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
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
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
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
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
been pure Inspirations and which ought to make the Speakers attended unto as if they were the simple Interpreters of the Holy Spirit The Spirit says St. Paul 1 Cor. VII 8. gives to one the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledg It seems as if he meant thereby the Gift of prophesying that is to say of instructing others in Piety of which he says many things in the XIVth Chapter of the same Epistle This seems contrary to what I have been saying concerning the Inspiration of the Apostles and I confess I cannot see how according to my Notion this difficulty can be clearly solv'd I might say that this Gift of Prophecy was perhaps no other than a Disposition of Mind which God infus'd sometimes into those on whom he bestow'd it by which they became fit to instruct although he inspir'd them not extraordinarily with that which they were to say which is so much the more likely by how much this Gift was preserv'd and increas'd by Study and Reading as appears by those words of St. Paul to Timothy First Epist. Chap. IV. 13 c. Vntil I come give thy self to Reading to Exhortation to Instruction Neglect not the Grace which is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy through the Imposition of the Presbytery Meditate on these things be always imployed to the end they Improvement may be known of all Men. Now it is plain that the Gifts which are owing to an actual and immediate Inspiration of the holy Spirit such as curing Diseases c. could not be increas'd by Application of Mind as not depending upon Man in any sort The most assiduous Study cannot contribute any thing to prophetick or immediate Revelations This Conjecture seems probable enough And indeed I see no other way of explaining what St. Paul says to Timothy But without determining any thing concerning the Gift of Prophecy it appears plainly by what St. Paul says 1 Cor. XIV that it consisted not in an immediate Revelation of the holy Spirit that forced the Prophets to speak He there gives them this Advice Let the Prophets speak two or three and let another judg but if any thing be revealed to one of those that sits by let the first hold his Peace for ye may all prophesy one by one to the end that all may learn and all may be comforted And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets The Prophets whom the holy Spirit had inspir'd immediately with what they ought to say had no need of this Advice Nay it had even been ridiculous Because the holy Spirit inspiring them with what they had to say would have inspired them likewise as to the occasion and the place and would not have put many Persons on speaking at one time in the same place nor so as to interrupt others who spake by his Inspiration Moreover St. Paul would have the Prophets judg one another and that the Spirits of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets which cannot be understood of Prophets immediately inspir'd who are subject to none but God and who are to give account to none but him The Prophets of the Old Testament spoke as long as God inspir'd them after which they held their Peace without needing any Advertisement because they easily perceiv'd when the Inspiration ceas'd It seems to me that we may now conclude that there never was any body but our Saviour who had a constant and perpetual Inspiration and all whose words we ought to receive as Oracles As he alone amongst Men was incapable of sinning so it was he alone whom God indow'd with an absolute Infallibility The same Light which perpetually inlighten'd his Mind regulated also the Motions of his Affections otherwise it would be difficult to conceive how he could chuse but be subject to Error if he had been subject to Sin There is so great a Correspondence between the Mind and the Affections that it is not almost possible there should be any Irregularity in the one without a disorder in the other But that you may not believe I am the first Author of this Opinion and that it is a desire to appear singular or an Affectation of Novelty that has ingag'd me in this Notion I must also let you see that some great Men have been of the same Mind before me St. Ierom makes this Observation upon the fifth Chapter of the Prophet Micah in speaking of this Passage And thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Judah c. which St. Matthew cites otherwise than it is either in the Hebrew or Septuagint There are says he that affirm there is the like Error in almost all the Testimonies that are taken out of the Old Testament that either the Order is chang'd or the Words and that sometimes the Sense it self differs the Apostles or Evangelists not transcribing the Testimonies out of the Book but trusting to their Memory which sometimes fail'd them It is true St. Ierom says not that he approves this Opinion but he makes it appear elsewhere that he is not very far from it In his Letter to Pammachius de optimo genere interpretandi of the best way of interpreting He gathers together many Examples of the New Testament by which he shews that the Apostles tie themselves more to the Sense than to the Words and maintains with good reason that we should not play the Criticks on them for it nor even for the places where they have mistaken Names After having compar'd the Quotation Matth. XXVII 9. with the Original he adds One may accuse the Apostle of falsity in that he agrees neither with the Hebrew nor with the Septuagint and which is more that he is mistaken in the Name putting Jeremy for Zachary He seems indeed elsewhere to disapprove that Opinion but it is usual with him to accommodate himself to the common Opinion and yet not omit to give his own without being concern'd whether he contradicted himself or no. When he speaks as others do you must not conclude presently that he is of the same Opinion with them because it may be he speaks so by way of Condescension whereas when he says the contrary it seems rather that he speaks his own Thoughts You need but read what he says of the Dissimulation which he attributes to St. Peter and St. Paul in his Commentary upon the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians and in his Answer to St. Austin to see that he believ'd that St. Paul by a Prudence purely human which he calls a Dispensation made shew of believing that St. Peter was in the wrong insomuch that when St. Paul says that St. Peter was to be reprov'd because he walked not uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel It was not that he believ'd so but only to hinder the converted Gentiles from imitating that Apostle I say not that St. Ierom was herein in the right but at least it hereby appears that
