the Prophet because Inspiration equals the understandings of Men and leaves nothing to Natural abilities but only the manner of expression And that I must confess might be guessed at from such an Historical Account of the Books and the respective Pen-Men S. I have heard you hitherto with some delight and satisfaction but I fear you will not be able to assign any better method of interpreting Scripture than that which is propounded by my judicious Author For as nothing unfolds Nature better than a Natural-History so is Scripture best interpreted by a History of the Scripture it self And this History must not only contain the Properties and Idioms of the Original Languages in which they were at first Written of which we have discoursed something already but secondly a Collection of the sentences of each Book which are reducible to the same General Head that so Scripture may not be expounded by any Notions of reason but by sentences Collected from its self L. I cannot see how this can at all advance the design of the Author S. Then I will open your understanding with a clear instance Moses says in p. 86. one place that God is a fire and in another that he is a Jealous God Now you Divines would presently conclude that fire was to be taken in a Metaphorical sense because it is contrary to Natural reason to think That an immaterial God should be a material fire Not considering that Moses might teach that God is a fire tho that Doctrine p. 87. is absurd and contrary to reason And unless the word fire in the 31st of Job and the 12th verse had been put to signify wrath or Jealousy nothing had been more plain Than that Moses had taught the Israelites that God was a fire i. e. the refined part of the most sublimated Aether Now since Moses teaches that God is Jealous and the Scripture no where says That he is void of Passions thence we may conclude that Moses did believe or at least was willing to make the simple Israelites believe that there Vid. sig are the same Passions in God as there are in Man And pray consider how many Absurdities there would be in the Christian Religion if you Divines in Propositions repugnant to common Sense did not to save the Credit of your own Profession fly from a Literal to a Metaphorical Sense and Meaning L. That Scripture is very well expounded by Scripture in most Cases is a Proposition which we are more fond to defend than your very Author but yet we are unwilling to exclude that use of common Sense and Reason without which it is impossible to understand the meanest Author When we read any Historian Orator or Poet we readily guess what words are used in a proper and what in a Translated sense by the very contexture and position of the words without turning over the whole History Poem or Oration to find out a Metaphor or Catacresis that lies open to the first view of the Reader And let any Man read the 23d of Deuteronomy and the 23d and 24th verses and Judge whether Moses therein could be conceived as teaching the Israelites That God is a real fire tho Job had never spake one word of the matter 23. Take heed to your selves lest you forget the Covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make you a Graven Image or the likeness of any thing which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee 24. For the Lord thy God is a Consuming Fire even a Jealous God How is it possible That Moses should be conceived as teaching the Israelites that God is real Fire when in the same breath he forbids them to make any likeness of him which the Israelites must needs have done every time they struck a light or went to Oven if God had been a real fire Suppose Job had never us'd the word fire in all his complaints could not the Israelites have understood Moses when he expresses the Activity and Vehemence of Gods Indignation against Idolatry in such plain words Viz. Thy God is a Consuming Fire even a Jealous God Besides with what impudence does your Author expound Moses by Job when according p. 9. to his Canons of Interpretation Non licet mentem unius Prophetae ex locis clarioribus alterius concludere neque explicare nisi evident issime constet eos unam eandemque fovisse sententiam We must not conclude the mind of one Prophet from the more express places of another unless we are certain that both were of the same Opinion And again he tells us in the 95th page that we must not hope to solve all repugnancies in the scriptures by comparing one place with another since that only can illustrate some few places by chance Quando quidem nullus propheta eo fine scripsit ut verba alterius aut sua ipsa ex professo explicaret No Prophet wrote on purpose to explain his own or another Prophets meaning S. Methinks it is something odd to say That no Prophet wrote any thing to explain his own meaning L. It is no other than your Author obtrudes upon you under the name of solid Reason whereas he is full of Inconsistencies and seems never to know his own mind In the 87 th Pag. notwithstanding the illogical deduction of a universal Proposition from a single instance he concludes from this passage of Moses That the knowledge of the Scriptures is to be Deduced only from themselves but from the very next Line to the end of the Chap. he contends earnestly to prove That the knowledge of the true Sence of the Scriptures is