HE who has had the Curiosity to observe our Modern Scepticism, and been any thing acquaint­ed with those looser Do­ctrines, [Page 2]which almost univer­sally occur; (wherein restless Consciences have endeavour­ed with all the little Arts of specious Sophistry, to work out to themselves a Stupe­faction rather than a Quiet, a Charm than a Satisfaction) may readily reflect how Natural Theology erected chiefly on Natural Philosophy, (the great Diana of this Mechanick age) is now become the only re­fuge of all those who pretend to establish their irreligion by [Page 3] Argument and Syllogism. For downright positive Atheism has found but very few serious and declared Abettors; has sometimes sprung from the fumes and madness of Wine, and Lust; has been the di­stemper of an Hour, the Pa­radox or Rant of heated Con­versation, not an Opinion, or a morning thought; and for the most part, has been rather sworn up, than asserted.

Christianity had that Serpent Philosophy to deal [Page 4]with in its very Cradle, and through all its strength of Centuries has received its fiercest assaults from that Monster. By vain Philosophy, so rigorously condemned in the Epistles; the Learned generally understand the Gno­stick Theology composed for the most part of Pythagorean Prin­ciples; and that the Epicurean and Stoical Sects were as ma­litious as any in the Apostles times, the Disputes of St. Paul recordedin Acts 17. v. 18. suffi­ciently [Page 5]inform us. Not long after this, that Man whom Origen so rationally and so perspicuously answered, de­claim'd against the whole Bible with all the Artillery of inve­ctive Eloquence, and false reasonings, deduced from a commixture of Barbarian and Grecian Placits. Then Hiero­cles, Julian, &c. but particu­larly their Ancestor Porphyry (whom some of the Fathers counted it Religion to Curse) sought by all the darkest [Page 6]methods of Hell to lessen and destroy the Authority of the Holy Bible: For accord­ing to that imperfect ac­count which we find of those fifteen Books he wrote against the Christians, he is recorded there to have jeered at it for a mean simplicity of Style, and for innumerable repugnancies; to have attributed its Prophe­sies to secret Combinations of Writers after the Fact, or ac­commodated them to other Per­sons and Circumstances; and [Page 7]to have ascribed all its Mi­racles to the force of Egyptian Magick, and the operation of Devils. Now all this was contrived in honour and vin­dication of the Platonic Philo­sophy so highly reverenced by the Sacred Order of the A­lexandrian School. Yet all these men have spent their utmost Venom, done their worst, and the gates of Hell have not prevailed.

For another succession of Gospel Adversaries, we may [Page 8]with Candor enough reckon Aquinas and the School-men, who have most deplorably undermined the Scriptures with the Principles of Aristotle, and although accidentally, yet they have been as really pernici­ous as any we have hither­to named. Their intentions were doubtless innocent, but we can never sufficiently la­ment their intolerable Leisure, which occasioned them for want of better imploy, to spin out all the strength of Divine [Page 9]Writings into nice and un­profitable Volumns. Whate­ver the advices of those Per­sons may seem to the contra­ry, who have spent so much time in those Studies al­ready, that they are bound for their Reputation-sake, to re­commend them to others; who tell us, those alone will make a man close and Argu­mentative, quick and sagacious in discovering the Point and Knot of the Controversie, which perhaps was ty'd only for the [Page 10] Trick-sake; who would have us lie seven or eight years in a dark room, that when we come abroad into the open day, we may think we see clear­er; who though they them­selves have miserably ex­perimented the Cousenage, yet still cry up and maintain the prodigy, and to prevent a sawcy precociousness in Learning, in­vite others to drudge in their methods, to be vigilant and at­tentive on subtile Entities, till they become like those deep­er [Page 11]sort of Contemplators, who never fix their eyes more steadfastly than when they see nothing: notwithstanding, I say, all these large promises and encouragements for the reading of the Schoolmen, there are altogether as obser­vant persons, who will not stick to affirm, that 'tis evi­dently owing to that Load and Corruption of our Libra­ries, that men are generally grown so loose and ambi­guous in their Reasonings, that [Page 12]with little pains or art they can prove any thing, or nothing; and that most of those Religious Wars which at this day infest Christianity, are chiefly owing to that fatal invention of School-Divinity, that Gun-powder of Learning. All this would be most amazingly dreadful, but that there is somewhat worse to come.

There is still another Philo­sophy behind, and that has o­pened another Gate in Hell, and sent forth a piece of the [Page 13] blackest Sophistry that the In­fernal Synod can dictate. Its reputed Author, Benedictus de Spinoza; one who has run through a whole Amsterdam of Religions himself, and obli­ged that Athens of promiscu­ous Worship with one more of his own Invention. Where he has given them all the difficulties of Scripture-History and Chronology amass'd and en­hansed; all the Doubts and Controversies of Commentators positively determined on the [Page 14]worst side; a Rapsodie of Il­lusions from Talmud and Alco­ran; and a Feature of Defor­mity borrowed from every Heresie, Schism, and Sect.

'Tis true indeed, he al­lows the Bible to be Divine Revelation, but with this Pro­viso, that the Philosophers Reason is still a more infallible word of God; that its Pro­phecies were accommodated to Prejudice, Fancy, and Tem­per; Its Miracles the Wonders of the Ignorant; its whole end [Page 15]and scope Political, for the better security of Government; and its popular Doctrine in­tended only for the Herd to square their gross Obedience by: and all this, because there occur some Expressions in the Scriptures altogether unworthy (as he imagines) of those clear and evident dis­coveries of Nature lately found out and Demonstrated by the Divine Cartesius; whom he never mentions but with the greatest veneration imagina­ble, [Page 16]with all the Eulogies that the most ravished inven­tion can suggest; whereas if at any time he confesses Christ, 'tis like the Devil in the Go­spel, with Horror and Re­luctance, and (like him too) he seems first Tormented to it.

The Existence of a Deity against the Atheist, and the certainty of the Bibles Revela­tion against the Anti-scripturist, have been in all Christian ages, but especially of late, so ful­ly confirmed and established [Page 17]both from Pulpit and Press, through all the possibility of Reasoning, all the Amplitude of Topics, whether Theological, Metaphysical, Physical, Moral, or Mathematical, that were they handsomely collected and summ'd up, they would without Controversie make a Compendium of the properest Logick yet extant; and yet this Infamous Book presents our Reasoning Men with a farther scruple still, where freely granting the Revelation [Page 18]of the Scriptures, it notwith­standing concludes, that the holy Bible is only a popular Sy­stem of Pious Political Errors; Regnum Devotionis, non Verita­tis: Wherefore I shall endea­vour at present only to make good this one Proposition, viz. That the chief Criterions or Canons of Philosophical Truth, which have been invented and allowed by speculative Men, are much more abundantly convincing when applied to matters of Divine Re­velation.

Now Philosophical Truth is capable of being considered but these two ways.

• I. In respect of its Tradi­tional or Historical account.
• II. In respect of its accom­modation to our Natural Facul­ties.

I. In respect of its Tradi­tional or Historical account.

And here we have some [Page 20]late Authors very laborious in Transcriptions, who have not scrupled to make Philoso­phy co-incident with Revelation it self, deriving it in a conti­nued Tradition from the Jewish Church, and thereby concei­ving it no other than the re­mains of a primary Revelation. They make the business very short, telling us, that doubt­less Adam was created with a perfect knowledge of Nature, and that from him this Know­ledge was transmitted by Me­thusalem, [Page 21]to Noah, from Noah and his Sons and Nephews to the Chaldeans, from them to the Egyptians, from the Egyp­tians to the Phenicians, from Phenicia it sailed into Greece, so to the Latins, and from thence 'twas propagated to these septentrional parts, where we have the Genealogy of Philosophy as clearly and succinctly delineated, as that of our King, from William the Conqueror.

