them taken up by the Deists to destroy all the whole frame of reveal'd Religion But the Scripture is neither so obscure as the Romanists pretend nor so absurd as you Deists do make it And First I think it would be very much to the purpose to reduce Scripture to those several heads of the Subject matter that is contained in them For First For some things are the pure and proper objects of humane reason in which Natural Religion and Revelation are not at all concerned such as are the motion of the Earth or Heavens and other Phaenomena's of the works of Nature Of these it is not necessary that the Scripture should speak in the most proper and the most Philosophical terms It is enough that it excites us to our duty by the contemplation of their Beauty and Order and therefore your Author's Observation of the Errors of the Author of Joshua's History concerning the motion of the Sun is little to the purpose unless he can prove it was the design of that book to give us a system of Astronomy Secondly Other things in the Scripture deliver'd are matters of pure Revelation which reason could never discover but receives them as additions to it Such as are the Doctrine of the Trinity Incarnation Sacraments and the like which my Lord Bacon in his Book de augmentis scientiarum wishes reduced into one Body that so we might distinctly view what knowledge is altogether supported by Divine Revelation and what is owing to the unerring rules of humane reason For whatsoever is deliver'd by Revelation is to be received with the same firmness of assent as a first Principle but with this difference that we may safely venture to draw legitimate conclusions from first Principles of reason but we must be more modest in matters of mere Revelation lest otherwise we wade beyond our depth For here we must acquiesce in nothing but the Scriptures Thirdly Other matters are intelligible by Reason and by Revelation too as visible by a double Light Thus the whole substance of the Decalogue excepting only the Circumstantial part of the precise time of worship in the Sabbath and our Saviour's Divine Sermon in the Mount and other precepts of morality are so many branches of Natural Religion Revelation only confirms what reason as it were guessed at before and makes that obvious to the meanest capacity which before was known to the more thinking part of mankind and adds the certainty of future rewards and punishments which alone can engage a man to act with vigour And therefore we rightly enough interpret moral duties by known Principles of humane reason For otherwise we should run into many absurdities by adhering to the very Letter of the Decalogue its self If we do not interpret the 2d Commandment in this manner every Picture in our Houses every Sign in our Streets would be so many breaches of the Divine Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Likeness of any thing c. All Executions of Criminals and slaying of men in a just War would be downright Murthers if the Commandment Thou shalt not kill was to be taken in a strict and literal sense nay the Scriptures would contradict themselves when in some cases they command Criminals to be put to Death Fourthly Other things are Matters of History Such as are the Narrations of what hapned to the Jews and what Prophesies and Miracles were wrought amongst them And of these we Judge as of other Matters of Fact Viz. By the Number and Credibility of Witnesses And here we appeal to the common sense of mankind for these Miracles which are History to us to those who saw them were matters of sense The Wisdom of God is wrapt up in the Scriptures as it is in the works of Nature and is thence to be deduced by observing Method and Order without which all things appear to the understanding without shape or beauty S. Is this all you would advise L. No. I would be glad to see if the work were possible an Authentick History Synchronical with all parts of those sacred Writings For want of this many have carp'd at Moses's History who yet can find out nothing so Ancient nor so agreeable to all the remnants of past events that were preserved in the Fables or Histories of Pagan Writers Where we have a Synchronical History it agrees very well with the Prophesies of Daniel and no doubt but if an Account could be found of whatever hapned to the Neighbouring Nations about Palestine it would clear many Passages in the other Prophets which now seem triffling absurd or unintelligible S. What do you think of an exact Knowledge of the Hebrew words and all the Idioms of that Language L. I think it very useful but that defect is sufficiently supplied to the Vulgar by faithful Translations of Learned Men. I therefore in the last place would recommend what is touched upon by your Author an exact History of the Books of the Scripture viz. By whom written for what end at what time what was the Natural disposition abilities and qualities of the respective Pen-Men for Authors I must not call them with other Circumstances of the like Nature S. Then I perceive you will agree with my Author in the manner of interpreting tho not in the Divine Authority of those sacred Writings L. So far as it agrees with truth and no farther I approve of a Collection of those places that seem to agree and of those which seem to be most repugnant But Vid p. 86. then I do not infer from thence that the Opinions of the sacred Writers were really repugnant because then some of them must have been false and to ascribe falsehood to inspired Writers is the same thing as to ascribe it to God himself And because I find no seeming opposition in those Writings which may not be reconciled by an exact knowledge of the Language comparison with the Context and Attention to the true Scope and Design of Holy Persons As for what your Author says that we are not to reject the literal sense of any inspired Pen Men because it is absurd since in speculative matters they are guilty of great absurdities it is not to be admitted by a rational Man In those things indeed which are intelligible from Principles of reason as well as Revelation if any thing is plainly absurd and impossible to reason we may and ought to fly to a Metaphorical sense and meaning But we must not do so in matters of mere Revelation because they being deducible from no Principle of Reason we are not competent Judges of what is absurd or possible in them but we give assent to them for no other cause than because they are delivered by God Nor do I wish for an Historical Account of the Lives and Dispositions of the Ancient Prophets that from thence like your Author I may ascribe what I think to be erroneous to the Education Ignorance or Stupidity of
the Prophet because Inspiration equals the understandings of Men and leaves nothing to Natural abilities but only the manner of expression And that I must confess might be guessed at from such an Historical Account of the Books and the respective Pen-Men S. I have heard you hitherto with some delight and satisfaction but I fear you will not be able to assign any better method of interpreting Scripture than that which is propounded by my judicious Author For as nothing unfolds Nature better than a Natural-History so is Scripture best interpreted by a History of the Scripture it self And this History must not only contain the Properties and Idioms of the Original Languages in which they were at first Written of which we have discoursed something already but secondly a Collection of the sentences of each Book which are reducible to the same General Head that so Scripture may not be expounded by any Notions of reason but by sentences Collected from its self L. I cannot see how this can at all advance the design of the Author S. Then I will open your understanding with a clear instance Moses says in p. 86. one place that God is a fire and in another that he is a Jealous God Now you Divines would presently conclude that fire was to be taken in a Metaphorical sense because it is contrary to Natural reason to think That an immaterial God should be a material fire Not considering that Moses might teach that God is a fire tho that Doctrine p. 87. is absurd and contrary to reason And unless the word fire in the 31st of Job and the 12th verse had been put to signify wrath or Jealousy nothing had been more plain Than that Moses had taught the Israelites that God was a fire i. e. the refined part of the most sublimated Aether Now since Moses teaches that God is Jealous and the Scripture no where says That he is void of Passions thence we may conclude that Moses did believe or at least was willing to make the simple Israelites believe that there Vid. sig are the same Passions in God as there are in Man And pray consider how many Absurdities there would be in the Christian Religion if you Divines in Propositions repugnant to common Sense did not to save the Credit of your own Profession fly from a Literal to a Metaphorical Sense and Meaning L. That Scripture is very well expounded by Scripture in most Cases is a Proposition which we are more fond to defend than your very Author but yet we are