which they form in their minds nor the Arrayment of them in Words are adapted and proporpotioned to things They are like boys walking upon stilts who seem higher then they are and their discourses are like a load of flesh in the body of man that serves only to embarass it with an unprofitable weight But to imaigine so of God or to ascribe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great swelling words of vanity to him 2 Pet. 218. Jud. 16. or to think that in the enditing the Bible he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only feed us with gaudy phantasms poetical Schemes luxariunt phrases is to impeach more than one of his perfections In a word Gods design being to instruct us and it being repugnant to His Nature either to be deceived himself in the nature of things or to deceive others it necessarily follows that the Scripture doth actualy dedenote all and whatsoever it is capable of denoting Nor are we in the interpreting of the Word to restrain and confine its sense but to take it in the greatest Latude of signâ—fication it can bear I shall shut up this wâ—th that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.6 11. So likewise yee except yee utter by the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Words easy to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken For yee shall speak into the Air Therefore if I know not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning of the voice the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posse vocis the whole force vertue power and signification of the Words I shall be unto him that speaketh a Barbarian § 11. The next thing considerable with respect to the interest of Reason in Religion is its Use and serviceableness in drawing Consequences from Revealed and supernatural Truths And this follows from what we have said concerning the sence of Scripture-propositions It is by this means that Divines have always laboured to clear Mysteries of Faith by making appear the Connexion of things obscure with these that are plain and those that are contested with these that are not It is by this Method also that the Fathers have refuted Heresies by shewing that those evil Doctrines which they introduced into the Church either had not any agreement with the true Mysteries of Faith or that they were altogether opposite to them To disclaim all Scripture Consequences the ministration of Reason in deducing them is plainly to deny all the Connexions Relations dependencies and oppositions of one thing to and upon an other and to betray Religion into the Hands of its Enemies And as this is one of the last so I look upon it as one of the most shameful Refuges of the Romanists Finding themselves in their disputations about matters of Religion foiled and bafled by the Protestants some of them have thought it their safest course to renounce all Principles of Reason in the concernments of Faith to reject all Conclusions as well inferr'd from premisses where both are of Revelation as where one only is of Faith and the other of Reason It must be a desperate Cause that cannot otherwise be maintaitained And nothing but a failure in other defences would have reconciled them to a method pregnant with so many absurdities But when men are pre-engaged in the defence of a Cause what will they not rather seek relief from than reject what their lusts interests and educations oblige them to The first forgers of this new Armature forwarding off the blows of Protestants with the entertainment that the Invention met with at Rome as well as Sorbon he that hath a mind to inform himself may learn from Vedelius in his Rationale Theologicum and Bochart contre Veron And how far the Socinians those Idolaters of Reason when it serves their designs do conspire with the Papists to disparage it in this matter we are now enquiring about when it doth not be-friend them such as are inquisitive may read in Hoornbecks Socinianismus confutatus Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 211. But that we may address to the matter it self By a Consequence we mean either a proposition standing in that habitude relation and having that connexion with another that if that be true this is also true or a proposition lying in that repugnancy and opposition to another that if the first be true the latter must be false There is either that coherency betwixt them that the one infers and draws the other after it or that contrariety that if truth be the portion of the one falsehood must fall to the lot of the other Now conclusions are of two kinds first when there is nothing in the Antecedent but what is in the Consequent and this is always between two Terms and no more and these Terms are either convertible as no Innocent person is a sinner therfore no sinner is an Innocent person Or they are subalternate the one the other as every man is guilty before God therefore this and that man is so Or else they are Terms Equivalent as Believers have the guilt of sin remitted to them therefore their liableness to legal Wrath is removed 2 dly When there is somthing In the Antecedent that is not in the Consequent and to Conclusions of this Nature there are always required three Terms and the Foundation of deducing one proposition here from another is either the connexion or opposition that is betwixt the one and the other All Conclusions are virtually included in their premises and he that assents to these doth in effect grant those It is all one whether both the premises be in Scripture or one onely be there the other being either fetch 't from undoubted Principles of Reason or evidence of Sense for in all these Cases the Conclusion is as much the Word of God as if it were in so many letters and sillables in the Bible Hence that common saying quaedam in Scripturis sunt et dicuntur quaedam in iiâ—dem sunt etsi non dicantur There are some things in the Scripture and are accordingly reported to be in them and there are somethings in them though they be not in so many Words there related c. Men through Ignorance ositancy or the like do not always discern what ariseth and followeth from what they say and do often therfore affirm that from whence something doth ensue which they are so far from holding that they do detest it and accordingly we frequently argue against them per deductionem ad absurdum seu impossibile But God always foresees whatsoever followes upon every declaration he makes he understands all the habâ—tudes connexions dependencies and oppositions of one thing upon and to another and accordingly we not onely may with safety but he expects that we should inferr and deduce from what he hath said all and every thing that necessarily bears upon and follows from it And though what is thus inferred be not in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in so many letters yet while it is there either 〈◊〉
controlled in nothing we say or do c. were ever intended for the Felicity of an Intellectual and Rational Being The Soul of a Brute would have served all the Ends that some men propound to themselves but surely the bestowing of an Immortal Spirit on us ought to instruct us that Blessedness consists in something else than Gauds Trifles Grandeur Airy Titles and the like And he who cannot want these things without thinking himself Miserable at once reproacheth his Maker as if he had Created him for nothing more worthy and degrades and dishonours himself by intimating that such gratifications are suitable to Him 6. The advantages which Good men receive by afflictions do amply compensate their feeling of them They hereby both discern their sincerity themselves and discover it to others Nor is it easie to imagine the satisfaction that the Consciousness of a constant sincerity ministers to a Soul To find that we love God notwithstanding the narrow allowance he affords us is a more soveraign Cordial to the Mind that would approve its self to God than the flushest enjoyment of sublunary things can yield Their Adversity also gives them either relief in Mortifying those Corruptions which endanger them or in exercising those Graces which glorifie God And who dare reproach the Wisdom or Goodness of God for disposing things in such a manner as may turn not only most to his own Honour but our advantage Storms and Frosts are as Useful to the Universe as serene and clear weather Nor are Sugar and Honey more necessary than Salt and Brine are If after all this there remain Inexplicables in the works of Providence 't is no more than what we daily meet with in the Works of Creation Nor must a finite Understanding hope to comprehend the Methods of an Infinite God And the future state will set all that straight which we now judge Crooked Having vindicated the Providence of God from those Objections which seem to affront it my next task is to suggest those Arguments which Reason abstracting from all Revelation can muster to attest it 1 Were there not an Omnipotent Power and an Omniscient skill to restrain and govern the quarrelsome Spirits that are in the World it would soon sink under the bottom of its own Confusion This the Heathen intimated in the Fable of Phaethon who being admitted to drive the Chariot of the Sun but for one day burnt both himself and it together It was well said by the Stoick that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not worth the while to live in a World empty of God and Providence Nay it were the greatest unhappiness imaginable to be brought forth into the World to be perpetually tossed up and down by blind Fortune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were not a Providence there could be no Order in the World And as another Philosopher saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there were no Supreme Orderer whence comes order to be in the World 2. Preclude Providence we remove one of the greatest foundations of venerating the Diety 'T is not a persuasion of the Excellency of his Nature that can engage us to a hearty Adoration of Him if we once discharge him from all concernment in us and our affairs Though there be the like Eminency of Dignity in the French King as in the King of Great Brittain yet we have a greater reverence for the one than the other because the one protects us which the other doth not Nor can we well believe the Divine Nature to be excellent should we assert it devoid of Goodness which is the greatest perfection much less will it be easie to honour him for a God whose Felicity we judge to consist in Idleness We find our selves capable of yea endowed with the affections of Fear and Love and God is an Object most adapted for them but seclude him from the administration of the World and there is no Foundation left for the begetting and maintaining either the one or the other in the hearts of men towards him For if he regard not what we do instead of having provided due means for our fearing and loving of him he hath left us under an unavoidable temptation of acting towards with him with slight and contempt 3 If there be no Providence there is not the least ground for addresses to God out of hope of assistance or the thanking him for the benefits we partake of and yet the chief of natural Religion consists in these Who would pray to God to be delivered when in straits or praise him when he hath scaped his entanglements if God no ways interest himself in us and our affairs 4 If God govern not the world it is either because he Cannot or because he will not to say the first is to represent him contemptible for his Weakness and besides he that made the World cannot be supposed unable to Rule it to affirm the Second is to bestow Omnipotencie upon Him in vain and to impeach every one of his perfections because of a faileur in their most natural and agreeable effects 5 God is Soveraign of the World and therefore he must needs Govern it Through all things being the products of His will and Power he hath an incontestable Dominion over them Now we cannot fasten a greater reproach upon a Soveraign than that he throws off all the Care and Gubernation of his Subjects 6 We see effects in the World which could proceed from no cause but God and discoveries made to it which he alone can reveal and by consequence he hath not wholly withdrawn himself from the Rectorship of it 7 He must needs Rule the World who hath given it Laws for Law is the Relative of government and that he hath given it Laws the inbred Notions which we have of Good and Evil the Fears and hopes that haunt us do abundantly demonstrate These he hath woven into the composition of our Natures and by these order is maintained in the World Now 't is the greatest affront that can be offered to Reason to think that God should make use of a Fiction to preserve Truth Justice and Righteousness amongst mankind or that he should keep up the Respect of himself by falsehood and Deceit Thus by singling out one or two Truths that have evidence given to them in the Light of Nature as well as in Revelation we have shewn what belongs to Reason about all Doctrines of this Genius and complexion § 13. The next concernment of Reason in about Religion is to defend the whole of it from the Clamours and Objections of gainsayers For as Bisterfield says Though they who reject arguments levied from Reason against the Mysteries of Religion act modestly yet they do not throughly serve the interest nor hereby deserve well of the Cause of Truth which they own and profess 'T is true that the Authority of Divine Testimony is enough to warrant our Faith whatever Objections lye against the thing so testified
in the Bible Nor can we Impeach the Genuine Issues of Reason without Reflection upon God who hath Endowed us with a Faculty necessarily swaying us to those Determinations The Connexion of one thing with another together with their mutual Dependencies ariseth not from the Arbitrarious Appointment and Designation of Men but is involved in the Essences of Beings and Results from the Habitudes which the Soveraign Author hath link't them in one to another Ipsa veritas Connexionum non instituta sed animadversa est ab hominibus notata ut eam possint vel discere vel docere Nam est in rerum ratione perpetua divinitus instituta August lib. 2. De Doctr. Christ. cap. 31. Might we not upon Proleptical Principles which are assented to as soon as the Terms are understood superstruct innumerable others There were no Room left for Meditation Study Ratiocination and Disputes All our Knowledge would be either Intelligence instead of Science or else we must in all things save a few Self-Evidents introduce and Establish Scepticism Were there no secondary Principles which when once deduced from self-evident Maxims we may with safety rely on we must either deny that there are any Habitudes Relations Dependencies or Oppositions betwixt one thing and an other or we must affirm the rational Faculty to be in it 's Natural Exercises universally Fallacious The indissoluble Connexion that is betwixt one thing and another transferrs the Denomination of Truth to the Acts of our Mind stiled Judgments and the Declarations of these Acts to others called Enunciations whensoever we Judge and Pronounce of things as they really are For as the Philosopher sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I readily grant that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings partly through the Nature Quality Extent and Arduousness of Objects and our Inadequate Conceptions of them partly through Prepossessions Prejudices and the Bâ—as of Lusts and Passions that we are subject to partly through Supineness Sloth and Inadvertency we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from self-evident and universal Maxims and thereupon establish Mistaken and Erroneous Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason But then this is the Fault of Philosophers not of Philosophy or of Philosophy in the Concrete as Existing in this or that Person not in the Abstract as involving such a Mischief in it's Nature and Idea Our intellectual Faculties being vitiated tinctur'd with Lust enthralled by Predices darkned by Passions engaged by vain and corrupt Interests distorted by Pride and Self-Love and fastned to Earthly Images do often impose upon us and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axoms for Undoubted and Incontestable Principles of Reason It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adulterate Reason which we charge for being Unfriendly to Religion And that it is not without Grounds shall be afterwards evinced For I doubt not but that I shall make it appear that the most malignant Heresies which have Infected the Church had their Foundation in Vulgar and received Axioms of Philosophy Whoever will trace the Errors which have Invaded Divinity to their Source must resolve them into absurd Maxims of Philosophy as their Chief Seminary Herein we intend not to offer any Disparagement to Reason but rather to pay it our Utmost respect by rescuing it from being accountable for every vain Imagination and false Consequence which are super-scribed with the Venerable Name of Principles of Reason § 4. Having setled the Notion of Reason we are next to fix the meaning of Religion And this is the more needfull in that men have always had the art of Baptizing their weaknesses fooleries yea blasphemies with the sacred name of Mysteries of Faith and afterwards defending them from the assaults of Reason by saying They are Mysteries against which Reason is not to be hearkned to By matters of Religion then we mean in general as well the Agenda as the Credenda of it What we are to perform as well as what we are to believe what relates to Obedience as well as what relates to Faith Now the rule measure and standard of both is the Revelation of God in the Scripture The Bible is now the only perfect Code and Register of natural Religion as well as the only Systeme of supernatural Those very Articles of Belief and Duties of obedience which were formerly Natural with respect to their manner of promulgation are now in the Declaration of them also Supernatural The Scripture is the only Canon of Faith and Rule of Practice So the Apostle stile 's it in more than one place Phil. 3.16 Nevertheless whereto we have already attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us walk by the same Rule As if he had said what ever dissensions there be amongst us in lesser things let us orderly regulate our life and course for that is the import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Canon of the Gospel And in the same sense Gal. 6.16 as many as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk according to this Rule peace be on them c. The Apostle having to do with such as introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an other Gospel Gal. 1.6 7. for their conviction and plainer refutation he gives us a brief epitomy and summary both of the Law and Gospel and at last shuts up the whole debate with this that whoever walks according to this Canon or Rule peace shall be on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies originally either a Reed made into an instrument wherewith they measured buildings or the limits and bounds of land or a small Line which Architects square out their work by that all the parts of it may bear a just symmetry proportion one to another and from this proper use of it it is Metaphorically transferred to signifie