prodigiously Cruel which plainly demonstrates how unfit he was to lay claim to the Prophetic Priviledge and Dignity If we consult the Doctrine of the Alcoran we have all the Evidence that the Reason of Man can desire that it neither did nor cou'd proceed from God It is true there are some things in it stolen from the Scripture but even those are so perversly related and so wretchedly corrupted with Fables that they lose the very similitude of Truth through the villainous management of them Persons are so misnam'd Times are so mistaken the whole so interlarded with Contradictions and disguised with Absurdities that we must needs say the Contriver had a bad Memory and a worse Understanding In a word the whole Alcoran is nothing but a Cento of Heathenism Judaism and Christianity all miserably corrupted and as wildly blended together The Doctrines of it are for the most part either impossible blasphemous or absurd The Rewards promised to the Embracers of it are impure and foolish The whole was at first invented out of Pride and Ambition propagated by Violence and Rapine and is still maintain'd in the ways it was establisht Profound Ignorance Sensual Baits and force of Arms gave it its first Promotion and do still maintain its Credit in the World Thus the meanest Reason if duly exercised is able manifestly to disprove the Divinity of the Alcoran This Business of Revelation has been of late so curiously handled by the B of C that I can do no less then recommend to you a perusal of those his Excellent Discourses at Mr. Boyle's Lecture where I am ready to believe you will find but little wanting to a Demonstration of the Necessity of Reveal'd Religion of a possibility for the Almighty to reveal his Will and lastly not only the Probability but the Certainty that he has reveal'd his Will to Mankind and that this Revelation is the same which is contained in the two Testaments For the â—leing all which Truths viz. the Possibility Expedience Usefulness Necessity and the Certainty of Divine Revelation he has offer'd such Evidence Rational Natural Traditionary and Supernatural as may suffice for the Conviction of the unprejudic'd Infidel and will be found too strong to be made void or overthrown by the subtilest of the Hellish Tribe Our Belief of the Scriptures being a Divine Revelation does indeâ—d suppose the Existence of a God and therefore our Knowledge of his Being must precede our Faith of the Divine Authority of the Bible I grant the Scriptures may be brought not only to such as own their Truth but even to Infidels as a proof of a Deity but then it must not be upon the score of their naked Testimony but on the account of their being of such a Frame Nature and Quality that they can proceed from no other Author and thus may we arrive by the Scripture at an assurance of God's Existence as we do at the Knowledge of a Cause by its Effect But so far as we assent to any thing upon the credit of the Scriptures meer testification we are necessitated to presuppose the Existence of a God it bring only on the account of his Veracity in himself and that the Bible is a Divine Revelation that we do without the least guilt of vain Credulity because upon the highest Reason implicitly believe it Again Those who owe their Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God to meer Report to Principles of Education the Felicity of their Birth or the Clime where they were born receive the Scripture upon no better Motives than the Turks do their Alcoran If pretended Inspiration may pass for the Demonstration of the Truth of what every bold Pretender will obtrude upon us we must expose our selves not only to the belief of every groundless Imagination but of innumerable Contradictions for not only the grossest Follies but Doctrines palpably repugnant both to Reason and one another have been deliver'd by Enthusiasts and pretended Inspirato's I grant that the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Souls and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures is the most convincing Evidence that such Persons can have of its Divinity But 1. the Holy Ghost convinceth no Man as to the belief of the Scripture without enlightning him in the Ground and Reasons upon which its proceeding from God is evidenc'd and establishâ— There is no Conviction begot by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Men otherways than by Rational Evidence satisfying our Understandings through a Discovery of the Motives and Inducements that ascertain the Truth of what he wou'd convince us of 2. No Man's particular assurance obtain'd thus in way of Illumination by the Holy Ghost is to be otherwise urged as an Argument of Conviction to another than by proposing the Reasons on which our Faith is erected The way of such Mens Evidence is communicable to none unless they cou'd kindle the same Rays in the Breasts of others which have irradiated their own and therefore they must deal with others by producing the Grounds of their Conviction not pleading the Manner of it for that another is convinced and perswaded by them depends wholly on the weight and momentousness of the Reasons themselves not on the manner that such a Person came to discover them for shou'd he have arrived at the discerning them by any other means they had been of the same significancy to the Conviction of an Adversary 3. The Holy Ghost as a distinct Person in the Deity is not a Principle demonstrable by Reason seeing then it is by the Scripture alone that we are assured of the Existence of the Divine Spirit as a distinct Person in the Godhead therefore his testimony in the Hearts and Consciences of Men to the Scripture cannot be allow'd as a previous