above them it is impossible that the Apprehensions of finite Creatures should reach these things therefore according to the foresaid Principle the Unitarians are not obliged to believe any such things they must not admit of the Infinite Nature of God concerning which our Conceptions will always be obscure and unproportionate yea they cannot but infer from their own Maxim that God is an impossible Being at least that His Immense Nature is such They cannot comprehend and conceive the Manner of the Immense and Infinite Presence or Knowledge of God therefore they must disown the things themselves Thus by vertue of their own profess'd Principle the Godhead it self as well as the Trinity is shock'd by them and consequently one would be apt to gather that a Socinian so far as he is led by this Principle is an Atheist or lest that should seem harsh one that favours the Cause of Atheism For he may as well quit the belief of a God because of these Difficulties and Abstrusities in the Nature of God as renounce the Doctrine of the Trinity because there are some inexplicable and unintelligible things that accompany it But because all men do not follow the natural Conduct of their Principles the Divine Providence over-ruling in these cases I do not here pass an Universal Censure I do not speak of every individual man nay I hope charitably concerning most of them However it is to be fear'd that some are unhappily under the force and sway of the foregoing Principle and these are the Persons I speak of and no other These things I freely and openly suggest Which the Learned and Ingenious Gentlemen of the Racovian Perswasion cannot dislike unless they disapprove of themselves unless they disclaim their own Writings for they cry up in almost all of them and in one very lately a Freedom of Discourse a Liberty of speaking their Thoughts which they applaud as a very Generous and Noble thing and much value themselves upon it They cannot deny that to me which they allow of and magnifie in themselves especially when I most sacredly profess to them that I have sincerely delivered my Thoughts and spoken what I conceive to be the words of Truth and Soberness Wherefore I expect to be approved of by Persons of their Ingenuity and Free Temper who as I find blame others even some of the Clergy for palliating and dissembling and not speaking out I think they will not charge me with this Fault for I have acted according to their own Generous Principles and I must tell them there is not a Friend of theirs in all their dear Eleutheropolis that is more disingaged and unbyass'd than I am But though I have used a becoming Freedom yet there are some things that I omit because I would let the World see that I am not eager and lavish in blaming and censuring any Party of Men especially since it is suggested to me by some that are Learned and Sober of that Perswasion that it is hard that their Opinion should suffer for the Ill Consequences of it or for the Insincerity of any that profess it or by reason of the Rash indiscreet Passages which occurr in some of their late Writers I do it likewise because I would give the World an Example of Moderation and Temper in this Disputing and Wrangling Age that it may be seen that whilst I remonstrate against the Errors and Mistakes as I suppose them to be of any Side I can forbear to publish the Aggravations of them and that I had rather the Truth should prevail than the Contrary Opinion or the Maintainers of it should be exposed Finally I consider that it is improper and unseasonable to contend among our selves at home whilst our Armies are engaging the Enemy abroad The Proper Antidote belonging to this Head of my Discourse is this Let us make a Difference between Finite Beings and that which is Infinite for seeing there is such a Vast Difference between them we ought to observe it We cannot form the same Conceptions of one and the other yea the latter is exalted above our reach and comprehension wherefore let us be satisfied that the Properties of an Infinite Being such as God is are incomprehensible and therefore that may be possible in the Infinite Nature of God as namely that it is communicable to Three Distinct Persons which is impossible in the Finite Nature of Man or other Creatures Let us attend to that which may be known and that clearly and distinctly and not trouble our thoughts and wrack our brains about Unsearchable Mysteries A Lover of Peace as well as Truth should not be so much sollicitous about the Manner of the Three Personalities or Subsistencies as about the Trinity it self We are sure of the latter as sure as the Scripture can make us therefore it doth not become us to wrangle about the former especially when we find that ill-minded men make use of this Quarrel to promote the Cause of Atheism and truly they make advances towards it every day I proceed to Other Doctrines which administer to this Great Evil which I have been speaking of and which may justly be reckoned among the Blemishes of these Inquisitive Times Such is that of a late Writer that the Books of the Old Testament were not written by those Persons whose Names they bear that the Historical parts of the Bible are lame and imperfect and repugnant to themselves that the Writings were not carefully and faithfully transmitted to us but abound with many faults and mistakes that the Books of the Prophets are