unwilling to exclude that use of common Sense and Reason without which it is impossible to understand the meanest Author When we read any Historian Orator or Poet we readily guess what words are used in a proper and what in a Translated sense by the very contexture and position of the words without turning over the whole History Poem or Oration to find out a Metaphor or Catacresis that lies open to the first view of the Reader And let any Man read the 23d of Deuteronomy and the 23d and 24th verses and Judge whether Moses therein could be conceived as teaching the Israelites That God is a real fire tho Job had never spake one word of the matter 23. Take heed to your selves lest you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make you a Graven Image or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee 24. For the Lord thy God is a Consuming Fire even a Jealous God How is it possible That Moses should be conceived as teaching the Israelites that God is real Fire when in the same breath he forbids them to make any likeness of him which the Israelites must needs have done every time they struck a light or went to Oven if God had been a real fire Suppose Job had never us'd the word fire in all his complaints could not the Israelites have understood Moses when he expresses the Activity and Vehemence of Gods Indignation against Idolatry in such plain words Viz. Thy God is a Consuming Fire even a Jealous God Besides with what impudence does your Author expound Moses by Job when according p. 9. to his Canons of Interpretation Non licet mentem unius Prophetae ex locis clarioribus alterius concludere neque explicare nisi evident issime constet eos unam eandemque fovisse sententiam We must not conclude the mind of one Prophet from the more express places of another unless we are certain that both were of the same Opinion And again he tells us in the 95th page that we must not hope to solve all repugnancies in the scriptures by comparing one place with another since that only can illustrate some few places by chance Quando quidem nullus propheta eo fine scripsit ut verba alterius aut sua ipsa ex professo explicaret No Prophet wrote on purpose to explain his own or another Prophets meaning S. Methinks it is something odd to say That no Prophet wrote any thing to explain his own meaning L. It is no other than your Author obtrudes upon you under the name of solid Reason whereas he is full of Inconsistencies and seems never to know his own mind In the 87 th Pag. notwithstanding the illogical deduction of a universal Proposition from a single instance he concludes from this passage of Moses That the knowledge of the Scriptures is to be Deduced only from themselves but from the very next Line to the end of the Chap. he contends earnestly to prove That the knowledge of the true Sence of the Scriptures is to be gained not from the Books themselves but from an History of the Books and the various chances that have hapned to them viz. a Narration of the Lives Manners and Affections of the respective Pen-Men who they were at what time to whom and upon what occasion they wrote each Book so that according to your Author the Interpretation of Scripture is to be taken ex solis biblii from the Scriptures alone and yet without such an extrinsick History which himself confesses to be wanting it is impossible to know the true sense of them S. I must confess that my Author is a little too guilty of contradicting himself for great wits have short memories But still you do not shew any Reason why we should not believe that God in the Opinion of Moses was subject to Humane Passions since it is no where contradicted in the Scriptures themselves L. Because the Scriptures themselves do teach That God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and that consequently he cannot be subject to Passions which are always accompanied with some Perturbations of the Body and since by Nature we have no distinct and Adaequate Comprehension of the Principles and manner of Operation of the Divine Nature in distributing Rewards and Punishments it was impossible for Moses to express God's first Resolution of rewarding the Good and
AN ANSWER TO A BOOK INTITLED Tractatus Theologico Politicus LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West End of St. Pauls 1697. To the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Winchelsea Viscount Maidstone Baron Fitz-Herbert of Eastwell c. My Lord THIS Treatise being by me design'd for the Vindication of Reveal'd Religion against those Deistical and Sceptical Notions which are too frequent in this Age had there been no singular obligations to induce me yet cou'd I not have found a more proper Patron than your Lordship whom all must acknowledge to be a Favourer and Protector of Religion Virtue and whatsoever is Praise-worthy amongst men I am very sensible that my small Station in the Church might very well have excus'd me from engaging in an argument which may justly require a Person of more Dignity Learning and Leisure but I am at the same time very well satisfy'd that your Lordship and all good men will not expect much where but little is given and therefore in the same plainness and sincerity wherein I at first wrote it I presume to dedicate it to your Lordship as a small token how much I am Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obliged Servant Matthias Earbery THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader THough I am not of the Opinion That whosoever writes a Book ought to write a Preface for some are so good that they need none and some so bad that they don't deserve one yet I think my self to lye under an obligation to give the World an Account of those Reasons which induced me to Answer a Book which if it had its due deserts ought to be confined to silence and darkness for ever 1. I might here alledge in the first Place that the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus has not as yet the honour to receive an intire confutation from any one Learned Hand that I know in Europe Bishop Boyl in his little Body of Divinity and almost all our Moderns who have wrote in Vindication of the Scriptures have taken notice of Divers of its dangerous positions as they lye scattering up and down in almost every page of it from whence I might have leave to conclude that if those Learned men did think that it was necessary to Answer the chief Objections against the Authority of the Scriptures one by one a Collective Answer to the whole Book would be more satisfactory to the world and more beneficial to the publick Good And therefore I was not induced to undertake this task because I thought none could do it better but because none before me had began so useful a work I consider'd also in the second place that most who have wrote upon this Subject have either done it in such a Philosophical manner as is not easily intelligible by the Vulgar or have proceeded against him and his Party by such Philological Arguments as tho very Learned yet at most are but Conjectural and therefore never can convince a stubborn Sceptist tho they are very pleasing to Ingenious Men. Now tho this way of Writing is very taking whilst the Argument is only toss'd too and fro amongst Learned Men yet it is not sufficient when such Deistical Principles begin to be Popular and seize upon the minds of those who though they want Reason yet stand in need of no Obstinacy to defend the same And therefore since this Book has as I am informed received lately some impressions in our own Language I thought it might not be amiss to administer the antidote in the same vehicle in which the Party has presented the Poyson and waving all Conjectural Arguments that are drawn from humane Authority or whose force depends upon the knowledge of Books or are too remote from common Sense to be understood by all Men I have laid down chiefly such Principles as all may understand and all who understand them must needs admit to be true And I hope that it will be apparent from thence That they who Renounce their Religion into which they are Baptized must Renounce their Reason too which they boast to be their only guide Nor am I ignorant that the Author of this Book was very well versed pardon so favourable an expression in the Writings of Moses and the Prophets understood the Original Language and had made a diligent search to find all weak places wherein he might Assault and Ruine the impregnable Fortress of Reveal'd Religion Mr. Hobbs had another way of trifling with those Books of Scripture and wresting some particular places to his odd Opinions But this Author begins at the very Root and Foundation by taking away all Divine Authority from Prophecy Miracles or Inspiration and making all the sacred Pen-men to be no other than either Mad-men or Impostors Now tho such sentiments ought rather to be punished by the Judge than refuted by the Divine yet since too much liberty has relaxed the Reins both of Civil and Ecclesiastick Power it is necessary that such Weapons should be used as are therefore left us because they could not easily be taken