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A60477 Christian religion's appeal from the groundless prejudices of the sceptick to the bar of common reason by John Smith. Smith, John, fl. 1675-1711. 1675 (1675) Wing S4109; ESTC R26922 707,151 538

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Whereas to them that observe what influence the Artificers hand within the Veil hath upon those Engins the whole series of the Causes of those Motions are naked and bare-fac'd Plutarch gives Plato this commendation that finding fault with Anaxagoras for immersing his thoughts too deep into Natural Causes and too eagerly pursuing the necessity of those Effects which happen to Natural Bodies he totally omitted the efficient and final the prime and chief of all Principles and avoiding the other Extreme which some fell into to wit Poets and Divines who only minded the Supreme Cause the rational and voluntary Efficient never came to the Natural and Necessary Causes of things These first ascribing all the second nothing to the Perpessions Collisions Mutations and Mixtures of Natural Beings among themselves Plato waveing these Rocks was the first that joyn'd together the Indagation of both thess sorts of Causes de oracul defect pag. 677. Hitherto appertains that saying of St. Austin De Trinitate l. 3. cap. 2. Itaque licuit vanitati Philosophorum etiam causis aliis ea tribuere vel veris sed proximis cùm omninò videre non possent superiorem caeteris omnibus causam id est voluntatem Dei vel falsis non ipsa quidem pervestigatione corporalium rerum atque motionum sed à sua suspicione errore prolatis The vduity of Philosophers took lieve to attribute these effects to Causes either true but next to hand seing they could not at all discern the supreme Cause of all the Will of God or false and such as were not produced by the pervestigation of Corporeal Matter or Motion but from their own suspicion and errour Were it not that with the Tradition of Religion God hath communicated to Mankind general Maxims to help us in our search into the Nature of things we could never attain to the certain knowledge of any thing And therefore we see all the Grecian Philosophy that was not grounded upon Tradition dwindled at last into Scepticism and veil'd the Bonnet to that of Pythagoras Socrates and Plato who travel'd for theirs into those places where the Tradition had been best preserv'd So true is that Oracle which the Indian Gymnosophist delivered to Socrates in his Reply to the answer that Socrates made to this Question By what means a man might become wise If he consider after what manner it becomes man to live saith Socrates To which the Indian smiling gives this retort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can understand the nature of humane and mundane things that 's ignorant of divine Euseb. praeperat Evang. referente Grinaeo in praefatione ad Irenaeum Upon which Point the golden Tongue'd Lactantius elegantly Veritatem divinae Religionis arcanum Philosophi attigerunt sed aliis refellentibus defendere id quod invenerant nequiverunt quià singulis ratio non quadravit nec ea quae vera senserant in summam redigere potuerunt de divino praem 7. 7. The Philosophers made a shift to touch with the fingers end Truth and the Mystery of divine Religion but they could not grasp them so close as to hold them as to defend what they had found against opposers because Reason did not square to every one of their Placits singly nor were they able to bring into one Sum and subordinate System their true sentiments And it is Fernelius his observation in his Preface de abditis rerum causis that the latter Platonicks Numenius Philo Plotinus Iamblicus Proclus Quicquid de divinis rebus magnificum attigerunt illud à Christianis viris Joanne Paulo Hirotheo Dionysio furtim excerpsisse ut inde abstrusa Platonis dicta clariùs lucidiusque interpretarentur in verum sensum deducerent attain'd to the knowledge of nothing in divine things that was magnificent but what they stole from Christian Philosophers by whose spoils they were enriched with ability more clearly to interpret and deduce to a true sence the dark sayings of Plato But I digress How the World was produced and how man came to be Sovereign of the rest of the Creatures Reason was in pursuit after but could never attain to the knowledge of till Religion prompts her till sacred Writ informs her That God made man after his own Image gave him that Dominion made him Lord of the Universe as being of that Nature of which the Son of God was to assume Flesh into a perpetual Union with himself which being the highest preferment that the Creature is capable of and an Estate which Angels shall never aspire unto speaks it no wonder that God should make his Angels ministring Spirits for the good of Man But we need not now go so far as the Reason of God's disposal 't is enough we have found out Gods disposal as the ground of Man's Sovereignty Weigh this with all besides that ever was said upon this Question and they are lighter than vanity and let Reason use the utmost of her skill in descanting upon this ground she shall