to ruin their Character in the Opinion of all sober Deists whilst they must needs have a secret esteem for the Jewish Legislatour in setting the Worship of the one true God among his People alone in opposition to the whole Idolatrous World Nay that hostile odium which the Historian calls their Aversion to a free conversation with other Nations which their Law obliged them to was that which preserved both their Religion and their Laws from the encroaching powers of their Neighbouring Potentates For if they had wanted this they had been lost in their Babylonian Captivity and forever mixed with that Idolatrous Nation And truly this surliness was such a good piece of Policy among the Jews that we Englishmen in the midst of our complaisance should not do amiss to learn who have so long been fond of fetching over the Customs of a Neighbouring Nation that they seeing us so very obliging were once in a fair way to have sent us over their Government and Religion too Objections against particular Laws answered As to your exceptions which you have raised against some particular Instances in the Mosaical Law I think they are not very material The forbidding of the Blood of Animals for food was a Noachical Precept as well as Mosaical which God by a new sanction thought fit under Moses his dispensation to continue And at the first giving of it in Noah's time it was a very proper Injunction and highly rational For God at the same time gave Mankind a Licence to eat the Flesh of Animals excepting only the Blood This being as it were a kind of Sacrament or Token to put them in mind of the tenderness they ought to have in shedding Human Blood as appears by the Context where Murder is forbidden and Blood is required for Blood As to your objection against the Law of sowing mixed seed I presume the reason which Philo gives is sufficient that the strength of the ground might not be worn out thereby and no incouragement given to the Husbandman's Covetousness The wearing linsey woolsey was probably a proud fantastick fashion of the Heathens at that time which therefore the Jews were forbid to imitate Though further I believe all the three Conjunctions mentioned Deut. 22. of yoking the Ox with an Ass the mingling of seeds and wearing Linnen mixed with Woollen have as Theodoret observes something emblematical mixed with the precept to make Men have the greater abhorrence of all venereal commixtures contrary to nature As for the Lex Talionis of the Jews let it have been as rigid as you would make it it is no more than what was practised in other Nations and had a place among the celebrated Roman Laws in the 12 Tables Nuct Anic Lib. 20. c. 1. And as it is set down in Aulus Gellius is thus SI MEMBRVM RVPERIT NI CVM EO PACIT TALIO ESTO But the Jews say that for Mutilations where Death did not ensue a pecuniary Mulct was generally accepted and granted to the maimed person and that the Judge did never inflict the Talio but upon the desire of the injured party who unless he were very malicious would rather accept a recompence in Money And so for the Return of mortgaged Estates to the owners at the Jubilees there is no manner of injustice in this Law because the Estate could be sold for no more Money than an Annuity from the time of sale till the year of Jubilee was worth and it was at the purchaser's peril if he ventured more upon it And there was incouragement enough for Men of Parts and Industry to raise themselves by purchace only of Annuities for fifty years Nay further this Law seems to be excellently contrived to hinder the encroaching purchaces of Covetous Men which has given so much disturbance in all Common-wealths and which occasioned the Leges Agrariae which gave such great Content to the Roman * Liv. Hist Lib. 4. cap. 48. Lib. 6. c. 11.14 Citizens So Aristotle in his Politicks says †Arist Pol. Lib. 2. c. 7. That Solon made a Law and that other Countries have the same that every Man should not purchase as much Estate as he had a mind to And again the Law forbids to sell a Man's Houshould goods * Id. Lib. 6. c. 4. as the Law of the Locri which obliges a Man not to sell them unless he can make it out that some great calamity has befel him Besides the Law commands to keep those ancient Patrimonies which came by Inheritance And so again in another place In many Cities it is established by Law that no one should have power to alienate the ancient Inheritances And there is a Law which is said to be of Oxylus which injoyns that no one should lend Money to another and take his Estate as a Pawn for it So that if this be a fault in the Mosaical Laws the Attick and Roman are liable to the same Censure As for the Red Heifer which is commanded to be Sacrificed Numb 19.2 the reason most probably is that such an one is more beautiful and choice such as the Ancients made use of for Sacrifice of which * Plut. Isid Oysr Plutarch says the Aegyptians were so scrupulous that if a Red-Bull had but one black or white Hair he was unfit for Sacrifice And lastly for the Scape-Goat I take that to be an Expiatory Sacrifice purposely designed to be a Type of our blessed Saviour and was expiatory only by relation to his sufferings Phil. For my part I have no great liking to your Types and Figures but why should not these Laws be given in opposition to the Zabii those ancient Idolaters which Learned Men of late have found out and from whose Doctrines methinks they give a pretty handsome Rationale of the Mosaick Laws Cred. Let this Rationale be as pretty as you please I believe it is very false and that there were never any more such a Nation as the Zabii than the Vtopians They never had any more being than in the Dreams of the falsifying Jews who four or five hundred years â—go writ some Sham-Books under their Name I do not doubt but that Maimonides saw them and was imposed upon by them so that the cheat does not lie at his door The Zabii among the ancient Arabians were esteemed a Name for Sorcerers Aul. Gellius Lib. 4. c. 1. or Fortune-Tellers and signified no more than the Chaldaei * Az. 2. in Latin and the Gypsies in English And thus 't is used in the Alchoran †Hist Dyn p. 281. and Abuâ—-Pharajâ—us set out by Dr. Pocock says their Profession was the same with that of the ancient Chaldeans Now should not we make pretty work of it if we should go to give an account of the old Aegyptian rites and customs and the Coprick Language from the lies and cant of our vagrant Gypsies and truly the case is the very same of those Books which Maimonides relies upon that pretend to
of them to be absurd and ridiculous others contrary to common Justice and the rest but mean and pitiful and unworthy of God the Author What more silly than the command of not eating the blood of an Animal as if it was worth the cognizance of a Legislatour to forbid Men the use of Black-Puddings Is it worthy a Divine Law to forbid the sowing of Maslin or that poor Folks should wear Linsey-Wolsey And does it not look a little like a jest gravely to establish that an Ox and an Ass shall not be yoked together Besides there are other things in the Body of his Laws which contradict the common notions of ordinary Justice What is the setting up in his Common-wealth so many Asylums but only making a Rendezvous or an Alsatia for a number of Hedg-Rogues to plague their honest Neighbours His Lex Talionis is unmerciful Cruelty that when I by chance or in a scuffle have beat out a Mans Eye I must stand still to let him bore out mine in cold blood His redemption of Estates after the year of Jubilee is to discourage good Parts and Industry and to entail Estates for ever it may be upon the Block-headed Heirs of those particular Families which first laid hands upon them His other Laws about Murder Theft Sacrifices c. are such as are equaled by the meanest Common-wealths and the ordinariest superstitions only here are some things more ridiculous than are to be found elsewhere with a deal of Injunctions about Red-Cows Scape-Goats and forty things more of the same Nature But if God had been the Author of these Laws and this Institution they had without all doubt been grounded upon admirable reason excellently fitted to the benefit of Mankind and the usefulness of them to Society and to make Men good would have been apparent to all that considered them but these seem only to be an odd jumble of Arbitrary Precepts for which there is no other but a Womans Reason to be given Because forsooth God would command them And is not this a fine way of making Laws Cred. I find you are running The Jewish the best of all Political Laws Philologus upon your old strain and therefore I must beg leave to interpose a little I believe it is want of due consideration of the Laws of Moses which makes you talk against that which when you understand better you would rather admire For my part I look upon the Judaical to be the most excellent Civil Constitution which ever was or ever will be in the World and if you will but compare the three Legislative Books of Moses with what are extant of the Aegyptian Attick and Lacedemonian Laws the Roman twelve Tables their Plebiscita and Imperial Rescripts nay even when they were collected into the Digests You will find that they all fall short of these Laws of Moses I do not speak this at random nor in the least to detract from the Roman Laws but considering the Circumstances of the Jewish Nation their Laws do I think far exceed the other Indeed the