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
in any thing that is done under the Sun Go thy way eat thy Bread with Ioy and drink thy Wine with a merry Heart for God now accepteth thy Works Grotius is of Opinion that this Book was not writ by Solomon himself but that it is a Work compos'd under his Name by one that had been in Caldea because there are divers Caldean words in it If this Conjecture be true as is not impossible then this Book will be nothing but a Piece of Wit and Fancy compos'd by some of those that had been in the Captivity And I know one who has studied much the Criticks of the holy Scripture that suspects the Author of this Book to have been of the Opinion that the Sadduces were of afterwards about the Immortality of the Soul and the World to come It seems to him that this Author says nothing which a true Sadduce might not say But for my part I think it best to determine nothing herein It is commonly believ'd that the Song of Solomon is a Mysterious Book describing the mutual Love between Christ and his Church But there is no proof of it neither in the Old nor New Testament nor in the Book it self All that can be said is that the Jews explain this Book allegorically of God of Moses and of the Jewish Church But a Man need but read their Allegories to see that they are the Visions of Rabbins having no Foundation but in the fanciful Extravagance of their Brains which frame of Mind our Divines have so much inherited from them that they give themselves wholly up to find Mysteries in every thing Nay it must be confess'd that some of them have in that out-done the Rabbins and that there is nothing so Chimerical in the Chaldee Paraphrast as in the Commentaries of those who pretend this Book ought to be explained by Revelations and that in it are to be found all the Wars about Religion of this past Age in Germany the Interim the League of Smalcald the Peace of Passau c. There being then no Proof of the Mysteries that are pretended to be in this Book if we judg by the Book it self we shall find it to be an Idyle or Eglogue where Solomon brings himself in as a Shepherd and one of his Wives perhaps Pharaoh's Daughter as the Learned think as a Shepherdess That the Stile is the same with that of the Pastoral Poems of the Greeks and Latins saving that it is more rough and dithyrambic acccording to the Genius of the Hebrew Poetry You may compare the Similitudes Solomon makes use of in the fourth Chapter with those Ovid uses in the Pastoral Song he makes Polyphemus sing in the XIIIth Book of his Metamorphosis The Book of Iob is also a piece that has nothing in it of Prophetic The Critics who have any thing of a nice Judgment agree that it is a sort of Tragi-Comedy It is likely there was such an one as Iob since the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him and that he met with great Afflictions which afforded Subject to some Jew of the Captivity to exercise his Wit upon There are in this Book as well as in Ecclesiastes many Chaldean words which show that it was compos'd either in Chaldea or after the return from the Captivity Divines agree that God inspir'd not Iob's Friends with what the Author makes them say and this Book being written in Verse seems to be a Work of Meditation wherein the Author would make his Parts appear Neither Iob nor his Friends could talk in that manner extempore The design of the work is to show that Providence oft-times afflicts good People not to punish them for any particular Sin as if they had deserv'd those Afflictions more than others but simply to try them and give them occasion to exercise their Vertue This is without doubt a Truth but there is no need of being a Prophet to know it And on the other side there is one very remarkable Fault in this Book The Author brings in Iob complaining Chap. III. with Bitterness and extream Impatience unworthy not only of a pious Man who had the knowledg of the true God but even of a Pagan that had any Wisdom Let the day perish in which I was born and the night wherein it was said a Man-Child in born c. This manner of cursing the day of his Birth with so much Passion becomes not a pious Man such as Iob to what extremity soever he might be reduc'd It is to be guilty of great Indecorum to put into a good Man's Mouth so passionate words as well as those that are in Chap. X. I will say unto God Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Becomes it thee to oppress c. After such Expressions as these which are very like Blasphemies God finds says the Author that his Servant Job has spoke the thing that is right before him and is angry with his Friends for believing that Iob was afflicted for his Sins It appears methinks hereby clearly enough that there was no Inspiration in this Book no more than in the three foregoing Not but that these Books are useful and may be read with Profit and Edification as well as Antiquity read those which we at present call Apochrypha Nay it may be allow'd that they which compos'd them had the Spirit of God that is to say were full of Piety and that they writ them with a prospect of leading those that should read them into the ways of Piety But it may be objected that these Books being in the Jews Canon ought to be acknowledg'd for divinely inspir'd rather than the Apocryphas that never were in it I answer to that First That no clear Reason is brought to convince us that those who made the Canon or Catalogue of their Books were infallible or had any Inspiration whereby to distinguish inspir'd Books from those which were not This Collection is commonly attributed to Esdras and the great Sanhedrim of his Time amongst whom they say were Zacchary Haggai and Malachy But many learned Men believe not this Story because no proof is brought for it except a very uncertain Jewish Tradition There is much more likelihood that this Collection which we have is the remainder of the ancient Books of the Jews which divers particular Men at first gathered together and of which afterwards public use was made in the Synagogues whereas in the time of Nehemiah as appears by the Book that bears his Name they read publickly only the Book of the Law In the second place if you will stand to the Jews Canon it is plainly on my side They divide the Scripture into three parts of which the first contains the Books of the Law the second the Books they call the Prophets and the third contain others which they call Chetoubim or simply Writings that is to say the Psalms the Proverbs Iob Daniel Esdras Nehemiah the Chronicles and those which they call the five little Books
