Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	faith_n	teach_v	4,044	5	6.3549	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63913	A phisico-theological discourse upon the Divine Being, or first cause of all things, providence of God, general and particular, separate existence of the human soul, certainty of reveal'd religion, fallacy of modern inspiration, and danger of enthusiasm to which is added An appendix concerning the corruption of humane nature, the force of habits, and the necessity of supernatural aid to the acquest of eternal happiness : with epistolary conferences between the deceased Dr. Anthony Horneck and the author, relating to these subjects : in several letters from a gentleman to his doubting friend.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.; Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1698 (1698)	Wing T3313; ESTC R5343	198,836	236

required to comprehend them whatever God hath said is to be assented to tho' we cannot frame adequate Notions of the Thing it self nor understand the Manner how it should be 'T is as much against Reason as Faith to think to fathom the Perfections Councils and Works of God seeing Reason acknowledgeth him to be infinite and it self finite 2. If we will pretend to Reason in Religion we are to believe whatever God hath said to be true this being the greatest Reason that He who is Truth it self cannot lye there is nothing more consonant to the transcendency of so high a Nature as that of God than that it be acknowledg'd Incomprehensible nor is there any thing more agreeable to his infinite Wisdom than that his Designs and Contrivances shou'd be held past finding out 'T is as well irrational as unjust to think that Man shou'd penetrate those Depths and Abysms which the Angels desire only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into as vailed and hidden from sight But on the other hand tho' there are many things contained in Holy Scripture which are above our Reason yet most certainly there is nothing therein which is contradictory thereunto To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's repugnant to right Reason is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance or rather as the Invention of distracted Men and withal to open a Door for filling the World with Figments and Lyes under the Palliation of Divine Mysteries We cannot gratifie the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them that the prime Articles of our Belief imply a Contradiction to our Faculties In a word this Hypothesis were it receiv'd wou'd make us renounce Man and espouse Brute in Matters of the chiefest and greatest Concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower Species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible And when Men have filled Religion with Opinions contrary to common Sence and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such an one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the Evidence and Principles of both Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under the pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common Sence and did violence to the universal uniform and perpetual Light of Mankind Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil others of them having establisht two several Gods one Good another Bad others having affirmed the Soul to be a Particle of the Divine Substance not to mention a thousand Falsities more all these they defended against the Assaults of the Orthodox by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be hearken'd to Thus do others to this day who being resolv'd to obtrude their Phansies upon the World and unable to prove or defend what they say pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorems nor can I assign a better reason for the Antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy than that it overthrows the Follies and Absurdities of their Religion this themselves confess by devoting Almansor to the Vengeance of Heaven because he hath weakened the Faith of Mussel-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them In brief Tho' we make not Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine yet we may safely allow it a Negative Voice we place it not in the Chair in Councils but only permit it to keep the Door to hinder the Entry of Contradictions and irrational Fansies disguis'd under the name of Sacred Mysteries And it is necessary also to be remarkt that when we say there is nothing in Religion which is truly repugnant to Principles of Reason we do not by Principles of Reason understand all that this or that sort of Men vote or receive for such The Universal Reason of Mankind is of great moment but mistaken Philosophy and false Notions of Things which this or that Man admits for Theorems of Reason are of very small importance Men being misled by their Senses Affections Interests and Imaginations do many times mingle Errors and false Conceipts with the genuine Dictates of their Minds and then appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason when they are indeed nothing else but the vain Images of our Phansies and the Conclusion of Ignorance and Mistakes So