I have first observ'd that several great Men and who have pass'd for good Christians have held this Opinion without losing the Reputation they had of Piety There is not a Man of Worth and Honour among the Protestants who will dare to say that Erasmus and Grotius were Libertines and yet both of them defended openly this same Opinion But because there are some Divines who esteem none but those that have been of the Society they live in I will repeat some reremarkable words of a Divine famous amongst the Presbyterians in England and even amongst those on this side the Water It is Mr. Richard Baxter who speaks thus in an English Book translated not long since into Dutch and intituled The Saints everlasting Rest. 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he who believeth but some one Book that containeth the Substance of the Doctrine of Salvation may be sav'd much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest Men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual Precedency to the Writings of other godly Men and do believe in Christ upon those strong Grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather than upon the Testimony of the Writing it being purely infallible and divine may yet have a divine and saving Faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine Inspiration where it handleth the Substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every Circumstance And in the next Page 32. The Circumstantials are many of them divine yet so as they have in them something humane as the bringing of St. Paul 's Cloke and the Parchments and as it seems his Counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something human in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediately divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But all innocent Imperfection here is in the Method and Phrase which of we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick Nothing can be more expresly said for the Justification of our Friend Those who have a value for Mr. Baxter must forgo their Esteem of him or else not condemn so lightly those who in his Judgment may have a saving Faith together with some Opinions different from those commonly receiv'd It may likewise be observ'd that many of those who have writ of the Truth of the Christian Religion have prov'd it without supposing the particular Inspiration of the Historians of the New Testament to be such as it is ordinarily taken to be as Grotius whose Book has been alike esteem'd by all Parties Which shows that our Belief is not founded upon this Supposition and that consequently one may be a good Christian without admitting it But it is better to represent this by an Example which will give you a more lively Impression of what I aim at I will therefore now indeavour in as few words as is possible to give you the Idea of a Method that seems to me very strong and very proper to convince a Libertine of the Truth of our Religion without once mentioning any thing of particular Inspiration I do not pretend thereby to condemn all other Methods that may be used to the like purpose but it seems to me that this is the simplest of all and subject to the fewest Difficulties You will allow me Sir this small Digression which may perhaps not be unuseful in a time when there are every where so many that doubt of the Truth of the Christian Religion The first and the greatest Objection the Libertines make us is That our Judgments are pre-possess'd which hinders us from being undeceiv'd We say the same of them and maintain that it is nothing but sensual Inclinations that raise those Difficulties in their Minds which would vanish if they examin'd them without Passion It is not just that either they or we should take for granted our Pre-possessions as Principles demonstrated or which need not be demonstrated Let us then act on both sides as if we had not yet espous'd any party and let us urge nothing that is not founded upon Principles which both sides acknowledg It is agreed that there are certain Characters by which we may be assur'd whether a thing has been done or no and by which we may distinguish the Truth or Falshood of a History If we do not agree in that we are Pyrrhoniens or to give it a better Name altogether senseless for none but a Mad-Man can doubt of the Truth of all the Histories in the World But farther we must also agree in another thing which is no less certain It is that there are certain Matters of Fact the Truth whereof is better conceiv'd than it can be prov'd and which are of such a nature that unless a Man be in a proper Disposition of Mind he can hardly be induc'd to believe them For Example If any one should tell us here that the Inquisition of Spain and Italy has approv'd the Works of Calvin and allow'd the People to read them in Spanish and Italian although it is impossible for us to believe it and that we are firmly perswaded of the contrary we should not be able to convince a Person who should be obstinate in maintaining it until we had given him evident Proofs thereof In like manner if there were false Witnesses ready to swear that one of our Friends whose Vertue had been well known to us for divers Years and who but just then was gone out of our Company went then immediately in cold Blood to assassinate a Person unknown to him for no other reason but only to make an Anatomical Dissection of his Body it is certain we should not believe them although it might not be in our Power to prove judicially the contrary It is easy to imagine a thousand Examples of such like Truths which we apprehend better than we can prove That being suppos'd if we come to the Christian Religion there occurs at the very first a difficulty in discerning what are the Doctrines of this Religion for Christians have great Controversies among themselves about their Belief There would be no end of going about to examine all these Controversies Let us therefore suspend our Judgment thereupon and see first wherein all Christians are agreed They all agree for Example that most of the Books of the New Testament are the Writings of those Authors whose Name they bear and who writ them more than sixteen hundred Years ago that the History therein is true and that we ought to obey the Commandments therein contain'd This Obedience may be reduc'd to these general Heads a rendering to God the Service due to him a trusting in his Promises and a keeping his Commandments in what concerns both our selves and our Neighbour But this supposes a Belief of
