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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	new_a	testament_n	word_n	5,021	5	4.1195	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49314	A discourse concerning the nature of man both in his natural and political capacity, both as he is a rational creature and member of a civil society : with an examination of Mr. Hobbs's opinions relating hereunto / by Ja. Lowde ...	Lowde, James.	1694 (1694)	Wing L3299; ESTC R36487	110,040	272

so easie to give an account of Scripture doth not go about meerly to beg a favourable reception in the World as if it stood in need of such mean methods of proceeding seeing it may justly challenge a due regard and veneration from all sober and considerate persons it doth not desire to make use of any precarious Principles in its own defence nor refuses to joyn issue with its Adversaries in the most severe method of Raciocination 'T is true indeed as the Translator tells us in his Preface that it is unbecoming the dignity of such sacred Truths as the Christian Religion teaches us to build them upon unsound Principles or defend them by Sophistical Arguments If this be applied to the following Letters designing thereby to reflect upon the contrary Opinion and to magnifie the soundness of the Principles and Cogency of the Arguments contained in these I doubt not but Mr. Lowth's Answer is sufficient to convince any considerate person to the contrary The sum of the Author's Hypothesis in the five Letters seems to be this he absolutely rejects some of the Books of the Old Testament and very much questions the Authority of others of the new He doth not allow Scripture in general either as to the matter or as to the words to be inspired by the Holy Ghost excepting only some few particular Instances And as for the Difficulties that occurr therein he doth not much concern himself about 'em but takes this more easie way of solving all by acknowledging when any thing of that nature is objected that the holy Pen-men were there mistaken and contradicted themselves And as the Translator in his Preface p. 6. tells us the use of all this is to settle our Christian Religion upon a basis not to be shaken by the Difficulties about the Scripture which the Learned are forced to acknowledge to be insuperable But I am apt to believe that too little reading and considering the best Authors and too great a Tincture of Prejudice upon the Minds of Men doth sometimes make that seem an insuperable difficulty which is not so in it self Or suppose there were some such in Scripture must we therefore reject the Divine Authority of the whole because we do not understand some parts of the Bible Vid. Letter to a Deist But I do not see what sufficient Answer he returns to that place 2 Pet. 1. 17. The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted or carried by the Holy Ghost Here Beza gives this seasonable Caution Dextrè hoc intelligendum est ne quis divini spiritûs rectè compositos verè divinos afflatus comparet profanorum Vatum furoribus c. But the aforesaid Author comes short of the true import of the Phrase when he makes this Impulse or Influence of the Holy Ghost to be nothing more than the meer result of a pious and well-disposed Mind acting only by the strength of Memory and a well-inform'd Understanding But for a man to espouse such a dangerous and unwarrantable Opinion and when he is urged with plain and express places of Scripture such as seem non sine numine and as it were purposely so worded as if designed to obviate such a Tenent for him then to tell us as this Author doth p. 146. That no Doctrine which we esteem important ought to be grounded barely on certain manners of speaking which we cannot be sure they were exact because the Sacred Writers not affecting exactness of Style may have used that manner of expression without any design This is only to study Evasions and to lay a Foundation of something like Sceptism in Religion for after this way of arguing a man may assert or deny any thing having first thus taken off the edge of the Scripture so as that he need to fear no danger thence But he tells us p. 34. That St. Luke confesses himself in the beginning of his Gospel That he learned not that which he told us by inspiration but by information from those that knew it exactly To this I answer 1. Divine Grace is very well consistent with the sober and rational use of our Faculties tho' perhaps it is not very easie to explain the way and method how 't is done Nor is such an Inspiration as is here asserted any ways contrary to those subordinate means which St. Luke might make use of in that case Dubitandum non est quin piam diligentiam Deus direxerit 2. St. Luke doth not say that what he there writes he had only by Information It seem'd good also to me who having had perfect knowledge of all things ab initio from the beginning the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supernè coelitus from above Thus Ia. 1. 17. Every good and perfect Gift is from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Io. 19. 11. And this the Criticks say is the proper and usual signification of the word Vt sit adverbium loci à quâ significatione non temerè recedendum illua autem à principio sensum angustiorem reddit includitur in eo quòd se omnia consecutum esst scripturum ordine dicat The said Author is much offended at those expressions in Psal. 109. which he says are all Curses and Imprecations But he may as well say that those Woes which our Saviour denounces against impenitent Sinners Matt. 23. 14. are all Curses too whereas they are rather tender-hearted Expressions and Commiserations for those Evils which he foresaw they would bring upon themselves by their wilful Wickedness And what he says further in confirmation of his Opinion is only this That if all these words were render'd in the future tense to avoid making the Psalmist pronounce such Curses there are a great many more places in the Psalms where the Version would need to be reform'd But what if this were granted would any thing of absurdity or inconvenience follow thence 'T is further observable that he boldly advances his own Opinion many times without ever taking the least notice of those Answers that have been return'd to it both by ancient and modern Writers Thus 2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration os God and is profitable c. But p. 189. he says this may be very well thus translated All Scripture that is divincly inspir'd is profitable but it cannot well be translated thus unless he can prove that St. Paul did suppose some of the Books of the Iewish Canon not to be inspir'd Otherwise Theophylact's Confutation of this very Opinion will still hold good where in answer to his way of reading the words Omnis scriptura que divinitùs inspirata est illa est etiam utilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. oportebat eos novisse quòd cum suprà dixerit sacras literas nosti nunc ait omnis scriptura qualis de quâ disserehat de quâ dixit quòd sacra est omnis igitur hujusmodi divinitùs inspirata