that in reading the Holy Scriptures it highly concerns us to be very careful that the proper and original Sence of the Words be not neglected there have been those and yet are who will hardly allow any Text of Scripture a proper Sence but do every where obtrude an Allegoric meaning as if that alone were intended by the Holy Ghost and nothing else but such kind of Expositors do in effect little less than undermine the whole Scripture betray Religion and turn the Sacred Oracles into Burlesque Nor is there any Notion so Romantic which the Scripture by a luxuriant Phansie may not at this rate be wrested and debauched to give countenance to yea a very small measure of Wit will serve to pervert the plainest Scripture Testimony to quite another Sence than ever was intended by the Writer of them An Instance of this we have in those who by turning the whole Scripture into Allusions have wrested the Revelations of the Word to justifie their own wild Phantasms and framed the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own private Notions and thereby evacuated the Sublimest Doctrines and most glorious Actions into empty Metaphors and vain Similitudes thus the Person of Christ is allegorised into themselves and the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour are construed after the manner of Aesop's or Phylostratus's Fables into useful Morals as if these were intended only to declare what is to be done in us by way of Allusion But leaving these and supposing only for the present that there has been a Supernatural or Divine Revelation of the Almighties Will to Mankind which every Moral Man will find his interest to believe and imbrace if it were upon no other account than the Extraordinary Advantage it affords us towards the securing both a Temporal and Eternal Felicity by those Excellent Precepts it contains above what is discoverable in Natural Religion Supposing this I say 't is reasonable for us to think that there can be nothing in this admirable System essential to a Saving Faith or fundamentally necessary to our future Welfare but what is as intelligible as legible to every Reasonable Creature Most certainly the Essentials of Religion consist not in any intricate or perplexing Theory's but in the Practise of our Duties The Lord hath shewed thee O Man saith the Prophet what is good and what doth he require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Again saith another of them Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in Affliction and to keep

our Duty to our God and to each other If Humane Reason or the Light of Nature is insufficient to direct us to such a uniform and steddy Rule or System of Laws or if it cou'd since the greater part of Men wou'd think themselves unconcern'd or under no necessity to observe them on the account of a Deficiency in Authority or a want of a Divine Sanction or Manumission it is reasonable as well as natural for us to wish and expect upon these accounts that our Maker wou'd in some manner reveal Himself unto us that He wou'd prescribe our Laws and stamp the same with some Divine Impression whereby we might be enabled to discover their Authority and read in them the Characters of a more than Humane Contrivance or Composition Whether or no this Almighty Being has made any such Discovery of his Will to the World or revealed to them such Laws or Rules of Worship as will be most acceptable to Him is the Business of our present Enquiry for let me tell you whatever Noise our Deists have made in the World about the Sufficiency of Natural Religion we have very little reason to think them in good earnest If their Natural Religion does oblige them to believe in God and to confess the Truth of the Souls Immortality how comes it to pass that the Result of such a Faith is so little conspicuous in their Lives and Conversations and why I pray is it that the Precepts of Christianity which aim at nothing more than the Happiness of Mankind and contain the compleatest System both of Moral and Divine Laws to direct us in our Duty shou'd be no more regarded 'T is plain enough to every sober and judicious Man that there is nothing in reveal'd Religion that can seem harsh even to a real Deist He that is a Deist in good earnest will find it his highest Interest and Concern to do every thing which Christianity has enjoyn'd upon which score since we find it otherwise we have abundant cause to think with a Learned Man That Revelation in it self is not the stumbling Block it is not the Fundamentals of the Christian Doctrine nor yet the Articles of her Creed it is the Duty to God and our Neighbour that is such an inconsistent incredible Legend He who is more than a Nominal Deist must heartily subscribe this following Confession which that you may be the better opinion'd of I shall give you in their own words We do believe that there is an infinitely powerful wise and good God who superintends the Actions of Mankind in order to retribute to every one according to their Deserts Neither are we to boggle at this Creed for if we do not stick to it we ruine the Foundation of all Humane Happiness and are in effect no better than meer Atheists Whatsoever is adorable saith