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
though preach'd with never so much Gravity It happens I say that these Persons reject all the Christian Religion because they do not distinguish true Christianity from those Dreams of fanciful Divines It is easy to guess after this what we ought to think of the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament The Prophecies that are in it ought to be believ'd because Christ has authoriz'd them The substance of the History ought also to be believed for the same reason notwithstanding any uncertainty there may be in some inconsiderable Circumstances as it appears there is still some uncertainty by divers Contradictions which the Divines with all their Subtilty have not been able to reconcile after puzling about it above three thousand Years The Doctrines that are in it ought also to be receiv'd so far as they are conformable to those of the Gospel or if you will let us say that the true meaning of the Law is to be learn'd from Christ. No Conclusion is to be drawn from those Books that appear to be only pieces of Wit and Fancy or wherein nothing but Human is to be found such as the Song of Solomon Ecclesiastes c. Lastly we ought not to strain too far the Sense of particular Expressions as do the Jews Because if we except a very few places the Expressions are the same with those which the sacred Writers were wont to make use of in explaining their other Thoughts that is to say they have worded both the Jewish History and the Revelations they had from Heaven after their own ordinary manner of expressing themselves These Sir are the Thoughts of Mr. N. concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Pen-Men I am told he draws from these Principles three Consequences The first is That by admitting this Hypothesis we may terminate many great Disputes among Christians which have risen from the false Subtilty of Divines interpreting too mysteriously the Expressions of the holy Scripture as if every syllable had been dictated by God The second is that whereas by sticking too close to the Letter of the Scripture the Essence of Religion comes to be neglected as if God required no more of us at present but to believe that the holy Scripture is divinely inspir'd instead I say of this Practice it will be found necessary to apply our selves wholly to the obeying Christ's Precepts which is the only thing God indispensably requires from us The third Consequence is that hereby at one blow will be solv'd an infinite number of Difficulties which Libertines are wont to alledg against the holy Scripture and which it is not possible to solve by the ordinary Principles Their Mouths will be stopp'd says Mr. N. and it wil no longer avail them to object against Christians the Contradictions which are found in the Scriptures the lowness of the Stile of the sacred Writers the little Order observ'd to be in many of their Discourses and whatsoever else they have been us'd to say against our Divines who have in vain puzled themselves to answer them By imposing nothing upon these Men as necessary to be believ'd but the Truth of what is most essential in the Histories of the Old and New Testament and the Divinity of our Saviour's Doctrine in which there is nothing that is not conformable to right Reason they will be brought says he to acknowledg that Christian Religion is really descended from Heaven and will be easily inclin'd to embrace that which hitherto they have obstinately rejected because it was grounded on Suppositions repugnant to that Light of Reason by which they are guided I shall not undertake Sir to examine these Consequences nor the Principles from whence they are drawn I promis'd you only a bare account of the Thoughts of Mr. N. And I hope you will use means that some Divine verss'd in these matters may satisfy us both upon this Subject better than I my self am able to do I am c. THE THIRD LETTER YOU have seen Sir to how little purpose it is that Mr. Simon indeavours to defend his particular Opinions as well as those which are common to him with all other Roman-Catholic Doctors You shall see now that he is no happier in going about to play the Critic on two Letters in which he was not concern'd It appears evidently that nothing but the itch he hath of carping at other Mens Writings has made him undertake to examine those Letters For he embraces the greatest part of the Opinions which the Author there maintains And I doubt not but those who have judg'd the Opinions of Mr. N. too bold will be as much scandaliz'd at those of the pious Prior of Bolleville That incomparable Critic maintains at first dash as boldly as if he were assur'd of it by Revelation that he that is call'd Mr. N. is Noel Aubert de Versé which I have told you already is nothing but a Dream of Mr. Simon 's who thinks he may lawfully say any thing that comes in his Head and believes that by boldly affirming it he shall make his Reader be of his Mind That is a Secret of his Rhetoric which he puts in practice as soon as ever he finds himself puzl'd or when he imagines he may thereby worst his Antagonist But by ill fortune he has us'd it so long that his Art being plainly discover'd can no more deceive any body By saying whatever came in his Mind although in truth he did not believe it he has so grosly contradicted himself that he has now lost all Credit with Men of Worth I need therefore return no other answer to the beginning of our Author's XIIth Chap. than by saying that I am sorry his Choler does so much blind him as to make him affirm a Falshood as boldly as the clearest Truth I pray God as I have often done to cure him of a Passion that discomposes him in so deplorable a manner and which may in time render him incapable of serving the Public as he might do if he considered a little more on what he thinks fit to publish I will not spend my Labour singly upon his Remarks for I write not this to satisfy him In the ill Humour he is nothing is so fit to settle his Mind as Time I will therefore but touch on them as I go along when the nature of what I have to say leads me to it Neither is it my design to defend the Opinions of Mr. N. concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Writers Tho I said it was hard to answer his Proofs fully I said not that I was convinc'd On the contrary I propos'd them to the Learned that I might provoke them to examine the matter carefully and might draw from their Observations some further Light than my own Meditations could furnish me with But as Mens Intentions are not interpreted always so favourably as they ought to be I find my self oblig'd that I may satisfy the Scruples of some pious Persons and repel the Calumnies of some Divines