Evidence of its Divinity To prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost when we cannot otherwise prove that there is a Holy Ghost but by the Testimony of the Scâ—ipture is to argue circularly and absurdly So that in short when we have to do with such as either question or deny the Authority of the Scripture we are to prove it by Ratiocination from common Principles receiv'd amongst Mankind and by Topicks that lye even and proportionate to Intellectual Natures Our Reason is here justly to be magnify'd as highly subservient to Religion in that it can demonstrate the Divine Authority of the Scripture upon which our Faith as to all particular Articles and Duties of Religion is grounded This I say our Reason can do to the Conviction of all who are not wilfully obstinate and for such there is no means either sufficient or intended by the Almighty to satisfie them For it is certain that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings partly through the Nature Quality Extent and Arduousness of Objects and our inadaequate Conceptions of them partly through Prepossessions Prejudices and the Bias of Lusts and Passions
required to comprehend them whatever God hath said is to be assented to tho' we cannot frame adequate Notions of the Thing it self nor understand the Manner how it should be 'T is as much against Reason as Faith to think to fathom the Perfections Councils and Works of God seeing Reason acknowledgeth him to be infinite and it self finite 2. If we will pretend to Reason in Religion we are to believe whatever God hath said to be true this being the greatest Reason that He who is Truth it self cannot lye there is nothing more consonant to the transcendency of so high a Nature as that of God than that it be acknowledg'd Incomprehensible nor is there any thing more agreeable to his infinite Wisdom than that his Designs and Contrivances shou'd be held past finding out 'T is as well irrational as unjust to think that Man shou'd penetrate those Depths and Abysms which the Angels desire only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into as vailed and hidden from sight But on the other hand tho' there are many things contained in Holy Scripture which are above our Reason yet most certainly there is nothing therein which is contradictory thereunto To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's repugnant to right Reason is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance or rather as the Invention of distracted Men and withal to open a Door for filling the World with Figments and Lyes under the Palliation of Divine Mysteries We cannot gratifie the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them that the prime Articles of our Belief imply a Contradiction to our Faculties In a word this Hypothesis were it receiv'd wou'd make us renounce Man and espouse Brute in Matters of the chiefest and greatest Concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower Species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible And when Men have filled Religion with Opinions contrary to common Sence and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such an one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the Evidence and Principles of both Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under the pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common Sence and did violence to the universal uniform and perpetual Light of Mankind Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil others of them having establisht two several Gods one Good another Bad others having affirmed the Soul to be a Particle of the Divine Substance not to mention a thousand Falsities more all these they defended against the Assaults of the Orthodox by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be hearken'd to Thus do others to this day who being resolv'd to obtrude their Phansies upon the World and unable to prove or defend what they say pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorems nor can I assign a better reason for the Antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy than that it overthrows the Follies and Absurdities of their Religion this themselves confess by devoting Almansor to the Vengeance of Heaven because he hath weakened the Faith of Mussel-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them In brief Tho' we make not Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine yet we may safely allow it a Negative Voice we place it not in the Chair in Councils but only permit it to keep the Door to hinder the Entry of Contradictions and irrational Fansies disguis'd under the name of Sacred Mysteries And it is necessary also to be remarkt that when we say there is nothing in Religion which is truly repugnant to Principles of Reason we do not by Principles of Reason understand all that this or that sort of Men vote or receive for such The Universal Reason of Mankind is of great moment but mistaken Philosophy and false Notions of Things which this or that Man admits for Theorems of Reason are of very small importance Men being misled by their Senses Affections Interests and Imaginations do many times mingle Errors and false Conceipts with the genuine Dictates of their Minds and then appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason when they are indeed nothing else but the vain Images of our Phansies and the Conclusion of Ignorance and Mistakes So that in reading the Holy Scriptures it highly concerns us to be very careful that the proper and original Sence of the Words be not neglected there have been those and yet are who will hardly allow any Text of Scripture a proper Sence but do every where