contradiction to say that he did Eat of it L. Does not your Author in some places say That to know and to Love God is the Divine Law S. Yet I think he does L. Then according to his way of arguing all men even the Author himself do know and Love God and must do so whether they will or no to the End of the World And then there is no difference between Virtue and Vice for both are done according to God's Will according to your Authors sentiments for both are the Effects of an Eternal necessity of causes linkt together The Apostle says This is the Will of God even your Sanctification Therefore all men are actually sanctify'd God bid Abraham Sacrifice his Son therefore he was Sacrificed is not this a pretty way of arguing to make sport for Children and Fools S. Moral Propositions in themselves are nothing but Eternal Verities and it was the Prophets only who were led by fancy and the Vulgar who are guided by sense who apprehend them as Laws given by God The Law-giver whom they look upon as a just and merciful Prince setting upon a Throne and distributing rewards and punishments to all his Subjects L. Your Author must either grant that God is a wise and understanding Being and a free Agent or nothing else but the Mass of Dull and unthinking matter If he embrace the latter he should be Master of so much courage as to tell us and not to play always in the dark with his two ambiguous Terms of God and Nature If he will allow that God is a wise Being and a free Agent I cannot conceive any reason why he should deny him to be a Law-giver since Wisdom Power and Authority are inseparably interwoven into the very Notion of a God without any gross conceptions of his setting upon a Throne like an Earthly Monarch And if there is an Eternal reason why God should be Loved and Innocence Protected c. Which every Man is conscious to himself that he can do or let it alone and besides If God shews Man by Divine Revelation what he would have done and promises Rewards and Punishments why must these Dictates of God and Nature be denied to be Laws and I know not what Eternal Verities shuffled into their Room S. Because my Author shews that all Moral Propositions are so L. Your Author shews nothing but meer Leger-de-main It is an Eternal Verity that God is to be Worshipped but it is no Eternal Verity that he is so A Moral Proposition is a Divine Law and an Eternal Verity in respect to that Goodness which is Essential to it but not for any Active necessity that attends the fame For if the Will and Understanding be the same Thing in God Then God Wills all the Treasons Marthers and Adulteries which he understands have been committed in the World S. Since you despise my Author's Scheme of Morality Pray let us hear one of your own drawing up L. I will refer that to Dr. Cumberland's excellent Treatise of the Law of Nature where he proves by reason equivalent unto if not surpassing Mathematical Demonstration that the Law of God and the whole rational universe is the whole of the Law of Nature and attended with sufficient Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments that are by God inseparably interwoven into the Nature of things S. You do not hear me speak against the Natural Law L. But by embracing unsound Principles you utterly destroy the whole Force and Efficacy of it Your Piety terminates in the adoration of such a Piety as tamely suffers the World to be abused into a belief of Miracles and Prophesie and Inspiration without any rational possibility of a redress and Acts by the inflexible necessity of his own Nature so that all our Prayers can make no more an impression upon him than upon a Stone-Wall Your Justice has no Prospect of a future reward and so in private is left at liberty to Act what is most conducive to the preservation of life and limb And your Temperance has no other restraint nor so much neither than what Nature has given to those Beasts that Perish Thus your Deism begins with a fair pretence to Moral Philosophy but the End thereof is nothing else but a licentious Liberty and Corruption of Manners S. I must confess If there were rewards in Heaven and Punishments in Hell they would be great Encouragements to Virtue and Suitable determents from Vice But you ground your hopes upon inspired Authors and they pretend to prove their Divine Mission by Miracles whereas my Author proves that there never was nor can be such a thing as a true Miracle wrought in the Universe L. Then I will Discourse that point with you at our next Meeting for I am loth to tire you with too long a Discourse S. With all my Heart For if I was well satisfy'd in that point I should be better affected to the Christian Religion Conference IV. OF MIRACLES S. SIR you are well met I remember at our last Conference you often appealed to Miracles as the greatest Confirmations of reveal'd Religion But I have since that time carefully perused the Sixth Chapter of my very