any kind of Rule Thus Aristotle useth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By that which is right we know both its self and that which is crooked for the Canon is the judg of both And thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canon is a law that cannot err and an infallible measure Phavorin Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that which is over Scales commonly called the Tongue of the Balance which is the director whereby whatsoever is put into the Scales is tryed and hath its just weight adjudged So the Scholiast upon Aristophanes tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Scales which brings them to equality This Original signification of the word also hath given rise to its Metaphorical use of denoting any rule or measure by which either Doctrines or Practices are tried and adjusted And thus the Scripture is the true and only perfect rule of all matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the exact balance and Rule or Canon of all Truths The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rule of immutable and unshaken Truth Austin improveth this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excellently De baptism cont Donat. lib. 2 cap 6. Let us not say's he bring our deceitful balances where we weigh what would and do as we would saying according to our fancy Behold this is heavy or behold this is light but let us bring the Divine Balances of the Scriptures and weigh things or rather not weigh them but learn and take notice what the Lord himself hath weighed I rather chuse to fix the import of Religion thus by its reference to its Rule than by an enumeration of particulars First that it may appear that whatever be the concernment of Reason in Religion yet it is not to invent or introduce any new Doctrine nor to propose or institute any new Media of Worship nor to obtrude and force upon us any new moral Duty Nothing Magisterial doth here belong to it its highest preferment is to minister Secondly Because there is nothing in the Scripture but what we are under the Sanction of and as it is occasionally made known we are to pay a rational subjection to it Though every thing in the Bible be not alike Necessary yet every thing in it is alike True and our concernment lie's more or less in it There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in matters of Religion but the Bible and therfore the import and meaning of those Terms can be no otherwayes decided but by their habitude to their measure For this end did God give forth the Scripture that it might be the foundation and standard of Religion and thence therefore are we to learn its Laws and constitutions The instructing mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness was the design of God in his vouchsafeing the World a supernatural Revelation and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an End the respect and veneration which we pay to his Sapience Goodness oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportion'd the means thereunto Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts 1. Such as besides their being made known by revelation and believed on the account of Divine Testimony have also a foundation in the light of Nature and there are natural Mediums by which they may be prov'd These are commonly called Mixt but I think amiss seeing they are not made up of dissimilar parts nor have they objects complicated of different natures are only discovered by different Lights proved by different Media and assented to as well upon Motives of Reason as Divine Authority of this kind are the Being and Attributes of God the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of Providence the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil 2 dly Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature by which they could have been found out or known but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the Discovery of them Their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them And these also are of two Sorts 1. There are some Doctrines which though our Understandings by Natural Mediums could never have discovered yet being once revealed our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason facilitate the Apprehension of them and confirm it self in their Belief Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to penitent Sinners 2. There are others which as Reason could never have discovered so when revealed it can neither comprehend them nor produce any Medium in Nature by which either the Existence of their Objects can be Demonstrated or their Truth Illustrated Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God I know that there are many Divines who though they confess that the Doctrine of the Trinity could never at first have been discovered by Reason yet being once Revealed they contend that Reason cannot only Illustrate but Demonstrate it But upon the best Inquiry into their Arguments I find most of them palpably Fallacious and others of them so Disproportionate to what they are brought that they do not so much as afford some saint Adumbrations of it I readily grant that this and the other Mystery are by a clear and necessary Connexion united with other Doctrines of Faith which Reason enlightned by Revelation can give a rational Account of For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of an infinite Person hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satâ—sfying Divine Justice in oâ—der to the Dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders and the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the End aforesaid hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind and the Corruption of Humane Nature is both fully confessed and can be demonstrated by Reason Thus though all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with the Objects of Reason yet these very Doctrines of Faith which lye remotest from the Territories of Reason and seem to have least Affinity with its Light are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith which when once discovered Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm it self in As two Neighbouring Kingdoms are joyned together though some of their Provinces touch not one another So by those Objects of Faith which have a clear Connexion with Objects of Reason there is a mediate Connexion between Reason and those Objects of Faith that lye farther off I need not add that the most Mysterious Doctrines of Religion are necessarily connected with the Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God and that is a Truth which Reason is so far from rejecting that it can demonstrate it § 5 Having setled the meaning of the Terms namely what we understand both by Reason and Religion We are next particularly to enquire of what Significancy and Use Reason is in Religion that so we may give to Reason the things that are Reasons and yet reserve to Faith the things that are Faiths And whereas we have said that there are some Principles of Religion which besides the Evidence that they have in Revelation have Foundation also in the Light of Nature it may be easily apprehended that more is to be allowed to Reason in and about those than about these the Knowledge of which we are Debters only to Revelation for As to the Latter Reason acquits it self in all that belongs to it by considering what Doctrines are revealed to us in the Scriptures and deduceâ—ng Consequences which by clear Connexions proceed from them leaving Faith to assent to them upon the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer But as to the former Reason doth not sufficiently discharge it self by discovering that they are Revealed and thereupon committing it to Faith to Embrace
false if there be any incontestable Principles of Reason or True Maximes of Philosophy For to omit at present that 't is Repugnant to Metaphysical and Physical Axioms that Accidents should exist without a subject or that there should be Whiteness and nothing white Sweetness and nothing sweet that one Body should be penetrated by another when we find every Material substance irresistibly to defend its self from coexistence in the same place with another that is Corporeal that one the same Being should be entirely at one and the same time in distant places which is to be distant from it self yea that it should be there with contradictory adjuncts that the Sign and thing signified or Relate and Correlate should be the same I say to pass these by as having been a thousand times urged against the Papists and nothing replyed but what renders their Folly and Extravagance the greater and more remarkable I shall only say that Transubstantiation is inconsistent with the first Principles of Logick 1. No Enunciation is true but upon the account of Congruity to its Object and the previous existence of the Object according to what is affirmed of or denyed concerning it is that which grounds the verity of the Enunciation If therefore the Sacramental Elements be not the Body and Blood of Christ antecedently to the words of Consecration the Enunciation by which the Priest affirms the one to be the other must necessarily be false 2. Every Enunciation supposeth a previous Act and judgment of the Mind of which it is Manifestative for the End of words is to indicate Conceptions Unless therefore previously to consecration the Bread be judged to be the real Flesh of Christ no one can truly assert that it is so 3. In every true Enunciation the subject may by Conversion become the predicate as is evident by an induction of all propositions in the World while therefore the Body of Christ cannot in a proper and Physical sense be said to be Bread no more can Bread in a proper sense be said to be the Body of Christ. 4. No Disparate can be truly affirmed in casu recto of another that interfering with the Nature of opposites Bread and the Body of Christ therefore being Disparates the one cannot in a proper sense be predicated of the other 5. No real positive Attribute or predicate can be affirmed of a subject which is not for non entis nulla sunt attributa And therefore if the Bread be annihilated as indeed it must be unless instead of allowing Christ to have only one Body and that formed of the substance of the Virgin we should hold that he hath many Bodies and those formed of Material Particles distinct from what he was fram'd of in the Womb of the Virgin Our Saviour spake very illogically in asserting concerning that which it is not at all that it is his Body I shall wave what might be further added to this purpose only conclude it with this brief remarque That if Principles of Reason obtain so far in Things purely Supernatural as that there can be no repugnance betwixt the one and the other they ought more especially to have so much place in those things which Grace borrows and transports from Nature for its Use. Secondly When we say that 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 and receive for such The Universal Reason of Man-kind is of great Moment but mistaken Philosophy and false Notions of things which this and that Man admit for theorem's of Reason are of very small importance Men being mislead by their Senses Affections Interests and Imaginations do many times mingle errours and false conceits with the Genuine Dictates of their Minds and then appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason when they are indeed nothâ—ng else but the vain Images of our fancies and the conclusions of Ignorance and mistake Though Reason in the Abstract and those inbâ—ed notices implanted in our Souls which upon the first exercise of our Faculties command an Assent be all consistent wâ—th the Mysteries of Faith yet Reason in the Concrete and as it exists in this and that man being weak maim'd imperfect and extremely remote from a full and just comprehension of things we do accordingly find many Articles of Revelation to have been little befriended by Axioms and principles of vulgar Philosophy But this proceeds from the Corruption of Reason its being vitiated by Lusts byassed by Interests perverted by Education darkned by Passions enthralled by Prejudice rather than from Reason it self and is to be ascribed not to the Light of Reason but to the Darkness that envelop's it It hath been usual for men according to the School they have been bred in to expound and judg of Religion in Analogy to the principles they have suckt in from thence By this means hath Religion been embased through mens subjecting the Examen and conduct of it to mistaken Philosophy He that would examine an Article of Faith by a Proposition of Reason must be careful that his Measure be just and true and not deceitful and fallacious No man ought to distrust an Article of Religion for its being against a proposition which we take to be true only because we were taught it The Prejudice done to Religion by mistaken Philosophy ought not to be dissembled and I shall therefore crave a little liberty here to unfold it And not to insist on the ill Influence that the Phenician and Chaldaick Philosophy had on the Judaick Theology though it be of easie proof that their Planetary Deities and their Teraphims sprung from thence Nor to do any more but mention that the chief Errours of the Pharisees Sadduces and Esseans took their rise from the Grecian Philosophy their Dogm's being a mixture of Pythagorean Platonick Stoick and Epicurean Notions I shall rather observe that the chiefest Errours that have infested the Christian Church arose from a mingling Gentile Philosophy with the Doctrine of the Gospel Both Irenaeus and Tertullian affirm the Errors of the Gnosticks to have sprung from the Platonick Ideas Though I think it not improbable but that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took their birth from Pythagoreanism The Aeons of the Valentinians if we will believe Tertullian were also â—orrowed from the Idea's of Plato but if any shall judge that they were rather derived from Hesiod I shall not contend seeing the Ancient Poets were not only the Ethnick Theologues but their chief Philosophers Epiphanius tells us that the Heresies of the Marcionites came out of the School of Plato Theodoret inform's us that Sabellius became a Heretick by his obstinacy in Plato's Doctrine Tatian being deeply tinctur'd with Platonism became thereupon Head of the Eucratists if you will give Credit to Baronius Holstenius hath shown us how the Manichean principles were fram'd from
will add that if there be no principles in Nature to check Scepticism the principles of Revelation can never do it for without presupposing both that our Senses Reasons do not universally deceive us we can have no assurance that there is any such thing as a Supernatural Revelation at all I would not say that the Cartesians are Scepticks but I say they owe it not to the principles of their Philosophy that they are not so Supposing us once to disband lay by and to take for false all that we have imbib'd from Education or otherwise embraced I would fain know where we can begin and upon what foundation we can superstruct Science They who propose it as a Principle that we are to doubt of every thing ought in pursuance of their Hypothesis to suspect those very principles with they lay down for Certain If there be not some principles incontestable and beyond the precincts of being gainsayed it is not to be imagined but that we should be endlesly bewildred and entangled in a perpetual and inextricable maze According to this new Hypothesis no man can be sure that there are any Material effects or Beings in the World for we can have no other Certainty of the Existence of Corporeal Beings but by their affecting the Organs of Sensation and of this according to the principles of Des-Cartes there is no assurance can be obtained For 1. How can I be certain that there are any impressions made by forraign Objects upon the Fibres and Nerves seeing all may be but meer Phancy and Imagination 2. How shall I be ascertain'd that those impulses upon the Nerves which we ascribe to outward Objects are not begotten and caused by the Malus Genius we just now heard of And as I must in pursuance of this Principle abide in a perpetual Suspension of Mind whether there be any Material Beings in the World so I can no ways be assur'd from any effects which I observe in the Universe either that they have a second Cause at all or which particularly is their Cause not the latter seeing God may produce the like effects by different Causes not the former because whatsoever is brought forth by the ministry of second Causes may be produced immediately by God himself I will only subjoyn that if there be any Truth in this Cartesian Notion no man can be assured of his own Cogitation or whether he doth cogitate at all For we cannot otherwise know that we do know but by a latter reflex act of the Mind upon the former and of this I can have no certainty seeing I am not sure whether the Act I reflect upon were elicited by the mind it self or only an impression begotten in me by some powerful and malicious Guest which doth continually haunt us I am not ignorant of the restrictions limitations and expositions with some Cartesians give of the fore-going Principle but upon an examination of what is alledged against it by Gassendus Schoockius Daniel Voetius Vogelsangius and others and what is pleaded in justification of it by Claubergius De Bruin c. as well as Des-Cartes himself I must needs say that all the Cartesian plea's in behalf of it do either overthrow what themselves would establish and contradict what they endeavour to obtrude or that they are wholly weak and impotent But I am not without thoughts of discoursing this more largely some other time and therefore shall at present supersede the further prosecution of it The Second Cartesian principle which I impeach as disserviceable to Religion is this That whatsoever we have a clear and distinct perception of is infallibly true and that we are no ways longer to doubt of it This they make the only test of discerning and distinguishing Truth from Falsehood Nor do they allow any other Measure or Standard of discriminating betwixt Verity and Errour If we should be deceived in these things which we have clear and distinct perceptions of God himself saith Des-Cartes would be Fallax Deceptor horresco referens and all our Errours and Mistakes must be attributed to him Unless the Cartesians be infallible in what ever they imagine themselves to have a distinct perception and cognizance of God must be cease to be Good and True and must undergoe the blame of all their hallucinations I do the rather touch on this Cartesian Axiom because I not only find it introduced into Divinity by some Outlandish Writers but by some Modern Theologues at home particularly by the Author of Deus Justificatus Nor will it be amiss a little to enquire into it as well upon the account of its being erected by the Cartesians for the first and only principle of all Certainty and Science as upon the Score of the bad effects it is like to have upon the minds of men in Matters of Religion Now the meaning and sense of this Theoreme must either be this That whatever we apprehend and perceive as it is it infallibly is so and our perception of it is true But then according to this paraphrase of it there cannot be a more nugatory and ridiculous proposition form'd for it is as much as if we should say what we have a true cognizance of that we have a true cognizance of and what is truly known by us that we do truly know But this cannot be the meaning which the Cartesians intend by it for as much as they make the clearness and distinctness of perception the Rule by which we ought to judge of the Existence of Objects and things For according to them our perceptions are not therefore clear and true because of their congruity to the Objects about which our minds are conversant but on the contrary they determine concerning the Object from the clearness and distinctness of our perception The sense therefore of this Cartesian Axiom if it have any at all and be not perfect non-sense must be this namely That every thing really is as we perceive it provided our perception of it be clear and distinct That those Idea's of things which offer themselves to our Minds by clear and distinct perceptions are infallibly the true idea's of the Natures and properties of the things themselves Now admitting this to be the sense of it I affirm it to be the most silly fallacious and lubricous principle that ever men pretending to Philosophy laid down I shall wave that Medium that there may be clearness and distinctness of perception in acts of simple apprehension and consequently that whatsoever we clearly and distinctly perceive is not true because Acts of simple Apprehension are not capable of verity This I say I shall decline the urging of seeing I judge both Verity and Falsity to obtaâ—n in all the operations of the Mind For Verity being nothing else but the conformity of the Act to the Object there is as well an Incomplex Verity in acts of simple Apprehension as there is a Complex Verity in Acts of Judgment I may as well