Now we cannot suppose [Page 22]that Adam transmitted that Knowledg of Nature, which he enjoyed during the state of his Innocency, and which he received either from im­mediate Infusion, or connate Idea's of things: Nay if he had, he would have given his Po­sterity a false Philosophy, since that whole Nature was after­wards forced to follow the Law of its Curse, since Thorns and Bryars were not in the Scheme of Vegetables, and the Serpent was to be new stu­died [Page 23]again. But if he trans­mitted to us the Knowledge he had gathered from much Experience, and a long Life af­ter his Fall, when perhaps his Faculties were not very much perfecter than ours, and stood in as great want of a Logick for their better information, I do not see any great benefit we could receive from such a Tradition; and all that the Asserters of this Opinion can make good will be only this, that we have received one [Page 24]more Curse from him than we thought of, and that he has propagated to his Poste­rity Sin, Death, and Philosophy.

That the Egyptians, who were a mighty and ruling Nation, when the Israelites were but one chosen Family, should receive all their Wis­dom and Learning from the Jewish Church, which as yet had not so much as any writ­ten Canon, any Law to walk by, but what it received ei­ther from the continual Mi­nistry [Page 25]of Angels, or somewhat else both Sacred and Incom­municable to the Posterity of Cham, is more than our ordi­nary Historical probability will allow us to affirm. Nei­ther is it less absurd to make Joseph the great Interpreter of Dreams, the same with Hermes Trismegistus, and to be their renowned Law-giver, when as before his arrival thither, they lived in all pomp and Trading, Municipal Laws, and confluence of Mer­chants, [Page 26]nay, and he himself was but a part of the Ishmae­lites Traffick, Gen. 37.36.

The first rise and exercise of the Heathen Theology con­sisted only in some Mystical Rites, afterwards recited in Hymns and Musical Odes; and seeing the acknowledgment of a God is allowed to be Universal, and consequently Na­tural; why might not these Barbarous efforts in Religion wholly spring from the confu­sed Notion of a Deity naturally [Page 27]inherent, without any particular derivation from the Jewish Church? The Grecians and La­tins do indeed ascribe some advantages to the Phenitians, which Tacitus particularly mentions, viz. the Art of Na­vigation, and a few Letters; but that they held a general Mart of Learning, and trans­planted Colonies of humane Sci­ences into Greece, Africa, Spain, and the chief parts of Europe, which border on the Mediterranean, is certainly no [Page 28]other than one of Mr. Bochar­te's Learned Whimsies. We usually esteem our Trading Towns as Brutish a part of Mankind as any of their Bre­thren, where Gain and Cove­tousness seldom allow any In­tervals for Meditation, any Lei­sure for deep thought; and we may easily believe the Mari­tine Phenicians to have had no better speculations than that of their Cynosura for the safer Conduct of a Cock-boat; no other Society-Invention than that [Page 29]of a Royal die, which came neither from a Jewish Tradi­tion, nor an Egyptian Hierogly­phick, but (as good Histori­ans inform us) was happily hinted by the experimental Phi­losophy of a Dog.

But grant these Eastern Na­tions to have excelled in some useful parts of the Mathema­ticks, yet we may give a Na­tural account of the rise of those without having any recourse to the Jewish Church, since they may be probably supposed to [Page 30]have taken their Origin either from Necessity, or a commodious Situation, or both; so that the Egyptians Geometry might be owing to the inundations of Nile, which caused them of­ten to Survey their confusion of Lands; the Serenity of the Air, and an undisturbed Ho­rizon might invite the Chalde­ans to look up, and by long observation understand the course of some few Constella­tions; and the compulsion of the Phenicians or Canaanites un­to [Page 31]the Coasts of the Mediter­ranean by the Sword of Joshua might force them to seek mer­cy on the Ocean, and drive them to the little Arts of anci­ent Navigation.

Pythagoras, whose Life and Travels have administred much to this Fancy, is recorded by Porphyry to have brought no­thing from the Hebrews but [...], the know­ledge of Dreams, or of their Interpretation, which yet a­mong them was never count­ed [Page 32]an Art, but an Inspiration. If the Jews were such diffusers of secular Learning, why are the wisest Men of their own Nation (such as Joseph, Mo­ses, Solomon, and Daniel) cha­ractered and deciphered to us in the Bible, with a compa­rison so advantagious to the Wisdom of other Nations; as that they were skilled in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians, that their Wisdom excelled all the Wisdom of the East Coun­tries and of Babilon.

Schools and Colledges we are taught they had, though not such as some of our European Seminaries for frivolous and So­phistical Education; but for the weighty instruction of the Sons of the Prophets, for the reading and interpreting of their Sacred Law. Grant that some of the more Mystical and Symbolical parts of the Al­legorizing Philosophy, or some of those Fables which the Poets borrowed from the Corruption of Tradition, were [Page 34]derived thence; must it needs follow that all the unmix'd and Argumentizing Philosophy, all Arts and Sciences (the effects of Curiosity and accidental E­mergency) must be brought from Canaan? If Plato at any time writes that he received a blind Notion [...], must they be presently no other than the hateful, and therefore concealed Hebrews, when as all the World besides was esteemed Barbarian to him.

Now the great maintainers of this Hypothesis, whether Clemens Alexandrinus and Euse­bius, or more modern Anti­quaries, seem to have bor­rowed the hint chiefly from the eloquent Jew Josephus, who in his Treatise against Appion the Alexandrian Grammarian endeavours to prove together with the Antiquity the Univer­sal Learning also of the Jews. Yet out of an Hereditary preju­dice to the Heathen World, and a notorious National Pride, he [Page 36]may be thought to have ex­ceeded the modesty of sober Argument on that subject, e­specially being so highly pro­voked by the jeers of Appion, who undertakes to prove them originally Egyptians, and that they were turned out thence with their Heliopolitan Moses, for an infamous Disease. With these most defamatory speeches Blaspheming his Nati­on, as his own words signify; this (I say) might exaspe­rate him to an haughty dero­gation [Page 37]of all the Learning of the whole World besides, and to make their pompous and long celebrated Wisdom appear no other than some broken Light, some imperfect fragments deriv'd from them.

However since by the very confession of those, who would make out such a Tra­duction, it is now mixed and fermented with the vain additions and falsities of the ignorant Gentiles, as it appears but a [...], [Page 38]full of Horror and the misguidings of the Night, we cannot upon the account of Tradition or Revelation, be faithfully assured of any Truth, any Certainty in it.

Now there are none of these imputations, which can be charg'd on the Holy Bible, especially on that necessary part, on which our Belief, and Pra­ctice, and our Salvation depends There's no obscurity, unless that which may arise from too great a Lustre; no dark Coun­sel [Page 39]from Delphos, whose inter­pretation still required another Oracle; but all its Doctrine is like Life and Light, nothing more Familiar and Domestick, and yet Mysterious too. What if the Revelations of St. John are still in some parts vailed, are the shadows in our Heavenly Landscape, yet we doubt not but the Ages to come will see them perfectly fulfilled into their true Shine and Perspicuity; and what we cannot here at­tain to will but make our [Page 40] Scene of Glory larger. Neither are the Holy Scriptures corrupt­ed with any vain Additions; the Jews cannot fasten their Talmud, nor the Papists their Traditions; such are but In­chantments to Moses's Miracles, and can never imitate the fin­ger of God. Neither could all the Armies, Emperors, or Persecutions, all the Policy & Malice of Earth and Hell de­stroy one Article, blot out one ne­cessary Truth, but that same God, who first inspired them, has [Page 41]hitherto preserved them, and we may with all devout con­fidence expect, that his never­slumbring Providence will be their Eternal Massorah.