Ingenious Author wherein I find such Arguments against Miracles as make me very much doubt whether there ever was or can be such a thing as a Miracle done in the World L. I desire not to hear your Opinions but would gladly be a Partaker of your Reasons S. My Author very Judiciously observes p. 67. that it is and always was the Mob of mankind that are and were the great Miracle-Hunters and Miracle-Makers It is they who think nothing to be the Work of God that is done according to the usual Course of Nature but feign and believe Wonders on purpose that they may be thought the very Darlings of Heaven And that the Vniverse was made for the sake of Man one of the most inconsiderable Creatures in it L. Our belief of Miracles is grounded upon that reason which is common unto all Mankind not only the Unlearned Vulgar but also the most sublime Philosophers who must needs Acknowledge that if matter was at first Created by a Spiritual Being out of nothing and received from it those Determinations of rest or motion which we call its Laws it may be again produc'd or alter'd by the very self same Power which is all that is necessary to constitute a Miracle The possibility therefore of a Miracle is as evident to all Learned men who have not said in their Hearts that there is no God as any one proposition in Enclid and is as deducible from the true Idea of a God as any of the most Legitimate Conclusions that can be deduced from clear and undoubted premises Your Author therefore with as much Haughtiness as Falsehood pretends to throw the belief of Miracles upon the Vulgar only as if all the Jewish and Christian Kings and Emperors all the Greek and Roman Philosphers by Miracles converted to the
much less since we are guilty of known Breaches of the Divine Laws can we be sure of the Remission of Sins and the Donation of Eternal Happiness since it depends upon the free Goodness of God which is not determined by any necessary Rule of Action A Deist therefore expects Pardon from God just so as a Condemn'd Criminal hopes Forgiveness from a mild and gracious Prince He has some General Notion of the Good-Nature of his Soveraign and therefore has some hopes it may be extended to him as well as to others But a Christian has the same assurance of a conditional Forgiveness of Sins as a Malefactor has that Sees and Reads a Proclamation of Pardon under the broad Seal of his offended Prince Tho Miracles therefore are not necessary to support material Beings yet they are to assure mankind of its Happiness and which do you think is of greatest moment The Stateliness of the Habitation or the felicity of those Rational Creatures that inhabit in it S. If Miracles were necessary to promote the Happiness of all mankind why are not all men made Partakers of their Beneficial influence Why must Miracles be wrought only in some Ages of the World and in the sight too of only one Nation not very Famous for War or Learning Why must all the Gentiles Perish because they knew not a matter of Fact that never was made known unto them These are prejudices against your reveal'd Religion which I can never conquer and am therefore forc'd to fly from that confined Light to the more diffusive Light of Nature L. Whilst man kept that integrity wherein he was at first Created there was no absolute necessity of Miracles to make him happy who was happy enough before in the Enjoyment of his own Innocence Nor was there any great need of Miracles whilst a traditionary knowledge of the Decree of God to save mankind was kept alive in the World by the long Lives of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs But when all Flesh had Corrupted their ways before God and the Knowledge of one supreme Deity which some will have to be a Connate Notion was almost totally eraced out of the minds of all mankind as is evident from humane as well as Divine Historians then it was very expedient that God should make a farther Revelation of himself confirmed by Miracles without which it could not have had the force of a rational Evidence To save mankind from utter perdition And therefore God first called upon the World by Noah the 8th Preacher of Righteousness and then called Abraham out of his Fathers Idolatrous House and made a Covenant with him that he and his Seed should serve him And when the State of the World required that a manner of adoring God should be settled in it tho not absolutely best in its own Nature yet most suitable to the Genius of the Jews and that posture of affairs which was then Predominant in the World the Wickedness and Folly of Man in abusing the Light of Nature render'd it necessary That Moses should be sent to the Israelites to bring them out of the Land of Egypt with Signs and Wonders and shew them after what manner God would then be Worshipped So that Miracles are necessary first when a new manner of Worship is to be planted in the World And therefore Moses was