having themselves seen them or taken them out of good Records we may be consident that for the main of the History they tell us nothing that is not exactly true These Qualifications alone are sufficient to oblige us to give Credit to them An Historian that is honest and well inform'd of that which he relates is worthy of Credit And if you add thereto that he has also suffer'd Death in maintaining the Truth of his History as the Apostles did who were put to death for maintaining that they had seen and heard that which the Gospel tells us of Jesus Christ then not only that History will be worthy of Credit but they who shall refuse to believe it can pass for no other than Fools or obstinate Persons In this manner we may be fully assur'd of the Truth of the History of the New Testament that is to say That there was a Jesus who did divers Miracles who was rais'd from the Dead ascended up into Heaven and who taught the Doctrine which we find in the Gospels And this Jesus having born witness to the History of the Jews we cannot doubt its truth at least as to the principal Matters This can not be call'd in question without absolutely renouncing Christianity But People believe commonly two things which seem to me groundless unless they ground them upon Jewish Tradition a Principle as is well known extreamly uncertain They believe first that the sacred Historians were inspir'd with the Things themselves And next that they were inspir'd also with the Terms in which they have express'd them In a word that the holy History was dictated word for word by the holy Spirit and that the Authors whose Names it bears were no other than Secretaries of that Spirit who writ exactly as it dictated As to what concerns the Inspiration of Historical Matters of Fact I observe First That they suppose it without bringing any positive Proof and that consequently a Man may with good reason reject their Supposition They say only that if it were not so we could not be perfectly certain of the truth of the History But beside that a Consequence cannot undeniably prove a Fact and that it may happen that one cannot disprove a Consequence although that which is pretended to be prov'd thereby be not true I affirm that it is false that we cannot be perfectly certain of the main substance of a History unless we suppose it inspir'd We are for Example perfectly certain that Iulius Caesar was kill'd in the Senate by a Conspiracy whereof Brutus and Cassius were the Chiefs without believing that they who have inform'd us hereof were inspir'd There are such like matters in the Histories of all Nations which we cannot doubt of without being guilty of Folly and Opiniatrety and yet without supposing that these Histories were writ by Divine Inspiration In the second place this Opinion supposes without necessity a Miracle of which the Scripture it self says nothing To relate faithfully a matter of Fact which a Man has seen and well observed requires no Inspiration The Apostles had no need of Inspiration to tell what they had seen and what they had heard Christ say There needs nothing for that but Memory and Honesty Neither had those Authors who writ only the things that came to pass before their time as the Author of the Books of Chronicles any more need of Inspiration for copying of good Records And as for those who made the Records there was no more requisite than that they should be well inform'd of what they set down either by their Eyes or by their Ears or by faithful Witnesses It will be said perhaps that according to this Opinion the Faith which we build upon the Scripture will be no other than a Faith purely human because it will be grounded only upon Human Testimonies To this I answer That neither do we know any more than by a Human Faith that the Book which we call the Gospel of St. Matthew is truly his It is nothing but the uniform Consent of Christians since the beginning of Christianity to this day that makes us believe it which in truth is no more than a Testimony purely Human. We do not believe it because we are assur'd of it by an Oracle from Heaven which has told us that this Book is truly that Apostle's but on the same account that we believe that the Eneid is truly Virgil's and the Iliad Homer's But that which they here call Human Faith is of as great certainty as the Demonstrations of Geometry And even Divine Faith it self as they call it is built upon this Certainty For in truth we do not believe in Jesus Christ but because we are perswaded that the History we have of him is true And how do we know that this History is true Because Eye-witnesses have written it and have suffer'd Death to maintain the truth of their Testimonies And how are we certain that these were Eye-witnesses and that they suffer'd Death rather than deny what they said By History that is to say by the Testimony of Men who affirm it to us constantly from the time of the Establishment of the Christian Religion to the Age we live in So that Human Faith is found to be the ground of Divine Faith But we need not fear that this