Judgment not to answer at all than to answer ill and to seek only to defame an Author whom one cannot confute I should be the more troubled to see that done by how much I understand that the Author is a very pious Man and one who assuredly believes not the evil Consequences which some Men too ready to judg of their Neighbours may draw from his Notions I fear that he you speak of would content himself in gathering together a great number of those odious Consequences and would think that he had thereby sufficiently refuted the Opinion without considering that tho a Man cannot disingage a Doctrine from the absurd Consequences that by some may be link'd to it it does not therefore follow that the Doctrine is false It should first be made appear that the Arguments brought for an Opinion are not solid and after that one may come to the Consequences Otherwise while the Arguments that prove an Opinion subsist in full force all the Consequences that may be deriv'd from it cannot overthrow it Nevertheless if you believe him capable to acquit himself of this undertaking you may perswade him to it when you think fit But put him in Mind at the same time that it is the part of an honest Man and of one that would bestow his Pains to some good purpose to do it with all the Moderation and Meekness imaginable St. Ierom commends Nepotien That he used to hear willingly answer modestly allow Truth not sharply confute Error and teach rather than conquer whom he disputed with And it were to be wished that our Divines now adays would make it their business to deserve so good an Elogy whereas it seems that they strive only to attain to the Name of great Railers and value not Peoples having an ill Opinion of their Manners provided that they pass for Men of Parts I speak not this as if I suspected that Mr. resembles one of those Divines I find fault with but because I believe a Man cannot be too much caution'd against so general a Defect But these Moralities would carry me too far if I should give my self the liberty to pursue them It is better that I keep my word with you and give you the following part of that Writing And here it is Let us now examine that Passage of St. Iohn When the Spirit of Truth shall come he will lead you into all Truth Interpreters observe that we must not understand by All Truths any others than those which the Apostles were ignorant of and which it was needful for them to know that they might be able to acquit themselves as they ought to do of their Charge They receiv'd not the holy Spirit to learn for Example that there was a God nor to be instructed in the Mathematicks They knew already this first Truth and of the other they had no need The generality of Interpreters believe that these words denote a perpetual Assistance of the holy Spirit that made the Apostles absolutely infallible To know whether they are in the right or no we must examine the Accomplishment of the Promise and if it appear that it agrees not with this Explanation of our Saviour's words we must seek another sense and try to discover wherein the Infallibility of the Apostles consists We find a Story Acts xv whereby it appears manifestly that the Apostles did not pass in their own time for persons whose every word was an Oracle as they are now reputed to have done Some Jews converted to the Christian Religion not being able to shake off their ancient Opinion concerning Ceremonies would have had the Gentiles circumcis'd St. Paul and St. Barnabas were against this but their Authority was not sufficient to put to silence the Judaizing Christians Altho St. Paul was as much an Apostle as those whom our Lord had chosen while he was on Earth yet they would not believe him The Church at Ierusalem must be consulted Further also the Apostles and Elders of the Church being assembl'd to examine and determine this Affair dispute a great while before they agree upon it and it was not till after they had heard St. Peter St. Paul St. Barnahas and St. Iames that the Assembly came to a Resolution If they had been fill'd with the Spirit of Infallibility such as is conceiv'd now adays they would have been all at first of one Mind and there would have needed no more to be done but to charge one of them to give out the Oracle in the Name of the whole Assembly There happen'd likewise before that another thing related by St. Luke Acts x. which makes it also very evident that the Holy Ghost which the Apostles receiv'd the day of Pentecost had not taught them all they ought to know so far was it from rendring them at first dash infallible and that they were not then consider'd as Persons out of danger of falling into Error as they have been since accounted St. Peter needed a Vision as appears by the Story of Cornelius the Centurion to learn that he ought not to scruple preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles although Christ had order'd his Apostles before his ascending into Heaven to preach the Gospel unto all Creatures whereby he clearly enough denoted the Gentiles as well as the Iews St. Peter after having obey'd the express Order which he receiv'd from God to preach the Gospel to Cornelius was no sooner returned to Ierusalem but the faithful Ones of the Circumcision not dreaming that his Apostleship render'd him infallible dispute with him and tell him after a manner that shows that the Infallibility which we now attribute to him was to them unknown Thou wentest unto Men uncircumcis'd and didst eat with them Many Years as it seems after that Peter being at Antioch had not the Courage to maintain openly that the Jews might eat with the Gentiles without scruple For before that certain Persons came from James he did eat with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew and separated himself fearing them which were of the Circumcision And the other Iews dissembled likewise with him insomuch that St. Paul observing that they walked not uprightly was obliged to tell Peter before them all If thou being a Iew livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the Iews why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Iews It is said that St. Peter was guilty of a fault only in his Conduct and not in his Doctrine that he believ'd and maintain'd the same with St. Paul but that on this occasion he dissembled his Opinion and that he did not otherways constrain the Gentiles to live as the Iews but in abstaining to eat with them The Gentiles say they seeing that St. Peter did not eat with them because they were uncircumcis'd did by reason of this his Conduct believe themselves oblig'd to be circumcis'd and consequently to observe the other Ceremonies of the Law They believ'd that it was a Sin to
continue uncircumcis'd because St. Peter forbore to live familiarly with them on that account and on the contrary that it was a Duty to observe the Circumcision So that it was by his Conduct only that St. Peter forc'd them to live as Iews And indeed it is true that by efficaciously engaging one to do a thing after what manner soever it be we are said to force one to do it See Gen. xix 3. Luke xxiv 19. I believe really that this is the best Explanation But it proves clearly that the Metaphysical Infallibility which is attributed to the Apostles is not of Apostolick Tradition For in truth to dissemble a true Doctrine when they ought to preach it and to ingage People in an Error by their Conduct is visibly a human Weakness and which becomes not those who are look'd upon as the simple Instruments of the holy Spirit speaking by their Mouths St. Peter's Conduct gave the Gentiles to understand as well as if he had told it them that they must observe the Circumcision and to give them to understand it by forbearing to eat with them was almost the same thing as to tell it them by word of Mouth Nay more it is not unlikely that St. Peter believed that this Dissimulation was lawful as well as St. Barnabas and the other Iews who had followed his Example otherwise it is not credible that so pious Men who were the first Ministers of the Gospel would have done it And so we must confess that they were guilty of some weakness even in Doctrine although they recanted it soon nor was it of great importance There is also a great difference observable in the manner of Christ's speaking He that had received the Spirit without measure and that in which the Apostles express themselves whereas according to the common Opinion it ought to be the same If the same Spirit had render'd them infallible they had right to declare to the World the Doctrine of Salvation with the same Power and to speak as authoritatively as Jesus Christ. But we see the contrary in their Writings Christ spoke as one having Authority You have heard it was said of old c. But I say unto you c. The Apostles on the contrary declare that they say nothing of themselves and refer all to the Prophets and to Jesus Christ Acts xxvi 22. 1 Cor. xi 23. And that which is yet more considerable is that they distinguish manifestly that which they say themselves from that which Christ had said And unto the Married I command yet not I but the Lord c. But to the rest speak I not the Lord c. So St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. vii 10 12. which he would not have done had he been aware that his Auditors had believ'd his words as infallible as the words of Christ. Methinks these are convincing Proofs that the Apostles had not a perpetual Inspiration which might give their words an indisputable Authority I do not deny but they had many immediate Inspirations and divers Heavenly Visions as appears by the Acts by the Revelations and by divers other places of Scripture Nay I am so fully perswaded they had that I think him no good Christian who doubts of it But the Question here is concerning an uniform constant and ordinary Inspiration as it is commonly explained in the Divinity-Schools It may be you will say there are divers Arguments for this sort of Inspiration as strong as those I have brought to shew the contrary The Apostles began their Letter Acts xv after this manner It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us By which it appears say some that they were fill'd with the Spirit of Infallibility which dictated to them what they ought to say I desire first that those who say so reconcile this Supposition with the Dispute that was among the Apostles before they came to this Conclusion In the second place It is not likely that if the Holy Ghost had possess'd them in such a manner that they had been only simple Instruments by which He express'd his Will they should not have plac'd themselves in equal Rank with the Him but should have said simply It has appear'd good to the Holy Ghost who speaks by us What Prophet ever said it seem'd good to God and to me In the third place Suppose there be here as the Critics say a Figure by which is express'd one and the same thing by two words and that this manner of speaking amounts to no more but this It has seemed good to us who are full of the Holy Ghost The perpetual Inspiration about which I am now arguing cannot be hence concluded The Apostles and all the Church of Ierusalem were animated by the Spirit of the Gospel without being continually full of the Spirit of Prophecy If it were otherwise we should be forced to say that the whole Church of Ierusalem not only the Apostles but also the Elders of the Church and all those who were assembled were perpetually accompanied with a Spirit of Infallibility which no body ever yet said nor is it at all likely In the fourth place The Conclusion of the Letter they write seems extreamly weak for the Conclusion of a positive Law FROM WHICH YOU SHALL DO WELL TO KEEP YOUR SELVES A Prophet under the Old Testament would have said From which keep your selves for so saith the Lord whose Commandments you cannot slight without your own Destruction c. Some may also here object the Spirit of Miracles and Tongues which the Apostles received the day of Pentecost But the Effusion of that miraculous Spirit did not necessarily render all those that receiv'd it infallible in Doctrine Otherwise all the Christians of that time had been infallible The Church of Corinth had receiv'd the Holy Ghost as appears by the Epistles St. Paul directs to it and so should not have needed that Apostle's Instructions because it had a great number of infallible Persons within it self But it appears on the contrary that it needed his Instructions not only to correct its Vices but also to resolve its Doubts and even to rectify its Errors Thus then the Spirit of Miracles not being accompanied with Infallibility it connot be concluded because the Apostles receiv'd that Spirit the day of Pentecost that they became as Gods and that they were out of all danger of ever falling into the least Error But what signify then these words When the Spirit of Truth shall come he will lead you into all Truth This Spirit of Truth is it not the miraculous Spirit which the Apostles receiv'd I have already observ'd that these words cannot be understood rigorously as if the Apostles had known all Sciences I must add further that there is something extreamly figurative in them as appears by the following words For he shall not speak of himself but what soever he shall hear that he shall speak and he shall shew ye things to come He shall glorify me for he shall receive