who have more Zeal than Knowledg to answer four sorts of Reflections that are made upon the Treatise concerning Inspiration I. Some Learned Men who approve the Opinions of Mr. N. conceive nevertheless that they ought not to have been publish'd because in their Judgments it is not fit that all Truths should indifferently be communicated to all People There are say they certain things which though good in themselves may easily be apply'd to ill uses and it is better that the Public should be depriv'd of the advantage it might draw from the knowledg of such Truths than be visibly expos'd to the danger of abusing them so lamentably as it would be apt to do II. Others who are of the same Mind in approving the Opinions of Mr. N. believe that since he was willing those his Thoughts should be publish'd he ought to have express'd them more distinctly and above all to have propos'd in the first place the State of the Question between him and the generality of Divines These Gentlemen think that if he had done as they say he had prevented a great many Calumnies which are grounded upon nothing but the Obscurity that is observ'd to be in some places of his Writing III. Some of those who look upon the Opinion of Mr. N. as false Doctrine cannot indure that I should have said It appears not by what Principle it can be overthrown They say that nothing is more easy And to let you see they are in the right they make divers Answers to the Arguments of Mr. N. and propose some Objections which they believe sufficient to refute all he has said IV. Lastly the most hot and the least reasonable of these Objectors affirm that the Opinions of our Friend lead directly to Deism and stick not to accuse him of favouring that abominable Opinion You see Sir to what Heads I am oblig'd to make Answer being of Opinion as I am that it was convenient to publish that Writing concerning Inspiration To begin with the first I acknowledg Sir that what they say is true I grant that all sorts of Truths are not fit to be spoken at all times and on all occasions It is undoubtedly a very ill thing to publish any Truth not necessary to be known how certain soever it may be when we are assur'd that those who shall read or understand it will infallibly be so scandaliz'd at it that the knowledg thereof will produce more hurt than good On such occasions Christian Prudence indispensably obliges us to the contrary The Question is not then Whether the Maxim of these Gentlemen be true or not In that we are agreed But my Opinion was that this Writing of Mr. N. would do infinitely more good than hurt and I dare yet maintain that in the Times wherin we live it is very fit that such Matters as these be throughly examin'd without concealing from the Public any of the Difficulties that attend them You know Sir that most of the Sciences being arriv'd in this our Age to a greater degree of Perfection than formerly though from thence it might be expected that such Improvements should have render'd Christians so much the more wise and more judicious yet on the contrary Libertinism and Impiety have prevail'd more scandalously than ever The Libertines of former Ages profess'd their Opinions only in some extravagant Sallies of Wit or Debauchery and oppos'd the Christian Religion only by some insipid Railleries which could have no weight with any Persons of sound Judgment and unbiass'd Affections But the Libertines of our Times make use of their Philosophy and Criticism to overthrow the most sacred and most solid Doctrines of our Religion Divers impious Books have been publish'd not only in Latin but also in French in English and in Dutch which many unlearned Persons read with much greediness Abundance of People are fond of Spinoza's Opinions because they have read his Books in French in English and in Dutch though they never study'd Philosophy nor Criticism We are in Times wherein every body pretends to depth of Learning freedom of Thought and strength of Judgment and this Reputation is easily acquir'd by reading those Books But that which renders this yet more deplorable is that it is not a Disease of Youth that Men grow out of as they advance in Years They whose Minds are once tainted with these unhappy Opinions do very seldom get quit of them This is undoubtedly a great Mischief and to which those who are any ways able to bring Remedy are oblig'd to do it It has been endeavoured to overthrow the Authority of the holy Scriptures by making appear that the Stile of the sacred Writers was not inspir'd and that they did not receive every thing they said from immediate Inspiration And in effect it has happen'd that many People have hereupon believ'd that the Authority of the Scripture was intirely ruin'd And imagining that the Reasons brought by Spinoza to prove this Opinion were unanswerable they have fall'n into Deism or into Atheism What Remedy Sir for this For my part I confess I see but one of these three Either a way must be found to burn all the Copies of these impious Books that have corrupted so many Men and to blot out of Mens Memory the Arguments of these Libertines or else there must solid Demonstration be made of the Falsity of the Arguments they make use of to maintain their Opinions Or lastly in granting to them that the sacred Pen-Men were not inspir'd neither as to the Stile nor as to those things which they might know otherwise than by Revelation it must be yet demonstrated that the Authority of the Scriptures ought not for all that to be esteemed less considerable It is plain that the first of these three is absolutely impossible and that tho an Inquisition should now be settl'd in France in England and in Holland it would already be too late There is then no other means left to cure this Libertinism that is spread so wide but one of the two last propos'd Remedies For my part I could wish with all my Heart that some body would try the second and would make it evident that God has inspir'd the sacred Authors not only with the matter they have spoken about but also with the very Expressions But since no body has yet done nor that I know undertaken to do it why should it be ill taken that Mr. N. has made use of the third method or that I have publish'd his Writing It is true there are some who believe that it were better to hold ones peace in a matter so delicate than to run the hazard of giving scandal to others by contradicting the Opinions which they think most reasonable This indeed would be very well if Libertines also forbore writing or if no body read their Books But since it is otherwise such silence is not at all seasonable If any weak Minds take Offence without Reason at what is offer'd there are an