words which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual And as I have endeavoured to regulate all my Conceptions by Scripture and Reason so whatever Proposition shall be made appear to lye in a Repugnancy to these I am ready openly to retract it If any shall attaque these Discourses with Reviling Reproachful Language I do declare before-hand that I reckon my self superseded from Replying I will combat no man at these weapons nor do I think it a reputation 〈◊〉 any to Rail how much in Fashion soever it is though he should be able to do it in fine Language How often Mr. Sherlock hath contradicted himself and by what falsifications he hath imposed Principles on the Non-conformists which they never held how he treats the Sacred Writers with as much contempt as he doth T. W. and Burlesques the Scripture no less than others have done Virgils Poems how he hath renounced the Doctrine of the Church of England and borrowed his Glosses on the Bible as well as his Dogmatical Notions from the Socinians how Illogical he is in all his deductions and slandereth his Adversaries by undue Inferences should have been the Theme and Argument of this Preface and accordingly I had digested Materials for it but the Book being swell'd to too great a bulk already and there being others engaged against the same Author within whose Province these things must needs lye as having undertaken the arraignment of his whole Discourse I do wave the prosecution of them all at this time And shall detain the Reader no longer than to tell him that since the Printing off the first Chapter which treats of the Interest of Reason in Religion there is come to my hands a Treatise of Humane Reason in which there are many iâ—l things though as it often happens they be well said I know not an Opinion more pernicious in its Consequences than that Men may be as safe in the Event by embracing Turcism as Christianity and as secure of happiness in their Errours as others are in the Truths which they do espouse Should Persons conspire to overthrow all Revelation they could not fall upon a Method more likely to effect it than by endeavouring to persuade the World that there are things equally as strange in the Bible as in the Alcoran 'T is enough that our Reason may serve us if duely attended to and pursued to discern that this or that Religion is false nor are we therefore to be judged Innocent because we neglect the Exercise of it in making the Discovery No man can embrace a false Religion but by a Criminal Deviation from Reason and who will admit one Transgression to take Sanctuary in another That whole Treatise proceeds upon a false Hypothesis namely that as mens belief of the Scripture is owing to the conduct of Reason so they may disbelieve it by the same Guidance Corrupt Ratiocinations are recommended by the Name of Humane Reason and being once cloathed with this Livery every Foolery as well as Abomination appeals to them if not for its justification at least for its being but a Venial offence No man ceaseth to be an Offender in Morals nor doth he therefore deserve pardon because he hath the concurrence of his judgment in what he does Though no man can chuse or prosecute what his understanding continues to represent to him as Evil yet its failâ—ur in point of duty neither alters the Essential Nature of things nor makes his condition more safe for acting under the conduct of it Some men would have no restraint laid upon their Vnderstandings because they will submit to none in their lives and they would have their corrupt Ratiocinations in Doctrinals as Venial as they seem in reference to Manners to presume the gratifying of their Lusts to be 'T is to be hop'd that for the undeceiving such as are already imbu'd with the principles of it and for the preventing others from being â—ainâ—ed and inveigled some one or other will bring the whole under an Examen In the interim I shall adventure to say that 't is as weak in regard of the Reasonings which occur in it as it is pernicious in its tendency Farewell THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of the Interest and Use of Reason in Religion INtroduction 1. Motives influencing to the handling of this subject 2. The Import of Reason 3. What 's meant by Religion 4. The serviceableness of Reason in demonstrating the Existence of a Deity with an account of the Topicks on which it proceeds 5. It s usefulness in proving the Divinity of the Scripture with the several Media which it makes use of to this purpose 6.7 Of the Authority of the Scripture as emerging from its Divine Original 8. Our Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God Divine and Infallible seeing built upon Media that are so 9. The serviceableness of Reason in our attaining the sense and meaning of the Word with an account of the Measures which we are herein to be guided by 10. Of Scripture-Consequences and the usefulness of Reason in making the Deductions 11. What appertains to Reason in reference to Doctrines which besides the Foundation they have in Revelation have also evidence in the Light of Nature this exemplified with respect to the Immortality of the Soul and the certainty of Providence 12. The concernment of Reason in defending the whole of Religion from the Clamors and Objections of Gainsayers 13. Nothing contradictious to Right Reason to be admitted as a Mystery of Faith Many things obtruded for Principles of Reason which are not so The prejudice done Religion by mistaken Philosophy pursued and declared in various instances 14. CHAP. II. Of the Import and Use of Scripture Metaphors THe Inducements upon which some men endeavour to discharge all Disputes in and about Religion The Grounds of their Quarrelling at Metaphors with an account of the reasons of my discoursing this Theme 1. No Forms of speech used by the Holy Ghost but what are proportioned to the end for which they are made use of The Bible adorned with all sorts of Figurative Expressions Some fancy more Tropes in the Bible than there are Mr. Sherlock among others guilty of this 2. The Nature of a Metaphor what Tropes it hath affinity with the Rules and Lines by which it is distinguished from them 3. The Reason why God who doth all things according to infinite sapience hath so often adopted Metaphorical Terms to declare himself and the Things of his Kingdom in and by 4. When an Expression is to be accounted Metaphorical 5. How to attain the true conceptions that are lock't up under Metaphors 6. An Enquiry into the use of other common Metaphors with an account of their usefulness and the Measures that are to be attended to in the Vsurpation of them 7. The Non-conformists injuriously charged for their Vsage of Metaphors the Contempt thrown upon them falls often with the same weight upon the Holy Ghost None so Guilty of turning Religion into
Allegories and Metaphors as the Modern Conformable Clergy 8.9.10 CHAP. III. Of the Union of Believers with Christ THe Concernment of the Church of England in reference to some Discourses lately Published on this subject 1. What seems most especially to have influenced Mr. Sherlock to depart from the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in this matter 2. The Doctrine of the Nonconformists not fram'd to befriend men in a course of Vngodliness Mr. Sherlock's is 3.4 The Notion of Vnion in General stated with an account of the arduousness of resolving the Nature of Common Vnions 5. 'T is the Person of Christ that Believers are Vnited to 6. The Vnion we are enquiring after consists not in the specifical Oneness which is betwixt Christ and us through his having assumed Humane Nature 7. Nor doth it consist in any mixture of his Bodily substance with ours through a Carnal feeding on him 8. A personal Vnion disclaym'd 9. Not meerly a Legal Vnion and yet a Legal Vnion between Christ and those given to him of God justified 10. 'T is not barely a Love-Vnion 11. Christians not Vnited to Christ by means of a previous Vnion with the Church 12. What ever it be 't is more than a Political Union 13. An Intelligible Notion of it assigned and the whole shut up CHAP. I. Of the Interest and Use of Reason in RELIGION Sect. I. THe Interest which all Christians have in the Truths of the Gospel doth sufficiently Authorize a Concernedness in every Believer that they be neither directly Invaded nor secretly Supplanted And the more Important the Doctrines are either in themselves or with Respect to their Influence on the Hopes and Comforts of such as Believe and Profess Christianity the less chargeable as Importune is he who Engageth either in the Explication or Defence of them Besides the Name of William Sherlock and the Quality of Rector of St. George Buttolphâ—Lane London which the Author Characters himself by I understand nothing of the Person whose Writings I am now to Incounter and I wish for his own sake as well as the Truths that I had no further Occasion of knowing him than as his Interest lies in the Church of England But having vouchsafed the World a further Discovery and Manifestation of himself by a Stated Opposition of the Immediate Union of Believers to Christ and their being justified by the Imputation of his Righteousness Truths wherein the whole of our Concernment and Expectation consists He must not Resent it Amiss if while we are Examining what he would Obtrude upon us in these and some other things we Regulate our Conceptions of him in relation to what he Intimates to us of his Principles in those Matters The Prefixed Imprimatur of Doctor Parker would tempt one to Suspect that all this is done not only under the Connivance but with the Approbation of more than we are aware of I confess Men are filled with Surprizal and Amazement that it should be so considering the Manifest Repugnance of our Authors Principles not only to the Opinions of private Doctors of the Church of England but the Declared Articles of the â—aid Church Though it be Unjust to Ascribe the Sentiments of every private Writer to the Society whereof he is a Member yet when Errors are Vented under Allowance others besides the Authors become Accountable for them The Quality of the Licenser and the Relation he stands in to a greater Person in whose Behalf in all these things he is Reputed to Act would seem to Plead that the Fame and Dignity of the Church of England as well as the Interest of Truth bespeaks some Vindication from her Ecclesiastical Rulers or Dignified Members in these Matters Or it is easie to be imagined who will Suffer under the Imputation and Dishonour of them In the mean time a sober Inquiry into and Disquisition of these Points may I hope be pursued without Offence to any especially being managed without passionate Heats or Invidious Reflections Invectives and Satirs do not only disparage Religion in general but betray the Cause in whose Behalf they are used Nor are they Adapted to proselyte any but such who have forfeited the Use of their Judgments and Resigned themselves to the Conduct of Impudence Noise and Clamour For my self I profess such an Aversation to the Method some of our Modern Writers take in Treating their Adversaries that I shall not so much as insinuate Suspicions or raise Misprisions of the Tendency of the Notions here contended against further than the Unfolding and Pursuing them to their Springs necessitates me And if thereby any who wear the Livery of the Church of England shall be found to do the Work of the Assembly at Cracovia I cannot help it unless I should betray the Cause I am pleading for Yet I do hereby no ways intend to List even those among them whose Principles they have imbib'd Remembring what one said of the Milesians that may be they were no Fools though they did the same things which Fools are wont to do However 't is fit to be declared upon whose Foundations they Build and with whose Buttresses they support their Fabrick and withall that it falls too evidently under the Prospect of every discerning Person who are like to Reap the Harvest of these kind of Sowings Now though I might be thought sufficiently to acquit my self by continuing on the Defensive and only examining the Reasons which have swayed Mr. Sherlock to depart from the Common Judgments of other Men and though this would be the easiest Undertaking and in the Judgment of every indifferent Person enough both to Undeceive such as are already Misled and to pre-arm others against the Danger yet Designing the same universal Usefulness to the Reader as if I were not confined to Reply to anothers Book I shall together with an Answer to my Adversaries Exceptions endeavour to State and Establish the Doctrines in whose Defence I appear and withal Attaque him in the Opinions he Erects against them Nor am I without Hope that I shall find the Generality of those who are stiled Conformists as well as those who are termed Non-Conformists notwithstanding their Disciplinary Controversies Candid and Favourable The things here contended for are the Joynt-Concernment of both and the Opinions opposed are inconsistent with and Destructive to the Hitherto Received Doctrine of that Party as well as this If I receive no other Fruit of this Interposure but the Awakening others to more Matur'd Productions I shall not Repent my Labour the putting a Common Adversary to a stand till greater Forces Rally being of some account though the Victory be Reapt by other Hands Sect. 2. As to the Method here observed 't is such as I judge Rational being not only Adapted to the Discovery and Vindication of Truth the Unmasking and Conviction of Errour but accommodated to the Instruction and Benefit of the Reader which would be greatly obstructed by following our Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is it
them upon Divine Testimony But it ought further to enquire what Inducements and Media there are in the Light of Nature by which they may be also Known and Demonstrated And as this is to be allowed to Reason in all Matters of Religion which have Foundation in Natural Light so especially in and about such Principles of it as are necessarily pre-supposed to Faith of which kind are the Being of God and the Divinity of the Scripture Though all our Religion be in an eminent Manner built upon the Divinity of the Scriptures and some parts of it know no other Foundation but the Bible and accordingly among such as own that Book for the Word of God We need no other Bottome to Erect our Faith upon nor any other Measure to regulate our Debates and to determine our Controversies by yet when the Divinity of the Scripture it self is contended about it is neither a just nor a rational Way of Procedure barely to affirm that 't is Divine but we are to prove that it is so If we will not believe the Alchoran to proceed by Inspiration from God upon the Testimony of a Mahometan no more is it to be expected that a Mussulman should believe what we call the Bible to be God's Word upon the naked Testimony of a Christian. As upon the one hand we should betray Religion to every Infidel by pretending to build our Faith upon a Book whose sacred Authority we cannot justifie so upon the other hand we oblige our selves to the worst of Drudgeries in being resolved to believe what we can give no Reason for Besides we should not only by such a Method unavoidably expose our selves to the Dictates of every Enthusiast but with all Minister a just Plea to such as dislike Religion because of it's Unfriendliness to their Lusts for the renouncing of it Now our Belief of the Scripture supposeth the Existence of God and therefore our knowledge of his Being must precede our Faith of the Divine Authority of the Bible I readily grant that the Scriptures may be brought not only to such as own their Truth but even to Infidels as a proof of a Deity But then it must not be upon the Score of their naked Testimony but upon the account of their being of such a Frame Nature and Quality that they can proceed from no other Author And thus we Arrive by the Scripture at an Assurance of God's Existence as we do at the Knowledge of a Cause by it's Effect But so far as we assent to any thing upon the Credit of the Scriptures meer Testification we are necessitated to presuppose the Existence of God it being only upon the account of his Veracity in himself and that the Bible is a Divine Revelation that we do without the least guilt of vain Credulity because upon the highest Reason implicitely believe it In discoursing the Serviceableness of Reason in demonstrating the fore-mentioned Articles together with those other Doctrines that have their Foundation not only in Revelation but also in Natural Light and such common Principles which all men assent to I shall confine my self to wonderful Brevity and rather point at Arguments than pursue them And to begin with the Existence of God Were there no Supernatural Revelation in the World there is enough both within us and without us to Convince us of the Being of a Deity Hence though God hath wrought many Miracles to Convince Infidels and Mis-Believers yet he never wrought any to Convince Atheists Nor do the Pen-Men of Scripture attempt to prove it but take it for granted as being evidently manifest both by Sensible and Rational Demonstration I shall not here insist on the Cartesian Argument drawn from an Innate and Ingraft Idea of God For upon a most serious perusal of what is alledged by Cartes himself Claubergius De Bruin Doctor More and others in Vindication of it together with what is produced by Gassendus Ezekius Vogelsangius Derkennis Doctor Parker and others against it I look upon it as little better than a Sophism and to maintain an Article of such Import by a Medium either Weak or Fallacious is to betray the first Fundamental of Religion I know no Idea's formally Innate what we commonly call so are the Results of the Exercise of our Reason The Notion of God is not otherwise inbred then that the Soul is furnished with such a Natural Sagacity that upon the Exercise of her rational Powers she is Infallibly led to the Acknowledgment of a Deity And this is first effected by her looking inwardly upon her self and her own Acts and we are with Facility and by a short way of Argumentation conducted thence to the Existence of God For 1 st We perceive that the Faculty resident in us is not furnished with all perfections and therefore not Self-existent nor indebted to it self for those it hath otherwise it would have cloathed it self with the utmost perfections it can Imagine and by consequence finding it's own Exility and Imperfection it Naturally and with Ease arrives at a perswasion of deriving it's Original from some First Supreme and Free Agent who hath made it what it is and this can be nothing but God 2 dly We perceive that we have such a Faculty that apprehendeth judgeth reasoneth but what it is whence it is and how it performeth those things we know not And therefore there must be some Supreme Being who hath given us this Faculty and understands both the Nature of it and how it knoweth which we our selves do not 3 dly Our Natures are such that assoon as we come to have the use of our Intellectual Faculties we are forced to acknowledge some things Good and other things Evil. There is an Unalterable Congruity betwixt some Acts and our reasonable Souls and an Unchangeable Incongruity betwixt them and others Now this plainly sways to the belief of a God For all distinctions of Good and Evil relate to a Law under the Sanction of which we are and all Law supposeth a Superiour who hath Right to command us and there can be no Universal Independent Supreme but God 4 ly We find our selves possessed of a Faculty necessarily reflecting on it's own Acts and passing a Judgment upon it self in all it does Which is a further Conviction of the Existence of God for it implies a Supreme Judge to whom we are accountable 5 ly We find that we are furnished with Faculties of vast Appetite and Desires and that there is nothing in the World that can satisfie our Cravings and by consequence there must be some Supreme Good adequate and proportionate to the Longings of our Souls which can be nothing but God This is his Meaning who said of the Heathen that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Light of Nature they nodded after a Summum Bonum It were to put a Slur upon Nature to suppose that she hath put those Propensions and Inclinations into us only to delude and abuse us 6 ly We find the