Foundation is not solid enough For without ceasing to be a Man and reasoning no more than a Brute it cannot be disputed as has been made appear by many Learned Men who have written of the Truth of Christian Religion In the third place The common Opinion is contrary to the Testimony even of the Sacred Writers St. Luke begins his Gospel after this manner For asmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in Order a Declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us even as they delivered them unto us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word It seemed good to me also having had perfect Vnderstanding of all things from the very first to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed You may observe in these words a Confirmation of what I have been saying and a full Proof that St. Luke learn'd not that which he told us by Inspiration but by Information from those who knew it exactly Now if you allow St. Luke to have so faithfully related to us the Life and Discourses of Jesus without having been particularly inspir'd that we ought to receive what he tells us with an entire belief in his Fidelity you ought not to make any difficulty to grant the same concerning the other Historians of the Scripture If any of them ought to be inspir'd certainly they were the Evangelists And if you will have another Example of a Histoory written without Inspiration you have but to read the Books of Kings and of the Chronicles being Extracts out of publick Registers and out
who have more Zeal than Knowledg to answer four sorts of Reflections that are made upon the Treatise concerning Inspiration I. Some Learned Men who approve the Opinions of Mr. N. conceive nevertheless that they ought not to have been publish'd because in their Judgments it is not fit that all Truths should indifferently be communicated to all People There are say they certain things which though good in themselves may easily be apply'd to ill uses and it is better that the Public should be depriv'd of the advantage it might draw from the knowledg of such Truths than be visibly expos'd to the danger of abusing them so lamentably as it would be apt to do II. Others who are of the same Mind in approving the Opinions of Mr. N. believe that since he was willing those his Thoughts should be publish'd he ought to have express'd them more distinctly and above all to have propos'd in the first place the State of the Question between him and the generality of Divines These Gentlemen think that if he had done as they say he had prevented a great many Calumnies which are grounded upon nothing but the Obscurity that is observ'd to be in some places of his Writing III. Some of those who look upon the Opinion of Mr. N. as false Doctrine cannot indure that I should have said It appears not by what Principle it can be overthrown They say that nothing is more easy And to let you see they are in the right they make divers Answers to the Arguments of Mr. N. and propose some Objections which they believe sufficient to refute all he has said IV. Lastly the most hot and the least reasonable of these Objectors affirm that the Opinions of our Friend lead directly to Deism and stick not to accuse him of favouring that abominable Opinion You see Sir to what Heads I am oblig'd to make Answer being of Opinion as I am that it was convenient to publish that Writing concerning Inspiration To begin with the first I acknowledg Sir that what they say is true I grant that all sorts of Truths are not fit to be spoken at all times and on all occasions It is undoubtedly a very ill thing to publish any Truth not necessary to be known how certain soever it may be when we are assur'd that those who shall read or understand it will infallibly be so scandaliz'd at it that the knowledg thereof will produce more hurt than good On such occasions Christian Prudence indispensably obliges us to the contrary The Question is not then Whether the Maxim of these Gentlemen be true or not In that we are agreed But my Opinion was that this Writing of Mr. N. would do infinitely more good than hurt and I dare yet maintain that in the Times wherin we live it is very fit that such Matters as these be throughly examin'd without concealing from the Public any of the Difficulties that attend them You know Sir that most of the Sciences being arriv'd in this our Age to a greater degree of Perfection than formerly though from thence it might be expected that such Improvements should have render'd Christians so much the more wise and more judicious yet on the contrary Libertinism and Impiety have prevail'd more scandalously than ever The Libertines of former Ages profess'd their Opinions only in some extravagant Sallies of Wit or Debauchery and oppos'd the Christian Religion only by some insipid Railleries which could have no weight with any Persons of sound Judgment and unbiass'd Affections But the Libertines of our Times make use of their Philosophy and Criticism to overthrow the most sacred and most solid Doctrines of our Religion Divers impious Books have been publish'd not only in Latin but also in French in English and in Dutch which many unlearned Persons read with much greediness Abundance of People are fond of Spinoza's Opinions because they have read his Books in French in English and in Dutch though they never study'd Philosophy nor Criticism We are in Times wherein every body pretends to depth of Learning freedom of Thought and strength of Judgment and this Reputation is easily acquir'd by reading those Books But that which renders this yet more deplorable is that it is not a Disease of Youth that Men grow out of as they advance in Years They whose Minds are once tainted with these unhappy Opinions do very seldom get quit of them This is undoubtedly a great