endued with the Power of Working Miracles to convince the Israelites that the Ceremonial Law was Divine tho additional to the Law of Nature Or Secondly When the true manner of worship is in danger of being lost And therefore Elijah and Elisha in the Time of Ahab when Idolatry made its greatest encroachment upon the true Religion by Divers Signs and Wonders from Heaven called back the Israelites to the true Worship of the only God Or Thirdly When a manner of worship that is of Divine institution is to be alter'd or disannull'd as was the Ceremonial Law by the coming of our Saviour S. But what must become of those who never saw nor heard of these Miraculous Revelations L. They have the Light of Nature Let them use that well and leave themselves to the Mercy of God The Scriptures no where say That all those who have not seen nor heard of a Miracle shall be Damn'd tho it teaches that if they be sav'd it must be by Virtue of the Name of Jesus And therefore the strength of your argument is quite lost unless you can prove that wild assertion Besides the knowledge of reveal'd Religion is not put up in so narrow a corner of the World as men of your perswasion do seem to imagine For there is no Nation but what may embrace the Gospel if they please to listen to its rational evidence and I would feign know what injustice it is in God to suffer them to Perish who either knowing nothing of the Miraculous Demonstration of the Gospel make an ill use of the Light of Nature or those who hearing its rational evidence abuse their reason in not consenting to it S. But still you do not clear the main difficulty objected by my Author that the Power of Nature is the very Power of God How then can a Miracle be done by Natural Power S. Your Author first begs his Question and then very boldly Triumphs in the Victory as if extorted by force of reason He presumes it granted as a first Principle That there is no other God but Nature and that this Nature is fixed and immutable not a free Agent but a perpetual slave to fatal necessity And thence strongly concludes That if there be no Power but that of Nature then there can be oh wonderful demonstration no supernatural Power But we on the other hand proceed by a more plain and intelligible way of reasoning We suppose That since Matter is a dull unactive Principle it could not make it self nor reduce it self into that decent and useful order in which now we see it 2d That it was created by a Superiour Being That that Superior Being must be endued with all manner of Perfections as being the first Cause of all Perfections in the Creature 3. That Wisdom Vnderstanding and Liberty are Perfections and therefore consequently must be in the highest degree in him who is the first Cause of them And Lastly That his Wisdom is seen in all the works of his hands If therefore your Author would argue fairly against us let him attack boldly any one of these Propositions concerning the Nature of God and if we cannot defend them we will become Worshippers of the great Goddess Nature But if God is an Understanding Being he must be a free Agent And if he be a powerful and free Agent what should hinder his stopping or disordering the regular course of Nature when the doing so is conducive to his own Glory and the general Benefit of all Mankind Unless you can prove by Scripture that he has sworn by himself he would never do it S. Does not my Author tell you That it
AN ANSWER TO A BOOK INTITLED Tractatus Theologico Politicus LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West End of St. Pauls 1697. To the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Winchelsea Viscount Maidstone Baron Fitz-Herbert of Eastwell c. My Lord THIS Treatise being by me design'd for the Vindication of Reveal'd Religion against those Deistical and Sceptical Notions which are too frequent in this Age had there been no singular obligations to induce me yet cou'd I not have found a more proper Patron than your Lordship whom all must acknowledge to be a Favourer and Protector of Religion Virtue and whatsoever is Praise-worthy amongst men I am very sensible that my small Station in the Church might very well have excus'd me from engaging in an argument which may justly require a Person of more Dignity Learning and Leisure but I am at the same time very well satisfy'd that your Lordship and all good men will not expect much where but little is given and therefore in the same plainness and sincerity wherein I at first wrote it I presume to dedicate it to your Lordship as a small token how much I am Your Lordship 's most Humble and Obliged Servant Matthias Earbery THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader THough I am not of the Opinion That whosoever writes a Book ought to write a Preface for some are so good that they need none and some so bad that they don't deserve one yet I think my self to lye under an obligation to give the World