Mr. BLOUNT's Oracles of Reason Examined and Answered In Nine SECTIONS IN WHICH His many Heterodox Opinions are Refuted the Holy Scriptures and Revealed Religion are Asserted AGAINST Deism Atheism By JOSIAH KING M.A. And Chaplain to the Right Honourable JAMES Earl of ANGLESEY EXETER Printed by S. Darker for Philip Bishop Bookseller over against the Guild-Hall Exon and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1698. To the Right Reverend Father in God JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exon. May it please your Lordship I Have been for some time in debate with my self whether I should presume to prefix your Lordship's Great Name before this Treatise That which at last weighed down the Scales with me was that of Varius Geminus in Seneca Caesar qui apud te audent dicere magnitudinem tuam ignorant qui non audent Humanitatem The principle Motive which I had for Publishing the same under your Lordship's Name and Protection besides the Testification of my bounden Duty as being a Presbyter of your Diocess owes its Original to your Lordship's great Zeal for the Truth and your great Auersion from those monstrous and Atheistical Opinions which are now so common among us Neither can I in the least doubt of your Lordship's gracious Acceptance provided that the Matter contained in the Book makes good as I hope it doth its Title What other Motives I might truly have with Respect to your Lordship's good Government and the great Happiness that we of your Clergy enjoy under the same as things generally known I willingly pretermit least I may seem too prolix and troublesome That excellent Saying of Lipsius having made a deep Impression on my Mind Breves Sermones apud Daeum saepe apud magnos viros semper grati accepti sunt May it Please your Lordship I am Your most Humble And most Obedient Servant JOSIAH KING A PREFACE TO THE Reader ABout three or four Years since when these Oracles of Reason appeared in the World and made so great a Noise I were desired by a Minister in the Diocess of Exon to read them and to conceive in Writing what I thought most blamable in them which Request I complied with not intending then to be concerned with this Controversie in publick as all will believe that know the constant Avocations of a Parochial Charge Neither did I then doubt but that a set and formal Answer would long ago have been made to Mr. Blount's Book but it proves otherwise upon which account I were desired upon an accidental Discourse to publish this my Answer which I have now done not with a design to answer every thing in the Book but to answer the greatest and most remarkable Difficulties and to obviate the principal Design of the Author in opposing revealed Religion Pliny observes in the Dedication of his natural History to Vespasian that the Greeks were wont to inscribe their Books with the Titles of the Muses Honey-combs the Horn of Amatthea Pandects and the like vain Titles to insinuate with the Reader The same course Mr. Blount hath taken who calls his Book The Oracles of Reason but it is not the Title I am offended with he subverâ—s the Title himself when p. 87. he says That humane Reason is like a Pitcher with two Ears and that it may be taken on either side That which gives Offence is the Impiety contained in it as when p. 17. he says 'T is evident that the Five Books of Moses were written by another Hand after his decease And p. 58. That he can evince from sacred Oracles that the fall of Angels was before the Creation of the World And p. 89. That a Mediator derogates as much from the Mercy of God as an Image doth from his Spirituality And p. 162. That they were mean Persons that call'd our Lord the Son of David and that it was the Mob who cried Hosanna when he made his Cavalcade upon an Asinego And many the like Expressions which are to be treated of in their places If he uses our Lord thus we of the Clergy can expect no other Treatment from him to whom he objects so much Ignorance and nick-names us Quicunque Men and Canonical Gamesters p 97. and 136. I do not design to trouble my Reader with a long Ppeface wherefore I shall briefly acquaint him what I have performed in this Book which I have divided into Nine Sections for Methods sake and to avoid that Confusion Mr. Blount is guilty of as his book sufficiently proves The first Section is of the Mosaic History and Divine Miracles where I have manifested his Vanity in appealing to the Testimony of the Fathers and have defended the Divine Miracles from his subtile Objections and sly Insinuations Mr. Blount is a true Follower of the Author of the Preadamites who makes use of this Method for weakning the Authority of the Scripture and suggests his Difficulties without a flat denial that