mere scraps and fragments and taken without order and method from other Writings All which put together destroys the Authority of Divine Revelation and consequently of all Reveal'd Religion from whence we have the strongest and most pregnant Arguments for a Deity Again The same Design is advanced in these Learned Times by thrusting of Opinions and Theories on the world in defiance of the plain Letter and Historical Part of the Bible as if the Sacred History which was written by Inspired Men were not as credible and authentick as that of Prophane Authors The frame of the Primitive Earth is represented opposite to what Moses tells us it was the account which he gives of Paradise as it is a Particular Place is contradicted yea it is strongly averr'd that there never was any such thing What Moses relates concerning our First Parents is laugh'd at as a Romantick Story The Universal Deluge in Noah's time is attributed to an accidental diruption of the Earth which when scann'd is found to be fictitious and imaginary and thence the Deluge it self is concluded by many to be so and Moses is reckon'd by them as an Impostor Which is taken notice of and thus animadverted upon by a Curious Observer and One who as becometh so Learned an Head joyns Religion with his Philosophical Researches The Atheistical Party had hereby an occasion saith he boldly to give out that such a
disbeliev'd on the account of the improbability if not impossibility of Spirits So that it is plain the rejecting of the being and commerce of Daemons or Infernal Spirits opens a door to the denial of the Deity of which we can no otherwise conceive than that it is an Eternal Spirit There are Other Doctrines which advance Atheism and may be reckon'd among the Dangerous Luxuriances of these Inquisitive Times Such is the vilifying of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament the proclaiming it to be faulty and erroneous in order to establishing the Seventy's Version as only Authentick Such is the building the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament on the pretended inspiration of certain Publick Scribes or Notaries among the Iews in imitation of such among the Egyptians the avouching that the Leaves or Volumes on which those Books were wrote are misplaced and put out of order the professed declaring that the Canonical Books are not the same that they were at first but that several words and passages are left out All mere Fiction and Conceit unworthy of so Excellent a Genius as F. S's Such also is the maintaining that the greatest part of the Religious Rites and Constitutions which God himself settled among the Iews were a Transcript of those that were in use among the Idolatrous Pagan Nations and that the All-Wise Lawgiver borrow'd those immediately from these The two former of these Attempts null the Authority of the Sacred Writings and the last of them disparages not only them but the Blessed Founder of the Jewish Oeconomy I speak not this as if any of these Opinions can be thought to be True Reasons on which a man may ground his disesteem of the Scriptures or of the Holy Doctrines contain'd in them or of the Sacred Inditer of them for they are the Sentiments but of a very few and of those whose Learning though it was exceeding great had not wholly conquer'd their Prejudice or freed them from Misapprehensions in some things I cannot charge them with any direct design of favouring the Cause of Atheism but ill-disposed men have made use of their Notions to that purpose Wherefore as we value the Reputation of our Religion and the Honour of the Divine Author of it let us be careful that we split not upon any of these Rocks nor endanger our selves on any of the Shallows before mention'd and thereby make Shipwrack of our Faith and Holy Profession or so endanger our selves that we can hardly be brought off again I might in the last place take notice of a Plausible Conceit which hath been growing up to a considerable time and now hath the fortune to come to some maturity Not to speak of its reception if not its birth among some Foreign Authors chiefly Socinians it seemed among our selves to be favour'd by that Learned but Wavering Prelate who writ the Liberty of Prophesying and afterwards by another of his Order who compos'd The Naked Truth Lately it hath been revived by the Author of the Naked Gospel and since more particularly fully and distinctly it hath been maintain'd by the late Publisher of the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures He gives it us over and over again in these formal words viz. that nothing is required to be believed by any Christian man but this that Iesus is the Messiah He contends that there is no other Article of Faith necessary to Salvation this is a Full and Perfect Creed and no person need concern himself in any other This takes up about three quarters of his book for he goes through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles according to the order of Time as he thinks to give an account of this Proposition But yet this Gentleman forgot or rather wilfully omitted a plain and obvious passage in one of the Evangelists Go teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28. 