Piety they say that the Controversy about them is not considerable Now if there be no danger in believing Expressions to be divine that have nothing in them but human when the Doctrines therein contain'd are not contrary to the reveal'd Truth What danger can there be in believing that any Truths which we acknowledg to be Divine are express'd in Terms not divinely inspir'd The same reason that makes us believe there is no danger in the one perswades us also there is none in the other It is because we are not sav'd by the Words but by the Things The other thing observable is that we receive amongst the Canonical Books of the New Testament Writings whose Authors are not well known which we could not do if we thought it necessary in receiving a Book as Canonical to be assur'd that every Word was inspir'd since to be assur'd thereof we sought to have evident Proofs that it was a Man inspir'd by God who was the Author of that Book For Example it is not known who writ the Epistle to the Hebrews whether it were an Apostle or some Disciple of the Apostles so that we cannot know whether the words of that Epistle were inspir'd or not But for all that it is receiv'd because it is certain it was written in the Apostles time and because it contains nothing that is not perfectly conformable to their Doctrine Thus it is generally thought of little importance whether the words be divinely inspir'd or no provided the things they express be true So that one may say that in truth Divines are generally very favourable to the Opinion I maintain although themselves are not aware of it I do not think it necessary to insist much in proving that God has not always dictated to the Apostles the very words that they used since it is evident that he did not always dictate to them the things Not that I make any doubt but he has often reveal'd to them the things and even inspir'd them with the very words as in the Prophecies where there was need to remember divers Names and when they spoke strange Languages Tho it may nevertheless be suppos'd that as to what concerns the Gift of Tongues God dispos'd at once the Brains of them that receiv'd it in such a manner that they could without trouble joyn certain Sounds to certain Ideas just as they would have done if they had been us'd to it from their Infancy and that afterwards he left them at liberty to make use of those new Languages according as they should think fit And thus those that learn'd by Inspiration the Language of the Medes for Example had their Brains dispos'd in the same manner as they would have had if they had learn'd that Language from their Infancy and could make use of it as easily as their Mother-Tongue At least it is evident that some who had receiv'd this miraculous Gift did sometimes abuse it which they would not have done if they never had spoken those Languages but by present immediate Inspiration See 1 Cor. XIV But without determining that Point I believe with Erasmus that the Apostles learn'd not the Greek they us'd by Inspiration because if it were so they would have spoke it like the Native Grecians whereas they mix'd with it a world of Hebraisms as the French that speak Latin do Gallicisms See Erasmus upon Acts X. Not that I believe neither that they had learn'd the Greek Language by the Commerce they had with the Greeks during the Functions of their Charge as Erasmus thought probable it is more likely they had learn'd it from their Infancy For St. Paul who was born in Cilicia where they spoke nothing but Greek undoubtedly had learn'd it young but he corrupted it afterwards by his long dwelling in Iudaea where besides the Greek they spake a broken Chaldee whose Dialect mixing with the Greek render'd it obscure and difficult such as is the Stile of that Apostle The others that were born in Iudaea had learn'd it also from their Infancy as it was commonly there spoken that is to say extreamly corrupted by the ancient Language of the Country which was still spoken there as appears by divers places of the New Testament This the same Erasmus has well observ'd in the places already cited When I excuse the Apostles says he in his Letter to Eckius who learn'd their Greek not out of Demosthenes his Orations but out of the Discourse of the common People I deny not their Gift of Tongues nor does it thence follow that they might not learn Greek by common Converse Assuredly they learn'd the Syriac by common Converse Why might they not in like manner learn the Greek For by means of Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire Aegypt and the greater part of Syria and all the lesser Asia nay almost all the East as Jerom says spoke Greek And I cannot think that the holy Spirit made them to forget what they had formerly learn'd The Greek Language then was spoken in Iudaea together with the ancient Language which the Jews brought from Babylon that is to say the Chaldean but corrupted in process of time as the French and Flemish are spoke together now adays in Flanders And as the French they now speak in Flanders is full of the Flemish Dialect and of Terms unknown in France so the Greek of Iudaea vvas heretofore full of Chaldaisms and of barbarous ways of speaking which undoubtedly grated the Grecian's Ears The History of the Acts of the Apostles that tells us in several places that Hebrew or Chaldean was spoken in Iudaea tells us also that they us'd another Language which could be no other than Greek St. Luke observes Acts XXII that St. Paul haranguing the Jews began to speak to them in Hebrew and that when they understood him speak to them in the Hebrew Language they hearken'd to him with the greater silence which gives us to understand that he might have spoke to the People in another Language for otherwise there had been no ground to observe that they listn'd more attentively when they perceiv'd he spake Hebrew seeing that in speaking any other Language but Hebrew they could not have understood him It appears then that Greek was spoken in Iudaea and it is likely Pilat spoke Greek to our Lord and that our Lord answer'd him in the same The People only preferr'd the Language of the Country before the Greek which was not so ancient and which they had not learn'd but by force because of the Kings of Syria that tyranniz'd over them and so they spoke it not exactly It is true there were Iews that spoke Greek very purely but they were such as were born in Countries where only Greek was spoken as Philo or they had acquir'd a habit of speaking good Greek by reading or studying as Iosephus So at this day there are Walloons that speak French very well altho the generality of that People speak it extreamly ill because
made me believe that I could not get out the Truth better than by putting to the Rack two Women Servants whom they call Diaconesses but I discover'd nothing but a strange and excessive Superstition They that understand the Latin Tongue will not wonder that Tacitus and Pliny make use of the word Superstition The Romans gave that Name to all sorts of Religious Worship that were not establish'd by public Authority Two such Witnesses as these cannot be excepted against Seeing it is evident they had no favour for Christians and were perhaps the most able Men of their time but especially if we consider that they treat of matters of Fact which they themselves had either seen or which were known by all Men as was the Death of Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate The Writings that we have of Christians living between the times of Pilate and those of Tacitus or Trajan attest the same Truths They date the beginning of Christianity from the same Christ that Pilate put to Death and they preach to us precisely the same Morals We must then necessarily allow that there was in Iudaea during the Reign of Tiberius a Person that laid the Foundation of the Christian Religion and had many Disciples Let us now examine some of his first Disciples and see what sort of People they were Let us read the Epistle which Clement Bishop of Rome writ to the Christians of Corinth forty Years after the Death of Iesus Christ and in the beginning of the Raign of Vespasian There appears in this Epistle a Spirit of Peace of Charity of Humility and many lively and pathetical Exhortations to the Observation of the Gospel-Morals He reproves severely those that had not observ'd them but commends those that had In the beginning of that Epistle he says among other things That the Christians of Corinth had labour'd day and night for their Brethren to the end that the number of the Elect might be sav'd in applying themselves to Works of Mercy and of a good Conscience That they had been sincere without Malice and without remembring the Ill that any of them might formerly have done to one another That all Division and Schism was abhorr'd by them That they were afflicted for their Neighbour's Failings That they look'd upon his Necessities as their own That they never repented them of well-doing but were always ready to do all sorts of good Works That in their Conversation full of Vertue and worthy of Veneration they did all things in the fear of God whose Commandments were writ in their Hearts He adds afterwards That he had known may Christians who to redeem others out of Slavery had put themselves in Chains That many having sold themselves for Slaves had maintain'd others out of the price of their own Liberty The Masters of this Clement were the first Disciples of Iesus of Nazareth who was the first Teacher of Christianity and he gives Testimony of their great Piety Indeed if we read their Writings we find nothing in them but what speaks a profound Veneration of the Deity an extream Tenderness towards all Men and an extraordinary Strictness in all that concerns the Government of a Man's Self Let us chuse which we will of them we shall find nothing in their Works but what tends to Piety If some of their