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
away Religion will fall to the ground and be destroy'd Thus some Romish Doctors have fancy'd that Men for the most part not being capable to examine Religion themselves it was necessary that God should settle a way whereby they might find it without Examination viz. by the way of Authority And from thence they have concluded That to deny there is an Authority in the World to which People ought intirely to submit is to overthrow Religion But to these Gentlemen it is answer'd That it is absurd in them to fancy that God will not preserve the true Religion amongst Men unless it be in the way that they have imagin'd The same may be answer'd to our Protestant Divines who believe the Inspiration of every word viz. that they are deceived in believing that the Truth of Christian Religion is founded upon that Opinion We ought not to reckon every thing among the Principles of our Religion that unto us seems proper to strengthen it nor to trouble our selves in examining after what manner we would have establish'd it had the thing depended upon us or in asserting how God ought to have done it But we ought to consider things in themselves as they really are and learn what has been the Will of God by what he has done not conclude that he has done this or the other thing because we fancy he ought to have will'd it Libertines who see that to uphold the Truth of Christian Religion Men bring long Metaphysical Arguments which often prove nothing but that according to the Suppositions they have thought fit to make it ought to be so believe presently that Christian Religion has no better Foundation and so reject it as much perhaps through the fault of those Divines who argue in that manner as their own But if things were represented to them as they are in themselves without going about to force them to allow that which is not prov'd they would submit to our Reasons and we should not need to teach them any thing but what Religion injoins them after having convinc'd them of its Truth This is Sir what Mr. N. has writ to me upon the desire that was intimated of his giving some further Explication of his Thoughts I hope it will be found sufficient to convince those who may have mistaken his Sense and who on that account have charg'd him with Opinions which he never had that he is very far from being guilty of what he is so uncharitably accus'd of I will send you by the next the Answers which he makes to divers Objections that have been propos'd to him THE FOURTH LETTER I Believe Sir there is no Condition in the World more deplorable than theirs that publish any thing in Print if it be so that they are bound to satisfy all those that censure them Some Persons have taken it ill that it should be said It was hard to confute the Opinions of Mr. N. They hold it very easy and that there needs no great Ability to do it But they either undertake it not Or if they make any Objection they show that they understand nothing of the matter as the Prior of Bolleville who seems to understand neither what Mr. N. has said nor what himself objects Others confess that it is a very difficult matter and pretend that therefore a Man ought not to trouble himself with it nor raise Scruples in weak Heads which the strongest would find it a difficulty to remove To satisfy the first it would be requisite to show that the Objections propos'd are not strong enough to refute Mr. N's Opinions And that is the very thing that will infallibly offend the others who would have nothing said on that Subject If the Advice of these last be taken the first will undoubtedly say that we were much in the wrong to say that it was very hard to confute an Opinion which they have easily overthrown They will be apt even to say that it is not without design that we have made use of weak Arguments and their crazy Fancies will set no bounds to their Suspicions according to the Custom of too many Divines who glory in a shew of diving into other Mens Thoughts What is to be done in this case One of the two must unavoidably be displeas'd I will not then be afraid Sir to communicate to you the Answers of Mr. N. to some Objections Such as have not read the Explanations which I sent you a while ago with sufficient Attention may perhaps by our Friend's Answers better apprehend his true meaning Objection 1. To say that the Prophets have often express'd themselves in their Prophecies after the same manner that they were wont to do on other occasions and that they were not constantly inspir'd by God with all their Expressions is to lessen the Authority of the Prophecies Answer They that make this Objection could not say any thing that can give more advantage to the Profane For it is as clear as day that the Stile of the Prophets varies according to the diversity of their Genius as has been observ'd and as is agreed by the most able Interpreters Mr. Simon proves it himself Pag. 123. of his Answer and makes appear that what the Prophets said was not the less God's Word But I cannot forbear to observe that our Divines are even more scrupulous than the Jews For these believe the Inspiration of Words only in the Pentateuch whereas they believe it throughout all the Old Testament The Prophecy of Moses says Manasseth Ben. Israel after many other Rabbins was in every respect more honourable and more excellent than the Prophecies of all the other Prophets For to them whensoever they receiv'd the Prophecy the Sense only or the Substance of the matter to be foretold was reveal'd but they declar'd to the People this Thing or Matter in their own words And for that Reason they made use of this form of speaking And the Lord said unto me As if they would say these things which we say to you although we express them in our words contain the Sense which we have receiv'd from God c. Many Christian Divines have said the same things of all the Prophets in general as Mr. Huet in his Demonstration who plainly affirms that the things are to be attributed to the holy Spirit but the Words and the Language to the Prophets He says also elsewhere that Prophetic Extasy does ordinarily produce a hard rough and broken Stile Many others have held the same thing without being thought guilty of Heterodoxy Objection 2. It has been said that David says many things of himself and of his Enemies not thinking to prophesy which contain notwithstanding Predictions of what was to happen to Jesus Christ and his Enemies as what he says Psal. XLI 10. LXIX 26. CIX 8. places which Christ and his Apostles apply to Iudas Nevertheless St. Peter after citing some words of Psal. XVI where David speaks of himself in the