an Account of those Reasons which induced me to Answer a Book which if it had its due deserts ought to be confined to silence and darkness for ever 1. I might here alledge in the first Place that the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus has not as yet the honour to receive an intire confutation from any one Learned Hand that I know in Europe Bishop Boyl in his little Body of Divinity and almost all our Moderns who have wrote in Vindication of the Scriptures have taken notice of Divers of its dangerous positions as they lye scattering up and down in almost every page of it from whence I might have leave to conclude that if those Learned men did think that it was necessary to Answer the chief Objections against the Authority of the Scriptures one by one a Collective Answer to the whole Book would be more satisfactory to the world and more beneficial to the publick Good And therefore I was not induced to undertake this task because I thought none could do it better but because none before me had began so useful a work I consider'd also in the second place that most who have wrote upon this Subject have either done it in such a Philosophical manner as is not easily intelligible by the Vulgar or have proceeded against him and his Party by such Philological Arguments as tho very Learned yet at most are but Conjectural and therefore never can convince a stubborn Sceptist tho they are very pleasing to Ingenious Men. Now tho this way of Writing is very taking whilst the Argument is only toss'd too and fro amongst Learned Men yet it is not sufficient when such Deistical Principles begin to be Popular and seize upon the minds of those who though they want Reason yet stand in need of no Obstinacy to defend the same And therefore since this Book has as I am informed received lately some impressions in our own Language I thought it might not be amiss to administer the antidote in the same vehicle in which the Party has presented the Poyson and waving all Conjectural Arguments that are drawn from humane Authority or whose force depends upon the knowledge of Books or are too remote from common Sense to be understood by all Men I have laid down chiefly such Principles as all may understand and all who understand them must needs admit to be true And I hope that it will be apparent from thence That they who Renounce their Religion into which they are Baptized must Renounce their Reason too which they boast to be their only guide Nor am I ignorant that the Author of this Book was very well versed pardon so favourable an expression in the Writings of Moses and the Prophets understood the Original Language and had made a diligent search to find all weak places wherein he might Assault and Ruine the impregnable Fortress of Reveal'd Religion Mr. Hobbs had another way of trifling with those Books of Scripture and wresting some particular places to his odd Opinions But this Author begins at the very Root and Foundation by taking away all Divine Authority from Prophecy Miracles or Inspiration and making all the sacred Pen-men to be no other than either Mad-men or Impostors Now tho such sentiments ought rather to be punished by the Judge than refuted by the Divine yet since too much liberty has relaxed the Reins both of Civil and Ecclesiastick Power it is necessary that such Weapons should be used as are therefore left us because they could not easily be taken away And I thought it would be at least some punishment as it were to the very Sbades and Manes of this Author to shew the world that he who so long has found a place in the Libraries and Hands of very Learned Men does scarce for his stupidity and trifling way of arguing merit to obtain a place amongst the lowest forms of inferiour Animals And I am sure if he could say nothing to the purpose against Reveal'd Religion his little Disciples of the Town can say a great deal less But indeed the greatest motive of all was the general disposition of men of all Degrees and Capacities in this Age to ridicule our Religion as much as they can nay a great deal farther than their own Abilities will give them leave How will some Little People vent a Jest upon the Bible or argue against Moses who never read a Chapter in it with that Attention which is due to those Sacred Writings And never even in their Younger Days knew any thing beyond a Play or a Romance I will not say That too much Liberty has given Opportunity to Deism to grow up with those other Weeds that infest this Nation Though if I should it might be found to appear not very unlibely to those who consider that Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan was brought forth in the like times of Liberty and that this Author pleads for nothing more than Liberty to Exclude the Conscientious Fear of God out of the World But certain it is That the General Corruption of Manners Contempt of the Clergy Bold Agitation of the Socinian Controversy amongst the Greatest Men of the same Church do render discourses of this Nature very necessary to stop the Mouths of those Mockers whom St. Peter long since Prophecy'd should come in the last days saying Where is the promise of his Coming For since the Fathers fell asleep All things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation I
