Conjectura cabbalistica

timate converse. As for my own part, I cannot but publicly profess, I never met with any yet so truly and becomingly religious, where the right knowledge of God and Christ bears the enlightened mind so even, that it is as far removed from Superstition as Irreligion itself. And my present Labours cannot find better welcome or more judicious acceptance with any, than with such as these. For such free and unprejudiced spirits will neither antiquate Truth for the oldness of the Notion, nor slight her for looking young, or bearing the face of Novelty. Besides, there are none that can be better assured of the sincerity and efficacy of my present Design. For as many as are born of the Spirit, and are not mere sons of the Letter, know very well how much the more inward and mysterious meaning of the Text makes for the reverence of the holy Scripture, and advantage of Godliness, when as the urging of the bare literal sense, has either made or confirmed

confirmed many an Atheist. And assuredly those men see very little in the affairs of Religion, that do not plainly discover, that it is the Atheist's highest interest, to have it taken for granted, that there is no spiritual meaning, either in Scripture or Sacrament, that extends further than the mere Grammatical sense in the one, or the sensible, gross, external performance in the other. As for example, That to be regenerated, and become a true and real Christian, is nothing else, but to receive the outward Baptism of visible water: And, that the Mosaical Philosophy concerning God, and the nature of things, is none other, than that which most obviously offers itself in the mere letter of Moses. Which if the Atheist could have fully granted to him on all sides, and get but this in also to the bargain, That there is no knowledge of God, but what Moses his Text set on foot in the world, or what is Traditional, he cannot but think, that Religion in this dress, is so empty, exceptionable, and con-