19. From which it is plain that all Proselites to Christianity all that are adult Members of the Christian Church must be taught as well as baptized into the Faith of the Holy Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost And if they must be taught this Doctrine which is the peremptory Charge and Commission here given to the Apostles Go teach c. then it is certain that they must believe it for this Teaching is in order to Belief This will be denied by none I suppose and consequently more is required to be believed by Christian men and Members of Christ's Church than that Iesus is the Messiah You see it is part of the Evangelical Faith and such as is necessary absolutely necessary to make one a Member of the Christian Church to believe a Trinity in Unity in the Godhead or in plainer terms that though God is One as to his Essence and Nature yet there are Three Persons in that Divine Essence and that these Three Persons are really the One God for we can't imagine that Men and Women should be required to be baptized into the Faith and Worship of any but the Only True God This Epitomizer of the Evangelical Writings left out also that famous Testimony in Iohn 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word Christ Jesus and the Word was with God and the Word was God Whence we are obliged to yield assent to this Article that Christ is the word of God And there is added in Verse 14. another indispensable Point of Faith viz. that the word was made Flesh i. e. that God was Incarnate the same with 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifest in the Flesh. And it follows in the same Verse of this first Chapter of St. Iohn that this VVord is the only begotten of the Father whence we are bound to believe the Eternal though ineffable Generation of the Son of God Our Author likewise takes no notice that we are commanded to believe the Father and the Son Joh. 14. 10 11. and that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son which expresses their Unity This is made an Article of Faith by our Saviour's particular and express Command And other eminent parts of Christian Belief this Writer passes by without having any regard to them and yet pretends to present the World with a Compleat and Entire Account of all that is the matter of our Faith under the Gospel This cannot but seem very strange and unaccountable to any man of deliberate Thoughts and who expects Sincerity from a Writer who makes some shew of it But this is not all this Learned Gentleman who with so much industry amasses together Quotations out of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles yet is not pleas'd to proceed to the Epistles and to give an Account of them as he did of the others though the Epistles are as considerable a part of the New Testament as the Gospels and the Acts and the Pen-men of them were equally inspired by the Holy
as they do of their own Existence or any other Principle in Nature but this I have made my task in an other place Thirdly they tell us they cannot believe a Deity because there are no Proper Demonstrations to prove it For you must know that there Persons whom we have to do with at present are great men for Demonstrations But I answer The Existence of many things in the World cannot be made out by Demonstration strictly so called and yet no man questions the reality of them The skilfullest Mathematician under Heaven can't demonstrate that the Sun Shines and yet there is no doubt at all of it and he would be counted a Mad-man that denies it We are morally certain of many things which we cannot possibly demonstrate but this doth not hinder us from yielding a firm assent to them And 't is certain that an Assent is an firm on Moral grounds as on rigid Demonstrations when the matter is capable of no other grounds for the Evidence is proportionable to the Matter to be proved and that is as much as can be desired by any intelligent man There can be no greater than a Moral Certainty of a Deity for there are no grounds of it Mathematically Demonstrative But by being Morally Certain we are certain enough and as certain as the nature of the thing will bear This should content any Rational man and it is unreasonable to demand any more Then as for those Demonstrations which they talk so much of they cannot but acknowledge that as they are sometimes managed they yield but little Certainty For not to speak now of the old Academicks and Scepticks who denied Geometrical Principles or of Demetrius Sextus Empiricus Epicurus Zeno and others of the Ancient Philosophers who reason'd against them I will mention some of our Moderns and those of great Skill and Learning who have disagreed about Mathematical Proofs and thereby proclaim to the World their Uncertainty The greatest Astrologers hugely differ as to the distance of the Sun from the Earth It is nearer to it ten thousand miles than it was saith Copernicus But I. Scaliger would have the Writings of those Authors who hold the Sun is nearer to the Earth than 't was in former days to be razed out with sponges or the Writers themselves to be corrected with stripes And other very good Astronomers are so far from consenting to this that they maintain the Sun is farther off from the Earth than it was at first And yet on both sides they proceed on Mathematical grounds There is no Mathematical Demonstration for Comets being above or below the Moon saith Ricciolus a very skilful Mathematician but others of that Faculty have pretended much to the contrary The Paralax is well known to be a Mathematical