Writings have been question'd let us take those concerning which there never was any Question Or without looking further the Gospel according to St. Luke and the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians which are cited by Clement and we shall perceive every where the same Morals which they endeavour to implant in the Hearts of their Disciples I suppose all along that the Reader has some knowledg of the Precepts of the Gospel and has given some attention to what I said at the beginning And then I dare boldly say that unless he have lost all Sense he will acknowledg that there is nothing more reasonable that the Morals of the Gospel and that it were to be wish'd that all the World observ'd them The Apostles then in exhorting their Hearers to live after a manner so reasonable and so profitable to human Society requir'd nothing of them contrary to Reason or to the true Interests of all Mankind And this puts me in mind of the Saying of a Person that once had no great Opinion of the Truth of our Religion When the Morals which the Disciples of Jesus Christ preach'd throughout the World were thus livelily describ'd to him he could not but fall into these words which the Evidence of the thing drew from him I wish all the World had believ'd them This Doctrine of the Apostles ought undoubtedly to make all those who love human Society and their own Advantages to listen to it But it may here be objected that perhaps the Apostles preach'd not this Doctrine but in design to insinuate themselves into the Minds of the People and afterwards upon pretext of Piety to get from them whatsoever they had a mind to But to answer that Objection in the first place I observe and suppose it will be granted me that this Suspicion has no Foundation in the Doctrine which they preach'd For that condemns the love of Honours of Riches and of Pleasures There cannot so much as one single Passage of their Works be alledg'd that favours Ambition Covetousness or Concupiscence This being so this Suspicion can be grounded but upon one of these two things Either that the Apostles could hope to make some advantage of this their Doctrine when it should be receiv'd or that they actually made it when they preach'd it I understand here by Advantage A Good out-ballancing all the Inconveniences that the Apostles underwent in preaching the Gospel or at least such a one as they esteem'd in that degree It is not probable if they were Deceivers but that they propos'd an Advantage to themselves greater than the Pains they took Otherwise they might justly be look'd upon as Fools which they cannot without great Impertinence be suppos'd to have been by any that read their Writings Now the Apostles could not hope to make any Advantage of their Doctrine unless it were receiv'd by the generality of those amongst whom they preach'd it For without that they would have been expos'd to perpetual Persecution None but Fools could expect to live quietly amongst People vehemently prepossest with Opinions directly contrary to those they resolv'd to profess and teach People that believed themselves oblig'd for the Interest of the State and of Religion to take away both the Estates and Lives of those that oppos'd their Superstition Such were the Romans the Greeks and the Iews in the times of the Apostles They must then have hoped that their preaching would take such effect as would draw after them the greatest part of the World But that was impossible to be hop'd for by any that had never so little knowledg of the Disposition of the Heart of Man And the Apostles who
may be found in the Old Testament For Example David says of himself and of his Enemies divers things without thinking of prophesying which contain nevertheless Predictions of that which ought to happen to Christ and his Enemies He says Psal. XLI 10. He that ate of my Bread hath lift up his Heel against me He meant surely some of those who were risen against him in Asolom's Conspiracy as Achitophel or some other and he speaks plainly of a thing happened to himself It is this very thing that inspires him if one may so say these words which betoken what should befal Jesus Christ by the Treachery of one of his Disciples as appears by Iohn XIII 18. The Author of the LXIX th and CIX th Psalms whether it were David or some other did not probably think of fore-telling what should one day befal a Disciple of the Messiah when he curs'd his Enemies And yet St. Peter in the Acts applies some words of these Psalms to Iudas There needs no great sharpsightedness to see that the Author pretended not to speak of Iudas and that he was not immediately inspir'd by the good and merciful Spirit of God when he said Set thou a wicked Man over him and let Satan stand at his Right-hand When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his Prayer become Sin Let his days be few and let another take his Office Let his Children be Fatherless and his Wife a Widow Let his Children continually be Vagabonds and beg let them seek their Bread also out of their desolate places Let the Extortioner catch all that he hath and let the Stranger spoil his Labour Let there be none to extend Mercy unto him neither let there be any to favour his Fatherless Children Let his Posterity be cut off and in the Generation following let their Name be blotted out Let the Iniquity of his Fathers be remembred with the Lord and let not the Sin of his Mother be blotted out c. It is plain that these are the words of a Man full of excessive Choler and of an extream desire to be revenged Now the Law of Moses permitted not any more than the Gospel to with ill or do it to Children in revenge of the Injury received from their Parents Yet some famous Divines have put in the Title of this Psalm That David AS A TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST being driven on by a singular Zeal prays that Vengeance may be executed on his Enemies And where do they find that Jesus Christ does curse his Enemies at that rate Have they forgotten the words that proceeded from his dying Mouth in favour of the wickedest Race that ever was Those that crucified him were they not the greatest Enemies he had and the most obstinate Adversaries of the Gospel And far from making the Imprecations against them that they deserved did not he pray to his Father to forgive them Has he not ordered us to imitate him and to pray for those that persecute us I cannot understand how it can be said that David as a Type of Iesus Christ made such horrible Imprecations against his Enemies I confess I understand not Christian Religion if it permit the pronouncing such Curses and the wishing to be revenged after so cruel a manner as does the Author of this Psalm and those of divers others in which we find such like Imprecations As that of Psal. cxxxvii O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little Ones against the Stones God forbid that we should desire to dash out the Brains of Infidel's Children Yet nevertheless we see that all these Psalms are indifferently sung in Protestant Churches without taking notice that they are not all equally inspir'd And I remember that asking a Divine how we could sing Psalms full of such Imprecations He answered me slightly that it was lawful to use them against the Enemies of the Church and that for his part he made that Application to them when he sung these Psalms Thus you see what the Jewish Opinion of the Inspiration of words and of the Divinity of each Verse of the Scripture produces We may conceive another sort of Prophecies which consisted not in foretelling things to come but in explaining the Scripture and in composing readily Hymns to the Honour of God There are some Examples of these Hymns in the New Testament as that of the blessed Virgin Mary and some others It seems as if there went only Piety and Zeal to the composing them At least it is very conceivable that a pious zealous Man may easily now a days praise God in that manner without any Preparation A good part of the Psalms seems to have been thus compos'd as also divers other Songs which are in the Old Testament The Psalms where the Verses or the Pauses begin with the Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet seem to have been compos'd at more leisure For this Regularity shews that there was Meditation and Pains used as is in Acrosticks See Psal. cxix and the Lamentations of Ieremy So we see too that in this sort of Works the Holy Writers do not speak in the Name of God nor begin their Discourse with Thus saith the Lord. Yet we may say that the Authors of these pious Songs were full of the Holy Spirit when they compos'd them that is to say it was a Spirit of Piety that carry'd them to take pains in those Compositions and in that sense we may say that they were inspir'd by God though not so immediately as Predictions The Spirit of God is often taken for the Spirit of Holiness that is to say for a disposition of Spirit conformable to the Commandments of God as many Learned Men have observed I will now remark briefly in what manner the Sacred Histories have been written And then in treating of Doctrines I will speak of that sort of Prophecy that consists in explaining the Holy Scripture It is certain that those who took pains in the Histories of the Old and New Testament were pious Persons who had not writ those Histories but out of a Principle of Piety It was not to satisfy our Curiosity that they undertook those Works but to show us the Care that the Providence of God hath always taken of good People and the Punishments it inflicts upon the wicked to give us Examples of Piety and Vertue and lastly to inform us of certain matters of Fact upon which our Faith is founded and of the Precepts which God had given to Jews and Christians by the Ministry of his Prophets Apostles Angels themselves and even of his own Son We ought also to believe that they have given us the Truth of the History to the best of their knowledg without adding or substracting any thing out of design to deceive us And as they were very well informed of the principal matters of Fact which they relate