Jewish Laws were not drawn up into such an exact a Systematical Method nor adorned with such Artificial Terms nor do so precisely set out the minute Boundaries of Right and Wrong as the Roman but yet they are better calculated for ordinary Justice and Neighbourly Society The extraordinary mercifulness of them and what is better yet for Mercy and Charity I say Mercy and Charity and I defy any Civil Constitution in the World to shew so many good-natur'd Laws and enacted with such a tender regard to their Fellow Creatures as the Jews can What more kind Constitution could there be than to ordain Cities of Refuge for the innocent Man-slayer to fly to to avoid the impotent Anger of the Relations of the killed which according to the Custom of those times were wont immediately to revenge their Kindreds Death thereby to give him Time to clear himself which if he could not the Law allows him to be dragged even from the Horns of the Altar Exod. 21.14 The kind usage which by those Laws is to be given to Slaves and the stripes which are not to be exceeded in punishing Criminals are another Argument of the Mercifulness of these Laws above others The great care which is taken to prevent mischief which might happen by the flat roof'd Buildings of those times by ordering Battlements to be made round them and the penalty of Womens taking abortive potions do confirm the same The forbidding the Jews to suffer a Beggar among them and not allowing new Married Men to be forced from their Wives the first year to the Wars are a Tenderness which most other Nations are wanting in Indeed the same Laws punish Adultery with Death but then they are so mild as to punish Theft with only abundant Restitution In which sanctions you may see an admirable Temperament of Justice and Clemency and which may serve for an Example to other Governments where Adulteries which are irreparable are pretended to be recompensed by pecuniary Mulcts and Thefts for which restitution may be made are Capital Nay in these Laws there is a tender Regard had to Beast themselves of which the forbidding to muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn is a sufficient instance mercifully providing that the poor Beast which provides sustenance for us should not be denied its natural cravings after its own And so it is in the case of the coupling an Ox and an Ass and other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tenderly taking care that one Beast of greater strength should not force another poor Creature of less toil beyond its ability Thus much I have thought fit in some few particulars to point out the Merciful Disposition of these Laws which is not so visible in any civil Constitution in the World as in this The great Wisdom in them And besides you may perceive as much Wisdom and excellent Design running through the whole frame of it The Distinction of Families and Registery of their names was the most useful thing which could be in a Common-wealth thereby to know its own strength and abilities to prevent Law-suits and to settle Inheritances The sabbatical or fallow year was a noble contrivance to keep a Country in fertility and from being worn out of heart by covetous Tillers The weekly Sabbath setting aside the Religiousness of it was a wonderful ease both to Servants and Cattle and must even upon this account be esteemed a very wise Establishment which other Nations were wanting in But their severe punishment of Idolatry of all sorts and the great encouragement of the Worship of the one true God from whom the whole World had relapsed is such a Glory of the Judaical Laws above all other as can never be eclipsed by all that can be said against them by Infidel Tongues Talk what you will of your Solon's Lycurgus's and Numa's but the Idolatrous Worships which they established by their Laws is enough
and acceptable to the Deity they worship So that if Men fancy God an Impure Sensual or Careless Being there is no doubt but their Lives will be of the same Piece Therefore the erroneous Opinions of the Heathen Philosophers concerning the Deity were not pardonable Blunders as many others in their Physiology were but such mistakes as were of fatal consequence to the Vertuousness of their own and Followers Lives And what a World of mistakes shall we find them subject to of this kind Some of them were downright Atheists and believed no God at all as * Sext. Emp. Hypot Lib. 3. C. 24. Diagorus Melius Theodorus and Critias Atheniensis The Spirituality of God was denied by Epicurus †Id. ib. who was an Anthropomorphite simply presuming that God was of the figure of a Man and by Zenophanes who made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great impassible Sphere or Globe of matter So Parmenides Eliates ‖ Clem. Alex. Protrept would have the Deity to be Fire and Earth and Hippasus Metapontinus and Heraclitus the Fire only * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cohort ad Graecos which Justin Martyr relates of Plato likewise The Vnity of the Deity †See Onatus the Pythagoreans Arguments for Plurality of Gods Stob. Eccl. Phys Lib. 1. was Universally denied by them all and they owned either the Gods of the Country or the Parts of the World to be such and though it was charged against Socrates in his Tryal that he disowned his Country Gods and their worship yet at his Death he discovers himself to be down-right Pagan and orders his Executours to Sacrifice the Cock * Plat. Phaedo he had vowed to Aesculapius And as for Plutarch †Plutar◠one of the soberest of the Philosophers he was the horridest Polytheist of them all for he asserts two supreme Anti-Gods one infinitely Good and the other infinitely Wicked which of all errours is the most monstrous and abominably absurd The Infinity of God was denied by all those that asserted an infinite number of Worlds †Stob. Ecl. Phys Cap. de Ort. Inter as Anaximander Anaximenes Archelaus Diogenes Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus and by the Stoicks who generally made him the Anima Mundi For two actual infinites are impossible and if the World be infinite God is not And as for the Anima Mundi they made that only a subtil corporeal flame permeating the whole World and so must be terminated at the bounds of it and consequently finite The Freedom of the Divine Will was destroyed by the Fatality of the Stoicks and so was God's Omnipotence fetter'd by the stubborn Laws of their unalterable Fate As for God's Providence that was perfectly excluded the World by Epicurus and not allow'd by Aristotle * Id. Ec. Phys Cap. 25. on this side the Celestial Spheres Thus you have seen how these great Oracles of Reason and brave Natural-Religion Men have been mistaken even in the common Notions of the Deity let us see now whether they are not Erroneous in their Moral Doctrines 3. Mistaken in their Opinions concerning Vertue and Vice I should make a Day of it should I recite all the silly and the wicked Opinions which occur in the Writings and Lives of the Philosophers I shall only mention seme few of them to put you in mind that these old Sages are not such excellent Masters in Morality as your Theistical Gentlemen would pretend and that their Reason is no such infallible Guide in Natural-Religion as you would have it And now what shall we think of the little puny Philosophers when the great Plato †himself was an Advocate for the community of goods * Plat. Respub Lib. 1. which would perfectly destroy all industry and peace in a Common-wealth and what is yet worse when he contends for the common use of one anothers Wives The Famous Zeno †Lactant. Lib. 3. Cap. 22. the Founder of the Stoical Sect with his Followers after him made all Sins equal and that it was as great a Sin to steal a Pin as to kill ones Father and Sextus Empiricus ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hyp. Lib. 3. Cap. 24. quotes out of him a Passage wherein he would prove that it is as lawful to lie with ones Mother as to stroak her Arm he likewise brings in the same Zeno with the Celebrated Stoick Cleanthes and Chrysippus * Id. ib. as making that execrable Crime of Masculine Venery a thing indifferent And Diogenes Laertis †Diog. Laert. Vit. Zen. in his Life lays it down as one of his principles to be merciful to no one and to pardon no body And Theophilus Antiochenus ‖ Ad Autol Lib. 2. brings in him and Cleanthes as asserting that Sons and Daughters might as lawfully roast and eat their Parents Flesh as other food He asserted that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Greatness of Soul which was nothing else but a Stoical pride was sufficient for happiness * Laert. in Vit. Zen. but his Scholars Panaetius and Possidonius seeing this liable to so many Absurdities were forced afterward to allow health wealth and strength to make it up Diogenes the Cynick †Laert. in Vit. Diog. as all his currish Sect denied that there was any shamefulness in publick Commixtures and asserted that Parents * Theoph. Antioch ad Autol. Lib. 2. might lawfully Sacrifice their Children and eat their Flesh And Epicurus †Id. ib. allows incestuous Copulation with Mother or Daughter Aristippus * Laert. Vid. Aristippi refused to maintain his own Children saying they were no more to be regarded than the spittle or the Lice which were produced by the Body He made the positive brutish pleasure of the Body not Epicurus his Indolence to be the chief good of Man and taught that a wise Man might commit Theft or Adultery or Sacriledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he saw a convenient opportunity and not otherwise that these Crimes are not sinful in themselves setting aside the Opinion of the simple Multitude which has made them so And Laertius records a sophistical Argument of his which he used to prove the lawfulness of Sodomy Cle. Alex. Strom. Lib. 2. Democritus condemns the use of Marriage for the trouble of it and Epicurus agrees with him in the same And even Aristotle * Arist ad Nicom Lib. IV. 2. and Tully †Cic. de Invent. 2. Ep. ad An. are Advocates for Hatred and Revenge those two most Diabolical Dispositions which Mankind is subject to Now this is enough upon this head to shew how mighty deficient your natural Religion is to teach Men their duty and how infirm a Rule of Morals human reason is when these so great Masters of it could in these matters be so shamefully mistaken 4. Neither was the practice of the Heathen Philosophers as to Moral Duties Their Lives vitious better than their Principles And truly