business that by which the Planets are judged to be higher or lower but the greatest Astronomers have quarrell'd with one another about this Doctrine Tycho is for it but Claramontius is against it and Galilaeus even explodes the Proof brought from the Paralax Dr. Wallis and Mr. Hobbes's Contrasts in Print shew that Mathematicks are dubious and this latter who was so stiff an Opposer of the Notion of a Spirit and consequently of a Deity finds fault with all Geometricians old and new in his Book entituled The Principles and Ratiocination of Geometricians Cartes's Dioptricks and Geometry are pretended to be baffled by other Learned Mathematicians as Bourdin Hobbes Fermat Franciscus du Laurens and Dr. Wallis scuffle about a Mathematical Problem So that it seems it is not an Infallible Science I am certain saith Dr. Henry More that Mathematical Certitude it self is not absolute There is an Essay of Dr. Pell to shew the Errors and Mistakes of the best and most celebrated Astronomers for want of better Knowledge in Geometry Even Monsieur Malebranch a profound Admirer and Follower of Descarts acknowledges that in his Geometry there are some footsteps of the weakness of the humane mind And I will conclude with the Words of One that was known to be eminent in Mathematical Studies Even in Geometry and Arithmetick saith he how many things are forcibly concluded to be true which are inexplicable unimaginable incomprehensible Thus you see the Mathematical Certainty which some men talk of is not so easily to be attain'd as they fancy Disputes have place in Geometry Demonstrations sometimes prove to be Paralogisms But as for a Mathematical Demonstration for the proof of a GOD it is vainly and unreasonably required because there can be no such thing for the matter will not bear it Wherefore though Some Divines have been great Philosophers and Mathematicians yet they never attempted any such thing A man must not expect to have every thing proved the same way If we have things evidenced by the Arguments which they are capable of it is satisfactory and every wise man rests in it And these men themselves do so in other things they acquiesce in that Evidence which the things admit of and they seek no farther Which shews that in the present Case they are Disingenuous and Cross-grain'd and act merely out of Prejudice which was the thing I undertook to make good Their Insincerity nourishes their Atheism Therefore let us have a care that we give way to no such thing III. Another Cause of this Pernicious Opinion is Ostentation of Wit For you may take notice that this Mischievous Plant springs from Contrary Seeds As before this kind of men put on a very grave and solid Countenance so now they shew themselves to be very Pleasant and Airy and set up for the Art of Drolling Before they appear'd like Philosophers now they come upon the Stage like Buffoons Then with a Magisterial Grimace they affected Demonstrations now nothing will please them but the Comical part It is observable that they are a sort of Jesting Scoffing People giving themselves to Railery and Burlesque And it is this Jocular Humour that in part betrays them to Atheism for they take liberty to jest with their Maker These witty and facetious Folks must needs play with Heaven and laugh God out of his being They are defective in sound Learning and Judgment and in the place of these have a fanciful way of Jeering which they addict themselves immoderately to Democritus was the great Asserter of Eternal Matter and thought that the Casual Motion of it was the Cause of all things the influence of which Principle in his Cogitations made him at last laugh at every thing he saw and mock at all Actions and Occurrences of humane life for 't is certain that if they are all by Chance they are to be denied The Followers of this Great Man have learnt from him to be Laughing Philosophers and there are abundance of this Sect now-a-days This I look upon as one Cause of the great Atheism of this Age. They think their Tongues are their own and they may say what they please and they perswade themselves that what
notion of a God for 't is counter to his course of Living Therefore he goes on in his Debauchery and huffs and swaggers and perhaps swears by the Divinity that there is none It is plain that this sort of men decry a God because they would not be obliged by his Laws Sensuality makes them desirous to remove all stops of a wicked life and therefore they whet their wits such as they are to annihilate Religion and to extirpate a Deity An abhorrence of the Practical part of Piety engages them against the Theory Their Lives influence on their Belief They are addicted to Atheism by their Lewd and Prophane Courses For we must observe this that these two mutually advance one an other As Atheism is the highway of Wickedness which the Psalmist takes notice of when he saith The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity Psal. 53. 