agreeing about the Gospels and St. Paul's Epistles nor from proving clearly that they are the Books of those whose Name they bear I know not why we may not doubt of some of the Books of the Old Testament as well as of some of those of the New and why ill Consequences should be drawn from their Opinions who doubt of some of the former when none is drawn from theirs that reject the latter The Canon of the Books of the New Testament ought to be of much greater importance with us than that of the Old It is a mistake that we ought to receive all or reject all It is not true that we ought to receive all It is less true that we ought to reject all But there is a mean betwixt these two Extreams Objection 16. But what will be said to these words of St. Paul 2 Tim. III. 16. All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration For they ought to be read in the vulgar Translation according to the Greek and also according to the ancient vulgar Omnis Scriptura divinitùs inspirata utilis whereas Mr. N. reads them Omnis Scriptura divinitùs inspirata utilis est The Verb est is not in the Greek but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Et is before utilis If this Verb be to be supply'd because it is often wanting in the Hebrew and the Syriac and consequently in the Greek of the New Testament it ought to be done in this manner Omnis Scriptura divinitùs inspirata est utilis Answer Mr. Simon 's Decrees are not without Appeal We maintain against him that this Passage may very well be thus translated All Scripture that is divinely inspir'd is also profitable for Instruction for Reproof c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So the vulgar translates it which Mr. Simon improperly corrects and which the Gentlemen of Port-Royal have judiciously follow'd St. Paul's Design favours this Version He tells Timothy that the holy Scriptures are able to make him wise unto Salvation to which he adds That all Scripture given by Inspiration of God is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect c. These words are a sort of Explanation of those foregoing where St. Paul sets down after what manner the holy Scriptures may instruct to Salvation There is a tacit opposition here between Holy Writ and certain prophane Studies As will easily appear if we go back a little higher to find the Thred of St. Paul's Discourse and observe the occasion of his saying That all Writ divinely inspir'd is profitable c. St. Paul describes in the beginning of the Chapter a sort of wicked People whom in the 5 th Verse he orders Timothy to avoid The Characters he marks them by suit very well to the Gnostics But it matters not of whom He speaks It suffices that we observe that they were Persons who boasted of teaching their Hearers many things witness those Women they had seduc'd which were always learning and never arriv'd to the knowledg of the Truth But the Apostle foretels their Seducement should not long continue He represents to Timothy that he had fully known his Doctrine his manner of Life and the Persecutions he had suffer'd in order to strengthen him by his Example He declares that the Good shall always be persecuted and that there shall still be Seducers and Persons seduced But Thou continues he be stedfast in the things thou hast learn'd and hast been assured of knowing from whom thou hast learn'd them and that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith in Iesus Christ. He opposes plainly the Study of the holy Scriptures to the Study of fabulous Doctrines which some Impostors then taught and whereof he complains in many places of his two Epistles to Timothy 1 Ep. Ch. 1. v. 4. Ch. 4. v. 7. 2 Ep. Ch. 4. v. 4. And as here he orders his dear Disciple to continue firm in those things he had learn'd and which he had been assur'd of he likewise ends his first Epistle with this Exhortation O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy Trust avoiding profane and vain bablings and opposition of Science falsly so called which some professing have err'd concerning the Faith And thus when he adds That all Scripture given by Inspiration c. It is as if he had said to Timothy That he ought to keep close as he had done hitherto to the study of the Old Testament which would instruct him sufficiently in the way to Salvation by joining thereunto Faith in Jesus Christ Because all Scripture inspir'd by God as is a great part of the Old Testament is profitable for Instruction Whereas if he apply'd himself to the false Science that some Impostors then boasted of he would cultivate Doctrines that would be proper for nothing but to raise Disputes instead of edifying as he had else-where told him By this it is evident that all this reasoning of St. Paul does in no wise suppose that all the Scripture of the Old Testament is inspir'd and that the Apostle pretends thereby only to intimate that the inspir'd Writings without fixing the number of them are more profitable than those that some Persons at that time boasted of Rivet had objected this Passage to Grotius against the Opinion of that incomparable Critic concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Books Let us see how Grotius answers him The place says he 2 Tim. Chap. 3. v. 16. has another signification than D. Rivet thinks For St. Paul says not All Writing is divinely inspir'd For how many are the Writings of human Invention Nor does he mean that all that is inspir'd is divinely inspir'd That would be trifling But this is his meaning All Scripture that is divinely inspir'd that is the Word of Prophecy as St. Peter stiles it 2 Ep. Chap. 1. v. 19. is not only useful in its own time to show God's Praescience and to give Authority to the Prophets but is moreover at all times profitable because it contains many standing Rules Reproofs of Vices Incitements to Righteousness c. This Sense was rightly observ'd by the Syriac Interpreter who thus renders it In the Scripture which is written by the Spirit there is profit in respect of Doctirne c. This Passage then of St. Paul proves nothing against me let Mr. Simon say what he pleases He seems not to understand Christian Religion throughly enough to treat of these matters These Sir are the principal Objetions that have been made to Mr. N. against his Essay concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Pen-Men You may judg whether he has solv'd the Difficulties propos'd or no. For my part I will not judg of that Question But this I dare boldly say that Mr. Simon is not the Man that will run him down and that the Answers you have now read are plausible enough