never be able to find the least flaw in it § 5. The longest Sword or over-reaching Wit conveigh no Right Self-love prompted Reason to play the part of an Oratour handsomly to declaim probably upon Man's Dominion over Beasts but how he came to command Spirits she could not deem And that his Power over inferiour Creatures should extend it self to the taking away of their Lives though it was practically concluded by all Nations yet I could never see one sound natural Reason produced for it and do here solemnly challenge the profoundest Atheist to give one irrefragable Argument which he is not beholding to Religion for in defence of that Dominion he daily exerciseth over his Fellow-Creatures and for ought he knows if he travel no farther than Athens to learn his Betters what Staff can he find to beat his Dog with that his Skullion may not as well lay about his own Shoulders what can he plead for his Butchering a Sheep that another may not with as much reason urge against his own Throat How will he handle the Knife with which he carves a Capon and not cut his own Hands too unless it be hasted with Scripture Reasons Bar these and abstain from Flesh till Pythagoras be confuted and thou must keep Lent all thy Life be it as long as Metbuselah's wave these Topicks and where wilt thou gather Arguments to Silence Celsus Orig. in Celsum lib. 4. calum 29 30 31. or Plutarch de solertia animalium while they make these Assertions their Theme Some Creatures as Bees and Ants excel Man in the Science of Government others in the Art of Divination others in Religion as the Elephant that they are dearer to the Gods have a more sacred Converse among themselves than Men c. If the Humane Soul were not better distinguish'd from the Bestial by its Original and Fountain by Gods breathing it into us than by its Effects and Productions we should be hard put to it to prove our Superiority of Reason
the Alexandrian among whom the fresh memory of Jesus and his Fore-runner the Baptist a person of blessed memory with both him and them must needs lead them to confer upon the Stories of them and to compare Notes With Titus we find him at Antioch where the Name of Christian by which he commemorates Christ's Followers was first imposed upon Christians taken up as the learned Junius thinks by themselves to distinguish them from such as called themselves Galileans and Nazarites as if they embraced the Gospel but of whom for their Judaizing the Church was ashamed and wiped their names out of her Calendar At Jericho at Bethany and all Judaean Towns where Christ convers'd from the Inhabitants and inspection of which places he either saw those manifest tracks or received that full satisfaction of what he reports of Christ's miraculous Works as makes him thus positively assert the Truth of those Matters For where else among whom else could he gain that certain knowledge that he himself requires in an Historian and professeth himself to have had of those things he records both in his Books of Antiquities and the Wars He that promiseth to others saith he the Tradition of Facts really done must himself first have a perfect understanding of those things either because he was present at the doing of them or understood them by those that saw them done which Rule I have strictly observed in both my Treatises Josep contrà Appion l. 1. He could not be a Spectator of the Works of the Effects of them he might upon those persons upon whom they were wrought in those places where Monuments of them remain'd but where could he have better information by Eye-witnesses than the Inhabitants of those Countries and Villages where Christ manifested his Glory and Josephus so long convers'd Of the Truth of such information that he was undoubtedly assured will be yet more evident if we observe how narrowly he was watch'd by those two men of an evil-Eye towards him and his History Appion a learned Gentile Philosopher and Justus so zealous a Jew as Agrippa became his Advocate to the Emperour against the accusations of the Decapolitanes presenting him as the sole Author of his Countries Apostacy from its Allegeance and born and living in that part of Galilee where our Saviour chiefly convers'd How glad would either of these have been to have taken Josepus tardy in so considerable a point of his History and how easily might they have catch'd him tripping here if he had not look'd so well to his feet as to deliver nothing concerning our Saviour but what he was certain of and could make good against all cavils How comes it to pass that those critical Adversaries who scarce leave one Story in either of his Treatises untouch'd against which they could make any plausible Exception have not a word to say against this but because the Evidence of its Truth was so apparent as there was no contradicting of it Nay would not these pick-quarrels have found fault if not with the falsity yet at least with the presumption of this Passage if they had not been convinc'd that he went not upon presumptions but undoubted Grounds Photias de Justo Tiberiadensi writes that in Emulation of Josephus he wrote the History of the Jews