Having done with the Hi­storical account let us Secondly consider Philosophical Truth in an accommodation and con­formity to our Natural Facul­ties; &c.

I. To our Sences.

Whose Testimony being ma­naged by a superintendent Fa­culty [Page 42]is the most infallible cer­tainty we can naturally have of sensible things: which (as to its Mode of Derivation) whe­ther it proceeds from real Qua­lities inherent in the Objects, or Notions and Phantasms im­pressed on the Nerves and Brain, it matters not, since most men are sufficiently a­gree'd in their Representations, or Relative Truth, our Organs and Objects being rightly di­sposed and circumstantiated. Neither is it to any purpose [Page 43]for any one to obtrude upon us the frequent illusions of Sight, since those very Fallacies (as they call them) constitute an Art, and are the grand Maxims of our Opticks.

Now although some have so deeply plunged into that degeneracy of Scepticism as to extract a Controversie from every Particle of the Universe, and make their own existence a Problem, yet has this been pointed at by the sober part of Mankind, as the extremi­ty [Page 44]of Folly and forlorn Sot­tishness. The very Pyrrhonians were not guilty of this Excess, who never deny their assent to the Passions, and Represen­tations of Sense, but doubted whether the Natures and Inter­nal Verities of things were from thence, or by any other way sufficiently and infallibly known; which is convincing­ly manifest from their grand probability [...], where [...] bears no relation to the immediate [Page 45] appearances of Sence, but is wholly concerned in Di­scourse, Syllogism, and the Consequences of Science; and if at any time they did [...], indulge themselves a sportive Capti­ousness about the familiar Ob­jects of Sence, 'twas not so much to affront Truth, as to persecute the haughty Dogmatist, and torture his surly positions; so that those few absurdities re­corded of their great Master Pyrrho can be nothing but [Page 46] Fiction and Comedy: as that he disbelieved all his Senses, grew so callous and mortified with stupidity, as that he had taught his very Nerves and Fibres to deny themselves; so dead drunk with Apathy, as to lye in a Carts way, and at another time most unmerci­fully to doubt whether his Friend was in the Ditch or no. These (I say) and such like extravagant Relations, which occur in his Life, can be no other than the Burlesque [Page 47]of his Opinion; like that of E­picurus's, which from the pure abstracted Contemplations on Nature, joyned with the most innocent delight of a Garden was by the viler Herd of that Sect corrupted into all gross Sensuality, and the debauches of a City.

Diogenes Laertius affirms of Pyrrho, that his suspension pro­ceeded from a noble Generosity of mind, and that in order for an undisturbed tranquility of Life he introduced a polite [Page 48]Genteel Mode of Philosophizing [...]. And if so, such a Scepti­cism as this would be the best breeding a Scholar could pre­tend to, 'twould redeem the Learned from that snarle of Education, which many have most unhappily contracted from their little Victories in Scholastick Contentions, whence they become angry and sick at every suspence of Judgment in another, so ut­terly [Page 49]impatient of contradi­ction and Argument, that they vilify and defame all Hu­mane Nature, because the Age rebels against their Opinion. Whereas on the contrary the modest way of humbly pro­posing our probabilities, and allowing the same freedom to others, would render Con­versation sweet and easie, all conferences pleasant, and be a great instrument of advan­cing true Friendship in the World. He that grows hot [Page 50]and turbid, that elbows in all his Philosophick Disputes, must needs be very proud of his own Sufficiencies, or very ignorant of the vanity of the Science he stickles for; and commonly the intemperate value of a spe­culation proceeds from the weakness of the Man; for he that is passionate for a particu­lar System now, without doubt was so here-to fore for his Nuts, and is in all likelihood of still following his Temper, of be­ing warm and obstinate in all [Page 51]the trivial concerns of Humane Society.

Neither would this gene­rous method only give us ea­sier seasons, and softer mo­ments of Converse, but also a freer range to Fancy, and a loss to new thought; since in matters wholly Philosophical (where Religion and Govern­ment are not concerned) Scep­ticism and Paradox may with­out Controversie be esteemed the purest Vehicles of Noble Wit, and unattempted Sense.

It need not startle us that the Roman Writers do often insinuate a very contemptible regard for the Senses, since all that, is in order for the better colouring the contradictions of their Mass. Hence a late French Author in his Research­es after Truth, having presented his Reader with a long tedi­ous repetition of the invincible Illusions of the Senses (such as a stick half in the Water, and a square Tower at a distance) most triumphantly concludes, [Page 53]that they were given to Men, as they are to Brutes, only for the preservation of Life, not as the Ports of Merchandise and Science, but of Defence and Safety. As if our sight serv'd us only for the conduct of our steps, or for securing us from a Precipice, whereas that al­most unlimited Sense extends it's Royalty through the whole Universe, purvey's for all the capacity of the Intellect, and points at what it cannot per­fectly discover. For by the Vi­sible [Page 54]things of the Creation, the great Invisibles are Collected. But we need not labour any longer in this point, since those persons, against whom our Discourse is chiefly directed, are so vigorous for the evi­dence of Sense, that they scarce allow any other, but make the most sublimated Knowledge a Tumult of Phan­tasms; all Thought, Local Moti­on; all Reason, Mechanism; and the whole Encyclopede of Arts and Sciences but a brisker Circu­lation [Page 55]of the Blood. How ri­diculous soever this Opinion is, yet it sufficiently serves our purpose, as it establishes Sense to be an undoubted Cri­terion of Truth, as far as we contend, or within its proper Sphere.

Let us now see the more a­bundant concern of this Crite­rion in matters of Revelation, which will presently appear, if we consider, that this was the first and is the last Evidence, of Divine Miracles, on which [Page 56]all revealed Religion is establish­ed; and that Tradition it self makes no Argument until 'tis ultimately resolved into the certainty of the Senses. Mo­ses and our blessed Saviour made their constant appeal to them. What we have seen, and what we have heard was still the Apostles Logick, and an Ap­peal to Miracles, was the pow­erful Demonstration of the Spi­rit. How solicitous was our Saviour after his Resurrection to give the senses their full sa­tisfaction? [Page 57]This made him condescend to heal St. Tho­mas's Infidelity with a touch, which immediately shed a strong Conviction through his Soul, that straight way broke forth into a glorious acknow­legment, My Lord, and my God! Nay, at his Ascention he chose not to vanish or suddenly dis­appear, but gave the men of Galilee time to stand and gaze, submitted his Motion to the Scrutiny of their Eyes, whilst he was carried up into Hea­ven [Page 58]by Angels and Clouds in all the leisure of a Triumph.

