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
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
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