having themselves seen them or taken them out of good Records we may be consident that for the main of the History they tell us nothing that is not exactly true These Qualifications alone are sufficient to oblige us to give Credit to them An Historian that is honest and well inform'd of that which he relates is worthy of Credit And if you add thereto that he has also suffer'd Death in maintaining the Truth of his History as the Apostles did who were put to death for maintaining that they had seen and heard that which the Gospel tells us of Jesus Christ then not only that History will be worthy of Credit but they who shall refuse to believe it can pass for no other than Fools or obstinate Persons In this manner we may be fully assur'd of the Truth of the History of the New Testament that is to say That there was a Jesus who did divers Miracles who was rais'd from the Dead ascended up into Heaven and who taught the Doctrine which we find in the Gospels And this Jesus having born witness to the History of the Jews we cannot doubt its truth at least as to the principal Matters This can not be call'd in question without absolutely renouncing Christianity But People believe commonly two things which seem to me groundless unless they ground them upon Jewish Tradition a Principle as is well known extreamly uncertain They believe first that the sacred Historians were inspir'd with the Things themselves And next that they were inspir'd also with the Terms in which they have express'd them In a word that the holy History was dictated word for word by the holy Spirit and that the Authors whose Names it bears were no other than Secretaries of that Spirit who writ exactly as it dictated As to what concerns the Inspiration of Historical Matters of Fact I observe First That they suppose it without bringing any positive Proof and that consequently a Man may with good reason reject their Supposition They say only that if it were not so we could not be perfectly certain of the truth of the History But beside that a Consequence cannot undeniably prove a Fact and that it may happen that one cannot disprove a Consequence although that which is pretended to be prov'd thereby be not true I affirm that it is false that we cannot be perfectly certain of the main substance of a History unless we suppose it inspir'd We are for Example perfectly certain that Iulius Caesar was kill'd in the Senate by a Conspiracy whereof Brutus and Cassius were the Chiefs without believing that they who have inform'd us hereof were inspir'd There are such like matters in the Histories of all Nations which we cannot doubt of without being guilty of Folly and Opiniatrety and yet without supposing that these Histories were writ by Divine Inspiration In the second place this Opinion supposes without necessity a Miracle of which the Scripture it self says nothing To relate faithfully a matter of Fact which a Man has seen and well observed requires no Inspiration The Apostles had no need of Inspiration to tell what they had seen and what they had heard Christ say There needs nothing for that but Memory and Honesty Neither had those Authors who writ only the things that came to pass before their time as the Author of the Books of Chronicles any more need of Inspiration for copying of good Records And as for those who made the Records there was no more requisite than that they should be well inform'd of what they set down either by their Eyes or by their Ears or by faithful Witnesses It will be said perhaps that according to this Opinion the Faith which we build upon the Scripture will be no other than a Faith purely human because it will be grounded only upon Human Testimonies To this I answer That neither do we know any more than by a Human Faith that the Book which we call the Gospel of St. Matthew is truly his It is nothing but the uniform Consent of Christians since the beginning of Christianity to this day that makes us believe it which in truth is no more than a Testimony purely Human. We do not believe it because we are assur'd of it by an Oracle from Heaven which has told us that this Book is truly that Apostle's but on the same account that we believe that the Eneid is truly Virgil's and the Iliad Homer's But that which they here call Human Faith is of as great certainty as the Demonstrations of Geometry And even Divine Faith it self as they call it is built upon this Certainty For in truth we do not believe in Jesus Christ but because we are perswaded that the History we have of him is true And how do we know that this History is true Because Eye-witnesses have written it and have suffer'd Death to maintain the truth of their Testimonies And how are we certain that these were Eye-witnesses and that they suffer'd Death rather than deny what they said By History that is to say by the Testimony of Men who affirm it to us constantly from the time of the Establishment of the Christian Religion to the Age we live in So that Human Faith is found to be the ground of Divine Faith But we need not fear that this Foundation is not solid enough For without ceasing to be a Man and reasoning no more than a Brute it cannot be disputed as has been made appear by many Learned Men who have written of the Truth of Christian Religion In the third place The common Opinion is contrary to the Testimony even of the Sacred Writers St. Luke begins his Gospel after this manner For asmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in Order a Declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us even as they delivered them unto us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word It seemed good to me also having had perfect Vnderstanding of all things from the very first to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed You may observe in these words a Confirmation of what I have been saying and a full Proof that St. Luke learn'd not that which he told us by Inspiration but by Information from those who knew it exactly Now if you allow St. Luke to have so faithfully related to us the Life and Discourses of Jesus without having been particularly inspir'd that we ought to receive what he tells us with an entire belief in his Fidelity you ought not to make any difficulty to grant the same concerning the other Historians of the Scripture If any of them ought to be inspir'd certainly they were the Evangelists And if you will have another Example of a Histoory written without Inspiration you have but to read the Books of Kings and of the Chronicles being Extracts out of publick Registers and out
we allow the Holy Scripture and what use is to be made of it according to these Principles To answer hereto I begin with the New Testament which is the principal Foundation of our Faith In the first place then Jesus Christ in whom were hidden all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg and whom God had expresly commanded us To hear was absolutely infallible We must believe without questioning it whatever he says because he says it and because God hath testified that he speaks nothing but Truth In the second place since we have nothing writ by Christ himself we ought to believe what his Apostles have said concerning his Life and Doctrine because God has given Testimony to them by the Miracles he inabl'd them to do and because they seal'd the Truth of their Deposition with their Blood They tell us what they had seen and heard so that it was impossible they should be deceiv'd in the substance of the History and Doctrine It may be that in some Circumstance of small importance they do not relate things exactly as they happen'd and that therein they do not agree together But they all agree in the Historical Facts whereon the Faith we have in Jesus Christ is grounded his Birth of a Virgin his Miracles his Death his Resurrection and his Ascension into Heaven though there may be some difference among them in some Circumstance which is nothing to the substance of the History It is not necessary for the Foundation of our Faith as I have already observ'd that they should agree exactly in all things to the least tittle and the trouble the Learned have given themselves to reconcile these sort of Contradictions is of no use It were better to own ingenuously that there are some than to strain the sense of their Writings to make them agree one with another which instead of converting Libertins does but excite their Railery and confirms them in their Impiety As to what concerns the Doctrine of Jesus Christ there is not the least Contradiction among the Evangelists although it be express'd in different Terms and they relate it on divers occasions We must observe therefore that they relate only the Sense and keep not exactly the same order that Christ kept in preaching it so neither ought we to insist rigorously upon their Expressions as if they made use of some words rather than others to insinuate certain Niceties which are ordinarily attributed to them without any probable ground nor ought we to lay such stress upon the order they make use of in their Writings as to colour thereby certain Inferences which are not otherwise obvious in the Sense of our Saviour's words If a Man observe never so little he will find that they use every where popular Expressions that they have not aim'd at any Elegancy in their Stile and that they have been very far from speaking with such Exactness as Philosophers or Geometricians use in their Writings We ought not then to insist too much as commonly Men do upon the manner of their expressing the Doctrine of Christ. We should only indeavour to understand the Genius of the Language they use and to stick to the substance of things essential which are express'd in so many places and after so many ways that it is not difficult to frame to our selves an Idea thereof clear enough to instruct us perfectly in our Duty In the third place as for the Epistles of the New Testament they do not only afford us the same Considerations with those we have last mention'd in respect of their Stile but there are also two things further to be observ'd and distinguish'd in them We find there the same Doctrines we have in the Evangelists and those the Apostles assure us often they learn'd from Christ. But there are others things which the Apostles speak of their own heads or which they draw by divers Consequences from the Old Testament The first of these are to be believ'd on the same account as the Gospels that is to say because of the Authority of Jesus Christ who preach'd them to the Jews The second are to be receiv'd because they contain nothing but what is very conformable to the Doctrine of Christ or what is founded upon right Reason The Apostles will not have us believe them upon their own word They distinguish in that their Authority from the Authority of Christ. See 1 Cor. VII 10 12 25. But as they apply'd themselves cerefully to mind Doctrines tending to Edification which are few in number and never ingag'd in too nice inquiries they have told us nothing that is not conformable to the Spirit of the Gospel with which they were fill'd and which right Reason will not easily admit It is to be observ'd that having no extraordinary Inspiration for writing their Epistles they insert in them divers things that concern their Designs or their particular Affairs where we ought by no means to seek for or expect any thing mysterious Such are the Salutations found at the end of their Epistles the Order St. Paul gives Timothy to take Mark along with him in his return to bring the Cloak he had left at Troas with Carpus the Books and above all the Parchments the Counsel he gives him to drink a little Wine for his Stomachs sake and because of his Weaknesses and other such like things See St. Ierom's Preface to his Commentary upon the Epistle to Philemon In the fourth place there are divers Prophecies scatter'd in these Epistles and the Apocalipse is wholly Prophetic Now we ought to give Credit to these Revelations because it is God that imparted them immediately to the Apostles And it is easy to distinguish them from other things which the Apostles give out only as their own Conjectures of which you have some Examples in the words of Grotius which I cited concerning the Inspiration of the Pen-Men of the New Testament Thus then according to my Hypothesis the Authority of the Scripture continues in full force For you see I maintain that we are oblig'd to believe the substance of the History of the New Testament and generally all the Doctrines of Jesus Christ all that was inspir'd to the Apostles and also whatsoever they have said of themselves so far as it is conformable to our Saviour's Doctrine and to right Reason It is plain that nothing farther is necessarily to be believ'd in order to our Salvation And it seems also evident to me that those new Opinions brought into the Christian Religion since the Death of the Apostles which I have here refuted being altogether imaginary and ungrounded instead of bringing any advantage to the Christian Religion are really very prejudicial to it An Inspiration is attributed to the Apostles to which they never pretended and whereof there is not the least mark left in their Writings Hereupon it happens that very many Persons who have strength enough of Understanding to deny Assent to a thing for which there is no good proof brought
