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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89672	A conference with a theist. Part II. Shewing the defects of natural religion; the necessity of divine inspiration; the rationale of the mosaical laws, and defence of his miracles : together with an account of the deluge, the origin of sacrifices, and the reasonableness of Christ's mediatorship. / By William Nicholls ...	Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.	1699 (1699)	Wing N1094A; ESTC R181001	142,863	328

so various had it pleased him when he gave Men Bodies and Souls alike he could have infused into them the same sentiments of the Religion they were to profess and have united all Nations under one Law But 't is obvious that Providence permits variety of Sects and Opinions because God takes as much pleasure to be adored with different Forms of Worship and Ceremonies as to be glorifyed by the wonderful diversity of his Creatures whose various Beauties set forth his Infinite Power So that in short Credentius I think it every Man's duty to comply with the Religion established in his Country whatever his private thoughts may be concerning it and that God-Almighty is satisfied with the inward worship of ones mind though for peace sake he complies with an erroneous outward one But however I hold his folly inexcusable that will expose himself to suffering and contempt rather than to comply with a few simple Niceties which particular Sects and Nations are fond of when all of them own Natural Religion for their foundation In a word as some have boasted themselves to be Citizens so I am a Church-man of the whole World and though you perhaps may be offended at me for an extravagant Latitudinarian yet I am sure I have more reason on my side than those narrow-soul'd People that are hedging in Salvation and keeping their Communion only within the bounds of a little Paultry Sect. Cred. Not indifferent to be of any Religion I thank you Sir for this great freedom for by this frankness you have laid open the very Soul of Deism but withal have given such a vile Character of it as no honest Man would be very fond of embracing it I am afraid there are too great a number of Men in the World of these sentiments and by whom Religion suffers more than by avow'd Atheists for these are open and generous Enemies whilst the other are striking at the Vitals of the Church as they lie foster'd in her Bosom But that you may understand how unreasonable and wicked this Opinion is be pleased with me a little to consider 1. What horrid Hypocrisy and Dissimulation it is 'T is Hypocrisy to communicate with a Religion that you do not believe a Tittle of the Truth of There cannot be a greater Falsity and Cheat in all the World than this is To tell a Lie or to act a shuffling Trick in bargaining or the like seldom deceives but a very few but such a wicked dissimulation in matters of Religion deceives a whole Congregation or it may be in a Man of Figure a whole Nation This is the basest act which any Man of honour or any pretence to Vertue can condescend to so perfidiously to deny the Truth to make use of such false Arts and such little creeping Tricks to pursue an Advantage But what is worst of all it is the most intolerable Affront to God Almighty that can be imagined to offer to pay a worship to him which we are conscious that neither he nor our selves do approve and to joyn in Prayers and Devations which we know must be an abomination to him Which must 2. Be more wicked when the worship you joyn with is downright Idolatrous Sometim Idolatry What excuse can you make for worshipping or falling down before a Popish Host which you believe to be only a Wafer and you pay to it the worship due to the supreme God How can you without horrour think of worshipping an Indian Idol with pretence it is but a Symbol of the Deity when 't is generally but the Representation of some horrid Figure the Devil uses to appear to them in You may talk what you please of the Extensiveness of your Communion but I protest I am scar'd at such a Religion as you pretend to and I think you had better with the Atheist openly bid farewel to all and lay claim to none Morality not the same in all Religions 3. As to what you assert that the Morality of all Religions is the same and is the principal part of them I think that is a great mistake For many Religions are so made up of Ceremonious Foppery that Morality is little taken notice of in them and some retain such Dangerous Errours and Faults in their Doctrine and Worship that there is no Communion with them without violations of moral Honesty or intrenching upon the dictates of Natural Religion As when the worship is Idolatrous when wrong and injurious Notions are entertain'd of God's nature when Dead Men Devils or Images have divine honours paid them when Indulgences are granted to Sin and Crimes are pretended to be pardoned without Repentance when a good Intention shall be allow'd to justify Evil actions and the like So that there is no communicating with such Religions without committing an Offence against the ordinary Rules even of Natural Religion and Schismatically and perfidiously deserting that true Religion we have been educated in 4. As to what you say concerning every Mans being obliged to be of the established Religion of his Country Not always to be of the Religion of our Country and to profess to speak in the usual way all the Tales which the supreme Magistrate shall think fit to allow I look upon this to be wildest of all Hobbs his silly Paradoxes For if the Magistrate be the Publick Conscience by which all Men are to be governed as he asserts why did God give every Man a Conscience of his own which Natural Religion informs us every