I have first observ'd that several great Men and who have pass'd for good Christians have held this Opinion without losing the Reputation they had of Piety There is not a Man of Worth and Honour among the Protestants who will dare to say that Erasmus and Grotius were Libertines and yet both of them defended openly this same Opinion But because there are some Divines who esteem none but those that have been of the Society they live in I will repeat some reremarkable words of a Divine famous amongst the Presbyterians in England and even amongst those on this side the Water It is Mr. Richard Baxter who speaks thus in an English Book translated not long since into Dutch and intituled The Saints everlasting Rest. 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he who believeth but some one Book that containeth the Substance of the Doctrine of Salvation may be sav'd much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest Men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual Precedency to the Writings of other godly Men and do believe in Christ upon those strong Grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather than upon the Testimony of the Writing it being purely infallible and divine may yet have a divine and saving Faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine Inspiration where it handleth the Substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every Circumstance And in the next Page 32. The Circumstantials are many of them divine yet so as they have in them something humane as the bringing of St. Paul 's Cloke and the Parchments and as it seems his Counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something human in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediately divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But all innocent Imperfection here is in the Method and Phrase which of we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick Nothing can be more expresly said for the Justification of our Friend Those who have a value for Mr. Baxter must forgo their Esteem of him or else not condemn so lightly those who in his Judgment may have a saving Faith together with some Opinions different from those commonly receiv'd It may likewise be observ'd that many of those who have writ of the Truth of the Christian Religion have prov'd it without supposing the particular Inspiration of the Historians of the New Testament to be such as it is ordinarily taken to be as Grotius whose Book has been alike esteem'd by all Parties Which shows that our Belief is not founded upon this Supposition and that consequently one may be a good Christian without admitting it But it is better to represent this by an Example which will give you a more lively Impression of what I aim at I will therefore now indeavour in as few words as is possible to give you the Idea of a Method that seems to me very strong and very proper to convince a Libertine of the Truth of our Religion without once mentioning any thing of particular Inspiration I do not pretend thereby to condemn all other Methods that may be used to the like purpose but it seems to me that this is the simplest of all and subject to the fewest Difficulties You will allow me Sir this small Digression which may perhaps not be unuseful in a time when there are every where so many that doubt of the Truth of the Christian Religion The first and the greatest Objection the Libertines make us is That our Judgments are pre-possess'd which hinders us from being undeceiv'd We say the same of them and maintain that it is nothing but sensual Inclinations that raise those Difficulties in their Minds which would vanish if they examin'd them without Passion It is not just that either they or we should take for granted our Pre-possessions as Principles demonstrated or which need not be demonstrated Let us then act on both sides as if we had not yet espous'd any party and let us urge nothing that is not founded upon Principles which both sides acknowledg It is agreed that there are certain Characters by which we may be assur'd whether a thing has been done or no and by which we may distinguish the Truth or Falshood of a History If we do not agree in that we are Pyrrhoniens or to give it a better Name altogether senseless for none but a Mad-Man can doubt of the Truth of all the Histories in the World But farther we must also agree in another thing which is no less certain It is that there are certain Matters of Fact the Truth whereof is better conceiv'd than it can be prov'd and which are of such a nature that unless a Man be in a proper Disposition of Mind he can hardly be induc'd to believe them For Example If any one should tell us here that the Inquisition of Spain and Italy has approv'd the Works of Calvin and allow'd the People to read them in Spanish and Italian although it is impossible for us to believe it and that we are firmly perswaded of the contrary we should not be able to convince a Person who should be obstinate in maintaining it until we had given him evident Proofs thereof In like manner if there were false Witnesses ready to swear that one of our Friends whose Vertue had been well known to us for divers Years and who but just then was gone out of our Company went then immediately in cold Blood to assassinate a Person unknown to him for no other reason but only to make an Anatomical Dissection of his Body it is certain we should not believe them although it might not be in our Power to prove judicially