II. We will consider Philo­sophical Truth in an Accom­modation to our Understand­ings.

And this is the very diffini­tion of the Schools, viz. A Conformity of the Object with the Intellect. Here I dare not ven­ture far. In this Science, or Mystery of Words, a very judi­cious Abstracter would find it a hard task to be any thing co­pious [Page 59]without falling upon an Infinite Collection, an Eternal Suc­cession, or some such like con­tradictious & self-duelling terms. True Metaphisicks is still a Desi­deratum in Philosophy; for what we have hitherto recei­ved from the Scholasticks, Jesu­ites, and others, appears only like the Ghost and Phantasm of separated Reason and de­parted Sense. If we lanch in­to the vast expansion of their pure Abstractions, we find but very little to terminate our [Page 60]Apprehensions, but our con­templating Heads seem pre­sently to swim in an Infinite Vacuum, and all substantial thought by little and little to lessen, and pass away into a strange Transcendency. I could tell you of a Truth of the Object or Entity, a Truth of Appearance, another of Con­ception, and one more of the Intellect, and that with­out a Miracle, all these may be one, viz. an appearance or representation of the Object to the [Page 61]Intellect; I could tell you like­wise that besides the Truth of apprehension, there is one of Judgment, another of Discourse, and these again either Mental or Verbal; I could tell you from the Lord Herbert, that there is an invincible Instinct of common Notions, the same that Aristotle before him called an Intelligence of Principles; that there are some Sacrosancta Principia (as the forementio­ned Person stiles them) which inform us, that there is a God, [Page 62]that he ought to be Adored; but how, and in what manner, what will make our Worship acceptable, our Sacrifices, or our Prayers regarded, here his Instinct, Internal, External Sense, and Intellect, with all their Analogies, Conditions, and Consequences can give us no bet­ter direction than the Finger of a Mercurial Statue, when we are puzling in a dark and crooked Alley. 'Tis not my business to give you a Censure of that Noble Mans Labours; [Page 63]Gassendus has done it already in an imperfect Epistle, wherein he has utterly renounced the Genius of his Nation, scarce allowing the Author one E­pistolary Complement; though 'tis to be presumed, that when the Lord Herbert sent him his Book, he expected he should have returned the Applauses of a Gentleman, and not the Animadversions of a Critick. Yet so it often happens, for another great Wit des Cartes met with the same Fate, and [Page 64]from the same hand too. He grew so confident and pre­sumptuous of his Meditations, that he sent out sportive Challen­ges to invite Objections from all his Friends, till at last like one of his own Kings, he was quite baffled and slain amidst his very Tilts and Tur­naments. After the Metaphy­sicians have quite tired them­selves with their Divisions and subdivisions, they are so mo­dest as not to make Humane Intellect the adequate measure of [Page 65]Truth, but ultimately resol­ve it into a Conformity with the Divine Understanding, which a Platonist would after this man­ner explain, That there is an Eternal mind, that compre­hendeth the intelligible Na­tures and Idea's of all things, whether actually existing, or possibly only; that compre­hends it self, and all the ex­tent of its own power, toge­ther with an exemplar Plat­form of the whole World, ac­cording to which he produ­ced [Page 66]the same. This be­ing granted, we are as much in the dark as ever; for unless this eternal mind shall vouchsafe to acquaint us what is conformable to his Infi­nite unerring Understanding, we can have but little certainty of Truth.

Now this is the peculi­ar Province of Revelation. And that it may appear how natural this Medium is, how suitable to the Universal consent of Mankind, you may please [Page 67]to reflect, that Revelation has been the true, or pre­tended foundation of all Knowledge whatsoever. No Religions, no Policies imposed upon the World without con­ferences and retirements with God and Angels. Not only Religions and Laws, but all Arts and Sciences, all noble Inventions have ever boasted of their Aegeria's, their assisting Daemons too.

When the light of Nature, that first Revelation was distorted, [Page 68]and the unguided reason of the Idolatrous World had termi­nated all Divinity in the works of the Creation, then did God speak at sundry times, and in divers manners to the Fathers by the Pro­phets; When the Gentiles would not learn of the Kingdom of Is­rael, which was a constant visible demonstration of the Power, Providence, and Good­ness of God, their Ignorance for some time was winked at, till at last God was pleased more fully to declare his Na­ture [Page 69]and Will by his Eternal Son, the brightness of his Fathers Glory, and the express Image of his Person, who brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel. So that now the Bible is become the perfect Register even of Na­tural Religion too, since all those excellent truths, whith the Hea­then World faintly hinted at, rather wish'd than believ'd, whe­ther they concern matters of Faith, or the Duties of Mo­rality, are infallibly assured to [Page 70]us by the supernatural Decla­ration of that God, whose veracity is established by an infinite Knowledge, whereby he cannot be deceiv'd himself, and an eternal holiness, where­by he can't deceive us. And to take away all complaints about Error, the obscurity of things, and the imperfectness of our finite Understandings (those bold Murmurs, which reverberate on Heaven and Providence it self) we are Promised and Assured that the Third Person in the Trinity [Page 71]will be with us to the end of the World to guide and direct us in all necessary Truth.

But Thirdly, Cartesius goes farther than the Schoolmen. He uncatechizes himsef thro' a long series of Dubitation; in­vents an Art to stifle Educati­on and Memory, strips him­self of all his prejudices, only that he might put them on a­gain in another dress, and present us with a nicer Recol­lection, a more splendid me­thod of his Errors. For 'tis [Page 72]certain that most of them re­turn'd upon him again, not unlike to that which the A­tomists observe, that if you grind any matter into too mi­nute a dust, the little parti­cles will cling again, and re­unite by reason of a too exqui­site separation. Wherefore after he had fanci'd the whole World a Faire-Land, Life a meer Dream, all Conscious and thinking Nature but the delusions of an evil Genius; after all this enchantment he [Page 73]can find nothing, that can as­certain to him any Truth but the Goodness of God, which will not suffer our faculties to be imposed upon in their clear and evident perceptions, so that that which can give the best account of the Goodness of God, justly claims the Advan­tage of this Criterion.

And, that Revelation does so would be almost improper here to mention, but that the method of my Discourse re­quires it. I shall instance on­ly [Page 74]in one thing, but that the greatest, the vast Astonish­ment of Heaven and Earth, viz. that of the Second Per­sons Incarnation, his taking our Humane Nature upon him, to Converse with us, to Dye for us, for Us Sinners. A Mystery of Love, which gave the very Angels new Anthems, a new Scene of Knowledg, and consequently a new Heaven!

Now I would not be thought to speak against all Philosophy, to declaim against [Page 75]all Learning, any more than he that Preaches against a full Table, or exhorts to Mortifi­cation, would be thought to make Starving Orthodox, and Self-murder a Gospel-Precept. For since Philosophy is by most men allowed to be the requisie improvement of our natural Faculties; since 'tis commendably made the great Employ and Study of our younger years, and the better Commerce of our more advanc'd Society; since ex­alted [Page 76]and almost meriting Charity hath built us Schools and Colledges for our plea­sant Recess and Meditation, bequeathed us competent Re­venues, for the easie maintain­ance and tranquility of a Thinking Life, nobly endow'd our Professors for more speedy advances in Arts and Sciences; and since Christian Common­wealths with their prudent Laws and Constitutions have esta­blished to us our Universities, certainly we ought not to en­tertain [Page 77] Philosophy with so cold a regard, as the Phanaticism of some, and the incapacity of others to attain so great an excellency, is ready to pro­phane it with. But yet if we take a farther prospect, and view it in its ultimate tenden­cies we may with as equal reason blame its Adoration as its Contempt.

Philosophy was intended, as our Colleges wherein 'tis taught, not to spend our our whole Age, 60 years and 10 in it, but to [Page 78]make it our passage to more solid attainments, to equippe our selves for more substantial Knowledge. 'Tis but an In­troduction, a Ministring Ac­complishment for Divinity, and we are first taught the Ele­ments of the World, that we may better understand the Sacred Character. 'Tis but a Jewish Canaan, Typical and significative of a more Spiri­tual Mansion, and may un­der a judicious Management serve to shadow out to us, [Page 79]though very imperfectly, the infinite Treasures of revealed Wisdom. So that the intent of my discourse was only to shew, that whatever preten­ces Philosophy or natural Religi­on could make for Truth or Certainty, yet Revelation (there being such a thing granted by the Adversary) laid fuller and more abundant claim to all those Rules and Measures of Truth. But should I now reckon up all the incommu­nicable characters of Truth, [Page 80]to Revelation, it would require a Volumn. I will only mention some few, and those such as lye within the compass of Philosophical Rea­sonings, then answer an Ob­jection or two of the Natural-list, and so conclude.