another of them aimiable and imitable by Mankind is in one supream infinite and perfect Being which we call God who is to be worshipped by an inviolable adherence in our Lives to all the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an imitation of all his infinite Perfections especially his Goodness and believing magnificently of it Again in their new Scheme of Natural Religion I find acknowledg'd the following Particulars 1. That there is one Infinite Eternal God Creator of all things 2. That he governs the World by Providence 3. That 't is our Duty to worship and obey Him as our Creator and Governour 4. That our worship consists in Prayer to Him and Praise of Him 5. That our Obedience consists in the Rules of Right Reason the Practice whereof is Moral Vertue 6. That we are to expect Rewards and Punishments hereafter according to our Actions in this Life 7. And lastly When we err from the Rules of our Duty that we repent us and trust in God's Mercy for our Pardon Now show me the Man who acts according to this Faith and let him be never so well opinion'd of Natural Religion I make it no question but he will readily acknowledge as the most considerate and judicious of them have always done that Christianity however mysterious is indisputably the best method of cultivating Mens Minds and manuring their Consciences I must confess with Mr. Norris were we to consult the perverse Glosses and Comments of some Christian Rabbins and to take our Measures of this Religion from those ill-favour'd Draughts of it we may sometimes meet with we shou'd be induc'd to think that as some Christians are the worst of Men so will their Religion appear to be the worst of Religions an Institution unworthy the Contrivance even of a wise Politician much less of Him who is the Father of Wisdom And indeed whatever Declamations are made against Judaism and Paganism the worst Enemies of the Christian Religion are some of those who profess and teach it for if it be in reality as some of those who call themselves Orthodox describe it we may boldly say that it is neither for the Reputation of God to be the Author of such a Religion nor for the Interest of Men to be guided by it Those of whom this Author more particularly takes notice as the Misrepresenters of Christianity are first of all the Antinomians who are impudent and ignorant enough in express terms to assert that the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ does wholly excuse us from all manner of Duty and Obedience Secondly the Solifidians who under pretence of Advancing the Merits of the Cross and ●he Freeness of the Divine Grace require nothing of a Christian in order to his Justification and Acceptance before God but firmly to rely on the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ and without any more to do to apply all to himself And thirdly Those who have a share in the foremention'd Charge are such who make Christianity a Matter of bare Speculation rending and dividing themselves from one another by those unhappy and dangerous Disputations which instead of making Proselytes to the Truth of Christianity have drawn Men first of all to Deism afterwards to Scepticism and thence by a very easie step to Infidelity and Atheism These are they who think all Religion absolved in Orthodoxy of Opinion that care not how men live but only how they teach and are so over-intent upon the Creed that they neglect the Commandments little considering that Opinion is purely in order to Practise and that Orthodoxy of Judgment is necessary only in such Matters where a Mistake wou'd be of dangerous influence to our Actions that is in Fundamentals so that the necessity of thinking rightly is derived from the necessity of doing rightly and consequently the latter is the most necessary of the two Having touched on some few of those particular Opinions which have brought a Scandal upon Revealed Religion and very much obscur'd its glorious Lustre it behoves me to say something to Revelation it self which I shall do in the words of a late Author As

notwithstanding this her Constitution is truly Excellent and Noble and seeing it is impossible for Men to Survey the Secrets of each others Hearts or to fathom their Hypocrisie the greatest part of these Blemishes and Irregularities are such as will almost unavoidably creep in to any other Universal Church The great Objections touching Form and Ceremony are to my thinking no other than unreasonable Prejudices and shou'd we to gratifie the Humours of some inconsiderate Men dispense with or lay them aside I may be bold to presage with a great Pillar of this Ch That Religion it self wou'd quickly dwindle into Nothing and there wou'd be no such thing as a Publick Assembly met together for the performance of a Divine Service As for the Injunction of prescribed Forms to be made use of in our Publick Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings to Almighty God they have beyond Controversie their proper use and advantage and will by every impartial Judge be confest or acknowledg'd to be excellently design'd for notwithstanding that frivolous and impertinent Objection of the Noncon that we hereby stint or limit the Divine