the contrary It is easy to imagine a thousand Examples of such like Truths which we apprehend better than we can prove That being suppos'd if we come to the Christian Religion there occurs at the very first a difficulty in discerning what are the Doctrines of this Religion for Christians have great Controversies among themselves about their Belief There would be no end of going about to examine all these Controversies Let us therefore suspend our Judgment thereupon and see first wherein all Christians are agreed They all agree for Example that most of the Books of the New Testament are the Writings of those Authors whose Name they bear and who writ them more than sixteen hundred Years ago that the History therein is true and that we ought to obey the Commandments therein contain'd This Obedience may be reduc'd to these general Heads a rendering to God the Service due to him a trusting in his Promises and a keeping his Commandments in what concerns both our selves and our Neighbour But this supposes a Belief of
they have taken much pains to correct in themselves the Faults which others commit they have apply'd themselves to reading or they have travell'd in France These Jews born in the Countries where nothing but Greek was spoken understood not the ancient Hebrew nor the Hebrew then spoken in Iudaea They made use in their Synagogues of the Version of the Septuagint and because they spoke nothing but Greek they were call'd the Hellenist Iews Salmasius in his Book of the Hellenist Tongue against Heinsius shows that these Jews spoke very good Greek and that it is very absurd in some Learned Men to imagine there was an Hellenish Tongue as if the Hebrews that knew not their own Language had a particular one different from that of the places where they dwelt and that this Language was that of the Septuagint and of the New Testament If a Name were to be given to this corrupted Greek it should rather be call'd Hebraistic because it is full of Hebraisms or Chaldaisms But as the Language of the Walloons or of some of the Provinces of France cannot pass for a particular Language being nothing but a corrupted French so neither ought the barbarous Greek of Iudaea to pass for a Language by it self different from the Greek Language It is no wonder then if the Apostles who had liv'd a good part of their Lives in Iudaea or who were born there and had not apply'd themselves to learn perfectly the Greek Tongue nor to speak it in purity use it so improperly in their Writings St. Paul himself born in a Town that spoke nothing but Greek had so corrupted his Speech by his long dwelling in Iudaea that he confesses he was ignorant in the Language 2 Cor. XI 6. as sufficiently appears by all his Epistles the Greek whereof is very different from that of Iosephus And therefore the Greek Fathers have complain'd of the obscurity of his Stile of the barbarous Phrases that are therein and of apparent Confusion in the order of his Discourses and those who very readily understood Plato and Demosthenes were oblig'd as Erasums judiciously observes to take great pains to understand St. Paul We need but compare his Stile with that of some Greek Author to find that this Apostle apply'd himself not much to the Greek Eloquence It is plain then that the holy Spirit inspir'd not the Apostles with the Expressions they were to use If it had been so St. Paul could not have said he was ignorant in the Language He should have said that the holy Spirit inspir'd him with a Language such as was that of the People And all the Greek Fathers would have blasphemed against the holy Spirit when they observ'd the little Eloquence of St. Paul for according to this Supposition that would not have proceeded from St. Paul but from the holy Spirit If any one doubt of this he need but read Erasmus in the places I have cited It is true that a famous Protestant Divine has undertaken to confute him in his Annotations upon the 10 th Chapter of the Acts but he does nothing but declame as he is us'd to do against an Author more learned and more judicious than himself without bringing any solid Reason We must now speak a word of some Books of the Old Testament that contain neither History nor Prophecy such are the Books of Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Song of Solomon and Iob which last is apparently a Dramatic Piece whereof nothing but the Subject is true as are the Tragedies of the Greek Poets There is no Proof that what is contained in the Proverbs was inspir'd to Solomon by God after a Prophetic manner They are Moral Sentences which a good Man might well pronounce without Inspiration as are those contain'd in Ecclesiastious There are very many of them that are but vulgar Proverbs which carry indeed a good Sense but have nothing in them of Divine There are a great many Directions about Oeconomy which Women and Country-People every-where know without Revelation See Chap. XXIV 27. and XXVII 23. and the Description of a vertuous Woman at the latter end of the Book The Name of Prophet is very liberally bestow'd on Agur the Son of Iakeh for some Moralities that are found under his Name Prov. XXX Whereas I dare be bold to say better things might have been said without the Spirit of Prophecy Three things says he for Example are too marvellouss for me and even four which I know not The way of an Eagle in the Air The way of a Serpent on a Rock The way of a Ship in the midst of the Sea and the way of a Man with a Maid One must have a mean Opinion of the Spirit