as they can though to their own detriment but among the ancient Heathen it was a common thing to throw their Children when born into the next Ditch they met with and leave who chance to find them to take care of them Vnjust Wars Though the Arms of Christian Princes cannot always be excused yet none of them have ever had the confidence as the old Heathens had barefacedly to Proclaim War for Honour and Glory sake No Prince among us ever went to Butcher so many Countries as Alexander did only to wear Garlands or as the Romans did to have the glory of a Triumph who as one observes if they should have restored again what they had unjustly got must have been reduced to their Romulean Cottages And I am sure none of our Divines ever stated the case as Tully did That Wars for Glory sake were not absolutely unlawful but only mitius gerenda sunt they are not to be carried on with such Cruelty as others The most prodigal among us are soberly parsimonious Luxurious Living if compared with those mad excesses in the way of living among the Ancient Romans if we consider what prodigious quantities of Money were expended in making Shows for the People in Largitions in building Baths Amphitheaters and the like if we recollect how some of them have made Suppers that cost the Revenue of Provinces that pounded inestimable Jewels to drink their Mistresses and Lovers Healths that Heliogabalus exhibited a Naval Fight in the Amphitheater and made all the Ships Sail and contend in Wine and that see made a Dish of the Brains only of six hundred Ostriches that so inconsiderable Fellow as Aesop the Tragedian who had got an Estate by Stage-playing made a Dish of a hundred of the rarest Singing Birds which imitated Mans Voice which cost six thousand Sesterces a piece so that the whole Dish stood him in of our English Money four thousand seven hundred and forty eight found Enormous Lusts We live indeed in a very vitious Age in which Sensuality does highly abound among Christians but if you consider the Lives of the Ancient Heathen or even Mahometans and Idolaters now adays our Vices are no ways comparable to their scandalous Turpitudes The Greeks and Germans used Masculine Venery as one of the laudable Customs of their Country †Cor. Nepos Alcib Sext. Emp. Hyp. Lib. 3. C. 24. and in Aegypt the more common a Whore was the more honourable and for this reason was allowed to wear a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Garland of honour upon her head In short the Christian World has indisputably gained so much of Vertue by the means of the Gospel that many of those abominable Lusts which were generally practised by the Heathens as appears by their Authors have never been heard of by the generality of the most lewd and debauched Christians No devout Worship And lastly I observe that before Christianity there was hardly any such thing as a conscientious and devout worship of God or even of their own Deities They never prayed to God for Vertues and Graces but only for Riches Honours or Children or the like Their Prayers were generally such as the Womans in Juvenal Formam optat modico pueris majore puellis Murmure cum Veneris fanum videt anxia Mater Vsque ad delicias votorum Juv. Sat. 10. The anxious Dame to Venus Temple hies And for fine Boys she moderately cries But for fair Girls her Voice is higher rais'd Eager and with her bare Petition 's pleas'd And all their Sacrifices which we have an account of were only design'd to bribe the Gods to procure them a Victory or some such Temporal Advantage or else to return them thanks for the same Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano was rather a Philosophical thought than the practice either of the multitude or the Philosophers themselves and it was never known that ever Men met together in Assemblies or usually prayed to God in private for any blessings of this Nature but under a Revealed Institution So that upon the whole Sir you see that Natural Religion as it is the result of Reason only is a Rule of Morals miserably defective For how strangely at a loss must the poor common People be to get a knowledge of a great part of their Duty which the most sagacious and learned Philosophers blundered at Or how shall we think that Natural Religion is sufficient to regulate the lives of ignorant and barbarous People which the World is for the most part made up of when two such knowing Nations as the Greeks and Romans were so scandalously mistaken in it Make the best of Natural Religion you can it will be at least but a Candle to the Sun in respect of the knowledge which our Christian Revelation affords for under the Gospel our very Women and Children and the ordinariest of our Catechumens are more knowing in Moral Duties and more right in their notions of the nature and Attributes of God than the Sages of old were after a Life spent in the Porch or the Garden and tell me any Philosopher that has bravely defied Death and we will with infinite Advantage on our side confront him with whole Armies of Christian Martyrs Phil. This is brave positive tearing stuff for a Person to talk to a bigotted Auditory where there is no fear of being contradicted but I can never believe that God should give such an imperfect Law which you would make of the Natural one to the generally of Mankind and put no body of all the vast swarms in the Gentile World in hopes of Salvation but only some few Christians for their believing in Jesus Christ God Almighty I am sure is a kind and merciful Father and contrives the greatest good for all his Creatures which they are capable of and therefore whereas all the Gentile Nations have Immortal Souls and are capable of Everlasting Felicity it can never be supposed but that in this World they are in the way to Salvation and that the Law that is given them which can be none but the Natural one is sufficient to attain it by So that if this be sufficient to carry them to Heaven you may banter what you please about the imperfection of it For my part I am for going thither the nearest way and that is by Natural Religion I am not for coasting about to take in Ceremonies and long Articles of Faith to no purpose Either God Almighty has damned all the Heathen World that practised Natural Religion which none but a Popish or a Calvinistical cruelty can assert or I who am for the same Natural Religion am in as comfortable a way of Salvation as e'er a Gospeller of you all Cred. I think Sir you conclude a little too fast God more severe to modern Theists than ancient Heathens when you say that you modern Theists are in as good hopes of Everlasting Happiness as the old Heathen
Heathens and in despight of them to make them hear the Prediction of their own destruction from the mouth of their own Friend Nor is it so strange to suppose that a Prophecy concerning our Saviour should come from a Heathen Priest since the Sibyls have predicted the same and filled the whole World full of expectation of some mighty Deliverer about the time of our Saviour's Birth as Virgil's Eclogue is an undeniable instance of Phil. But if Natural Religion be so Defective and Revelation so necessary as you contend for and withal if the Jews were only blessed with this favour how can we excuse the partial Justice of God to make so much of this odd sort of People and leave all the rest of the World to shift for themselves as if they were none of his Creatures Methinks of all the Nations of the World the divine Prudence should never have picked out this currish Nation to have lavished out so many favours upon a People that from the time of their Original to their Overthrow were the Opprobry of the World who as Tacitus and Justin tell us Tacit. Hist Lib. 5. Just Hist Lib. 36. were expelled Aegypt for a pack of scabbed Lepers that would have infected the whole Country and when they lived at Rome they were observed by Juvenal Juv. Sat. 6. to be of such a dogged Temper that they would not so much as direct a Man in his way unless he was of the same circumcised Race Now how can any one Credentius suppose that God Almighty should overlook all the Nations of the World and make himself so extraordinary familiar with this cross-grain'd Rabble One would have thought if the Deity had been inclined to have made a distinction between any of his Creatures that the Greeks or Romans should have stood fairest for such a favour for they were