to puzzle an abler Man than he I am c. THE FIFTH LETTER I Am perswaded Sir that the two last Letters I writ you will have fully satisfied those among your Friends who wish'd that the Writing about Inspiration had been suppress'd or who desir'd some Explanation of the Author's Opinion or even who believ'd they were in the wrong that said it was hard to confute it We must now try to give some Satisfaction to those who have said that this Opinion leads to Deism and that our Friend was infected with the detestable Opinions of the Deists Now I having openly maintain'd the contrary he has impos'd upon me the Task of justifying him in this Particular And I think I can evidently demonstrate that they who have brought this Accusation against our Friend have therein violated that which is most sacred in Christian Religion and that while they endeavour to maintain it by a Zeal not only wanting Knowledg but also void of Charity they have not sufficiently reflected upon the true Proofs of the Divinity of our Religion and upon the Method us'd by many of those who have undertaken to desend it against Atheists and Infidels But I confess to you I dare not promise to my self ever to satisfy intirely this sort of People because they are such as fancy they know every thing They have given over all Study they examine nothing and they think they should do a thing unworthy of their Character if they should confess they had condemn'd any one wrongfully and if they abated never so little of the heat of their Zeal This Zeal or rather blind Passion which is made up of Choler and animated by Superstition Pride and Envy discomposes them so violently and with so little Intermission that it is very hard to find a moment wherein they are fit to hear quietly the Justifications of those whom they have too rashly condemned It is not amiss however to tell them our Reasons If they themselves will not hear them yet perhaps these Reasons may prevent some other Persons of more ingenuous Dispositions from forming such rash Judgments as the vehement Declamations of these implacable Zealots would otherwise move them to Two things ought here to be distinguish'd The Person and the Opinions A Man may have Opinions the Consequences whereof are very evil and very dangerous without being aware of these Consequences how necessarily soever they may seem unto others to follow from them I have made this plain in the beginning of my first Letter on this Subject It ought not then to be concluded because a Man embraces a certain Opinion that therefore he admits all the Consequences This Truth is own'd by every one but little made use of by any when they pass Judgment upon those that are opposite to their Party Nevertheless none that are equitable can refuse to allow this Justification of our Friend I mean that protesting as he does an utter abhorrence of those impious Consequences which in his Judgment are unduly wrested from his Opinions he himself at least ought to be absolv'd although his Doctrine be condemned Natural Equity obliges us to believe that a Man is perswaded of a thing when he affirms it and when we have no evident signs of his design to deceive us This also is a Rule in Morality generally agreed upon but of which as little use is made as of the foregoing one But let Men do what they will it must be acknowledg'd that those who refuse to believe our Friend when he affirms that he is perfectly convinc'd of the Truth of the Christian Religion do violate the Charity and the Equity which we ought to have naturally one for another seeing they have no evident sign to convince them that this Protestation of his is hypocritical The Truth is these Zealots who judg amiss of his Piety ground their rash Judgment but upon very light Suspicions They believe that our Friend has discover'd but part of his Opinions concerning the Inspiration of the holy Writers for fear of too much thwarting the Public and losing altogether his Reputation But he on the other side protests that he has laid open the very bottom of his Thoughts without any Reserve and without hiding any thing which he thought might contribute to discover the whole Extent of his Opinion in this matter This is all he can do to repel so unjust a Suspicion If they who frame a rash Judgment upon so ill-grounded Suspicions met with the like Usage none of them would be found innocent It might always be said when they maintain any thing from whence an ill Consequence may be drawn and from what may not that be done that they speak not all they think for fear of being cry'd down and losing their Pensions The Zeal for example of which they are so proud might pass for an Effect of an artificial Policy by which they endeavour to render themselves Masters of the Peoples Minds in order to satisfy their Ambition and oppress their Enemies In a word they should not make one step which might not be interpreted maliciously and made look odiously But it behoves us and them to remember that Precept of our Saviour founded upon the plain Light of Nature Do not to another that which ye would not should be done to you If the Heat of an indiscreet Zeal keep them from observing this Precept yet nothing shall make us trangress it I conclude then that our Friend cannot be ill thought of without wronging the universal Rules of Equity and Charity and in this case those Rules will be the more enormously broken by how much the Impiety which our Friend is accus'd of is more detestable Rash Judgments and ill-grounded Suspicions are always Crimes although the matter they relate to be of small importance but when the Concern is not only the Reputation of a Person but also his Life and which is yet more his Salvation they become still more hainous To affirm that a Man is of an Opinion such as is that of the Deists without having evident Proofs of it is to say that a Man is an Enemy of God and Men that he is in a State wherein he can expect nothing but the Anger of Heaven wherein he merits even to be no longer suffer'd upon Earth and it argues that these Calumniators after having made him lose his good Name would if they could deprive him also of his Life Let any reasonable Man judg if without certain and convincing Proofs a Man may pronounce so terrible a Sentence against his Neighbour and not be guilty of the greatest Injustice imaginable It seems to me Sir that this is so plain I need dwell no longer upon it The Person of our Friend then being justified against these rash Suspicions we will now show that the Truth of the Christian Religion may be undeniably prov'd without taking any side about the Doctrine of Inspiration and consequently without supposing the common Opinion This I intend to do after
