whether those words of this Paraphrase As is a great part of the Old Testament be not added meerly to serve the present Turn without the least Intimation of such a Restriction from the Text it self and whether the Coherence of these two Verses be not plainly this Continue in the Study of the Old Testament because all the Books which that consists of are Divinely Inspir'd But I supposes he grounds this Interpretation of his upon that Reading of the Text for which Grotius f In locum contr Rivetum vouches the Syriack and Vulgar Translations Omms Scriptura Divinitùs Inspirata utilis est But if we should admit of this Reading still the Sense will come all to one and the Words as they lie then tho they do not in Express terms assert that all the Old Testament Writings are Divinely Inspir'd yet they Imply it and take it for granted For if we read the Greek thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be an Explicative Epithet to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as if we add the Epithet Rationalis to Homo in such a Proposition as this Homo Rationalis creatus est ad colendum Deum In which Proposition tho it be not expresly asserted that Homo is Rationalis yet so much is Implied and if it were not true 't would make the whole Proposition false as Monsieur Nicol has observed in his Ars Cogitandi g Pars 2. c. 5. And just so in the Proposition we speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Scriptures of the Old Testament in which sense the word is always taken in the New Testament and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added for a fuller Explication of that term I know Grotius h Votum pro Pace prout citatur Fr. p. 270. Fn. p. 193. will needs have the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken here in its General Sense and signify simply a Book or Writing But I can't forbear saying that this gloss is Unworthy of Grotius and 't is a sign of a Bad Cause when so Great a Man is fain to betake himself to such Pitiful Sophistry as is to be seen in the fore-cited Place For he can't produce one Instance in all the New Testament where the word is used in that Sense and if he could yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficiently Restrains the General sense of it and makes one Complex Term which must signify the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Verse before both which Expressions signify the Old Testament because 't is a Collection of Inspir'd Writings and consequently the Phrase it self asserts so much by way of Implication or else it would be an Improper Expression I think it appears from what has been said what was the Judgement of Christ and his Apostles concerning the Canon of the Old Testament and since 't is certain that they approved the Canon of the Old Testament as it was received by the Jewish Church of their own time I can't guess what evidence of Reason can be sufficient to perswade a Christian to Oppose such an Authority And therefore I can't be of our Author's mind when he tell us i Eng. p. 188. Fr. p. 267. He knows not why we may not doubt of the Books of the Old Testament as well as of some of the New the Authority of several of the Latter having been question'd But there is a visible Difference between the Authorities that confirm the Old Testament Canon and those which give Testimony to the New To the Former Christ and his Apostles bear Witness whereas the Credit of the Latter depends upon the Consent and Testimony of much the Greater part of the Church in the Ages succeeding that of the Apostles which tho it be sufficient for any Wise and Unprejudic'd Man to ground his assent upon yet it hath not that Sacredness and Infallibility in it which the other hath For those Ages made use only of Humane Means for settling the New Testament Canon which was sufficient for that purpose considering the Nearness of those times to the Writing of the Books to which they give Testimony Nor does the name of Chetubim which the Jews give to those Writings of the Old Testament which Mr. N. calls in question at all justify his Opinion He fancies k Fr. p. 276. En. p. 102. they were call'd Chetubim i. e. Simply Writings as he Interprets it to signify that they were like other Humane Writings and had nothing at all of Inspiration in them But the Jewish Writers say not one Syllable to confirm this Opinion that I can find On the contrary by their placing Daniel among the Chetubim it appears that they look upon the Writers of that Class to have been Inspir'd for the Jews all agree that Daniel had really the Gift of Prophecy tho they fancy it to be in a lower Degree Further Maimonides saith expresly l More Nevoch p. 2. c. 45. that they are called Chetubim quia scripta sunt per Spiritum Sanctum And tho he reckons that Impulse which he calls Spiritus Sanctus inferiour to the Degree of Inspiration which Isaiah and the other Prophets properly so call'd had yet 't is plain that he looks upon it as a proper kind of Inspiration for the instances he gives of it are