obtrude an Allegoric meaning as if that alone were intended by the Holy Ghost and nothing else but such kind of Expositors do in effect little less than undermine the whole Scripture betray Religion and turn the Sacred Oracles into Burlesque Nor is there any Notion so Romantic which the Scripture by a luxuriant Phansie may not at this rate be wrested and debauched to give countenance to yea a very small measure of Wit will serve to pervert the plainest Scripture Testimony to quite another Sence than ever was intended by the Writer of them An Instance of this we have in those who by turning the whole Scripture into Allusions have wrested the Revelations of the Word to justifie their own wild Phantasms and framed the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own private Notions and thereby evacuated the Sublimest Doctrines and most glorious Actions into empty Metaphors and vain Similitudes thus the Person of Christ is allegorised into themselves and the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour are construed after the manner of Aesop's or Phylostratus's Fables into useful Morals as if these were intended only to declare what is to be done in us by way of Allusion But leaving these and supposing only for the present that there has been a Supernatural or Divine Revelation of the Almighties Will to Mankind which every Moral Man will find his interest to believe and imbrace if it were upon no other account than the Extraordinary Advantage it affords us towards the securing both a Temporal and Eternal Felicity by those Excellent Precepts it contains above what is discoverable in Natural Religion Supposing this I say 't is reasonable for us to think that there can be nothing in this admirable System essential to a Saving Faith or fundamentally necessary to our future Welfare but what is as intelligible as legible to every Reasonable Creature Most certainly the Essentials of Religion consist not in any intricate or perplexing Theory's but in the Practise of our Duties The Lord hath shewed thee O Man saith the Prophet what is good and what doth he require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Again saith another of them Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in Affliction and to keep
2. That there is no need of any farther Revelation And lâ—stly That the said Book shuts up all Revelation with it self so that none other is to be expected beyond it I grant saith he that it is as possible in it self for God to reveal himself at some time hereafter as it was for him to have revealed himself heretofore but he that will assert the Futurity of this must have more to prove it than a Possibility It is certain that God has revealed himself and that the Gospel was by Revelation from him but there is nothing of the like Certainty for a Revelation after the Gospel or in after times of the Gospel as there is that the Gospel it self was of Divine Revelation so that altho' I am not positive but that there may be some particular Revelation or Inspiration with respect to some especial Case yet it may arise for ought we know from bare Imagination and if not attended with the greatest Caution and Circumspection may end in the Whims and Frensies of a Bridget a Catharina or a Mother Juliana and what not nay it may proceed to the disanulling the Gospel it self and to the preferring their own private Inspirations as they will have it above it If we consider the Evidence which was given to the Gospel Revelation we shall find there needs on other Evidence to be given to that Revelation for want of Evidence in this Our Saviourâ—s Life was a Life of Miracles as well as Innocence and wherever he wâ—â—â— the Divine Power went along with him which he extended â—herever he came and as occasion served to the Confusion if not the Conviction or Conversion of his Adversaries and all which at last concluded in his own Resurrection his Ascension into Heaven and the Effusion of the Holy Ghost which began on Pentecost but like a Torrent ran through the Apostolical Age and bore down all manner of Competition and what then can any Revelation pretend to beyond it or where can there be any that can be supposed to produce the like Evidence for its Veracity But again The Scriptures conclude all with this Revelation and because we have none other besides that written Revelation we cannot suppose any Revelation beyond it and much less derogatory to it or that shall direct us to any other way by which we are to be saved then that we have already received and is therein recorded As to the Case of Personal and Occasional Revelation which may be conceived only to serve to a more spiritual Manifestation of the Revelation already made I wou'd not altogether deny this because I know not how far some Persons may in some Cases be inlightened by a Spirit of Prophecy nor what particular directions they may receive in an extraordinary way in some special Cases with respect to themselves to others and to the Church of God which may be like a special Providence to some particular Persons but now as a Man must govern himself by the general Rules of Divine Providence and not by particular and because he has sometimes met with Deliverances Supplies and Directions beyond all his own foresight and reasoning must not forsake his own Reasonings and Care and wholly rely upon the Extraordinary so it is to be here 'T is not impossible but a Person may have some occasional Revelation some Divine Inspiration at an especial Season or in some special case but if he forsakes the ordinary to depend upon the extraordinary expects a Revelation in every case because he has had it in some Particulars he will as much be subject