from the time of Moses unto the death of Agrippa the seventh King of the Herodian Race and last of the Jews who began his Reign under Claudius augmented his Kingdom under Nero and more under Vespasian and dyed in the third year of Trajan to whom Justus dedicated his History I report this quotation at large as well to certifie a mistake of my own touching Josephus his Appeal to Agrippa for the Truth of his Judaick Wars it being this Agrippa and not as I then supposed he whom Caligula preferr'd for that was he of whom the Text of St. Luke speaks who dyed in the fourth of Claudius of worms while Josephus was in his Nonage as also to shew that this Justus had time enough betwixt Josephus his finishing his History under Domitian and his finishing his own under Trajan to examine and find fault in it and that if he could have detected Josephus of falsity in this his Story of Christ the Heathen World and this persecuting Emperour who hated Christians to death would have been sure to have heard of it by Justus Never did any Secular Historian pass a more severe scrutiny than Josephus did and in no part of it more than this of Christ and the Baptist. To proceed therefore in his Testimony § 4. 1. By the Characters he stamps upon Christ's mighty Works he manifestly distinguisheth them from all others and points them out to be those very individual ones which are recorded in the Gospel 1. In that he makes Christ the Maker of them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Former of them by his own power a word more properly attributed by the Christian Church in our common Creed unto God to express his creating Heaven and Earth without pre-existent Matter or co-existent Helpers than that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Philosophers as Justin Martyr observes in his Protrepticks ad gentes the Christian VVord expressing the Christian Sence of that Article est enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui ex nihilo aliquid facit and Plato's word expressing the Philosophers sence of the Original of the VVorld to wit that of Matter eternally pre-existing was made the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the well order'd Frame of the Universe the confused Chaos was brought into shape by the Ministry of co-eternal petty Gods the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief worker drawing the Model and over-seeing the VVork Or if the Sirname of Martyr fright our dainty Scepticks from reading that Author Sir Philip Sidney that Prince of Romancers in his commendation of the Art of Poetry will inform him what the proper importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is According to which Josephus his applying it to Christ implies that he thought those strange Effects wrought by Christ not to have been educ'd out of the active Potentiality of the Matter upon which or means by which he operated but to have been the immediate Emanations of Christ's Power as the Fountain cause and hereby he discriminates Christ's Miracles not only from the Effects of natural Magick produc'd out of natural Causes though latent to us Owls yet naked and barefac'd to those Spirits that have their name from Intelligence but from those which were wrought by Moses by the Prophets or Apostles those being effected by another Power in another name than their own but what Jesus of Nazareth did he did as having power in himself not as a subordinate Agent but principal That which never man pretended to but he that which never was ascribed to any man but him and yet ascribed to him by such as did not write Christian. He describes Christian Miracles according to the Gospel rule 2. In his affirming these Works to
Writings said he would speak of all things she acts her part here so poorly as she deserves to be hiss'd off the Stage and make way for Religion Such things as these we rather desire to know than do know saith Velleius in Ciceron de natura Deorum lib. 1. Quae talia suxt ut optata magis quàm inventa videantur Sciscitor cur mundi aedificatores repentè extiterint innumerabilia ante saecula dormirent non enim si mundus non erat saecula nulla erant saecula dico non ea quae dierum noctiúmque numero annuis cursibus conficiuntur sed fuit quaedam ab infinito tempore aeternitas quam nulla temporum circumscriptio metiebatur spatio verò qualis ea fuerat intelligi non potest quòd nè in cogitationem quidem cadit ut fuerit tempus aliquod nullum cùm tempus esset Isto igitur tam immenso spatio quaero Balbe cur Pronoea vestra cessaverit Velleius in Cicer. de nat deor l. 1. that is in brief why was the World made no earlier Cicero's Eloquence never stammer'd so his Inventions were never so nonplus'd as when he would describe the Order and Method of the Creation of the World in his Book de Universitate where he becomes so vain in his Imagination and plays the fool so with Philosophical Wisdom as I wonder not that Vel●eius should say à Philone didicistis nihil scire Ye Philosophers have learn'd of your Masters to know nothing in Cicer. de nat deorum l. 1. Or that Cotta should tell Balbus after his large Discourse of Providence Non igitur adhuc intelligo hoc esse credo equidem sed nihil docent Stoici I am not one jot wiser for all thy reasons I believe indeed what thou sayest is true but the Stoicks do not teach the reason of it Upon which Lactantiuss observes Tullius expositis horum omnium de mortalitate immortalitate animae c. sentent●● harum inquit sententiarum quae vera sit Deus aliquis viderit Lactan. de div praem 7. 