by his own Confession real Inspirations m See Mr. Smiths Discourse of Prophecy c. 7. So that I do not see how Maimonides take his Explication altogether gives any Advantage to this Opinion tho Grotius n Votum pro pace prout citatur Fr. p. 231. Eng. p. 141. quote him for it The Jews do indeed acknowledge a Difference between the Inspiration of the Hagiographa and the Prophetical Writings but this doth not prove them to be no part of the Scripture for I think there is no body that considers the manner of the Spirit 's Operation upon the Minds of Inspir'd Persons but will readily acknowledge that there 's no need of the same Degree of Inspiration to write a History or a Book of Morality as is requisite to make a Prophet But concerning the different Degrees of Inspiration I have discours'd already in several places of this Treatise and shall have Occasion to speak of it hereafter But if the Jewish Division of the Old Testament favour'd Mr. N's Opinion never so much I do not see any Force at all in the Argument taken from thence for that Division is not of so early a Date as to be able to vye with the much Ancienter Opinion concerning the Inspiration of the whole Jewish Canon St. Jerom is the first that I find takes notice of this Division o Prolog Galeat Praef. in Daniel the placing the Prophet Daniel among the Chetubim in this Division besides that there is no shadow of Reason for it except it be that the Jews bear him a Spight for Prophecying so plainly of our Saviour discovers that
A VINDICATION Of the DIVINE AUTHORITY and INSPIRATION of the Writings Of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT In Answer to a Treatise lately Translated out of French Entituled Five Letters concerning the INSPIRATION of the Holy SCRIPTURES By William Lowth B. D. Fellow of St. John's College in Oxford OXFORD Printed at the THEATER And are to be sold by John Wilmot Bookseller An. Dom. 1692. Imprimatur JONATH EDWARDS Vice-Can OXON June 13. 1692. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God PETER Lord BISHOP of WINCHESTER AND PRELATE of the Most Noble ORDER of THE GARTER May it Please Your Lordship IT is the Misfortune of our times to have Religion at once assaulted by a Rude and Ignorant Profaneness by a Confident pretence to reason and by Sceptical Sophistry Its Foundations are attack'd by the Profess'd Enemies of God and Goodness Its Mysteries are Ridicul'd by Hereticks as if they intended to invite Atheists to their Assistance to joyn a Helping Hand to the Carrying on so Good a Work as the Exposing Religion and making it appear Absurd and Contemptible And as if it were not Task enough to Encounter Open Enemies it hath the Hard Fate of it's Blessed Author to be Wounded in the House of it's Friends whilest many of those who seem to Embrace it are much more Industrious to Raise Doubts and Scruples about it than to Establish the Fundamental Truths of it or else lay down such Loose Principles that Wicked Men may deduce their own Conclusions from them and can't but please themselves to see their Work done to their Hands and Christianity Undermin'd by the Imprudence or Treachery of it's own Votaries Thus by Degrees Men have proceeded from Arguing about Obscure and Nice Matters to question Known and Certain Truths and from Disputing about the Points and Tittles of the Law to Reject the Divine Authority of the whole from thence to Decry all Revelation because they cannot exactly Comprehend how God's Spirit Influences and Cooperates with Man's Understanding and at last to cast off Religion in General So True is that which a Great Man has Observ'd That the Disesteem of the Scriptures is the Decay of Religion and through many Turnings and Windings at last leads Men into the very Depth of Atheism My LORD The Design of the Letters which I have Undertaken to Answer is to Perplex Men's minds with Difficulties about the Nature of Inspiration and thereby render the Divine Authority of those Writings suspected which the Church has always lookt upon as the Sacred Depositum of Divine Truth which God has committed to it's Trust and Design'd for it's Guide and Oracle When first I saw this Treatise turn'd into English I was in Hopes that some of our Eminent Divines whose Writings are so Deservedly Admir'd for their Strength and Clearness would have Vindicated the Authority of the Scriptures and Clear'd their Title to Inspiration from those Difficulties with which Men that are Better at Pulling down than Building up have perplexed it The Subject has never yet been throughly Handled and is Worthy the Thoughts of those Great Masters of Learning Reason and Judgement But after I had waited some time and could not hear that any Abler Person Intended to take this Work in hand I resolved to do my Best Endeavour toward the Defence of so Good a Cause and give a Check to those Opinions which tend to Undermine all Revelation And when I had finished my Design there were many Considerations moved me to present it to your Lordship not doubting but your Known