to Errour and err no less dangerously than if he wholly rely'd upon Divine Providence and forsook all other means whatever and truly this is a way much liable to be abus'd to mislead Persons and is very suspicious as also dangerous It is a Case liable to Imposture and Abuse forasmuch as those that are under the Influence of such a conception are not always if at all capable of making a certain Judgment of it for it is all transacted within and the Imagination may be so much influenc'd by the Body and by an Agitation of the Blood and Spirits from an Enthusiastical and even Devout Temper by prepossessions and fore-conceived Principles and by the Circumstances of Life that it may be wholly Natural as natural as Dreams or the Deliriums of a Fever which proceed from an Ebullition of the Humours and such like ordinary Causes It is very certain that abundance of Persons have been imposed on and taken the Effect of Imagination for Inspiration and Divine Illumination I am far from condemning all the Instances of this kind of Hypocrisie and a Design to Deceive like Maria Vesitationis in Portugal I will rather think more charitably that very often they have thought themselves thus moved and acted by the Spirit of God and yet notwithstanding all their pretences and the opinion others have had of them it has been afterwards evident that all has been far short of Divine Infusion or Illumination What shall we think of Teresa whose Life is full of her Visions and Revelations and indeed if we did but alter the place and for the Nunnery conceive her to be in an Hospital we might take it to be what the Author in a transport sometimes calls it a Frenzy What a Legend of Dreams wou'd the World be furnisht with if the Visions and Revelations of these kind of People were bundled up together as the Miracles of reputed Saints have sometimes been But they are truly much to be suspected also of Imposture and that because we read so little of this way in Scripture even in the Apostles times and nothing to encourage us in the expectation of it afterwards We read nothing there of the Union of the Soul to the Divine Essence of its being absorpt and drown'd over head and ears and ingulphed in the depth of Divinity so that it became one and the same with God by a true Deification We read there sparingly of some Extasies as one of St. Peter one or two of St. Paul but with how much reserve doth the holy Apostle speak and with how much modesty when he comes to Visions and Revelations of the Lord when he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a Man to utter 2 Cor. 12.1 c. Now what can be greater if these of Teresa be true and where might we expect to be more entertained with the Relation of such Rapâ—s than in the Gospel so that when they are there so unusual and here so frequent that even Societies are embody'd from them and formed it is very much to be suspected and the rather seeing that which is the proper means of judging and of distinguishing Imagination from Revelation is laid aside which is Reason and when all is resolved into the Persons single Testimony We are required in all Cases to search and try which doth suppose the free Exercise of our Reason and where this
Flesh can hinder Men from the performance of what God in subserviency to his communicating of Grace at least in his ordinary dispensing of it doth require so the being in the Exercise of those Means and in the Discharge of those Duties which God prescribes and enjoyns doth not only take us from and prevent those Sins which would render our Conversion difficult if not impossible but they are further useful as Means appointed and blessed of God unto such an end Tho' our Obedience hath neither any Physical Efficiency upon our Regeneration nor is Grace bestow'd in the Consideration of any previous Merit that is in our Performances yet it is neither superfluous nor vain much less doth it lye in any repugnancy to our Conversion being only perfected by an effectual subjective Work of the Spirit of God This Doctrine is not only opposed by Pelagius and Socinus but of late by Mr. Hobbs whom we may very well allow to combate the Grace of God having before-hand listed himself in opposition to the Divine Being Now having lost the Divine Image and our Integrity by the Fall we not only contend that there is the Efficacy of an External Agent necessary for the recovering it and that he who imprinted the Image of God upon Humane Nature in the first Creation of Man must again restore it in his Regeneration but we affirm withal that till the Sanctifying Spirit effectually infallibly and by an unresisted Operation transforms us into the Divine Nature and communicates to us a Vital Seed we remain polluted unholy and uncapable of doing any thing with all that duness of Circumstances as may commend us or our Performances to God's Acceptance Not but that antecedently to the Holy Ghost's renewing us by a Communication of Grace to us we may both dogmatically believe the Doctrines of the Scripture and be found in the discharge of the Material Parts not only of Natural Duties but of the Acts of Instituted Religion but to say that we ought thereupon to be denominated Holy is to remonstrate to the Scriptures in a thousand places and to overthrow the very Tenor and design of the Gospel While we remain thus unholy we are so far from being actually united unto Christ or capable Subjects of Justification or Forgiveness that till we are actually made Partakers of the Washing of Regeneration and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost we cannot possibly have any Union with Him or a Right to Pardon of Sin or any thing that ensues or depends thereupon by him There