Whatever Philosophy or Natu­ral Religion can truly arrive to in its best progress of Reason­ing, its highest exaltation, Revelation has all the benefit and evidence of that Light, besides a farther and infallible [Page 81]confirmation from Divine Testi­mony. Moreover, the excel­lency of the Object, peculiar to the matters of Revelation, gains a freer admittance, makes a stronger and more lasting impression on the un­derstanding, than any other common Motive whatever. For no man needs any other Argument than his own Re­flection to convince him, that Assent ariseth more properly from the excessive worth of the Object than from the dry evi­dence [Page 82]of Apprehension, and Per­spicuity it self. And that be­cause, however in Philosophy Truth and Goodness may seem distinct, yet in Divinity they are all one; and the most ab­stracted speculation there, has a constant Morality annex'd to it, which always superadd's the Recommendation of the Af­fections too. And how mag­nificently soever men para­phrase on Reason, Intelligible Ideas, and Eternal Verities, they are our Passions, that must [Page 83]carry us to Heaven; our Re­pentance and our Devotion, our Love, our Fear, and our Hopes; and our Reason and our Faith, only as joyn'd with these. 'Twas the zeal of the Affections, assisted by the Holy Spirit, that reconcil'd Martyr­doms, and rescu'd the Bible from the Dioclesian Flames. There each holy Martyr would freely part with his Life, but not his Bible. That Sacred Depositum was all his Wealth, his World, his Eter­nity. [Page 84]When his right hand was cut off, he seized it with his left; when that was gone too, he fasten'd on it with his Mouth, and amidst his Tor­ments sang Hallelujahs out of it; when his breath could no longer articulate his devoti­ons, his panting heart still re­tain'd it, and when the Ty­rant grasped that, it fled a­way with his Soul. Now search all the Records, all the Catalogues of Stoicks, those great Masters and Professors, [Page 85]of Death, and see if this can be parallell'd. We have read indeed of a Philosopher, that offer'd up an Hecatomb for the invention of a Proposition, but he would never have Sacrifi­ced himself for the Confirmation of it.

But the Naturalist tells us, we have no sublime Notions of God in Scripture, and that the Israelites only knew his Name; whereas every Hebrew name of God is a pregnant Hierogli­fick in his Theology, and that [Page 86]one word Jehova is a Body of Divinity. The Scriptures have acquainted us with so much of the Nature of God, as may sufficiently inspirit our Obedience; and those, who have pretended to farther dis­coveries, have only opened a way to Heresie, Enthusiasm, and even Atheism it self. And we have reason to fear that those curious and subtil Dis­courses of late about the Idea of a God, have done but little service to the Christian Religi­on. [Page 87]What the understanding in things of this Nature, like a clear Fountain, would natu­rally reflect as it maintains its ordinary Current, when once examined and stirred, either defaces or distorts; and I am apt to think, that the Divine Nature and its absolute Attributes are best known by the modest reflection of the first Thought. The most abstracting Meta­physitian, that studies them farther, does but think him­self into amazement, and [Page 88]with the delaying Philosopher, only loses his God by a lon­ger Procrastination. But still the same Adversary urges that 'tis strangely irrational to re­present God Almighty with Passions and Senses, which the Scriptures every where allow. This is disingenious Sophistry; for he that makes the Objection cannot be ignorant of the Fi­gure. That men should quar­rel with the condescentions of the Almighty! That when he is graciously pleased to [Page 89]speak to them, they should dispute the Nature of his Voice! when he says, he has compas­sion on'em, they should ask, where then are his Bowels! when he revokes a threatned Judgment, they should plead, He cannot! Divine Animal! would'st thou be convers'd with in the Language of E­ternity? wouldst thou be treated with in the ineffable Dialect of Heaven? Alass! fond Creature, thou art E­lemented and Organ'd for o­ther [Page 90]Apprehensions, for a lower Commerce of percep­tion: Such immediate dis­plays of Divinity infinitely transcend the Analogy of thy Order, and the immoderate Glory of such a Revelation would but absorb thy Soul, and crack its Hypostasis: Thou canst not see God, and live.

But still the Natural Philo­sophy in the Scripture can ne­ver be pardoned; either that, or De Cartes must be false. However Men may flatter [Page 91]themselves that they have Orbs and Circumvolutions of Souls Concentric to the Uni­verse, yet we may very rationally believe, that an exact Knowledge of Na­ture was never designed Man on this side of Heaven; it may possibly be reserved for our Illuminated Faculties, and be an accessary of our Glo­rification. The Essences of things can be the Object of no other than a Divine Under­standing, and he that made the [Page 92]World, can only have a per­fect Knowledge of it. What if Divine Providence, as a peculiar priviledge, granted to Adam and Solomon a conside­rable acquaintance with Na­ture, yet event hath shewn, that there was a kind of Te­tragrammaton in it, that it was thought a thing too Sacred to be communicated to Posteri­ty, so that what they enjoyed was no Natural Acquisition, but a Gracious Gift, not so much Science as Vision.

Though Cartesius in his ac­count of Meteors has endea­voured with Epicurus to ex­clude the Deity from the mid­dle Region, and to deliver us up to the Providence of an Atmosphere, yet God Almigh­ty thought fit to manifest his Omnipotence to Job from that place rather than from the Heaven of Heavens. What is the end we propose of our enquiries into Nature? Is it to serve and gratify our Curi­osity? That we will not own. [Page 94]Is it to plume our Pride? That we dare not own. Then it can be no other than to settle in us a due reverence and ac­knowledgment of the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness of God. Now all this is Pathetically se­cured to us in Scripture, since it may very effectually be ob­tain'd by an humble Medita­tion on the Existences of things, their more open Qualities, and their obvious Relations. The consideration of the substan­tial parts and uses of sensible [Page 95]Nature (the very Mode and Method of the Scripture's Philosophy) has, we know, in a meer Heathens Breast kindled Admiration into an Hymn; But I never yet read of any Anthems com­posed from the Contempla­tion of Atoms. Who can Spell the Divine Wis­dom, Power, and Good­ness out of the Principles of Des Cartes, where he gives us the Origen of all things in a Puppet-play, in­terprets [Page 96]all the works of God according to the bruit Laws of Mechanism, and allows no other Operations in Vital Na­ture, then what he finds paral­lell'd in German Clockwork? Whereas, who can without holy Affections peruse the [...], the Majesty of Mose's account? [...], where he describes the Origi­nal Fiat in a Phrase almost commensurate to the Dignity of the Creation, that some Rabbins have thought his very [Page 97]Style, as well as Sense to have been inspir'd.

They are our too eager disquisitions after the Internal Verities of things that have led the Witty World into so large a Field of Scepticism. Men must be pressing and breaking into the Recesses of Nature, as that Conqueror here­tofore into the Sanctum Sancto­rum, then mistake the thing, return dissatisfied, cry all is Pageantry, and that we wor­ship Clouds. I had rather [Page 98]read the Astonishments of Job, when God poses him through the whole Creation, then all the bold explications of Men and Daemons. I had rather con­sider the Rain-bow as the Re­flection of God's Mercy, then the Sun's Light; and when I call to mind, that Thunder throughout the Scriptures is stiled his Mighty Voice, I'm satisfi'd at what I Tremble, and though this may debase my Philosophy, yet it heightens my Divinty.