Mankind are driven to superstition by Fear only Logic. Not so neither Pray what Nation shew'd less Fear and more Superstition than the Ancient Romans And what Nation had ever more Victories and more Altars than that Famous Monarchy Who were ever more punctual in returning Thanks to their supposed Deities than their Senate and Generals And yet I am inclin'd to think that they did not much fear their Enemies when they returned Thanks to their Gods that they had beat 'em and that it was rather a sense of Gratitude than of Fear which was the Mother of that Pompous Devotion Scept You talk of whole Nations by the Lump can you give any Instance to the contrary in a single Person Log. Yes Sir that I can without tumbling over any large Volumes of History Nebuchadnezzar was a Fortunate Prince and Great Conqueror nor did I ever hear that he was very much a Coward and yet he kept see Dan. 2. 2. several Nurseries of Magicians Astrologers and Sorcerers to interpret Dreams predict Futurities and instruct his Court and People in the superstitious Customs of that Age and Nation Scept But tho he was secure for the present yet perhaps his fear of future Evils inclin'd him to so much Superstition Log. What then do you think of his Gratitude to Heaven when he was returned to his Reason and his Throne Dan. 4. 27. and no Passion but Joy could find room in his Breast was that also the Effect of Fear Scept I am not in love with Scripture-Examples Let us have One out of some honest Pagan Author Log. Then your own admired Curtius shall be my next Witness even in that very Alexander whom with equal front and ignorance cites to the contrary for no man was ever more superstitious than that Grecian Conqueror when he was in the midst of all his Triumphs and as far from Fear as from Adversity it was then that he fancied himself to be the Son of Jupiter an Enthusiasm not easy to be parallell'd and impossible to be exceeded by any and the joy of this joyned with his other good fortune so far transported him that it quite excluded all that superstitious Fear which his Southsayers endeavoured to raise by forbidding his entrance into the fatal City of Babylon Scept Alexander tho a Great Man yet was but One Man You cannot deny that Fear by its natural Energy is the only cause of Superstition nor can you assign any other Log. Yes Hope and Love are as certain Motives to what you call Superstition as Fear or Sorrow For have not Men Worshipped a Wrong Deity or the True God the Wrong Way which is the Whole of Superstition out of hopes of being made more Happy Else how came the most Ancient Pagans to Deify the most benign of their Friends and Benefactors Scept I hope you will at least grant that Superstition arises from the Passions of Mankind as may sufficiently be seen by its mutable Nature and not from any Idea of a God that is obvious to the Reason of all Men. Log. All Religion which your A calls Superstition does not take its Original from the Passions but from the Reason of Mankind No man that is not perfectly mad would Love or Fear or Worship a God or any Invisible Power unless he was first fully persuaded of the real Existence of such a Being or Beings that can hurt or else relieve him For the Passions tho never so violent could never hurry on a Man to Worship a What he thought to be a Non-ens that had no Existence but in his own Fancy And this is the Reason Why Beasts that are capable of Hope and Fear and Love or at least something very like those Passions are yet strangers to all manner of Religion viz. because they have no praevious Notion of a Deity to stir up those Passions in them Otherwise an Hare that flies from all things would be as superstitious as the Alexander the Great who made all to fly before him Scept My Notion is That it is the Fear of Mankind vvorking violently upon the Understanding that created all Notion of Invisible Povvers Log. And my Notion is That it is the Reason of Mankind that could not solve the Creation of the World and the Original of Man but by having Recourse to some First Cause vvhich â—xcited the Passions of Man to adore their Câ—â—â—tor and those other Invisible Powers vvhich they presumed did govern the World under him Scept I do not speak of Natural but that which you Divines do call Revealed Religion This is that Grand Cheat that the Priests in all Ages have dress'd up in Various Habits to please the Vulgar who are always of a mutable Temper and to keep them in subjection to those Monarchs who want a Bridle to restrain unruly Subjects But nothing is more fatal to a