is nothing hath at least ought to have the true denomination of Holiness but what proceeds from the Spirit of Christ in us and Principles of Grace by Infusion communicated to us which are the Foundation Matter and Bond of our Union with Him and under whatever Gloss or Varnish we or our Works appear to the World yet without such a Relation to Christ we are none of his nor are our Duties as to the Principles and Circumstances of them acceptable to God The Obligation upon Men to Obedience in what state soever we suppose them the consistency of God's right to command them with our contracted inability to the yielding of due Obedience the Capacity that all Men remain in notwithstanding any congenite Impotency for the performing many External Duties good in themselves and in the Matter of them with the Subservience of these Performances to Conversion as they are Means appointed of God in order thereunto all these I in some measure understand and can reconcile with the Oeconomy of the Gospel But that our Lives can be holy till our Hearts be so through the Renewing of the Holy Ghost or that our Works can be adequately good antecedently to our Reception of Supernatural Grace I do in no wise understand nor can I conceive the same can be made intelligible without imposing Paelagianism upon us But farther The Gospel acknowledgeth no Acts of true Holiness performed by any where there is not antecedently at least in order of Nature a Principle of true Holiness in the Persons performing them no Acts Operations or Duties of ours are in the Esteem of the Gospel holy but what proceed from and are done in the Vertue Power and Efficacy of Grace previously derived from and communicated to us by Jesus Christ there is prae-required to all Acts of Gospel Obedience a new real Spiritual Principle by which our Nature is renewed and our Souls rendred habitually and subjectively holy Grace is not the Effect and Product of any previous good Action of ours whatever Subserviency through the appointment and dispose of God they may lye in as to his bestowing of it but all Acts and Operations truly good are the Fruits of Divine Grace to talk of sincere Obedience precluding our antecedaneous Adeption of a new Principle and the Communication of a Divine Vital Seed to us is to impose Paelagianism upon us and that in a more fulsome way and in ruder terms than many of his Followers used to declare themselves I deny not the things revealed and commanded in the Gospel being both good in themselves and suited to the Reason and Interest of Mankind and also inforced by the most attractive Motives which we can either desire or imagine but that Men in the alone strength of their Natural Faculties may perform many External Duties and in that manner also that we who judge only according to appearance are thereupon to account them holy yea that nothing but Supineness lustful Prejudice consuetude in Sin and a being immersed into the Animal Life can hinder them from so doing but I deny that any Act or Duty hath the proper Form or Nature of Holiness or is so denominated in the Scriptures but both what proceeds from an antecedent Habit or Principle of Holiness in the Persons by whom they are performed and an immediate Influence from Christ in the virtue of our Union with him as our quickning Head vital Root and living Spring in the actual performance of them so that tho' no Physical Efficiency is to be ascribed to the Gospel yet besides a Moral Efficacy which through its own frame and complexion it hath to reform Mankind beyond what any Declaration of God and our selves that ever the World was made acquainted with had there is a Physical efficacious Operation of the Spirit of God accompanies it on the score of God Almighty's having in infinite Wisdom ordained it as a means for the communicating of Grace but still it is not the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are united to 't is true that it is both by the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are brought to be united to Christ and it is also true that whosoever are united to Him have the Doctrine of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an ingraffed and incorporated Word and are moulded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the form of its Doctrine but yet 't is not the terminus of the Relation of Union which intervenes betwixt Christ and
all Mankind have agreed in this that besides the Light of Reason there ought to be some Supernatural Revelation of the Will of God so being imbued with the Perswasion that there is a God and that He ought to be worshipped they are convinced also that all the Religion of Men at present towards God is the Religion of Sinners in all the Addresses of the Sons of Men to God they constantly apply to Him under a sense of Defilement and Guilt in all their transactions from time to time with the Deity They have been studying how to purge and cleanse themselves to attone and appease Him Now Sinners can perform nothing duly in Religion towards God without a knowledge of the Subordination we were created in at first to Him his Right and Authority to prescribe Laws to us the Capacity we were in both of knowing and keeping them the way and means by which Sin enter'd that God will not desert the work of his hands to that Ruine which it hath incurr'd by its own folly but that He is yet appeasable towards us and will accept a Worship and Service at our hands with the ways means and terms that He will receive us again into favour and rescue us from the defilement we labour under Without some information in every one of these there is no solid foundation for Sinners to apply in way of Religion to God at all and