of Prophecy to believe that it dictated such things as these And indeed neither does the Author pretend to that Eminency but says modestly concerning himself That he is more brutish than any Man and has not the Vnderstanding of a Man But there is particularly one Precept of good Husbandry that is often repeated which our Merchants now adays know as well as the Israelites that liv'd in Solomon's time It is that which expresly forbids them to be Surety for any body Chap. VI. 1. XVII 18. XX. 16. XXII 26. XXVII 13. It is true by the Rules of good Husbandry a Man should never be Surety but there happens oftentimes Cases wherein Charity ought to be preferr'd before good Husbandry as appears by the Parable of the Samaritan who became Surety for the Expence of the Jew that was found hurt on the Road. There is methinks no great need that God should send Prophets to teach Men good Husbandry on the contrary it was very necessary that Christ should preach Liberality Some Learned Men have believ'd that Ecclesiastes is a Dialogue where a pious Man disputes with an impious one who is of the Opinion of the Sadduces And in effect there are things directly oppos'd one to another which it cannot be suppos'd the same Person speaks The Epicurean Conclusion To eat drink and be merry because a Man has nothing else which is up and down in many places of this Book is altogether contrary to that Conclusion at the end of the Work Fear God and keep his Commandments c. But it is extreamly difficult to distinguish the Persons or to find out exactly in the Name of what Person the Author speaks in every Passage However it be there appears in it nothing of Prophetic and there is little likelihood that the Spirit of God would set out with so great strength the Arguments of Sadduces or perhaps of worse Men to answer them but in two or three words Read the beginning of the ninth Chapter and make Reflection on these words The living know that they shall die but the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a Reward for the Memory of them is forgotten Also their Love and their Hatred and their Envy is now perish'd neither have they any more a Portion for ever
and believes Haman was about to force the Queen Haman is seiz'd upon to be put to Death and the Gibbet being found ready sitted for Mordecai Haman by the king's order is hanged upon it Mordecai succeeds in the place of Haman and by Esther's means obtains another Edict whereby the Jews are permitted to take Arms and defend themselves against those that should fall upon them The day mention'd in the Edict being come the Jews kill all those that went about to destroy them They slay five hundred in Shushan And the like leave being given them the next day they kill three hundred more besides Haman's ten Sons who were hang'd by the King's order Now upon the consideration of all these Circumstances it is observ'd by some that if Vnity of Time and Place had been observ'd in this Story there would have been nothing wanting to have made it a good Tragi-Comedy For my part I determine nothing upon the Point But this I can say that in all likelihood Mr. Simon had not read of a long time this Book when he writ the 129th Page of his Answer where he says That though it should be suppos'd that the Books of Esther Judith and Tobit are not true Histories yet it does not follow therefore that they ought to be left out of the Catalogue of Canonical Books And that he has observ'd in his Critical History after St. Jerom that the Parabolical Stile has always been in esteem amongst the Eastern People and that a Book whether it contain a true History or a plain Parable or a History mix'd with Parables is not therefore the less true or less Canonical If the Histories contain'd in these Books are not true they are certainly not Parables but Romances The bare reading them is sufficient to show that those who writ them publish'd them not for Books of Morality but only as surprizing and wonderful Stories To say nothing of Iudith and Tobit it is plain by the Original which the Author of the Book of Esther gives to the Feast of Purim that he compos'd that Book with design to make it look like a true History See the IXth Chap. v. 27. to the end The Original of a Feast uses not to be founded upon a Parable and such a History as that of Esther is not wont to be mix'd with Parables Mr. Simon says well that there are Parables in the New Testament so well circumstantiated that one would take them for true Histories But we must not have read either the Book of Esther or the New Testament to be perswaded that there is any resemblance betwixt the History of that Book and the Parables of our Saviour The Parable most like to a History is that of Dives and Lazarus but there is nothing in it like the History of Esther See Ioseph Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 6. Objection 9. The Prudence and Reason of the Apostles is often spoken of as if the use they made thereof were inconsistent with the Inspiration attributed to them but these things may well agree together as Mr. Simon observes Answer If Mr. Simon understood what he would say when he speaks of reconciling Human Prudence with Inspiration he believes undoubtedly the same thing that I do concerning the Inspiration of the Apostles We agree that the Terms were not inspir'd The question is only about the Things The Inspiration of the things consists either in presenting to the Mind general Principles from whence they that are inspir'd according as