any Iew have said more Or could it be imagin'd a Christian would have said so much If these be the Fruits of Rabbinical Enquiries surely they were better let alone That a Man that is conversant in these sort of Studies should undervalue all other sorts of Learning is no new thing it is what has been observ'd and for which a reason may be given For these Enquiries being out of the way and not every Man's possession vulgar Studies must be despis'd by Men of uncommon Attainments and those only valued that are difficult and uncommon Or that others should imagine they find Eloquence in the Rabbins and should compare Abravanel to Cicero and Aben-Ezra to Sallust z Sim. Crit. Hist. l. 3. c. 7. is not very strange for Men are apt to find Beauty in Blemishes where they have plac'd their Affections But that Men should proceed to Idolize them no other Reason can be assign'd but that which is given for all Idols and that is that they are all of them vain Because the Rabbins have been said to have borrow'd most of their humane Learning from the Arabians I will likewise speak one word of them As the Iews have borrow'd from the Arabians so have the Arabians from the Greeks For they were so far from having any Learning of their own that the true Arabs the Descendants of Ismael had no Letters and their Language must have been lost had it not been preserv'd in their Poems that were compos'd by their Ancient Bards a Pocock ad Spec. Arab. and by their facility being easily learnt were deliver'd down from hand to hand Other Learning they had very little except Poetry till having over-run the Eastern Parts of the Greek Empire they were taught it by the Vanquish'd People who translated the Greek Authors for them into their own Language and the Arabians being Men of quick Wits refin'd so much upon their Authors that Aristotle became more subtle in the Arabic than he was before in his own Tongue and so much was he admir'd in that Dress that he was turn'd from thence into Latin with Averroes upon him and for some time one was not thought to understand Aristotle aright unless he had read him with Averroes's Comment But this humor held no longer than Averroes came to be understood understood I should not have said for perhaps no Man ever understood him but till he came to be better look't into for then his over-great Nicety was not only dâ—scover'd but besides other Errors he was charged with the Whimsies and Visions of the Alcoran b Lud. Viv. de Caus. Corrupt Art Lib. 5. And Averroes is now as much out of fashion for his Philosophy as Avicen is for his Physic tho they were once the Wonder of their Age and Nation Physic and Philosophy were the Studies wherein the Arabians excell'd most and therefore the Books of that kind were first translated and publish'd among us But since those Books have ceased to be admir'd an attempt has been made another way and we have been furnish'd with a Sett of Arabic Historians by Erpenius Golius and Dr. Pocock Their Books may be seen and containing Matter of Fact every Man is able to judge of their performance What sort of Historian Abulpharajius is may be inferr'd from his Learned Editor who was under discouragements in publishing him from his disagreement with Greek and Roman History I am sure Eutychius is no better whom Mr. Selden is pleas'd to style Our Aegyptian Bede His History of the Council of Nice is such a Romance as exceeds all Faith but that of a Rabbin or Arabian c Eutych p. 440 c. According to him above 2000 Bishops met at Nice after they had been above two years in assembling there The Patriarch of Alexandria is appointed President and no more notice taken of Hosius than if he had not been present Constantine is describ'd as transferring his Power upon the Bishops by the delivery of his Ring Sword and Scepter with other things equally absurd And that the Canons might bear better proportion to the number of Bishops In the Arabic Copies we have above a hundred d V. Abr. Ecchel Eutych Vind. Par. 2. c. 17. whereas all the World knows there are only twenty genuine Canons of that Council We have been told oftner than once of Livy compleat in Arabic yet dormant among their Manuscripts But if their Translations be no better than their Histories and if we will take Huetius's e De Clar. Interpr p. 121. account of them they are rather worse we have no reason to desire it over-eagerly tho it could be produc'd which I almost despair it ever shall Nor have we reason to be more fond of their Geography if we may make an Estimate from that taste thereof which has been given us by Gabriel Sionita in the Nubian Geographer who has relisht so little with the World as not to raise any thirst or appetite of having more With what exactness he has describ'd the three parts of the World particularly Europe might be easily shown were it worth the while to trace him in his Failings He is to be seen and every one that has a Globe and Maps can judge of the Work In one word the great Use of the Arabian and Rabbinical Writers