shou'd they attempt it they will do nothing but prevaricate Seeing then the Experience of some Thousands of years have evidenc'd the ineffectualness of Natural Light to instruct the World in any one of these things we may from hence infer the necessity that there seems to be of Supernatural Revelation The Writings of the Heathen whether Poets or Philosophers are certainly void of all pretence of admission for Supernatural and Divine Records and our Reason is able to give us the like demonstrative Evidence that this Claim is also most unduly ascrib'd to the Alcoran 'T is true that Mahomet pretended to have receiv'd it by inspiration most think that he counterfeited in his pretence and it is certain that as to receiving it by inspiration from God he did so but that there was not an immediate interposure of the Devil in the case so that he was deceived himself e're he went about to deceive others is not so certain The Epileptical Distemper to which he was subject hath in others been attended with Diabolical Insinuation The Age in which he liv'd was Enthusiastically inclin'd and the grosness of the Arabian Wits together with the subserviency of Ethnick Idolatry which remain'd up and down among them might encourage Satan to make an Attempt that way among that People But whether it was indeed so or whether the whole be singly to be attributed to himself and one or two Impostors more that assisted him is not material nor makes to the business it self Mahometism began not till the Sixth Century about which time and for a considerable Season before the whole East was sorely infected by Heresies and rent by Schisms which together with the impure Lives of the Professors of the Gospel both there and in the West might justly provoke God to permit this Deceiver to accost the World but obtruding a new Religion and such a one too as neither Reason nor any former Revelation of God befriended it concern'd him to have justify'd his Mission by some Miracle or other as to what he went about and these himself plainly disclaims for tho' some of his Followers ascribe such to him yet there is so little brought in proof of them and withal they are so silly and ridiculous in themselves that they serve for nothing but to disparage both the Person and the Cause in whose behalf they are brought I know that all Persons who have spoken immediately from God have not had the Attestation of Miracles nor was it always needful especially when they only called Men to obedience to that which had been sufficiently so attested before In such a Case it became the Wisdom of God to be sparing of Miracles and indeed be thereby better provided for the Credit of those Doctrines as were either really or only in appearance new and also more served the interest of Mankind than if he shou'd have wrought Wonders in attestation of every ordinary Messenger or Familiar Truth And this may be a reason why none of all the Penmen of the Scripture are reported to have wrought Miracles save Moses the Giver of the Law and the Apostles the Promulgers of the Gospel But tho' every Herald of Heaven had not the Attestation of Miracles yet no one came inspired by God who had not some Testimony or other born to him to distinguish him from an Impostor either the Doctrines they deliver'd were of that Sublimeness that no finite Understanding cou'd have invented them and yet when discover'd were so correspondent to our Rational Desires and so perfective of our Natural Light that being duly weighed the Reason of Man acquiesceth in them and says this is what I lookt for but cou'd not find or else they made known some present Matter which lay out of the reach of all Humane Knowledge such as the Secrets of the Heart or declared some Fact done either at a distance or with that secrecy that no Man cou'd know it or else they foretold some future Contingent soon after to come to pass which accordingly fell out in every Circumstance Nor is it unlikely but that most if not all the Old Testament Prophets had their Missions confirm'd by the Prediction of something future which Humane Prudence cou'd not foresee or else they were born witness to by the prevalency and immediate success of their Prayers or the preventing some impendent Judgment or in the procuring some needful Mercy for thereby was declared either their foresight of what God was ready to do or the interest favour and power they had with him nor is it without probability that most of the Prophets under the Mosaic Dispensation justify'd their Missions by some such thing But as for Mahomet tho' he not only pretended to speak immediately from God but withal introduced a Doctrine really new yet he came authorised by no Miracle Sign or Badge by which he might be distinguish'd from an Impostor Yea whereas he owns that both Moses and Christ were sent from God it is an infallible Argument that he was not their Doctrine and his being altogether inconsistent Besides it hath been generally acknowledg'd not only by Jews and Christians but by Heathens and that agreeably to the Light of Reason that prophetick Illapses never befel impure and unclean Souls and that God never made an unhallowed Person his Oracle at least that never any such were employ'd for the Divine Amannenses Now if we examine the Alcoran by this Prophetic Text we find the Author of it to have been a Person lustful and tyrannical made up of nothing but Blood and Dirt grosly Sensual and