Apostles where they do not say that God has taught them by extraordinary Revelation that which they publish And where the matter it self shows that there was no need of his doing it It does not therefore follow that those who acknowledge the Inspiration of the Prophets are obliged to acknowledg the like of all other sacred Writers because there are convincing Reasons which oblige us to believe that the Prophets speak Truth when they say Thus saith the Lord c. and no reason to believe that the Apostles were extraordinarily inspir'd when they say it not and when their Discourses have in them no mark of such like Inspiration If we reflect upon this difference between Prophecies and Discourses which have nothing of Prophetic in them we shall take heed of applying to this Subject a loose Maxim and which is good for nothing viz. That is happens most frequently that those who distinguish and divide Matters with design to make use of part and reject the other do give great advantage to their Adversaries On the contrary it scarce ever happens that in handling a compounded Subject there can be made such general Rules as may be equally apply'd to all the parts of it Parts of different nature must of necessity be differently handled Objection 11. It has been said that by the holy Spirit or the Spirit of God may be understood the Spirit of Holiness and of Constancy which the Gospel inspires or such a Disposition of Mind as is an Effect of our Faith But the general Reasons there made use of which are grounded only upon equivocal words can prove nothing but Generals They must be apply'd and particular Enquiry made whether the holy Spirit has any other Signification in Scripture or no. Mr. Simon Resp. Pag. 131. Answer When a Passage is to be answer'd wherein there is an equivocal word upon which an Objection is founded it is sufficient to show that such a word may be understood in another Sense than that in which it has been taken There is no need of examining all the other Significations that it may have It suffices to show that the Signification then given it is agreeable to the ordinary use of the Language and suitable to the Subject there treated of It was Mr. Simon 's part therefore to show that where it is said of St. Stephen on occasion of whom the Observation was made That they could not resist the Wisdom and Spirit by which he spoke I say it was his part to show that by the word Sprit any thing ought to be understood but the Spirit of the Gospel that is to say a Disposition of Mind conformable to the Precepts of Jesus Christ. He ought to have shown that this word in this place ought necessarily to be understood in another Sense But Mr. Simon seldom gives himself the trouble to read the places of Scripture that are cited as appears in the same Page where he says that St. Paul told the High Priest with a just Indignation God shall smite thee thou whited Wall and where he compares the words of St. Paul to those of Jesus Christ when he calls Herod Fox and to the Reproaches that the Prophets make to the Kings of Israel But he should have shown us in what place Jesus Christ and the Prophets confess'd they were to blame in doing so as St. Paul confesses he was God has Power to censure Princes But it belongs not to Subjects to do it when they think sit So St. Paul had no right to abuse the High Priest on his own Head though those who had receiv'd express Order from God to make such like Reproaches to Princes cannot be blam'd for it But Mr. Simon who probably never thought of all this is not aware of this difference and argues always on without understanding what he finds fault with Obiection 12. The Promise which Jesus Christ made his Apostles that the holy Spirit should teach them what they should say when they came before the Iudges seems to have been explain'd as a general Promise for all that they should say whereas it only relates to what they should say for the defence of the Gospel Luc. Chap. 12. ver 11. Answer The promise is express'd in general terms and must relate to that which the Apostles should be oblig'd to say as well for the defence of their own Persons as for that of the Gospel For it was of the greatest importance that these first Ministers of Jesus Christ should then say nothing unworthy of the Doctrine of which they were the Heraulds But if this Promise must not be taken in so large a Sense in relation to the Discourses which the Apostles should make before Judges neither ought it to be so taken in relation to their preaching of the Gospel My Design was only to shew that since the words could not be taken in the whole extent of their Signification it could not from thence be necessarily inferr'd that the Apostles had then a Prophetic Inspiration Objection 13. The Promise Iohn 16. that when the Spirit of Truth shall come it shall lead you into all Truth ought not to be understood so as if it were intirely accomplish'd the day of Pentecost but as a thing that should be accomplish'd according to the occasions and necessities that the Apostles should be in of knowing some further Truths But it seems as if Mr. N. suppos'd that this promise is ordinarily understood as if it ought to have been accomplish'd all at once Answer The reason of my insisting upon that was to make appear that this Promise though conceiv'd in so general terms ought necessarily to receive some Qualification and consequently that it ought not to be understood like an Axiom of Geometry in the utmost Signification of its Terms Now that being once granted it cannot be made appear that this Promise relates to a Prophetic Inspiration There is a Passage very like this in the first Epistle of St. Iohn Chap. 2. ver 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any Man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is Truth and is no Lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him It is apparent that this cannot be understood strictly since St. Iohn speaks to all the Christians to whom he writ Objection 14. Whereas it has been affirmed that the Apostles did not agree Acts 15. till after they had disputed a great while it is not said in that Chapter That the Apostles disputed but only that When there had been much disputing Peter rose up c. Answer Two things were considered in this History The first is The Opinion that Men had of the Apostles viz. That they were not look'd upon as Persons infallible whensoever they began to speak of the Gospel since they were not believ'd just at their first speaking The second is The Conduct of the Apostles on
leasure-Time The Iewish Sanhedrim may easily have received into their Canon Books that had no Divine Authority To come now to the Doctrines which are in the Holy Scriptures and not there attributed to a partcular Revelation I will begin with examining those which are in the Writings of the Apostles after which I will pass to those of the Old Testament It is commonly believed that the Apostles as well as the Prophets were inspir'd both as to Words and Things Yet with this difference that the Prophets were not always inspir'd but only when God gave them order to speak to the People in his Name Whereas the Apostles were always inspir'd without being ravisht into Extasies as the Prophets were before their prophesying This Opinion is founded upon the Promise that Christ made his Apostles to send them the holy Spirit which he performed on the Day of Pentecost The words of Christ are Iohn XVI 13. When he the Spirit of Truth shall come he will guide you into all Truth He says also elsewhere to his Apostles When they bring you into the Synagogues and unto Magistrates and Powers take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall say for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say Luk. XII 11. These are two the most formal Passages that can be quoted in this Matter It is requisite that we examine them with some attention to see if they prove that which they are produc'd for viz. That the Apostles were honour'd with a continual presence of the Holy Ghost who dictated to them all that they said in matter of Religion insomuch that all their words ought to be considered as Oracles To begin with the latter I observe first That he does not promise a perpetual Inspiration but only upon certain Occasions viz. when the Apostles should be brought before the Tribunals of Judges So that if there were nothing else in it this Passage would not at all favour the common Opinion But there is more in it for it wholly destroys it If Jesus Christ had resolv'd to give his Apostles the Holy Spirit to inspire them perpetually he would not have told them singly that they should not troble themselves for what they had to say before the Judges because then the Spirit should speak in them But he would have said that they need not fear that at any time they should want words because the holy Spirit should accompany them without ceasing as well before the Powers of the World as when they should speak to the People If a Man had a Design to supply another with Mony for all his Expences Would he say to him Do not trouble your self to get Mony for the Journies you are to take for you shall then be supplied He would rather say to him doubtless that he should not fear to want Mony because he should be suppli'd constantly for all his Occasions A Man promises not for a particular Occasion that which he intends to give alike at all Times And when a Man makes a particular Promise it is a plain sign that he intends to perform it but upon certain Occasions In the second place As I acknowledg that the Apostles may have had Prophetick Inspirations on certain Occasions and that in effect they have had them so I confess that I find my self tempted to believe that by these words The Holy Ghost shall teach you in that hour what ye ought to say Or as St. Matthew has expressed it It is not ye that speak it is the Spirit of your Heavenly Father that speaks in you I am I say tempted to believe that by these words Christ meant only to say this viz. The Spirit of Courage and Holiness which the Gospel produces in your Hearts will teach ye what ye ought to say That is to say That the Apostles had no more to do but to believe in the Gospel to be assur'd that the Disposition of Spirit which that Heavenly Doctrine would give them would never let them want words not even when they were to defend themselves before the Tribunals of the greatest Powers That which inclines me to this Explication of Christ's words is that in comparing this Promise with the Event it seems not to have been performed in any other sense than that which I have now observ'd and that neither ought it to be interpreted so strictly as if on these Occasions a Word might not slip from the Apostles that were not conformable to the Spirit of the Gospel St. Luke tell us Acts XXIII that St. Paul having been brought before the Sanhedrim began to speak after this manner Men and Brethren I have liv'd in all good Conscience before God until this day Here is nothing yet that one might not say without Inspiration as neither is there any thing but what is conformable to the Gospel But what follows is a sign of Passion wherewith neither the Spirit of Prophecy nor the Patient Spirit of the Gospel inspired St. Paul At that words says St. Luke Ananias the High Priest commanded them that stood by to smite him on the Mouth The Apostle provok'd by this Unjustice answers him angrily God shall smite thee thou whited Wall For sittest thou to judg me according to the Law and commandest thou me to be smitten contrary to the Law And they that stood by says St. Luke said to Paul Revilest thou God's High Priest Then said Paul I wist not Brethren that he was the High Priest For it is written Thou shalt not speak Evil of the Ruler of thy People It is plain me-thinks that if the Spirit of Prophecy had inspir'd St. Paul with the beginning of this Discourse it did not so neither with the Answer he made the High Priest nor with the Excuse he made use of afterward when they told him he was the High Priest that he spoke to He gave Sentence against himself by his Answer supposing that he had known him who order'd him to be smitten And as for the Excuse it is plain it is not very good because the Gospel allows not to revile any Man whether he be a Magistrate or a private Man Iesus Christ says St. Peter has suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Neither do I believe that the Spirit of Prophecy inspir'd St. Paul with what he said afterward At least there is no Body but could have said as much without Inspiration Now St. Paul knowing says the Historian that the one part were Sadduces and the other Pharisees cried out in the Council Men and Brethren I am a Pharisee the Son of a Pharisee of the Hope and Resurrection of the Dead I am called in question This expression also of St. Luke Paul knowing makes it evident that his Speech was an Effect of his Prudence rather than