seems to be in confuting the Alcoran and Talmud and to that end there is no doubt they may be effectually useful CHAP. XVIII Of Scholastic Learning DIvinity as it is profess'd in the Schools is become an Art and so profound a piece of Learning that it requires great Parts and much Pains to maister it an argument sure that it is not so very necessary otherwise it would need less skill to be understood I would not detract from much less deny all use of this sort of Learning tho' if I should be free in my Censures I should have good authority to warrant me therein most of the first Reformers having lead the way and some of them having declaim'd against it pretty warmly It s great abuse in the Church of Rome had given too just occasion to this for that Church having adopted it into her Systems and interwoven it with most of her Opinions and the Schoolmen having been the Great Champions of her Cause the Reformers were never safe till they had disarmed her of this hold which they did by exposing this new method and introducing in its stead a much surer one built upon the clear Text of Scripture and deductions from thence which they made use of in all their Conferences and Disputations This tho' the true and ancient way and most agreeable to the simplicity of the Gospel yet had been much neglected by the Schoolmen who having broached new Opinions were to support them by new Methods and the Scriptures having been silent or not speaking home to their purpose they therefore us'd them very sparingly The Authority of the Fathers was call'd in and where these were deficient Aristotle's Philosophy
useful but in this compendious way to knowledge provided we make our approaches with our Souls purg'd and with due preparation of Mind there needs little more than application and attention Indeed Prayer has been made another Condition which tho' it be proper and of good use upon all occasions yet is not so pertinent here where we speak only of natural means CHAP. X. Of History I Scarce ever met with any Historian who does not write true History if you will take an account of him from his Preface and not be too nice in examining his Book the first Pages are usually filled with the Care and Integrity of the Author which possibly are to be found no where else Those who have taken most care have been charg'd with some negligence and all of them have been so far faulty as to extort a Confession from one of their number wherein he fairly owns That there is none of the Historians that do not lie in some things b Vopisc juxta init Neminem Scriptorum quantum ad Historiam pertinet non aliquid esse mentitum He names some of the most unexceptionable and pretends to be able to make good his charge by uncontestable proofs Let us take a short view We have little considerable remaining of Profane Ancient Story except what we have left us by the Greeks and Romans for as to the Chaldaean History of Berosus and the Aegyptian of Manetho they both writ since Herodotus and we have only some Fragments of them left preserved by Iosephus Eusebius c. and the Books that go under these great names are the impudent Forgeries of Annius of Viterbo And as to Sanchoniathon who has given us the Phoenician History tho' he pretends to be much more Ancient yet his great Antiquity has been question'd by Scaliger and his very Being by Mr. Dodwell So that those we are to depend on are the Greeks and Romans The Greeks as they have not been noted for their veracity in any respect so their Truth and Integrity in this particular has been always so questionable That Graecia Mendax has been stigmatiz'd in History We have no tolerable account from them before the Olympiads the times before these were the Mythic Ages and are all Fable and when the Historical Age commenceth our Accounts of things are not much better For they having not originally had any Public Annals or Registers of things and amongst their Ancient Authors the Poets having had the first rank we may easily imagine what sort of Accounts are to be expected from those Men who were either to follow uncertain Reports and Traditions or what is much worse to Copy the Poets Accordingly their first Accounts were very loose and rather Poems than Histories which they have been charg'd with by the Romans pretty freely and Quinctilian is so far from softning the matter That he compares the liberty they took to a Poetic Licence c Instit. l. 2. c. 4. But no Man has expos'd them so much as Iosephus d Contr. Appion l. 1. has done He tells them Their accounts of things are all novel that they have no Public and Authentic Annals nor any Author more Ancient than Homer and those they have do differ from one another that Hellanicus differs from Acusilaus that Acusilaus corrects Hesiod and Hellanicus Ephorus he again is corrected by Timaeus as Timaeus is by others and Herodotus by all And yet this is that Herodotus who has been styl'd the Father of History tho' he might with equal right be nam'd the Parent of Fable I know what Apologies have