Spirit and set Boundaries to its Power and that a formal Worship was only invented to gratifie the lazy Humour of the Priests we have not according to my Sentiments any other way to petition Heaven as we ought or as becomes the Supplicants to an Alwise Being unless with our Modern Visionaries we can perswade our selves that we enjoy at those Times some Supernatural Accession or Influence to inspire us and that what we deliver has no dependance upon our own either natural or acquir'd Faculties but is immediately dictated to our Minds by the Holy Spirit and convey'd to our Organs by an extraordinary Impulse for otherwise whatever peculiar Genius Gift Talent Faculty or Quality some Men are endow'd with of speaking readily without much fore-thought there are few such Discourses however pleasing to Sense and Imagination by the Gesture or Deportment of the Speaker or by his Air and Manner of Delivery that will bear the Test of Reason or be justify'd for the Sense and Grammar even by the Author's themselves and if so I see not why such Men who labour under the Infirmity of a mean and imperfect Delivery a want of thinking rightly as well as speaking whose Sermons and Discourses Prayers and Thanksgivings are incoherent a Medly of Confusion made up of a useless redundancy of insignificant words of Circumlocution frivolous Repetition or Tautology where the whole is downright Nonsense in such Cases I say I am not able to reconcile the Notion of extraordinary Inspiration If we must believe these Men inspir'd from the Matter or Manner of their Expressions here are scarce the footsteps of Humane Knowledge much less the Characters of Divinity and so far are the Discourses of this Nature from surmounting the Acquirements of Natural Men or deviating in any thing out of the common Mode of Understanding that every Prophane Hypocrite may play the Counterfeit and the most extravagant Whim suggested to the Phantasie has an equal Right of putting in a Plea for Inspiration If we must believe they speak or teach by the Dictates of the Spirit on the account of their more than ordinary Probity or Moral Honesty their Devout Holy and Exemplary Lives and Conversations these indeed might sway us were we not satisfy'd of the as strict Sanctity Sincerity and undissembled Piety of those who as they pretend not to any special Priviledge of Supernatural Inspiration are utterly averseto Ethusiastic Principles Did true Religion consist in an affected Singularity of Expression in a rustick or ungenteel Behaviour and Deportment in the Dreams and Rapts of a deluded Phansie or to borrow a Physical term were its Pathagnomonic Sign any set Garb or Habit were a green Apron a Riding Hood a short Crevat or a Hanging Coat the only Characteristic Marks of Christianity These Men above others have a just Pretence to the Title of its best and chiefest Votaries but if the real Acts of Devotion such as Watchings Fastings Prayers and Supplications if Charitable Contributions to the Relief of the Poor and Indigent if Mortification and Self-denial in worldly Satisfactions are as conspicuous and apparent perhaps more in some others than in these I see not the necessity of admitting them either to speak or act differently from any other pious and devout Person 'T is not the Garb or Habit that makes either the true Gentleman or the true Christian tho' most certainly a decent plainness is very becoming if not absolutely necessary to the Profession of the Gospel The World who take their Estimate of Things from Sense are too apt to value one the other upon the Lineaments of the Face or the propotionate Symmetry of other Parts of the Body and to measure each others Capacity or Mental Endowments by their outside Apparel but these were never over-rated by the Wise and Prudent There is indeed an Extream on either side and as on the one hand an extravagant Dress looks ridiculous to the Sober and Judicious Man and is very often the signal of Effeminacy at best a Shallow Apprehension so on the other the stiff and precise Habit is very rarely unattended with a Spiritual Pride a secret Desire to distinguish our selves from the rest of Mankind and an overfondness to value our selves upon such Indifferencies and to believe them in time some of the Essentials of Divinity But to return to the prescribed Forms of Religious Worship and particularly those enjoyned by the Liturgy of the English Ch if we our selves through a preconceived Prejudice or the Influence of a different Education can think them neither useful nor necessary nor find our selves edify'd by the same it behoves us however to be so charitable as not to Condemn or Censure those who do There is no Person in this Ch was ever that I heard of so Childish as to think the Truth of Religion or the Advantage to be received by the Practise of its Duties did consist in the Verbal Recitation of a Creed in the Repetition of some certain Prayers or the External Compliance with any other Performance but since it is by all granted that true Piety does consist in a hearty Submission and Resignation of our Wills to God in the most humble Elevation of our Minds to Heaven and in our most fervent Supplications Prayers Praises and Returns of Gratitude and since it is not only possible but certain that in these Forms so well adapted and fitted for our Necessities no truly Religious Person did ever rest upon the Form of Words but knows his Heart and Tongue must move together it becomes us to believe that the Prayers Responses and every part of the Service of the Ch are always new to every sincere Christian and that they loose nothing of their Efficacy by being common I shall not here insist upon their Usefulness and Benefit to the Ignorant and Unlearned for notwithstanding we are to believe the God of Heaven