If any man is not yet satis­fied what is Truth, let him but seriously reflect on his Death-Bed, and the Day of Judgement, and then I'm per­swaded hee'l need no An­swer; When the Gayety of Fancy forsakes him, and the Prosperity of Invention gives no relish; when his Passions and Appetites grow languid from the impotence of Blood, and his Brain becomes too weak for the Image of the World, then will he call for a [Page 100]Portion of Scripture to ease his Conscience, a drop from the Fountain of Living Water to cool his tongue. Then set him on the highest Moun­tain of Metaphysics, and from thence give him the Ravish­ing Prospect of all the King­doms of Humane Learning, all the Glorys of Philosophy, yet he will not Worship, not I­dolize one glittering Notion, not part with one single Text for a [...]. When the last Fire shall make Na­ture [Page 101]confess it self to be no God, the Sun and Moon be darkned, the Elements and Stars melt with fervent heat, and run together into one great Vortex of Confusion, and when the whole Volumn of the Creation shall be shrieve­led up like a Scroll of Parch­ment, then shall the Holy Bi­ble be opened, its everlasting Truths unfolded, and though Heaven and Earth pass away yet not one Iota of that shall perish.

Go now, and neglect Hea­ven, the receptacle of An­gels and departed Souls, for the visible Heaven of Orbs and Planets, and lose the Be­atific Vision for that through a Tube! Go, thou that hun­gerest after Humane Learning, go! make a vast Progress in specious Errors, and industri­ously acquire to thy self a deep-read Confusion of thought! lose all good Sense by a multiplicity of Langua­ges, grow gray under a Ma­thematical [Page 103]Problem, and make thy Grave in the Dust of Geometry! let the reconci­liation of the Chaldean Chro­nology, and the Egyptian Di­nasties swallow up thy mo­ments of Salvation! let the uncertainties of Prosane Au­thors attend thee on thy Death-Bed, and with their restless Tumult add a Phren­sie to thy Feaver! then let thy Learned Ashes be kept in Urns, and thy great Name be read in Annals. Yet for all [Page 104]this know, O man, that Pla­to gave thee thy Pompous Thoughts, Aristotle thy Sagacity in Invention, and Euclid thy Mighty Demonstrations; In a word, that Heathens gave thee all thy Reason, and the Curse of Babel thy Languages to express it. Go therefore ra­ther, and Captivate all thy Thoughts to the positions of Faith, thy whole Heart to the embracement of the Gospel, and let the frequent Medita­tion on Sin, Death, and Judg­ment [Page 105]macerate thy bold Natu­rals into an humble contrition of understanding.

The foundations of the In­tellectual World are these four.

1. Reason. 2. Morality. 3. Civil Government. 4. Re­ligion. And that each of these Pillars is remov'd, undermin'd, or out of course, either thro' the sly Machinations, or open assaults of our implacable e­nemies, the Papists; who either act themselves with declared Malignity, or put per­nitious [Page 109]Engines into other mens hands, a little reflection on the several Heads may easily con­vince.

The first Foundation which they have disordered is Reason in general.

I presume there are very few ignorant how large a Do­minion Scepticism has of late obtained among our inquisi­tive Athenians, and how spe­ciously it has been introduced under the Titles of free Phi­losophy, and a liberty of Think­ing; [Page 110]a vindication of Captiv'd Truth, and an Advancement of Learning; a redeeming of Humane Reason from the Ty­ranny of Barbarous Terms, and the dotages of antiquated sense; And altho' at first sight there may seem little or no design of the Roman Party in introdu­cing this variety of Models, and these disguises of Reasoning amongst us; because they have sometimes seemed to put a check to these attempts by their Inquisitions and Cenfures, [Page 111]and because they themselves have been unhappily baffled in many of their Doctrines, even according to these new Modes of Arguing, by those who have had skill enough to fix to themselves a system of solid Reason in spite of all their amazing Sophistry, and de­lusive Shapes; yet if we allow our thoughts a little Historical Range, we may still imagine that the Plot was laid long since, and that our Adversaries with a Spanish Providence did [Page 112]long ago contrive and plant that Malice, whose Maturity and happy growth they hop'd their Posterity would one day enjoy; and this has been their acknowledg'd Design to some of our Travellers, to whom they have freely confessed that it has been their chief bu­siness to cherish the inquisi­tive humor of the Protestants with new Models, to dazle their Curiosity with false Appear­ances, that they might crum­ble them into Sects, bring [Page 113]some to indifferency in Religi­on, others to Scepticism and down-right Atheism; because, say they, the minds of Here­ticks must lie Fallow before we can sow our Seeds and Princi­ples with success.

Now it is well known how irreconcilable the first Reform­ers in Religion were to the Philosophy of Aristotle, with what bitterness of Style Luther, and Calvin and their respective Fol­lowers decry'd the Writings of the Schoolmen as the only sup­port [Page 114]of the Roman Corruptions, insomuch that Bucer made it his constant challenge Tolle Thomam, & Ecclesiam Roma­nam subvertam.

Beware of vain Philosophy was one of the chief Doctrines which rang through Heidle­berg and Geneva, and the first Protestants were so scared with those Declamations against World­ly Wisdom, that they esteem'd every Sentence, which was not Scripture-phrase to be meer Pro­phanation; a Syllogism was the [Page 115]very Mystery of Iniquity, and School-distinctions as ranck Magick, as Mathematicks in the Tenth Century.

Now things being brought to this height, and such Jea­lousies against Scholastick Learn­ing being every where enter­tained, there could not be a more effectual way of bring­ing Philosophy into Credit a­gain, (which Philosophy con­stitutes above half of the Re­ligion of the Romish Church) than by the invention of [Page 116] Terms and Hypotheses some­what destructive and repug­nant to those of Aristotle, and by ordering it so; that those persons should appear no friends to the Roman Party, who were the first promoters of them; for by these means the inquisitive men in the Pro­testant Churches might with great safety to their Religion (as it then appeared to them) embrace and carry on the new discoveries of Italy and France, and introduce that Liberty of [Page 117]Philosophizing which expe­rience hath now shown to be the most destructive Instru­ment that could be thought of to unsettle all the true Princi­ples of solid Reason, and to en­gage our half-taught Youth in wild Disputes, weak Cavils, and everlasting Scepticism.

For now what hinders but that Transubstantiation (that distorted Anagram of Reason and Religion) may pass for true Gospel notwithstanding all the Remonstrances and con­trary [Page 118]evidences of our Senses, which according to the Dubi­tations of Des Cartes are the most Fallible and deluding witnesses we can make use of, which mistake something in every Object they converse with, and occasion Error by their most material reports; tho' it must be confessed that ma­ny of the more ignorant Bi­gots in France were very Jea­lous of this man's writings e­ven in respect of their Tran­substantiation, and therefore [Page 119]they often advised him to lay in good Vide Epist. Des Cartes l. 2. Ep. 3.4.53, 54, &c. security in his new Method for the Philosophy of the Eucharist, and to be very cautious of maintaining any thing in pre­judice of those Peripatetic Ac­cidents which they had so long Ador'd, and which his Modifi­cations might seem to cancel; and truly we may believe that his Metaphysical Doubtings have pretry well expiated for his other Innovations.

But besides the Absurdities of Transubstantiation which Scep­ticism hath so much befriended, all the Rational motives of Credibility, and the truth of Moral Certainty are by the same means rendred precarious and weak, and Infallibility made to appear the only sure founda­tion of our Faith.