they have occasion afterward draw Consequences or in furnishing it with Arguments ready fram'd If God furnish'd the Minds of the Apostles with Arguments ready fram'd they made no use of their Reason having nothing to do but to declare what the holy Spirit had inspir'd them with as the Prophets were only to express the Sense of what God had said to them And this is that which every body calls properly Inspiration But if it be suppos'd that God presented to the Minds of the Apostles only general Principles of which by their own reasoning they made necessary and fit Application upon emergent occasions they were in that case no more inspir'd than those who having carefully read the holy Scripture have the Ideas thereof so present in their Minds that they never fail to make use of it when it is necessary In this last Supposition Reason indeed is made use of but in the other it is not Now it appears that Mr. Simon is not of the Opinion that excludes the use of Reason And therefore I say it is probable that he is of the same Opinion with me though he know it not For I deny not but God might have presented to the Minds of the Apostles either by supernatural or natural ways the general Ideas of which they should stand in need to defend themselves at their Trials I only deny that God always inspir'd them with all the Arguments they made use of on those occasions Mr. Simon adds That to say that the Spirit of Courage and Holiness which the Gospel produces in our Hearts dictated to the Apostles what they should say is to destroy intirely the inward Grace which God did spread abroad in the Hearts of his Apostles and which he yet daily spreads abroad in the Hearts of the Faithful But what does he mean by this inward Grace which is common to the Apostles and the Faithful Is it not the Spirit of the Gospel At least the Faithful have nothing else in common with the Apostles Now if the Apostles by virtue of this Promise It is not you that speak it is the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you have receiv'd as Mr. Simon gives us to understand only the inward Grace which God spreads abroad daily in the Hearts of the Faithful the Inspirations of the Apostles were not different from those of the Faithful now a days Objection 10. Whereas it is said That the Apostles spoke many things at their Trials which might have been spoken without Inspiration and from thence is inferr'd that it is not necessary to believe that they were inspir'd with those things This way of arguing may be apply'd to the Prophets whom nevertheless we acknowledg to have been truly inspir'd Mr. Simon Resp. 131. Answer Mr. Simon who sees nothing in Books but what his Passion shows him might have taken notice that I said that the Prophets teach us they are inspir'd when they say Thus saith the Lord c. There are two ways to know if a thing be inspir'd The first consists in observing if those who say this or that thing maintain that they had it from God by an extraordinary Revelation whereof they give undeniable Proofs as did the Prophets The second is when the thing it self declar'd shows it to be so When the first way fails we must have recourse to the second and where they both fail we have no reason to believe there is any Inspiration Now this is that which appears in many Discourses of the
in any thing that is done under the Sun Go thy way eat thy Bread with Ioy and drink thy Wine with a merry Heart for God now accepteth thy Works Grotius is of Opinion that this Book was not writ by Solomon himself but that it is a Work compos'd under his Name by one that had been in Caldea because there are divers Caldean words in it If this Conjecture be true as is not impossible then this Book will be nothing but a Piece of Wit and Fancy compos'd by some of those that had been in the Captivity And I know one who has studied much the Criticks of the holy Scripture that suspects the Author of this Book to have been of the Opinion that the Sadduces were of afterwards about the Immortality of the Soul and the World to come It seems to him that this Author says nothing which a true Sadduce might not say But for my part I think it best to determine nothing herein It is commonly believ'd that the Song of Solomon is a Mysterious Book describing the mutual Love between Christ and his Church But there is no proof of it neither in the Old nor New Testament nor in the Book it self All that can be said is that the Jews explain this Book allegorically of God of Moses and of the Jewish Church But a Man need but read their Allegories to see that they are the Visions of Rabbins having no Foundation but in the fanciful Extravagance of their Brains which frame of Mind our Divines have so much inherited from them that they give themselves wholly up to find Mysteries in every thing Nay it must be confess'd that some of them have in that out-done the Rabbins and that there is nothing so Chimerical in the Chaldee Paraphrast as in the Commentaries of those who pretend this Book ought to be explained by Revelations and that in it are to be found all the Wars about Religion of this past Age in Germany the Interim the League of Smalcald the Peace of Passau c. There being then no Proof of the Mysteries that are pretended to be in this Book if we judg by the Book it self we shall find it to be an Idyle or Eglogue where Solomon brings himself in as a Shepherd and one of his Wives perhaps Pharaoh's Daughter as the Learned think as a Shepherdess That the Stile is the same with that of