away And I thought it would be at least some punishment as it were to the very Sbades and Manes of this Author to shew the world that he who so long has found a place in the Libraries and Hands of very Learned Men does scarce for his stupidity and trifling way of arguing merit to obtain a place amongst the lowest forms of inferiour Animals And I am sure if he could say nothing to the purpose against Reveal'd Religion his little Disciples of the Town can say a great deal less But indeed the greatest motive of all was the general disposition of men of all Degrees and Capacities in this Age to ridicule our Religion as much as they can nay a great deal farther than their own Abilities will give them leave How will some Little People vent a Jest upon the Bible or argue against Moses who never read a Chapter in it with that Attention which is due to those Sacred Writings And never even in their Younger Days knew any thing beyond a Play or a Romance I will not say That too much Liberty has given Opportunity to Deism to grow up with those other Weeds that infest this Nation Though if I should it might be found to appear not very unlibely to those who consider that Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan was brought forth in the like times of Liberty and that this Author pleads for nothing more than Liberty to Exclude the Conscientious Fear of God out of the World But certain it is That the General Corruption of Manners Contempt of the Clergy Bold Agitation of the Socinian Controversy amongst the Greatest Men of the same Church do render discourses of this Nature very necessary to stop the Mouths of those Mockers whom St. Peter long since Prophecy'd should come in the last days saying Where is the promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation I
will add but one word more and that is To acquaint thee that my design being only to Answer this Author I have followed him exactly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the End of the 7th Chapter and there left him as being weary of going further after a false light to no purpose For having consider'd all his Cavils against the Prophets Prophecy Divine Law Miracles and Interpretation of Scripture I thought it altogether needless to proceed any further And thus having given thee an Account of my design I must leave the performance to thy favourable censure and wish thee a hearty Farewell AN ANSWER TO THE PREFACE OF Tractatus Theologico Politicus THere was not long since a young Gentleman whose Name was Scepticus who was pleased to retire from the noise of the Town into the more refreshing Solitude of the healthful Country He was of a fiery Genius always eager after new things and most pleased with those Thoughts which he thought were farthest removed out of the Road of the Vulgar He had began his Studies with a diligent Perusal of the Classick Authors from whom he received a deep impression of all those Beauties both of Thought and of Expression which are so visibly Eminent in those Antient Writers from thence he proceeded to the Perusal of the Moral VVritings of the Antient Philosophers but presently taking a disgust at Notions he thought too obvious and common he flew from thence to the Atomical Philosophy as it stands revived by Des Cartes Gassendus and others This pleased him for a season extreamly because it gave no deference to Authority but let loose the mind of man to enjoy its primitive liberty of Thinking and gave him vast Ideas of what mighty things might be done by mere Matter and Motion But coming abroad into the VVorld and finding that Religion was the grand Theme of all Mens discourse as well those who lived according to its Rules as those who did not he resolved to apply his mind to search into its abstrusest Misteries And it happening at that time the Socinian Controversie was revived with a great deal of heat he applied his mind very diligently to read all the Socinian Authors He was a long time much pleased with their VVritings because they seemed to Interpret Scripture with an ayre and freedom which he of all things most affected and extoll d Human Reason to such a height as was most agreeable to the Towring thoughts of his own Ambition But finding at last that those VVriters had an excellent knack of making the Scriptures speak whatsoever was agreeable to their own Sentiments It bred in him an Admiration of the Ingenuity of those VVriters but a contempt of the Scriptures themselves which he easily perceived had no command over these Authors whom he most admired It was his misfortune at the same time to light upon the Tractatus Theologico Politicus of Spinosa This turn'd him a perfect Deist he threw away his Bible and set up this Book in the room of it He now thought himself to be set at liberty above the slavish condition of those who thought they were to be rul'd by their Bibles and so fond was he of this Author that every Summer he carried him into the Fields with him in his hands and each Winter he wore him in his Muff. There liv'd in the Neighbourhood an Old Grave Divine who in compassion to his Youth did often pay this Young Man a Visit and had often been laugh'd at by him in the Pulpit for his Zeal for Religion He came to him one day in his Garden as he was reading in this Author and seem'd altogether ravish'd with the Entertainment and being well acquainted with him was thus familiarly pleased to accost him Logic. Sir you seem mightily pleased Pray what Book is that you hug with so much Extacy and Rapture Scept It is a Book so agreeable to my Reason which ever since my Childhood struggled fot Freedom from Popular Errors that I embrace it as my Deliverer from the Darkness under which I was bred by ignorant Nurses Tutors and Masters and as such I recommend it to the perusal of all those who rather desire to be Men betimes than live long till they are over-grown Children with long Beards and shallow Brains trembling at the Thoughts of Invisible Powers Logic. I suppose then you are feeding upon a Limb of Hobbs's Leviathan and are just now returning Thanks to the Lord knows what for the plentiful Collation Scept Hobbs was indeed a very pretty Fellow and not easily scared with Religious Bugbears But this Author deserves rather to be esteemed his Tutor than his Scholar He has such a Knack of Exposing all the Defects of those Books you call the Scriptures with that Strength of Reason and Solidity of Judgment that apparently shews it to be the Work of the Incomparable Spinosa Logic. I suppose it is then his Tractatus Theologico Politicus Pray what is the Design of that Celebrated Book Scept That is best known by the Preface See the Pref. of this Author where he first shews That if Men lived always in Prosperity and by their own good Conduct could become Masters of their most desired Events they would never be entangled with the vanity of Superstition But when they are driven into those Straits from which they cannot expedite themselves they are apt to believe any thing the Mind is tumbled up and down between Hope and Fear and not knowing where to rest on Earth looks up for a support from Heaven Implores the Deity with Tears disgraceful to any Woman runs after Augurs South-sayers and Conjurers and hunts for inspiration in Fools and Mad-men An example of which he gives us in Alexander who had in any difficulty recourse to his Prophers as Servants of his Gods but in prosperity forgot both them and their Masters Logic. And what does he infer from hence Scept That Men are prone to Superstition by Fear only and not by any Innate Sense of a Deity as you Divines would make us believe Logic. But what if this Grand Supposition That Men are only Superstitious in Adversity is altogether false and to be refuted by Ten Thousand Instances both National and Personal Ancient and Modern The Jews were never more superstitious if the Idolatrous Worship of the Sun Moon and Stars is Superstition than in their Highest Prosperity For then they became ashamed as it were of the Rites and Ceremonie taught by Moses and grew ambitious of rivalling their Neighbouring Nations in all the Gallantry and Pageantry of their superstitious Worship So that your admired Author by poring upon Quintus Curtius for one single Instance has quite forgot the numerous Examples to the contrary which he might have found in almost every Leaf of the Bible or Page of Livy's History Scept Don't tell me of Jews I believe we know little of them but what some Modern Impostors have convey'd to us it is apparent to me that all the rest of