to be gained not from the Books themselves but from an History of the Books and the various chances that have hapned to them viz. a Narration of the Lives Manners and Affections of the respective Pen-Men who they were at what time to whom and upon what occasion they wrote each Book so that according to your Author the Interpretation of Scripture is to be taken ex solis biblii from the Scriptures alone and yet without such an extrinsick History which himself confesses to be wanting it is impossible to know the true sense of them S. I must confess that my Author is a little too guilty of contradicting himself for great wits have short memories But still you do not shew any Reason why we should not believe that God in the Opinion of Moses was subject to Humane Passions since it is no where contradicted in the Scriptures themselves L. Because the Scriptures themselves do teach That God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and that consequently he cannot be subject to Passions which are always accompanied with some Perturbations of the Body and since by Nature we have no distinct and Adaequate Comprehension of the Principles and manner of Operation of the Divine Nature in distributing Rewards and Punishments it was impossible for Moses to express God's first Resolution of rewarding the Good and
AN ANSWER TO A BOOK INTITLED Tractatus Theologico Politicus LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West End of St. Pauls 1697. To the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Winchelsea Viscount Maidstone Baron Fitz-Herbert of Eastwell c. My Lord THIS Treatise being by me design'd for the Vindication of Reveal'd Religion against those Deistical and Sceptical Notions which are too frequent in this Age had there been no singular obligations to induce me yet cou'd I not have found a more proper Patron than your Lordship whom all must acknowledge to be a Favourer and Protector of Religion Virtue and whatsoever is Praise-worthy amongst men I am very sensible that my small Station in the Church might very well have excus'd me from engaging in an argument which may justly require a Person of more Dignity Learning and Leisure but I am at the same time very well satisfy'd that your Lordship and all good men will not expect much where but little is given and therefore in the same plainness and sincerity wherein I at first wrote it I presume to dedicate it to your Lordship as a small token how much I am Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obliged Servant Matthias Earbery THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader THough I am not of the Opinion That whosoever writes a Book ought to write a Preface for some are so good that they need none and some so bad that they don't deserve one yet I think my self to lye under an obligation to give the World an Account of those Reasons which induced me to Answer a Book which if it had its due deserts ought to be confined to silence and darkness for ever 1. I might here alledge in the first Place that the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus has not as yet the honour to receive an intire confutation from any one Learned Hand that I know in Europe Bishop Boyl in his little Body of Divinity and almost all our Moderns who have wrote in Vindication of the Scriptures have taken notice of Divers of its dangerous positions as they lye scattering up and down in almost every page of it from whence I might have leave to conclude that if those Learned men did think that it was necessary to Answer the chief Objections against the Authority of the Scriptures one by one a Collective Answer to the whole Book would be more satisfactory to the world and more beneficial to the publick Good And therefore I was not induced to undertake this task because I thought none could do it better but because none before me had began so useful a work I consider'd also in the second place that most who have wrote upon this Subject have either done it in such a Philosophical manner as is not easily intelligible by the Vulgar or have proceeded against him and his Party by such Philological Arguments as tho very Learned yet at most are but Conjectural and therefore never can convince a stubborn Sceptist tho they are very pleasing to Ingenious Men. Now tho this way of Writing is very taking whilst the Argument is only toss'd too and fro amongst Learned Men yet it is not sufficient when such Deistical Principles begin to be Popular and seize upon the minds of those who though they want Reason yet stand in need of no Obstinacy to defend the same And therefore since this Book has as I am informed received lately some impressions in our own Language I thought it might not be amiss to administer the antidote in the same vehicle in which the Party has presented the Poyson and waving all Conjectural Arguments that are drawn from humane Authority or whose force depends upon the knowledge of Books or are too remote from common Sense to be understood by all Men I have laid down chiefly such Principles as all may understand and all who understand them must needs admit to be true And I hope that it will be apparent from thence That they who Renounce their Religion into which they are Baptized must Renounce their Reason too which they boast to be their only guide