For when the Protestants had asserted a moderate use of, and dependance on their Reason in Divine matters; when they had rescu'd themselves from [Page 121]the intolerable Bondage of a blind Obedience, and the unac­countable Conduct of an im­plicit Faith; What more expe­dient Artifice could the Polititians of Rome invent to weaken these proceedings, than to render that strong Aid and sup­port of our Religion the most uncertain and contemptible in­strument we could make use of; or else to advance that inadequate Rule as the only Judge and Measure of all that is Divine? both which ways are [Page 122]equally destructive of that sobriety of its use which our Church maintains. And there­fore we find how Eloquent and plausible they are in many of their Writings when they touch upon that Topic of re­nouncing our own Reason and Understanding; how they em­blazon its Infirmities, Deceptions, false Inferences, and Judgments, making all the Faculties of Man, even after the best im­provements of Art, of Virtue, and of Grace, a more deplo­rable [Page 123] Mass of Corruption, than the severest Calvinist, in his descriptions of Original Sin.

And from such encourage­ments as these our Atheistical Wits have borrowed their A­cuter Blasphemies against Hu­mane Nature, improving the Notion, and growing Luxuri­ant in their Satyrs against the Noblest Workmanship in the visible Creation; whilst their best Panegyrics have been ser­vilely imployed on the Com­parative Felicity of inferior Beings, [Page 124]on the Tranquility of Beasts, and the unerring Instinct of sen­sitive Nature; endeavouring by these Poetic Phrensies to make vain and ridiculous the Conclusions of the Learned, the Experiences of the Prudent, and the Counsels of the Pious; for these revilings of Wisdom, and Aged Dictates are the little Po­licies which take with the sen­sual and the debauched, with those who have such a super­ficial Knowledg of things as to think that none have more, [Page 125]and who love to measure all the Certainty and Evidence of Reason by their Schemes of Railery and Illusion.

But then there are some Contemplative Men, of more sullen Tempers than to be Jeer'd out of their Conceptions, and to have their Systems baffled by the Captious and frivolous Sceptick; such as out of a Pride of Dictating, and a supposed Superiority of Parts challenge Philosophy as their Province, cry up their own private Senti­ments [Page 126]for established Actions, and explain Universal Nature accor­ding to their own individual Complexions; wherefore that there might be also an agreea­ble bait for the Confident and Dogmatical man, the Necessity and Power of Demonstration must be highly advanced by the Factors for Rome, and no­thing less than self-evident Principles must justifie our Ad­hesion to Religion: and to create a Reverence for Infalli­bility, and the particular Tra­ditions [Page 127]of Rome, and also a Confusion and uncertainty in the Protestants Principles, the Phi­losophers and Disputers of the Age must be suborned to cry up Humane Reason, as the on­ly Judge of Controversies, the only Tribunal of all Truth and Falshood; whatsoever is above that must be either Phantasm or Contradiction, and all those Sublimities in Religion which cannot submit to the Rules of Syllogism, must be reproached as the Phrensies of [Page 128]an overheated Devotion, or the Visions of an Hermits Cell, all the Pelagian and Socinian pre­sumptions must be industri­ously encouraged to that Height, that the Protestants shall seem to have no Holy Ghost among them, no Myste­ry of the Trinity, unless they return to the Definitions and Authority of the Roman See.

The Second Foundation of the Intellectual World which the Romanists have disturbed, is Morality.

In Morality there are but these two general Considerati­ons.

• I. The Nature of Good and Evil, of Justice and Equity.
• II. The Rules and Prescrip­tions to accommodate the mind of Man thereunto.

As for the First, 'Tis well known how the Flatterers of the Roman Court, the Canonists, and all such as treat of the [Page 130] Power of the Pope, have with mighty Attributes, and a Divinity of Terms, made the Bishop of Rome the Arbitrarious Judge of all Good and Evil, the In­fallible determiner of all Virtue and Vice, affirming that he can change the nature of Moral things according to his Plea­sure; for so their more eminent Champion asserts, that if the Pope should mistake in com­mending Vices, and forbid­ding Virtues, the Church would be bound to believe [Page 131]those Vices to be good, and those Virtues to be evil, un­less she would sin against Conscience, Bel. de Pontif. l. 4.6.5. Sect. 2. and though some of them plead the Im­possibility of the Supposal, yet sad experience hath confirm'd the matter, and clearly de­monstrated how the Church of Rome in sundry instances has Canoniz'd the broadest Impiety for Virtue, and Justice; nay, for that excess of Virtue which they call Merit.

And hence it is, that the Idolizers of Monarchy with equal Flattery have attributed the same Prerogative to Tem­poral Princes, making their de­terminations a publick Consci­ence, and their Edicts Eternal Truth: and generally all those Monstrous Opinions, and In­jurious Absurdities concerning the Notion of Good, and Evil, which at this day disturb the World, have taken their Rise and Measures from the Con­troversies of Rome.

But then Secondly, 'Tis de­plorably manifest, with what Confusions, Obscurities, and Distortions they have darkned and peplex'd the most natu­ral and necessary Rules and prescriptions of Morality: and we have now many Volumns extant to maintain this Charge against them.

The only natural Spring and Foundation of all the good Offices of Humanity is certainly Love, which is a constant thirst and endeavour [Page 134]of being largely beneficial, of extending all our Capacities, to the service of our Brethren: But now instead of this Di­vine Principle of all our Moral Actions, the Romanists intro­duce a Spirit of Cruelty, and Barbarous Dominion; their Do­ctrines and daily Practices con­tradict not only that especial Christian Precept of Universal Charity, but all the first ten­derness of Natural Affection! they declare and prosecute Revenge and Murder, not [Page 135]only in respect of meer spe­culations, and undeterminable Modes, but even of thick and palpable Contradictions accor­ding to the clearest Northern Judgement we can make; which we must confess to be the only Luminary next to Re­velation which in this Climate we are guided by. How un­necessary have they made the exercise of Virtue and an Holy Life by turning the absolute Commands of God into Coun­sel and Admonition, by distin­guishing [Page 136] Christianity into an ex­ternal Jewish Obedience, or a low Order or Precepts suffici­ent to secure Heaven, and a super-errogating perfection for those only who aspire to the upper Seats, and Dignities of Paradice: By Interpreting all the Additions to, and Completi­ons of the Jewish Law to be only some more splendid Pro­posals and Recommendations of an higher Degree of Virtue, and by evacuating all the most excellent and necessary Mo­rality [Page 137]of our Saviours Sermon on the Mount, whilst they make it appear only an Heroical Plat­form of Counsels for the Melan­choly and retired.

What an encouragement have the Vitious from that unwarrantable distinction of Sins, into Mortal and Venial! especially when they make not only those sins Venial in their own Nature which pro­ceed from Infirmity, Surreption, strong Passion, and Education, but the most dreadful Catalogue [Page 138]of Iniquity that can be thought on, such as Blasphemy, Pro­phanation, Murder, Fornication, Perfidiousness, &c. with some little qualifications, must be sum'd up under that soft de­nomination.

What a Shop of Authorized Licentiousness is their Casuistical Divinity! whereas Cases of Conscience at the best are but a Spurious sort of Divinity, for they being generally termina­ted on the lowest degree of goodness and Justice, are no­thing [Page 139]thing but the Hospitals of La­zie and Infirm Nature, some Charitable Provisions in Religion for declining Virtue. But in this practical Divinity of the Romanists there is such a sepa­ration of Ends and Actions, such a Consecrating of Villany by the Goodness, or rather the In­terest of the Intention, and such compassionate Circumstances to be met with among their Doctors to render the most dreadful Transgressions slight and veni­al, to palliate and stupifie the [Page 140]most just Remorses of Pre­sumptuous Sinners; such a Lati­titude of Uucleanness in their Cases on the seventh Command­ment, where their determi­nations concerning Pleasure are many times as loose and Voluptuous as the Doctrines of Aristippus and Epicurus; in a word, there is such a gene­ral Politick compliance with all those Vitious Tempers by which that Faction is upheld, that if that be Christian Religion which they profess, then the Prote­stants [Page 141]have nothing but Honest Heathenism to govern their Lives and Actions by.