his Reader may be ensnared unawares I have also stated the Mosaic Year a thing of no common Observation and of good Use in these Controversies and proved it to be a perfect soler Year The second Section is of Paradise in which I have defended the literal Sense and discovered his mistaking the Question and his fathering on Moses p. 36 that which he never writ viz. That four Rivers proceeded from one and the same Fountain-head in Eden Where is also discovered the Falshood of Celsus and our Deists concerning the ancient Jewish and Christian Interpreters of Genesis The third Section is of the Original of things in which the difficulty concerning the Creation of Angels is discussed as also their Corporiety which p. 59. he falsly declares to be the Opinion of the Catholick Church We have also shown that some Particulars are omitted in the Mosaic History of the Creation and the Reason thereof from whence Mr. Blount can receive no Advantage Lastly we have subjoyned an Apology for St. Austin's Error The fourth Section is of the modern Brachmins in which we show how difficult it is to comprehend his Design that his Arguments are of little Force And his contradiction in saying p. 87. that Deism is a good manuring of a Man's Conscience if sorted with Christianity The fifth Section concerns the Deist's Religion We have made it evident how uncertain this Natural Religion is by the Practice of Nations And that what he adds of the Imitation of God destroys his own Supposition We have referred the Rewards and Punishments of another Life to be considered in another Section And whereas he takes it for granted that the Deist is no Idolater we have proved the contrary and that the same reason which exempts the Deists from that imputation will exempt Romanists Reform'd Socinian Mahometan c. The sixth Section concerns the Arians Trinitarians and Councils In thâ—s Section it will appear how perverse he represents the Affairs of those times P. 98. He makes the Arians to be Mounters of Constantine to the Throne
fame of which hath fill'd the whole World But peradventure their Records were incombustible or reserved in the great Wall for the Pre-adamites alone to consult But the mischief of all is That this King Chingi was an ambitious Prince and for this end burnt all those Histories that he might obliterate and blot out of Men's Remembrance all the noble Acts of his Predecessors The same Vossius in his Castigations ad Scriptum Hornii ch 12. cites Martinius who gives us an Account of their Traditional Antiquity Sciendum itaque extremam hanc Asiam primum septem habuisse Imperatores quorum ab Electione per suffragia ab anno nimirum ante Christum natum 2846 usque ad annum 2207 ante quae tempora nihil veri se habuisse in suis Historiis fatentur Sinae deinde hareditaria fuit successio We must therefore know that this extreme Eastern part of Asia had first of all seven Emperors who were created by the Election of the People before our Christian computation 2846 even to the Year 1205. before which time the Chinenses have no true Historical Account as they confess themselves and then their Government began to be hereditary How vastly wide and different is this Account from the Traditional account our Author gives us of the Posterity of Panzon and Panzona and from that of the Bramins of Guzarat Joseph Scaliger in his fifth Book de Emendat Tempor reckons the Chineses among those Qui veris historiae monumentis destituti hinc multa annorum millia quaedam immania temporum intervalla expressit ab illis tam temporum inscilia quam vetustatis affectatio They were destitute of the true Monuments of Antiquity and from hence it is that they boast of so many thousand Years and those wonderful Intervals of time which their Ignorance of History and their affectation of Antiquity occasioned From this Ignorance and Affectation sprang those infinite Dynasteis of the Egyptians and those monstrous Traditions of the Chinenses as have heard Besides 't is to be noted we have no certain knowledge what kind of Year they used which is necessary to be known as before we observ'd concerning the Mosaic History The Computation of the Egyptians is obnoxious to the same Objection And whereas our Author says They were not Lunar 't is not material for each of the 330 Kings might reign a competent number of Solar Years upon this his Supposition And this any Man may perceive that knows the difference between a Solar and a Lunar Year as they are vulgarly understood He that will defend the Egyytian Chronology must of necessity understand some form of Years different from the Mosaic as when they report of their ancient Kings that some of them lived 300 some 1000 Years and more as we find in Varro cited by Lactantius Book 