borrowed from a kind of things more sublime and excellent. In the first respect he makes use of the Terms, Water, Bread, Light, &c. to represent his Doctrine; Terms whereof we have a clear Notion in the sense of washing, of nourishing, and of enlightening, wherein they are used. And that first Notion, though it be gross, yet if it be distinct, is like the Foundation of the other Spiritual Notion, which God lays upon it. In the second respect, the Scripture ascribes the Name of God to Kings, Angels, and the messiah, calls us the Sons of God, says that we are Partakers of the Divine Nature, &c. Terms whereof we may have a most clear Idea, in the sense of Power, of Holiness, and of Immortality, wherein they are used; so we fit that Idea, which is borrowed from an Infinite Nature, to the Nature of Finite Objects, whereunto it is applied. As to Metaphysical Terms of Essence, Personality, and Consubstantiality, the Scripture hath not liked to make use of them, because they have not a fixed sense, and are not universally understood. And as we have no Natural Notions of them, they are not able to raise us from our Earthly Conceptions, to a Divine and Spiritual knowledge, nor to bring us from the Idea of God's Perfections, to the Idea of the virtues, which he imparts to his most excellent Creatures.  
However, Sir, though that Philosophical Gibberish be never so trifling, yet it made long ago the Language of Scripture useless, under pretence of giving a fuller sense of our Mysteries. But if the Lovers of Mysteries pretend, that what they call Faith, ought to destroy Reason, and our Natural Notions: I cannot see why the Persecutors may not pretend, that what they call Zeal, ought to take off Natural Pity? Thus, on one hand, false Zeal; and on the other, Mysterious Absurdities, shall utterly exting●ish the Light of the Mind, and the Tenderness of Nature; so that at last we may prove to be without Scripture and Conscience, unless God prevents us in his Mercy; and under the Name of Christians, we shall cease to be Men, and be like Beasts without Understanding and Compassion. May God Almighty, who is rich in Mercies, preserve unto us his simplo Truth, which shall make us free from Error and Sin!  
I am, Sir, Your most obliged Servant.  
FINIS.