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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28444	The oracles of reason ... in several letters to Mr. Hobbs and other persons of eminent quality and learning / by Char. Blount, Esq., Mr. Gildon and others.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715. Archaeology philosophicae.; Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; H. B.	1693 (1693)	Wing B3312; ESTC R15706	107,891	254

especially the Eastern Part of it that the Followers of the Nicene Council were not equal to them either in Number Splendor Interest or Riches If you will believe the learned Petavius and others they did offer to be try'd by the Fathers that preceded the Nicene Council For at that Council they were rather condemn'd by a Party than by the general Consent of the Christian Church because Constantine out of above Two thousand Bishops then assembled excluded all but Three hundred and eighteen nor were those perhaps for Accounts vary all Bishops that made up this great Council They were all of a Judgment at first and so rather Parties than Judges the Arrians had not the Freedom to dispute their Cause And the Emperor Constantine was afterwards so ill satisfied with their proscription that he soon recalled Arrius and a little before his Death was baptized by an Arrian Bishop Constantius and Valens were professed Arrians and not to mention the Gots Valentinian Theodosius and other Emperors protected and honoured them both with civil and military Commands The Arrian Doctrin was not only confirmed by Eight Councils several times assembled at Tyre Sardis Syrmium Milain Selucia Nice Tarsis and particularly at Ariminum where six hundred Bishops were of their Opinion with only three which held the contrary but they also punished others their Adversaries who were of a contrary Opinion to them with Confiscations Banishments and other grievous Punishments Now whether the Power of their Party the Riches of their Churches the Magnificence of their Worship as the first that brought Music into the Church or the same of their Learning and pretensions to Reason which is always an inviduous Plea did raise Jealousie and Hatred in the Emperors against them as also rendred them odious to the Trinitarians or what most contributed to their first Depression and Persecution I know not Since to persecute for Religion was by the Trinitarians Athanasi●s Hillary and others then accounted an Arrian and unchristian Tenet It is not to be doubted but that after the days of Theodosius Reason of State did most prevail towards their Subversion left they should joyn with the Goths who at that time possessed of Italy Spain Afric and other Provinces were formidable to the Bizantine Empire Notwithstanding whatsoever it was 't is easie to comprehend that the Depression of them did facilitate the Conquest of the Goths and if you will credit Salvian the Goths were very pious in their Way mild to the Conquer'd just in their Dealings so that the Wickedness of the Christian Rulers of Provinces their Exactions upon the People and Insolence of the Foreign Souldiers whereby they ruled made even the Trinitarians themselves willingly submit to their Dominion and prefer it before that of the Eastern Emperors As for the Trinitarians of those Times I must confess I cannot but esteem them as Enemies to all human Learning for they had Cannons forbidding them to read any Ethic Books and a Zeal which disposed them to destroy all they met with of that kind Thus we may well suppose them universally ignorant except some few and as the Pastors so were the People Their Religion also consisted rather in an out-side Service than inward Piety and Knowledge their Faith was in a manner implicit the Mysteries of Religion for such I call the Doctrin of the Trinity and its Dependencies were scarce ever mentioned to them in Sermons much less explicated Hence the Vulgar became prone to Embrace Superstition and credit Miracles how ridiculous and fabulous soever Visions Allegories and Allusions to Texts were convincing Arguments and no Demonstration like to a feigned Story and Legend or what might be Interpreted a Judgment upon an Heretic Amongst the Trinitarians were a sort of People who followed the Court Religion and believed as their Prince ordained living then unconfined by the Dictates of the then declining Church And though the Trinitarians had resolv'd upon and subscrib'd to the Nicene Council and embraced those Forms of Speech which are now in use yet did they not understand what was meant by them The Latin Church allow'd of Three Persons and not of three Hypostases the Greek Church allow'd of three Hypostases and not of three