been made for him especially from late Voyages and Discoveries But it is enough to say he cannot be defended and that those few Instances which have been brought do rather show the Wit of his Apologists than signifie much towards the redeeming the Credit of their Author his mistakes are too numerous and too gross to be accounted for from some accidental agreement with Modern Discoveries It must be confest some of the following Historians have writ more cautiously and in this the Children have exceeded their Father particularly Thucydides who has been noted for his Accuracy and Care but not to insist upon Iosephus's Authority who has not exempted him from the Common Censure a great part of his History is taken up with large Speeches and Harangues which had never any Existence except in the imagination of his own Brain and the rest of his Story is of too narrow extent both as to time and place to be of any considerable importance in the account of ancient times of the darkness whereof he himself complains in the entrance of his Book He who has done most and whose accounts are most extensive is Diodorus Siculus taking his rise from the Original of things and describing the World in its full Latitude and extent and let any one excuse him from Fable and the Cause is yielded His first five Books are almost a continued Fable describing more Ages than the World has had duration and such Nations as have had no Being Lucian's true History has scarce any thing more incredible than what may be met with in that Author The best thing that can be urg'd in his excuse is that he owns and confesseth the Charge that is brought against him Entituling his first Books Mythic History which in plain English is Fabulous But this argument has been largely prosecuted by a learned Pen e Orig. Sacr. cap. 4. Well but however fabulous the Graecians may have been there may be more certainty in Roman Story It is possible there may and yet not near so much as might be desir'd The most compleat and only General History we have among them is Livy whose Genius has been thought to equal the Majesty of the People he describes To pass by his Patavinity which has been understood by some of Partiality to his Country and his long Orations that are pure Fiction and Monstrous Prodigies which are such vanities as only serve to amuse the weaker sort of People his accounts of remote times are dim and blind and for want of sufficient vouchers are justly questionable He himself describes the first times to the Foundation of Rome as a Poetical Period rather than grounded upon undoubted Monuments f Liâ— 1 p. 1. and after the building of the City he complains that the use of Letters had been very rare and consequently little could be consign'd to writing that therefore the memory of things was his best Guide at least so far as to the burning of Rome when most of their publick Monuments did perish with their City g Lib. 6. p. 1. which could they have been preserv'd yet they were so jejune and naked that they could hardly furnish out materials for a tolerable History The first ground of the Roman Story is the coming of Aeneas into Italy with this Livy begins his Book and ushers it in with tolerable assurance and if any thing could be known
was to supply the defect without whom if the observation in my Author f In â—he â—aveva gran parte Aristotle coll haver distinto Essattamente tutti i generi di cause â— che se egli non fosse adoperato noi mancavano di molti â—rticoli di fede Hist. del Conc. Trident. 1. 2. be true a Neighbouring Church had wanted some Articles of Faith the Fathers and Philosophical reasons were their great strength Tho' after all it must be confest that where the Opinions of their Church have not been concern'd and where they have argu'd barely upon the Principles of Reason they have often done exceeding well only launching out beyond their line they have as frequently miscarry'd The Faults in this sort of Learning are chiefly these 1. Defectiveness for want of proper helps 2. Incoherence 3 Nicety 4. Obscurity 5. Barbarity 1. The Languages are one proper help for Aristotle's Philosophy and many of the Fathers being writ in Greek it was necessary in order to be Master of these that the Language wherein they were writ should be understood This help the Schoolmen wanted having had no Greek and only a very moderate share of Latin Aristotle was known to them in a Tongue that was none of his own and being obscure enough in himself was much more so in wretched Translations and the Fathers who were very Intelligible in Greek were either obscur'd by being turn'd into another Idiom or were made to speak somewhat they never meant Both Greek and Latin Fathers have been treated equally ill for want of another proper help viz. Criticism in distinguishing Genuine from Spurious Authors for want of which Authorities have been crudely swallow'd down without distinction false Authorities have been obtruded and true ones rejected or often mutilated the Ages of Authors