Commonwealth than too much of what you call Revealed Religion which is the Mother of Seditions and Tumults and a great Enemy to a free Trade And truly this I hope I speak to a Friend makes me very much wish we could see a Commonwealth in England that we might enjoy the liberty of thinking and speaking of Religion as we pleas'd which now is too much restrain'd And my Author tells you That the Grand Design of his Book was to plead for such a liberty Log. I can see no Reason why Religion should not be as necessary to support a Commonwealth as a Monarchy For do not Commonwealths call in the help of Oaths to bind their Subjects to Allegiance as well as Monarchs And may not Divisions about Religion that cause Seditions as well arise where this Liberty is as where there is none For suppose One Numerous Party not contented with Liberty will aim at Dominion over the other may not Civil Wars on this account as well rise up in a Common-wealth as in a Monarchy In all the Species of Government there is some Supreme Power either in One or in a few or in a great many which as the Apostle teaches ought not to be resisted not only for Wrath but Conscience-sake And if you take away Conscience from the Subject and leave nothing but Wrath to restrain his Rebellion there will be no One Form of Government in the World that can be much more secure than another from private Plots and Contrivances of revolting Subjects Besides your Author seems to me to be very ignorant in History when he would confine Religion to Monarchy as Storks are said by Nature to be confin'd to a Commonwealth For never did Superstition flourish more than in the City of Rome and others whilst they were under a Republican Government which gave occasion to S. Pauls Reproof to the Athenians I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious And yet the Subjects of both were as glorious for Arms and Learning as any of our Modern Republicks I must confess as for what you say that Religion is an Enemy to Free Trade is partly true
the Truth of Matters of Fact and are certain of what Impressions External objects do make upon our Organs tho it does discover to us the true Nature of things and the third is Revelation to which we assent because we are assured it comes from God the Fountain of Truth Now tho Reason and Sense are the only Mediums of certainty in the works of Nature with which the Scriptures do not directly meddle yet Reason is defective in shewing us the way to supernatural Happiness in two respects First because many things belonging thereunto are not deducible from reason alone And Secondly because many things that are deducible from thence in their own Nature yet are not Actually deduced by the Generality of Mankind S. Pray Sir a little Explanation You seem now like Socrates in Aristophanes to walk upon the Clouds L. It is not deducible from reason alone that God will never annihilate the Soul Or what will be its future State or that he will forgive great Sins upon condition of Repentance or that there are 3 Persons in the Trinity or that the Son of God would be Incarnate in the Flesh or make satisfaction for Sins with other Articles of the like Nature S. But it is deducible that there is a God and that he is to be lov'd and fear'd and that our Neighbour is not to be injur'd and that temperance is conducive to preserve health wealth and reputation L. But you must observe that not one half of Natural Religion or Morality that is deducible from reason was ever actually thence deduced by one half of mankind What is more obvious to reason than the Unity and Spirituality of the Godhead and what was more common all over the World than the worship of many Deities and Corporeal Representations of the Gods What attribute in the Divine Nature shines more illustriously to the Eye of Reason than Universal Love and Benignity And yet that hindred not the Pagans from burning their Children to Moloch and giving the Fruit of their Bodys for the Sins of their Souls How few were there amongst their very Philosophers who believed the immortality of the Soul and some of them deny'd the difference between Moral Good and Evil. Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum S. Prethee add no more I am satisfy'd that the greatest part of mankind live more by sense than by reason and that they never use their reason any further than just to serve the uses of the Animal Life L. Tho therefore reason is Natural to all Men yet it does not follow that all men are endued with all possible degrees of Natural knowledge in Morality any more than in Mathematicks where all is deducible from plain and obvious Principles and yet very few are well versed in that Noble Science S. Why will you say that there is a greater certainty in Revelation than in Reason L. Yes there is For Miracles are as so many Appeals both to sense and to reason too The senses hear or see something done which reason tells 