8. And hath this Note upon Anaxagoras who affirm'd the Snow to be black Hic est ilie qui se idcirco natum esse dixit ut solem coelum videret qui in terra nihil videbat sole lucente de fals sap l. 3. cap. 23. This is be that said he was born to contemplate the Sun and Heaven and yet he could not in the clear Sun-shine see what lay at his foot § 4. Moses a better Philosopher than Cartesius or any of the Mechanicks But Religion no sooner drops from her sacred Lips the first word we read in Moses and the Eagle-wing'd Evangelist In the beginning was the Word all things were made by it than she is received with general acclamations And by that time she had utter'd Let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the Fowl of the Air c. Reason her self claps her hands and cries plaudite that natural Logick that 's every man's Birth-right adores this rising Sun whose resplendent Beams discover those latent Reasons her self could not grope out and welcoms these discoveries with with a thankful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as great an exuberancy of joy as Pythagoras conceiv'd when upon his finding out some Philosophical Experiment he sacrificed a whole Oxe to the Muses He had been more just had he crown'd the Fountain whence he drew better Conclusions than the rest of Philosophers to wit the sacred Philosophy of Moses Cicero de natura deorum l. 3. pag. 149 Ingenuously confessing that had she not ploughed with God's Heifer she should never have found out these Riddles of his Providence Tatianus amongst the reasons he gives why he embrac'd the Christian Faith names this for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The rational account which that gives of the Creation of all things Indeed it were to be wished that Moses his Philosophy were more studied as that which is the only Expedient fully to satisfie inquisitive minds For though the old and modern Mechanick Philosophy be of excellent use to inform us of those Causes which partake most of Matter and live next door to our Senses yet whoever follows them home will see them make doubles before they come to their seat at a stand in their progress through intermediate to the prime and only independent Cause and not able to joyn the inferiour Links of the Chain to that upper part of it that 's fasten'd to Jupiter's Chair How much more rationally is the Sun's Motion for instance deduced to the power of the divine Fiat to the force imprest upon it by that Omnipotent hand out of which it first came than either to those intelligences which Aristotle invented to move it as a Dog in a Wheel or such Jack-pullies and Weights of I know not what Atoms which our modern Wits have fancied for the Springs of his Motion After the same manner that that which Proclus calls the Soul of the Universe wheels about the Primum mobile staret si unquam stantem animam reperiret as he is quoted by Macrobius in som. Scipionis 1. 17. Of such whimsical Philosophers well saith Lactantius Multò sceleratiores qui arcana mundi hoc coeleste templum prophanare impiis disputationibus quaerunt de fals sapien l. 3. cap. 20. If it be accounted sacrilege to profane Temples of Wood and stone how much more impious are they who labour to prophane the secrets of Nature and this heavenly Temple the Universe with their godless Disputations I wonder that the Doctrine of Atoms blusheth not to see that variety and yet constancy of the admirably disposed Colours in Birds and Flowers that it is not overcome with smelling that variety of scents issuing from Herbs of different kinds which can with no more reason be deemed to be the Effects of the blind fortuitous Concourse of Atoms than the first Propunder of this Hypothesis could expect that that Basket of Herbs which his Wife threw up to the roof of his Hall should fall down in the form of a well-order'd Sallad into a dish she set on the floor We may believe that the Painter's Pencil thrown in a rage at the lips of the picture of an Horse might perchance supply the defect of Art and make the lively representation of Foam with the same degree of certainty as we believe the blind man caught the Hair But he that would attempt to perswade us that the whole Horse was drawn after that manner must first repute us more doltish than Asses To whom can I better resemble these Kitchin-Doctors than to Children at a Puppet-play who minding the various motions of the Images and fancying a spring thereof within themselves independent to that hand which behind the Curtain puts them upon and directs them in those Motions beat their brains and set their fancies a work to find out the Causes of such strange Effects and after all the fluctuations of their mind produce nothing but froth