Mischief and to which those who are any ways able to bring Remedy are oblig'd to do it It has been endeavoured to overthrow the Authority of the holy Scriptures by making appear that the Stile of the sacred Writers was not inspir'd and that they did not receive every thing they said from immediate Inspiration And in effect it has happen'd that many People have hereupon believ'd that the Authority of the Scripture was intirely ruin'd And imagining that the Reasons brought by Spinoza to prove this Opinion were unanswerable they have fall'n into Deism or into Atheism What Remedy Sir for this For my part I confess I see but one of these three Either a way must be found to burn all the Copies of these impious Books that have corrupted so many Men and to blot out of Mens Memory the Arguments of these Libertines or else there must solid Demonstration be made of the Falsity of the Arguments they make use of to maintain their Opinions Or lastly in granting to them that the sacred Pen-Men were not inspir'd neither as to the Stile nor as to those things which they might know otherwise than by Revelation it must be yet demonstrated that the Authority of the Scriptures ought not for all that to be esteemed less considerable It is plain that the first of these three is absolutely impossible and that tho an Inquisition should now be settl'd in France in England and in Holland it would already be too late There is then no other means left to cure this Libertinism that is spread so wide but one of the two last propos'd Remedies For my part I could wish with all my Heart that some body would try the second and would make it evident that God has inspir'd the sacred Authors not only with the matter they have spoken about but also with the very Expressions But since no body has yet done nor that I know undertaken to do it why should it be ill taken that Mr. N. has made use of the third method or that I have publish'd his Writing It is true there are some who believe that it were better to hold ones peace in a matter so delicate than to run the hazard of giving scandal to others by contradicting the Opinions which they think most reasonable This indeed would be very well if Libertines also forbore writing or if no body read their Books But since it is otherwise such silence is not at all seasonable If any weak Minds take Offence without Reason at what is offer'd there are an
they have taken much pains to correct in themselves the Faults which others commit they have apply'd themselves to reading or they have travell'd in France These Jews born in the Countries where nothing but Greek was spoken understood not the ancient Hebrew nor the Hebrew then spoken in Iudaea They made use in their Synagogues of the Version of the Septuagint and because they spoke nothing but Greek they were call'd the Hellenist Iews Salmasius in his Book of the Hellenist Tongue against Heinsius shows that these Jews spoke very good Greek and that it is very absurd in some Learned Men to imagine there was an Hellenish Tongue as if the Hebrews that knew not their own Language had a particular one different from that of the places where they dwelt and that this Language was that of the Septuagint and of the New Testament If a Name were to be given to this corrupted Greek it should rather be call'd Hebraistic because it is full of Hebraisms or Chaldaisms But as the Language of the Walloons or of some of the Provinces of France cannot pass for a particular Language being nothing but a corrupted French so neither ought the barbarous Greek of Iudaea to pass for a Language by it self different from the Greek Language It is no wonder then if the Apostles who had liv'd a good part of their Lives in Iudaea or who were born there and had not apply'd themselves to learn perfectly the Greek Tongue nor to speak it in purity use it so improperly in their Writings St. Paul himself born in a Town that spoke nothing but Greek had so corrupted his Speech by his long dwelling in Iudaea that he confesses he was ignorant in the Language 2 Cor. XI 6. as sufficiently appears by all his Epistles the Greek whereof is very different from that of Iosephus And therefore the Greek Fathers have complain'd of the obscurity of his Stile of the barbarous Phrases that are therein and of apparent Confusion in the order of his Discourses and those who very readily understood Plato and Demosthenes were oblig'd as Erasums judiciously observes to take great pains to understand St. Paul We need but compare his Stile with that of some Greek Author to find that this Apostle apply'd himself not much to the Greek Eloquence It is plain then that the holy Spirit inspir'd not the Apostles with the Expressions they were to use If it had been so St. Paul could not have said he was ignorant in the Language He should have said that the holy Spirit inspir'd him with a Language such as was that of the People And all the Greek Fathers would have blasphemed against the holy Spirit when they observ'd the little Eloquence of St. Paul for according to this Supposition that would not have proceeded from St. Paul but from the holy Spirit If any one doubt of this he need but read Erasmus in the places I have cited It is true that a famous Protestant Divine has undertaken to confute him in his Annotations upon the 10 th Chapter of the Acts but he does nothing but declame as he is us'd to do against an Author more learned and more judicious than himself without bringing any solid Reason We must now speak a word of some Books of the Old Testament that contain neither History nor Prophecy such are the Books of Proverbs Ecclesiastes the Song of Solomon and Iob which last is apparently a Dramatic Piece whereof nothing but the Subject is true as are the Tragedies of the Greek Poets There is no Proof that