be defined otherwise than as a kind of two legg'd Animals without Feathers Thei● last Assault is against Heaven it self or the Divine Being whom they first seek to discredit by the multitude of anomalous Accidents which they say cou'd never come to pass if an Intelligent Being were the Director their Conclusion tho' perhaps not so plain is this that we need believe nothing but what we our selves are able to account for which in other words is to believe our own Understandings to be infinite and that is to believe we are so many Gods our selves Whoever looks upon our Modern Deism any otherwise than disguised Atheism will find himself deceiv'd for my own part I never yet heard of any one of them that cou'd forbear at one time or other giving us to understand that he was the modester sort of Infidel and whatever advantage it may be to their Principles this is certain that there is scarce a Profane Irreligious Person or Libertine about the Town who pretends not to be a very devout Deist As to their wild Ravings against the Christian Religion we have no occasion to reply other ways than this That had Christianity been all transacted behind the Curtain or in the Clouds had its Founder been as invisible as the King of the Pharies or were the History of Christ no better attested than those of the Mythologists who talk of once upon a time and the Land of Utopia we shou'd then I say have no small grounds for our Hesitation but since we find it otherwise and that all was acted openly at Noon-day before the Face of the Multitude since not only the Names of Christ and his Apostles but their Lives and stupendious Actions together with a Narrative of their Sufferings and Deaths are deliver'd to us by as undoubted Testimony as it is possible for any other Matters of Fact to be and stand upon perpetual Record their Adversaries will be lookt upon as a brain-sick People and no Man in his Wits will think this Religion soil'd till it is unquestionably proved that there never were such Persons on the Earth as our Saviour and his Disciples or that they never performed those works of which it is reported they were the Authors till they can do this it signifies nothing at all that they cannot reconcile the want of a Mediator or the Mystery of Man's Redemption by the Sufferings of Christ to their own crack-brain'd Fancies or to their own Notions of the Divine Attributes 'T is generally observed that by an immoderate Curiosity in searching after the Divine Arcana instead of inlightening others Men do but stagger and confound themselves which if they righ●ly consider'd the certain Limits of their own Capacities they might with less difficulty be dehorted from this dangerous Extravagance and calmly acquiesce in the revealed Will of God But to return to the present Corruption of our Natures and the Necessity of Divine Assistance to concur with our own Natural Power we have an intelligible account of the former in one of the Articles of the Church of England where it is said that Sin viz. Original is the Fault and Corruption of the Nature of every Man that naturally is engender'd of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is far removed from his first Righteousness and is of his own Nature inclin'd to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and in every Person born into this world deserveth the Divine Indignation and this Natural Infection doth remain even in them that are Regenerate whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some expound the Wisdom some the Affection some Sensuality others the desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God The Learned Orator Dr. Allestry speaks to this purpose upon this Argument Our Saviour saith he suffer'd on the Tree that we might be renew'd into that Constitution which the Tree of Knowledge did disorder Before Man eat of that his lower Soul was in perfect Subordination to his Mind and every Motion of his Appetite did attend the Dictates of his Reason and obey them with that resignation or ready willingness with which our outward Faculties do execute the Will 's Commands then any thing however grateful to the Senses was no otherwise desir'd than a● it serv'd to the regular and proper ends and uses of his making there was a rational harmony in the tendencies of all his parts and that directed and modulated by the Rules and Hand of God that made them in fine th●● Grace was Nature and Vertue Constitution Now to reduce us to this state as near as possible is the Business of Religion but this it can in no degree effect but as it does again establish the Subordination of