'em is done by the invisible Power of God and if by God then Signs of a Divine Mission in the Person that performs them and if the Mission be Divine the same reason tells us that the message must needs be true So that Miracles give Testimony to Divine Mission 1. If they be wrought openly and the effects permanent to distinguish them from jugling Tricks and Impostures 2. If they are directly repugnant to some known and universal Law of Nature to distinguish them from mere Natural Wonders 3. If they are brought to give Testimony to such Doctrines as are not repugnant to Natural Religion or good manners to distinguish them from the delusions of Evil and Malicious Spirits And 4 ly When they are agreeable to Prophesies which like so many lines tho drawn at several times tend to one center as it hapned in the Person of our B. S. now it is evident that when sense and reason both conspire together and Act as it were in consort it forces the assent of all sorts and degrees of men more strongly than dry speculation And therefore since it is necessary for the Good of Man that the Will of God should be known it was convenient it should be made known in such a manner as would convince the reason of the Learned and the very senses of the less thinking part of mankind and this could be done no other way so commodiously as by Prophesie and Miracles S. Your reason good Sir for that L. If some things necessary to be known are not deducible from reason as it is now would you have thought it better that God should have quite alter'd the frame of humane Nature and given new faculties to discern his Will S. No that would have been too violent a force upon the mind I do not like that L. Would you have had him spoken in a supernatural way to all mankind By an immediate voice from Heaven S. I cannot but see many absurdities in that wild supposition L. Would you have had him spoken to some select Persons without any Corporeal representations by the sole operation of his Spirit S. I cannot see how that could have mended the matter for I can no more frame a Notion of certainty in bare Inspiration than in the Hieroglyphical representations made to the Ancient Prophets L. Would you have had him sent his Messengers on his Errands without any visible Power of Prophesie or Miracles to be believ'd upon their bare word S. He might if it had pleas'd him but then I do believe very few would have given them credit L. Would you have Miracles wrought every day S. I should be glad to see a Miracle or two for my own satisfaction But I must confess if they were very frequent they would not in a short time be distinguishable from the Works of Nature L. Then I perceive you Sceptists desire something but you know not what For give your thoughts the utmost liberty of ranging yet you will never find a more commodious way of Gods speaking to mankind than that which is recorded in the Scriptures because it is fuited to all the faculties of the Soul and is apt consequently to force the assent of all mankind And if we consider the subject matter of it we shall find that it reveals to man all those necessary Truths which are no ways deducible from reason alone and Secondly it gives light perspicuity and luster to all those Moral Duties which are indeed deducible by operose deductions from reason but have not been thence Actually deduced by the less thinking part of mankind S. I should have a better Opinion of Scripture if you could give me some rules of interpreting those Ancient Writings for I had rather go to no Oracle than to an Oracle that has a double meaning L. The obscurity of the Scriptures is very much insisted upon by the Romanists to make room for an infallible guide and interpreter and from
this absurd and erroneous manner S. Perhaps he only means it is in every Man's Power to Interpret Scripture as he pleases L. So it is in every Man's power to be Erroneous and to Act contrary to the Law of Nature but has he therefore a right to Murder Steal or commit Adultery But he does not only say Summum jus libere sentiendi de Religione penes unumquemque esse but Summam Authoritatem Scripturam p. 103. Interpretandi apud unumquemque esse S. Methinks the right of Interpreting Scripture ought rather to be given to some Body of Men who are most likely to preserve it L. I have already shew'd you That Contradiction is no Interpretation and that no Humane power can have Authority to oppose Divine Revelation unless you could prove That Man is more Omniscient than God S. God forbid that I should attempt that for now I begin to hate the very name of Deism as it stands Opposed to the Belief of Revealed Religion L. And you would hate it more if you considered from the Dregs of how many Sects and Factions this Poyson is Extracted and how much it tends to destroy all Morality and use of right reason in the World From the Papists it takes the Doctrine Deficiency and Obscurity of the