the Pastoral Poems of the Greeks and Latins saving that it is more rough and dithyrambic acccording to the Genius of the Hebrew Poetry You may compare the Similitudes Solomon makes use of in the fourth Chapter with those Ovid uses in the Pastoral Song he makes Polyphemus sing in the XIIIth Book of his Metamorphosis The Book of Iob is also a piece that has nothing in it of Prophetic The Critics who have any thing of a nice Judgment agree that it is a sort of Tragi-Comedy It is likely there was such an one as Iob since the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him and that he met with great Afflictions which afforded Subject to some Jew of the Captivity to exercise his Wit upon There are in this Book as well as in Ecclesiastes many Chaldean words which show that it was compos'd either in Chaldea or after the return from the Captivity Divines agree that God inspir'd not Iob's Friends with what the Author makes them say and this Book being written in Verse seems to be a Work of Meditation wherein the Author would make his Parts appear Neither Iob nor his Friends could talk in that manner extempore The design of the work is to show that Providence oft-times afflicts good People not to punish them for any particular Sin as if they had deserv'd those Afflictions more than others but simply to try them and give them occasion to exercise their Vertue This is without doubt a Truth but there is no need of being a Prophet to know it And on the other side there is one very remarkable Fault in this Book The Author brings in Iob complaining Chap. III. with Bitterness and extream Impatience unworthy not only of a pious Man who had the knowledg of the true God but even of a Pagan that had any Wisdom Let the day perish in which I was born and the night wherein it was said a Man-Child in born c. This manner of cursing the day of his Birth with so much Passion becomes not a pious Man such as Iob to what extremity soever he might be reduc'd It is to be guilty of great Indecorum to put into a good Man's Mouth so passionate words as well as those that are in Chap. X. I will say unto God Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Becomes it thee to oppress c. After such Expressions as these which are very like Blasphemies God finds says the Author that his Servant Job has spoke the thing that is right before him and is angry with his Friends for believing that Iob was afflicted for his Sins It appears methinks hereby clearly enough that there was no Inspiration in this Book no more than in the three foregoing Not but that these Books are useful and may be read with Profit and Edification as well as Antiquity read those which we at present call Apochrypha Nay it may be allow'd that they which compos'd them had the Spirit of God that is to say were full of Piety and that they writ them with a prospect of leading those that should read them into the ways of Piety But it may be objected that these Books being in the Jews Canon ought to be acknowledg'd for divinely inspir'd rather than the Apocryphas that never were in it I answer to that First That no clear Reason is brought to convince us that those who made the Canon or Catalogue of their Books were infallible or had any Inspiration whereby to distinguish inspir'd Books from those which were not This Collection is commonly attributed to Esdras and the great Sanhedrim of his Time amongst whom they say were Zacchary Haggai and Malachy But many learned Men believe not this Story because no proof is brought for it except a very uncertain Jewish Tradition There is much more likelihood that this Collection which we have is the remainder of the ancient Books of the Jews which divers particular Men at first gathered together and of which afterwards public use was made in the Synagogues whereas in the time of Nehemiah as appears by the Book that bears his Name they read publickly only the Book of the Law In the second place if you will stand to the Jews Canon it is plainly on my side They divide the Scripture into three parts of which the first contains the Books of the Law the second the Books they call the Prophets and the third contain others which they call Chetoubim or simply Writings that is to say the Psalms the Proverbs Iob Daniel Esdras Nehemiah the Chronicles and those which they call the five little Books
who have more Zeal than Knowledg to answer four sorts of Reflections that are made upon the Treatise concerning Inspiration I. Some Learned Men who approve the Opinions of Mr. N. conceive nevertheless that they ought not to have been publish'd because in their Judgments it is not fit that all Truths should indifferently be communicated to all People There are say they certain things which though good in themselves may easily be apply'd to ill uses and it is better that the Public should be depriv'd of the advantage it might draw from the knowledg of such Truths than be visibly expos'd to the danger of abusing them so lamentably as it would be apt to do II. Others who are of the same Mind in approving the Opinions of Mr. N. believe that since he was willing those his Thoughts should be publish'd he ought to have express'd them more distinctly and above all to have propos'd in the first place the State of the Question between him and the generality of Divines These Gentlemen think that if he had done as they say he had prevented a great many Calumnies which are grounded upon nothing but the Obscurity that is observ'd to be in some places of his Writing