Nor am I ignorant that the Author of this Book was very well versed pardon so favourable an expression in the Writings of Moses and the Prophets understood the Original Language and had made a diligent search to find all weak places wherein he might Assault and Ruine the impregnable Fortress of Reveal'd Religion Mr. Hobbs had another way of trifling with those Books of Scripture and wresting some particular places to his odd Opinions But this Author begins at the very Root and Foundation by taking away all Divine Authority from Prophecy Miracles or Inspiration and making all the sacred Pen-men to be no other than either Mad-men or Impostors Now tho such sentiments ought rather to be punished by the Judge than refuted by the Divine yet since too much liberty has relaxed the Reins both of Civil and Ecclesiastick Power it is necessary that such Weapons should be used as are therefore left us because they could not easily be taken away And I thought it would be at least some punishment as it were to the very Sbades and Manes of this Author to shew the world that he who so long has found a place in the Libraries and Hands of very Learned Men does scarce for his stupidity and trifling way of arguing merit to obtain a place amongst the lowest forms of inferiour Animals And I am sure if he could say nothing to the purpose against Reveal'd Religion his little Disciples of the Town can say a great deal less But indeed the greatest motive of all was the general disposition of men of all Degrees and Capacities in this Age to ridicule our Religion as much as they can nay a great deal farther than their own Abilities will give them leave How will some Little People vent a Jest upon the Bible or argue against Moses who never read a Chapter in it with that Attention which is due to those Sacred Writings And never even in their Younger Days knew any thing beyond a Play or a Romance I will not say That too much Liberty has given Opportunity to Deism to grow up with those other Weeds that infest this Nation Though if I should it might be found to appear not very unlibely to those who consider that Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan was brought forth in the like times of Liberty and that this Author pleads for nothing more than Liberty to Exclude the Conscientious Fear of God out of the World But certain it is That the General Corruption of Manners Contempt of the Clergy Bold Agitation of the Socinian Controversy amongst the Greatest Men of the same Church do render discourses of this Nature very necessary to stop the Mouths of those Mockers whom St. Peter long since Prophecy'd should come in the last days saying Where is the promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation I
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
Notions of the usual Effects of Good and of Evil Spirits The Jews were very sensible that one Evil Spirit might by Collusion give place or at least seem to give place to another and thence maliciously concluded That our Saviour cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils But our Saviours Answer is sufficient Viz. If Satan be divided against himself how shall Mat. 4. his Kingdom stand because ye say that I cast out Devils by Belzebub i. e. If I who teach the true Worship of the true God cast out Devils by Satan then Satan is his own Enemy and Industriously destroys his own Idolatrous Kingdom which with so much pains he has planted in the World S. If there was so much force in Miracles p. 73. as you do pretend methinks the Miraculous Age of Moses should have been most Religious of all others but your own Bibles shew That the Israelites fell immediately into the Idolatrous Worship of the Golden Calf Notwithstanding the Number of Moses ' s pretended Miracles L. The Jews living in the midst of Idolatrous Nations and Newly Emancipated from Egyptian Slavery might be tempted to Act contrary to their reason in complyance to the corrupt customes of those who liv'd round about them But I do not think that thereby they thought to relinquish the Worship of the true God but rather to change the manner of it Or if they did yet they were quickly recalled by Moses to the true Worship of God And this must be granted by your Author to be very much for the honour of Reveal'd Religion That the Worship of one God was not the Legal Religion of any one Nation but that of the Jews only S. I still fear that the Scriptures by Gods doing a thing do mean no more than his permitting it to be done by the ordinary Course of Nature For Sam. 1. 9. Chap. 15. 