because it takes away from Trade the freedom of lying and cheating and defrauding which some perhaps think essential to it But if you Gentlemen desire a Commonwealth that you may barter away our Religion for a Free Trade I say pray God bless the Monarchy of England Scep Prithee don't think we desire to take away your Religion Your Reason ought to be your Only Religion and that I am sure no man desires to take from you My Author's Design is only to take off those Prejudices which the Vulgar entertain of the Scriptures who despise Reason and think that the Scriptures are the Only Oracles of Truth In order to this my Author promises to demonstrate That Prophecy or Revelation is nothing else but strength of Fancy That the Ancient Prophets were only Men of a strong Imagination and of a weak Reason That the Divine Law is nothing else but fatal Necessity That Miracles are only those Works of Nature of whose Cause we are ignorant That the true way of interpreting those Books you call Scriptures does shew that they are of Humane Invention and that every individual man has a Right and Authority to interpret Scripture as he pleases And that Log. No farther I beseech you this is Task enough for one time Let us therefore leave his Preface and proceed to the Book it self that we may see Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu Scep With all my heart And first let 's begin with his Definition of Prophecy and so orderly examine the strength of all his Invincible Arguments Log. I am content and also further promise That if he brings any Objections against Revealed Religion which I cannot answer I will then become of his Opinion and subscribe to whatsoever you will have me Scep It is as fair as I can wish it to be Thus therefore he begins Explicit Praefatio incipit hoc loco primum DE PROPHETIA A. PRophecy or Revelation is the certain Knowledge of something or Things revealed unto Men by God How do you like this Definition The. Very well provided the Author thinks as he speaks and does not impose upon us as his Custom is by ambiguous Terms A. Well then Mind the Consequence All Natural Knowledge may properly be called Prophesie for those things which we know by Natural Light depend upon the sole knowledge of God and his Eternal Decrees But our Mob-Divines that stand gazing with their Mouths open to Heaven to catch Wonders exclude Natural Reason from Prophecy as if the one descended from Heaven and the other sprang from Earth onely And yet humane reason is Divine in as much as the very faculties were by God Created and it is only excelled by Prophesie in two things First that Prophesie extends its bounds further And Secondly it cannot be caused by the Laws of Nature The. And Pray Sir what Charms can you see in such a Jargon of Discourse as should draw your minds away one step from reveal'd Religion For here is a very absurd confusion of Natural Knowledge and that which proceeds from Divine Revelation No Man that apprehends the necessary Connexion of two Terms was ever yet call'd a Prophet by any but this A. If Natural Knowledge might properly be called Prophesy then every Man that by his Natural Reason could comprehend all the necessary Properties of a Triangle or the undoubted certainty of Mathematical Axioms or those self-evident Propositions which are known by a bare perception of the Terms would be a Prophet and so not only all the Lord's People would be Prophets but all the Devil's People too for as much as some Propositions by the sole Light of Reason are evident to all Mankind A. You mistake my Author for he tells you page 2. That tho Natural Knowledge is Divine yet the Teachers of it cannot be called Prophets Because whatever they Teach others without the help of Faith or Credulity may know as well as themselves T. This only shews with how much Confidence and Stupidity your Infallible Author contradicts himself for p. 1. he asserts Ex traditâ definitione sequitur cognitionem naturalem Prophetiam vocari posse What more evident than that he may be called a Prophet who is endowed with natural Knowledge if natural Knowledge may be called Prophecy A. That is but a small mistake His true meaning is That Reason is not less certain and Divine than Revelation its self T. Natural Things are called Divine upon a Threefold Account as they are the Workmanship of God and in this sense all things that have a real Subsistance may be called Divine as they are the Works of God But the word Divine is not frequently used in this signification because it is too general and comprehends so much that it determines too little Or 2. Things are more frequently called Divine that for their Excellence seem to have some resemblance of the very Nature and Perfections of God This Homer stiles his Hero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Grace is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Apostle And indeed in this Sense the rational Faculties of the Soul may not be improperly called Divine forasmuch as they were not only given us by God but do still bear his Image and Inscription upon them But 3dly and lastly Those things are most properly stiled Divine which are immediately produced by the Power of God not according to the regular Laws of Nature but in a manner altogether superior to them And in this most proper signification Creation Prophecy and Miracles are the Works of God and bear all the Characters of Divinity upon them because the First Cause is only concerned in the Production of them without the Concurrent Efficacy of Inferior Agents Hence it is that the Evangelist reckoning up the Genealogy of our Blessed Saviour names the other Patriarchs as Sons of Men because they came into the World according to the usual manner of Generation But Adam he calls the Son of God for tho his Body was out of preceeding matter yet it was formed by the immediate Power of God without Observation of the regular Course of Nature The very Magicians could say when they saw Lice miraculously produced by Aaron's Rod That this was the very Finger of God because they knew it was not within the Bounds of the Power of Nature and that it could not be done by those Inferior Invisible Powers which they invoked And the Prophets call their inspired Writings The Word of the Lord because not deduced from the setled Course and Order of things but delivered to them immediately by God himself in respect to which it is called by St. Peter the Sure Word of Prophecy A. What do you infer from hence T. That your Author trifles when he equals Humane Reason to Divine Inspiration saying very boldly That Aequali jure ac alia cognitio quaecunque illa sit divina vocari potest when it is evident That the one is founded on the
punishing the Bad in more proper terms than those of Love and Anger c. Tho therefore those Expressions are Figurative when applied to God yet since they are the most proper that we can find for what we cannot fully understand it is plain that Moses had right Conceptions of God when in words he ascrib'd those Passions to him S. Then you interpret Scripture by Reason L. I do not make my Reason the Standard of Divine Revelation but I hope that I may make the same use of my Reason in Interpreting Scripture as you or any sensible Man would do in Reading any Humane Author S. It would be hard to deny you that liberty besides I am so much a Friend to Truth that I must ingenuously confess that it is not plain to me that Job in that place by Fire does either understand Jealousy Vid. Job 31. or Anger but rather the crime of Adultery or Fornication for thus he speaks v. 9. If my heart hath been deceived by a Woman or if I have laid wait at my Neighhours door Then let my Wife grind unto an other and let others bow down upon her For this is an Heinous Crime yea it is an Iniquity to be punished by the Judges For it is a Fire that consumeth to Destruction and would root out all mine Increase Now it seems to me that it is not Jealousie which is no very expensive passion but the being deceived by a Woman and the guilt of lying in wait at his Neighbours Door which Job calls here a Consuming Fire that would soon bring Destrustion upon his Body and Estate L. And yet your admired Author makes use of such forc't Interpretations of Scripture to affix absurdities of his own Invention to those Sacred Writings and thereby to destroy their Divine Authority For indeed the whole contexture of the Scriptures both of the Old and the New Testament do give us such clear Notions of the Vnity and Spirituality of the Divine Nature that they cannot be distorted to savour any Opinion that is contrary to Natural Religion without open violence as well as secret Art and Cunning Tho it must be confessed at the same time that they teach some things above our Reason be cause they came from an Author who knows more than in this Life can be understood by us S. If you rightly understand the Ambiguities of the Hebrew Language which my Author very learnedly reckons up in the 93. Pag. and the great want we have of a certain History of the Books themselves and the Lives of the Authors you would easily perceive that we know little or nothing of the true sence of Scriptures unless it be in those places which treat of Moral Precepts for they are so plainly Intelligible that they retain the same perspicuity in all Languages L. We know that the Hebrew as well as all other Languages is subject to some Ambiguities which may create Error but we do not see that these Ambiguities are so frequent or of such consequence as to shake our Belief of any one Fundamental Article of Revealed Religion But with what Gygantick confidence would your Aurhor raise a