Nations of great Candor and Generosity who had minds that did generally abound with extraordinary Vertue and Honour but the Jews of all Nations in the World were remarked for soure unsociable qualities and whom their own Prophets cannot forbear calling them often a stubborn untoward perverse crooked and stiff-necked People And therefore Credentius pray let me see how you can excuse the Justice and Wisdom of God in being so liberal of his Revelations to this People only Cred. I do not in the least see Philologus how the Justice of God is touched by this gracious manifestation of his will in particular to the Jews rather than to other Nations or that they deserved it less than any other For 1. This was no more than what God had done before in other Ages of the World This agreeable to God's usual Providence in order to preserve to himself a Church or chosen People selected from the other ungodly People of the World Thus are the Children of Seth God's visible Church in the Antediluvian Times who were for this very reason called the Sons of God Gen. 6.2 And the Children of Shem and Japhet are separated from the prophane off-spring of Ham Gen. 9.26 27. And therefore in the time of Abraham when Idolatry was spread well nigh over all the World it was very wisely contrived of God Almighty to set up the Posterity of this good Man to be the Worshippers of the True God when the rest of the World had lapsed into prophane Idolatry 2. Neither can this argue any injustice in God No injustice in God because it does not appear that the Heathens had any right to demand of God a Particular Revelation They had the Law of Nature as 't is generally called or the old Adamical Revelation to walk by and what Rewards or Punishments were annexed to that they were either to expect or fear This was sufficient though with more difficulty to square their Lives by and God was in no ways obliged to make their Task more easy since he might dispense his Rewards upon what Conditions he pleased I doubt not but that good Gentiles had their Reward allotted for them but then I see no Reason why they should be their own Caterers and cut out what work they pleased for themselves For if it pleased God to set the Gentiles to work out their Salvation with more pains and danger and the Jews and Christians with less why should the divine Justice be taxed with Partiality more than you should be when you think fit to set some of your Workmen to an easier and others to an harder Task when all of them are obliged to undergo the most difficult and painful when you shall be pleased to assign it Other Instances of Providence as unaccountable 3. Neither can I see any reason why the Justice or Wisdom of God should be called in question for this liberal distribution of Revelations to the Jews alone for which we can assign no reason For there are a thousand Instances in Providence to be made which are subject to the same difficulties Tell me why the unhappy Inhabitants of Greenland and Island are not all born in such a Garden of the World as Italy Or why God bestowed such a Delicious soil upon the Italians only above all the rest of the Europeans Tell me Philologus why God has blessed you with a more delicate Personage and a happier Stock of Natural Parts than your Neighbours Why such an one is born to a great Estate and others to none at all Why such an one is made a Man and not a Monkey Why another Thing is an Animal and not a Tree Now these are all particular favours of God Almighty which other parts of the Creation want and yet you will not say that this is any reflexion upon the Wisdom or Justice of God Why therefore should we tax them in bestowing this favour of particular Revelation to the Jews For I dare say I can as easily prove That the Jews were as much deserving of their Prophecy as any Man can be to be an Italian or an Englishman to be beautiful or wealthy We Men are not able to give a reason for any of these benefits and therefore must refer all to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good pleasure of God Not that this good pleasure of God is any capricious resolution of him but a wise determination of his Will grounded upon just reason although unknown to us Nay I doubt not but we Men in another World shall be able to give an account of many difficulties in God's Beneficent and Vindictive Providence which in this World are so apt to amuse us and that in the great circles and revolutions of God's future Dispensations all the present Inequalities shall be made up and all accounts ballanced But after all the Order of the Vniverse alone is a sufficient reason to satisfy all reasonable Men of the Wisdom and Justice of God in placing Men and Things in a better or worse station in the World and in communicating to them greater or lesser benefits If all were to enjoy the same
power which they can possibly have they had from God in their Creation Therefore God still keeps the power over them either to annihilate them to continue them in their being or to alter them To say that God has alienated this power or given them a greater is more absurd For this is in effect to say God has divested himself of his Deity and made the World God instead of himself All that can with any probability be said is That God by the frame and constitution of the World has been pleased to make it immutable and therefore this power being passed out of his hands he cannot recal it without violation to his Wisdom and a perfect Confusion to the present Scheme of Beings But to consider this a little As God by his Omnipotent Power created all things so by his Providence he governs them and takes care of them And it is equally absurd to say any thing should not be governed by Infinite Providence as to assert any thing might be created without Omnipotent Power Both these are God's Attributes and to do Violence to either of these is injurious to God Now how can it be said that God by his Providence takes care of the World when he has made such a fatal unalterable World that it is out of his power to take care of For whatsoever is governable or the subject of Government must be in ones power and alterable but God can no more govern a fatal World than a Man can govern the Winds and the Sea But to govern and take care of his Creatures is the necessary Attribute of a Wise and a Good God and therefore the World which he takes care of must be governable and consequently not Fatal Phil. But by the way Sir is it not more agreeable to the Divine Wisdom to create a World fixt and immutable than such a one whose Laws should be weak and shatter'd that they must need his Assistance every moment to preserve them and make them go according to his Will Cred. I do not deny but that the Laws of Nature are in themselves sufficiently firm and immutable God's Providence betâ—er than Fatality and that they will unchangeably preserve their Course when it does not please God they should be interrupted by his superior power But it is no reflection upon God's Wisdom that he did not make the World so immutable that his Providence could not interpose in it Nay it would have been a greater Reflection upon his Wisdom to have made such a World which it was out of his power to controul Let any one judge if a Prince does not act more prudently by granting a limited Commission to a General and Deputy to be superseded at his pleasure than by granting an absolute and unlimited one which it is our of his power to restrain Phil. This is true among Princes because they have a finite understanding and can have no knowledge of futures and so may undo themselves by not reserving a power to themselves upon some extraordinary emergency but God Almighty knows all things because he eternally decrees them and therefore nothing can happen afterwards unexpected or contrary to his foresight and therefore he might very well compose a fixt and immutable World without any prejudice to himself or reflection upon his Wisdom Cred. Though we must not consider God as a finite Prince God a wise Governour without Fatal Laws yet must consider him as a wise Governour and he cannot be a wise Governour by fatal Laws For the Laws of Virtue which are certainly God's Laws suppose Liberty but to command a thing to be freely done which cannot but be done or is impossible to be done does argue a foolish Governour and therefore God cannot do so God must therefore reserve to himself the continual management of the affairs of nature to maintain the Freedom of Man's Will and to adjust matters so as becomes a good Governour But to go on where we left of 3. Miracles not Occurrences which the Vulgar do not understand It is another of your great mistakes to assert That Miracles are only such occurrences in Nature as the vulgar do not understand For generally the Miracles which are recorded in Scripture are such as the vulgar are as proper Judges of as the greatest Philosophers Indeed if the Miracles were only some extraordinary performances in recondit Arts and Sciences then they would afford some reason for Learned Men to question their sincerity If they were the Resolution of some very difficult questions in Algebra some curious Tables of the motions of the Heavenly Bodies for many Years some wonderful performance by Mechanick Philosophy which had amuzed the common People into the Opinion that they were Miracles then something of this nature might be pretended But when all the Miracles in Scripture