III. Some of those who look upon the Opinion of Mr. N. as false Doctrine cannot indure that I should have said It appears not by what Principle it can be overthrown They say that nothing is more easy And to let you see they are in the right they make divers Answers to the Arguments of Mr. N. and propose some Objections which they believe sufficient to refute all he has said IV. Lastly the most hot and the least reasonable of these Objectors affirm that the Opinions of our Friend lead directly to Deism and stick not to accuse him of favouring that abominable Opinion You see Sir to what Heads I am oblig'd to make Answer being of Opinion as I am that it was convenient to publish that Writing concerning Inspiration To begin with the first I acknowledg Sir that what they say is true I grant that all sorts of Truths are not fit to be spoken at all times and on all occasions It is undoubtedly a very ill thing to publish any Truth not necessary to be known how certain soever it may be when we are assur'd that those who shall read or understand it will infallibly be so scandaliz'd at it that the knowledg thereof will produce more hurt than good On such occasions Christian Prudence indispensably obliges us to the contrary The Question is not then Whether the Maxim of these Gentlemen be true or not In that we are agreed But my Opinion was that this Writing of Mr. N. would do infinitely more good than hurt and I dare yet maintain that in the Times wherin we live it is very fit that such Matters as these be throughly examin'd without concealing from the Public any of the Difficulties that attend them You know Sir that most of the Sciences being arriv'd in this our Age to a greater degree of Perfection than formerly though from thence it might be expected that such Improvements should have render'd Christians so much the more wise and more judicious yet on the contrary Libertinism and Impiety have prevail'd more scandalously than ever The Libertines of former Ages profess'd their Opinions only in some extravagant Sallies of Wit or Debauchery and oppos'd the Christian Religion only by some insipid Railleries which could have no weight with any Persons of sound Judgment and unbiass'd Affections But the Libertines of our Times make use of their Philosophy and Criticism to overthrow the most sacred and most solid Doctrines of our Religion Divers impious Books have been publish'd not only in Latin but also in French in English and in Dutch which many unlearned Persons read with much greediness Abundance of People are fond of Spinoza's Opinions because they have read his Books in French in English and in Dutch though they never study'd Philosophy nor Criticism We are in Times wherein every body pretends to depth of Learning freedom of Thought and strength of Judgment and this Reputation is easily acquir'd by reading those Books But that which renders this yet more deplorable is that it is not a Disease of Youth that Men grow out of as they advance in Years They whose Minds are once tainted with these unhappy Opinions do very seldom get quit of them This is undoubtedly a great Mischief and to which those who are any ways able to bring Remedy are oblig'd to do it It has been endeavoured to overthrow the Authority of the holy Scriptures by making appear that the Stile of the sacred Writers was not inspir'd and that they did not receive every thing they said from immediate Inspiration And in effect it has happen'd that many People have hereupon believ'd that the Authority of the Scripture was intirely ruin'd And imagining that the Reasons brought by Spinoza to prove this Opinion were unanswerable they have fall'n into Deism or into Atheism What Remedy Sir for this For my part I confess I see but one of these three Either a way must be found to burn all the Copies of these impious Books that have corrupted so many Men and to blot out of Mens Memory the Arguments of these Libertines or else there must solid Demonstration be made of the Falsity of the Arguments they make use of to maintain their Opinions Or lastly in granting to them that the sacred Pen-Men were not inspir'd neither as to the Stile nor as to those things which they might know otherwise than by Revelation it must be yet demonstrated that the Authority of the Scriptures ought not for all that to be esteemed less considerable It is plain that the first of these three is absolutely impossible and that tho an Inquisition should now be settl'd in France in England and in Holland it would already be too late There is then no other means left to cure this Libertinism that is spread so wide but one of the two last propos'd Remedies For my part I could wish with all my Heart that some body would try the second and would make it evident that God has inspir'd the sacred Authors not only with the matter they have spoken about but also with the very Expressions But since no body has yet done nor that I know undertaken to do it why should it be ill taken that Mr. N. has made use of the third method or that I have publish'd his Writing It is true there are some who believe that it were better to hold ones peace in a matter so delicate than to run the hazard of giving scandal to others by contradicting the Opinions which they think most reasonable This indeed would be very well if Libertines also forbore writing or if no body read their Books But since it is otherwise such silence is not at all seasonable If any weak Minds take Offence without Reason at what is offer'd there are an