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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A55820 A letter to the Deists Prideaux, Humphrey, 1648-1724. 1696 (1696) Wing P3414; ESTC R218987 37,481 157

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necessary Uses not to vain Curiosities it will not deceive us In that manner we act according to Nature and ought not to do otherwise And if we examine thus I am perswaded we shall find that Christianity is the highest Improvement of Deism So that we may embrace it without forsaking our first Principles It must needs be so if true For the Principles of Deism are the Eternal and Unalterable Law of God to all Men. He may give further Helps as I suppose we shall find Christianity is to some But he can not Abrogate or Suspend the Universal Law which he has given us by Nature with respect to any My Counsel therefore terminates in sticking constantly close to That And at the same time in making Use of all the Assistance we can find for the Improvement of it any where else In this manner we not only avoid but answer all the Objections that I now hinted at or that can possibly rise against Christianity The Practice of Superstitions is unsuitable to the true Idea of a God The Belief of Absurdities is impopossible to the Nature of Man And the Enquiry into Useless Niceties is a very ill Imployment of that precious time of which amongst other things God will certainly require an account at our hands How Will some Sectaries that may chance to see this Letter be apt to say Are no Systems no Articles no Creeds worth enquiring into This is to set up a New Christianity and to Undermine what is ordinarily called by that Name instead of establishing it The very Fault that you condemned in those who under the Veil of Deism made it their Business to propagate the Principles of Atheism I beg their Pardon The Difference is great In the first place 'T is to Deists I write And if upon that account I use a Latitude in some Expressions not suited to the Genius of a Sectary 't is no more than the nature of the thing requires But I will answer them more directly They may wrangle about Names as much as they please 'T is the thing only that I enquire into Christianity That Christianity which Jesus Christ and his Apostles taught Not that which Sects and Parties have so deformed or disguised that it is not at all knowable in their Writings nor much in their Practice What! Shall I set my self to seek out a System of Christianity amongst their endless Disputes Let them first agree upon it amongst themselves When that is done it will be time enough for me to consider what they say But if in the mean while I can find out any particular wherein they all agree I sincerely promise them that I will stick to it Now one particular I bless God I have lately found in a Book Intituled The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures And there demonstrated with an Evidence that I am not able to resist Yet let no body imagine by this that I am the Old Acquaintance of the Author of the Growth of Deism who he tells us was convinced of the Reality of Revealed Religion by the reading of that Book and of The Five Letters concerning the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures For I neither know him nor He me Yet nevertheless I own that I esteem That Book and the last of those Letters no less than he seems to do Now I say the thing which I find in that Book wherein all Sectaries agree is That Jesus Christ is the Messiah the Son of God the King Whom all that believe him to be so are obliged to obey And the General Agreement of all Sects in this gives me I confess a strong presumption of its Truth But the particular Evidence of it in that Book is irresistible The Evidence I mean both that the Thing asserted is true And that whatever else may be true and useful nothing but that alone is required absolutely to denote and Characterise a Man a Christian Since therefore I am forced to own that for my part I know no better And now despair of any help from particular Sects I hope I may without the Censure of those Sects resume the Advice I was presuming to offer to those to whom I address this Letter To Deists I mean I would fain perswade them to look into the True Grounds of Christianity What do I talk of perswading them to it They do it already Deism it-self is the first Ground and Foundation of Christianity Let them observe the Superstructure And if any part of That be not so fitted as to lye even and smooth upon this Foundation let them in God's Name reject it Such ill-hewn Stuff cannot be from him His Works are all of a piece And will be always found consistent But if all Genuine Christianity All that Jesus Christ himself made essential to it be evidently an improvement of Natural Religion which I call Deism built upon it fitted to it compacted with it So that the whole together makes one intire Body or System of Laws Just and Reasonable Worthy of the Supream Legislator from whom they proceed and all calculated and apparently contrived for the Benefit of Man Then methinks I should not need to use many words to perswade any one to embrace it Neither is that my intention I only propound that those who have not yet examined into the Matter would please to do it by that Draught of Christianity which the forementioned Book presents us withal And let them resist it if they can For if they can do it it is reasonable they should Nay as we are men it is impossible for any one to do otherwise That is to refuse Assent upon Conviction or to believe contrary to it After that Examination I referr it to themselves to enter into more particular Enquiries or desist as they shall then judge necessary But if contrary to my expectation any one of you Gentlemen to whom I have addressed this too tedious Letter disagree with me after such Examination in what I have now at last particularly insisted upon I beg of you by the Bonds of Humanity in which we are all united to assist me in shaking off what you esteem to be Delusion And to furnish me at the same time instead of it with some other more perfect Scheme of things More agreeable to the Ideas we have of God and more conducive to the Happiness of Man Take only those two Considerations along with you and in doing it effectually you will oblige not only me but all Mankind I am Your affectionate Friend ERRATA Page 36. line 19. read que P. 104. l. 8. r. vain P. 117. l. 19. r. this FINIS * Video nonnullis videri Epicurum ne in offensionem Atheniensium caderet verbis reliquisse Deos re sustulisse Cic. de Nat. D. L. 1. * Tu denique Epicure Deum inermem facis Omnia illi Tela omnem detraxisti Potentiam Et ne cuiquam metuendus esset projecisti ipsum extra mundum Seneca De Benef. l. 4. c.