Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	great_a	part_n	1,913	5	3.8823	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29780	Miracles, work's above and contrary to nature, or, An answer to a late translation out of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus, Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan, &c. published to undermine the truth and authority of miracles, Scripture, and religion, in a treatise entituled, Miracles no violation of the laws of nature.	Browne, Thomas, 1654?-1741.	1683 (1683)	Wing B5062; ESTC R1298	42,132	76

MIRACLES WORK' 's Above and Contrary to NATURE OR An Answer to a late Translation out of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Mr. Hobb's Leviathan c. Published to undermine the Truth and Authority of Miracles Scripture and Religion in a Treatise ENTITULED MIRACLES no Violation of the LAWS of NATVRE Sicut non fuit impossibile Deo quas voluit instituere sit ei non est impossibile in quicquid voluerit quas instituit mutare Naturas D. August de Civitate Dei l. 21. cap. 8. LONDON Printed for Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1683. MIRACLES WORKS Above and Contrary to NATURE OR An Answer to a TRANSLATION c. In a TREATISE Entituled MIRACLES no Violations of the LAWS of NATVRE TO the Compiler of this Treatise we are ingaged for two things 1. The Collection of the several parts of his Work out of several Authors and the tacking of them together 2. The Translation of each part out of the Latin A Method much in use of late to Copy out the pernicious Authors as well as Practices of former times and instead of sitting down and putting their own Invention upon the Rack to take a more easie and compendious way of doing Mischief by Transcribing or Translating for the greedy reception of the present Age whatever has been formerly written tending to the subversion either of Religion or Civil Authority The former of these is unquestionably the Design of this Treatise since the asserting That there is no such thing as a Miracle i. e. a Work above Nature undermines the Foundations of both Law and Gospel overthrows the Credit and Authority of Divine Revelation and remits us either to a bare Religion of Nature and Morality or to none at all The Book to Assign to each Author his share in it consists of Two Parts The latter which is the main from the middle of the third Page to the end of the Book is wholly except two or three Authorities in the last page a bare Translation of the Sixth Chapter of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus written by Spinoza Which Chapter he seems to have made choice of out of that Author as effectual by it self to compass the design of his whole Treatise viz. To instill the Principles of Deisme or Atheisme into the minds of his Readers The other part which takes up the two first Pages and half of the third is a Translation likewise of part of Mr. Hobbs's Chapter about Miracles in his Leviathan from whence he has taken as much as he thought would make for his purpose and seem to be of a piece with the other Translation out of Spinoza to which he has prefixt it Introductory to the Book there is a Premonition to the Reader And here we might justly expect from him to speak himself and to give us a free and ingenuous Account of his Authors his Translation and the Design of it But the greatest part of this too is Borrowed or Translated whether you please out of Mr. Burnett's Telluris Theoria Sacra and the rest only some brief Touches of what he has after more at large out of Spinoza Of his Three Authors the last I believe is not very proud of the company of the other two and therefore is not much obliged to his Translator for clapping him and them together as Confederates and Brethren in Opinion But it is more pertinent to observe that two of the three are clearly against him in their sense about the main point in Controversie Spinoza indeed is the great Patron of his Assertion viz. That there is no such thing as a Miracle if we take the word to signifie a Work above or beside Nature But Mr. Burnett and Mr. Hobbs are point blank of the contrary mind and therefore either they must speak very inconsistently nay in effect contradict themselves or what he here produces out of them cannot be drawn to favour his and Spinoza's Opinion and so the co-herence of the several parts of the Collection will not appear to be very great nor the Harmony very agreeable to any that shall first consider each as they stand apart in the distinct Authors before he examine them as they are here associated in the Rhapsody of this Treatise To begin with Mr. Hobbs whom we have least reason to suspect to have any wrong done him we have no more to do but to read the rest of that Chapter where the Translator leaves him and we shall soon find that he admits and supposes Miracles in that very sense wherein he is produced to deny them here For First He defines a Miracle to be A work of God beside his Operation by the way of Nature ordained in the Creation which is flatly contradictory to that Assertion That nothing can fall out but according to the order of Nature 2. He infers from that Definition That a Miracle is not the effect of any Vertue in the Prophet whose Doctrine it confirms but of the immediate hand of God and that no Devil Angel or created Spirit can work a Miracle Which Positions however questionable if understood of a delegated Power in Men or Angels are sufficient to demonstrate that it is his sense that there are Miracles or Works above Nature For if there are Works wrought which no finite Spirit nothing but the immediate hand of God can effect these certainly must surpass the force of Nature she working by second Causes in all her Operations It is to be confessed That Mr. Hobbs does in his own way as well as Spinoza destroy the Authority of Miracles by his Doctrine in as much as he does not admit them for sufficient Credentials of the Divine Mission of any Prophet when the Doctrine he reveals does not square with the Religion established by the Civil Magistrate So that all the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles were of no force because the Doctrine they taught contradicted the established Tenets of the superstitious Jews and the Idolatrous Gentiles Yet though these two Authors equally to be honoured for the good Service they have done the Christian Religion agree very well in the main Design they differ notwithstanding very widely in the way of compassing it as far as the opposite parts of a contradiction can set them at odds the one Asserting that there are works above Nature the other denying it So that the Author of this Collection was not very well advised to think they would cotten so well together and ought rather to have tried first how far the Work might be done by one of them singly and to have reserved the other for a new expedient if the former had failed Mr. Hobbs then we see asserts there are Miracles And so does Mr. Burnett in Words most express and in the very same Paragraph part whereof he has quoted out of him in the Latine in his last Page and at very little distance from the very Words there quoted to represent him