of the Bible The ancient Heathens reproaching the Primitive Christians that they grounded all their Doâ—â—rine upon meer Belief that their Religion consisted In sola ratione credendi and that their simple Faith was all they had to trust to The Christians complained of the Charge as a gross and impudent Calumny appealed to Reason for Proof of their Belief and offered to joyn Issue with them upon that Title And as they that owe their Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God to Report Principles of Education or the Felicity of their Birth and the Clime where they were born receive the Scripture upon no better Motives than the Turks do the Alcoran So if pretended Inspiration may pass for a Demonstration of the Truth of what every bold Pretender will obtrude upon us We expose our selves not only to the Belief of every Groundless Imagination but of innumerable Contradictions For not only the grossest Follies but Doctrines palpably repugnant both to Reason and one another have been delivered by Enthusiasts and pretended Inspirato's I readily grant that the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Souls and Consciences of men to the Truth of the Scripture is the most convincing Evidence that such Persons can have of it's Divinity But 1 st The Holy Ghost convinceth no man as to the Belief of the Scripture without Enlightning his mind in the Grounds and Reasons upon which it's proceeding from God is evidenced and established There is no Conviction begot by the Holy Ghost in the Hearts of men otherwise than by rational Evidence satisfying our Understandings through a discovery of the Motives and Inducements that ascertain the Truth of what he would convince us of 2. No mans particular Assurance obtained thus in way of Illumination by the Holy Ghost is to be otherwise urged as an Argument of Conviction to another than by proposing the Reasons which our Faith is erected on The way of such Mens Evidence is communicable to none unless they could kindle the same Rayes in the Breasts of others that have Irradiated their own and therefore they must deal with others by producing the grounds of their Conviction not pleading the manner of it And that an other is convinced or persuaded by them depends wholly upon the weight and Momentousness of the Reasons themselves not on the manner that such a person came to discover them For should he have arrived at the discerning them by any other Mean they had been of the same Significancy to the Conviction of an Adversary 3. The Holy Ghost as a distinct Person in the Deity is not a Principle demonstrable by Reason Seeing then it is by the Scripture alone that we are assured of the Existence of the Divine Spirit as a distinct Person in the Godhead therefore his Testimony in the Hearts and Consciences of men to the Scripture cannot be allowed as a previous Evidence of it's Divinity To prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost when we cannot otherwise prove that there is a Holy Ghost but by the Testimony of the Scripture is to argue Circularly and absurdly I know the Papists to be even with the Protestants for the Circle we charge on them in their proving the Church by the Scriptures and the Scripture by the Church do pretend to fasten the same way of Circular Argumentation upon us in that we prove the Spirit by the Scripture and the Scripture by the Spirit Whereas even those Protestants who contend that the Spirit and Scripture do mutually prove one another may easily acquit themselves from a Circle Seeing whatever Proof the Scripture and Spirit mutually Minister to one another it is in Diverso genere The Scripture proves the Spirit either in way of Witness by plainly testifying that there is such a Being as the Divine Spirit or Objectively and by way of Argument bringing into Light such Truths as can be conceived to proceed from none other save 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Holy Ghost But then the Spirit proves the Scripture not in way of a naked Witness nor in way of Argument but under the notion of an Efficient Cause Elevating and preparing our Understandings to discern the Lineaments Characters and Signatures of Divinity which God hath impressed upon the Scriptures which through that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is upon our Minds we many times do not at all discern much less do we at any time discern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without it Or else by giving Efficacy to Scripture Truths in and upon our Hearts and Consciences so that the Word arriving with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the effectual Working of his Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual Sense and Taste of the things themselves And this Spiritual Gust that I may use Origen's Phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Diviner thing and more Convincing than any Demonstration For the Word of God as well as God himself is best known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Intellectual Touch as the Philosopher sayes But as I have said already this is no convincing Proof to an Adversary nor doth the evidence of it reach further than the party immediately concerned And therefore our Recourse must be to Arguments of another Nature In brief when we have to do with such as either Question or Deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture we are to prove it by Ratiocination from common Principles received amongst Mankind and by Topicks that lye even and proportionated to Intellectual Nature And here Reason is justly magnified as hugely Subservient to Religion in that it demonstrates the Divine Authority of the Scripture upon which our Faith as to all particular Articles and Duties of Religion is grounded Not do I doubt but that Reason can acquit it self in this Undertaking to the Conviction of all that are not wilfully obstinate and for such I know no means either sufficient or intended by God to satisfie them Many great Men both Ancient and Modern as well at Home as Abroad have already laboured and to good purpose in this Theme Nor can there be much added by any to what is already said much less am I likely to do it Neither is it my Intention to treat this Subject at large but rather to touch at the Heads of Arguments than handle them And I suppose this will sufficiently answer my Designe which is to vindicate the Non-Conformists from the Aspersions lately cast upon them as if they were Defamers of Reason disclayming it from all Concern in Religion and deserving to be charged with the Reproach which Julian slanderously fastned upon the Primitive Christians that they had no Ground for their Faith but that their Wisdom was only to Believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Method I shall here confine my self to shall be First To justifie the Necessity of some Supernatural Revelation in order to
sense and the Mystical that they do both together make up one entire compleat sense of the place Yea it may be said that in all propositions which admit a Literal and a Mystical sense though there be but one Explicite Enunciation yet there are two implicitely And if any have a mind upon this account to distinguish betwixt the Literal sense and the Mystical they may for me nor will I quarrel with them But to assign a plurality of coordinate or Ambiguous senses to one and the same text is the height of Madness invented only to reproach the Scripture and to make way for the Authority of the Church in the expounding of it and is indeed repugnant not only to the perspicuity of the Scripture but to the unity of Truth and the end of Gods revealing the Word which is to instruct us in Faith and Obedience for wheresoever there is a Multiplicity of Disparate Senses we can never be sure that we have attained to the true meaning of any one proposition Now when we enquire into the Sense of Scripture and asseâ—t its being Intelligible we always distinguish betwixt the perspicuity of the Object and the capacity of the Subject actually to understand it The easiness of the Scripture to be understood in respect of it self and our disposedness to understand it right are things vastly distant The Sense of the Word may be in it self facile and plain though in the mean time it remain dark and obscure to those who have shut their eyes or that have their understanding defiled tinctur'd and darkned by fuliginous vapours The Bible is only plain to such who apply themselves to the study of it without prepossessions prejudice and forestalled judgments are withall humble and diligent in the use of means to find out the meaning of it Though the Ethereal Regions be replenished with rayes of light emitted from the great Luminary yet it is both necessary that men have eyes and that they open them in order to their discovering and receiving the benefit of it If our understandings either from that darkness and ignorance which they are enveloped and muffled with through the Fall or from malignant Habits occasioned either by unhappy education or sensual lusts do not discern the sense and meaning of Scripture it is no impeachment of its perspicuity but a manifestation of our weakness corruption and folly Besides when we speak of the plainness of the Scripture its easiness to be understood we always put a difference betwixt Scripture Texts relating to Doctrines of Faith manners which are absolutely necessary to be known and such of whose Sense we may be safely ignorant the Doctrines they refer to having no indispensable connexion with Salvation The whole Will and Mind of God as to all that is needfull to be known in order to our duty and Happiness is revealed in the Scripture without any such ambiguity or obscurity as should hinder it from being understood though God in his Soveraign Wisdome hath in many things whose simple Ignorance doth not interpose with Salvation left many hard and difficult Texts partly to make us sensible of the weakness of our Understandings partly to imploy our minds unto diligence partly to induce us to implore Divine instruction and to make us depend upon God for illumination and partly to exercise our Souls unto reverence But in Fundamental Truths the Case is otherwise for the end giving measure and fixing bounds unto means it is not consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness yea nor Justice of God to leave that hard to be understood which upon no less peril than the hazard of Salvation he hath required the indispensable knowledg of As first principles of Reason need no proof of their Truth being self-evident to every one that understands the Import of Terms So Fundamental Doctrines of Religion carry an Evidence in the plainness and perspicuity of their Revelation that every one who reads the Bible without prejudice and a perverse mind may be satisfied that such Doctrines are there proposed Nor is it any Argument that those Texts of Scripture where such Articles are revealed are not easy to be understood because some out of prejudice or perversness have wrested them to a Corrupt sence seeing God did not endite the Bible for the froward and Captious but for such who will read it with a free and unprejudiced mind and are willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth For as Aristotle says in the Case of the first principles of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A self Evident Principle is not Evident to all men but only to such who have found and undepraved Understandings Topic. 6. Cap. 4. So it is no impeachment of the perspicuity of the Revelation of Fundamental Truths of Religion that men who have their minds defiled and darkned by Lusts infected with evil Opinions and filled with prejudices do not believe and acknowledg them And by the way while all Truths absolutely necessary to be known are easy and plain and while we are indispensably obliged to believe and receive whatsoever is so an Enumeration of Fundamental Truths is neither necessary nor useful and possibly not safe Now as all Doctrines necessary to be Understood are so revealed in the scripture that they are easy enough to be so so being understood they are as well the Standard and Measure by which dark and obscure Texts are to be interpreted as the Key to the opening of them As Curve lines are best discerned when applied to straight so are Heterodox senses imposed on Obscure Texts of Scripture best perceived when examined by their Habitudes to necessary and plain Truths Whatsoever bears not a Symmetry with the Foundation can be no Superstruction of God And whatsoever Notion either Formally or Virtually directly or consequentially interfere's with a fundamental Truth though never so many Texts be pressed in the proof of it we maybe sure both of its falsity and that they are all wrested and mistaken But though the Scripture be most plain in points necessary to Salvation yet no one Text of the Bible is in it self unintelligible for as Dr. More say's to affirm that the Holy Writ is in it elf unintelligible is aequivalent to the pronouncing it nonsense or to averr that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not only play with the Children of men but even fool with them Mons. Wolzogen therefore in his late Book de Interprete Scripturarum hath not only in this matter shamefully betrayed the Protestant cause but reflected reproach upon the Spirit of God There are somthings says he in the Scripture which we cannot understand not through any defect or fault of our Minds or through the Sublimity Majesty of the Doctrines themselves but through the Frame of the Scripture it self and the manner in which they are revealed If there be but one
3.6 and the rationalness of his deduction from thence though made by the joyning of a proposition of another Nature to it which they paid a respect to The Multitude were swayed in this case by the meer strength and weight of his argument and are therefore said to have been astonished at his Doctrine Mat. 22.33 They admired his Wonderful Wisdom and profound Sagacity nor were they influenced by any Authority they held him vested with Nor indeed is it any great evidence of a profound Wisedom or of his insight into the Scripture to argue from Media which have no further convincing efficacy or force but what they borrow from his authority that useth them In brief either the Text quoted by our Saviour was sufficient antecedently to Christs using of it and abstracting from his Authority to demonstrate the Resurrection or it was not If it was then it was not meerly from his Authority that they came under an Obligation to a belief of that conclusion If it was not than how comes Christ to lodg their unbelief in reference to the ResurrectioÌ„ upon their ignorance of the Scriptures Marc. 12.24 Mat. 22.31 For if they stood not under the obligation of that consequence but meerly because of his Authority then the best acquaintance imaginable with the sense and meaning of that place could have ministred them no relief in that point yea it had been utterly unlawful to have drawn any such inference from it 5. Exclude Scripture-Consequences and the Papists are not able to impugn one Tenet of the Protestants nor are they in Capacity to prove the first Article of the Roman Faith namely the pretended Infallibility of their Church While they wrest such Weapons out of our hands they at the same time disarm themselves And by endeavouring to disserve the Cause of the Reformed Churches they utterly undo their own For if our Reasonings of this kind be insignificant against them theirs are also insignificant against us and by the same art that they endeavour to blunt the edge of our Swords they are bound to throw away their own I shall discourse this no farther only shut it up with a saying of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Philosophy and right Reason there can be no knowledge nor science in the World § 12. The next thing that belongs to Reason in matters of Religion regards those Doctrines which besides the Foundation that they have in Revelation have also Evidence in the light of Nature And as I intimated before § 5. more is allowable to Reason in and about these than about those we are indebted only to the Scripture for the discovery of 'T is not enough that we enquire into the declaration of them as it lyes in the Bible and how they are there expressed c. but we are further to see what Media there are in the light of Nature by which they may be both discerned and confirmed Yet I shall here crave liberty to premise That where the Authority of the Scripture is owned our chief Topicks in all Theological debates ought to be fetcht from the sacred