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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36736	A treatise against irreligion. By H.C. de Luzancy, priest of the Church of England, and M. of Arts of Christs Church in Oxford	De Luzancy, H. C. (Hippolyte du Chastelet), d. 1713.	1678 (1678)	Wing D2423B; ESTC R201393	39,690	201

and that of beasts perishes with the body But is it a thing wise Solomon could doubt of Are men naturally inclined to believe souls of beasts immortal Could he ballance a moment to which he was to ascribe immortality mans or beast CHAP. IX A short Analysis of the Book of Ecclesiastes THere is no conduct more liable to illusions than to pick up some places favourable to ones opinion without reflecting upon many others directly opposite to it Thus the Irreligious makes use of some places in the Ecclesiastes which seem agreeable to his fancies and leaves an hundred other which say the quite contrary This artifice is easily overthrown by this answer either admit or deny them all since all have the same authority He alledges Solomon exhorts us to live pleasantly that he declares he saw nothing more advantageous under the Sun and that it was the happiness God had granted him as if no other was to be expected He understands all those places of riot and sensual pleasures thus attributing to the wisest of Kings to excite his Readers to debauchery and all that can irritate the sinfullest passions Certainly one must needs have a strangely low idea of things to conceive no other joy but that which is carnal and imagine Solomon exhorts us to fall into excess he confesses himself to have been guilty of But one must needs be very blind who does not see that he relates them only to condem them and lay open their folly and emptiness To discern then what the Wise-man allowes from the liberties the Irreligious claims as if they were consequences of his doctrine it seemed worth the while to end this discourse by a short analysis of Ecclesiastes The sense of every particular place being to be understood by the design and spirit of the whole Book which chances to be the same as of this Discourse The general aim Solomon proposes to himself is to withdraw mans heart from the love of the world the enjoyment of creatures and his eagerness for riches and transitory things to the end that he may love fear and serve God alone 'T is the conclusion he draws from the arguments he has spread through the whole book Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every word into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil c. 12.13 14. The only ground he insists upon to perswade them is that the world and all its attendance is vanity abuse darkness and misery for them that seek to be happy by it Thus he begins his discourse exclaiming vanity of vanities all is vanity Then he gives an exact account of all these vanities He describes exaggerates and carries them so far as to render every one sensible of his own misery He prescribes particular remedies for each of them And because his book is directed to great sinners he seems to compound with them and to hinder them from fixing their love in the creatures he allows them a moderate and lawful use of them All these vanities may be reduced to twenty three some are drawn from the imperfection of creatures in themselves others from the ill use men make of them The first is that all things under the Sun are tansitory and subject to alteration that all is obscure and hard to be apprehended that there is nothing new and the most glorious things are buried in oblivion as soon as they are gone c. 1. v. 2 11. That there are arguments to mortifie our inclination to present things our curiosity for new discoveries and above the thirst of Glory and Fame so natural to all men Vanity in learning which requires so constant and so hard a labour 16 18. Vanity in the pleasures of this life magnificence of buildings and great number and variety of attendants c. 2. v. 1 11. Vanity in the sublimest knowledge since it procures no advantage to the learned above the ignorant both dying and being equally forgotten after their death 12.17 Vanity in the hardships men undergo night and day to heap up riches not knowing whom they gather them for That it is better to enjoy the fruit of his labours than heap up still and starve ones self to inrich an unworthy heir That this baseness of soul is one of the greatest punishments of God 16 18 26. Vanity in the changes and and cares of men who are obliged to vary them at every moment That how great and satisfying soever be the works of God yet mans heart wishing still for an eternal and immutable God can find no rest in them So that the best way is to use them moderately still expecting greater things c. 3. v. 1 15. Vanity in the injust sentences of judges which the great Judge will disannul 16 17. Vanity in that notorious equality between man and beast in life death and corruption so as to incline stupid man to doubt of their own souls immortality 18 22. Vanity in calumnies innocent people suffer and the envy to which they are exposed who excel in any faculty c. 9. v. 1 16. Vanity in a mans continual toils who heaps up still though he has no heir and intends to have none 7 12. Vanity in the revolution of states wherein from the lowest rank one is often raised to the throne 13 16. Vanity in the quick decay of the greatest fortunes after so many pains to be setled in them 12 19. Vanity in the greatest riches the owner whereof is snatcht away before he can enjoy them that to judge that man by his own principles having put his happiness in them he must be accounted most unhappy That a Child dying as soon as he is born it is not so much to be pitied c. 6.18 Vanity in the pompous funerals of the impious and those false commendations spent upon them in funeral Sermons Vanity in the multitude of objects which are so uncertain as men know not very often which is most useful to them c. 7.1 18. Vanity in the long life of the impious and precipitate end of the just 16 21. Vanity in women whose manners in Solomon's time were so corrupted that he could find none good 28 30. Vanity in the prosperity of the impious and persecutions of the just Whence the Wiseman takes occasion to commend them who enjoy uprightly the plenty God has given them 14 15. Vanity in the laborious search into the secrets of nature 16 17. Vanity in the deep ignorance we are of our state towards God and of the great confidence of the impious because good and evil falls equally upon the just and unjust c. 9.1 22. Vanity in that fortune and hazard have a greater share in riches than merit Vanity in that the best counsels either are not hearkned to or pass unrewarded 13 18. Vanity in the unequal distribution of charges and honours by the cheats put upon Princes c. 10.1 2 5.