Stupendious structure upon this narrow and rotten Foundation There are some ambiguities in some places that may sometimes arise concerning the true meaning of some few Texts of Scripture Therefore we can never be certain of the true meaning of any one Text therein those only excepted which contain Moral Precepts for of those we were certain before hand But we can never understand from thence that there was such a People as the Jews or such a man as Moses or such a Person as our Saviour who did wonderful things in Judea nor any Apostles sent out by him for these are all speculative matters which tho the New Testament was wrote in Greek yet are altogether obscured by the ambiguities of the Hebrew Language Can you think your Author would have descended to this absurd way of arguing if his cause would have bore a better Is not our Faith on our Saviour grounded upon plain Narrations of such Matters of Fact as are as easily intelligible in one Language as another and will not History as well bear a Translation as the Problems of Euclid Does not he pretend to expound Scripture by some Hebrew History if he could get one for his purpose and yet is all History so obscure that it is impossible to be expounded S. You cannot deny but that a History of the Lives of the Prophets would much conduce towards the better understanding of Prophetical Writings L. It might give light to some few places but is far from being absolutely necessary to expound all Why may we not as well understand the Scriptures without such a History as the works of Plato or Cicero or Levy Besides in what Language must this Expounding History be wrote Not in Hebrew for then it must be subject to the same ambiguities as the Bible it self Nor in any of the Eastern Tongues for then the matter would not be much mended Nor in any Foreign dialect for then it would not pass for Authentick as wrote by one not skill'd in the Jewish Affairs Then by whom must this History be wrote By an Author that pretends to be inspired then Spinosa will have the same prejudice against him as against the other Prophets and Pen-men of the Holy Scripture whom he exposes as Mad-Men and will not allow them to say one thing unless in Morals that can be understood or that ought to be believed by us If this History is wrote by an Author that pretends to no Inspiration tho that one thing might recommend him to Spinosa yet it will give all thinking men just cause of caution that they be not impos'd upon by a man whom they know to be as fallible as themselves And therefore unless they can be well satisfied that his integrity is greater his understanding clearer and his opportunities of knowing all the important Matters of Fact of those Ages more advantagious than those of the Holy Pen-men they will see no reason why they should rather Correct Scripture by the Historian than the Historian by Scripture S. Ay but my Author gives you such a History of Scripture as makes all the Pentateuch Books of Joshua Judges c. To appear to be a Novel Invention most likely to be jumbled together by Esdras as he well Conjectures and that the other Books of the Old Testament received as Canonical are not of that Antiquity which you Divines ascribe to them L. But then you should consider that your Author is a Person upon whose Judgment we cannot rely since we can have no reason to be satisfy'd with the integrity or Authority of such an Historian How little his integrity is we have already seen by his pretending to be a Deist and to advance the Law of Nature which consists chiefly in Loving God when it is plain from his Chapter of Miracles that he is really an Atheist as every
Mankind are driven to superstition by Fear only Logic. Not so neither Pray what Nation shew'd less Fear and more Superstition than the Ancient Romans And what Nation had ever more Victories and more Altars than that Famous Monarchy Who were ever more punctual in returning Thanks to their supposed Deities than their Senate and Generals And yet I am inclin'd to think that they did not much fear their Enemies when they returned Thanks to their Gods that they had beat 'em and that it was rather a sense of Gratitude than of Fear which was the Mother of that Pompous Devotion Scept You talk of whole Nations by the Lump can you give any Instance to the contrary in a single Person Log. Yes Sir that I can without tumbling over any large Volumes of History Nebuchadnezzar was a Fortunate Prince and Great Conqueror nor did I ever hear that he was very much a Coward and yet he kept see Dan. 2. 2. several Nurseries of Magicians Astrologers and Sorcerers to interpret Dreams predict Futurities and instruct his Court and People in the superstitious Customs of that Age and Nation Scept But tho he was secure for the present yet perhaps his fear of future Evils inclin'd him to so much Superstition Log. What then do you think of his Gratitude to Heaven when he was returned to his Reason and his Throne Dan. 4. 27. and no Passion but Joy could find room in his Breast was that also the Effect of Fear Scept I am not in love with Scripture-Examples Let us have One out of some honest Pagan Author Log. Then your own admired Curtius shall be my next Witness even in that very Alexander whom with equal front and ignorance cites to the contrary for no man was ever more superstitious than that Grecian Conqueror when he was in the midst of all his Triumphs and as far from Fear as from Adversity it was then that he fancied himself to be the Son of Jupiter an Enthusiasm not easy to be parallell'd and impossible to be exceeded by any and the joy of this joyned with his other good fortune so far transported him that it quite excluded all that superstitious Fear which his Southsayers endeavoured to raise by forbidding his entrance into the fatal City of Babylon Scept Alexander tho a Great Man yet was but One Man You cannot deny that Fear by its natural Energy is the only cause of Superstition nor can you assign any other Log. Yes Hope and Love are as certain Motives to what you call Superstition as Fear or Sorrow For have not Men Worshipped a Wrong Deity or the True God the Wrong Way which is the Whole of Superstition out of hopes of being made more Happy Else how came the most Ancient Pagans to Deify the most benign of their Friends and Benefactors Scept I hope you will at least grant that Superstition arises from the Passions of Mankind as may sufficiently be seen by its mutable Nature and not from any Idea of a God that is obvious to the Reason of all Men. Log. All Religion which your A calls Superstition does not take its Original from the Passions but from the Reason of Mankind No man that is not perfectly mad would Love or Fear or Worship a God or any Invisible Power unless he was first fully persuaded of the real Existence of such a Being or Beings that can hurt or else relieve him For the Passions tho never so violent could never hurry on a Man to Worship a What he thought to be a Non-ens that had no Existence but in his own Fancy And this is the Reason Why Beasts that are capable of Hope and Fear and Love or at least something very like those Passions are yet strangers to all manner of Religion viz. because they have no praevious Notion of a Deity to stir up those Passions in them Otherwise an Hare that flies from all things would be as superstitious as the Alexander the Great who made all to fly before him Scept My Notion is That it is the Fear of Mankind vvorking violently upon the Understanding that created all Notion of Invisible Povvers Log. And my Notion is That it is the Reason of Mankind that could not solve the Creation of the World and the Original of Man but by having Recourse to some First Cause vvhich â—xcited the Passions of Man to adore their Câ—â—â—tor and those other Invisible Powers vvhich they presumed did govern the World under him Scept I do not speak of Natural but that which you Divines do call Revealed Religion This is that Grand Cheat that the Priests in all Ages have dress'd up in Various Habits to please the Vulgar who are always of a mutable Temper and to keep them in subjection to those Monarchs who want a Bridle to restrain unruly Subjects But nothing is more fatal to a Commonwealth than too much of what you call Revealed Religion which is the Mother of Seditions and Tumults and a great Enemy to a free Trade And truly this I hope I speak to a Friend makes me very much wish we could see a Commonwealth in England that we might enjoy the liberty of thinking and speaking of Religion as we pleas'd which now is too much restrain'd And my Author tells you That the Grand Design of his Book was to plead for such a liberty Log. I can see no Reason why Religion should not be as necessary to support a Commonwealth as a Monarchy For do not Commonwealths call in the help of Oaths to bind their Subjects to Allegiance as well as Monarchs And may not Divisions about Religion that cause Seditions as well arise where this Liberty is as where there is none For suppose One Numerous Party not contented with Liberty will aim at Dominion over the other may not Civil Wars on this account as well rise up in a Common-wealth as in a Monarchy In all the Species of Government there is some Supreme Power either in One or in a few or in a great many which as the Apostle teaches ought not to be resisted not only for Wrath but Conscience-sake And if you take away Conscience from the Subject and leave nothing but Wrath to restrain his Rebellion there will be no One Form of Government in the World that can be much more secure than another from private Plots and Contrivances of revolting Subjects Besides your Author seems to me to be very ignorant in History when he would confine Religion to Monarchy as Storks are said by Nature to be confin'd to a Commonwealth For never did Superstition flourish more than in the City of Rome and others whilst they were under a Republican Government which gave occasion to S. Pauls Reproof to the Athenians I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious And yet the Subjects of both were as glorious for Arms and Learning as any of our Modern Republicks I must confess as for what you say that Religion is an Enemy to Free Trade is partly true