2. Orig. Error c. 12. where altho' Lactantius differs somewhat from Varro yet as to the thing it self they may be well enough reconciled We shall therefore speak of the Egyptian Year forasmuch as Macrobius lib. 1. cap. 12. Satur. says Anni certus modus apâ—ld solos Aegyptios aliarum gentium dispari modo pari errore mutantur The Egyptians are the best skill'd in Chronology of any Nations For others altho' in a different manner yet they all err much in this particular Wherefore if we demonstrate the great variety and uncertainty that is among the Egyptians in this point we do according to Macrobius subvert the whole Pagan Chronology and the Dreams of the Preadamites Plutarch in the Life of Numa Pompilius affirms That before Numa who added January and February the Roman Year contained but ten Months Among some Barbarous People the Year contained but three Months In Greece among the Arcadians but four Months Among the Acarnanes six Among the Egyptians a Month was a Year and aftewards their Year contained four Months The Egyptians are thought to be most ancient and to compute an infinite number of Years in their Annals the reason of which proceeds from their using Months for Years Alexander ab Alexandro Book 3. c. 24. Dier Gen. writing of the variety of Years used by the Ancients says of the Egyptians Non una facie sed multiplici sorte variarunt ut quandoque trium saepius quatuor mensium annum efficerent plerumque mensis spatio ad cursum Lunae metiebantur The Egyptians did not use one kind of Year for sometimes their Year consisted but of three Months more often of four and for the most part it was but a Lunar Month. From whence it follows that nothing was more uncertain than their Account of time which yet is the basis of all true History and that in things so remote we can have no sure footing but in the Mosaic History of whose Chronology and the certainty thereof we have discoursed at large Pag. 192. As to the Origine of good and evil methinks 't is less contradictory and unreasonable to believe as the ancient Persians did That there were two Beginnings of things the one good the other evil For how can Evil proceed from a Being infinitely good and without whom nothing is If evil be not And if Genesis be a Parable the Persians may be in the right as much as the Jews ANSWER The Origin of Evil hath much exercised the Philosophers of old nor can we have any certainty thereof without Revealed Religion For how otherwise could we come to the right notion of sin or a deviation from Good in all Men a lapse from our first estate wherein God who is all good created us How perplexed our Author is about this Question for in this Page he affirms That if the Book of Genesis be a Parable and he supposes it to be so the Persians may be in the right as much as the Jews And yet Page 205. He affirms That this lapse of Nature may be discovered by Natural Reason if the opinion of the Jews be according to Natural Reason as Mr. Blount bears us in hand how can the Opinion of the Persians which is diametrically opposite to it be in the right these are great in consistencies If the Persians laying aside the Book of Genesis may be in the right our Author's Discourse of Natural Religion is ridiculous For he supposes Page 195. the first Article of Natural Religion to be That there is one GOD Infinite Eternal and Creatour of all things Whereas the Persians make two Anti-gods equally Infinite and Eternal and that one of them is the Author of Good and the other of Evil. So that the Sentiments of the Persians is repugnant to the Notion of a Deity For while they make two Gods they make none at all And consequently he is guilty of Idolatry and Atheism and the great Contradictions in the Opinion of the Persians are very palpable If this Persian Principle of Evil be absolutely contrary to the other Principle of Good it must in all its Perfections be contrary to it Now since all Perfections belong to that
the Angelical as well as Mundane Substances in the beginnig of Time is not accounted general by many learned Persons both of the Pontifician and Protestant Communion From whence it follows that this is a Matter of Opinion and not an Article of Religion 'T is only required of us to believe that the Angels were created by God and that they are not Coeternal with him which is the true Reason of this Difference among the Fathers St. Austin lib. 11. De Civitate Dei c. 32. says proinde ut volet unusquisque accipiat dum a regula fidei non aberrat ut angelos sanctos in sublimibus coeli sedibus non quidem Deo Coaeternos nemo ambigat As to this Matter which relates to the Creation of Angels whether before or after the Creation of the visible World let every Man enjoy his own Opinion only take care you do not err from the Rule of Faith and think that the holy Angels now in the heavenly Places are Coeternal with God Sixtus Senensis to whom Mr. Blount seems to be beholding although he names him not Lib. 5. Annot. 