deceiving Perspective cast on the falsest Propositions and the close Contextures of Reason derived from the common Notices of Truth which dwell on the minds of all men The subtleties of the Schoolmen did well enouâ—h in an Age that questioned nothing but nâ—w that men are throughly awake and having thrown off the prejudices of Custome and Education call for a fuller Evidence they are not the proper men to deal with this Age their ignorance of mankind makes them offer many things as demonstrations which some even of the most trifling pretenders to Wit can undo and blâ—w away and their being accustomed to their own Topicks not knowing how much they are rejected by men of severer and more searching Understandings makes them often beg the one half of the question to prove the other Therefore whoever would deal with our Hectors in matters of Religion must know men as well as Notiâ—nâ— and Books And as of 〈◊〉 Plato thought the Study of Geometry a necessary preparation to the understanding the higher Mysteries of his Philosophy So I have often judged an acquaintance with Mathematical Arts and Sciences a fit and almost necessary preparation for a right understanding and managing Theological debates since these teach us to distinguish Critically betwixt truth and falshood and practise a man into an exact considering of every thing that is proposed to him The want of this or at least a great overliness in it appears in J. K's late Book wherein he thinks he leads his Reader in a Mathematical method through a great many Propositions every one of which he imagines he has proved beginning from a very plain unquestioned one That something is True and ending it in a very fruitful one That every thing the Roman Church teaches as an Article of Faith must certainly be True Undoubtedly if his method be good that Church is infinitely beholding to him for its support having offered an easier and clearer method for bringing the world under her Authority than any yet thought on This he concludes as firm and sure of all sides and by a clear way of Analyticks offers a Resolution of any Theorem or Problem in Divinity even to the giving the Quadrature of that Circle their Church is forc'd to run round in proving her own Authority from the Scriptures and the Authority of the Scriptures from her own Testimony I shall without any further Introduction enter into a survey of the Six Points proposed by J. K. to be proved without examining the unwariness of his expressions in any of them in which though he lies often open yet it is of so little importance to quarrel about Words or forms of Speech that I shall not stand upon them being also careful to avoid the engaging in any debate that may be personal betwixt him and me and therefore shall confine my discourse to the Six Points he has gone through CHAP. I. It is considered if J. K. does prove convincingly that there is a God J K. thinks he hath proved the being of a God by this progression of Reason If something be true then this is true That there is something better than another which if any man deny he denies himself better than an Ass or a Block and so is either a mad man or a fool Now if something be better than other then there is a best of all things and every thing is better as it comes nearer that which is best and this best of all things is God Des Cartes is blamed by many for having left out all other Arguments for the proof of a Deity setting up only One which how strong soever it may be it is a great injury to the Cause he maintains to seem to slight all other proofs may be brought for so sacred and fundamental a truth Yet his establishing that upon a good and solid Foundation doth very much qualifie any guilt which is rather to be imputed to the over-valuing his own Notions than a designed betraying the Cause he undertook But upon this occasion the Reader may be tempted to severâ—r Câ—â—sure when the Foundations of so great a Suâ—â—â—structure are so ill laid and both the Antecedent and Consequent of this Argument prove equally weak And in the first place how is it proved that some things are better than other things or does any imagine the Atheists will admit that On the contrary they deny there is any thing morally good or evil and ascribe all the Notions of good and evil to Education Custom the several tempers and interests of men And indeed did they acknowledge the Morality of Actions they should yield the full half of the Debate that men ought to be good which would clearly make way for proving all the rest And these men will without any hesitation acknowledge themselves no better than Beasts or Blocks as to any moral goodness They will not deny but Matter is more refined in a man the Contexture better and the Usefulness greater than in other Animals but as to any moral goodness they plainly disclaim it As though Wood be never so neatly wrought in a fiâ—e and useful Cabinet yet is no better so than when it was an undressed Plank as to any moral goodness Thus it appears that I. K's ignorance of men makes him stumble in his first attempt nor is his next more successful for though some things be better it will not follow there is a best for of every sort of Beings there are some Individuals better than other but from that it does not follow there must be a best of that rank or order of Creatures because one Horse is swifter one Dog better scented one Lyon stronger therefore must there be a Horse swifter than all others a Dog the best scented of any and a Lyon stronger than any other Lyon This may be applied to all the Species of Creatures for all the goodness these people admit being only a better temper of more nimbly agitated Matter though one thing excel another it is not because it comes nearer the best of all Beings nor because it recedes further from the worst of all Beings but because it is more wieldy more apt to serve the several uses and interests of men without rising higher to consider any Orâ—ginal and Standart goodness Nor wâ—ll this any more prove the being of one that is 〈◊〉 all than because some men are sharper sighted others stronger limbâ—d others of a better digestion and others of a better tempered health that therefore there must be one that hâ—â— the sharpest sight of all men the strongest limbs the best dâ—gestion and the most constant health Besides though an Atheist did admit there were some beings Morally better and worse this does not prove there must be a best of all Beings for he may say that as naturally as Colours fit the eye and Sounds the ear so some Notions of good are suitable to the minds of men and their being better and worse is nothing but their keeping more close