so stark mad as to build an Ark and take all manner of Beasts and Fouls into it out of a fantastical Fear that he should be drowned upon the dry-land you must confess he did it by virtue of a Supernatural Revelation S. Have you any other instance of the like nature L. Yes more than I shall at present take pains to enumerate but however I will gratifie your curiosity with two or three which will abundantly shew the falsity of your A s so much boasted Proposition We read in the 18th Chap. of Gen. that Sarah was informed by the Angels 10th ver That she should have a Son But who except Spinosa will say that this Prediction was accomodated to the capacity of Sarah or her Lord Abraham when Moses tells us in the 11 th and 12 th ver That Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of Women Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also S. A Woman might easily imagin what she earnestly desired L. If you except against a Woman let us consider the Revelation made unto Moses which you will find to be directly contrary to the Apprehensions and above the Natural Conceptions of that mighty Prophet I would feign learn how it was at all agreeable to the natural Conception of Moses that the lifting up his Rod should be able to work all those Signs and Wonders which it did in the Land of Egypt S. Tho it was not a Conception agreeable to reason yet it might be to his Fancy and we all know the strength of Fancy in producing wonders L. Imagination without doubt has very great force upon the imagining Person but that it should be able to have force upon Objects placed without him so as to work any visible effect upon them is to me till I am better inform'd a very absurd supposition I know some of the Ancients have been possessed with an Opinion that the very Eyes of an Envious Person do dart a Kind of Poyson upon those who are in a Great Station And the Poets presum'd they had the same or like effect upon other Animals Nescio quis Teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos And my Lord Bacon says something to solve this Phaenomenon by the Effluviums of the Animal Spirits And if the matter of it were true which I do very much question his Lordships solution of it would be the best that could be given But supposing it true yet such weak Effluvia's as are engendered by the strength of imagination whatever impression they can make on the tender parts of humane Bodies yet you cannot without Madness suppose them able to turn Aarons Rod into a Serpent or to make it more like a Living Creature or turn a whole River into Blood to divide the Red Sea slay all the first Born of Egypt and do works of the like stupendious Nature S. Did not Pharaohs Magicians do something very like it L. All you can infer from thence is only this viz. that they were assisted by some invisible Powers which is more than Men of your Principles are willing to grant who deny their existence or at least their intermedling with humane Affairs S. But suppose such things done as you Divines call it by invisible Powers how shall a Man know whether those Powers are Good or Evil. L. God being the Fountain of all Goodness no Revelation is made or confirmed by him that is repugnant to the immutable Law of Nature which consists in unfeigned Love to God and to our Neighbour The Pagan Priests made great pretences to Prophesie and Miracles but it was to confirm a superstition contrary to Natural Light and therefore those seeming Signs and Wonders are justly ascribed to the Operation of Lying and Deceitful Spirits For these are known Maxims that Good cannot proceed from Evil and that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand and we may as well conceive that light can be the Fruitful Mother of Darkness as that Satan can be the Author Abetter or Confirmer of the Precepts of the Decalogue or the most Holy Rules of Practice deliver'd by our Blessed Saviour S. Does not your own Apostle say that Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light L. We don't say that Evil Spirits do never Encourage a seeming Sanctity that is gross Wickedness in a Religious dress but that they can't be Abetters or Promulgers of that real and genuine Sanctity which is prescribed by the Mosaick and Christian Religion and of the excellence of which we have as clear Perception as we have of the Truth of any Mathematical Proposition But to pass by Moses and descend to the other Prophets What Pre-conception by Nature could Isaiah have that Cyrus should be King of Persia that Jerusalem should be destroyed by the Chaldeans and that that very Cyrus See Isa 44. 28. Should rebuild the Temple saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built and to the Temple thy Foundation shall be laid If Revelation was adapted only to the Capacity of the Prophet certainly Isaiah was a Person of the largest Natural Capacity that ever yet was Born into the World or as I believe ever will be Born hereafter S. You keep to instances in the Old Testament it would be more to my satisfaction to hear something of this Nature to be alledged out of the New L. What think you of the Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God and of the Holy Trinity which are founded upon Divine Revelation These could not be adapted to the Capacity or Opinions of any one inspired Author since they are above the conception of all Mankind S. I fear you mistake this Author His meaning is not that nothing is taught in Scripture which exceeds humane conception for as he shews p. 28. The Prophets were ignorant of speculative things and were of contrary Opinions amongst themselves and therefore they might give Vent to some odd Opinions which are altogether irreconcilable to the reasonable conceptions of other Men. L. I have already examined all those places of Scripture upon which he would ground this wild assertion and I hope have plainly shewed that no such thing can be deduced from them But to come closer to the purpose Your Author must Acknowledge either that the Prophets as he calls all Divinely inspired Authors were assisted and taught by God or that they were guided by their Natural Fancy Reason and Judgment If Prophecy does come from God and if it be according to his own Definition in the very first Words of his Book the certain Knowledge of some things reveal'd to Men by God he cannot overthrow the certainty of it in Speculations as well as Practicks untill he can destroy the very Idea which all rational Men do entertain of God He must suppose him either to be nothing else but the settled course and order of Nature and then he and his
obedience arises from the Good that may be gained by that Obedience or by the Evil that may be avoided by it If a Superior by which I understand one that has Power and Right over me command me to do a thing it follows that my disobedience must needs expose me to the dire Effects of his Displeasure and that is a sufficient Sanction to constitute a Law without any express threatning of any one particular punishment the Power of Inflicting which is supposed as essentially inherent in the Superior Person And the same is to be said of promises S. I think my Author shews very well that cunning Lawgivers allure the vulgar to obedience to wholesome Laws by propounding to them a quite different end from that which is essential to the Law its self For my part I am willing to be Virtuous for the reward that by the necessity of Nature must needs Spring from Virtue its self but I have no great Opinion of other Allurements by which you Divines would intice Men to follow your own Direction L. I easily grant you that there is a pleasure of mind arising from all Acts of Genuine Virtue as there is a regret and torment that attends upon Vice And that the certain pain or pleasure which Accompanies these with the addition of what probably may be farther expected from God are the very Sanctions of the Law of Nature But if there were no pain or pleasure that followed any Action either by necessity of