light enough to see that his life and the hopes of another could never agree and that if what Christianity teaches of the severe justice of God of the immortality of our souls and of the last judgement was true he was the most miserable of men amidst his false delights There was therefore a choice to be made between a life so disordered and a Religion so pure both being irreconcileable But how could he break off the fetters of lust armed and backed with a possession of many years The only thoughts of it made the whole heart rebel against the mind Perhaps he did strive to free himself from that oppression but fell lower than he was before He thought it therefore easier to extinguish what faith and Religion was left him He turned Almighty God out of the world Or if he left him his being 't was upon condition that he should have nothing to do with him in this life or in the next He disannulled the act of the last Judgement extinguished the flames of Hell called them tales and stories to fright Children and to hinder misery from ever falling upon him annihilated himself after his death He put a vail on his eyes only to peep on things Then he said confidently he saw nothing clearly and there was no more ground to believe than to disbelieve or believe the contrary In a word he had rather run to those excesses than refrain his passions Yet if Irreligious men will give glory to truth they must acknowledge that this was the way which led them to the pit And what other arguments can they expect to be condemned by Is that licentious life of theirs an argument against God and his Religion Is the Gospel less true because they are become slaves of their passions Certainly they might degenerate into the very state of beasts truth would not be less unchangeable Before they had engaged so deeply in sin when they lived an honest Christian life there was a God maker of Heaven and Earth a Jesus Christ who had redeemed us with his blood their soul was immortal and had they persevered in those commendable beginnings Faith and Religion would never have decayed But since they live disorderly all the world is altered There is no God no Christ no Angels no Devils no souls There is no Heaven to hope no Hell to fear All that has been annihilated in a moment or become so obscure as not to be apprehended But oh wonder they begun to open their eyes only since they gave themselves to the love of Creatures whose natural effect is to blind Now are they not sensible of the insufferable absurdity of these pretences And if they will answer sincerely what other proofs they need to be convinced that they are out of the way But as their sinful inclinations darkned their understanding they must never hope to see clear in the things of God till they are free from their slavery Our heart being prepossest with a violent passion for any object is not calm and unconcerned enough to judge whether the Law which condemns its excesses is just He declares before hand against a Religion which bars him from his most tender desires as an enemy to his quiet And the mind covered with the mist passion casts over it cannot weigh impartially the most solid reasons CHAP. II. Three Obstacles the Irreligious must remove by three contrary dispositions IF then the Irreligious seeks the truth with sincerity which the doctrine of Christ alone can lead us to let him remove all the obstacles that hinder him from being perswaded They may be reduced to three two of which are in him and the last in God himself The first is his sensual pleasures and passions the ordinary causes of his sins The least passion naturally obstructs the mind and unfits it to pierce the cloud that lies over the truth But sensual pleasures are directly opposite to the Gospel of Christ and 't were a miracle if a soul charmed and possest with them could understand Religion And so a sober innocent life free from passions and sins is the first disposition required of an Irreligious man He must begin before-hand to live in a manner answerable to the dignity of the law he examines The King of Heaven as jealous of his authority as the Kings of the Earth exacts from those rebels that they should put down their arms before he enters into any conditions of peace This obedience of theirs will be a preparation to faith as faith is a necessary condition to apprehend our mysteries The Irreligious would apprehend before he should believe and obey but he must do both before he can apprehend Nisicredideris non intelligetis We cannot know it better than from the author of our faith The practice of his doctrine is the only way to know whether it comes from Heaven He will will make an happy experiment of the truth of the words of the Prophet The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul The testimony of the Lord is pure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether Thus the Irreligious must begin to examine the true Religion otherwise he flatters himself in vain to have done his indeavours in that search As long as his heart is stained by the love of creatures he has not gone the first step But seeking Religion without forsaking his vices he united things that are irreconcileable The second obstacle the Irreligious meets in his waies is a disturbed busie life which tying him to present things leaves him no time to think upon his true concerns He is never at home External objects carry him from himself And care study and application being the only means that can help him in his search without them his undertaking will prove unsuccessful God is not to be found but in true Religion The Church he has founded is his dwelling place There is from it but illusions and deceit True Religion is very often covered with obscurities which incline proud men to think it false God has hid himself as it were with a cloud that men might seek for him He needs therefore all the application care and industry he is capable of to see through it If he succeeds or mistakes he is happy or miserable for ever The last obstacle the Irreligious must overcome is the justice of God he has provok'd who to be revenged of him Spargit poenales caecitates super illicitas cupiditates The wrath of God is manifested in him by his indifference for any Religion his invincible hatred to any thing that can disturb the happy peace he enjoyes and the disposition he is in to live a pleasant easie delicious life From that deplorable state of his flowes naturally a third condition necessary to an Irreligious man who begins