one is to be governed and judged by There are very few Men can quiet their own Consciences after the Commission of a grievous Crime only because their Prince might allow it or believe a Ballad to be Holy Scripture though there was an Act of Parliament to call it so But if we must be of the Religion which the Magistrate enjoyns we must make the Magistrate God Almighty for no one but he has Authority to command any Religious Doctrine to be believed but God Besides this Opinion would make Religion the most trifling and inconstant thing in the World a Man might change his Religion as often as he does his Cloaths and the poor Men of the Frontiers in Flanders should be Papists Calvinists or Lutherans three difference Religions in so many Moons This would be to render contemptible the noblest thing we are capable of doing the service we owe to Almighty God and to make it the sport and May-game of Prophane and Atheistical Men. Sin outward is to comply with a false Religion 5. But whereas you assert That God Almighty will be satisfied with the inward good Intention and worship of the mind whilst you outwardly comply with the most false and erroneous worship This Opinion will open a Gate to all the Deceit and Villany in the World Upon this Principal Men may Murder and Steal for the glory of God and cut Mens Throats to save their Souls There would be no tying any Man

upon account of our Sins by the name of Satisfaction For this is no bloody revengeful satisfaction which impotent and passionate Minds are wont to call for but only such a just debt as ought to be pay'd to the Justice of God considered as the Governour of the World I am not insensible that some Calvinistical Writers have carried this matter a little too far by leaving no room at all for the Mercy of God to exert it self in this wonderful dispensation and making the divine Justice to require a satisfaction to be made by the same specifick Infinite Punishments which we had deserved in the Sufferings of our Saviour so as to think that no satisfaction could be unless Christ actually suffered upon the Cross all the Eternal Torments of the Damned intensivè as they speak though not extensivè so that our Saviour in his Agony and Crucifixion must suffer Torments as much infinitely greater than Damned Souls as their Eternity of Suffering is longer than the hours of our Saviour's Passion But this has no foundation in Scripture and seems horrid to Christian Ears It is enough to say That the Mercy of God disposed him to accept of the Temporal Sufferings of Christ for our Sins in lieu of the Eternal punishments which we had deserved And so the infinite dignity of the person suffering was a sufficient satisfaction to the Divine Justice offended and unspeakable mercy was shewn to offending Mankind by being free from that punishment which otherways they must have undergone themselves So that Infidel and Socinian scoffers do very ill to arraign the Mercy of God and to tax him with Revenge and Implacability in demanding such a Legal satisfaction for by the same Rules they might expose all the Legislative Authority in the World when Criminals suffer by their sanctions For there is no other way to maintain the L●gislatours honour and to engage Men to observe his Laws but by inflicting an Exemplary punishment on offenders for otherways their Laws would be but Cobwebs and their Authority the May-game of Licencious Transgressours But in this vicarious punishment of Christ for us God is far from shewing himself an Angry or Implacable Governour but does rather manifest the greatest Tenderness and Compassion in being willing that all the World should escape their deserved punishment and Christ only suffer for them all and in accepting the Temporal Pains of his Cross for those of Eternal Death which they had deserved AVicarious punishment not unjust Gen. 9.25 2 Sam. 21.8 2 Sam. 24.15 Jos 7.14 1 King 21.29 2. Neither is it unjust that Christ should undergo a vicarious punishment for us For that vicarious punishments are not in themselves absolutely unjust may be proved not only from Scripture Instances where Children are punished for their Parents and Subjects for their Princes but by the notion which the most civilized Nations have always had of the lawfulness of punishing sureties for the Parties they were engaged for by their denying the publick honours to the Children of notorious Offenders by Decimations in their Armies and by killing the innocent Hostages when the Articles were not performed Now if the Greeks and Romans who of all other Nations pretend to the exactest Rules of the aequum bonumque could see no obliquity in these vicarious punishments there is certainly a far less pretence of injustice to be laid to God's charge in ordering Christ to suffer for the Sins of the World Now it is impossible here that there should be any injustice or injury Here was no injustice done to Christ for he was pleased voluntarily to lay down his Life for us Neither was it any injustice done to God for God Authorized him to do it by a mutual stipulation betwixt the Father and the Son And our Saviour says expresly Joh. 10.18 I have Power or Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay down my Life So that there is no more injustice committed in our Saviour's laying down his Life in a voluntary Suffering for us than there is in his laying it down according to Socinus his Notion for a Testimony of his Doctrine And I am sure I could prove it as equally unjust for God to put him upon preaching a Doctrine that would cost him his Life as to let him lay down his Life to save a World 3. Christ tho' God might suffer And as for your Tragical Exclamations against the Orthodox Doctrines which makes the Eternal Son of God who is himself God