of mine and shall shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shew it unto you What Opinion soever a Man may be of concerning the Holy Spirit it is plain that these words cannot be taken properly as if the Holy Spirit had heard from God or Jesus Christ that with which he ought to inspire the Apostles The most simple sense and most conformable to the accomplishment of this Promise which can be given to these words is to my thinking this I should explain many things to you more clearly than I have done but you are not yet in condition to receive them as you should When you shall have received the Spirit of Miracles he will teach you the rest that you ought to know either by Visions or by making you call to mind that which I have told you so that he will make you apprehend the sense and will teach you what you ought to do afterwards To speak properly he will tell you nothing new he will but recal into your memory to make you better understand it the Doctrine of my Father which is the same that I have taught you and which I may also call my Doctrine because my Father has charg'd me to preach it as the only Doctor of his Church The Holy Spirit led the Apostles into all Truths and took that which was Christ's without ever speaking of himself in making them call to mind that which they had forgotten and in making them understand on divers occasions or even by extraordinary Revelations that which Christ had said to them but which they then understood not This is plainly that which Christ teaches us in these words These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you ALL THINGS AND BRING ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE WHATSOEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU Iohn XIV 25 These last words apparently explain the foregoing He shall teach you all Things In effect there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Apostles which Christ had not told them and in leaving them he gave them no other order for the preaching of the Gospel but to teach all People to observe all those things which he had commanded them And the Apostles observe in several places that it was not till after they had received the Holy Spirit that they remember'd and understood divers things which Christ had told them when he was here below These things understood not the Disciples at the first says St. Ioh. XII 16. but when Iesus was enter'd into his Glory then remember'd they that these things were written of him See the same Evangelist II. 22. and Acts XI 16. This is in my Opinion the sense of Christ's words at least I find nothing among the Interpreters that answers so well to the Event which thorowly convinces me that Christ must have meant some such thing For when all 's done whatsoever may be said the Promise ought to be understood by its correspondency with the Accomplishment and there is no better Interpreter of Prophecies than their execution This being so the Infallibility of the Apostles according to my judgment consisted in this They knew clearly the general Principles of the Jewish Religion which had been taught them from their Cradle they had heard Christ often tell what the Gospel added to Judaism or if you will Christ had explain'd to them more clearly the Will of God and had shown them the Errors of the Pharisees He had instructed them concerning the Messiah and had made appear to them by many Proofs that himself was HE God had rais'd him from the Dead and they had convers'd with him after his Resurrection and in the last place they had seen him ascend into Heaven from whence he assur'd them he would come one Day to judg the Quick and the Dead They preach'd faithfully that which they had heard that which they had seen with their Eyes that which they had observ'd with attention and that which they had touch'd with their Hands They could declare without any mistake what they had seen they could preach what they had heard For the Doctrine of Jesus Christ was compris'd in a few Articles plain enough to be understood and consequently easy to be remembered Thus they related infallibly what they had seen and heard and therein it is that their Infallibility consisted Perhaps also the Spirit of Miracles which Christ sent them strengthned their Memories and open'd their Minds after a manner we comprehend not But it is certain as I have made it appear that this Spirit directed them not in so miraculous a manner as to make it necessary for us to regard all they said or writ with the same respect as the words of Jesus Christ the only Master and the only infallible Doctor that ever was amongst Men. He was the only Mystical Ark in which the Godhead dwelt bodily from whence proceeded nothing but Oracles Some may ask perhaps Whether it might not so happen that the Apostles might abandon the Truth of the Gospel and preach a false Doctrine and if it might be so how we can be assur'd that they were not Deceivers I confess that though it was very unlikely that after having receiv'd so many Illuminations and Graces they should fall into Apostacy yet it was not absolutely impossible But in that case God would not have approv'd by Miracles the Doctrine they taught and thereby it is that we may know they were no Seducers There crept in during their Time many false Prophets among the Christians but they were presently discover'd because they could not maintain by Miracles a Doctrine contrary to that of the Apostles which was confirm'd by an infinity of Wonders God made appear by those Prodigies that the Apostles declar'd nothing but what was conformable to his Will nor any thing that could be hurtful to Piety for it is impossible that God would favour a Doctrine which should turn Men from Holiness But we must not believe neither as I have already observ'd that because God wrought Miracles in favour of any Person it therefore follows that all things pronounced by that Person were immediately inspir'd and ought to be receiv'd as the infallible Decisions of him that never errs Provided that Person maintained the Substance of the Gospel and said nothing but what conduced to Piety God would not cease to bear Witness to his Doctrine although all his Reasonings were not Demonstrations God would not that this Mark of his Approbation should be interpreted as if he had thereby declared that he would have all the Words of those that had miraculous Gifts receiv'd as Oracles To be fully convinc'd hereof we need but read the first Epistle to the Corinthians I must nevertheless ingenuously confess that there is mention made in this Epistle of some miraculous Gifts which seem to have
hundred others that may be brought off from their Inclination to Libertinism by the same Reasons which those are offended at If indeed we ought always to be afraid of saying any thing that is not generally approv'd we should quickly be oblig'd not only to keep silence but also to suppress many things which are both useful and necessary to Salvation There is no Doctrine in the Gospel how holy soever which some Sect of Christians has not perverted and misused Nay the same is yet done daily All the difficulty then lies in knowing whether the treating concerning this Question of the Inspiration of the Authors of the Bible will occasion more Good or Hurt In it self the Thing is good even by the Concession of those that argue against it and there is nothing but the weakness of some Mens Minds that can render it dangerous Thus then the Good or Evil of this Disquisition depends wholly upon the Event which therefore these Gentlemen ought to suffer us to expect before we acknowledg that we have done ill in publishing this Writing of Mr. N. We must add to this that Mr. N. is not the first that has spoken as he does of the Inspiration of the sacred Writers We see many Proofs of it in his Dissertation And besides the places which he has cited out of some Books of Grotius there are others infinitely more strong and more express in those against Rivet Now after having thus answer'd those that would have had this Writing suppress'd it is necessary to give some satisfaction to those also who complain that the Author has not express'd his Opinion with sufficient clearness I have therefore desir'd Mr. N. to explain it to me himself if it were possible in few words and more distinctly in order to remove those injurious Suspicions that may have risen from any Obscurity in his Writing concerning his Faith and his Piety And these are the Heads to which he has reduc'd his Opinion and wherein he agrees with us In the first place says he I believe that no Prophet either of the Old or New Testament has said any thing in the Name of God or as by his order which God had not effectually order'd him to say nor has undertaken to foretel any thing which God had not indeed truly reveal'd to him and that this cannot be doubted of without great Impiety I have said it expresly in many places of my Treatise In the second place I believe that there is no matter of Fact of an importance related in the History of the Old or New Testament which in effect is not true And that tho there may be some slight Circumstances wherein some of the Historians were mistaken yet we ought nevertheless to look upon that History in general as the truest and most holy History that ever was publish'd amongst Men. I am perswaded that those who writ it were very well inform'd of all they relate and that they had not the least intention to deceive us insomuch that it was impossible they should fall into any considerable Error as neither can we do in believing what they have said And that there may be no Equivocation By a matter of importance I mean all the Commandments that the sacred Historians assure us were given to the Jews by God all the Miracles that are found in the History of the Scripture all the principal Events in that History and generally all the matters of Fact on which our Faith is grounded In the third place I believe with all Christians that all the Doctrines propos'd by the Authors of the Scriptures to Jews and Christians to be believ'd are really and truly Divine Doctrines although it may be suppos'd that