upon design seeing the differences that are do no way inferre any difference either in the Doctrine or History of the Testament it was of the favour and mercy of God to preserve to his Church those various readings that by comparing them together and likewise with the rest of the holy Scriptures both the true sence and the true reading of them might at once be manifested SECT. XI Objections against particular parts briefly proposed and answered NOw Objections against particular books of either Testament will be found likewise inconsiderable 't is true that many of them have been either doubted of or rejected by some men but those who have pertinaciously refused them have done it rather out of the interest of their passions and corrupt affections then out of judgement Briefly Ecclesiastes hath been rejected by some as Written by Solomon in his dotage Placing felicity in sences But the first of these can no way be proved nay the contrary appears by the whole tenour of it well considered and the latter is evidently confuted by the conclusion Fear Cod c. for God shall bring c. The Canticles have been taken for a Love-song compiled in a complement to Pharaohs daughter but it had been but a slender complement to tell her that her eyes were like fish-pools and her nose like the tower of Lebanon that looketh toward Damascus The Prophecy of Daniel hath been charged by Porphyrius to have been a History written after the things were done written in the time of Antiochus and imposed upon the world under the credit of the name of Daniel but beside the testimony of our Saviour it appears out of History that that Prophecy was shewed to Alexander the great in his advance towards Jerusalem 150. years before Antiochus New Testament Hebrews was rejected by the Latine Church because the Authour was unknown and because of some passages especially seeming to favour the Novatian herefie I answer 1. It is not the name of an authour which gives credit to his Writings but that character of his person which is drawn from his abilities and integrity Now these were never doubted of in that Authour 2. Those passages are very well to be understood otherwise then in favour of the Novatians 3. It was ever received in the Greek Church and recited amongst the Canonicall Books by the Councels of Nice Laodicea and Carthage 4. If we are to beleeve the Western Church had grounds to doubt of the credit of it at such time as it did not admit it we may as well beleeve that that Church had reasons which satisfied them of the authority of it at such time as they did receive it The Epistles of Saint James 2d of St Peter the second and third of St John Jude Revelations have all of them been doubted of for some time by some parties whether or no they were indeed written by those authours under whose names they are now received but though they were some time doubted by some they were alwaies received by others and those Churches which did refuse them so long as they were unsatisfied are to be supposed to have been satisfied when they did receive them and so we ought to give as great if not greater cedit to them then to such others as had not been questioned inasmuch as that which hath been deliberated and debated and then decided is to be credited as well as that which silently hath passed on unquestioned And now I have with brevity as I suppose congruous to such an Essay as I intended made evident the last assertion which I undertook That to disbeleeve either the whole body of Scripture or any part of it there is no reason or not any sufficient reason {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eternity Necessity Simplicity Independency Incorporeality Immensity Unity Omnipotence Omniscience
undertaken that whosoever beleeves the Historicall part of the Scripture must beleeve the Doctrinall p. 81. SECT. III. The kinds and degrees of the causes of Historicall Faith in generall p. 89. SECT. IV. An Application of those generall grounds to the History of the New Testament and a proof of this Assertion That there is as great reason to beleeve the New Testament as to beleeve any other History in the World p. 97. SECT. V. That there is much greater reason to beleeve the History of the New Testament then any other History p. 206. SECT. VI That the Old Testament is the Word of God A Proposall of three severall assertions whereby it is concluded p. 119. SECT. VII The first Assertion proved That the Books of the Old Testament which we now receive are the same which the Jews doe now receive p. 124. SECT. VIII That the Books which the Jews doe now receive are the same which they have received ever since the Consignation of their Canon p. 128. SECT. IX That in our Saviours time these Books were true and consequently were the Word of God p. 135. SECT. X. That there is no reason to disbeleeve the Scriptures Objections briefly proposed and answered first generall Objections against the whole p. 138. SECT. XI Objections against particular parts briefly proposed and answered p. 149. PART I. Preface SECT. I. ALthough I am not without apprehension that the discourse which I design may be prejudged unprofitable as pretending to lay again that foundation which hath long since been layed in the mindes of all that will be readers of it yet when I consider those scandals which the loosenesse of our times have offered even to the religious and the bold and horrid pride and presumption of Atheists and Epicures which by a prophane and confident asserting the uncertainty of all things undervaluing the abilities of our Natures to raise an opinion of their personall excellencies have laboured to introduce into the world a generall Athiesm or at least a doubtfull Scepticism in matters of