16. verses God is said to tell Samuel in his Ear that he would send Saul unto him and yet it appears that Saul came to him as led by Natural Motives Viz. to seek his Fathers Asses In the 105 Ps 24th Verse It is said God turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate his People in the first of Exodus a Natural cause is render'd of that aversion p. 75. L. Suppose you should hear a poor man that has receiv'd an Alms of a stranger say to himself God has sent me relief Could you from hence conclude that this Poor Man believ'd That God never was the Author of a Miracle but always wrought by Natural causes S. I must confess I see no reason for such a conclusion L. No more ought your Author ridiculously to conclude that because the Scripture speaks of some Natural things as done by God therefore God never works in a Supernatural manner For tho Saul seems to be led to Samuel by Natural causes yet the prediction to Samuel that Saul should certainly come to him that he should be King of Israel must needs be ascribed to a Supernatural Power The Heart of the Egyptians was turned against the Children of Israel because they feared their Numbers But Exod. 1. what natural reason can be given of all those other Signs and Wonders which are reckoned up in the same Psalm S. I must confess ingenuously that if all things were done by Moses and our Saviour in that exact manner according to which they are related it is impossible to give a solution of them by Natural causes especially if Natural causes do always work in a fixt and unmoveable order But my Author very judiciously shews that there are many Circumstances in a Miracle which the Scriptures do omit especially when they are Sung in a Poetic Stile which if they were expressed would plainly shew that what we now admire as Supernatural was only an effect of Natural causes And not only so but many Circumstances of the Miracles recorded do shew that they required Natural causes to bring them to perfection See Exod. 9. v. 10. Moses could not bring boyls upon the Egyptians without first throwing up Ashes in the Air. And Exod. 14. 21. We read That the Red Sea was divided by a strong East Wind. Elisha lay upon the Child that was supposed to be Dead and so reviv'd him by the heat of his Body In short if any thing is reported in Scripture that is directly repugnant to the Laws of Nature or cannot follow from them my Authors opinion is that it is added by some Sacrilegious Persons who design'd to impose a Fable upon the World L. A tedious relation of impertinent Circumstances is avoided by all Judicious and Faithful Historians But to omit Circumstances that are material and the Knowledge of which alters the very Nature and Denomination of an Action is a Trick only of knaves and impostors If therefore Moses and the Evangelists in those Books which are plainly Historical did designedly omit those Circumstances of Action which would have convinced the world that those were only the Works of Nature which they would make the world believe were the very immediate Works of God whatever credit their Writings might have met with in After-Ages they could have found none in their own For the Jews that saw what was done by Moses would have known by the Circumstances of the Actions that were designedly omitted that whatever he might pretend there was nothing in them but what was effected by the sole Power of Nature And how then could he have perswaded the Jews of his own Age that he was sent from God Or how could he have made so many false Revelations publick in the sight of the whole Nation And why should they be such Fools as to erect a Government in Church and State upon a Foundation which they of that Age must needs have known to be too weak to support it With what Face could our Saviour tell the Jews of his Age that his works testify'd of him if there was nothing in them Miraculous but what was made so to appear by the partial and the unfaithful Relation of his own Friends and Disciples It is a false Insinuation of your Author that Miracles are for the most part Sung in a Poetick manner for they are historically related as motives to the credibility of reveal'd Religion and tho some of them are recited in the Psalms yet the very Poetick Stile of David does not render them more wonderful than the plain Historical Account of Moses But with what impudence if not affected ignorance does your Author Affirm that the Circumstances of some Actions recorded as Miracles in Scripture do shew that they were effected by Natural Causes When Moses brought a Boyl upon the Egyptians by throwing up Ashes into the Air the Action was as Miraculous as if without throwing up the Ashes he had only in the Name of God commanded the Boyl to seize upon the Bodies of the Egyptians Exod. 9. 10. v. Unless your Author can Philosophically prove that according to the
man must needs be that holds the infinity and immutability of the Power of Nature As also by his partial Distorture of Scripture by denying it the same liberty of using words in a Translated sense which is given to all other Writings As for clearness of Judgment which is the second Commendation of an Historian I cannot see how your Author can pretend to that whom I have shew'd to have laid down so many false propositions drawn so many false conclusions and so frequently to have contradicted himself And as for his opportunities of knowing the Matters of Fact of the most grand importance of those Ages we all know that he is as ignorant of them as our selves and therefore we had rather believe those who liv'd in Ancient times and were Eye-Witnesses of what our Saviour did or suffered for our sakes than a Modern upstart whom we are sure can understand at most no more than our selves of the matter S. But tho you slight his Authority yet if he can prove by solid reasons as he attempts in his 8th Chapter That the Pentateuch was not wrote by Moses c. You are bound to yield to them and to deny its Divine Authority L. But if his Reasons are fallacious and Conjectural as I could easily demonstrate had