Nature or free will of God I cannot conceive how there could be any such thing as a Law For to what purpose is a Law when the Transgression brings no Inconvenience nor the performance of any pleasure or profit to the Subject S. How many Laws are daily Transgressed and yet no Punishment inflicted on the offenders Do they therefore cease to be Laws L. No. Because tho punishment is not actually inflicted upon all that offend yet it is threatned to all and the very danger of incurring the penalty is a sufficient Sanction But in a penal Law if all possibility of offending God or Man or our selves were taken away it would then lose the very Nature of Law and revolt again into its first State of Indiâ—â—erency To gain therefore Good and to avoid Evil is the true Ends of all Laws and your Author very much mistakes the point when he represents rewards and punishments as adapted onely to govern the vulgar who know not the true End of Laws and have not Learned the great Art of being Virtuous for Virtues sake For rewards and punishments are adapted to work upon the will and affections of all mankind even the Author himself who would not have ventur'd to write such a Book if he had liv'd in a Countrey where he had been sure to have been punished as he deserves for it He that Loves Virtue or hates vice must do it either for some Good or Evil essentially inherent or accidentally annexed to them and if God by Moses and our Saviour did explain confirm and enlarge these Sanctions or adapt them in some cases to the apprehensions of the vulgar it does not follow that obedience to these Laws is servile but rather that it is a reasonable service S. Is he a just Man that forbears to steal for fear of hanging L. No but yet he may be a just Man who forbears to steal for fear of running into that Evil which reason shews is intrinsically inherent in it or which God by his Prophets has threatned as consequential to it And therefore to disswade Men from having any regard to rewards or punishments is the same thing as to disswade them from Acting like Men or choosing what is best like unto rational Creatures S. Notwithstanding your Pulpit-Cants my Author gives you a more noble Scheme of Virtue He shews you that our understanding being our best part our chiefest happiness consists in the perfection of that most excellent faculty That all certain knowledge we can have depends upon the knowledge which we have of God because nothing can exist or be conceived without God as also because we may doubt of all things whilst we have no clear conception of God Hence he tells you it follows that all things which are in Nature according to the manner of their Existence or Perfection do involve or express our conception of God and that therefore by how much the more we know Natural things so much the more we acquire a more perfect conception of God or may be said to know the very essence of God And he is most happy who loves the intellectual Knowledge of God above all things and is most delighted with it And these mediums of this knowledge as far as conducive to this End may be called the Laws of God L. Perfection of the understanding cannot render a Man compleatly happy unless he can prove that there is no other faculty in the mind of Man but that of understanding only For suppose a Man has a good understanding but an irregular Will and Affections that Man cannot be said to be compleatly happy For happiness being a full Enjoyment of all good things it must be equally extended to all the faculties of the mind or it ceases to be true happiness Our Saviour speaks more emphatically to the purpose Ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them His Reason why all the certainty can be had by Man depends upon his right Knowledge of God is very false and deceitful Viz. Because nothing can be or be conceived without God By which obscure Circumlocution he means no more in plain terms than that there is no other God than the Universe and that all things that are in Nature as he says do involve a conception of God and that by knowing natural things we know the very Essence of God For if God himself is not matter an accurate knowledge of matter cannot give us entrance into a more accurate Knowledge of God The Rom. 1. 20. Invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead says the Apostle St. Paul That is Our Knowledge that some visible things are made which could not make themselves leads Man to an Acknowledgment that they were made by the Eternal Invisible Power of the Godhead But this Knowledge arises not from an accurate discussion of all the properties of matter since it may be deduced from the knowledge of its bare Existence For the very Creation of Matter shews the Invisible Power of God tho his wisdom is more visibly seen in the various Modification of it But still it does not follow that they who best know Natural things do best know the very Essence of God unless God himself be nothing else but the matter of the Universe Suppose a Man should be a great Virtuoso and very ingenious in rendring an Account of the concatenation of secondary causes
and yet should deny the invisible Power of God would you say that by how much the more perfectly he knew natural things so much more perfectly he knew the very Essence of God S. Will you deny what he so zealously asserts That the knowledge and love of God is the happiness of Man the very end and scope of all humane Actions and the chiefest Good that can be attained by us Is it not nobly said by him That we are to love God as our chiefest Good not for fear of any punishment nor for love of any thing with which we are delighted but meerly for himself L. If your Author who so often makes mention of the word God would have told us distinctly what he meant by it this 46th page would have seem'd to have had something like Natural Religion in it But if you reflect upon the preceeding words and the whole scope of his book you will find that God signifies no more in him than the whole Compages of Nature and that he who knows Natural Things knows the very Essence of God and then to know God and to love God tho splendid Terms yet in reality signifie no more than to turn Virtuoso and study the Works of Nature and to love the World and hug its Enjoyments as your whole happiness without troubling your head with the thoughts of the Joys of Heaven or the fear of Hell which your Author rejects as conceptions unworthy of a true Philosopher S. I for my part own an incorporeal Deity tho I don't believe all the Stories you Parsons tell us of him and I believe my Author is of the same mind L. I do not find it appear in any part of his Writings But this I observe that by God he understands a Being that cannot speak intelligibly to mankind but by the fixed course of Nature and that suffers us to be abused by Jugling Tricks and Impostures that Vaunt themselves as Divine Revelations and that cannot work a miracle unless your Author gives him leave and from whom you are to expect no Good and to fear no Evil. So that all his morality is reduced to the Love and Knowledge of God and that is either the Universe or an otiose unactive Being which is next to nothing S. Some men are resolved to approve of nothing Pray what can you say concerning those consequences which he draws from his Notion of the Law of Nature L. If you tell me what they are I will give you my impartial opinion of them S. He says reason is universal Revelation limited L. That the Law of Nature rightly understood is Universal will easily be granted by those who understand what humane Nature is But your Author cannot infer from hence that it is a greater Good to mankind than Divine Revelation because it is a more general good For tho a diffusive Good in respect of its diffusive Nature is to be preferred before that which is restrained and confined coeteris paribus yet it is not to be so absolutely or without exception Virtue is a greater Good than the light of the Sun even in your Authors Opinion who calls it the chiefest Good of man and yet more men receive benefit from the Light of the Sun than from Genuine Virtue if you will believe the Greek Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Ay but this is the great advantage of reason above Revelation that it does not require an Historical belief which can never work in us the Love of God for that is onely to be deduced from such common Notions as carry their own certainty along with them L. The great defects of History are uncertainty deficiency superfluity and impertinency when these are absent History is very completive of the intellectual faculties of man For History is nothing else as my Lord Bacon well observes but a Narration of the various Operations of Individuals circumscribed to Time and Place and its chief end is to advance memory which is as it were the great Store-House or Magazine of Knowledge Uncertain History is a Narration of such things as either never were done or have not been well attested so as to leave no room for doubt And this defect in History destroys the very end of it which is to give us a