Scriptures and the necessity of a Living Interpreter From the Quakers it take the Doctrine of See chap. 12. p. 144 145 of the Light within as sufficient to Salvation which he calls The Law of Nature and they term the Spirit and of villifying the Scriptures as meer Paper and Ink as he expresly calls 'em Chap. 12. Pag. 145. Vereor ne nimis sancti c. Simulachra et imagines hoc est Chartam et atramentum pro Scriptura adorent In which words he makes Reverencing the Scriptures to be a kind of Idolatry From the Independent it takes the Renunciation of Catholick Communion and makes every Man as they do every Congregation to be a Church as it were to himself and it borrows something of the Doctrine of Fatal Necessity from the rigid Preshyterian Then as to its tendency to Immorality it takes from us all certainty of the means of Grace and hope of Glory through the Mediation of our Blessed Saviour and leaves us nothing to Adore but a careless deceitful and inflexible Deity and whilst it pretends to leave us Piety it really robs us of the true Ided of God It leaves Justice and Charity no other encouragement than they can find in this world and God knows that is often little enough and it gives the full Reins to Lust and Appetite to Eat Drink and be Merry for all beyond the Grave is but Conjecture or idle Speculation Nay it drives the mind unto an assent to so many Absurdities and Contradictions as must at last center in downright Atheism for a Man may as well believe that there is no God at all as believe that there is a God who has exerted his own power to abuse the World and Atheism in a few Years would run up again into the old Pagan Idolatry since Humane Nature cannot be long without Religion or some Superstition of if possible a more ridiculous and pernicious Nature S. Sir you need add no more I am fully satisfied of the necessity of Revealed Religion and only beg your Prayers to Almighty God that I may increase in all useful Knowledge and Walk worthy of so Heavenly a Vocation L. I am glad if any weak endeavours of mine can contribute any thing to the Vindication of that Religion into which I was at first Baptized and which is now so much opposed by the Fraud and Malice both of Men and Deviss And may God who has began this Conversion in your heart assist you always with his Grace and make you perfect in every good Work thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. S. I thank you for your Christian endeavours and wish you an hearty farewel FINIS Books Printed for Ch. Brome 1697. THE Snake in the Grass or Satan Transform'd to an Angel of Light discovering the deep and unsuspected subtilty which is Coucht under the pretended simplicity of the Quakers The Second Edit with Additions Price 4 s. bound Satan Dis-rob'd from his Disguise of Light or the Quakers last shift to cover their Monstrous Heresies laid fully open in a reply to Thomas Ellwood's Answer Published in May 1696. to George Keith's Narrative of the proceeding at Turners Hall June 11. 1696. By the Author of the Snake in the Grass Price 1. s. A Discourse proving the Divine Instituon of Water Baptism by the Author of the Snake in the Grass Price 1 s. The Quakers Set in their true light from the Year of their rise 1650. To the Year of their Progress 1697 by Francis Bugg Senior Price 1 s. The Case of the Quakers Relating to Oaths Stated wherein they are Discover'd to oppose Prophetical to pervert Evangelical to falsify Ecclesiastical and to Contradict their own Doctrines Price 6 d. Arithmetical Recreations all perform'd without Algebra with several Arithmetical Problems and their Answers by Will. Leybourn the Second Edit Enlarged and Amended Price 1 s. The Reform'd Monactry or the Love of Jesus a sure and short pleasant and easie way to Heaven by the Reverend Mr. Luke Beaulieu Price 1 s. 6 d. An Essay concerning Preaching Written for the Direction of a Young Divine and Ufefull also for the People in order to Profitable hearing together with a seasonable Defence of Preaching and the plain way to it by Dr. Glanvil Price 1s 6 d. Dr. Combers Works on the Common Prayer in Folio and Octavo Friendly and Seasonable Advice to the Roman Catholicks of England by Dr. Combe Price 1 s. A Manual of Prayers for the use of the Scholars of Winchester College and all other Devout Christians To which is added three Hymns for Morning Evening and Midnight newly revised by the Author of the Practice of Divine Love Price bouud 1 s. The Plague of Athens which happened in the Second Year of the Peloponnesian War First described in Greek by Thucydides Then in Latin by Lucretius now attempted in English By the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester Price 6 d. The Poems of Horace Consisting of Odes Satyrs and Epistles Rendered in English and Paraphrased by Alexander Brome Gent. and several other Persons Price bound 4 s. Songs and other Poems by Alexander Brome Gent. Price bound 3 s.