what is contained in the Proverbs was inspir'd to Solomon by God after a Prophetic manner They are Moral Sentences which a good Man might well pronounce without Inspiration as are those contain'd in Ecclesiastious There are very many of them that are but vulgar Proverbs which carry indeed a good Sense but have nothing in them of Divine There are a great many Directions about Oeconomy which Women and Country-People every-where know without Revelation See Chap. XXIV 27. and XXVII 23. and the Description of a vertuous Woman at the latter end of the Book The Name of Prophet is very liberally bestow'd on Agur the Son of Iakeh for some Moralities that are found under his Name Prov. XXX Whereas I dare be bold to say better things might have been said without the Spirit of Prophecy Three things says he for Example are too marvellouss for me and even four which I know not The way of an Eagle in the Air The way of a Serpent on a Rock The way of a Ship in the midst of the Sea and the way of a Man with a Maid One must have a mean Opinion of the Spirit of Prophecy to believe that it dictated such things as these And indeed neither does the Author pretend to that Eminency but says modestly concerning himself That he is more brutish than any Man and has not the Vnderstanding of a Man But there is particularly one Precept of good Husbandry that is often repeated which our Merchants now adays know as well as the Israelites that liv'd in Solomon's time It is that which expresly forbids them to be Surety for any body Chap. VI. 1. XVII 18. XX. 16. XXII 26. XXVII 13. It is true by the Rules of good Husbandry a Man should never be Surety but there happens oftentimes Cases wherein Charity ought to be preferr'd before good Husbandry as appears by the Parable of the Samaritan who became Surety for the Expence of the Jew that was found hurt on the Road. There is methinks no great need that God should send Prophets to teach Men good Husbandry on the contrary it was very necessary that Christ should preach Liberality Some Learned Men have believ'd that Ecclesiastes is a Dialogue where a pious Man disputes with an impious one who is of the Opinion of the Sadduces And in effect there are things directly oppos'd one to another which it cannot be suppos'd the same Person speaks The Epicurean Conclusion To eat drink and be merry because a Man has nothing else which is up and down in many places of this Book is altogether contrary to that Conclusion at the end of the Work Fear God and keep his Commandments c. But it is extreamly difficult to distinguish the Persons or to find out exactly in the Name of what Person the Author speaks in every Passage However it be there appears in it nothing of Prophetic and there is little likelihood that the Spirit of God would set out with so great strength the Arguments of Sadduces or perhaps of worse Men to answer them but in two or three words Read the beginning of the ninth Chapter and make Reflection on these words The living know that they shall die but the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a Reward for the Memory of them is forgotten Also their Love and their Hatred and their Envy is now perish'd neither have they any more a Portion for ever
hundred others that may be brought off from their Inclination to Libertinism by the same Reasons which those are offended at If indeed we ought always to be afraid of saying any thing that is not generally approv'd we should quickly be oblig'd not only to keep silence but also to suppress many things which are both useful and necessary to Salvation There is no Doctrine in the Gospel how holy soever which some Sect of Christians has not perverted and misused Nay the same is yet done daily All the difficulty then lies in knowing whether the treating concerning this Question of the Inspiration of the Authors of the Bible will occasion more Good or Hurt In it self the Thing is good even by the Concession of those that argue against it and there is nothing but the weakness of some Mens Minds that can render it dangerous Thus then the Good or Evil of this Disquisition depends wholly upon the Event which therefore these Gentlemen ought to suffer us to expect before we acknowledg that we have done ill in publishing this Writing of Mr. N. We must add to this that Mr. N. is not the first that has spoken as he does of the Inspiration of the sacred Writers We see many Proofs of it in his Dissertation And besides the places which he has cited out of some Books of Grotius there are others infinitely more strong and more express in those against Rivet Now after having thus answer'd those that would have had this Writing suppress'd it is necessary to give some satisfaction to those also who complain that the Author has not express'd his Opinion with sufficient clearness I have therefore desir'd Mr. N. to explain it to me himself if it were possible in few words and more distinctly in order to remove those injurious Suspicions that may have risen from any Obscurity in his Writing concerning his Faith and his Piety And these are the Heads to which he has reduc'd his Opinion and wherein he agrees with us In the first place says he I believe that no Prophet either of the Old or New Testament has said any thing in the Name of God or as by his order which God had not effectually order'd him to say nor has undertaken to foretel any thing which God had not indeed truly reveal'd to him and that this cannot be doubted of without great Impiety I have said it expresly in many places of my Treatise In the second place I believe that there is no matter of Fact of an importance related in the History of the Old or New Testament which in effect is not true And that tho there may be some slight Circumstances wherein some of the Historians were mistaken yet