Religion And when we consider the nature of our mindes which is upon any ill suggestions apt still to receive some impression those things being of like operation with Calumny which if it be confidently and boldly charged will be sure to leave some scarre behinde it When we observe this use and inclination in our selves which is in things where we have not a belief of what is spoken or do not give perfect credit to an accusation yet to admit of a suspicion that things may be as they are spoken and although the strength of our contrary beleef do keep us from a full assenting to the thing in question yet if it happen that the things concern our selves and we have happened to crosse our opinions or our beleef in our way of practise such is the perversenesse of our hearts that in such cases they will make use of the beleef of others especially if they have the reputation of knowing men to oppose against their own belief and interpose betwixt the lashes of their consciences and themselves I say the present condition of Religion and the corrupted nature of our hearts being such I cannot think it uselesse nay not unnecessary to raise a discourse of Religion even from the common Elements and Fundamentals and for a while neglecting the more knowing party of men to undertake so far as the argument will bear to follow the way of demonstration and leade on the weakest from such things as they themselves cannot deny to the acknowledgement of the mysteries of our faith and to the practice of the laws and injunctions of our Religion SECT. II. Of the designe and definition of Religion the prejudices and pretences against the Christian the sum of what is in controversie deduced to three Questions 1. Of the Being of God Attributes 2. Of the Immortality of the souls of men 3. Of the Authority of Scriptures WE may begin with the consideration of the definition and the design of our selves in the matter of Religion however the practise of the world may contradict it I hope we may take this definition of Religion as one that is agreeable to the apprehension which all of us have of it Religion is a resignation of our selves to God with an expectation of reward The designe indeed of Religion however it ought to be meerly obedience to the pleasure and the will of God and height of it is barely terminated in his glory so that the highest act of it is Adoration yet I say the designe of mens Religion is that it may be well unto themselves and to bring them to an estate of happinesse The very definition of Religion supposeth a Godhead according to that of the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that God is The very designe of it supposeth that both the party worshipping is capable of rewards and that God likewise doth not neglect his services in the following words of the Apostle that he is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him Again the resignation of our selves supposeth the resignation of our supreme faculties those are our understandings and our wils viz. our wils to an obedience to his will to a performance of his injunctions to a submission to his providence and a resignation likewise of our understandings to his truth Now it is agreeable to reason as well as to the Apostle that we cannot practise the will of God unlesse we know it and that we cannot know it unlesse it be discovered to us So then in our profession of Religion there are these supposals That there is a God and That he is a rewarder of those that seek him and that supposeth that they are capable of his way of rewarding That the diligence of our seeking must be exercised in a way conformable to his will and That to this purpose we want not rules for this conformity These are I say the generall suppositions of every Religion under Heaven You see that the being of Religion is in self-resignation but the end of that resignation it is reward still retaining in minde that caution that mercenarily to labour for reward is not the supream exaltation of Religious acts but that it is the ordinary degree of mens Religion and an allowable and commendable step and a degree unto the other it being the strong powerfull motive to Moses to neglect the momentany pleasures of Pharaohs Court because he had respect unto the recompense of reward I say it is the naturall way of reason in every act to look at some or other end and to undertake no labour without an eye upon reward Now so it is that some men who account themselves the wisest observing as they think the design and issue of Religion and comparing the labour and the wages they with much wisedome as they think conclude that all the businesse of gain which comes by Religion is no way worth the pain and labour They see that all things come
A Philosophicall ESSAY Towards an Eviction of The Being and Attributes of God Immortality of the souls of men Truth and Authority of Scripture TOGETHER With an Index of the Heads of every particular Part. OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield and are to be sold by John Adams and Edward Forrest 1652. To the READER THE Author of this Book although he had never suffered it to be published had he not been assured that it is not for the main much liable to just exception and although he hath no further care of the reception entertainment of it then the consequence of it may deserve whereof the Reader and not himself must be the Judge And so he is not moved by the common passions of such as use to make Epistles and Prefaces to their Readers yet some thing although but for custome only he was willing to premise and to acquaint the Reader with thus much by way of Apology for himself That this was written divers years since without any purpose of ever letting it