Records Thence we should both frame our Idea's of them and borrow as well the Arguments as the Colours and Ornaments by which we would commend them to the Minds and Consciences of Believers Especially a regard ought to be had to this in popular Discourses and Sermons As humane Authority ought to have very little place if any at all in the Pulpit so we ought not there to serve our selves too much from Maxims of Philosophie and principles of Reason As God hath impressed more of his Authority upon the Scriptures than upon any thing else that he hath made Himself and his Will known by so there is an Efficacy of the Spirit promised to attend the naked Preaching of the Word beyond what we can expect to accompany our Ratiocinations from principles of Reason As Faith prepares the spirits of men to a submission to what they hear immediately out of the Bible so there is something great and elevated which I know not how to express in Truths as nakedly delivered by the Holy Ghost which Argumentations from Natural Maximes doth for the most part obnubilate and darken The Majesty of God whose commands we deliver doth above all things most attract the respect of our Auditors nor do we at any time so effectually persuade as by the meer authority of him in whose Name we speak Yet I do not deny but that Rational proofs are of great use not only to such with whom Scripture-Testimonies signifie nothing but even to those who own and adore its Authority by shewing that as it is highly reasonable to believe whatsoever God hath said so the things themselves are agreeable to and have foundation in Reason and the two lights of Revelation and Nature do excellently harmonise This being premised among other Truths which besides their being plainly revealed in the Scripture have also evidence given to them in the Light of Nature the Immortality of the Soul and the certainty of Providence are especially remarkable 'T is True there are many other Doctrines of this quality viz. the Attributes of God the Creation of the World Moral Good and Evil c. All which as they are revealed in the sacred Scripture so they are demonstrable from undoubted principles of Reason But wavâ—ng these at present I shall only by way of essay and with all imaginable brevity consider what media there are in Nature by which the two former may be evinced and the serviceableness of Reason in the doing of it I shall begin with the Immortality of the Soul and the Unhappiness of the Age wherein we live doth render the inculcation of this Truth not only seasonable but necessary Men having degraded themselves into Beasts by practice they thence take the Measures of their Opinions and allow no difference betwixt themselves and the pâ—ttifullest Brute but that Matter in them is fallen into a more lucky texture and modification To justifie their sensualities they contend that they have nothing but their Animal inclinations to gratifie and indeed the soul of a Brute will very well serve all the Ends that some men propound to themselves Next the Belief of the Beeing of God the persuasion of the souls being Immortal is the hinge upon which all Religion turns 'T is this that leads us both to contemn the gratifications of the Flesh and to be solicitous about a happiness hereafter though it be with the undergoing of present inconveniences rather than here There is no one Truth hath a more powerful influence upon the whole course of our present life than a steddy and vigorous belief that the soul is immortal Now when we assert the Immortality of the Soul we do nâ—t intend that it is Immortal in such a sense as that by no cause it can be annihilated God alone is thus Immortal for as there are no principles of Corruption in his Nature so there is no forraign
but to rest here without warding off the thrusts of Adversaries is to tempt them either wholly to throw off the belief of all Revelation or to affix perverse Senses to it Now there are some Articles of Religion which may not only be defended by shewing from the Testimony of the Bible that their Objects have an Existence but by explaining how they are and that either from principles of Natural Light or from the account that the Scripture it self Gives of the Modes of their Existence For Example How the Earth could be peopled in so little a time as the Mosaick History doth tacitely inform us when all Mankind sprung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one stock for so the word there signifies and proceeded from one Man and one Woman as their Original Progenitors How an Ark of that Capacity which the Scripture instructs us Noahs was could receive into it all kinds of living Creatures with provisions of Aliment for so long a time How the Israelites could multiply to such a number in Egypt within the compass of two hundred years or little more when there went down but such a handful thither of whom they descended There are other Articles of Religion which we can only shew from Revelation that the Objects of them are but the manner and way how they exist we cannot tell And seeing the Measure of Faith doth only follow and suit the measure of Revelation we are therefore in reference to such things only to believe that they are but the Mode of their Existence is to be no Article of our Creed And I crave liberty here to suggest that it is both a piece of Tyranny to impose the belief of the Modes of their existence upon the Consciences of men and hath been found disserviceable to Religion to undertake to explain the Manner according to which such a thing exists when God hath only revealed the Existence of the thing it self but concealed the Way how it is If in the explicating the Phaenomena of Nature which is the proper province of Reason the most that a discreet Philosopher will pretend to is to declare the possible ways by which a Phaenomenon may be accounted for without presuming to say that it is only performed in this way and that there is no other in which it may be explained Much more doth it become us in the Great mysteries of Revelation to abstain from defining the Manner how they are and to content our selves with what God hath been pleased to tell us viz. that they are without prying into the Mode of their being which he hath hid from us Now in and about such Doctrines these things appertain to Reason First To shew that 't is not required that it should comprehend them Whatsoever God hath said is to be assented to though 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 Counsels and Works of God seeing Reason acknowledgeth him to be infinite and it self to be Finite If we will pretend to Reason in Religion we are to be believe whatever God hath said to be True this being the greatest Reason that he who is Veracious cannot lye There is nothing more consonant to the transcendency of so a high a Nature as that of God than that it be acknowledged incomprehensible nor is there any thing more agreeable to his infinite Wisdom than that his projects designs and contrivances should be held past finding out 'T is both unjust and irrational to think that man should penetrate those depths and Abysm's which the Angels desire only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into as vailed and hidden from sight But more of this anon 2 dly We are to hold our selves assured that every Argument from Reason repugnant to a Doctrine revealed in the Scripture is a Sophism though may be we cannot discover the Fallacy 'T is one thing to be assured of a Truth and another to be able to answer all the Objections that are pressed against it There are Innumerable things even in Philosophy of which we are fully assured and yet we cannot resolve all the difficulties that attend them If every pusling Objection be enough to make us renounce what we have express Revelation for by a parity of Reason we must disclaim many a Natural Truth which we have the evidence of sense and Reason for because we cannot answer all the Objections that do encounter them It were the way to introduce an Universal Scepticsm to doubt of the Truth of every thing the knotts intricacies about the Natures Properties Operations and Modes of whose Existence we cannot unty What a man hath embraced upon just and weighty grounds he is not to desert it meerly because he can not answer every Objection that is urged against it 'T is the height of folly and Madness to forego an opinion when the Objections wherewith it is entangled are not of greater yea nor of the same importance with the reasons on which we received it 3 dly We are to answer the Objection not by explicating how the thing contested is but by shew-that there is nothing in the argument that prove's it impossible to be And this is done by shewing that what is stiled a Principle of Reason in truth and reality is not so at least in the degree and latitude that it is applied There are many vulgar Axioms urged as Maximes of Reason which are as far from obtaining in Philosophy as in Divinity there are others which though they hold in reference to some Objects and in relation to some Agents yet they are not to be allowed with respect to every Agent and every Object For example though a Finite Agent require a preexistent subject in order to its operation yet this holds not in relation to an infinite and Almighty worker And though Impenetrability may be affirmed of all Substances that are Corporeal yet to apply it to all Substances Universally and thereupon to reject Spirits as Mr. Hobbs doth is grosly to prevaricate Most received Maximes have their limitations nor are they principles of Reason farther then as they are circumscrib'd by such conditions and confinements and to urge them beyond their bounds is to contradict Reason which tells us that they hold only so far and no farther That great Maxime which is the Foundation of all Argumentation viz. that Extrem's identified to a middle Term are identified the one to the other admitts more than one or two limitations which if they be not attended to all our Syllogising is but meer Sophistry For if either the Extrem's be only collectively identified to the Medium not distributely or if they be one with it inadequately only and not adequately or if they Center in the Middle Term only in the Concrete and not in the Abstract there is no concluding of an Identity betwixt the Extremes themselves And I dare say that through a
faileur in one of these both most of the Arguments against the Doctrine of the Trinity and for Communication of Omnipresence to the Humane Nature of Christ because it agrees to the Person of the son of God not to instance in more particulars may be easily avoided and answered 2 by shewing that if it be an universal and true Maxime of Reason that the Objection is grounded on how that there is not any thing in Revelation that doth contradict it There is an excellent Harmony betwixt Truth and Truth and though they be distinct and different yet they are not contrary and repugnant the one to the other They who reject Gospel Mysteries on supposition of a Repugnancy they lye in to Reason have not been able to this day to justifie their Charge 'T is true the more we adventure too neerly to look into them the more we find our selves dazled with their Fulgor but yet we find no thing in them that implye's a Contradiction to our Faculties or that is repugnant to the Nature and Attributes of God Nor is there any one Argument produced to this day in proof of the repugnancy of the Mysteries of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God his satisfying Divine Justice in the Room and behalf of Sinners the Eternal Decrees c. Which hath not received an answer and the Authors of it been shamefully baffled § 14. Having unfolded the Interest and concernment of Reason in and about Religion it will be necessary ere we shut up this Discourse more particularly to state and fix the Bounds betwixt these two and to offer some Measures by which Reason may have allotted all that belongs to it and yet nothing in the mean time be detracted from Faith First then Reason is the Negative Measure in Matters of Religion Nothing contradictory to right Reason is to be admitted as a Mystery of Faith What Right Reason say's cannot be done we must not father it upon God to do If Reason be objected against any Scripture Testimony how plausible and subtile soever it seems yet Right Reason it cannot be but only deceives through an Unbrage and shew of it And if Scripture Authority be urged against an undoubted and evident Principle of Reason he that doth so presseth not the true meaning of the Scripture for that he doth not reach but only imposeth his own Sense and urgeth what himself phancieth to be there instead of what indeed is so saith Austin These two lights though different yet they do not destroy one another God is the Author of natural as well as Supernatural Light nor can he bely himself We have no greater Certainty than that of our Faculties for by that alone are we inabled to discern a Divine Revelation from Humane or Diabolical Delusions Should God reveal such Doctrines as contradict Natural Truths and Principles of Right Reason He would thereby eradicate what himself hath planted in our Souls The Law of Reason being the first declaration of the Will of God originally annexed to and communicated with our Natures 't is not to be imagined that by any after declaration he should thwart his first Besides all Revelation is to instruct us in a reasonable though supernatural way and therefore though in many things it may exceed our Reason fully to comprehend it yet in all things it must be consistent with our Reasons 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 withall 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 received would make us renounce Man espouse Brute in matters of the chiefest greatest concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible Nothing but mens entertaining opinions which they cannot defend from being absurd and irrational could have sway'd them to reproach Reason in the manner they do but they do only decline the weapons they are sure to be wounded by When men have filled Religion with Opinions that are contrary to common Sense and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such a one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the evidence and principles of both And thus under a respect that is pleaded to be due to sacred Mysteries do the wildest fancies take Sanctuary And meerly out of fear of violating that regard which ought to be paid to Objects of Faith we must believe that to be true which the Universal Reason of Man-kind gives the lye to Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common sense 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 established two Soveraign Gods one Good and another Bad Others having affirmed the Soul to be a part 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 hearkened to Thus do others to this day who being resolved to obtrude their fancies upon the World and being neither able to prove nor defend what they say they pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorem's 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 weakned the Faith of Mussul-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them There is no Combating of the Valentinians Marcionites Eutychians and others but by shewing the repugnance of their Opinions to first principles of Reason We do not make Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine do only allow it a Negative voyce We place it not in the Chair in Councels of Faith but do only permit it to keep the door and hinder the entring of Contradictions and Irrational Fancies disguised under the Name of Sacred Mysteries This I thought fit to propose in the first place and have the more largely insisted on it because of its serviceableness against the Corporal presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the ubiquity of Christs Body and divers other Articles both of the Romane and Lutheran Creeds What the Universal Reason of Man-kind tells us is finite commensurable and impenetrable c. they would have us believe it to be Infinite Immense and subject to penetration The great Article of the Roman Faith viz. Transubstantiation must needs be
the Pythagorean Hierom assureth us that Pelagius suckt all his Doctrine from the Philosophy of Pythagoras and Zeno and Jansâ—nius fully proves it Nor did Samosatenus and Arius derive their blasphemous opinions concerning the Deity of Christ from any other fountain save from the Platonick Philosophy The Popish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Saint-worship is nothing but an imitation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Daemon-worship of the Pagan Philosophers And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the latter gave rise to the Doctrine of Supererogation held by the former The Romish Purgatory was fetcht from Plato as well as from Virgil and Ovid. Yea their Caelibate had its first foundation in the Doctrine of Pythagoras I might also add that the Opinion of the Praeexistence of Souls lately revived among our selves and the Notion of Aethereal Vehicles of Angelical Spirits were imbib'd from Plato and Pythagoras It was not therefore without Cause that Tertullian stiled the Philosophers the Patriarchs of Hereticks and that he affirmed Haereses a Philosophia subornari Heresies to have been occasioned by Philosophy and that Philosophy was condimentum the seasoning of all Heresies Nor was He alone in this opinion for Lactantius Arnobius Epiphanius Chrysostom Gregory Nazianzen besides divers others speak all to the same purpose The Platonick School at Alexandria was the Seminary of the chiefest and most pestilent Errors vented in the Church during the four first Centuries Joannes Baptista Crispus hath wrote a discourse of Plato's Opinions and hath at the End of every Chapter shewn what Heresies sprung from each Yea the Apostle Paul seems plainly to me to have intended the Pythagoreans and Platonists when he adviseth the Colessians to beware lest any man should spoyl them through Philosophy Col. 2.8 Platonism growing out of request did the Philosophy of Aristotle after it came into esteem prove more friendly to Religion No! The purity and simplicity of the Gospel was no less corrupted by blending the Dogm's of Aristotle with the Articles of Faâ—th than it had been by mingling the Philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato with the Doctrines of Christ. The primitive Centuries felt some of the mischievous effects of it The Theodotians upheld their Errour by the reasonings of Aristotle The Carpocratians out of an inordinate zeal to his Doctrine erected an Image to him The Aetians were transported to that degree of madness as to teach their Schollars the Categories of Aristotle for a Catechism Socrates expresly informs us that it was the Aristotelick Philosophy that lead Aetius into the Heresie of Arius Hierom tells us that the Hereticks sheltred themselves inter spineta Aristotelis among the briars of Aristotle and that their Heresies were fostred from thence And Tertullian assures us that the Enemies of the Christian faith borrowed their Arms from him by which they defended their Errors But the greatest mischief that befel Religion through the Philosophy of Aristotle was after the School-men had moulded Theologie to his Method and undertaken the management of