they did not immediately learn them from Heaven I am as much perswaded as any Man that there is no sort of reasoning made use of in the dogmatical places of the holy Scripture where the Prophets and Apostles instruct us concerning the Promises or the Will of God that can lead us into Error or into the belief of any thing that is false or contrary to Piety I believe in the fourth place That Jesus Christ was absolutely infallible as well as free from all Sin because of the Godhead that was always united to him and which perpetually inspir'd him insomuch that all that he taught is as certain as if God himself had pronounc'd it I have explain'd this clearly in my Writing In the last place I believe that God has often dictated to the Prophets and to the Apostles the very words which they should use Of this I have also given some Examples In these things I agree with all Christian Divines And I believe further as well as they that these five Heads of our Belief may be undeniably prov'd against Libertines and Atheists by the Authority of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to whom God has born Testimony by an infinite number of Miracles which are more clearly demonstrable to have been really done than any Fact whatsoever of all ancient History For Example it may be prov'd by positive Testimonies of Matters of Fact that Jesus Christ did really rise again from the Dead and that the Apostles had the Gift of Miracles more clearly than it can be prov'd that ever there was a Roman Emperor call'd Trajan If any one conceive that this kind of Evidence is not sufficient to convince us of the Truth of these Facts or that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Miracles of his Apostles do not sufficiently prove without any thing further that they were not Deceivers I confess I understand not what further Proofs can be given of these things unless God should raise in our days a Prophet that should do the same Miracles over again before our Eyes It may be there are some who believe that the holy Spirit gives them inward assurance of the Truth of the Gospel and who imagine that this inward Testimony is a more convincing Proof than all those I have spoken of But as there are not many that have this Belief and as those that have it cannot make use of that pretended inward Testimony to convince another who does not himself feel it we may without troubling our selves further with them leave them to enjoy that Chimerical Satisfaction which their meer Imagination affords them The Authority of the holy Scriptures being thus settl'd I will now shew you wherein it seems to me that the generality of Divines are deceiv'd and in what I am not of their Opinion They affirm that all that is in the sacred Books Histories Prophecies c. has been immediately inspir'd both as to the Matter and Words That all the Books in the Jews Catalogue ought to be reckon'd amongst the inspir'd Books That when the Apostles preach'd the Gospel they were so inspir'd that they could not be deceiv'd not even in a thing of no consequence at all and that they knew at the very first without any exercise either of Reason or Memory what they
this occasion which is express'd in these terms The Apostles and Elders came together for to consider of this matter And when there had been much disputing Peter rose up and said c. The common Opinion is that when the Debate was about Doctrinal Matters the Truth was immediately presented to the Minds of the Apostles without any need of Meditation This is undoubtedly true as to the things that Jesus Christ had taught them clearly And they needed no extraordinary Inspiration to call them to mind But this Principle is extended by some to all the Functions of their Charge Now ask if that were so what need was there that the Apostles should not only meet but also talk a long while together The first that had spoke would have sound all the rest of the same mind and there would have been no more to do but for him to pronounce upon the Question according to their general though tacit Agreement It cannot be said there was no Conference amongst the Apostles and Elders concerning this doctrine since St. Luke after having said that the Apostles and Elders came together immediately adds that there was much disputing and that Peter rose up and said c. Neither can the Principle of Mr. Simon be here made use of who says that the Apostles might not determine any thing by their own Authority but by the common Consent of all the Church and that therefore it was that they assembl'd and expos'd in publick their Reasons for not imposing Jewish Ceremonies upon the Gentiles If the Apostles were as much inspir'd as the Jewish Prophets of the Old Testament it is ridiculous to say that they ought to determine nothing by their own Authority but by the Consent of all the Church They had no more to do but to declare what the holy Spirit had reveal'd to them as did the Prophets who met not together to confer about their prophecies before the pronouncing of them but pronounc'd them as soon as God had commanded them without staying for any body's Consent And herein they acted not by their private Authority but by the Authority that God gave them in commanding them to speak to the People No more would the Apostles have acted by their own private Authority in following the Motions of the holy Spirit But Mr. Simon has fancy'd a very particular sort of Inspiration in the Apostles He says it was necessary they should declare that they determin'd nothing which was not conformable to the holy Scriptures and to the Doctrine which they had receiv'd from their Master and that for that Reason it was necessary to deliberate thereupon in Assemblies in which their Opinions happen'd to be sometimes divided A Man must be very acute that can comprehend how Men inspir'd after a Prophetic manner could be of different Opinions But Mr. Simon clears this Difficulty wonderfully in the following words We ought not says he to be surpriz'd at this Diversity of Opinions since every one grounded his particular one upon Inspiration Now this is that which should have hinder'd them from being of different Opinions since assuredly God inspires not several Opinions about one and the same thing It is all one as if one should say that we ought not to be surpriz'd that of two Prophets one should say a thing shall happen and the other that it shall not happen because they both ground their Predictions upon Inspiration And indeed Mr. Simon corrects himself after a fashion by adding Or rather upon the Authority of the Scriptures and the Light which they had receiv'd from Religion If he understands by the Inspiration of the Apostles nothing but the Light which they had receiv'd from Religion why does he make all this ado since herein we agree with him He ought to tell us whether or no when the Apostles spoke by Inspiration they did any thing but express in their own way the Reasonings which God had put ready fram'd into their Minds If that be so how can we conceive that their Opinions should not be one and the same And if he inspir'd them not with the Reasonings they used then we cannot attribute Prophetic Inspiration to them since it is therein that Prophetic Inspiration consists It is very absurd therefore to believe that all the Reasonings the Apostles us'd in preaching the Gospel and all those we read in their Books were inspir'd For it is therein that the Inspiration of the Apostles is ordinarily conceiv'd to consist This is that uniform constant and ordinary Inspiration which Mr. Simon comprehends not because he never thought well upon it Nor indeed does he know what Opinion he is of Sometimes he speaks like the generality of Divines sometimes again he openly contradicts them as may be seen by the words I have cited He must study a little better this matter if he will have us answer him For it is very likely that for the most part he understands not himself I will give but one Example more of it It is that which he says concerning the Author of Ecclesiastes p. 138. For we need but read his words to find that the Prior of Bolleville minds not what he says The Author says he of this Work did not design ONLY to perswade Men to pass their Time in Pleasure To which may be added that Declamation being the proper Character of a Preacher it is no wonder to see him despise all the ordinary Business and Imployments of the World and to prefer an easy commodious Life before all the Troubles that attend a contrary Practice For which he is not to be censur'd as if he were an Epicure after the manner that Mr. N. here understands the Opinions of the Epicureans He would have done well to have told us of what sort of Epicurism the Author of the Ecclesiastes may be accus'd Objection 15. It is a great piece of Boldness to judg four Books of the Old Testament three that bear the Name of Solomon and that of Iob as unworthy to be in the Hebrew Canon That Liberty of censuring would weaken the Principles of our Religion For every one by the same Rule may say that such or such a Book is not Canonical according to his own fancy Answer Although we may reject some Books of the Old Testament it does not follow that we may do the same by all of them Neither does it follow because many Ancient and Modern Divines have thought it would have been better not to have joined with the Writings of the Apostles certain Books that are now in the Canon of the New Testament that therefore we may reject all the Books of the Apostles There are Books that are indisputably of those Authors whose Name they bear and there are others which have been questionable and are so still amongst the Learned as the Epistle to the Hebrews that of St. Iames the second of St. Peter the two last of St. Iohn and that of St. Iude. These Doubts hinder us not from
most cruel Punishments whilst they saw that their Masters would not undergo any at all for it Now we see by the Passage of Tacitus which we cited that at the beginning of Christianity a great number of People declared themselves Christians tho they saw that the bare public Profession of that Religion would expose them to the Punishments due to Incendiaries and to Nero's Fury The reason of this must necessarily be that some of the first Preachers of the Gospel as their Disciples assure us gave Examples to others Without that it is impossible to conceive they could draw so many after them and especially so many who endur'd such horrible Torments for the Religion they learn'd from them From all this I draw no other Consequence than that the Apostles were sincere Persons who believed their own Doctrine as were also those who by their Example dy'd for it They must have been truly perswaded of the thing that would suffer so many Inconveniences Fatigues and Punishments as they suffer'd rather that abandon it Now the Apostles having been indisputably sincere Persons we must confess that if ever there were any in the World whose Vertue deserved Esteem they certainly deserv'd it from all Men. No design could be conceiv'd more profitable to Mankind than theirs as has been shown in treating of the Morals they preach'd None could go about to bring that Design to pass with more Earnestness and Zeal than they did who sacrific'd to it their Fortunes their Preferments their Honours their Pleasures their Repose and their Lives They compass'd Sea and Land under a thousand Dangers attempted a thousand Difficulties suffer'd Inconveniences and Pains unexpressible They expos'd themselves to most Mens Scorn Malice and Cruelty And to what end To perswade the same Men to live one with another after a manner