5. tells as that the learned Father Theodoret was of St. Austin's Opinion having disputed this Point against St. Bazil and that Theodoret concludes that if you grant that the Angels were created it matters not whether before or after the Mosaic Creation verbum pietatis non offendet he will violate no Rule of Faith St. Jerome in his Epist ad Cyp. thinks that in the Mosaic History of the Creation there is no express Mention of the Creation of Angels because the common illiterate People were not so capable as to apprehend their Natures Perenius on Genesis propounds this Question Why Moses did not mention the Creation of Mettals and Minerals as well as that of Plants and Herbs To which he gives this Answer Because Mettals and Minerals are hid in the Bowels of the Earth and not so commonly known as Plants and Herbs and that Moses did not design to report all things in Particular but first in General to relate that all things in the Beginning were Created by God whether in Heaven or Earth and in Particular such things as were most common and evident to all Men. Thomas Aquinas hath also remarked That in Moses 's Writings we have no mention of the Creation of the Air for that the same not being visible it was difficult to have a right Notion of that Body Yet methinks if Men have no mind to be contentious there is reason to believe that the Angels were not created before the Heavens the place of their Residence and Abode The Jews will tell us that Moses understood these Words of his especially of Angels when he said of God In the Beginning he created the Heavens And the Catechism of the Council of Trent in its Exposition of the Articles of the Creed lays down the same Opinion where it says Coeli terrae nomine quicquid Coelum terra complectitur intelligendum est Moses under the general Terms of Heaven and Earth comprehended all things in both Angels as well as other Beings Pag. 54. We can evince the same by the sacred Oracles and Authorities of the Fathers as well as by Reason and Arguments the Fall of the Angels was before the Creation of the World ANSWER Mr. Blount may evince from his own Oracles that the Angels fell before the Creation of the World but to prove it from the sacred Oracles he will find it difficult As to the Fathers I have not observed above Two who speak clearly as to this Matter and they are St. Cyprian and Arnoldus Bonae Vallis St. Cyprian in his Book De Zelo Livore hath these Expressions Diabolus inter initia statim mundi perit primus perdidit Ille Deo carus acceptus postquam hominem ad imaginem Dei factum conspexit in Zelum malevolo livore prorupit Et dum stimulante livore homini gratiam datae immortalitatis eripit ipse quoque id quod prius fuerat amisit St. Cyprian is very plain that the Devil did not fall before the Creation He says the Devil in the beginning of the World perished himself and destroyed Man He who was dear to God and accepted by him after he saw Man was made in the Image of God he was moved with great Envy and Malevolence and being stirr'd up by these Affections robs Man of the Grace and Immmortality and himself lost that which he enjoyed before Some think that St. Cyprian contradicts himself for as much as he writes in the Book De Cardinalibus Christi operibus which goes under his Name ante hoc temporale initium ipse in principio imo ipse principium existens apud Deum ante hominis conditionem superbientis Diaboli ruinam videt affectatae dominationis ambitionem Where writing concerning our Lord he says Before the Beginning of this World he was in the Beginning nay he was the Beginning himself being with God before Man was created he saw the ruine of the Devil and of the Domination he affected It must be confest that this place comes home and is to the purpose But then it must be confest that not St. Cyprian but Arnaldus Abbot of Bonae Vallis was Author of those Books Bellarmine de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis proves St. Cyprian could not be the Author of that Book because he affirms Diabolum cecidisse de coelo ante hominis creationem cujus sententiae contrarium habet Cyprianus in Tractatu de Zelo Livore That the Devil fell from Heaven before Man was created whereas St. Cyprian teacheth the contrary in his Book De Zelo Livore Which Observation of Bellarmine is allowed of by Dalle in his Book De Libris suppositis Dionysio Ignatio p. 468. Dr. Thomas James in his Treatise of the Corruption of Fathers informs us That in an ancient Manuscript in All Souls Library the Author of this