Divinity in analogy to his principles The vast Volumes of the School-men are stuffed with Peripatetick depravations and their Scholastick controversies are resolved into the subtilties of his Philosophy Christian Morality lost its simplicity and purity by being blended with his Ethicks and the Doctrines of Faith became depraved through the mixing them with his metaphysical niceties It was by this means that Christianity which is a plain simple thing of it self became corrupted into an Artificial kind of wrangling and degenerated into contentious unprofitable altercations For partly through an usurpation of barbarous and insignificant Words partly through an introduction of new Terms partly through handling the great mysteries of Faith in Analogy to metaphysical Hypotheses partly through accommodating the Articles of Religion to a congruity with Philosophical Axioms partly by applying Maxims of Philosophy beyond their proper Objects partly by their disputing every thing pro and con and especially by advancing Aristotle to an equal Authority with God himself they wholly defaced and contaminated Religion Nor have Luther Melancthon Bucer Calvin and other Protestants only complained of it but many of the most learned and sober Romanists such as Mirandula Beatus Rhenanus Erasmus Vives Jansenius Gassendus c. have severely censured it Nor is the case mended since the Aristotelick Philosophy grew out of repute and the Cartesian and Corpuscularian usurped the Chair I readily grant that in reference to the solving the Phaenomena of Nature there is more to be said for the Corpuscularian Hypothesis than for any other Nor do I envy Des-Cartes all due praise though I would not be the person that should fasten the many Encomiums and Elogiums on him that some men adorn him with I also allow that generous freedom which our Cartesians pretend to of being baptized into no mans Notions upon the meer Authority of his Name and I wish they were true to themselves and while they inveigh against the Aristotelians as Mancipata Capita they did nor continue the Tyranny though they have changed the Tyrant Yet I crave leave to say that as the Cartesian Hypothesis is managed it is like to prove as disserviceable to Religion as any Philosophy hitherto entertained in the World I will not insist on his renouncing Arguments for the Being of God derived from the Fabrick of things though therein he plainly reflects upon the Scripture which in more than one place calls in Media of that Nature to demonstrate the Existence of a Deity Neither will I Press his discharging all Spirits from place though that seems consequentially to discharge them from Being for what is no where we cannot well apprehend to be at all And if Ubication be nothing but the presence of things in place and if place necessarily Exist and that as well without the Circle of the Universe as within it it would seem to me impossible but that if a thing exist at all it should coexist with place Nor will I dwell upon his disbanding all Final Causes out of the precincts of natural Philosophy Though that would seem to imply that all things are the effects of Fate or Chance and that there was no design nor Counsel in the production of them For if infinite Wisdom contrived and infinite Power fram'd the World such an Agent behoved to have an End in order to which he acted and this ought to be of prime consideration in our speculations of the fabrick and nature of things Nor shall I dwell upon his attempting to solve all the Phaenomena of Nature secluding any Immediate influx of Divine Providence yea that all the Phaenomena of the Universe might arise out of Matter by meer mechanical Motion and that Matter alone supposing such a degree of motion communicated to it and the Laws of motion established could have produced the Sun Moon Starrs Plants Animals and the Bodies of men in such Organization Order Beauty and Harmony as now they are Though this seems
rationally in surrendring themselves to the guidance of it The Article it self may be plainly revealed and yet not only the reason and mode of it lye altogether hid but the thing it self may over-power our Faculties and dazle them with its Majesty and Splendour 1. Reason is often non-plust and puzled about its own proper Objects and the phaenomena of Nature and shall we think it a competent judge of Objects it was never adapted for It is below many of the Works of God and therefore much more below Mysteries of Revelation See this Argument elegantly and strenuously handled by Bradwardine de causa Dei lib. 1. c. 1. Here are many things which we ought to admire but must never hope fully to understand Our work here is to believe not to enquire 2. If our minds will not submit to a Revelation until they see a reason of the proposition they do not believe or obey at all because they do not submit till they cannot chuse Faith bears not upon demonstration but upon the Authority and Veracity of the speaker and therefore to believe nothing but what we do comprehend is not to believe but to argue and is Science not Faith Ye that will believe in the Gospel what you please and what ye think fit ye will not believe you renounce the Gospel saith Austin to the Manichees for you believe your selves not it 3. To believe nothing but what we can fully comprehend is to remonstrate to the Wisdom and Power of God at least to challenge to our selves an Omniscience proportionable to the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence 4. The Rule and Measure of Faith must be certain but no mans Reason universally is so because one Mans Reason rejects what anothers assents to Every man pretends to right Reason but who hath it is hard to tell If it be lawful for one man to reject a plain Revelation in one particular because he cannot comprehend it why may not a second do the same with reference to Revelation in another particular As the Socinians by making their Reason judge of what they are to believe will not admit many of the prime Articles of the Gospel so the Philosophers would make their Reason judge of what they should receive their Reason would not admit the Gospel at all 5. The certainty of Revelation is preferred to all other Evidence and we are commanded to subject our Reason to the Authority of God in the Scripture and by consequence Reason cannot be the positive Measure of Religion The Sacred Writers do every where remit us to the Scripture it self as the Rule of Faith and not at all to the Tribunal of Reason Herein are the Socinians justly impeachable for though sometimes they acknowledge Religion to be above Reason as we lately heard yet at other times they speak in a very indifferent Manner By Reason alone saith Smalcius can we define what is possible and what is impossible in matters of Faith See to the same purpose Ostorod Instit. cap. 6. Schlicting de Trinit advers Meisner p. 67. c. Hence that of Socinus that he would not believe Christ to have satisfied for our sins though he should read it not only once but often in the Scripture and that the Infallibility of the Revealer had not been enough to establish it supposing Christ to have said it and to have risen from the Dead to declare his own Veracity unless he had declared it by its Causes and effects and so shewn the possibility of it To which agrees a passage of Smalcius in reference to the Incarnation of the Son of God that he would not submit to it though he should meet with it not only often but in express Terms in the Bible I wish others did not say the same in effect But while they renounce Doctrines upon no other account but their incomprehensibleness or because we cannot fully fathom them they must give us leave to think whose principles they have drunk in and whose cause they plead Thus have I discoursed the whole Interest of Reason in Religion and as I know not that I have said any more in this Matter than what is generally maintained by all the sober Nonconformists so I hope I may say that the charge which some men have fastned upon us as if we wholly renounced Reason in all Concernments of Religion and that no Contradiction can astonish or stagger us and that this is the foundation and support of the Credit of the party especially amongst Vulgar Hearers is a false aspersion groundless calumny and an impudent Crimination And though I do not think that it savour's of over-much Modesty that a few young Theologues of the Church of England if indeed they be so should monopolize to themselves the name of Rational Divines yet for my own part I neither envy them the Title nor have any quarrel with them upon that account it being indeed their want of Reason that I find fault with And as it hath generally been the unhappiness of others who have too much boasted of and relyed upon Reason to fall into the most irrational sentiments so I do not see but that it is in a very great measure the misfortune of our New Rationalists As the Philosophers of old made Reason their only Rule and yet most of their Religious opinions whether in reference to Faith Worship or Moral Obedience were perfectly Irrational And as the Socinians pretend to pay more than an ordinary veneration to Reason and yet there are none in the world whose Tenets lye more cross to the Fundamental Maxims of it than some of theirs do For to give Religious Adoration to a meer Creature for such they allow Christ only to be to deny God the fore knowledge of future contingents to ascribe passions and affections to God in the manner they are incident to us are such Repugnancies to Reason that a man had need renounce that as well as Revelation ere he can admit them So I account it of easie proof that many of the Darling Notions about Original Sin Converting Grace the Nature of Regeneration and Justification it self c. of our pretended late Rational Divines are as well repugnant to Reason as they are to Scripture CHAP. II. Of the Import and Vse of Scripture-Metaphors SECT I. SOme men having espoused corrupt designs in reference to the Truths of the Gospel are in pursuance thereof led to Methods which may subserve and countenance their Undertakings For the End being fixed Means must be found out and adapted for the compassing of it Now among other little arts and contrivances supposed conducible to their Undertaking I find some late Writers improving their skill and industry especially in these two things First under pretence of banishing all wrangling brawling and vain talking they study to cashier and discharge all Disputes in and about Religion and 't is become their Interests upon two accounts so to do 1. That they may have the liberty to vent
the Soveraign Will and Wisdom of God who hath supernaturally revealed them But besides through their lying out of the roads and paths of Reason there remains also a Physical disproportion as well as a Moral betwixt them and our Faculties notwithstanding their being revealed And upon this account there cannot be a more proper means of administring relief to our intellectual Faculties about them than to refract accommodate and attemper them to our minds by dexterously cloathing them with all that external sensibility which their Natures will admit through borrowing Light from things material and known to illustrate them 3 Whatever be the philosophy of Memory which for ought I know hath as much of Riddle Mystery in it as any one thing in Nature hath This much is certain that not only through a Moral indisposition we find our memories more leaky as to Divine things than any else but through our very natural frame we are less retentive of and more in danger of forgetting the Notions and Ideas of Spiritual things than of those that are Corporeal So that upon this account as well as the two former viz. the preserving the remembrance of spiritual Objects with the more facility it becomes not only a matter of Relief and Advantage but even sometimes of necessity to convey them to the Understandings of men and commit them to their Memories by having linkt and knit them to Material Objects I know no better Method to preserve supernatural things in the Memories of Men than their being expressed by such things as we constantly converse with and are like so to do while we have our abode in the World Pleasure Delight were another cause of the first Introduction usurpation of Metaphors Augustine proposeth it as a Question not easily to be resolved why the same Things delivered in plain and perspicuous Language are not found so pleasing as when set out and adorned with Metaphors Cicero than whom no man could either speak better or judg what was well spoken being himself inimitable both in the art of moving and instructing as knowing not only all the Topicks both of convincing and perswading but also throughly understanding the philosophy of the Passions and the several avenues to the hearts of men gives this Reason for it Quod omnis translatio quae quidem ratione sumpta est ad sensus ipsos admovetur maxime oculorum qui est acerrimus Because every Metaphor that is proper exposeth the Things that are spoken of to the senses especially to that of the Eyes which of all the senses is the quickest Besides Metaphors if duely and wisely used beget Admiration and there is nothing doth more impress or affect us than that which some way or other commends it self to us as Admirable Hence Aristotle say's That if we would write eloquently and to perswade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is also no small pleasure to have the same things represented under different Forms of Speech and to have a variation given to the same thoughts which the mingling Metaphors with plain Language admirably doth I need not add the delight there is in having our minds diverted to other objects and that not only without taking them off from the subjects we undertake to explain but so as by these diversions they are still made more easy and intelligible to us and the main intention is still pursued even when there seems to be the greatest deviation from the Theme All which not to mention more as they gave rise to the First use of Metaphors whether in common or more elaborate discourses so they serve to justify their usurpation in the handling of subjects relating to Faith and Piety But there needs no other authorization of Metaphors on Divine Thems's but the Holy Ghosts having so frequently made use of them in declaring the Mysteries of our Religion God by his unfolding himself and his Mind to us in several kinds of Metaphorical Terms hath not only allowed but sanctified our Use of the like No Schemes of Speech which the Divine Spirit hath made use of to instruct us in the Doctrines of Faith and by which the sacred Scriptures do touch our hearts and make themselves Mistress of our affections can be reflected upon without impeaching the Wisedom and Faithfulness of God who hath preceded us in them And if the practice of the Ancients and Example of the Fathers may be admitted as a pattern which 't is lawful to imitate a little commerce with them will instruct us that they indulged themselves a Latitude herein beyond what is to be met with in any Modern Authors I readily grant that as in the Exposition and application of Scripture-Metaphors we are to take the highest care that they be not perverted to a sense to which they were never intended so in the usurpation of other Metaphors by way of Imitation and parallel of what we find in the holy leaves a due Sobriety ought to be observed Nor have I any Apology much less Defence to make for the audacity and phantasticalness of some men in this matter 'T is enough to declare the Rules which ought to be attended to without arraigning the Ignorance and Folly of any man in this affair Yet this I may say that miscarriages in this particular are not only incident to persons of the Non-conforming perswasion but there are some dutiful sons of the Church as void of wit modesty and decorum herein as others are Some entring upon the Ministry without Piety and others without Learning and too many undertaking that sacred Function without any due sense either of the Sanctity and Majesty of the Mysteries of Religion or the purity of Christian Morals having withall neither any knowledg of Nature nor acquaintance with the Rules of Rhetorick do expose not only their own Folly but disparage and prophane the Adorable Mysteries of the Christian Faith by their sluttish and bold Metaphors And which is more deplorable though they escape not reproach yet they are not capable of instruction I disclaim being the Advocate of any such and wish that through an affectation of seeming Witty to Vulgar Heads they had not rendred themselves ridiculous to such as are Wise and Rational and that under pretence of rendring the abstruse Things of the Gospel familiar and easy to the weakest Capacities they had not both contaminated and disgraced them Amongst the many Rules laid down by Rhetoricians for our government in the usage of Metaphors I reckon these the most Remarkable 1 They must not be obscure and Unintelligible but accommodated to the Understandings of those we address to The glass must not be so besmeared with paint as to shut out the light nor the cortex so thick as that there is no coming at the Sense Aristotle forbids all remote and hardy Metaphors even in common Oratory unless they be prefaced with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be lawful to use such a Metaphor or if the comparison may be admitted