to these Notions discerning them more truly and following them more constantly so that as a man sees well when his eye does present objects to him in their due Colours and distances yet this proves no Deity in like manner a man is better or worse as he discerns and follows these common Notices more or less exactly Thus far I have considered this Argument and have found it so weak on all sides that no weight is to be laid on it at all But all this while I have been put to act a very unpleasant part when I did but seem to defend Atheism from any objection is brought against it but I know nothing that does more prejudice a good cause than when it is maintained by arguments palpably weak and unconcluding for it makes many overly considerers and more particularly those that are already byassed and partial imagine it has no more strength in it than what it receives from the Arguments by which it was proved since no conclusion as such can have more truth in it than was in the premises from which it was deduced If therefore the proving of a Deity be made good by an Argument so fallacious that it must needs appear such at first view one that is wickedly partial may from that be sortified in his accursed hopes that there is none because he finds that so much feared truth is so weakly asserted But that I do not leave the Atheists in a vain triumph or seem to weaken so good a Cause by blowing away any reasons brought for it without substituting other and better ones in their room I shall here say a little for the conviction of an Atheist First then all men are desired to consider there is no Argument that can so much as pretend to prove there is no God or that a supreme being infinitely perfect is impossible for all the Atheists offer at is only to weaken those Reasons from which the belief of a Deity is inferred so that still it is possible there may be a God And from this every man will see cause to retire his thoughts inwards to consider what danger he is in if there be a God and he continue to deny and despise him and if it be possible there be a God for ought he knows there may be one since he has no reason to be assured of the contrary If upon this he yield so far as seriously and with even ballances to weigh what shall be offered to him he is next desired to consider if he find not within himself the secret apprehensions of a Supreme invisible being if the fears of offending him the desire of his assistance the joy in the opinion of being acceptable to him do not often spring up in his mind and this even after all attempts to stifle and repress them Nor can this be only the effect of Education for every man finds by experience that all other things which he sucked from his breeding can by a little care and attention be so quite forsaken that no visage of the first impression shall remain Since therefore these thoughts stick closer there must be somewhat more than Education in the case But this will appear stronger if a man compare the thoughts and common sentiments of all Nations and Ages as far as either History or writings can lead us up with these stirring within his own breast where finding that all mankind have agreed in the belief of a Deity he must needs be convinced there is some proportion betwixt his Soul and these thoughts from which he is not to be shaken though he meet with some few in this or former Ages who have denied or doubted this truth for these can never be set up against such vast numbers as have agreed in this belief who have been always the most sober most serious and considering persons who have cultivated all Arts and Sciences and advanced the good of Mankind more than the whole Tribe of Libertines and Ruffians who having abandoned themselves to their sensual appetites and pleasures and neglected the improving their minds in any thing that is either Great or Good are not to be put in the ballance with the Religious What have they ever done to better Mankind On the contrary their Maxims dissolve all the Nerves of Government and all the duties we owe one another and they being buried in their brutal lusts have lost that clearness of discerning which men of more sober tempers have nor do they ever converse with their own minds but study to guard against serious Thoughts as effects of the Spleen and Melancholy and the dissoluteness of their Lives as it depraves their Understandings so it makes them partial to those Notions that may give them ease and sleep in their licentious practises And thus he that consults his own thoughts and the common verdict of all Mankind will be made acknowledge a Deity And if he open his eyes to look on the visible world this will furnish him with many Reasons to believe an invisible power that made it If we consider the Revolutions of the heavens the interchanges of day and night summer and winter the figure of the earth its division into Sea and Land by which all Nations communicate what they abound in to others the inequalities of Hills and Valleys the Lakes and Rivers that moisten the earth and give drink to Animâ—â—â— the many productâ—oâ—s of the Earth the great variety of Plants and Vegetables with their several uses besides the more inward riches