Candor and Goodness would pardon the Confidence of this Address Your Eminent Dignity in the Church makes You deservedly Esteem'd a Pillar of Religion and Truth Your Constant Residence in Your Diocess and Your Care and Vigilance to keep up the Good Orders and Discipline of the Church there preserve the Purity of it's Doctrine and give a Due Lustre to it's Constitution and your Generous and Obliging Temper Charms Men into a Complyance with your Good Counsel and their own Duty And as these Considerations Embolden'd me to Present this Treatise to your Lordship which is writ in Vindication of those Sacred Truths for the Defence and Confirmation of which your Lordship is Placed in that High Station so Your Signal Courage in Opposing the Enthusiasts of the Late Times whose Vile Hypocrisy and Lewd Pretences to Inspiration have made way for Open Profaneness and Contempt of all Revel'd Religion Encourages me to hope that your Lordship will favourably accept this Work how mean soever whose Design 't is to put some stop to those Lasting Ill-Effects which have proceeded from such Pernicious Principles And beside these Publick Considerations this Work does Implore your Lordship's Protection as being Visitor and Patron to the College of which the Author is a Member who readily Embraces this Opportunity of Declaring to the World how Happy that Society esteems it Self in having the Honour of your Lordships Patronage whose Government they formerly found to be so Great a Blessing and withal is glad of so good an Occasion of making this Publick and Grateful Acknowledgement of those Favours wherewith your Lordship has been pleased to Oblige My LORD Your Lordship 's Most Dutiful Servant WILLIAM LOWTH THE PREFACE THE Age we live in deservedly bears the Character of a Curious and Inquisitive Age which does not love to take things upon Trust or blindly follow the Determinations of others And I must profess for my own part that I reckon a free use of Reasoning and Judging as Valuable a Blessing as the Injoyment of our Civil Liberties and look upon no sort of Tyranny so grievous as that of forcing Persons of Ingenuous and Inquisitive Tempers exactly to square their Sentiments of things to other mens Opinions But as the Best things are liable to be abus'd so this Freedom of Enquiry has been made use of to Ill Purposes and has Accidentally produced very bad Effects For men have been so Fond of this Liberty as to think no Bounds or Limits ought to be set to it and at last to believe the Submitting to the Authority of God himself to be an undue Restraint upon the Vse of Humane Reason and the very pretending to such an Authority to be one of the Arts of Designing Priests who by this Device endeavour to Enslave the rest of the World and make them Think and Act just as they would have them Thus many men have Reason'd themselves first into Socinianism and then which is but one Remove from the former into Deism or at least into a Coldness and Indifferency to all Reveal'd Religion They think 't is to Impose upon them to Oblige them to Believe or Practise any thing unless they can see a Reason why it should be so and cannot be perswaded that they owe God so much service as to submit to those Laws which seem to them to have no other ground but his Arbitrary Will and Pleasure Vpon this account they reject the Use of the Sacraments the
as plainly foretelling who are to be Actors in Wickedness would without supposing manifest Violence offer'd to Men's Inclinations in many Cases hinder some of them from being Instrumental in bringing about God's Designs so perhaps it would be a new Temptation to others and make them more furiously bent upon Evil just as the mentioning wickedness stirs up some Men's Ill Inclinations and makes them eager to commit it Especially since the foretelling it as certainly to come to pass affords a Plea for Men's Wickedness for Men that are bent upon Evil and are glad of any Colour to justify their Sin will conclude from thence that it can be no Sin to be subservient to God's Providence and Assisting in the Accomplishment of his Will and Purpose or if it be a Sin it must lie at his door So that if Prophecies were too plainly deliver'd this would often be the consequence that the bringing the Event to pass would be wholly imputed to the Clearness of the Prediction just as Publick Commotions do often take their Rise from the spreading about of Prophecies concerning the Death of the Prince or the Change of the Government Now this is contrary to God's method of dealing with Men for tho we cannot comprehend after what manner he foresees how Free Agents will Determine themselves yet we have all the Reason in the World to believe that Gods Prescience does not Interfere with mens Free-will And therefore as we believe that things do not come to pass meerly because God Foresees them but rather that he Foresees them because their own proper Causes will bring them to pass so 't is agreeable to the methods of Providence that Prophecies should be so worded as not to have any Influence upon the parties concern'd in bringing them about that it might not be said The thing came to pass because it was Foretold but it was foretold because it would come to pass as an Ordinary effect of a Natural Cause 'T is true indeed we may observe that some Scripture Prophecies by being too plainly deliver'd have made the Hearts of Wicked Men wholly set in them to bring to pass the Evil foretold b See 1 King 11.31 32. 