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B27515 Reflections on two discourses concerning the divinity of our Saviour, written by Monsieur Lamoth in French, and done into English written to J.S. Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.; E. E. 1693 (1693) Wing N1508B 32,573 26

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REFLECTIONS ON TWO DISCOURSES CONCERNING The Divinity of our Saviour Written by Monsieur LAMOTH in French and done into English Written to J. S. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCIII REFLECTIONS on two Discourses concerning the Divinity of our Saviour c. AMong our other Opposers we are at length attacked by the Preachers and Monsieur Lamoth an eminent Demagogue of the French Nation hath published two of his late Declamations against us I know not whether he was chosen to or put himself upon the Imployment but I will allow that a more fit Person cannot be readily found for the Work by him undertaken He hath Art and Address enough and such a Degree of Confidence as to be above both Shame and Fear If he had either of those in any Degree left to him he would never have said as he does at pag. 15 16 17 34. that the Apostle Paul had not common Sense nor any tolerable Degree of Vnderstanding nay was a Mad-man and the rest of the Apostles were Blasphemers if we do not grant that the Doctrines of the Trinity and of the Divinity of our Saviour as they are now held are true Concerning all the Writers of the New Testament he pronounces at once as here followeth I make no Difficulty saith he p. 33. to assert they have deceived us most shamefully and their Writings are no better than continual Blasphemies if Christ be not true God As to the Christian Religion he saith at p. 18. It hath nothing in it that is great and sublime if you take from it the Divinity of Jesus Christ 'T is not to be doubted that in his next he will tell us our Saviour himself was an Impostor to speak of himself as he did if he were the Great Prophet only But in the mean time I shall tell him that 't is ill manners nay 't is unchristian and impious to set the Persons of the Apostles and the Holy Scriptures themselves on the same Level with the litigated controverted and therefore doubtful and uncertain Doctrines of this or the other Party of Christians so that both must stand or fall together for 't is to equal in their Authority our private Interpretations of the Word with the Word it self The latter will have its true Value allowed to it by all wise and good Men while the other private Interpretations or Opinions shall even among such undergo various Changes be believed in some Ages and rejected in others which all learned Men know has been the Fortune of the Doctrines in Debate between us and the Church But Monsieur Lamoth is heartily troubled that if you take away the Divinity of our Saviour we shall find our Religion to contain nothing that is GREAT or SVBLIME p. 18. The Socinians on the contrary judg that the Design of Religion being confessedly this to direct our Conversation and Manners 't is no Matter how plain and obvious it is and that it being intended for the Unlearned and Vulgar as well as for others there was a Necessity it should neither be sublime nor great We are well satisfied with the Character that Moses and St. Paul give of Religion 'T is not in Heaven or beyond the Sea or in the Deep as who should say 't is neither sublime nor mysterious but 't is in thy Mouth and Heart that thou mayst do it As if he had said 'T is an easy intelligible thing congennit and connate to every Man that none may say 't was sublime and he understood it not 't was great and he could not grasp it This is the Description that Moses makes of true Religion Deut. 30. 12. And St. Paul repeating his Words applies them to the Gospel This is the Word of Faith says he that we preach Rom. 10. 8. But Mr. Lamoth and his Party are not for such a Religion they must have a Religion that is great and sublime and accordingly they have contrived to themselves such a Religion a Religion of which they not only say but profess and boast that 't is above and beyond all Reason You require of me Sir that I should examine the Defence that Monsieur Lamoth hath made of the great and sublime Religion I will do so in the following Method 1. I will make short Remarks on the General Arguments dispersed up and down in his two Discourses as his Translator has complemented him though he should have said his two Declamations 2. I will give an Account of the Texts which whether they will or no he hath impressed to serve his Cause On his general Arguments I Omit that he is pleased to call us p. 52 55 62 63. Enemies of Jesus the Profane Innovators Adversaries of the Lord Jesus near Neighbours to Irreligion for these are Complements that some Preachers readily bestow on as many as differ from them Though again when he is in the Mood as at p. 62. he confesses that we seem to be innocent Lambs and that in our Writings are found glittering Notions and ingenious Explications We won't thank him for the Acknowledgments which Truth it self has extorted from him nor will I resent much his ill Language to us but I will endeavour to treat him though somewhat sharply yet in a more Gentleman-like way He saith p. 52 53 54. By denying the Divinity of our Saviour we make the Bible the strangest Book in the World The Old Testament will scarcely have the least Agreement with the New we find nothing but Thwartings and Contradictions between them This once supposed viz. that Christ is not the most High God 't is evident that Christ came not to fulfil the Law and Prophets but utterly to confound and destroy them Let us speak only of the New Testament What a Book shall we have of it if Jesus Christ be not God The New Testament is full of antient Oracles he meaneth of Quotations out of the Old Testament to the Honour of the Living God but 't is as clear as the Noon-day that the Applications that the Apostles make of them are mere childish Triflings and Blasphemies if our Saviour by one of his Natures be not the Living God Afterwards at p. 53 54. he proceeds to tell us how the Holy Ghost ought saith he to have spoken if Jesus Christ be not God For if he is God the Holy Spirit according to this Author has been as faulty and as blasphemous as the very new Testament and the Apostles are Let us hear what he saith Why say the Socinians might not the Holy Ghost speak magnificently of that Redeemer to whom we are so vastly obliged and whom Providence has raised to such a Degree of Glory For that Reason say I I Monsieur C. G. Lamoth the Holy Ghost ought to have spoke with more Reservedness of the Glory of Christ The greater he is the more is the Danger of his being taken for God his very Greatness makes us the more stand in need of Preservatives If he had not been God the Excess of our Obligations to