the Sensual to the reasonable part within us that is till by denying Satisfaction to the Appetite which is now irregular and disorderly in its desires we have taught it how to want them and to be content without them and by that means have subdued its Inclinations According to this great Man the Corruption of our Nature does not lye in the Mind but only in the lower Soul and Regeneration is no more than the reducing that lower Soul to obedience to its superior the Mind but because this plain Point has been made a mighty Mystery by some People I shall yet farther explain it When Man by his Fall had incurr'd the Penalty of Death and became a Mortal Creature he thereby usher'd in Diseases and Infirmities the Fore-runners of Death and Dissolution and therefore propagated unequal Mixtures and Constitutions which naturally according to the prevailing part of the Mixture raises powerful and pressing Lusts and Passions which not only make violent and repeated storms upon Reason but they also interrupt her Operations in other Duties by the frequent touches of the Animal Spirits upon that Image in the Brain of the Beloved Action and intrudes it among our Thoughts whether we will or no and for this cause tho' in other things we are reasoning Men when the Tender is toucht we can scarce understand a plain Conclusion from plain Premises till the gratifying of the prevailing Lusts has wasted many of our sensible Spirits and then Reason freed from Violence puts on Shame and Remorse for her Defeat but no sooner is Nature recruited than Reason is prest to forget her Repentance And this is the best of our degenerate Condition for in most Men either through the want or the abundance or irregular Motions of the Animal Spirits the reasoning Faculty is generally obstructed and they reason weakly in every thing nay sometimes this power is quite blockt up and some Men become distracted others meer Changlings But besides that in the best of us the Reasoning Power is often obstructed and has forcible Inclinations to deal with the work of Reason in general is by the first Apostacy abundantly increased She must maintain Patience and Submission under Diseases Pains

Humane Understanding I desire to know in what you dissent herefrom as likewise your Explication of the word Conscience it seems to me but little short of an Absurdity that there should be any other Sence presiding in the Soul over all her Actions than what is communicated from the Supream Being Moreover I wou'd gladly be inform'd whether any Man has the power as of himself heartily to believe that which at sometimes he confesseth with his Mouth The Rehearsal of a Creed is no difficult matter but a solid Conviction that what we do rehearse is apparently clear to us as Mathematical Demonstration is very rarely to be met with It is surely impossible for any Man who limits his Faith within the narrow bounds of his Reason to submit an entire assent to those Propositions which tho' perhaps necessary to be credited he himself cannot account for I have often thought this the Infirmity of the Supplicant in Holy Writ when he cry'd out Lord I believe Lord help my unbelief for it is otherways very difficult to conceive how a vicious Life can consist with a full Conviction of the Divine Existence and our own Separate Beings 6thly What you think of Enquiries into Nature whether they prove not to some the Causes of Modern Deism and to others of pure Scepticism I have been often apt to imagine that there are no Natural Phaenomena which may not admit a Solution from those two grand Principles of Matter and Motion or by Axioms deduc'd from the Corpuscular Philosophy and I doubt not but 't is our resting in an ability to discuss the same by this kind of Disquisition has been the occasion that the prime or supream Cause of all has been veiled from our Eyes Curiosity is so natural to the Soul of Man and the seeming Satisfaction that does at sometimes attend a Philosophick Enquiry is so great as to render the same to some sort of People a dangerous Temptation it is not that I think the Enquiry of it self such but the resting in the simple knowledge that such or such Productions must be the Result of such and such Causes without reflecting upon the first and chiefest which puts these upon concurring must certainly be so and truly 't is very seldom that the generality of Men make any farther Appeal unless it be to Fate Fortune Chance Destiny or some such like unaccountable Chimaera which they substitute in the room of an all-powerful infinite and intelligent Being Lastly I desire you wou'd send me your Thoughts of the especial Providence of God and your Opinion of Mr. B late Draught of the Q rs Principles In some few Days after the receipt of my Letter the good Doctor was pleased to return his Answer in these words SIR I Do charitably believe c. but waving the Introduction he proceeds A pious Life and holy Conversation are without peradventure the principal things aimed at in the Gospel of Jesus Christ but since we are there told that there are such things as dangerous and damnable Heresies the Fundamental Doctrines which all Christian Churches have believed it is our duty sincerely and