are such as the meanest Men might be Judges of and which they cannot be deceived in the case is quite different Any ordinary Man might be Judge whether it were not by a Miraculous power that Bitter Waters by a word of the Prophet were made sweet that an Iron Hatchet was made to swim that a Dead Child was raised to life Every ordinary Man was as good a Judge of Tast of the Heaviness of Iron and when the Soul was departed from the Body as the greatest Philosopher When our Saviour by a word spoke turned Water into Wine Cured the Blind and the Lame and raised Men from the Dead in these cases the relieved Persons and every beholder could tell that this was above the power of nature as well as those that had continually applied themselves to the study of it There is no need for an Insight in Philosophy or the Mathematicks for Men to know when they are sick or when they are well to know that though Physick does often cure diseased Men yet words naturally do not that Medicinal Operations are slow and gradual and therefore when they see Men instantaneously cured of a Disease which for a long while has baffled the power of Medicine that this must needs be by a supernatural power when they see all natural means have failed 4. And your Assertion is equally false Miracles not make Men doubt of a God wherein you lay down That Miracles do rather make Men doubt of a God than prove his being to them Now we do not say that Miracles are the best Argument to prove the Being of a God for the most excellent frame and contrivance of the World are the most obvious proof of it But Miracles are far from making any wise Man doubt of the being of a God For the wise and constant Ends and Regularities in nature are so forcible a Proof upon Men of his Being that every little disorder cannot make a wise Man doubt of it For if I behold in any work a thousand Wise Ends that I am able to discover I may very well conclude that a few other things were as wisely design'd whose ends I
of Seasons which is one of the greatest Beauties of the World and leaving the greater part of it uninhabitable is a matter which one cannot so easily comply with especially when the first Chap. of Genesis says that the Stars shall be for times and for seasons and for Days and for years And so is his exclusion from thence of the Seas Hills and Great Rivers allowing only some trilling streams from the Poles For the World without the Sea would be but a Prison where Men would be lock'd up from one another without intercourse would have no communication in Commerce Arts Invention but People must be content to live uncomfortably at home upon their own Stocks and their own Improvements Without Hills Men would be bereaved of the Ornament and Convenience of Metals of the usefulness of Minerals and Stones and Men would have wanted Money Domestick Utensils Physick and Buildings Nay without Hills to drain off the Mist and Rains and Seas to evaporate the Mist and Rains from it is unaccountable to me how there should be such a thing as a River in the World and I fancy the easy descent upon the declivity of an Oval as big as the Earth is not agreeable to the Laws of Hydrostaticks and the usual current of Waters Nor is it less difficult to me to imagine how a Crust of so vast a Thickness as that of the Earth must be should be broken by any natural force especially being supported equally by the subterraneous Waters or as for any fissures or cracks by the Heat of the Sun they are demonstrated in the hottest Countries not to go many Yards into the Ground and as for any Earth-quakes raised by evaporation of the Abyss below every Ditcher can tell that the Heat of the Sun-beams does not go so many inches under Ground as this Hypothesis must suppose Leagues and besides Earth-quakes and subterraneous Eruptions are not caused by rarefied Vapours but by the accension of sulphureous Damps which like Gun-powder rend tear and carry all before them and are often wont to break out in visible Flame Nay further those vast Fissures and ugly Gaps would have been more inconvenient and unsightful in the Antediluvian Earth than the most barren Mountains and roughest Seas are with us Neither does the usual depth of the Channels of the Sea seem to answer to the Depth of the Abyss nor the regularity of the Mountains to the accidental Fragments of such a Crust There would then appear frequently prodigious Wells and Gaps where the fragments did not exactly meet and such horrid and naked Apices which could not by this time have been any thing smoothed by Rains or covered with Grass or Herbs Nay even in the very situation of the Mountains and greatest Hills there appears wise contrivance and not accidental Fracture for to go no further than our own Country all our great Ridges of Hills in England run East and West so do the Alps in Italy and in some measure the Pyrenees so do the Mountains of the Moon in Africk and so does Mount Tauras and Caucasus And further there appears a prudent foresight in not making the ridges of Hills continued but by breaking them off into Tumuli or Heads parts of each of which lies obliquely behind another and generally admits a skew passage between For unless there was such a Ridge of Hills frequent from East to West the Vapours would all run Northward and there would be no rains in the Mediterranean Countries but the Rivers dried up and the Sea it self in time evaporated and frozen into Polar Ice And unless the Hills were divided into these oblique Breaks so as to keep back the Vapours and let in the Northern Air the World would be far more liable to Pestilences and Putrefaction than now they are and all Places as unhealthy as Scanderoon These things with the Deduction of the Americans from another race than Noah and some other matters of less consequence are my reasons why I cannot subscribe to that learned Doctor 's Solution of the Noachical Deluge and therefore must beg his leave to cast about and see if I can find a better elsewhere that I can more easily acquiesce in Dr. Woodward to whom the World is forever indebted for his curious and diligent Observations of Shells and Minerals and other subterraneous Phaenomenas has promised in his Essay a more natural Hypothesis but one of the Grounds which he designs to build his Theory upon does seem to me so precarious and impossible that I must see a great deal of good proof before I can assent to it For it does not appear to me how it is possible that the waters continuance a few months upon the face of the Earth should dissolve the Compages of the most rigid Fossils and suspend the particles of them all in the circumfused water except only conchous substances and that when the waters were withdrawn they should be let down to fix and be compacted again For if it was possible that water in so short a space could dissolve Marbles and Adamants yet methinks the same should more easily dissolve Oister-shells and Cockles which are of a more tenuous composition and more easy of Dissolution Mr. Whiston in his Theory has avoided most of the Difficulties which were chargeable upon the First and has given the World a Tast of the extraordinary Mathematical and Philological Learning he stands possest of The chief fault I find in him is that he has stuck more to Mr. Newton's than Moses his Philosophy and seems too too fond and credulous of his Ingenious Hypothesis of the Comet Nay the imputing this great Catastrophe to the necessary Laws of a Comets Trajection which the Scriptures tell us was sent by God for the Sin of Mankind seems to give too great a scope for the scoffs of Libertines and the Atheistical Fatality His Turning Days into Years and denying the Diurnal Revolution of the Earth at first is methinks a little too bold when it does not seem at all to favour his Hypothesis but only to give God six Years time to work in when the Infidels already grudge him so much at six days His fancying two Courses of Rain from the Scripture which only seems to repeat the Relation of one is not to me so satisfactory nor his Exclusion of Clouds and Mists which is agreeable indeed to the Burnettian Theory but I think not to his Neither can I conceive that the bare passing through the Tail or Atmosphere of a Comet could afford the thousand part of the Water that Theory has occasion for and he himself is forced to fetch a great part of it from the Abyss Nor is it credible that the Earth a cold Planet should go off with 750,000 Miles of the Comets Tail which could not be supported by the Comet it self but only by reason of the burning heat of the Body of it And it is a mistake I suppose to think that the round Circle about the Body of