so conformable to Reason so advantagious to Socity so pleasant so sweet that except the Soveraign Happiness to be injoy'd in the Life that never ends nothing can be imagin'd preferable to it I ask now If being perswaded of the probity and sincerity of the Apostles and otherwise satisfied by their Discourses that they were not at all out of their Wits we could deny Credit to their Testimony if they had said they had seen with their own Eyes certain matters of Fact which they related with many Circumstances and that they had heard with their own Ears Discourses full of Sense and Wisdom which they repeated from beginning to end Let every Man ask himself if he would refuse to believe one of his Friends whom he knew to be sincere and judicious if he assur'd him positively that he had heard such and such a thing Would one suspect for a Lie the Testimony of a rational Man and one who gave good signs of Sincerity when he affirm'd that he had been present at the Execution of one of his Friends had seen him die and had heard him say many things which he very distinctly remember'd I confess they that know not the Sincerity or Judgment of a Person may make a doubt of the Truth of what they hear him say but if once they are perswaded of his Integrity and Understanding it is impossible they should refuse to believe him Every Man may be convinc'd of this by his own Experience and may as I have already observ'd frame a thousand particular Examples to himself of what I have been saying Now the Apostles tell us they liv'd some Years with Jesus of Nazareth from whom they learn'd all their Doctrine that they saw him crucified such a day of such a Month of such a Year that they saw him die upon the Cross and after that buried in a Sepulchre hewn out of a Rock for the Family of a Jewish Counsellor call'd Ioseph of Arimathea who begged the Body of Jesus from Pilate and who after having put it into the Sepulchre roul'd a great Stone to the Door that they saw the Roman Souldiers keep Guard about the Sepulchre and that the chief of the Jews had carefully seal'd it up for fear any should take away the Body Can we being perswaded as we ought to be of the Sincerity and Wisdom of the Apostles refuse to believe them in these things Certainly we must have lost all Sense to believe that Persons of Wisdom and Integrity would prevaricate in affirming a thing of this nature with so many Circumstances The same Judgment must be made concerning the Discourses of Jesus Christ which they relate to us after a manner so lively and so circumstantiated that we could not relate them better if we came directly from hearing them It is more clear than day to those who are perswaded that the Apostles had but common Sense and Sincerity that they really spoke Truth in all these Particulars That being so Why should we not believe the same Apostles when they assure us that they have often seen their Master in a moment cure many incurable Diseases restore the Dead to Life raise himself after having lain more than thirty hours in the Sepulchre eat and drink with them afterwards for several days and at last ascend in their Presence in a Cloud to Heaven I perceive indeed that many Persons who would not have question'd the Testimony of the Apostles if they had said nothing of the Miracles Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ do for that reason only doubt of it They would have easily believed that in Iudaea during the Government of Pontius Pilate there had been a Man named Jesus who taught the Morals we read now in the Gospels that the Jewish Priests through Envy and Malice put him to Death but that his Disciples refrained not from teaching his Precepts and that the most afrightful Torments hinder'd them not from publishing them They would praise all Christ's Doctrine as the most excellent Philosophy that ever was known to have been taught amongst Men and the best Principles that can be thought on to oblige them to live well one with another But they reject all this and believe that the Apostles were Impostors only because they speak of Miracles which they say they saw their Master do Let us consider a little why these Men do so There are but two ways whereby the Falshood of a matter of Fact may be known The first is when it is known that the Witnesses who relate it are deceiv'd or have a design to deceive though otherwise what they relate seem very possible The second is when by clear and evident Proofs we know that the Fact in question is in it self absolutely impossible That the Apostles design'd not to deceive us has been made appear nor can it be said that they were themselves constantly deceiv'd in all the Miracles of Jesus Christ which they relate If the Question were about a small number of Miracles that could not without difficulty be examin'd this Suspicion might with some probability be started But they relate so many and of so many different sorts that if what they say
be not true it must of necessity be that they have gone about to deceive us For Example they could not be mistaken in Christ's Ascension into Heaven which they have constantly affirm'd and of which the Christians from the very beginning have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith Those who as Pliny reports sung Hymns to Jesus Christ as to a God believ'd without doubt that Christ was ascended into Heaven And indeed I cannot but think that any who will take the Pains to read only the Gospel of St. Luke and the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians where are related the Circumstances of many of the Miracles of Christ and particularly of his Resurrection and after that of his appearing divers times unto the Disciples must certainly agree that those who spoke after that manner were not seduced and that if what they say be not true of necessity they must have design'd to deceive those to whom they related these matters Now it has been shown demonstratively that the Apostles were very sincere Persons And those who 〈◊〉 to admit their Testimonies do not tax them of having been deceived Nor do they undertake to oppose directly the Reasons by which we prove their Sincerity They content themselves in making Objections upon the nature of Miracles and so reduce themselves to the second way of knowing the Falshood of a matter of Fact which consists in showing that the thing related is in it self absolutely impossible I cannot ingage my self here in the Examination of their Reasons neither is it necessary It is sufficient to observe in general that all the Arguments with which Spinoza and those that follow his Opinions do dispute against Miracles are not comparable in evidence and force to the Principles we have establish'd These Men endeavour to show that the extraordinary Effects of the Divine Power which we call Miracles may be the necessary Consequences of some of the Laws of Nature to us unknown and that they are no more to be made use of as Proofs in this matter than those which occur daily in the ordinary course of Nature They bring also some Metaphysical Arguments to show that every thing comes to pass necessarily But all this overthrows not the direct Proofs which we have brought of the Truth of these Events and which are infinitly more clear than their Reasons which no body can understand as perhaps neither do they themselves But there is no danger that they should perswade any Man that the Resurrection of a dead Body or the Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven could happen as naturally as the Birth of a Man into the World As long as the direct Proofs of the Truth of those matters of Fact hold good no Man will be perswaded that the Miracles which the Apostles relate are natural Effects of certain Laws of Nature unknown to Men Because it will presently be ask'd Why then are no more of these Effects produced How could Jesus Christ know that after he was buried he should rise again and ascend into Heaven And how came it to pass at that instant that he commanded a lame or a Paralytic Man to go c. that the Laws of Nature unknown to us were prepared and ready to cause the lame or Paralytic Man to walk It is plain then that the Philosophical Difficulties alledg'd against the Testimony of the Apostles are not of so great force as the Arguments we have brought to confirm it nor can they rake place so long as a Man is perswaded of the Sincerity of the first Disciples of Jesus Christ. And the truth is that those who make these Objections do take this course only because they cannot possibly alledg any thing against the matters of Fact which we have prov'd They indeavour to confound the Minds of their Admirers by obscure Metaphysical Arguments and Suppositions which they cannot prove and which they assert nevetheless to be common Notions This being so it cannot be doubted that Christ Jesus was extraordinarily favoured by God And as it cannot be suppos'd with any colour of Reason that God would work Miracles in favour of an Impostor it must necessarily be acknowledged that he was a Teacher sent from Heaven to set Men right that were gone astray and consequently that his Doctrine is true But I will not insist upon this Consequence as well because it is evident in it self as because many Learned Men already have thoroughly handled it I will add only this Reflection before I end viz. That we have no Reason to suspect that Jesus Christ himself designed to deceive us Because all the Reasons brought to prove the Sincerity of the Apostles are as strong in respect of him as of them To be convinc'd of this we need but apply to him both as to his Person and Doctrine all that has been said concerning the Apostles All the Religion which he taught Men and which we find in the Gospels tends only to bring us to the Observation of the most holy and most admirable Morals that can possibly be imagin'd And he could have no other Interest in the Establishment thereof than what we all have that is the universal Welfare of all Men. Thus then you see the Christian Religion establish'd after an invincible manner without supposing any Inspiration in the Histories of our Lord and his Apostles There remains nothing more to be added but that to apprehend the Truth of all our Proofs it is necessary only that we have the same Disposition of Mind towards the Apostles that we have towards any Person whose Sincerity is very well known to us and whom we could not refuse to believe when he should assure us of a thing he had seen and heard and in which it is morally impossible that he should be deceived The chief thing then is to be well assur'd of the Integrity of the Apostles which is easy to be done in following the Method we have described Otherwise while we attend not to the Reasons which give Evidence thereunto we shall never be sufficiently sensible of the strength of the other Arguments that may be brought to prove the Divine Original of our Religion I intreat you Sir to examine what I have said exactly and to let me know if I have been to blame in affirming that we may be perfectly assured of the Truth of Christianity without believing the History of the New Testament to be inspir'd If I would have treated of this Subject thoroughly I must have compos'd a Book not writ a Letter But what I have said is sufficient to let you see that our Friend is not with any sort of Justice to be suspected of Irreligion upon the account of his not believing the Inspiration of the Scriptures as it is commonly believed I am c. FINIS The chief Errors of the Press which the Reader is desired to correct are in Page 63. Line for Read 17 It is not likely It is apparent 21 should would 22 with