Part 1II `Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter. 9 § 144. After this I waited on him at London again, and hecaine once to mete my Lodgings, when I was in Town (near him ; ) And he told me, that he receiv- ;cd my chidingLetter, and perceived that I fill-petted his Reality in the Brfinefs; but he was fo hearty in it that I thould fee that he really meant as he fpake, concluding in thefe Words [YoujLallfee it, and my Prá(hce fhall reproach your Diffidence.] I told hid, That if I fore-faw his Temptations, and were willing to helphim by Premonition to overcome them, I meant not that as an Accufation; but I thank'd him for his Promife, to reproach my D,fdence byhis Prahice,and filch an Event would hehis-Honour, and La it reproachme and fpare not, fo be it the Workwere done. But again, i defired that'no one living might knowof it, tillhe and I had finilhed our attempt. And thus I waited for his Animadverfions. § 145. About a Month after I wenttohim again; and he had done nothing, but was (till hearty for the Work. And to be Ilion, I thus waited on him time after time till my Papers hadbeen near a Year and quarter inhisHand, and then I defired him to return them to me, which he did, with thefe Words, [ I am frill a well-wi ier to thof Mathematicks;J without any other Words about them, or ever giving me any more Exception against them. And this was the ilfue. ofmy third At- tempt for Union with theIndependents. § 546. Having long (tition the Snfpenfionof my Àphorifms) been purpofing to drew up a Method of Theology, I now began it : I never yet faw a Scheme; or Method of Phyficksor Theology, which gave any Satisfaftion to my Reafon : Tho' many have attempted to exercife more accuratenefs in Distribution, than all others before, bp npp,oAme Tleatias, Wolleiu,&c. and our refentbutballer, Dr. Nicb. Gibbon, inhis Scheme) yet I could never yet fee any whofe Confufion, orgreat Defects, I could not eafily difcover, but not fo eafily amend. I had been TwentySixYears convincedthat Dichotomizing will not do it ; but that the DivineTrinity in Unity, hath exprelt it felf in thewhole Frameof Nature and Morality: And I hadfo long been thinking ofa trueMethod, and making fome finali Attempts, but I found my fell infufficient for it; and fo continued only thinking of it, and ftudying it all thefe Years. Campanella I fawhad made the fairelt Attempt that ever Ifawmade, in the Principles of Nature (and Commenius after him ;) but yet aA I believe, he quite mid it in his fink operative Principles of Heat and Cold ( miftaking the na- ture of Cold and Darknefs;) fo he run his three Principles, which he callethPri- malities, into many fubfequent Notions, which were not provable or coherent - Having long read his Phyficks, Metaphyrcks, de Senfn rerum, and Atbeifmus Tri- umpbatus, I found him mention his Theology, which put me in hope, that he had there alto made fotne Attempt, but I could never hear of any one that had feen any filchBook of his: At last Mr. Geo. Lan'fon's Theopolitica came out, which re- duced Theology to a Method more Political and righter in the main, than any that I had feen before him : But he had nothit on the trueMethod of thePefligia Trini- tatie; and forno long Debates by Writing between' him and me, which had gone before ( about 7 Years) had engaged him to make good his first Papers, in Chofe miftakesabout theOffice of Faith in Juftifcation (as Jultifying only as Chrift's Pro- pitiation as the Ob;eft of it :) Ofwhich in that Book he faith fo much (to the pity rather than fatisfaftion of the Judicious:) his Book being otherwife the foundeft, and molt aboundingseith Light of any one that I have feen. But the very necefli- ty of explaining the Three Articles of Baptifm, and the Three Summaries ofReli- gion ( the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Decalogue) hath led all thecommon Cate- chifms that go that way (of whichVrrne Correftedby'Par4eus is the chief) into a truer Method, than any of our exafteft Dichotomizershave hit on, ( not excepting Treleatiut, Minim, or Amefius, which are the belt.) § 147.. The Nature of things convinced me, That as Phyficks are prefuppofed in Ethicks, and that Morality is but the ordering of the Rational Nature and its Anions, fo that part of Phyficks and Metaphyficks, which opened the Natureof Man, and of God, which are the Parties contrae}mg, and the great Subjefts of Theology and Morality, is more needy pertinent to a Method of Theology, and ihouid have a larger place In it, than is commonly thought and given to It: Yet I knew
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