of Water be of greater Gravity than the Crust of the Earth then the Mass of it will lie next to the thickest part of the Earth or where there is more Matter so that if the Earth be thicker about the Pole X or if there be any Internal solid there it will then lie round part of the Limbus of the Earth U T X Y and leave the Hollow at U Y. Fig. II. Now suppose the Diameter of the Earth or Terraqueous Globe to be as it is thereabouts 8000 Miles and the thickness of the Crust of the Earth a 32d part of this as the second Figure represents then the Crust will be 250 Miles thick which will be a solidity strong enough to contain the Internal Waters to resist the chapping from the Sun to keep a consistency in all the rapid motions of the Earth Or let it be an Eighth part as is represented Fig. I. and then the Earths Crust will be 500 Miles thick which to be sure is abundantly sufficient Now upon either of these two Suppositions there will be Water enough when drawn out upon the superficies of the Earth to drown the World to a far greater height than what Moses relates Now it is but supposing that God by a Miraculous power sucked out part of this Abyss through the Foramina or subterraneous passages which ly dispersed at Bottom of the Sea as suppose about the Point T of Fig. II. to the height of four or five Miles and then the highest Mountains will be laid under Water the Water diffusing it self both ways from h to k so that if it be in h four Miles high it will be at least three in k And then if after that the suspending force were taken off and the Water descended through the same Foramina and left the Earth dry as it was before you have Philologus at least a possible Account of the Deluge Phil. But truly Sir this Miraculous power sticks most in my Stomach That is so strangely Unphilosophical and such a subterfuge of dull Divines that methinks any Man of sense should be ashamed to make use of that shift Besides I am not very well reconciled to your Waters which you suppose to fill up the Hollow of the Earth Indeed those who allow a Central solid have somewhat more to say for themselves but your Hypothesis destroys the Laws of Specifick Gravity and makes the lighter Waters most unnaturally to ly below the Crust of the heavy Earth Cred. Let the supposition of a Miraculous Power in the Deluge be as Unphilosophical as you please I am sure it is more Unchristian and more Unreasonable to suppose that it came to pass by natural Causes For if it came to pass by natural Causes there must have been a Deluge whether the Antediluvian World had been so wicked or no and then the Preaching of Noah to them had been all collusion and God's Menaces before-hand had been inconsistent both with his Justice and Verity If they had repented upon Noah's Instructions they could not have escaped the Deluge which by this supposition depended upon necessary Causes and could not but have been Or to say that it was necessary both for the Antediluvians to be so perversly wicked and that the Deluge must likewise happen is to assert a Fatality of sinning is at the same time to destroy all Religion Free-Will and the Goodness of God 'T is therefore plain that the Deluge did not depend upon natural and necessary Causes but upon the just and providential Power of God which over-ruled the Power of Nature and might either bring the Deluge upon the World or withhold it according to his good Pleasure and Wisdom or as the Deserts of Mankind did require Neither is your Notion of specifick Gravity any Objection against our Supposition of an Abyss being included within the Crust of the Earth even without the Fancy of a Central Solid or Dense Fluid which some imagine For the notion of a Central Solid is but a Contrivance to keep in the Central Fire that some men fancy there which otherways would be quenched by the circumambient Waters But this Central Fire is only Cartesius his Conceit who by this means has contrived to turn burning Earths into Suns and incrustated Suns into Earth which is a Fancy the World now begins to be weary of And as for a dense Fluid that I take to be a more precarious Hypothesis and less to be relied upon than the other Neither can it be supposed that Nature must be confined to work in the Creation according to the Laws of specifick Gravity For according to this Rule the Sun which is the Centre of the Magnus Orbis must be the densest of all the Planetary System which though it be the biggest yet is the most thin and Refined See Mr. Newton's Princip Philos Math. Venus Mercury and the Moon though nigher to the Centre of the System are Denser than the Earth Neither is this rule observable in the Earth it self For several of the heaviest Fossils as Metals Marble and Stone lie often very high towards the surface of the Earth and other lighter Strata below them Nor is there any reason to think that God in the Creation wrought by such Laws of Gravity For without doubt he wrought either by his immediate Omnipotent Power or else by a subordinate Plastick Nature as he does in the Production of Animals and Vegetables since And here the Laws of specifick Gravity have little or nothing to do nay we see they are constantly superseded When the Fibres of a Tree thrust themselves upwards from the Centre and the Juices of it contrary to their own proper Tendency are drawn up so many foot from the Ground what become here of the Laws of specifick Gravity Is the body of any Animal composed after this manner If this were so there would be no such thing as Organical Parts which are composed so admirably for the Use and Beauty of the Animal If this were so a Man which is the most Beautiful would be the most clumsy Creature in the Creation His Bones must all lie towards his Feet his Flesh next to them his Blood and Spirits where his Head And then consider what a Monster of a Creature this specifick Gravity would make him Neither does it avail any thing to say that the Composition of an Animal does in some measure answer to the Laws of specifick Gravity because the heavy Bones which lie inmost are inclosed with the Flesh and Blood which are lighter But then pray consider that the Bones were not placed there by this Law but by the prudent direction of nature to support the pliable Flesh and to extend it to that just proportion which she designed But granting the supposition True yet the Marrow which is much lighter than the Bones is concluded within them the Bones being its superficial Crust in the same manner as we suppose the Earth to be to the Abyss Now why should not we suppose
that God used as much Wisdom and Contrivance in the Formation of the Body of the Earth as in that of an Animal Or why should specifick Gravity tye him up more in one than the other No doubt there was the same most admirable contrivance in the formation of the course Body of the Earth as in other finer and smaller contextures Only the Earth is a Body whose parts are so great as they cannot be distinctly view'd at the same Time and many of them hid from us and therefore we are apt to conclude that they are less elegant so we proceed to Philosophize upon it under this mistake and allow it only the rude contexture which might arise from the bare subsidency of Parts and the Laws of specifick Gravity But this is a grievous errour and we might with as much Philosophy pretend to give an account of the Organization of Animals by the same Laws For I doubt not but if we were let into the subterraneous World and could have a distinct view of Stones and Minerals the excellent Disposition and variegation of the several strata the wonderful Contrivances of subterraneous Currents by which one Sea is fed by another and all receive their Origin from the one great Fountain of the Abyss and to which they all pay their Tribute again to consider the spreading Veins of the lesser Springs which at first are distilled from the Rains and Mists by uniting together do form the greatest Rivers if we consider all this we cannot but allow that God formed the Earth with as much Wisdom and Contrivance as other parts of the Creation and that he might make it to be a Thick-shell surrounding the Abyss though contrary to the Laws of specifick Gravity if that did contribute to the good of the Whole and the Usefulness of Mankind as I think the Communication of the upper and lower Seas sufficiently does Phil. But still Credentius this unaccountable Miracle lies hard upon me especially when your Divines allow That God generally works by Second Causes even when he acts Miraculously and above the power of Nature by giving Nature as it were a power superior to it self And indeed in the present case it looks very odd that God should engage his Omnipotence to make the Water of the Abyss ascend contrary to its Nature or that his Inferiour Agents the Angels should be employ'd invisibly to pump up so much Water from thence as would drown the World Without doubt it would lie more easy upon Mens Minds if this great Catastrophe were accounted for in a more natural way in which the Laws of the Universe are not so forcibly opposed as in this supposition Cred. For my part it lies as easy upon my mind to think in general that God miraculously raised up the Water of the Abyss and sent such continual Spouts and Rains that in forty days time the whole World was drowned as if I was able to find out those immediate Causes he made use of in this dreadful Judgment For after all I must own it to be the Finger of God either making use of intermediate Causes or himself immediately producing the Effect If I am sure the Effect was miraculous what need I care where the divine power was first impressed whether immediately upon the effect it self or upon any of its pre-existing and necessary Causes I am sure by the divine Relation that God is in it either first or last and this is sufficient for my Conviction and I think the Holy Scripture is not so much obliged to gratify our Curiosity I doubt not but there are innumerable ways which God could have made use of to drown the World even by intermediate and natural Causes which the wisest Philosopher never dreamt of and if any of these ways are shewn to be possible then all the Arguments which would infer the Impossibility