conscienciously to receive and whoever does so will find them very excellent Motives to the practise of Religion I deny not the possibility of a Man's being dev●ut and holy by himself i.e. without attending upon the Publick Offices of Religious Worship yet since such Assemblies are not only commanded but of great use and even necessity in the Christian Church it behoves us to joyn with some one or other of them and among these I see not how any Man can reasonably or justly quit a National Church on any other account than that of its obliging him to a breach of the Divine Commands or injoyning him to any thing which is manifestly sinful Grace and Divine-Light and the Spirit of God c. are the same in effect It is the Holy Spirit which both gives us Grace and inlightens our Minds by a Divine Manifestation to our Souls Every true Christian is in some ●egree a partaker hereof for without it we can neither believe nor obey nor as we ought rely upon the Promises of our God It is this which we receive upon our earnest and fervent Prayer and it is th●● which doth excite both our Attention and pious Resolution which as the same produces in us lesser or greater Effects or different degrees of Love Obedience Self-denial c. so these are called the Degrees of the Divine Grace as our endeavours are either weaker or stronger uneven or steddy inconstant or more constant and as our Self-denial rises to a higher or a lower pitch Now to secure us from the danger of a mad Enthusiasm from the disorder of Imagination the deception of Phancy or the delusion of Evil Spirits in the business of private Inspiration and pretended Revelations we are most certainly to bear in mind that the Holy Spirit and the revealed Will of God do exactly at all times correspond so that whatever Light we pretend to which contradicts or is not justifiable by the written Word the same is most certainly either Design or Delusion and always false and counterfeit For my own part I am not against the Notions either of Father Malebranch or Mr. Norris provided their Hypotheses do not dishonour God by supposing Him in any manner the Author of our Sins however there were very good Christians in the World before either of them spun Philosophy to so fine a Thred To believe in God and that he inspects the most secret of our Actions to be truly sensible of the Love of the blessed Jesus and to expect a Life hereafter to believe what the Gospel delivers to us so as to be acted by those Principles to become truly penitent meek and humble patient and charitable and ready unto every good word and work in a word to be sincere and constant and faithful unto death this is to be a Religious Man and a true Christian an Heir to Heaven and a much happier Man than all the Masters of Philosophy can make you In order to this Attainment we are to quit anticipated Prejudices instill'd either by Education or our own false Reasonings and we may much shorten the trouble by seriously resolving to our selves this single Query viz. Whether the Matters related in our Saviour's Gospel are certainly true if they be there is nothing in this World must hinder us from a serious and consciencious Practise and from living up to those holy Rules and Precepts as far as we are able For the Promises and Threatnings if true are things of that consequence that all is to be laid aside for to gain the promis'd Blessings and to avoid the threatned Misery I doubt not but a Person of c. must have had a liberal Education and altho' a superficial or slight knowledge in Physicks may dispose to Scepticism yet you have doubtless by your Profession a very great advantage for however it may be abus'd

a profound Judgment and substantial Knowledge must undoubtedly lead us to very great Devotion and the more exquisitely curious the Anatomist is the greater Reason will he have if he abuse not his Understanding to adore and admire the Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of his great Creator and consequently to worship to love and to obey him If you believe Reveal'd Religion which was never so question'd or refuted as to deserve the Answer of any soberly learned Man you must believe the Truth of God's particular Providence altho' you cannot reconcile every particular Phaenomenon either to your own Reason or the Corpuscular Philosophy The holy Scriptures are a System of Divine Philosophy and I should think that the Assertions of the Almighty ought to be received by Rational Men before the seeming clearness of any meer Humane Hypothesis Alas how little is it that we know and granting the Supream Being to have made our World in the Nature of a Clock is this an Argument that its first Fabrication or the Motions bestowed upon its several Parts can result from any thing short of an Almighty and Divine Power but our Philosophy is unable to inform us of all the Wheels the Pius and several Motions of this stupendious Frame 't is true we set it move according to Mechanick Laws but there may be many thousand Motions in it of which we are ignorant Let us bless our God for the Revelation which he has given us and let us as most certainly it behoves us rely upon his special Providence whoever does so will in the