without boldness and danger And much more are they to be forbid in the sacred Eloquence Nor are the same Metaphors to be used before every Auditory which may pass for Ornaments lights before persons of Learning Ingenuity A chief part of Pulpit-Oratory consists in adapting our selves to the Hearers we speak to for what graces beautifies a Discourse to one Assembly discommends and renders it useless to another Especially Poetick Metaphors and such as cannot be understood without an insight into the Mythology of the Heathen are to be avoided Allusions to their Fables and Romantick Stories are both incongruous to unworthy of a Sacred Subject The Holy Ghost whose Method we ought Religiously to conform to hath expressed matters of Religion only by such natural things as we familiarly Converse with and by the common employments of Humane Life 2 We must not crowd them too thick For that instead of illustrating a subject darkens it and in the room of delighting the mind and surprising the Affections they dazle and oppress them Longinus tells us that Caecilius would admit but two or at most three in reference to one matter But the Subject can only best regulate us in this for the same air of Eloquence doth not become every Theme Longinus notes that a Multiplicity of Metaphors may be allowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the affections are carried like a Torrent and the Passions raised to a becoming height and enflamed with a due ardor A plurality of Metaphors is not only lawful but expedient when the Subject we are treating of is so sublime that Allusions to one thing do not serve to illustrate it And as this is often our case in displaying the Mysteries of Faith so wee have the President of God himself in it When Metaphors and Similitudes fetcht from from one sort of Subjects do not serve to illustrate the Matter treated of the whole Creation and the several species of Creatures are called in by the Holy Ghost to be some way or other Hieroglyphical of it 3 Metaphors ought not to be drawn from any thing that is slovenly and Sordid I the rather mention this in that I find the Non-conformists charged for Stuffing their Sermons with Kitchin-Metaphors Rascal Similitudes There are things enough cleanly and innocent to fetch allusions and Analogies from even then when we address to the Vulgar without defiling the purity of Religion with any thing that is sluttish or Nasty One of the Original Fountains of Metaphors was the arraying things in themselves uncomely in a dress w ch might not offend the severest modesty 't is a pitty to have the Antidote perverted into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the declaring that in a modest Metaphorick Phraseology which properly expressed would grate upon a Chast Ear or Mind being an Ingredient into Vulgar Oratory how much more ought it to obtain a place in the Eloquence of the Sanctuary The Holy Ghost forbids even in common discourse not only all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obsceness but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think may be rendred childish and foolâ—sh Quibling For the Term in its Native signification denotes the handsome turning or changing of a word and is used to signify Urbanity or pleasantness of Conversation and accordingly Aristotle reckons it for a vertue but the Apostle plainly taking it in an evil sense I know not why it may not be translated foolish Jingling with words or insignificant prating I am sure Suidas renders it not only by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boyish levity but by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clownishness Did we in our usage of Metaphors make the Scripture pattern our measure 't is not possible that we should debase our selves to the allowance of any that are Uncivil or Immodest A discreet person will easily find enough to please the fancy without offending either the Conscience of any or disparaging the Subject whereof he Treats Yet I cannot but say that what some men brand for Kitchin Metaphors and Rascal Similitudes are cleanly enough and appear to have been made use of in compliance with the exigencies of Themes and the weaknesses of Auditoâ—s Nor needs there any other Apology for most of them but that the Sanctuary as its worthy of Gold and pretious Stones so it rejects not Goats Hair and Badgers Skins Upon the whole providing the Rules suggested be attended to I see not but that besides the using of Scripture-Metaphors in the sense and to the end for which they are intended we may also use other common and ordinary ones at least to express though not to prove our thoughts And though such do not serve to demonstrate the Truths which they are brought for yet they may serve to impress and inculcate them § 8. Having discoursed all that I had to offer in and about Metaphors in general and having both declared the measures of expounding and applying Scripture-ones and the Rules which ought to be attended to in the usurpation of others there now only remain a few things to be suggested to obviate the scoffings and revilings whereby the Non-conformists are endeavoured to be exposed to Contempt and Scorn upon the account of their use of Metaphorick Terms And the first is that the loudest Clamours and most invidious Reflections levied against them in this matter proceed from a disrespect to and fall with the same picquancy upon the Scripture it self And they may well be admitted to speak reproachfully of men who have the the boldness to do so of the Word of God Only I think they would do better to deny the Scripture all claim of being Divine than to treat it with the Contempt which some do after they have acknowledged it to be the Word of the Lord. Many of the Phrases and Passages quarrelled at in the writings of the Phanaticks are plainly no other than what the Holy Ghost hath condescended to use in his declaring the mysteries of Faith and Duties of Religion They are the same course Expressions that the Scripture it self makes use of that it may suite the dulness of our understandings that I may use Chrysostomes Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the most part of the reproches which are fastned upon the Phanaticks as they are pleased to stile them in this matter argue the bestowers of them guilty of prophaness against the Scrippture as well as incivility to the persons of the Non-conformists in derogation of whose esteem they apply themselves to write I know this will be thought too plain and tuant nor should I have so blankly charged them if they had either the Wit or Modesty to receive instruction by gentler insinuations But I remember that when Dr. Owen had told them That the greatest guilt of some of the Phrases carpt at it may be was only their too near approach to the expressions used in Scripture to the same purpose The Author of the Defence
of the Gospel we acknowledg it to be but to style it a metaphysical subtilty is to betray high Irreverence towards the great Mysteries of Faith as well as shameful Ignorance in the Fundamentals of Religion The Notions of Suppositum Person Hypostasis personality as distinct from the Idea of Nature or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so far from having their first rise in the Schools of Philosophers or being Originally ow'd to Metaphysicks that they sprung from the Mystery of the Incarnation which both gave occasion of framing distinct and different Conceptions of them and by the account which the Scripture gives of the Mystery did illuminate us concerning them Though the person of Christ do not at all differ from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Humane Nature as they are considered united yet as we conceive of God-head and Man-hood in the abstract there is an inadequate difference betwixt them and the Person of Christ. And although there be no third Nature in the Person of Christ besides his Divine his Humane yet His Person is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane And had Mr. Sherlock been either acquainted with Metaphysicks or conversant in the Canons of the Ancient Councils not to mention his being familiar with the Fathers he would never have charged the maintaining of that upon his Adversaries as a Reproach and Crime the not holding whereof would have justly exposed them to the Imputation of Heresy But when men are under the conduct of Passion and their Ignorance is answerable to their Rage what less can be expected than the throwing out accusations at adventure and the listing the most momentous Truths of Christians either in the Roll of subtil Querks or pernicious Errors rather than such whom out of prejudice they oppose should escape being blazon'd for Fools or Hereticks Fourthly By the Person of Christ then we mean the Humane Nature assum'd into Union with the Person of the Word and subsisting by the Hypostasis and personality of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second Person in the Trinity As the Humane Nature of Christ is of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 't is assumed into Union not precisely the with Divine Nature but with the second Person of the Trinity which connotate's somthing more than barely the Divine Nature though what that is be beyond the Territories of Reason to conceive or declare Now with respect to the operations communications fruits and effects which proceed from the person of Christ constituted and consisting of the second Person of the Trinity and the Humane Nature we are to consider these four things 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Agent or Cause and that is the Person of Christ. The effective Principle of the whole Mediatorial Work is Christ personally considered and the things done wrought bestowed or any effected are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the works and operations of God-Man 'T is not this or that nature simply considered but the Person of Christ that is the Fountain and Causal Principle of Actions and denominated from them Though we cannot conceive any operation to proceed from Christ but what belongs either to his God-head or Man hood as its Formal principle yet as there are many things predicated of the person of Christ wherein the Humane Nature is united to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot in any single proposition be affirmed of or ascribed to either of them So whatsoever is attributed to him as the Christ He is as a Person the efficient Principle and cause of it 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Formal Principle of all his operations and that is either the Humane Nature or the Word Though the Man-hood be brought into conjunction with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet as both retain what is proper and essential to themselves so they remain distinct Formal Principles of operation Agit utraque forma cum alterius communione quod suum est Verbo operante quod Verbi est Carne exequente quod Carnis est 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Action which ceeds either from the Humane Nature or from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle And as This or That is its Formal Principle it is of such a Specificate Nature i. e. a Divine Action or a Humane Though the things wrought for us communicated to us and effected in us be all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though Divines use to style the Actions themselves so as proceeding from the same Effective Personal Principle yet I think it better to forbear that appellation of them seeing no Action proceeds both from the Humane Nature and from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle 4. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing wrought or effected by the concurrence of the Humane Nature and the Word as they are united in constitute the Person of Christ. And here the distinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Formal Principles occurring in the person of Christ do in their influence meet and center each of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Action congruous and peculiar to its own respective Nature And though the God-head and Man-hood in Christ remain distinct Formal Principles of Operations yet through the Union of the Humane Nature to the second Person of the Trinity in Him those things come to be effected by Him personally considered which he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately conceived Now Christ being our Mediator only considered as God and Man in one Person and not meerly as God or as Man And it being from Christ as Mediator though in ways congruous and proportionate that we receive Grace Life and all vital Influences Therefore we contend and plead that the Union of Believers with Christ is through their being united to his Person § 5. The last Term whose import and meaning we are to state and fix is Union And being a Transcendental Term 't is not easy to assign such an uncontroulable and clear Notion of it as may adequately agree to and univocally express it wheresoever it occurs But though Union be one of the greatest secrets of Nature and that which affronts our Understandings when we enquire into the Quality and Mode of this or that Union in particular yet so much Light may be reflected upon it in general as may serve to declare the value and meaning of the Term. Union then is either taken for Unition or for the Effect Modification or Mode caused by the â—â—itive action in the Extremes or at least one of them that come to be copulated or Thirdly For the Relation exsurging between the extremes knit and ligu'd one to another In the First acceptation 't is to be conceived of Efficiently in the Second Formally and in the Third as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Habitude resulting from arising upon the two former In the First usurpation it
1 Joh. 4.9 10. In a word it is Love which is eminently ascribed to the Father in the Oeconomy of the Blessed Trinity about the Work of Mans Salvation And this property of his Nature which he chose to display in the work of Redemption he hath acted to the uttermost whereas he did not so by his Power which he manifested in the Works of Creation it being within the compass of his Omnipotence and Exuberant Bounty to produce a World more glorious than this And though all this respects Gods Love of Compassion to the Elect yet we may hereby guess what his Love of Delight in Believers is on whom his Love of Goodness hath compassed its designs When his Love of Benevolence hath attained so much of its End as the renewing us in part to his Image and the recovering us back to our obedience He views over with delight the births that his compassion went with and beholds the effects of his good Will with unspeakable complacence That similitude which his Love in its first consideration designed anâ—â—ntended his Love in the second Notion of it embraceth and settles its delight upon And that Believers do embrace the Father with a Love equal and proportionate to that which they have for Jesus Christ I hope I need not spend time to prove Besides the Allective and attractive perfections which the illuminated Understanding discovers in both as they partake of the same Divine Nature and Essence it meets with enforcing Motives of Love in the Oeconomical actings of each as they are represented in the Scripture operating towards about our Redemption with different peculiarities in the manner of their acting How doth the Father's Love in being the Author and Fountain of our recovery in his contriving the means of it in giving his Son to be our Ransom and Propitiation in order to the effecting it and in pursuance of his accepting the Sacrifice of his Death as an Atonement for sin and a meritorious price of sanctification his being the Original disposer in way of Authority and Order of all that Grace by which we are rendred meet objects of Gods delight inflame the souls of renewed Ones with Love to him 4. This Love-Union as it terminates upon Christ from us or as it implies our Affections being set upon him is so far from being the formal Reason of our Mystical Union that it doth suppose us already cemented to him There can be no true Love to Christ without a previous conformity seeing all love includes a supposition of likeness Now to imagine either a resemblance between us and Christ without a New Nature previously form'd and wrought in us or to conceive that there are any principles communicated to us as the ground and matter of similitude and yet we remain unconnected to Christ are fancies that the Gospel obligeth us to account absurd To apprehend a Person renewed by Grace and not implanted into Christ is to bid defiance to the Gospel and to conceive a soul cleaving to Christ by a Love that is sincere without an Antecedent Principle of Grace adapting and connaturalizing it is not only to contradict the Scripture but to denounce War against Metaphysicks which tell us that every Effect presupposeth a cause proportion'd to it In brief As we are not naturally imbued with a Love to Christ so no man will by a prevalent Love embrace him till he be first connaturalized attempered brought into a suitable habitude of mind to him Every act supposeth a Power nor is there hopes of Fruit where there is not a Root that can communicate sap to the branches that are to bear it Though the soul be the Vital Principle of all actions and Affections yet it is Grace that gives holy actions and affections their constituent form The Union which we have with Christ by love saith the Reverend Bishop Reynolds presupposeth an Unity we have in him by Faith Faith is the immediate tye between Christ and a Christian but Love a secondary Union following upon and grounded on the former By Nature we are all Enemies to Christ and his Kingdom of the Jews mind we will not have this Man to raign over us therefore till by Faith we are throughly perswaded of Christs love to us we can never repay love to him again Herein is love saith the Apostle not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son 1 Joh. 4.10 Now between Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us one with Christ. § 12. That there ought to be nothing in Religion which is incomprehensible or of which we are not able to form adequate Notions is a fancy espoused by the Socinians Hence it is that though they do not wholly renounce the Gospel yet by designing to accommodate the mysteries of it to the Level of Humane apprehensions they supplant the prime Articles of it That there are Doctrines in the Christian Religion which our Understandings cannot fathom seems to have been the chief thing that influenced Celsus Hierocles Porphyrius Lucian and other Heathen Philosophers of old in their opposition of it This their upbraiding the primitive Believers for receiving things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Irrational Faith and their styling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of easie belief that had no reason for the things which they embraced abundantly declare And truly admitting the Principle which they proceeded upon namely that there ought not to be any thing in Religion but what our Intellects bear a proportion to they seem to me to have acted more rationally in refusing the Gospel altogether than those do who embrace it and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Model the Oracles of God to their private fancies that so they may level the Mysteries of Christianity to our weak and shallow capacities That there are Mysterious Doctrines in the Gospel and particularly that our Union with Christ is of that Number the Holy Ghost who should best know the complexion of every truth in it hath plainly informed us We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones This is a great Mystery says the Apostle Eph. 5.30.32 Mr. Sherlock who seems to judg all such things foolish and fanciful Notions which men cannot fully conceive comprehend is pleased to tell us that there is nothing more easie to be understood than our Union and Communion with Christ but how he can reconcile himself to Paul unless great Mysteries be of easie conception and comprehension I know not 'T is true he hath taken care to present us with such a Notion of Believers Union with Christ as may be understood on this side Heaven and without sending for Elias to unriddle it that I may use his own expression Now what that Notion is and whether it fully answer the account which the Scripture gives us in the Matter of Christians Union with the Lord Jesus is that which we are now addressing to the ventilation of And that neither he