Divine Light we have as little Reason to credit them as in their pretended Revelations The Holy Spirit can neither be the Author of Absurdity or Incoherency in Discourse neither yet of Repugnancy in Opinion Difference between each other and palpable Confusion amongst them all Those who have the Grace of the Holy Spirit or the Advantage of the Divine Light will see a necessity not only to be acted by but to think more reverently of the true Revelation of Christ Jesus of his Incarnation and outward Sufferings as well as of his second Coming to Judge the Quick and Dead Now whatever these People may insinuate to the World under the Notion of their Belief there are notwithstanding several dangerous Heresies got in amongst them They do most of them at the bottom set up their own Light and private Inspirations to the written word which their calling a Dead Letter Food for Children of little use to the Regenerate or such as are grown in Grace do plainly intimate there are many of them speak slightingly of the Mosaick History ridicule the Notion of Original Sin and disparage or discredit the manner of its Translation They have none of them any other infallible Criterion or standing Rule of Faith than a mistaken Conscience which they Nick-name the Divine Light This is plainly evident by their wild Enthusiams the gross Immoralities among some of them and the intestine Janglings amongst them all They do consult the Scriptures in order to an imitation of the Apostolical Writings but alas their high Pretences and Conceits are foil'd and quaâ—ht so soon as ever we compare them and notwithstanding their strenuous Pleas with their seeming assurance that they have the same Prophetic Spirit and are equally inspir'd with the Divine Pen-men I defie the whole Body of Qu sm to produce me one single Instance of any one of their Prophets that cou'd ever give the Proof and Attestation of their Inspiration with the Founders of Christianity when they come to this they most wretchedly prevaricate and cry out with Mahomet There is no need of Signs and Wonders Believe me Sir adds he this late Pretence to Inspiration is both the most egregious Cheat that was ever put upon the Christian World and the most dangerous and destructive Fallacy that ever the grand Deceiver cou'd have invented or contriv'd Weigh all things fairly and without prejudice consider all impartially and give the greatest scope you can to the best of their Arguments you will find all as pure deception and as certainly false as the Divine Illumination of the first Christians was most conspicuous and demonstratively true If we consider the tendency of this Notion we shall find that shou'd the World but once comply with or countenance the same the Fundamentals of Government both Civil and Ecclesiastic wou'd presently be unhing'd we shou'd have one Revelation in opposition to another the Gospel of our Saviour that Divine System of true Religion wou'd be trampled under soot we shou'd be expos'd in our Fortunes to the State of Levellers in our Minds to Diabolical Illusions or Phansiful Suggestions Our Religion wou'd soon grow volatile and fly away into Air and Spirit a profound Sign oâ— lamentable Expiration wou'd be all we shou'd have to do whilst clothed with the Flesh and all our Religious Duties for want of the Support of an establisht Form wou'd quickly leave us Our helps to Devotion such as Watchings Fastings and servent Prayers wou'd be quickly laid aside and in a little timâ— we shou'd find our selves in the midst of a destructive Ignorance and barbarous Confusion I can the more readily presage this having been much pester'd with these People in some of the Towns of New-Eng tho' not altogether in such a manner as Germany has been with the frantick Anabaptists I shall only take notice to you in one word more that when ever you may happen to discourse these People upon almost any single Article of the Christian Faith you will find that there are scarce two of them of the same Opinion Their Ignoâ—ance in the Explanatory part of Religion is so great that for want of a settled Creed or generally establisht System they will unavoidably clash and jar with one another indeed so far as I perceive they are capable of arguing nothing solidly but the Principles of Deism and even their grand Notion of the Light is as yet unprincipled and as Mr. Norris says unphilosophic notwithstanding the two learnedest Props of their Cause have set it out to the best advantage their Learning cou'd â—nable them 'T is true there are some of the most Judicious who will talk to the purpose for some little time but there is no keeping them close to their Argument The want of Catechistical Exercise to instil their Principles into those under their Care has rendred their Religion rude and ill-shapen and to me this seems none of the least Causes that the greater part of them are so very unknowing in Divinity that they can say nothing for themselves but this that they have a feeling Sense of an inward Light which is sufficient to direct them Thus ended my Friend's Discourse which I shall leave with this short Remark That for the most part his Idea's seem to be clear and Rational his Judgment sound and setting aside a little Heat his Discourse in the main to consist with Truth or Matter of Fact and Common Observation Whoever consults Antiquity or the Chronicles of the Times may find many Histories of this wild Enthusiasm and the Extravagancies that have attended this Whimsical Pretence to Inspiration In the Reign of Henry the Sixth one La Pucel a French Maid was burnt at Roan she declared that she was sent from God for the good of her Country to expel the English In the Year 1591. and the 34 th of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign was memorable the prodigious carriage of one Hackett born at Oundle in Northamptonshire a mean Fellow of no Learning whose first Prank was this That when in shew of Reconciliation to one with whom he had veen