hath justly blam'd in others or that he sometimes draws universal conclusions only from particular observations and sometimes from the meer Fact he insers the jus of a thing and from the more general practice of most men he goes about to justifie that which is not in it self lawful 'T is the Observation of a learned man that a flight and superficial study of Nature and Natural Causes may encline a man to Atheism but a full and perfect understanding of 'em fixes him more firmly in the Principles of Religion and Piety Thus 't is probable that it was only Mr. Hobbs's superficial observation of Human Nature that betray'd him into those mistakes and false notions of it if he had by a profounder study and impartial search enquired into the inward recesses of it he would then have found Man not altogether so void of all natural Principles of Virtue and Goodness as he has represented him His political Principles seem to be founded upon no better or surer grounds than the observation of the vicious Inclinations of some and the prudent and cautious Practices of others because some men are violent and injurious and make no conscience of doing Wrong others are wary and accordingly arm themselves as much as they can against the receiving of any From hence he would infer the State of Nature to be a State of War and all the evil and false consequences that follow thence So that the approbation that his Principles have met withal in the World was the result of Mens vicious Inclinations and natural proneness to believe such Opinions rather than any solid Ground or Reason on which they were founded It might perhaps be some mitigation of his fault herein if by supposing men worse than they were he hereby laid the Foundation of Humility and Amendment But it has been well observed of him that he supposed Men worse than they are and made 'em worse than otherwise they would be thus making 'em more the Children of Wrath than they were by Nature Mr. Hobbs has well observ'd That Arguments seldom work upon Men of Wit and Learning when they have once engaged themselves in a contrary Opinion and that if any thing will do it it is the shewing them the Causes of their Errors I shall accordingly here intimate some few things in general and leave them to thy own consideration whether they might not be some ways influential either as Causes or Occasions of his Mistakes And first Has he not digged for Principles out of his own Fancy without consulting the universal Consent of Mankind or the more constant received Opinions of the best and wisest both Moralists and Politicians For the true knowledge of Human Nature doth not consist only in the searching of our selves but it also requires a full and perfect understanding both of Men and Books Thus we ought to consider what the best and wisest Men of all Ages have left upon Record concerning their apprehensions of it and by our own Observations both of our selves and others either more fully confirm or prudently correct what they have deliver'd And though 't is true there may be as it were a mechanical use of Books an enslaving a Man's Reason to his Reading without a due examination or just digestion of what we read into our own Reason and Iudgment yet there are some who have fallen into Mistakes by being more conversant with their own Meditations than with other mens Writings Or if he hath been a great consulter of Authors yet doth he not seem rather afferre quàm auferre sensum doth he not come to 'em with Prejudice and with a Resolution rather to elude than fully to answer their Reasons How doth he sometimes seem to march boldly into his Enemy's Country and leave their greatest strength behind him never regarding to answer the Reasons upon which the contrary Opinion is founded Doth he not seem also to suit his Principles to the Times wherein he writ rather than to the Truth of things yet always in obedience to and pursuance of his own grand Principle os Self-preservation Seems he not sometimes to affect Novelty more than Truth being perhaps more desirous to be the Author of a New Error than the Asserter of an Old Truth In his Introduction to the Leviathan he tells us That there is a Saying much usurped of late That Wisdom is acquired not by reading Books but Men consequently here upon those persons that for the most part can give no other Proof of being Wise take great delight to shew what they think they have read in Man by uncharitable Censures behind their Backs But doth not he himself here lye under his own lash Doth he not seem to please himself in uncharitable censuring of what he thinks but without just grounds he hath read not only in Particular Persons but in Human Nature in general Here we may observe how like the troublesome Fly he is always busie about the Sores of Human Nature not with an intent to cure 'em but to make 'em worse How much more worthy of a Man a Philosopher and a Christian too was M. Antoninus Advice lib. 6. Whensoever thou wouldst rejoyce thy self call to mind the several Gifts and Virtues of those whom thou dost daily converse with viz. the Industry of one the Modesty of another the Liberality of a third c. for nothing can so much rejoyce thee as the Resemblances and Parallels of several Virtues eminent in those that live with thee c. Here we may also observe the many Straits and Difficulties he is sometimes put to in defending his Opinions what inconsistency of Notions and Expressions he is forced to use in making out his Assertions or answering the Objections that are brought against 'em so that sometimes his Notions seem to lye a-cross his Brains as the Cudgels of his natural Statesmen did to each others Heads Thus when 't is objected That if a Son kill the Father in the state of Nature he doth him an injury he answers That we cannot at any time suppose a Son in the state of Nature as being under the power and command of those to whom he owes his Protection as soon as he was born But seeing we cannot suppose the propagation of Mankind any other way than by Father and Son and that there is a natural obligation incumbent on a Son to his Father may we not with more reason say That there never was nor could be such a state of Nature as he describes rather than that therein there can be no Son suppos'd 2. Tho' Sons be under the power and command of those to whom under God they owe their Beings and Preservations doth this take away their Obligations as Sons Do they therefore cease to be Sons because now they are also become Subjects This way of reasoning cannot hold good unless we suppos'd Men in the state of Nature to spring out of the Earth like Mushromes That which at present I would only infer from