2 King 8.12 13 15 10.10 But perhaps God might do this on purpose to take off the minds of the Jews from that greedy desire they had to search into Futurity when they saw what Ill Consequences did sometimes attend that Knowledge The Sum of the Argument is this that the Evil which if Foretold Darkly and Obscurely needed nothing to bring it to pass but only God's suffering Men's Wickedness to break out and permitting them to act according as their Ill Inclinations prompt them if it were foretold Plainly and Clearly could not be effected without supposing him to offer Violence to Humane Nature and making him a Party concern'd and a Tempter of men to Wickedness From all that has been said upon this head it appears that whether the thing foretold be Good or Evil the foretelling it too Punctually and Distinctly would make Prophecy a Felo de se and be an effectual way to defeat its Accomplishment for then it could not be brought to pass in a way that is suitable to the Divine Purity and Wisdom For this is one of the Master-pieces of the Divine Wisdom to bring about its Designs in such a manner as never to put any Force upon the Freedom of man's Will so that the Events may rather seem the Natural Effects of Free Agents than the Works of an Overruling Providence To this purpose speaks the Author of the Book of Wisdom c Wisd 8.1 Thy Wisdom O Lord reacheth from one end to another Mightily and Sweetly doth she order all things God sees every Link of that Vast Chain of Causes and knows how they depend upon each other what Force each Circumstance has in determining mens Resolutions and what it is that turns the Balance of the Mind one way or t'other and therefore tho he brings to pass all his Purposes in an Irresistable manner yet he does it withall in so Easie and Gentle a one that the Events look like the Result of mens own Free Determinations and one would think that the Natural Agents let alone to themselves would have produc'd the same Effect These two Reasons fully justifie the Obscurity of Prophecies and shew us the Use of them that we are not to look upon them as deliver'd meerly to gratifie the Curiosity men have to pry into what is Future but to be an Argument to us of Gods Overruling Providence which extends it self to the most Minute Actions and very often makes such Accidents as seem to us to be Trivial and Insignificant Instrumental in bringing to pass the Greatest and most Surprizing Events and especially to shew us That nothing befalls his Church but by his determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge I will conclude this Head with a Brief Caution to those who do not think the Prophecies concerning Christ and the Gospel Clear enough to be an Argument for our Belief and that is this That they ought not to expect that the Prophecies should give as distinct an Account of Christ as the Gospels do nor because they do not should they slight them as Insignificant but they should first of all consider the Evidence of Truth which the Gospel brings along with it and then Compare it with the Prophecies And thus tho the Prophecies be Obscure in themselves yet when they are compar'd with the Event as they will receive Light from it so they will add Light to it Just as that Obscure Saying of our Saviour's d Joh. 2.19 Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up was not understood by his Disciples when he spoke it but afterward when they Compar'd it with the Event which it foretold it was a new Argument to them that he came forth from God e Ver. 22. II. Another Difficulty concerning Prophecy the Resolving of which will tend to Establish the Authority of the Prophets is Concerning the Signs whereby True Prophets were distinguish'd from False ones 'T is plain by the Prophetick Writings that there were False Prophets that oppos'd themselves to the True ones and utter'd quite contrary Prophecies to theirs But tho the True Prophets warn the People often not to be seduc'd by these False pretenders yet we can discover but little out of their Writings concerning the Marks whereby the True Prophets were to be distinguish'd from the False ones Those which I can gather from the Holy Writings are these following 1. If a Prophet indeavour'd to perswade the people to Idolatry this was a certain Mark that he was a False Prophet tho he should confirm what he said by a Sign This Rule is laid down by Moses e Deut. 13.1 and is grounded upon very good reason For since God had manifested his Power to the Israelites by so many Undeniable Miracles and Proofs 't was not reasonable that working a single