of the Earth Mines and Minerals what man of common sense can ascribe all this to Fate or Chance But the Structure of Animals the Organs of Sense the Vessels of Concoctions the various Ferments and the skilfully disposed Channels for conveying nourishment to all the parts of the Body raises our wonder higher which is at its full height when we examine the parts of mans Body which amazed Galen and made him sing a Hymn to his Maker upon so astonishing a Meditation If the Brain and seat of Memory and Imagination be considered what a surprizing thing is it to find such a substance the Receptacle of so many various Impressions as make up all the words of every Language we speak the figures of all persons places and things we have seen or considered and that all these be so well disposed that we can draw them out when we please in so ready and natural an order and also that all words flow so easily through our Mouths Now this must either be the effect of Fate or Chance or of an intelligent wise Being Not of Fate for beside that they cannot explain what that Fate should be every thing that flows from a Natural Cause must always operate the 〈◊〉 way but the great diversities of mens Temâ—ers Apprehensions and Judgments the difference of their Faces Eyes way of Speaking Writing and Walking shew that they are not the effects of Fate Nor can so much Regularity and parts so useful and well
or writing such Characters as shall convey into the ears or eyes of others Corporeal Impressions from which they may judge of our thoughts which is a great way about and much more unintelligible though we are very sure it is true then that a spirit shall communicate its thoughts to our understandings which it may either do by such outward impressions on our senses as bring the thoughts of other men to our knowledge or without these outward objects may make the same Impressions on our Brain And like to this are the impressions made on us in sleep in which we imagine we converse with the objects of sense Or finally without the means of any Corporeal phantasms a spirit especiaally the supreme and soveraign spirit may immediately convey to our understanding its pleasure as well as our understandings do receive hints from gross phantasms which is a great deal harder to conceive than this Thus the Atheist can propose nothing that will prove there can be no Inspiration but there is great necessity of guarding this both from the juglings of Impostors and the more innocent though no less hurtful deceits of our heated fancies which may obtrude their Notions on us as Divine especially in some in whom the Spleen or hysterical distempers may produce strange effects therefore this must be well proved and warranted before others are bound to acknowledge or submit to it nor must the great heats and divine Raptures of the inspired person ingage our belief We know how the Sibylls were said to be inspired and with what Bacchick fury many heathen Priests delivered some of their Impostures and it is dayly seen what strange appearances of inspiration are in hysterical persons Therefore it must be accompanied with such other extraordinary Characters as can neither be the forgeries of Juglers nor the vapours of the Spleen or Mother and these are Miracles or Prophecies which are certain indications of some extraordinary and supernatural presence with the inspired persons And thus far I have helped I. K. to prove the necessity of Revelation for the ascertaining mankind of the Worship and Obedience that God requires and have met with the great objections which Deists and other enemies to Revelation bring against it But I now follow him to his fourth proposition about the truth of the Christian Religion CHAP. IV. It is considered if J. K. hath proved convincingly the truth of the Christian Religion J. K. goes on in his Series of truths and his next attempt is to prove the truth of Christian Religion And indeed the Atheism that hath of late broke out in the world and in upon us hath engaged so many excellent pens of all the parties and divisions of Christendom to stand up in vindication of our most holy Faith with so much closeness of Reason that it may be justly a problem whether that pestiferous contagion hath not occasioned as much good to Christian Religion by the many admirable Treatises have been writ for it upon that account as it hath done hurt by its own venome But to see I. K. manage so glorious a Cause so poorly and so faintly after all that light which these Books offer does justly raise Indignation and it is plain he was afraid to bring out the strongest proofs for it lest it should appear there was much more to be said for the Verity of the Christian Religion than can be for the Roman but I. K. being resolved to prove there was no more to be said for the one than for the other and therefore would manage this Cause faintly that he might maintain the other more strongly and so it seems cares not with how slender Evidence â—e assert the truth of Christianity so that the truth of the Roman Religion be but as undisputed His great Argument for its truth is That it hath been miraculously propagated which could not have been without true and real Miracles and these are manifest proofs of that truth which they confirm Now since Christian Religion though it contains Mysteries far above the reach of humane reason and severities contrary to humane Inclinations yet has been propagated without the help of Arms or humane enticements by men of themselves unfit for so great a work and hath overcome other Religions which were both well established and preached liberty and pleasures Then this was either done with Miracles or without them if with them it is confessed there were Miracles if without them such a propagation must be confessed to be a Miracle This is the substance of what I. K. brings for the proof of the Christian Religion But this alone cannot satisfie a considering