we ought nevertheless to look upon that History in general as the truest and most holy History that ever was publish'd amongst Men. I am perswaded that those who writ it were very well inform'd of all they relate and that they had not the least intention to deceive us insomuch that it was impossible they should fall into any considerable Error as neither can we do in believing what they have said And that there may be no Equivocation By a matter of importance I mean all the Commandments that the sacred Historians assure us were given to the Jews by God all the Miracles that are found in the History of the Scripture all the principal Events in that History and generally all the matters of Fact on which our Faith is grounded In the third place I believe with all Christians that all the Doctrines propos'd by the Authors of the Scriptures to Jews and Christians to be believ'd are really and truly Divine Doctrines although it may be suppos'd that they did not immediately learn them from Heaven I am as much perswaded as any Man that there is no sort of reasoning made use of in the dogmatical places of the holy Scripture where the Prophets and Apostles instruct us concerning the Promises or the Will of God that can lead us into Error or into the belief of any thing that is false or contrary to Piety I believe in the fourth place That Jesus Christ was absolutely infallible as well as free from all Sin because of the Godhead that was always united to him and which perpetually inspir'd him insomuch that all that he taught is as certain as if God himself had pronounc'd it I have explain'd this clearly in my Writing In the last place I believe that God has often dictated to the Prophets and to the Apostles the very words which they should use Of this I have also given some Examples In these things I agree with all Christian Divines And I believe further as well as they that these five Heads of our Belief may be undeniably prov'd against Libertines and Atheists by the Authority of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to whom God has born Testimony by an infinite number of Miracles which are more clearly demonstrable to have been really done than any Fact whatsoever of all ancient History For Example it may be prov'd by positive Testimonies of Matters of Fact that Jesus Christ did really rise again from the Dead and that the Apostles had the Gift of Miracles more clearly than it can be prov'd that ever there was a Roman Emperor call'd Trajan If any one conceive that this kind of Evidence is not sufficient to convince us of the Truth of these Facts or that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Miracles of his Apostles do not sufficiently prove without any thing further that they were not Deceivers I confess I understand not what further Proofs can be given of these things unless God should raise in our days a Prophet that should do the same Miracles over again before our Eyes It may be there are some who believe that the holy Spirit gives them inward assurance of the Truth of the Gospel and who imagine that this inward Testimony is a more convincing Proof than all those I have spoken of But as there are not many that have this Belief and as those that have it cannot make use of that pretended inward Testimony to convince another who does not himself feel it we may without troubling our selves further with them leave them to enjoy that Chimerical Satisfaction which their meer Imagination affords them The Authority of the holy Scriptures being thus settl'd I will now shew you wherein it seems to me that the generality of Divines are deceiv'd and in what I am not of their Opinion They affirm that all that is in the sacred Books Histories Prophecies c. has been immediately inspir'd both as to the Matter and Words That all the Books in the Jews Catalogue ought to be reckon'd amongst the inspir'd Books That when the Apostles preach'd the Gospel they were so inspir'd that they could not be deceiv'd not even in a thing of no consequence at all and that they knew at the very first without any exercise either of Reason or Memory what they
were to say On the contrary my Opinion is That it is only in Prophecies and some other places as in the Sermons of Jesus Christ and where God himself is introduc'd speaking that the Matter or Things have been immediately reveal'd to those who spoke them That the Stile for the most part was left to the liberty of those who spoke or writ That there are some Books that are not inspir'd neither as to the Matter nor Words as Iob Ecclesiastes c. That there are some Passages which Passion dictated to those that writ them as many Curses in the Psalms That the sacred Historians might commit and have actually committed some light Faults which are of no moment That the Apostles in preaching the Gospel or in writing their Works were not ordinarily inspir'd neither as to the Matter nor the Words but that they had recourse to their Memory and Judgment in declaring what Jesus Christ had taught them or framing Arguments or drawing Consequences from thence That the Apostles while they liv'd were only look'd upon as faithful Witnesses of what they had seen and heard and as Persons well instructed in the Christian Religion whereof no part was unknown to them or conceal'd by them from their Disciples but not as Men that preach'd and taught by perpetual Inspiration I believe indeed that they were not deceiv'd in any Point of Doctrine and that it was very unlikely they should be so because Christian Religion is easy and compris'd in a few Articles That they pretended not to enter into deep Argumentations and to draw Conseqrences remote from their Principles and that they never undertook to treat of nice and controversial Matters as is plain by reading of their Writings