blessed for ever to be incarnate and to suffer for the Sins of the World this does by no means render the Deity passible a Notion which all Christians abhor But by reason of the Union of the Deity with Flesh or Humanity which was Patible Christ was then in a possibility of suffering and those sufferings which were proper only to one Nature are attributed to the whole person by reason of the intimate Union of the two Natures Nay the Scripture it self attributes the properties of the inferiour Nature viz. the Humanity to the Divinity the superior one As when it is said that we are redeemed by the blood of God we must not think as if God could bleed or die but that That Person who was both God and Man who by vertue of his Humanity was capable of suffering laid down his Life for us to redeem us Now here is nothing in this of Absurdity but only adorable mystery and admirable Wisdom which the Thoughts of Man could never have reached to and no human Counsel could ever have contrived To find out such a way to save the Souls of Lost Mankind and to secure God's honour and the Authority of his Laws Phil. I have one thing more to objects to you upon this head and that is the Christian Doctrine which you teach about Christ's Intercession and that is so odd and gross a notion as no rational Man can assent to For you make Christ continually at his Prayers in Heaven to God the Father to pardon the Sins of Mankind upon their Repentance and to bestow his Benefits upon them which God in his own nature is inclined to do without this bustle of Intercession Besides it looks like a piece of Pageantry as your Doctors explain it to have Christ continually exhibiting the wounds of his Crucified Body to the Father to move him to compassion and to put him in mind of the Sacrifice he was made for Mans Sins which it is impossible that an Omnipotent Knowledge could be unmindful of Methinks this looks like a Piece of Homerick Divinity when the Poet describes Heaven acording to all the formalities and sillinesses which are seen in human nature Cred. There is nothing in the Christian Doctrine of Intercession but what is agreeable to good sense and reason No Incongruity in the Dostrine of Christ's Intercession and all expressions which do seem to imply any such grossness in them as you imagine must only be understood Figuratively To what state of Bliss the Glorified Body of our Blessed Saviour is exalted whilst we poor Christians live in this Vale of Misery and Tears we are not able to imagine or with what divine actions his humanity is employ'd All that we can be certain of is what the Scripture tells us that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 that he is said to intercede for us at the right hand of God Rom. 8.34 that he is entered into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 that he is a Priest continually and his blood speaks better things than that of Abel that he offers his own Sacrifice for sin for ever Heb. 9.25 and the like Now there is no need to assert that all these Expressions are taken literally when it is plain that many of them are Metaphors taken from the Levitical Law from the Piacular Sacrifices from the Intercession of the High-Priest fo● the People from his entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum c. Now St. Pa● makes use of these ritual Phrases the better to explain to the Jewish Converts th● Nature and Efficacy of Christ's Death from those outward Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law which they were well acquainted with And I doubt not but the Unbelievers themselves do think these Expressions are Metaphorical but only they have a mind to be picking up something to be flinging at Religion though they are at the same time sure 〈◊〉 will do no harm Phil. Pardon me Sir for t●is and I will not at present trouble you with any more Infidel Objections and f●● the rest of the Time that you will honour me with your Company I will endeavour to entertain you with more inoffensive Discourse Though I ca● not but acknowledge that I wish I wa● fully perswaded of the Truth of you● Religion which seems indeed upo further consideration to be a Rational Institution and well laid together which lays down the Laws of Morality more exactly and fully than the ordinary Reason of Mankind which gives an account of the grand Periods and Revolu●ions of the World and God's Providential Dispensations beyond common ●hilosophy and the light of Nature and 〈◊〉 I could get rid of some other doubts which I beg you will at your leasure satisfy then I hope you will make a thorough Convert of me THE END NOta Bene That the Internal Solid which is engraved in the Plate Fig. 〈◊〉 and is supposed to move round the ●orthern part of the Globe in a Circum-Polar Line does not belong to the present Hypothesis but is a supposition ●hereby in Time may possibly be ●ade out two great Difficulties in Natural Philosophy viz. The Cause of the direction and alteration of the Magnet ●nd the Constant Parallelism of the Earths ●xis to the Poles of the World