a company of men owning the Authority of Jesus Christ as Lord and King and agreeing in the faith of such Doctrines as he hath made Salvation dependent upon As we do not outwardly hold the Head nor declare our subjection to Christ as our Law-giver and Ruler but by a belief of those things which he hath made the Essentials and Fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we have no Right of Matriculation into the Church Catholick-visible nor have we any Union with the Members of it but through a belief of these common radical principles These are what we commonly call Fundamental Articles which as I shall not take upon me to enumerate being neither necessary nor may be convenient so they are in themselves both few and plain Only as the Romanists are injurious to Christ and uncharitable to men in confining Christianity within the Circle of their own communion and making the Roman and Catholick Church Terms Equipollent so they are both unreasonable and ridiculous in making the Unity of the Universal Church to consist in the belief of all that they have thought fit to determine necessary to be believed For besides many other things pleadable against this Romish Foundation of the Unity of the Universal Christian Church and the Relative Politick Union of one member with the rest it renders the Unity of the Church and the Union of Christians one with another first impossible secondly absurd Impossible in that most Men can neither allow time nor have they sufficient acquired intellectual abilities either to know what the Roman Church hath defined necessary to be believed nor in what sence she hath proposed and determined them to be assented to Absurd 1 Because a man must believe contradictions before he can be a member of the Catholick Church or have any Union or Communion with Christians That is he must renounce Reason before he is capable of having Faith and devest himself of Man before he can espouse Christian. And the reason is plain because the Romish Church hath defined things to be believed that are repugnant one to another 2. Because what serves to matriculate a person into the Church of Christ and to give him the Relation of an Oneness with all Christians this year may not be sufficient to secure and continue his Union and Relation the next but that without alteration or change in his belief he may cease to be a Member of the Catholick Church For the Church may in that compass of time determine something necessary to be believed concerning which before she had not pronounced But to resume what I was upon as there is through our subjection to Christ by the belief of his Doctrine and obedience of his Laws a Political Union betwixt Christ and Christians so I see nothing to the contrary but that all Christians may in the virtue of their common Faith and Obedience be accounted united amongst themselves I shall not here discourse the reciprocal and mutual duties which we come under the obligation of by this Relation but as they are many and great so were they attended to a check would be given to that wrath and bitterness which is amongst Christians a stop put to that war and persecution which one wageth against another Neither shall I here discourse the Nature and Measures of a particular Church with the foundation and media which ground the Relation of one to another in it but shall only say this that though admission into an instituted particular Church presupposeth whatsoever was necessary to entitle us to a Membership in the Church-Catholick yet there are both diverse things required in order to the latter which were not so in reference to the former and diverse fresh duties emerge from this posterior Relation beyond what we were obliged to by the precedent Having briefly treated these things which ought not to be denyed and shewed my self as liberal to our Author as without trespassing upon my light I can I come now to discourse those things wherein our Author differs from the general sense of Christians and the common opinion of the Universal Church And the first conclusion which I propose in opposition to the Hypothesis that Mr. Sherlock hath erected is this That were the Union of particular Believers with Christ only a Political Relation yet it were immediate to the Person of Christ. Let our Relation to Christ which is styled by the name of Union be whatsoever our Author pleaseth to make it yet it is not the Church that we are primarily united to nor doth our Union terminate there nor is it meerly by means thereof that we are brought into a cohesion with the Lord Jesus This if justified overthrows Mr. Sherlocks two first Conclusions which indeed are but one in import though obtruded upon us for two For to say that those Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union betwixt Christ and Christians do primarily refer to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian which is Mr. Sherlock's first conclusion and to say that the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church which is his second Conclusion are in my opinion things coincident The same Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union of Christ with Christians do also display the Relation and Union of Christians with Christ if the Union betwixt Christ and Christians doth primarily refer to the Christian Church the Union of particular Christians with Christ can result from no other Medium nor bear upon any other foundation but the Union with the Christian Church I should not bestow remarks upon the ridiculous and impertinent Battologies of our Author nor sally out into reflections upon what meerly favours of dulness and hebetude but that it may not be amiss to inform the World how undeservedly Mr. Sherlock hath obtain'd the name of an accurate Writer and if it be possible to give check to his briskness in Descanting upon the Writings of others For he may remember what a reflection he hath cast upon Dr. Jacomb meerly for converting a Proposition and saying That the person of the Believer is United to the Person of Christ having before said though not so as to make it a different conclusion That the Person of Christ is United to the person of the Believer But to return to the proof of the Assertion which I have advanced in contradiction to Mr. Sherlocks Notion of our being United to Christ only by our Union and Fellowship with the Christian Church 1. If particular Christians be United to Christ only by virtue of a previous Relation to the Church I would then fain know of Mr. Sherlock how the whole Church comes to be united to the Lord Jesus For I suppose it will not be denyed but that there is a Relation of Oneness between Him and the Church and if any should be so perverse and of so unreasonable a humour as to question it there are Media enough
q. 5. and they will satisfie them This is all that I shall offer at present in opposition to Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis nor should I have said so much but that it is here where we have his most Heroick adventures and where he seems all along to speak as strutting and standing on his tiptoes 'T is here that he flings down the Gantlet to all the World and treads the Stage with no less state and majesty than as if he intended to erect lasting Trophies to himself for having baffled the received Opinion of the whole Christian Church And 't is here that most particularly I have accepted his Challenge and bid him battel on his ground and at his own weapons and as to the issue of the Encounter I leave it to the Reader to pronounce betwixt him and me This I do affirm that as I have not declined him in any thing where he seem'd to argue like a Man and a Schollar so I must beg his pardon if in some things I have forborn him and given back forasmuch as I was not willing to be under the temptation of exposing him too much And upon this very inducement I thought once to have overlookt his Argument taken from the Nature of the Sacraments which he brings in proof that all the Union between Christ and Christians is meerly political but upon second thoughts I am resolved to say something to it least by being left in the way it should put some to a stand though it should put none to a retreat We have already encountered the same forces in another field and being defeated there there is the less likelyhood of their standing it long out here As we have disabled this Medium from serving our Author against the Immediate Union of Christ with Believers so we will now venture to see what strength is in it against the common Opinion of the Christian Church about the Nature quality of the Union that is between Him and them Now I take it for granted says he that there can be no better way to understand the Nature of our Union with Christ than to consider the Nature of those Sacraments which were designed as the Instruments and signs of our Union with Him and if we will take that account the Scripture gives of them all the Union they signifie is a publick and visible profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to Him as our Lord and Saviour and a sincere conformity of our hearts and lives to the Nature and Life of Christ. Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ own his Authority and submit to his Government And the Lords Supper is a Federal Rite which answers to the Feasts or Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with the Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him c. For answer Baptism and the Lords Supper being Ordinances instituted by Christ in a Habitude to the whole tenour of the New Covenant as it mutually obligeth both on Gods part and outs accordingly they may be considered either as they respect us or as they respect God who hath instituted and ordained them As they respect us they are both Symbols of our Profession and solemn engagements upon us to Duty As they respect God who hath appointed them they are representations of the mercies of the Covenant and Ratifying seals of it But to speak a little particularly to each of them First to Baptism Baptism as it is the outward way and means of our Initiation into the Lord Jesus Christ and of our matriculation into the Catholick Visible Church so it is the great representation of the inward washing of Regeneration and of our being renewed by the Holy Ghost The effusion of the Spirit being often likened to the pouring forth of water See Isa. 44.3 4 5. Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Joh. 3.5 Joh. 7.38 Heb. 10.22 So in Baptism it is most excellently signified and represented The Spirit saith Dr. Patrick is very well signified by water for as that cleanseth purifieth from filth so the Spirit of God is the sanctifier of Gods people purging and cleansing their hearts from all impurities Now the Spirit being no otherwise the spring and principle of all our Sanctification but as he is the Bond and Vinculum of our mystical Union with Christ out of whose fulness we receive all the Grace which we are made partakers of therefore Baptism being a representation of the effusion of the Spirit it is also an adumbration of the Union which we plead for 2ly As to the Lords Supper As the Lords Supper is a visible Symbol and Badg of our abiding in Christ into whom by Baptism we were Initiated and an obligation to all the Duties of growth and progress in Christianity so it is really exhibitive of Christ to us and a representation of our Spiritual Union with Him As the Bread and Wine could not in any congruity of speech be called the Body and Blood of Christ if they were not exhibitive of them so our eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in a Sacramental sense can signifie no less than our being spiritually incorporated with him The Cup of Blessing saith the Apostle which we bless is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And as by one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body so we are all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Our very Author tells us not aware that thereby he overthrows his whole Hypothesis that the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ an eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone Eph. 5.30 The Apostle in the place that Mr. Sherlock refers to doth in way of illustration of the Union between Christ and Christians allude to the Oneness which was between Adam and Eve Now that was greater than the Oneness between any other Husband or Wife in the World for she was not only of the same specifick Nature with Him and knit to him in a Matrimonial tye by God himself but she was extracted and formed out of his very Body and so is the fitter Symbol of the Intimate Union that is between Christ and Believers And thus I hope I have not only wrested this weapon out of Mr. Sherlocks hand but struck through his cause with it § 13. It being acknowledged on all sides that there is an Union between Christ and sincere Christians and it being now declared and made manifest what it is not I might here wind up without proceeding any further or undertaking to assign the true and just Notion of it Nor is Religion exposed by our affirming some of its Mysteries to be incomprehensible Our Reason fails us when we attempt to give an account of our selves and the obvious phaenomena of Nature and therefore we may well allow it unable to
the Conducting us in Religion Secondly To evidence the Expediency that this Revelation should be some where Consigned to Writing Thirdly To make appear that nothing can pretend to this Claym of being a Revelation from God to Mankind but the Bible Fourthly I shall endeavour positively to demonstrate that the Scripture is indeed this Supernatural Law and that as well by those Authentick Marks and Signatures which it hath Subjectively impressed on it as by those Objective Evidences which in way of External Testimony God hath given to it As to the First There are many things offer themselves in proof of it 1 st All Men being convinced of the Existence of God are hereupon necessarily and by short Deductions led to a Belief that there ought to be such a thing as Religion in the World There hath been no Nation so Savage nor People so Barbarous who have not acknowledged some kind of External Performances necessary for the Expressing of the inward Sentiments of Devotion and Honour which they bear to a Deity I know Epicurus by denying God either to have made the World or to Govern it doth in effect both overthrow his Being and undermine that Adoration which he alledgeth must be paid him because of the Transcendent Excellency of his Nature For Omnipotence Justice and Goodness are bestowed upon him in vain if he neither made the World nor regard it being made Nor will it be easie to persuade men to worship God if we neither be beholding to Him for our Being nor under his Care and if he no more respect our Adorations than if we did reproach and blaspheme Him Yet this I say that never any acknowledged a God but they withal confessed that he ought to be Worshipped Now forasmuch as without being Instructed concerning the Nature of God the Certainty of Rewards and Punishments c. this can never be Regularly nor Rationally if at all performed and seeing Natural Light at least as Subjective at present in us hath in many thousand Instances appeared Insufficient to inform us of these things We may from hence reasonably conclude the Necessity of a Supernatural Revelation 2 ly As all Mankind are Imbued with a persuasion both that God is and that he ought to be Worshipped so they are also convinced that all the Religion of Men at present towards God is the Religion of Sinners In all the Addresses of the Sons of Men to God they constantly Apply to Him under a sense of Defilement and Guilt In all their Transactions from time to time with a Deity they have been studying how to purge and cleanse themselves and atone and appease Him Now Sinners can perform nothing duly in Religion towards God without a knowledg of the Subordination we were created in at first to Him his Right and Authority to prescribe Laws to us the Capacity we were in both of knowing and keeping them the Way and Means by which Sin entered that God will not Desert the Work of his Hands to that Ruine which it hath Incurred by it's own Folly but that he is yet Appeasable towards us and will accept a Worship and Service at our hands with the Way Means and Terms that he will receive us again into Favour and rescue us from the Defilement we labour under Without some Information in every one of these there is no solid Foundation for Sinners to apply in way of Religion to God at all and should they attempt it they will do nothing but prevaricate Seeing then the Experience of some Thousands of Years hath evidenced the Ineffectualness of Natural Light to instruct the World in any one of these things We may from hence also infer the Necessity of a Supernatural Revelation 3 ly All Mankind hath universally consented in this that besides the Light of Reason there ought to be some Supernatural Revelation from God to Man for his Conduct and Guidance in Religion The necessity of Commerce in way of Revelation betwixt God and Man had so universally and deeply possessed the Ethnick World that they thought every Invention that was Excellent whether in Sciences or Arts to have derived it's Original immediately from Heaven Of this Principle did the Ancient Politicians and Legislators serve their own Ends and particular Designs and therefore to make the people the more plyable to their Institutions they pretended Converse with some Deity or other by whom they were prompted to such and such things The necessity of a Divine Interposure in determining the Rites and Mysteries of Religion gave rise to all the Heathen Oracles Upon this Principle was the Credit of Dreams and Divinations erected The Thing of it self being one of the first Dictates of the Reason of Man but perverted in the Application laid the Heathen World open to be imposed upon by Enthusiasts Astrologers Sooth-sayers Diviners c. being convinced of the absolute Need of a Prophetick Light they conceived it as much Diffused as the Natural and that as every thing did in some design or other participate of the Goodness of God they thought that it did so of his Prescience Hence not a Stick in the Wood Bird in the Air Line in the Hand Gut in the Sacrifice but was judged Prophetical Upon this account Celsus expressing the Judgment of the Heathen in general tell us That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Brute Beasts were not only wiser than Mankind but more dear to God and the reason was because they conceived that God conveyed the knowledge of Futurities to Man through them Not only the Soul was judged to come into the Body pregnant with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prophetical power only that it is muffled by it's Commixture and Confusion with this Earthly Lump 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch expresseth it But the very Earth was thought Big with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prophetick Efflux and most Divine Spirit by which the Pythia that stood over it was held to be inspired I know that in all these things as also in their Opinion of the Inspiration of their Poets and such others as were reputed the first Instituters of their Mysteries they were grosly mistaken yet the Principle which they only foolishly mis-applied was Genuine Natural and True namely that all Religion was to be regulated by some Divine Discovery See to this purpose Plato de Legibus and in his Alcibiades together with what is said by Camero de verbo Dei and Sir Charles Wolseley in his Reasonableness of Scripture Belief from pag. 123. to 128. I have also said somewhat elsewhere about it The Necessity of a Supernatural Revelation in order to the Guiding and Conducting men in Religious Concernments being thus briefly Declared and Established I shall in the next place endeavour to make appear that it is expedient that this Revelation should be somewhere or other consigned to Writing Nor is this the safest way only of conveying Doctrines down from one Age to another but in some Cases the only way