mind For it is acknowledged by all who believe any Religion that the power of evil spirits is very great and far above ours so that Miracles cannot determine my belief since there must go somewhat previous to that Therefore Moses told the people of Israel that though a Prophet by a Sign or wonder did amuse them and upon that perswaded them to go after other gods they should not hearken to that Prophet but put him to Death And S. Paul tells us that if an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel he must be anathematized So that Miracles or other extraordinary apparitions do not prove a Prophet Therefore the first and great Argument for the proof of the Christian Religion is the purity of the Doctrine and the holiness of its precepts which are all so congruous to the common Impressions of nature and reason and this must prove as our Saviour himself taught us that his Miracles were true ones and not wrought by the Prince of Devils since his Doctrine is opposite and destructive of his Interest and Kingdom And our Saviour also asserts the truth of what he said most commonly from this Topick that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him that he sought not himself nor his own honour but his Father's Again our Saviour asserts his authority from the Prophecies of Moses and the other inspired persons of that Dispensation whose predictions of the Messias did all agree to him and receive completion in him And from these our Saviour often silenced the Iews and this is to us still a strong Argument that these Books which the enemies and blasphemers of our Religion have still kept as sacred and had among them for some thousands of years do give such clear and evident Characters of our Saviour as their Messias as must needs convince every serious and sober enquirer These are the chief and great proofs of the authority of our Saviour by which we are assured that all the mighty works he did were by the presence and wonderful assistance of a Divine spirit And for the Miracles themselves I. K. would resolve all our certainty concerning them into a miraculous propagation of Christianity So that if there be no other certain way to prove them then if Christian Religion had not been so
the disorder of our understandings through the corruptions of the natural man we be brought under Errors we have our selves to blame Next to this we are to associate our selves with all who Worship God as long as there is not some great corruption in it so that we can no longer continue in it without sin If others be formal or guilty in it that is none of our fault and can never warrant our departure from that Communion of Saints in worship Therefore the particular Forms of Worship are to be agreed on by the Guides and Pastors of the Church which must still be received by all till they put us to act or assist in somewhat that is evil or be defective in some necessary part of Divine worship And the great rule by which the Guides of the Church ought to compose these Forms is the constant and universal practice of the Churches of God in their best times Calculating these as near as may be to the present Constitutions and tempers of men so as to avoid all unnecessary scandal and to edifie the people by them Therefore we dare appeal to all just and impartial Judges if our Church have not observed this rule in all the parts of our Worship to bring things as near as could be to the Primitive Forms and if in some particulars we have departed from them such as the not Commemorating expresly the dead or receiving gifts in their Names in the holy Communion the not using the Chrism in Confirmation nor the sign of the Cross on all occasions or if we kneel in Churches on Sundays and betwixt Easter and Pentecost which are the most considerable things that now occurr to me in which we are not exactly conform to the Primitive Church these are both things of less importance and by the following Superstition and other abuses were very much corrupted And it is certain that all things not Necessary when much abused how innocent nay how useful soever they may be yet may very reasonably be left out and laid aside as the Pastors of the Church see cause If after all this Evidence there be great divisions among us we owe these next to the corruption or manners to the daily practises of such as I. K. who as is offered to be made out by many have under all disguises laboured the renting us to pieces and our sins are such that these wicked designs prove daily but too successful But after all the mist and dust any may study to raise I doubt not but to serious considerers it will appear that we of this Church are in a clear and safe way and that our doctrine is no other than what our Saviour and his Apostles delivered and what the first Christians and their Successors for many Ages believed and that we are in the same Method of finding out the true Faith which they followed all which I shall conclude with these excellent and divinely Charitable Versicles of our Litany That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived and that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. THE END A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Ier. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner Antiquitates Christianae or The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus as also The Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of his Apostles In two parts The first part containing the Life of Christ Written by Ieremy Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The second containing the Lives of the Apostles by William Cave D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God or a Book of Devotions c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo New Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Deut. 13 1. Gal. 1. 8 9. S. Mat. 12. 24 to 31. 1 Thess. 2. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 4 5.