I have first observ'd that several great Men and who have pass'd for good Christians have held this Opinion without losing the Reputation they had of Piety There is not a Man of Worth and Honour among the Protestants who will dare to say that Erasmus and Grotius were Libertines and yet both of them defended openly this same Opinion But because there are some Divines who esteem none but those that have been of the Society they live in I will repeat some reremarkable words of a Divine famous amongst the Presbyterians in England and even amongst those on this side the Water It is Mr. Richard Baxter who speaks thus in an English Book translated not long since into Dutch and intituled The Saints everlasting Rest. 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he who believeth but some one Book that containeth the Substance of the Doctrine of Salvation may be sav'd much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest Men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual Precedency to the Writings of other godly Men and do believe in Christ upon those strong Grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather than upon the Testimony of the Writing it being purely infallible and divine may yet have a divine and saving Faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine Inspiration where it handleth the Substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every Circumstance And in the next Page 32. The Circumstantials are many of them divine yet so as they have in them something humane as the bringing of St. Paul 's Cloke and the Parchments and as it seems his Counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something human in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediately divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But all innocent Imperfection here is in the Method and Phrase which of we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick Nothing can be more expresly said for the Justification of our Friend Those who have a value for Mr. Baxter must forgo their Esteem of him or else not condemn so lightly those who in his Judgment may have a saving Faith together with some Opinions different from those commonly receiv'd It may likewise be observ'd that many of those who have writ of the Truth of the Christian Religion have prov'd it without supposing the particular Inspiration of the Historians of the New Testament to be such as it is ordinarily taken to be as Grotius whose Book has been alike esteem'd by all Parties Which shows that our Belief is not founded upon this Supposition and that consequently one may be a good Christian without admitting it But it is better to represent this by an Example which will give you a more lively Impression of what I aim at I will therefore now indeavour in as few words as is possible to give you the Idea of a Method that seems to me very strong and very proper to convince a Libertine of the Truth of our Religion without once mentioning any thing of particular Inspiration I do not pretend thereby to condemn all other Methods that may be used to the like purpose but it seems to me that this is the simplest of all and subject to the fewest Difficulties You will allow me Sir this small Digression which may perhaps not be unuseful in a time when there are every where so many that doubt of the Truth of the Christian Religion The first and the greatest Objection the Libertines make us is That our Judgments are pre-possess'd which hinders us from being undeceiv'd We say the same of them and maintain that it is nothing but sensual Inclinations that raise those Difficulties in their Minds which would vanish if they examin'd them without Passion It is not just that either they or we should take for granted our Pre-possessions as Principles demonstrated or which need not be demonstrated Let us then act on both sides as if we had not yet espous'd any party and let us urge nothing that is not founded upon Principles which both sides acknowledg It is agreed that there are certain Characters by which we may be assur'd whether a thing has been done or no and by which we may distinguish the Truth or Falshood of a History If we do not agree in that we are Pyrrhoniens or to give it a better Name altogether senseless for none but a Mad-Man can doubt of the Truth of all the Histories in the World But farther we must also agree in another thing which is no less certain It is that there are certain Matters of Fact the Truth whereof is better conceiv'd than it can be prov'd and which are of such a nature that unless a Man be in a proper Disposition of Mind he can hardly be induc'd to believe them For Example If any one should tell us here that the Inquisition of Spain and Italy has approv'd the Works of Calvin and allow'd the People to read them in Spanish and Italian although it is impossible for us to believe it and that we are firmly perswaded of the contrary we should not be able to convince a Person who should be obstinate in maintaining it until we had given him evident Proofs thereof In like manner if there were false Witnesses ready to swear that one of our Friends whose Vertue had been well known to us for divers Years and who but just then was gone out of our Company went then immediately in cold Blood to assassinate a Person unknown to him for no other reason but only to make an Anatomical Dissection of his Body it is certain we should not believe them although it might not be in our Power to prove judicially the contrary It is easy to imagine a thousand Examples of such like Truths which we apprehend better than we can prove That being suppos'd if we come to the Christian Religion there occurs at the very first a difficulty in discerning what are the Doctrines of this Religion for Christians have great Controversies among themselves about their Belief There would be no end of going about to examine all these Controversies Let us therefore suspend our Judgment thereupon and see first wherein all Christians are agreed They all agree for Example that most of the Books of the New Testament are the Writings of those Authors whose Name they bear and who writ them more than sixteen hundred Years ago that the History therein is true and that we ought to obey the Commandments therein contain'd This Obedience may be reduc'd to these general Heads a rendering to God the Service due to him a trusting in his Promises and a keeping his Commandments in what concerns both our selves and our Neighbour But this supposes a Belief of
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
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