for I take your cases to be very different They poor People never were in a Capacity of receiving the glad Tidings of the Gospel or they were possessed with such invincible prejudices of Education under a superstitious worship that they could not receive the blessed seed to improvement which without all doubt God will make great allowances for But the Persons of your way after having received the seed of Gods word have trampled upon it you have seen the light of the Gospel and shut your Eyes upon it you have turned Renegado's to your blessed Redeemer and perfidiously deserted his Institution which in your Baptism you swore to live and die under So that you are strangely mistaken to think that your condition hereafter will be as good as the old Pagans Your cases are as wide as those of Foreigners and Domestick Rebels in a Civil War their Obedience was not expected by Christ but you have traiterously deserted him and fought against him contrary to your sworn Allegiance So that whatever mercy they may find at God's hand you can expect nothing but the utmost severity And then as for the case of the Heathen Heathens do not go to Heaven which you would willingly skreen your selves under though I cannot be so uncharitable as to think that all they are concluded under Eternal Damnation for not being of a Religion they never heard of yet I can see no grounds to believe they shall ever be Heirs of our Christian Salvation or that State of Glory which Christ has promised to his Followers To be saved or to partake of whatsoever Glories are comprehended under that name is the peculiar Priviledge of us Christians for the Scripture says plainly there is no other name given under Heaven by which we may expect Salvation but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that no man cometh to the Father but by him that God added to the Church such as should be saved and the like So that a Heathen has no more Title or probability to be saved than I have to be a Nobleman of Venice Because Salvation as I observed is the peculiar Christian State of Glory that place which our Saviour says he is gone to prepare for us John 14.3 So that though the Heathen may probably have other Places or States of Glory ours does not belong to them Nay it is hardly reconcileable with the distributive Justice of God to advance unregenerate Heathens to the same State of Happiness as those that are redeemed by the blood of his Son Baptized into his Cross have partaken of his Sufferings and have denied and mortifyed the dearest of their affections in obedience to his Commands What other provision God may make for them But however I doubt not but that God may in another manner make provision for the honest sober Pagans in another World for in that very Verse in which our Saviour says he goes to prepare a place for us Christians he tells us that in his Father's House are many Mansions There are many glorious Places or Seats in the Universe unto which these good People may be transferred there to enjoy a considerable happiness though very unequal to the Joys of our Christian Paradise Our Mansion or State of Happiness seems to be the choicest of all the rest one of our Saviour's own choosing and taking up In my Father's House are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you It is a Metaphor taken from a Harbinger's Office And the sense is this Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Fathers House c. I would not have you dismayed upon my sufferings and be distrustful about your future State upon your being initiated into a new Sect of Religion as if you were not to enjoy so much happiness hereafter as the Jews or other Sects of Religious worship in the World shall for in my Father's House are many Mansions there shall be some degrees of happiness some seat of blessedness for good People of all sorts but I go and prepare a place for you I who am the beloved of my Father and the chiefest in his Glory will obtain a place of the most extraordinary happiness for you to abide in So that at last though it should be granted that you Theists that have had a Christian Education should be admitted to the state of good Pagans in another World yet you are a very narrow Soul'd People that you will aspire to no higher a degree of happiness when it lies easy before you only by maintaining your Gospel-Covenant which in your Baptism you have engaged to Phil. That is more Credentius that I have Faith to believe yet I have a great many Rubs to get over before I can come to that But however I have no abhorrence to your Christian worship I can go to your Churches upon occasion hear a Sermon and say my Prayers with you without any check of Conscience at all I have no reason to think but I might lawfully go to an Indian Pagod and worship the supreme Deity though under the representation of a Horse-faced Image I should never stick out to pray to him among Mahometans in a Turkish Mosk or hear Mass in a Popish Chappel nay I am of Opinion I might as one expresses it Summi Entis vim adorare in flosculo * An Epistle of a Deist in Przircovius his works pag. 600. adore the power of the supreme Being in a little Flower For the principal part of all Religions is the same viz. Morality and a good Life and the common notions of Good and Evil so that I do but laugh at all the little squabbles of so many Angry Sects in the World one with the other for my part I fall out with none of them for they all agree with me as far as my Creed goes so that I have no reason to forbear Communion with the worst of them Indeed most of them have added some superstructures of their own to Natural Religion which I do not approve but I can step over a hundred things of this nature for the sake of Peace and Unity And to speak freely I could never approve your Christian Zeal and earnest Prayer to have all the World of the same Christian Religion for as the King of Siam has observed that diversity of Religious Worships is one of the great Beauties of the Universe For says that wise Prince to the Person who came to him in the name of an Embassadour from the French King and proposed to him his turning Christian I wonder that Prince should so busy himself in a matter relating to God for which there is no sign that God does shew any concern himself as leaving it altogether to Man's Discretion For says he the true God who created Heaven and Earth and all the Creatures comprehended therein and who has endowed them with natures and inclinations