Book is of much later Date written by one that lived in St. Bernard's time to whom he wrote one or two Epistles and that he was called Arnoldus Bonae villacensis We learn also from the foresaid Manuscript that the Book was Dedicated not unto Cornelius the Pope who lived Anno. 254. but unto Adrian the Pope the Fourth of that Name who was created Pope Anno. 1154. and succeeded Eugenius the Third to whom Bernard wrote his Books of Consideration And agreeable hereunto is Mr. Dalle who in his Book before cited acquaints us that the same is to be found in a Manuscript in the French King's Library So that Mr. Blount's Authority from the Fathers is reduced only to One that delivers his Mind plainly and he a very late one too who lived some hundreds of Years after St. Cyprian And now we will see his Reason and Arguments He says p. 58 and 59 Really 't is not at all probable that the most excellent Creatures were made of so frail a Nature as that the
of a Deity we have no evidence at all I must beg Pardon with all deference to so great a Prelat to transcribe a Passage out of Varenius in his Treatise de diversis gentium Religionibus p. 238. De Atheis quidam dubitant alii omnino existere eos negant atque cum Cicerone putant nullos dari tam feros homines qui non aliquem agnoscant venerentur Deum Nos illos opponimus manifestam cui cum iudicio contradicere nequeunt experientiam Multos ex Graecis Philosophis homines certe haud quaquam feros negasse omnes spiritus Dei existemiam vel saltem de iis dubitasse testantur antiquitatis Scriptores Protagoram quidem ab Atheniensibus cam ob causam civitate pulsum esse Diogenes Laertius alii clare affirmant Non jam dicam de illis qui quanquam inter Christianos versantur tamen Athei sunt sed de remotis populis agemus In Descriptione Religionis Japonensis narravimus tam ex Jesuitarum quam Belgarum annotationibus quod multi hic reperiantur qui nullam divinitatem credant nempe illos qui ex Jenxuana haeresi sunt Praeter bosce dari feros et Sylvestres populos quorum plerique sunt Anthropophagi et sine ulla Republica qui nullam Dei cognitionem habeant satis superque per navigationes comprobatum est nimirum in populis totius Brasiliae populis circa Fretum Magellanicum ad Promontorium Bonae Spei parte Insulae Sumatra Australi item in Madagascare insula et Hornanis insulis ad Novam Guineam Etenim qui navigationem Navarchi Le Maire circa totam tellurem per fretum ab eodem Le Maire dictum descripsit atque in hisce insulis multos dies commoratus est ita loquitur Non potuimus inquit ex ullis judiciis colligere quod hic populus aliquem Deum colat vivunt sine omni cura ut aves in sylvis neque tendendi vel emendi illis mos est neque serunt neque metunt nec aliis laboribus fatigantur De Brasilianis Anthropophagis narrant historiae cum Europaei aliquando sumpta occasione a vehementi tonitru existentiam Dei huic genti persuadere conarentur illos non erubuisse impudenter respondere talem Deum nequam esse oportere utpote cui volupe esset hominibus terrorem incutere Considering that this Treatise of Varenius speaks pertinently to our present purpose and that this Book is not in every Man's hand I have transcribed this Passage at large and I here translate it Some doubt others absolutely deny that there are any Atheists and are of Cicero's mind that no Men are so barbarous but that they acknowledge and venerate a GOD. But we oppose to such manifest Experience which no judicious Person can contradict Many of the Greek Philosophers and certainly not barbarous have deny'd all Spirits and the Existence of a God or at least have doubted thereof as Historians bear witness And Protagoras was banished by the Athenians for that cause as Diogenes Laertius and others testify I will say nothing of such as live among Christians and yet are Atheists but of remote People in the Description of the Religion of Japan we have delivered out of the Annotatations of the Jesuites and the Hollanders that there are many among them to be found who deny the being of any God viz. those who are of the Jenxuan Heresy Besides those there are many barbarous People many of whom are Man-eaters and without any form of Government who have no knowledge of God at all as is over and above proved by Navigators to wit the People of all Brasile the People who live about the Magellanick Sea part of the People that live about the Cape of Good hope South Sumatra in the Isle of Madagascar and the Hornane Isles about New Guinee Truly he who described the Navigation of Le Maire about the whole Earth thro' the Sea call'd from him Le Maire and tarried in those Isles many days thus writes We could not by any signs gather that this People worshipp'd any God They live without any care as Birds in the