Persons As difficult was it for them to Explicate Vsia or Essence which hard words produc'd a subdivision amongst them consisting of Nestorians and Eutychians The Nestorians believing the Deity of Christ held that he was made up of two distinct Persons and so perfect God and perfect Man The Eutychians averr'd that Christ had but one Nature and that upon the Hypostatical Union the Deity and Humanity were so blended together by Confusion of Properties and Substances that one Person endued with one Will did emerge thence Now these two Sects were of great Power in the Eastern Church and though they were both condemn'd in the third and fourth General Councils yet did they spread far and near through Palestine Aegypt the Kingdom of Abyssines and all Persia over Each of them had their Patriarchs Bishops and Churches contradistinct from the Melchites who adhering and subscribing to the Council of Chalcedon which all the Imperial Clergy did were called Melchites that is to say Men of the King's Religion The Authors of the Nestorian and Eutychian Sects were Learned and Potent Bishops Eutychius was Patriarch of Constantinople and with him joyn'd Dioscorius Patriarch of Alexandria Severus Patriarch of Antioch and Iacobus Baradaeus from whom the Iacobites are at this day denominated Nestorius was also Patriarch of Constantinople and his Sect very much diffused The Truth is such were the Ignorance of the People and Debaucheries of the Ages at this time that if a Man did but live a pious strict Life with great Mortification or outward Devotion and were but an Eloquent Preacher he might in any place of the Eastern Empire have made a Potent Sect instantly And to shew how ignorant the Clergy were at the General Council of Chalcedon in the time of Marcianus the Emperor we find that the Greek Tongue was then so little understood at Rome and the Latin in Greece that the Bishops of both Countries in all 630. were glad to speak by Interpreters Nay in this very Council of Chalcedon the Emperor was fain to deliver the same Speech in Greek to one Party and in Latin to the other that so both might understand him The Council of Ierusalem for the same Reason made certain Creeds both in Greek and Latin At the Council of Ephesus the Pope's Legates had their Interpreter to Expound the Words and when Caelestine's Letters were there read the Acts tell us how the Bishops desired to have them Translated into Greek and read over again insomuch that the Romish Legates had almost made a Controversie of it fearing least the Papal Authority should have been prejudiced by such an Act alledging therefore how it was the ancient Custom to propose the Bulls of the Sea Apostolic in Latin only and that that might now suffice

THE ORACLES OF REASON Consisting of 1. A Vindication of Dr. Burnet's Archiologiae 2. The Seventh and Eighth Chapters of the same 3. Of Moses's Description of the Original state of Man c. 4. Dr. Burnet's Appendix of the Brachmins Religion 5. An Account of the Deist's Religion 6. Of the Immortality of the Soul 7. Concerning the Arrians Trinitarians and Councils 8. That Felicity consists in Pleasure 9. Of Fate and Fortune 10. Of the Original of the Iews 11. The Lawfulness of Marrying two Sisters Successively 12. A Political Account of the Subversion of Iewdaism and Original of the Millenium 13. Of the Auguries of the Ancients 14. Natural Religion as oppos'd to divine Revelation 15. That the Soul is Matter 16. That the World is Eternal c. In several Letters to Mr. Hobbs and other Persons of Eminent Quality and Learning By Char. Blount Esq Mr. Gildon and Others LONDON Printed 1693. THE PREFACE NAture or that Sacred and Supream CAUSE of all Things which we term GOD has furnished his Creatures with such Guides as may best Conduct them to the several Ends of their Beings To the Birds Beasts and other Animals which we generally hold Inferior to Mankind he gave INSTINCT as sufficient to direct them to all that is necessary for them We may well therefore excuse them if by that Guide they go not beyond a present Care of their Subsistence and Continuation all which reaches not beyond the Body because we can discover no other End of their Being except what human Luxury has found out in their Destruction but to Support that Being by Food and to Preserve it by Propagation and to this Instinct is sufficient But in Man we at least discover a farther and nobler End Nature therefore must have given him another and a more sufficient Guide For the Mind of Man the Chief Ingredient of his Composition is not bounded by present Objects in which Instinct alone would serve Futurity has always a share in its Thoughts and its Faculties will be employ'd with a Care