of the Deluge are at an End Now to comply with your curiosity for once I will endeavour to shew what second Causes God might possibly make use of in the deluging the World and by what means the Abyss was drawn up over the Face of the Earth Not that I am so vain to think that he did make use of these means but that if he did the effect would be so far from being impossible that it would upon that condition be necessary Now it is most generally among the best Philosophers agreed that the Moon is the Cause of the Tides and that the nigher she is to the Sea as at her time of Southing she raises the Water the higher by her Attraction of it towards her So that if by the supernatural power of God the Moon were brought very near to the Earth or the Earth to the Moon such a vast Tide would be raised upon supposition there is communication between the Abyss and the Upper Seas that the World would be drowned to the height which Moses assigns Now I fancy this might come to pass by the pure Acceleration of the Earth's Annual Motion For let C D A B represent the Annual motion of the Earth in the time of the Antediluvians Fig. IV. which is a perfect Circle in which it is probable all the Planets after their Creation at first revolved Let B represent the Earth and I the Moon revolving round the Earth in the Circle I p i l. Now when the Earth was in the Point I let us suppose its Annual motion to be accelerated so as to exceed the Exact Proportion there was formerly between the Attraction of the Sun H and the Celerity of the Earth and then the Earth instead of coming to the point B in the Circle C D A B will go off to the Point c and move in the Ellipsis E F D A. Now by this new Elliptical motion the Earth in the point c will be nigher to the Moon I by the distance B c than it was in the point B which would raise such a Prodigious Tide as would produce the Effect we contend for And then the Moon for a considerable time would revolve about the Earth at c in the Circle I m h instead of its ancient Orbit I p i l which will so long keep up the Tides over the whole face of the Earth as is described Fig. I. and II. But the Tides will decrease gradually as the Moon by her Menstrual Course shall have made more Perihelions for every time she comes nigher to the Sun the Sun will more and more conduce together with the resistance of her own Impressed Motion to draw her from her late contracted to her ancient and more enlarged Orbit So that a month or two after when the Earth in its Annual Course shall be in the Point F and the Moon be in her Perihelion Q she shall then have enlarged her Orbit to o Q â— greater than her contracted one w y z or m h I so that after five months the time of the Continuance of the Deluge when the Earth shall have come to
of the World esteeming them to be but corrupted streams of the ancient Revelation afforded to our first Father and as for those Texts of Scripture which you alledge they do by no means undervalue or cast any reflection upon God's Ritual Laws and Sacrifices But the design of them is to shew that Men should not place their Obedience only in the Ritual Parts of Religion whilst they neglect the more substantial Duties of Morality and this is a Truth which every honest Christian as well as you Deists thinks himself bound to believe Phil. I confess what you say does not altogether want some Probability But still methinks these vicarious Punishments seem but insignificant Trifles in matter of Religion because they do not make Men the better or the more innocent Indeed if these Expiations either in themselves or as they had relation to the Death of Christ did perfectly take away sins then there is something in what you said but they only leave the Man as they found him unless true repentance did make him better So that the Mediatorship without Repentance signifies nothing at all and Repentance where they know nothing of this Mediatorship must by all charitable Men be allow'd to be valid and therefore what need of the Mediatorship or satisfaction at all Repentance after sinning is all that Man can do or God can require 'T is true the Debt we owe to God Almighty by sinning is infinite and what then Oracles of Reason p. 207. If I owe a Million and can pay but a thousand pounds my Creditor can have but all 'T is true my Body is then subject to imprisonment that is to the further Extent of the Law but then that Law is void of Mercy So that when I have done my All that is repented what need is there of Expiation when God's Mercy will acquit me as having paid what I was able Cred. God's honour to be considered in the Mediatorship It is true that God's Mercy is that blessed Attribute to which the pardon of all our sins is owing and upon which the Mediatorship is founded This is that which gave life to the stipulation between Christ and the Father that He should dy for the sins of the whole World in which all sufficient Sacrifice all other Expiations received their Force and Energy And it 's likewise true that after Sin committed Repentance and Amendment is all we can do on our Parts But then further we Christians say that the Mediatorship must do something likewise on God's part as well as ours By Sin God's honour is violated and our Lives are forfeited now both these are to be remedied by the Efficacy of the Mediator Indeed Mercy for God to Pardon and Repentance for us to amend is all that is necessary for our security But then on the other side why must there be no satisfaction given for the injured honour of God God may be as merciful to the World as he pleases but still he must be just to his own Dignity for otherways he would devest himself of the Government of the World and leave impudent Sinners to Sin without controul And therefore we say that therein lies the admirable Wisdom of the Mediatorship that both Parties are thereby satisfied God has the security of his Honour and Man of his Salvation Phil. But Credentius this satisfaction as you call it in the Mediatorship is a Business which lies so cross in my Brains and is pregnant with such a number of Absurdities that I can never away with it And therefore you see that not only we but your Brother Christians the Socinians are so aware of the Grossness of this Doctrine that they are unanimously agreed upon it to explode it as giving Men such a barbarous notion of the Deity as is inconsistent with the Excellency of his Nature For satisfaction does suppose an angry revengeful Temper which desires to be glutted with the punishment of the offending Party which when that is brought about becomes tame good-natur'd and reconcileable But this is such a pitiful imbecillity even in humane nature as wise Men are ashamed of and therefore to attribute this to the infinite Purity and Wisdom of God is no less I think than the most daring Blasphemy But supposing there was such an Angry Vindictive Nature in the Deity yet methinks even then he should rather choose to take revenge upon every one for their own Demerits which would be agreeable to Justice and not make one Innocent Person viz. Jesus Christ who had no Sin as you suppose to suffer for the Sins of all other wicked Men and to lay the deserved Sufferings of so many outragious Offenders upon the back of the most pious and spotless Man that by your account ever came into the World But when we farther consider that this innocent Person is owned by you to be the Son of God and his only Son too and must nevertheless be Sacrificed to appease this Vindictive nature of God before he could be reconciled to the World this is such a horrid Representation of the Best of Beings as shocks human nature to consider and far outdoes all the stories of Scythian Sacrifices and Busiris his Altars And yet greater Monsters of Absurdities do appear when we consider That this suffering Person was the supreme God himself who by this Scheme is supposed to have took upon him all the Infirmities of an Human Body was hungry and thirsty and at last was crucified and died Now this does imply a sort of a Passibility in the Deity which of all Heterodoxies is the most gross and absurd Cred. I have not time now to enter with you into the nice disputes of the Socinian Controversy upon this Subject What is meant by satisfaction But however I do not see any thing in the general notion of Christ's satisfaction which does reflect at all upon the Goodness of the Divine Nature Indeed the word satisfaction is not found in Scripture but the whole substance of what the word imports is and this and all other words which are used to express any of the divine actions or nature must be used Metaphorically and not be taken in so strict a sense as when they are used properly and according to their original application Now the satisfaction which is here meant is not such a satisfaction as an angry Man requires but a Judicial or Forensical satisfaction which a Governour requires of an Offender upon the violation of his Laws Now whereas the whole Oeconomy of our Salvation is delivered in Scripture in Forensical Terms as when God is represented as a Judge Man as an Offender or Criminal God's word as the Law by which he is Condemned Death as the Punishment Christ as a Mediator and Surety his Death as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Price of Redemption now I think it not at all improper to call that which Christ did to free us from the obligation we were under to the Divine Justice