go abroad that the chief end of it was to cleer to himself who is a lover of rationall knowledge an account of the grounds of his own belief and to that end to lay in order his scattered notions concerning that subject and this he intends as an Apology for the homelinesse of the stile That at the same time when it was written it was also delivered in a private course of religious exercise and that will be the excuse for such repetitions as might otherwise seem ill-favoured in the severall Sections of it That at the time of his composing it he was destitute of the assistance of his Bookes which is one cause that it is not adorned with Testimonies and citations out of Authors but comes out naked being supported onely by the order and plainnesse of reason that it trusts to That since the composing of this he knows that divers Bookes of the same Argument have been written by men farre more knowing then himselfe but that he hath not yet read any of them nor knows whether he doe agree with them or not which abstinence hath been caused partly for that he is himselfe satisfied by what is here delivered and partly for that he had no leisure or minde to alter this which he had done though possibly it might be for the better That whereas he speakes of Epicures Machiavelians and the like he makes use of those names onely in a popular way as they are names of Characters well known amongst us and that he intends not to traduce those Authors or cast any contumely upon them Lastly He must needs acknowledge that before the edition of this he hath seen M. Hobs his Leviathan and other Bookes of his wherein that which is in this Treatise intended as the main Foundation whereon the second Discourse Of the Souls Immortality insists is said to imply a contradiction viz. That there are any such things as Immateriall or Incorporeall substances Upon which occasion he thought good onely to say That he hath a very great respect and a very high esteem for that worthy Gentleman but he must ingenuously acknowledge that a great proportion of it is founded upō a belief expectation concerning him a belief of much knowledge in him and an expectation of those Philosophicall and Mathematicall works which he hath undertaken and not so much upon what he hath yet published to the world and that he doth not see reason from thence to recede from any thing upon his Authority although he shall avouch his discourse to proceed Mathematically That he is sure he hath much injured the Mathematicks and the very name of Demonstration by bestowing it upon some of his discourses which are exceedingly short of that evidence and truth which is required to make a discourse able to bear that reputation That in this case M.H. is onely a negative witnesse and his meaning in denying incorporeall substances can rationally import no more but this that he himself hath not an apprehension of any such beings and that his cogitation as to the simple objects of it hath never risen beyond imagination or the first apprehension of bodies performed in the brain but to imagine that no man hath an apprehension of the God-head because he may not perhaps think of him so much as to strip off the corporeall circumstances wherewith he doth use to fancy him Or to conclude every man under the sentence of being non-sensicall whosoever have spoken or written of Incorporeall substances he doth conceive to be things not to be made good by the Authority of M. Hobs. That whereas very many men do professe an apprehension of such beings and he in the mean time professes this to be impossible this Author is hard put to it to excuse this from much incivility and conceives the import of it to amount to thus much that he conceives himself in the highest and utmost bound of humane apprehension and that his reason is the measure of truth and that what he sees not is invisible I conceive the case in this to be alike as if whilest two men are looking at Jupiter one with his naked eyes the other with a Telescope the former should avow that Jupiter had no attendants and that it were impossible he should have any the reason why M.H. denies those beings whilest other men apprehend them is for that he lookes at them with his Fancy they with their minde Many more things he had to say for himself but he understands not fully the use or benefit of Apologies The Contents PART I. SECT. I. Preface SECT. II. OF the designe ad definition of Religion the prejudices and pretences against the Christian the sum of what is in controversie deduced to three Questions 1. Of the Being of God Attributes 2. Of the Immortality of the Souls of men 3. Of the Authority of Scriptures SECT. III. Of the being of God evicted by way of Demonstration from the Creatures pag. 11. SECT. IV. Of the Attributes of God those likewise evicted from the Creatures pag. 17. PART II. SECT. I. A Proposall of the Argument for the Immortality of the Soule and a manifestation of the major proposition that incorporeall substances are immortall pap 33. SECT. II. A Proof of this Proposition that the Souls of men are incorporeall substances by comparing the affections of bodies with those of souls p. 38. SECT. III. A further proof of it by the generall way of apprehension p. 43 SECE IV. The same further demonstrated from the severall acts of the Soule from simple apprehensions p. 51. SECT. V. From Judgment and Discourse p. 58. SECT. VI An Application of the former Propositions to the inference of a Religion in generall and a proposall of the third in order to the Christian p. 67. PART III. Concerning the truth and Authority of our Scripture SECT. I. Petitions and Cautions premised to the Question p. 75. SECT. II. The Assertion resolved into two Propositions the former