Page:Saducismus Triumphatus.djvu/46

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ADVERTISEMENT.

THis Letter of Dr. Moor being left amongst other Papers appertaining to this new intended Edition, by Mr. Glanvil and I perceiving in a Letter of his to the Doctor, that he had a Mind this Letter should be Published together with his Book, it is done accordingly and prefixed at the beginning thereof, as natural Method requires, the Letter being Hortatory to quicken Mr. Glanvil to dispatch his intended new Edition for the undeceiving of the World, and the Postscript, containing many things of a general Influence upon the whole Book. But that the Doctor may suffer no prejudice thro' this Publishing of his Letter and Postscript, from the sharpness and satyricalness of them in some places, I shall for the more rightly understanding his meaning in the using that Mode of Writing upon this occasion, transcribe a Passage of a Letter of his to his Friend Mr. Glanvil, relating thereto. I pray you send me word, whether that Postscript will not meet with all the elusory Cavils of that profane Buffoon, upon those places of Holy Scripture; his unworthy usage of the Holy Writ, and his derisorious Interpretations of it in the behalf of his beloved Hags, provoked my Indignation to such Schemes of deriding and exposing him, as otherwise I should never have condescended to. This is a sufficient Testimony of the Doctor's averseness from such manner of Writing. But as Divines tell us, that Anger and Punishment are God's Opus alienum, his strange Work, as being more abhorrent from his Nature; but yet for the good of the Universe, he steps out sometimes into that Dispensation; so I think it not mis-becoming good Men, sometime to condescend, (as the Doctor calls it) to the chastising profane Drolls and Abusers of Holy things, by a just Derision and Satyrical Reprehension for their freakish and impious Sauciness, provided it be done sincerely, and for the pubiick good.

Sadu-