upon account of our Sins by the name of Satisfaction For this is no bloody revengeful satisfaction which impotent and passionate Minds are wont to call for but only such a just debt as ought to be pay'd to the Justice of God considered as the Governour of the World I am not insensible that some Calvinistical Writers have carried this matter a little too far by leaving no room at all for the Mercy of God to exert it self in this wonderful dispensation and making the divine Justice to require a satisfaction to be made by the same specifick Infinite Punishments which we had deserved in the Sufferings of our Saviour so as to think that no satisfaction could be unless Christ actually suffered upon the Cross all the Eternal Torments of the Damned intensivè as they speak though not extensivè so that our Saviour in his Agony and Crucifixion must suffer Torments as much infinitely greater than Damned Souls as their Eternity of Suffering is longer than the hours of our Saviour's Passion But this has no foundation in Scripture and seems horrid to Christian Ears It is enough to say That the Mercy of God disposed him to accept of the Temporal Sufferings of Christ for our Sins in lieu of the Eternal punishments which we had deserved And so the infinite dignity of the person suffering was a sufficient satisfaction to the Divine Justice offended and unspeakable mercy was shewn to offending Mankind by being free from that punishment which otherways they must have undergone themselves So that Infidel and Socinian scoffers do very ill to arraign the Mercy of God and to tax him with Revenge and Implacability in demanding such a Legal satisfaction for by the same Rules they might expose all the Legislative Authority in the World when Criminals suffer by their sanctions For there is no other way to maintain the Lâ—gislatours honour and to engage Men to observe his Laws but by inflicting an Exemplary punishment on offenders for otherways their Laws would be but Cobwebs and their Authority the May-game of Licencious Transgressours But in this vicarious punishment of Christ for us God is far from shewing himself an Angry or Implacable Governour but does rather manifest the greatest Tenderness and Compassion in being willing that all the World should escape their deserved punishment and Christ only suffer for them all and in accepting the Temporal Pains of his Cross for those of Eternal Death which they had deserved AVicarious punishment not unjust Gen. 9.25 2 Sam. 21.8 2 Sam. 24.15 Jos 7.14 1 King 21.29 2. Neither is it unjust that Christ should undergo a vicarious punishment for us For that vicarious punishments are not in themselves absolutely unjust may be proved not only from Scripture Instances where Children are punished for their Parents and Subjects for their Princes but by the notion which the most civilized Nations have always had of the lawfulness of punishing sureties for the Parties they were engaged for by their denying the publick honours to the Children of notorious Offenders by Decimations in their Armies and by killing the innocent Hostages when the Articles were not performed Now if the Greeks and Romans who of all other Nations pretend to the exactest Rules of the aequum bonumque could see no obliquity in these vicarious punishments there is certainly a far less pretence of injustice to be laid to God's charge in ordering Christ to suffer for the Sins of the World Now it is impossible here that there should be any injustice or injury Here was no injustice done to Christ for he was pleased voluntarily to lay down his Life for us Neither was it any injustice done to God for God Authorized him to do it by a mutual stipulation betwixt the Father and the Son And our Saviour says expresly Joh. 10.18 I have Power or Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay down my Life So that there is no more injustice committed in our Saviour's laying down his Life in a voluntary Suffering for us than there is in his laying it down according to Socinus his Notion for a Testimony of his Doctrine And I am sure I could prove it as equally unjust for God to put him upon preaching a Doctrine that would cost him his Life as to let him lay down his Life to save a World 3. Christ tho' God might suffer And as for your Tragical Exclamations against the Orthodox Doctrines which makes the Eternal Son of God who is himself God blessed for ever to be incarnate and to suffer for the Sins of the World this does by no means render the Deity passible a Notion which all Christians abhor But by reason of the Union of the Deity with Flesh or Humanity which was Patible Christ was then in a possibility of suffering and those sufferings which were proper only to one Nature are attributed to the whole person by reason of the intimate Union of the two Natures Nay the Scripture it self attributes the properties of the inferiour Nature viz. the Humanity to the Divinity the superior one As when it is said that we are redeemed by the blood of God we must not think as if God could bleed or die but that That Person who was both God and Man who by vertue of his Humanity was capable of suffering laid down his Life for us to redeem us Now here is nothing in this of Absurdity but only adorable mystery and admirable Wisdom which the Thoughts of Man could never have reached to and no human Counsel could ever have contrived To find out such a way to save the Souls of Lost Mankind and to secure God's honour and the Authority of his Laws Phil. I have one thing more to objects to you upon this head and that is the Christian Doctrine which you teach about Christ's Intercession and that is so odd and gross a notion as no rational Man can assent to For you make Christ continually at his Prayers in Heaven to God the Father to pardon the Sins of Mankind upon their Repentance and to bestow his Benefits upon them which God in his own nature is inclined to do without this bustle of Intercession Besides it looks like a piece of Pageantry as your Doctors explain it to have Christ continually exhibiting the wounds of his Crucified Body to the Father to move him to compassion and to put him in mind of the Sacrifice he was made for Mans Sins which it is impossible that an Omnipotent Knowledge could be unmindful of Methinks this looks like a Piece of Homerick Divinity when the Poet describes Heaven acording to all the formalities and sillinesses which are seen in human nature Cred. There is nothing in the Christian Doctrine of Intercession but what is agreeable to good sense and reason No Incongruity in the Dostrine of Christ's Intercession and all expressions which do seem to imply any such grossness in them as you imagine must only be understood Figuratively To what state of Bliss the Glorified Body of our Blessed Saviour is exalted whilst we poor Christians live in this Vale of Misery and Tears we are not able to imagine or with what divine actions his humanity is employ'd All that we can be certain of is what the Scripture tells us that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 that he is said to intercede for us at the right hand of God Rom. 8.34 that he is entered into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 that he is a Priest continually and his blood speaks better things than that of Abel that he offers his own Sacrifice for sin for ever Heb. 9.25 and the like Now there is no need to assert that all these Expressions are taken literally when it is plain that many of them are Metaphors taken from the Levitical Law from the Piacular Sacrifices from the Intercession of the High-Priest foâ— the People from his entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum c. Now St. Paâ— makes use of these ritual Phrases the better to explain to the Jewish Converts thâ— Nature and Efficacy of Christ's Death from those outward Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law which they were well acquainted with And I doubt not but the Unbelievers themselves do think these Expressions are Metaphorical but only they have a mind to be picking up something to be flinging at Religion though they are at the same time sure 〈◊〉 will do no harm Phil. Pardon me Sir for tâ—is and I will not at present trouble you with any more Infidel Objections and fâ—â— the rest of the Time that you will honour me with your Company I will endeavour to entertain you with more inoffensive Discourse Though I caâ— not but acknowledge that I wish I waâ— fully perswaded of the Truth of youâ— Religion which seems indeed upo further consideration to be a Rational Institution and well laid together which lays down the Laws of Morality more exactly and fully than the ordinary Reason of Mankind which gives an account of the grand Periods and Revoluâ—ions of the World and God's Providential Dispensations beyond common â—hilosophy and the light of Nature and 〈◊〉 I could get rid of some other doubts which I beg you will at your leasure satisfy then I hope you will make a thorough Convert of me THE END NOta Bene That the Internal Solid which is engraved in the Plate Fig. 〈◊〉 and is supposed to move round the â—orthern part of the Globe in a Circum-Polar Line does not belong to the present Hypothesis but is a supposition â—hereby in Time may possibly be â—ade out two great Difficulties in Natural Philosophy viz. The Cause of the direction and alteration of the Magnet â—nd the Constant Parallelism of the Earths â—xis to the Poles of the World