1. so 't is as true that Wickedness is the original of Atheism and Infidelity For 't was rightly said by a Great Man None deny there is a God but those for whom it maketh that there were no God For they know that if there be one he will certainly judg them for their evil doings They cannot therefore be secure in their sins unless the notion and remembrance of a Deity be blotted out It is their supposed Interest then not their Reason that makes them deny a God for it is their Concern to be perswaded that there is none to punish them Briefly they are unwilling to believe any thing but what their Lust shall put into their Creed Thus you see the true Reason of the Atheism of these times It is fed and pamper'd by Luxury the constant Fumes and Steams of this affect the Brain and discompose the Intellect Practical Atheism leads to that which is Dogmatical i. e. holding and believing that there is no God Evil and perverse minds profane and debauch'd lives strangely byass and incline men to this Wherefore if you would effectually shut out this Vile Perswasion take care to suppress your Evil Affections and Practices for these are wont to court mens understandings to turn Atheists VII Atheists take occasion from our Divisions Broils and Animosities from the many Parties and Squadrons of Sects that are in the World to bid defiance to all Religion and they resolve to profess none till they can see them all Agreed Thus Tully observed of old that the Dissentions of Philosophers the various Sentiments and Opinions that prevail'd among them were a cause of some mens denying a Deity at least of their staggering about it And truly this Observator himself in his Books De Natura Deorum is so given to the Academical vein of Disputing that he seems sometimes to be irresolv'd whether there is any God or no. So it hath been among some of those who have taken upon them the external Denomination of Christians The Differences in Opinion the Errors and Heresies which they take notice of cause them to suspect yea to renounce all Truth A great deal of the Atheism of this present Age may be ascrib'd to this Some behold the great Scufflings that are about Religion not only the Single Combates but the Pitch'd Batelts that are about it and thereupon they discard all thoughts of any such thing and become perfect Libertines And herein they are promoted and push'd on by such persons as the Author of Fiat Lux and the Treatise of Humane Reason who both design Scepticism and so Atheism But though it is thus though the Different Perswasions about Religious Matters have this ill effect yet this can be no true Reason why any man should renounce the Belief of a God For he that is truly rational and considerate will rather make this an Argument of the contrary for it was foretold by Christ and his Apostles that Errors and Delusions should be in the World and therefore the Fulfilling of these Prophecies be as witness not only to the Truth of the Writings of the New Testament and consequently of Christianity but of the Divinity it self For things of this nature which depend wholly on free and arbitrary Causes cannot be foretold without Divine and Supernatural help None but an All-seeing eye could have a prospect of these future Occurrences The Predicting of such things to come is an Evidence of an Omniscient Deity And then as to the thing it self why should any man think it Strange and Unaccountable that there are Dissentions in Christendom He may as well wonder that there are Men in the World for as long as these retain their nature i. e. are subject to Prejudice Love of Interest Passion Pride and the like there will be Errors and Heresies for these proceed from some of those ill Principles and unless God should change the frame of the World and destroy the freedom of Man's will i. e. make him another Creature it cannot be otherwise How unreasonably then do men question a God and cry out against Religion it self because they see so many of this sort of Disorders in the world Whereas it is certain that it is not the fault of Religion that things are thus but they are thus because men have so little Religion Again the Cheats and Delusions that are in the world are useful for the Trial of Mankind that as the Apostle saith they who are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. I do not say they were design'd for this for no Evil is design'd by God yet it is certain they are expedient for this purpose and there is no better way to have an experiment of the Upright Judgment Sincerity Faithfulness and Constancy of Persons than by their being expos'd to these Impostures Lastly God deservedly Punishes men with erroneous and false Doctrines 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. Because they receive not the love of the truth yea because they hate it and oppose themselves to it and have pleasure in unrighteousness for this cause he sends them strong delusion that they shall believe a Lye and that they shall defend and maintain it It is just with God to leave men to the Error and Blindness of their Minds and judicially to give them over the Atheistical Perswasions when they have wilfully debauch'd and abused their Faculties This is the dreadful but just Judgment of God and I doubt not but the present Atheism of this Age is such Thus it is evident that Errors and Dissentions about Religion are so far from being Arguments of the Non-Existence of a Deity that they are undeniable Proofs of it Let not then the diversity of Sects and the Disputes of wrangling Heads as particularly the late upstart Contrast between the Unitarians and Trinitarians prejudice us against our Christian Faith But let us rather be stirr'd up hence to hold fast the Principles of our Belief and to own a Deity when there are so many in this degenerate Age that deny it And withal let