have been confounded and some late Imposter has assumed the name of a venerable Father Instances whereof for I do not love to dwell upon sores may be had in Launoy in several of his Epistles and in Danaeus's Censure upon the first Book of Sentences 2. By incoherence I do not mean any inconsequence in the way of arguing in the Divinity of the Schools but a disagreement of the parts that it principally consists of which being chiefly two as we have before observ'd the Sentences of the Fathers and Aristotle's Philosophy what tolerable agreement can there be betwixt two things so very different most of the Fathers were Platonists in their opinion possibly for the sake of some agreement which that Philosophy seem'd to have with the Christian Religion Origen St Chrysostom and to name no more St. Augustine who was more followed in the Schools than all the rest was of that number Aristotle was either much neglected by the Fathers or where they had occasion to speak of him they usually condemn him and that either for his Sophistic way of reasoning or for his unsuitable Notions of God and Providence which are of first consideration in the Schools Even in the Church of Rome Aristotle was often forbid sometimes ordered to be burnt and what is most strange at that time when his Books were commented upon by Aquinas they stood prohibited by a Decree of Gregory the IX g V. Launoy de var. Aristot. Fortuna cap. 7 c. Of late almost in our time a proposal was made at Rome to Gregory the XIV that Aristotle's Philosophy might be banished the Schools and Plato's substituted in his place as being more agreeable to the Christian Religion and Sence of the Fathers and above forty propositions were then produc'd wherein Plato's Consonancy was shown in all which Aristotle was pretended h Ibid. cap. 14. to be Dissonant from the true Religion Whether upon just grounds or no I will not venture to determine for since Platonism has obtain'd as it once did pretty early and has again done of late it has been found liable to as dangerous consequences as any that have been yet charg'd upon the other Philosophy I only bring thus much to show that there can be no good agreement in this particular where the Parts are of so different a nature as the Fathers and Aristotle and so jarring that they cannot naturally cohere 3. Nicety is the great fault of the Schools her Doctors have been styl'd Profound Subtle Irrefragable Titles which they have most valu'd themselves upon and seem not much to have affected the Reputation of being Familiar and Easie at least none of their Titles have been derived from thence They delight in refining upon one another and sometimes spin so fine a thread that it is either broke or much weakned in drawing it out They have perplex'd Knowledge by starting insuperable difficulties and seem in this to have run into the same fault with your too profound Politicians who as they have often foreseen designs which are neither practicable nor ever intended so these men have propos'd Objections that would never have been thought of had not they first started them the consequence whereof has been that we have furnished our Enemies with Objections who have made use of our Weapons and have turn'd our own Artillery against us This is too visible in our Modern Socinians who have often gather'd out of this Store-house and by picking up difficulties in the Schoolmen have turn'd their Objections into Proof and Arguments and have thereby gain'd the Reputation of subtle Men. Thus Controversies have been multiplied and those we have already have swoln to an unmeasurable height and every difference has become irreconcilable whilst Men study Nicety more than Peace and stretch their Wits and rack their Inventions to out-reach their Opponents And it were well if the mischief had stopt here and Mens Curiosity had not led them on from nice Questions to such as are Impious It has done this and least I should be thought to do them wrong I shall refer the Reader to an unexceptionable Author i 〈◊〉 Perron de p Euâ—har l. 3. ch 20. one of the Greatest Champions the Church of Rome ever had for a Catalogue of them which are so offensive to Christian Ears that I forbear to put them down in English though he has not scrupled to give them in a more common Language 4. Obscurity where things are intricate in themselves if they be not so clearly explain'd in treating of them as might be desir'd the nature of the things will excuse as not being capable of perspicuity or if hard Terms are made use of if very significative and not too many this is what is allowable in all Arts But then if Terms of Art have been multipli'd beyond necessity and without significancy or if things that are plain in themselves have been obscur'd by being handled too Artificially this sure is a great Abuse and this is what has been charg'd upon many of the Schoolmen The mysteries of Religion are not capable of being rendred obvious to Reason and therefore if they have not made these plain they are not