Or if it happen'd sometimes that they were mistaken in any thing as it seems to have happen'd to St. Peter and to St. Barnabas it has been in things of small consequence and they soon perceiv'd their Error as did these two Apostles This sort of Infallibility is easy to be conceiv'd if it be consider'd that a Man of Sense and Integrity who is well instructed in his Religion and who does not much enter into Argumentations and drawing of Inferences can hardly err so long as he continues in that Temper and observes that Conduct This is the Sum of what I have said in my Writing concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Pen-Men and it is herein precisely that I differ from the common Opinion of Divines You see how much these Principles are contrary to those of the Deists who reject all sort of Inspiration and who look upon the holy Scripture as a Work full of Falsities and wherein there is nothing but what is purely human The Divines that have accus'd me of Deism on account of this Writing certainly either never took the pains to read it or did not understand it for I cannot believe that they would accuse me of so detestable an Opinion out of pure Malice and against their own Consciences They were undoubtedly in some measure mis-led by a false Zeal that render'd them little attentive to what they read or made them suspect that the Author had not discover'd all that he had in his Mind It is an ill Custom that some peevish and ill-natur'd Persons have to judg of other Mens Opinions rather by the Suspicions which their own deprav'd Imaginations suggest to them than by those Mens Expressions and Actions which are the only Evidence that ought to be regarded on these occasions A Man ought to be judged by what he says and not by what he says not nor by what is injuriously imputed to him without any Proof And if this ought always to be the Rule of our Carriage one towards another there is more particular Reason that it should be so when a Man protests as I do at present that he is not of any other Opinion than what he expresly sets down and that he disowns the ill Consequences which are pretended to be drawn from his Discourses and which to him seem not to be deducible from them By this Explanation of Mr. N's Principles which I receiv'd from himself you may see Sir that he is very far from those impious Opinions which some too hot-headed Divines have charg'd him with Candid and equitable Readers had no need of this Explanation in which I see nothing but what is plainly enough set down in his first Writing But as Equity is a Vertue seldom practis'd in Theological Controversies he thought it necessary to give these further Explications to those who persisted still in suspecting him to believe things which he abhors We shall see hereafter if any ill Consequence can be drawn from his Opinion But before I come to that I will transcribe here what he further adds to that which you have already seen In reading says he the Prior of Bolleville's Answer to the Thoughts of some Holland Divines I observ'd that Mr. Simon accuses me of having taken part of what I have said out Grotius his Book call'd Votum pro Pace Ecclesiasticâ I should be well pleas'd that my Reader believ'd it I could not then be accus'd as I am by some of Innovation It is true I have read that Book but it being long ago that Passage of Grotius was not in my Mind otherwise I should not have fail'd to have cited it as I have cited others of the same Author that are less express I think it therefore not amiss to take advantage of this Advertisement and now to set down that Passage together with another taken out of his Defence of the Vow for Peace titl'd Discussio Apologetici Rivetiani Grotius had said in a Work wherein he defends his Observations upon the Consultation of Cassander against Rivet that this last Divine was very much deceiv'd in believing that all the Books of the Old Testament that are in the Hebrew Canon were dictated by the Holy Ghost that Esdras in the Opinion of all the Iews was not a Prophet nor had the holy Spirit that his Books and the Collection he made of the more ancient Books had been approv'd by the great Synagogue in which indeed there were some Prophets although the Iews hold that there was a doubt concerning the Book of Ecclesiastes c. Rivet liked not this Opinion of Grotius and indeavoured to prove the contrary by Scripture and by some Jewish Authors Grotius replied to him in these terms in his Vow for Peace I said indeed that the Books in the Hebrew Canon were not all dictated by the holy Spirit But I do not deny that they were written with a pious intention of Mind And this was the Determination of the great Synagogue whose Iudgment in this matter the Iews submit to For there was no need that the Histories should be dictated by the holy Spirit It was sufficient that the Writer had a good Memory for the things he had seen or that he were careful in transcribing the ancient Records The word Holy