Woods they neither buy nor sell they neither sow nor mow neither are they wearied with any labour Histories tell us concerning those of Brasil That when the Europeans took an occasion from a terrible Thunder to perswade this Nation to the Belief of a God They were not ashamed impudently to answer Such a God must needs be a wicked one who took pleasure to terrify poor Mortals What Mr. Lock hath written of this Subject I have not read I am sure if what Varenius writes be true That Mr. Blount's whole Hypothesis of Natural Religion is destroy'd whose principal Foundation page 195. as he pretends is That there is one Infinite Eternal God Creator of all things and knowable by Innate Idea's or else he says Nothing to the purpose Pag. 182. But since our correspondence with China we have found they have Records and Histories of four or six thousand Years date before our Creation of the World and who knows but that some other Nations may be found out hereafter that may go farther and so on Nay the Chinese themselves in a Traditional account tell us That the Posterity of Panzon and Panzona inhabited the Earth 90000. Years The Bramins of Guzarat said the Year 1639. that there had past 326669. Ages each Age consisting of a number of Years and if I mistake not Centuries Nay the Egyptians in the time of their King Amasis Contemporary with Cyrus had the Records and Story of 13000. Years and a succession of 330. Kings which shews they were not Lunar Years ANSWER It may seem strange that Mr. Blount makes no mention of Dyrerius the Author of the Praeadamites to whom he is so much beholden as he also was to Salmasius de Annis Climactericis The reason whereof I cannot think to be other than this That he retracted his Opinion as Isaac Vossius tells us in his Book de Aetate Mundi cap. 12. 'T is a wonderful thing indeed the Chinese should have Records of six thousand Years date before the World began For Vossius assures us in his Book in his Treatise de Artibus Sinam pag. 83. Omnes Sinensium libri continentes Historiam Mathesin Astronomiam Musicam complures alias Scientias exceptis tamen iis qui ad Agriculturam rem Medicam pertinerent combusti fuere jam ante mille et nongentos annos jussu Regis Chingi multis quidem aliis celebrati operibus et praesertim constructione vasti istius muri cujus fama implevit totum terrarum orbem All the Books of the Chineses which contain Mathematicks Astronomy Musick and many other Arts and Sciences excepting such only as belong to Agriculture and Medicine were burnt a thousand and nine hundred Year since by the command of their King Chingi who was celebrated for his many great Works and especially for the great Wall the
the Front that he may poison his Reader 's Mind first of all and so prepare it for Reception of the following Heterodoxies Wherefore we have considered this at large in the first Section of Genesis and Divine Miracles Pag. 224. Diodorus Seculus was famed for his great Learning Reading Enquiring speaking of the Chaldeans he relates ' That they thought very long ago that the World according to its own Nature was eternal having no Beginning nor that it should have Corruption in order to an End And p. 225. Before the Expedition of Alexander they reckoned Four hundred and seventy thousand Years Likewise Cicero who was cotemporary with Diodorus mentions the very same Account of Time and Number of Years ANSWER The Opinion of the Chaldeans as to the Original of the World is laid down by Diodorus Siculus Book the second in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chaldeans says Diodorus affirm the World to be eternal that it had no Beginning of its Production neither hereafter shall it have any Corruption But the Order and Beauty of the Universe must be acknowledged to proceed from Divine Providence and all the glorious things which we see in Heaven owe not their Glory to Chance and Accident but to the firm and unalterable Determinations of the Gods Of what Necessity Revealed Religion is and of what Benefit to Mankind and under what great Errors men labour who are destitute of it this Instance of the Chaldeans fully evinces The Reader cannot but observe the Art of our Deist in relating the Opinion of the Chaldeans for he hath wholly concealed what they say of Divine Providence that being not for his design As also their great difference from his beloved Ocellus Lucanus The Chaldeans make the World only eternal as to the Matter of it the Form they own to be from Providence whereas Ocellus makes it eternal not only with respect to its Matter but also with respect to its Form What he writes as to their Computation of Four hundred and seventy thousand Years before Alexander amounts to nothing unless he had proved by what kind