certain account of what has been done already that so we may know how to Act our selves for the future Deficient History is an imperfect collection of remarkable Occurrences wherein many things are omitted which are worthy a wise Mans observation And tho this destroys not the End of History which is certainty of knowledge yet it Answers not the Expectations of a Thirsty Soul Impertinent or Superfluous History is a Narration of such Actions or Circumstances of Action as for their turpitude or meaness deserve not to be recorded And this is a defect which can no other ways be supplied than by a total abolition of those trifling Authors S. What is it you would infer from hence L. That Faith grounded upon true and useful History may give us a right knowledge and due love of God S. How can Faith that rests upon humane Authority contend for certainty with Reason that proceeds by such common Notions which are admitted as true by all men L. Natural Reason does enable men to understand that God ought to be loved as the first cause of all those good things which his Creature Man does enjoy But then there is a certainty in Sense as well as in Reason tho after another manner And therefore if the Senses of some Men have been rationally convinced that God has bestowed other Benefits upon them than those that were bestowed at their Creation or conveyed by the invisible Hand of his Providence Why should not such a knowledge excite them to all imaginable Love and Gratitude to their great Benefactor The certainty of a Benefit received is all that every good Man requires in order to be Grateful and whether that certainty is grounded upon abstracted Reason or a true faithful Narrative of a mattter of Fact is not much to the purpose So absurdly does your A asserts Nec fides Historiarum quantumvis certa Dei cognitionem consequenter nec etiam Dei amorem vobis daâ—e potest S. He does not deny that it can't give us Motives to love God but it can't work in us the love of God whether we will or no. L. No more can his adored Reason for many of the greatest pretenders to Reason have been the most impious Men in the World S. You Divines represent God to the Vulgar as a Law-giver and his Commands you call his Laws but alas you mistake the point For Eternal Verities are the only Laws of God who Acts by the necessity of his own Nature For the Affirmations and Negations of God do always involve an Eternal verity and necessity in themselves If God had said to Adam Thou shalt not Eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil it would imply a
is a foolish thing to limit the power of Nature and to say her Laws extend to some things only and not to all L. Your Author speaks herein as little like a good Philosopher as a good Jew or a good Christian If the Laws of Nature are fix'd and immovable they may be observ'd and the Observation of them we call the study of Natural Philosophy To say therefore with your Author That the Course of Nature is fixed and immutable and yet that her power extends to all things Potentiam Naturae infinitam esse omnino credendum est is a contradiction in the very Terms for if she could do all things she could alter her setled Course and move in an Order quite contrary to what now she steers Nor does he mend the matter by asserting in the same page That the fixed Laws of Nature extend to all things that are comprehended in the Divine Vnderstanding For the Divine Understanding must needs comprehend as well what is impossible as what is possible to be done and the Mutability as well as the Fixation of the Rules of Motion in material Bodies into such notorious Absurdities does your Author run whilst he endeavours to destroy the credibility of Miracles by jumbling together the Names of God and Nature S. If there be a fixed Course of Nature how can there be a Miracle which is neither more nor less than an interruption of it L. Because it is fixed by a Superior Intelligent Being who can unfix the same when it is for his own Glory or the General Benefit of Mankind If Nature did not keep for the most part a setled Course we could have no distinct Notion of a Miracle but she is so steady that she gives us time to view her and from that view to frame such Axioms of Possibility and Impossibility as are as evident to our Reason as any of those principles which some tho I fear not truly do stile Innate Notions S. I am still of my Author's mind That we call those works Miracles whose natural Causes we do not understand L. No We rather call that work a Miracle which we know is done not by a Natural but by the immediate Energy of some Supernatural Power For the Course of Nature being steady nothing is more easie than to observe when her Course is broken i. e. when something is done that we are sure is repugnant to those fixed Rules which she is bound to observe in all other cases S. Prithee what are those Rules How do you know that they have ever been broken L. The first Rule Ex nihilo nihil fit Out of nothing there can come nothing is as clear by its own light as any One Proposition we can easily frame unto our selves Either therefore Matter made it self that is it was a Cause before it did exist which is a Wild Absurdity or it was made by a Superior Being and its very Production the beginning of Miracles We all know that mutations of bodies may be made by the regular Laws of motion but that Matter should make it self or be produced out of nothing by her own Laws of motion is repugnant to the common sense of mankind If Matter therefore was made there was a time when it did not exist and therefore its motion from non existence to existence could not be according to any fixed Rule of Nature which had then no being and consequently God did not always work by fixed and unalterable Rules to which the very Notion of Creation is directly repugnant S. You ramble too wide from our present purpose Can you prove that any thing yet was ever done since the Creation that was certainly repugnant to any One fixed Law of Nature which may be a sufficient Testimonial to a man that he is sent from God L. It is a Maxim in Reason That one body acts upon another by Contaction or Protrusion only If two bodies were placed never so near and no contiguous body between they might remain to all Eternity in that posture without affecting each other or producing any alteration in them If therefore any man can produce an alteration in bodies by the sole word of his mouth all men will conclude this man does act by virtue of a Supernatural Power When therefore the Children of Israel saw Moses turning water into blood or bringing Lice and Frogs c. upon the Land of Egypt by the lifting up his Rod or our Saviour curing diseases by the word of his mouth or raising men from the dead c. they must conclude that this was done by a spiritual and not by a material power which can cause no alteration on another body but by Contraction or Emission of minute Particles the secret Operations of which do constitute the whole body of Natural Magick Now if the moving of the Wand or speaking a few words did produce the wondrous Effects but now mentioned in the production or alteration of bodies by the sole force of Nature they would do it always when utter'd or apply'd after the same manner because the Laws of Nature are fixed and immovable But since we see they have done it but cannot do the same thing again we very rationally conclude that these alterations were made in Bodies by a Spiritual and a Superior Power Your Author therefore must not think to sham us off with a Wild Pretence That what we call Miracles were some strange works of Nature so called with respect to the ignorance of the Vulgar For we are willing the Miracles upon which our Religion is grounded should be tryed by the most known Axioms of Natural Philosophy and challenge the whole Race of Epicurean Atomists to shew how they could be done according to any Hypothesis that ever yet was framed of the Mechanical Laws of Motion S. Does not my Author clearly demonstrate That the Sun 's stopping his course of which we read in the Book of Joshua was nothing else but a refraction of Light the Sky being then full of Hail And the like may be said of the Dial of Ahaz L. Your Author boldly says much but he proves nothing The standing still of the Sun or the prolongation of Light by any other means whether Natural or Miracu lous would have been equally beneficial to the Israelites in affording them time to slay their Enemies But because it would be greater Encouragements to the Israelites to see God himself assisting them in a miraculous manner and the Scriptures do relate this as a Miracle and since no sufficient Reason can be given why the Sun should stop his Course or the Earth stand still which in the Effects is the same thing unless by the immediate Power of God we have more Reason to believe the Scripture-Narrative than the improbable Conjecture of your daring Author For why must we needs conclude That because it was possible the Children of Israel might be deceived that therefore they certainly were so Or how is it probable that the Air