of those Things that are to come from whence it may derive not only Advantage Interest and Ease for the Body but also Improvement Happiness and Tranquility for its self But the things from which the Mind must gather and of which Compose all these are so vast in Number and so Various and Obscure in their Natures that without the Help of a very good Guide it may make a Collection of Poisons instead of Medicines and reap its Destruction not Satisfaction But the Omnipotent CAUSE that had so well furnished Bruits left not the Mind of Man without its Director in this Maze and Lottery of Things he gave it Reason as its sovereign Rule and Touchstone to examin them by and to fit our Choice to our double Advantage of Body and Mind Reason is the Light that brings Day to those Things that will contribute to or oppose our Happiness without which we should in vain grope in the Dark and we should owe entirely to Chance what we obtain'd 'T is true Reason is not sufficient to bring us to a perfect Knowledge of all Things but 't is able to furnish us with enough to make us happy and that is as much as we need care for There is no necessity of our Skill in the inmost Nature of Things but there is since we are ordain'd to an eternity of Continuance that we should know how to make Eternity Happy since its Being so depends on our selves and since such a Knowledge is absolutely necessary I can discover nothing that can give it us but our sovereign Guide Reason REASON therefore being the Supream and Primitive Director of e'ery Man to infringe its Liberty of directing is to invade the common Charter of Nature and every Man's Right and Property so that those that do so are justly to be look'd on as the Enemies of Human-kind But how that Character agrees with the Fiery Glory of the Zealots for Religion I cannot comprehend unless they can demonstrate That Religion and Nature are directly Opposites I am not ignorant that they pretend their Severity against Heterodox Books that is all that deviate from their Opinions is the Eff●ct of their Zeal for the Good of Mankind But then they ca●not deny but that they make themselves the Iudges of that Good and so make their Opinion the Standard which is too particular for what they would have of so universal Extent and will afford us no Refuge if they should lead us into an Error which we may hereafter find unless they deny that they can ●e deceived and if they should do so then may their Universal imaginary Good prove a Real and Universal Evil. If they would have us believe that they hold every Man must be saved by his own not anothers Faith they must grant every one the Liberty of believing and professing what his own Reason shall direct him and that 't is a Crime to oppose this Liberty I mean by indirect Means for I shall never quarrel at Reason if they can produce any I must tell these Fiery Bigots that their Practice and Doctrin being so Contradictory gives a more effectual Blow at Religion than all the Attempts of professed Atheists for when these clash they give too great Grounds to suspect a trick in the whole And when so essential a Birthright of each Man is invaded it must improve those Suspicions very much and cause a narrower Enquiry into Things that might otherwise pass unregarded We should not have so great cause to resent this Severity if we might say of Religion and Eternity as Pliny said of Providence Ridiculum est agere curam rerum humanarum Quicquid est Summum sed credi usui est Vitae That 't was meerly a political Trick for the Convenience of Government and human Life Then indeed it would be something pardonable in these Gentlemen that Patronize the Fire and Faggot so vehemently to strive with so much Ardor for the reducing all to their own Fancy Then the Prophanation would not be great of making what they really believ'd a Chymaera serve a Turn and complement a Faction or any Interest I will easily excuse the ancient Founders of Paganism for having recourse to Stratagems to reduce Mens Reason to particular Opinions because they made use of them only to form Greatness to themselves by imposing on the Predominant Frailties of the Vulgar Sort in a thing they judg'd of no more Concern than a temporal Convenience 'T was no ill Policy in them when they perceiv'd the Generality of Mankind would easily submit their Reason to every appearance of a Wonder to fish for their Profit and Glory with so eas●e a Bait. Alexander the false Prophet mentioned by Lucian found it turn to his Advantage in gaining him so great an Interest in the People And from this Topic Philostrates magnifies Apollonius These in short every new God and Prophet among them was to have as Credentials of his Divinity and