and believes Haman was about to force the Queen Haman is seiz'd upon to be put to Death and the Gibbet being found ready sitted for Mordecai Haman by the king's order is hanged upon it Mordecai succeeds in the place of Haman and by Esther's means obtains another Edict whereby the Jews are permitted to take Arms and defend themselves against those that should fall upon them The day mention'd in the Edict being come the Jews kill all those that went about to destroy them They slay five hundred in Shushan And the like leave being given them the next day they kill three hundred more besides Haman's ten Sons who were hang'd by the King's order Now upon the consideration of all these Circumstances it is observ'd by some that if Vnity of Time and Place had been observ'd in this Story there would have been nothing wanting to have made it a good Tragi-Comedy For my part I determine nothing upon the Point But this I can say that in all likelihood Mr. Simon had not read of a long time this Book when he writ the 129th Page of his Answer where he says That though it should be suppos'd that the Books of Esther Judith and Tobit are not true Histories yet it does not follow therefore that they ought to be left out of the Catalogue of Canonical Books And that he has observ'd in his Critical History after St. Jerom that the Parabolical Stile has always been in esteem amongst the Eastern People and that a Book whether it contain a true History or a plain Parable or a History mix'd with Parables is not therefore the less true or less Canonical If the Histories contain'd in these Books are not true they are certainly not Parables but Romances The bare reading them is sufficient to show that those who writ them publish'd them not for Books of Morality but only as surprizing and wonderful Stories To say nothing of Iudith and Tobit it is plain by the Original which the Author of the Book of Esther gives to the Feast of Purim that he compos'd that Book with design to make it look like a true History See the IXth Chap. v. 27. to the end The Original of a Feast uses not to be founded upon a Parable and such a History as that of Esther is not wont to be mix'd with Parables Mr. Simon says well that there are Parables in the New Testament so well circumstantiated that one would take them for true Histories But we must not have read either the Book of Esther or the New Testament to be perswaded that there is any resemblance betwixt the History of that Book and the Parables of our Saviour The Parable most like to a History is that of Dives and Lazarus but there is nothing in it like the History of Esther See Ioseph Antiq. lib. 11. cap. 6. Objection 9. The Prudence and Reason of the Apostles is often spoken of as if the use they made thereof were inconsistent with the Inspiration attributed to them but these things may well agree together as Mr. Simon observes Answer If Mr. Simon understood what he would say when he speaks of reconciling Human Prudence with Inspiration he believes undoubtedly the same thing that I do concerning the Inspiration of the Apostles We agree that the Terms were not inspir'd The question is only about the Things The Inspiration of the things consists either in presenting to the Mind general Principles from whence they that are inspir'd according as they have occasion afterward draw Consequences or in furnishing it with Arguments ready fram'd If God furnish'd the Minds of the Apostles with Arguments ready fram'd they made no use of their Reason having nothing to do but to declare what the holy Spirit had inspir'd them with as the Prophets were only to express the Sense of what God had said to them And this is that which every body calls properly Inspiration But if it be suppos'd that God presented to the Minds of the Apostles only general Principles of which by their own reasoning they made necessary and fit Application upon emergent occasions they were in that case no more inspir'd than those who having carefully read the holy Scripture have the Ideas thereof so present in their Minds that they never fail to make use of it when it is necessary In this last Supposition Reason indeed is made use of but in the other it is not Now it appears that Mr. Simon is not of the Opinion that excludes the use of Reason And therefore I say it is probable that he is of the same Opinion with me though he know it not For I deny not but God might have presented to the Minds of the Apostles either by supernatural or natural ways the general Ideas of which they should stand in need to defend themselves at their Trials I only deny that God always inspir'd them with all the Arguments they made use of on those occasions Mr. Simon adds That to say that the Spirit of Courage and Holiness which the Gospel produces in our Hearts dictated to the Apostles what they should say is to destroy intirely the inward Grace which God did spread abroad in the Hearts of his Apostles and which he yet daily spreads abroad in the Hearts of the Faithful But what does he mean by this inward Grace which is common to the Apostles and the Faithful Is it not the Spirit of the Gospel At least the Faithful have nothing else in common with the Apostles Now if the Apostles by virtue of this Promise It is not you that speak it is the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you have receiv'd as Mr. Simon gives us to understand only the inward Grace which God spreads abroad daily in the Hearts of the Faithful the Inspirations of the Apostles were not different from those of the Faithful now a days Objection 10. Whereas it is said That the Apostles spoke many things at their Trials which might have been spoken without Inspiration and from thence is inferr'd that it is not necessary to believe that they were inspir'd with those things This way of arguing may be apply'd to the Prophets whom nevertheless we acknowledg to have been truly inspir'd Mr. Simon Resp. 131. Answer Mr. Simon who sees nothing in Books but what his Passion shows him might have taken notice that I said that the Prophets teach us they are inspir'd when they say Thus saith the Lord c. There are two ways to know if a thing be inspir'd The first consists in observing if those who say this or that thing maintain that they had it from God by an extraordinary Revelation whereof they give undeniable Proofs as did the Prophets The second is when the thing it self declar'd shows it to be so When the first way fails we must have recourse to the second and where they both fail we have no reason to believe there is any Inspiration Now this is that which appears in many Discourses of the