we Books and leisure in this place to go through the Argument which yet at best would be but loss of time then you cannot blame me if I withdraw my assent from his Pernicious Doctrines But to bring matters to a short issue Do you believe that the Account the Evangelists give of the Life of our Saviour and the Acts of his Apostles is altogether unintelligible by the Hebriasms and various Lections S. No I think no man of common sense or modesty will pretend to say so L. Do you think that all therein recorded of them could be done by any Natural or Diabolical Power S. You have already demonstrated the impossibility of the first and the absurdity of the second assertion L. Then if our S. and his Apostles who prov'd their own Divine Mission did bear Testimony to the Writings of Moses and the other Prophets all your Authors Criticisms or Conjectural fancies of Esaras Vanish into nothing For with what truth could our Saviour have said Mat. the 19th and the 7th That Moses Commanded to give a Bill of Divorcement and that Moses for the hardness of their Hearts suffer'd them to put away their Wives or St. John 19. 17. That the Law was given by Moses if the whole Pentateuch had been a Fiction of Esdras Our Saviour therefore has confirm'd the Law of Moses and the Divine Authority of the Old Testament by a new addition of Signs and Wonders impossible to be gainsaid by the Cunning or Malice of Man S. You have now given me full satisfaction concerning the Divine Authority of the Scriptures into a dislike of which I was led by the Sophistry of this intrieguing Author For it mightily pleas'd me to hear his project to deduce all knowledge from Natural reason which as he teaches p. 98. Proceeds from plain and obvious Notions to the most obscure and remotest objects L. Let Natural reason proceed never so cautiously yet she can never ascend so high as to understand clearly those supernatural things which concern a future State of which she has here no compleat Ideas And besides if God is a free Agent it follows he can prescribe what conditions of salvation do best please him And Natural reason can never ascend to the knowledge of what a free Agent will have done from any known or obvious Maxims in Nature S. No more than one man by reason alone can tell what is the will and pleasure of another But I will ask you one Question more Viz. Who ought to be the Interpreter of Scripture * P. 103. penes unumquemque snmmum jus summaque authoritas de religione libere judicandi c. for Spinosa gives away that Authority to every private Man L. The ambiguous use of the word Interpretation has been the cause of much Error and much Mischief in the World it is a Multiplied Idea which will breed confusion in the understanding if it be not carefully resolved into its first Principles For first sometimes to interpret Scripture is put to signify only a right apprehension of what is the true sense of Scripture and an expression of that true sense in plain and proper terms And this belongs to every individual Man to whom the Gospel is Preached For every man has a right to understand those truths that are a-like beneficial to all mankind and which are therefore promulged that they may be made known unto all And as every man has a right to understand as much as he can of Divine truths so also may be Communicate that knowledge by Speech to others tho the publick Exercise of that Office do most properly belong to the Ministers of God But others by the word Interpret do understand the Power of affixing what sense they please upon the Scriptures and constraining others to admit the same be it what it will as true and genuine But such an Authority as this can neither belong to every Private man nor to any humane Power whatsoever For no man can have Authority from the God of Truth to oppose truth it self and it is gross non-sense to call Contradiction of Scripture an Interpretation of it There is no room for Interpretation but in places that are obscure and dubious but plain Texts expound themselves and to pretend that every man has a right of affixing a contradictory sense to the most easy express and intelligible Texts of Scripture is as much as to say Every Man Summum jus summa authoritas has a right to be a Fool and to deceive himself and to live in Error and be nurst up in the ignorance of those things that most concern his Happiness and to give the Lye to his great Creator Instead of believing the Scriptures to be the Word of God every private man according to your Authors Hypothesis may believe them lawfully to be the invention of Sathan or the dictates of Mad-men or the invention of some cunning Politicians What is more plain than our Saviours words Mat. 16. 17. Verses Go you into all the World and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Suppose a man discoursing upon these words should pretend to teach from hence that no Gospel either was is or ever ought to be Preached to the World That no man ought to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that there is no Condemnation to unbelievers either in this World or in the World to come Would you call this an Interpretation of that Text of Scripture S. Not if I was in my right Senses L. And yet your prodigal Author gives this large Authority to every private Man of Interpreting Scripture after