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
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
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
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