at variance he embraced him he bit off his Nose and the Man desiring to have it again that it might be sewed on whilst the Wound was fresh he most villainously eat it up and swallowed it before his Face After this on a sudden he took upon him a shew of wonderful Holiness did nothing almost but hear Sermons got Scriptures by heart counterfeited Revelations from God and an extraordinary Calling Thus he grew to be magnify'd by certain zealous Ministers especially of one Edward Coppinger a Gentleman of a good House and one Arthington a great Admirer of the Geneva Discipline insomuch that they accounted him as sent from Heaven and a greater Prophet than Moses and John Baptist and finally that he was Christ himself come with a Fan in his hand to judge the World This they proclaimed in Cheapside giving out that Hackett participated of Christ's glorified Body by his especial
Substance that the Rays which cause the visible Species are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body repercussed in their going forth and reflected variously here and there according to Gassendus or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air and as it were by inkindling them render them luminous and these at length others and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation which is the more probable Opinion if we may credit Dr. Willis Farther Admitting in the Case of Hearing that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies after the manner described or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound in a word admitting the rest of the Senses the Touch the Smell and Taste and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body might after some such manmer be explor'd by the Corpuscular Philosophy yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers and judges so exquisitely of each of these Sensations must it self be independent both of Matter and Mechanism How then is it possible for any Man without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding when he has made this Enquiry and satisfy'd himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions how is it I say that this shou'd incline a Man to Atheism unless contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience he were resolv'd that way or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all or one no better viz. Chance or Fortune So that to deal freely I can do no less than believe with a Modern Philosopher That whoever does profess Philosophy and thinks not rightly of God may be judg'd not only to have shaken hands with Religion but with his Reason also and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity The sum of this Argument lyes here That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious On the other hand to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable So that to put the Cause upon this Issue let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us whether it be to do Good or Evil Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion or that in any manner inclines us to Vice we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation but if on the contrary it appear that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Vertue and that any Pretence either to the one or to the other not built on Rational Principles may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisie thâ—n certainly 't is our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures 't is this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion and when by our Reason we are perswaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired which as is intimated before we have abundant Reason to believe we must then let our Faith take place and not only assent unto those things which we can account for but even of those also which tho' not contrary to are above our Reason and must be acknowledg'd to surmount our Apprehension The Belief of a God of his Providence and of future Rewards and Punishments is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion but the Foundation of that Faith lyes in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind All the Certainty saith the pious Father Malebranch which we can have in Matters of Faith depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason I may answer with a very Ingenious Man That by Reason is to be understood that steddy uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled so far I mean as they are able to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions and thereupon to pronounce them true or false There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men occasion'd by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves and the different Representation of Things from without but the Light by which all things are discerned is universally one and the same The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights it wou'd be impossible for one Man by any Representation whatsoever to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may injoy it can only be of authority and useful to themselves or at most it can be only so far useful and of authority to others as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it All Matters of Religion even as all other Affairs of Humane Life are to be handled by Men in reference to one another in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him of our Selves and of the Relation we stand in to Him and to our fellow Creatures The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things whatsoever that Cause be I call it God and the Idea that we have of this powerful â—â—cing arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that