event find Comfort and Satisfaction nor do I see how a good Man can have any real Happiness or Consolation without it As for Mr. B s Divinity I must own there are many things in it both Rational and Solid but when he comes to spiritualize the Divine Ordinances and Institutions of Christ and his Apostles he not only sets himself up in opposition to the Churches of Christ to the Sense and Practise of the Primitive Christians as I am able to prove but exposes a want of knowledge in Scripture Interpretation The Novelty of the Sect and the dangerous tendency of their pretended Inspiration is argument enough to ●●e of their Inconsistency with themselves and true Religion and surely we ought to be extreamly cautious how we side with such whimsical upstart Opinions till we can reconcile the Possibility for Divine Goodness and Mercy to suffer Christendom to lye in Ignorance for Sixteen hundred years and that the Churches immediately planted by the Apostles shou'd make Mistakes of that vile Consequence even when their Founders were present to set them to rights if they had done so as we must believe they did if Q sm be true A well-grounded knowledge in the Primitive Christianity which may be truly fetcht out of Ecclesiastick History and the Fathers of the Church will give you this Satisfaction that the holy Ordinances from the first promulgation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ such I mean as Water-Baptism and the Eucharist have been practis'd even to this day by all good Christians by the use of the outward Elements in their Administration I deny not but there have been both great Abuses Misapprehensions and Mistakes in the performance of them or in the manner of their Reception and I think I may say there are 〈◊〉 more egregiously absurd than some of those derived from the Chair of supposed Infallibility but this will by no means extenuate our Crimes of neglecting their use or making light of putting them at all in practise I desire you at your leisure to consider well Mr. B s Comment upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which he lays a very great stress and if you compare it with some of those Places in Holy Writ which clearly justifie this manner of Baptismal initiation into Christ's Church you will find it so gross a Metaphor that neither Grammar Rhetorick nor the Rules of Logick neither which I prefer to them all the Reason of an understanding Man will ever be able to countenance We may set into what Absurdities even Learned Men are betray'd when they too much rely upon their own Judgments when they set up for new Discoveries and impose their own Phant●sies for Divine Revelations If you please to send me what you think the sufficient Proofs which this Learned Man has excogitated for the support of his new Religion I will if God enable me give you my impartial Thoughts for I must seriously profess to you I see nothing in his Works which ought to sway any true Christian to leave any Protestant Church for the sake of Q sm I have formerly been in Mr. B s Company but cou'd never discover any thing like fair Argumentation I must own him to have been a Man of very considerable parts yet his Scripture Quotations were for the most part manifestly wrested and his general Discourse a pure Invective or down-right Railery against the Church of England at which I must confess I was very much surprised having framed to my self other Notions of the Man before I left him with this undoubted satisfaction in my self that the Spirit of Self-conceit of Pride and Bitterness must needs be very re●●te from the true Spirit of Christianity I thank you for your Discourse concerning the Natural Power of Spasms or the Disorders of the Nervous System but as to what you say about Daemoniacs Fascination and the Operation of Evil Spirits I must refer my Opinion to a time of greater leisure or till you please to visit me in the mean time I pray God more and more to inlighten your Understanding c. I am your real Friend A. H. Some little time after this I receiv'd a Second Letter from that sincerely Religious and most excellent Divine by way of Answer to one that I had sent him which as I find it amongst my Papers begins thus SIR I Rejoyce with you that it hath pleased our good God to confirm in you such a Belief of his Existence and your own Creation after the Divine Image as may secure to you a Remembrance of the Duty incumbent on you and put you both upon a constant and fervent Prayer for the supply of Divine Grace together with a steddy and devout Submission to and Dependence upon his especial Providence I do look upon your last Letter to be the Picture of your Mind and bating the Ceremony I find no other fault than this that how lamentably true soever your Remarks may be upon the present Age for the most part yet I am free to acquaint you with my Thoughts that there are a much greater number of good People amongst us than you imagine I may say blessed be our God for it I have the personal knowledge of many whom I can call truly pious and sincere Christians Some of them such who as they by no means value themselves upon their Humane Acquirements are yet able to silence the Calumnies of the Profane