of Years they computed as we have done in the Mosaic Computation which we have proved to be Solar Diodorus observes that the Chaldeans in things pertaining to their Arts made use of Lunar Years of Thirty Days which will make this monstrous Account shrink considerably The Chaldeans make some of their first Kings to Reign above Forty thousand Years which is so incredible that Anianus and Panodorus interpret those Chaldean Years to be but Days That which will for ever cramp these vain Pretences of the Chaldeans is that we have from Simplicius on Aristotle's second Book de Coelo where he tells us that Aristotle desired of Callisthenes that he would certifie him of the Chaldean Observations which Callisthenes did and gives an Account not exceeding Two thousand Years Callisthenes was a grave Person not to be imposed on by the vain Brags of the Chaldeans he would believe nothing that they could not make to appear out of good Monuments of Antiquity This Argument will admit of no Solution the Authority of one single Manuscript to the contrary mentioned by Sir Henry Savil in his second Lecture on Eucleid is not to be opposed to all the vulgar Codes What our Author says concerning Cicero's mentioning the same Account of Time and Number of Years proves nothing but this That Mr. Blount is a Man of unparallell'd Boldness and abuses good Authors 'T is true that Cicero mentions this monstrous Account of the Chaldeans in two places in his first and second Books of Divination but then he explodes the same as false and ridiculous 'T is to be noted that Mr. Blount cites Cicero in general and refers to no Book he well knowing that all his Readers were not conversant in Cicero and that if he had mentioned the place where this was remarked the Reader would have cried shame on his Disingenuity Both these places being to the same purpose I will relate only that in the first Book where Cicero writing of the Babylonians who are the same with the Chaldeans hath these Words Condemnemus hos aut stultitiae aut vanitatis aut imprudentiae qui quadringenta septuaginta millia annorum ut ipsi dicunt monnmentis comprehensa continent mentiri jndicemns We cannot but cnndemn the Chaldeans of Folly Vanity and Imprudence who boast that they have Antiquities of 470000 Years and in our Judgment they are guilty of Falshood AN Appendix To the ANSWER I Have some reason to fear that the Reader of this Discourse may think that I have been too brief in my Preface wherefore I have thought fit to annex this Appendix I have already acquainted the Reader that I have pretermitted the Examination of some things in these ORACLES OF REASON viz. Things purely Philosophical and which may be problematically disputed on either side What those other things are which I have pretermitted I think it reasonable to acquaint my Reader with least he may conjecture that I have passed over some Material Difficulties I shall therefore give in this Appendix a particular Account I have not examined nor any ways concerned my self with those things that are purely Political as when our Deist in the Letter directed to Sir W. L. G. to be left in the Speaker's Chamber p. 137. calls the Regulators of Corporations and the Surrenderers of Charters Impudent if without Blushing they call themselvrs Protestants As also when p. 174. he says If the Church of England can be supported by such ill Men the Lord have Mercy on her And p. 174 Of how great Importance an Honest Impartial and duly Elected House of Commons is to this Nation every body knows and the ill Effects of the contrary I think is unknown to no body my old Lord Burleigh used to say we can never be throughly ruined but by a Parliament And in the same Page he writes I confess I cannot but couple these Regulators and Surrenderers together with those Judges and other Geâ—tlemen of the long Robe who were for the Annihilating or Dispencing Power I have not concerned my self with these Political Matters because I have not been conversant in that sort of Learning and because they are without my Sphear and proposed Design Neither have I concerned my self in discovering those Errors which are obvious to every Man viz. His illogical Inferences or his great Confidence in abusing good Authors We have an Example of the first p. 196. where when he is to prove the Minor of his first Syllogism viz. That no Rule of Revealed Religion ever was or could be made known to all Men he only proves that the large Continent of America was not discovered till within these Two hundred Years a Matter of Fact incontrovertible Whereas unless he had proved that Revealed Religion never was nor never could be discovered to America he hath not proved his Minor In like manner when p. 224. he is to prove rhat