The Third Pillar of the Intellectual World which the Ro­mans have disordered, is Civil Government.

And this of late hath been so common an Argument both from Pulpit and Press, and is so notoriously evident both from their Established Do­ctrines, and continual Practices, that a very few observations, and Remembrances may be [Page 142]thought sufficient to dispatch this Head.

Wherefore we may com­pendiously reflect how the Romanists have been the great disturbers of Civil Govern­ment.

• I. By perplexing its true No­tion, and fundamental Rise.
• II. By Weakning all its ne­cessary and essential securities.

I. By perplexing its true No­tion and fundamental Rise.

It is well known how the warm pretensions of Rome a­gainst the power of Princes in Ecclesiastical matters hath in­gaged its Champions on the di­minution and vilifying even of their Temporal Jurisdiction too; and encouraged them to make all Civil Soveraignty precarious and depending, either on the Will of the Pope, that Monstrous head of Anr­chy; [Page 144]or on the pleasure of the Multitude, that Monstrous Bo­dy of Confusion: whence their Political Writings are every where full of large Pleas for Rebellion, of specious Colours and Incitements for Ambitious and Aspiring Men; whilst in­stead of the Solemn Ordinance of God, the Natural, Jewish, and Christian Doctrine of Subjection, they have amused the World with groundless & imaginary forms of Empire, with subtill and pernitious Schemes of [Page 145]Strife, Pride, and eternal Dis­cord: and we may with much certainty averr, that all those eager Contentions in our late dark Age, concerning Civil Authority, where and in whom the Supreme Power should be placed, what was its Original, its Nature, its Extent? how far Obedience was required, in what circumstan­ces it ceased, when resistance be­came a Duty, and such like extravagancies of Stated mad­ness, were nourished and maintained by Jesuitical Di­stinctions; [Page 146]particularly, that pretence of making use of the Kings Authority against his Person, was a noted Stratagem in the Holy League of France.

II. They have weakned all the necessary and essential Se­curities of Civil Government.

All the Rational security that is in Government arises,

I. From the Natural Consci­ence of Good and Evil, of Ju­stice and Equity, seated in e­very Subjects Breast.

II. From the Civil Consci­ence which is superinduced by the obligation of an Oath.

As for the First Security which consists in Natural Con­science we have already instan­ced in our Topic of Morality how miserably the Romanists have under-min'd that Princi­ple, by making it truckle to the determination and plea­sure of their Pope. And al­though that which we call the Civil Conscience, which a­rises [Page 148]from the obligation of an Oath, depends chiefly on the Natural one, [for he who has not a primary Sence of good and evil as he stands in Relation to God, will have little regard to his Covenants with Man, when either his Interest, his Pas­sion or his Humor shall solicit to the contrary] yet have they attempted by farther Evasions perfectly to destroy the whole design of an Oath, notwith­standing the Remonstrances of Natural Conscience; and [Page 149]that either in preventing its ever taking hold of men, by their Doctrine of Equivocation; or else in shifting off its Force and Authority by the Dispen­sations of their Popes. And is it not an amazing Subject to con­fider, that that Act which the Heathens had in such mighty Reverence, which Cicero calls a Religious Affirmation in the pre­sence of God, the Divinity of Faith, which is taken with that dreadful Solemnity of calling on the Almighty to be [Page 150]an immediate Asserter of the Truth and an Avenger of the Perjury, and which God him­self hath condescended to as a Security to his own Veracity, that I say this Compendium of Divine Worship should lay no more real Tie, and Restraint on Men, through the Distin­ctions, Reserves, and permissi­ons of Rome; than the Dreams of Bondage, or the Ima­ginary Chains of Lovers! In a word, the whole civil Con­stitution of England, and of o­ther [Page 151]Countries in our Circum­stances is according to the Principles of the Romanists, no other than a Confederacy and an agreement of Robbers: for they hold that we have no King, no Subjects, no Parlia­ment, no Laws, no Liberties, no Properties: and indeed none of the Rest, because not the last.

That such are the Roman Principles, their continual Trea­sons and Conspiracies sufficient­ly evidence, especially this [Page 152]late Hellish Plot, the discovery and prevention of which hath in a manner engrossed the whole Wisdom and united Saga­city of successive Parliaments; and yet the Vein runs deep still, the amazement is still great even on the awakened Sense of the Nation. Surely our Enemies thought to entitle Heaven to their Plot, even by placing it so low; as those who dig be­yond the Centre are said to dig upwards. The unfolding of this Conspiracy seems a business [Page 153]too unweildy for the rashness of Hast, it requires the slow ad­vances of working Engines, and a temperate Detection; that its pure, unmingled Malice may be drawn out with leisure and observation, and all Mankind may have a Calm and Judicious view of the whole Anatomy of its Discove­ry.

Surely our Natives without a Foraign degeneracy, without an Importation of Sin, could ne­ver have been guilty to such a [Page 154]Forlornness, could never have de­signed such contradictions to Religion and Nature; they could not without the aids of Spanish and Italian Ma­lice have entailed Revenge up­on Posterity, and bequeathed their Nephews the Reversion of Murther! This is Poli­tick Offence to out-sin Probabili­ty, to appear Innocent, by be­ing to such excess, Inhumane.

That such Religious Butche­ries should be contrived a­gainst, so Just, so Merciful a King.

For though his younger years came roughly on amidst the Rage and Fury of a Civil War; though He had been justly exasperated with the most Barbarous Murder of a Father; the best of Fathers; the best of Kings! that we had reason to expect his re­turn like that of a Gyant re­freshed with Wine, full of in­dignation, Revenge, and Slaughter, yet has he ruled our Kingdom as some Angel is supposed to rule a Sphere; his [Page 156]Government has been as gen­tle as that of an Intelligence, and his Edicts as mild as the Laws of Reason. When he might have called down Fire from Heaven on his unnatural Sub­jects, he chose to send up In­cense thither; and has not so much Punish'd as Atton'd for their Rebellions. And behold! when he was labouring to u­nite all Europe, to soften the incomplyances of Armed Em­pires, and to reconcile the Jealousies of Power, that he [Page 157]himself should be made the publick Mark, and the Cessation abroad only give leisure to the Treacheries of his own Court! whilst the Ambitious and the Cruel lye embosom'd in the Love and Security of their Slaves, are honoured with Panegyricks and Triumphal Arches; as if only an open War could Fence off secret Treasons, as the Plague is said to keep out all other Distempers; and that Clemency, that great property that distinguishes a King of [Page 158] Men from a King of Beasts, should render Loyalty Con­temptible, and rob the Crown of its Prerogatives! yet so men have Murmured against Providence it self because of its Long-sufferings, and rashly pro­nounced there was no God, because he was so Merciful.

But Heaven hath with re­peated Miracles assured us, that our King is too Dear a pledge to be delivered over to the Fury of an Assassinate: He who was protected by the shade of an [Page 159] Oak, cannot be less secure un­der the Coverings of the Al­mighty: so David could never have faln by the Spear of Saul, for his preservation was upheld by Prophesie. Wherefore let the Mountains of Gilboah be fruitful, and the Inhabitants of the Isles rejoyce, for behold our most Gracious Soveraign still lives! and may he live, to grow old in Empire, to bless his Nation with Aged Hands, to make his Council still wiser by the experience of his Dan­gers, [Page 160]and all Posterity amazed with the History of his protecti­ons.

The last Pillar and Founda­tion of the Intellectual World, which the Romanists have dis­ordered, is Religion.

Having already manifested how the Romanists have cor­rupted Reason, defaced Mo­rality, and undermined Go­vernment, our last Topic, Re­ligion, (of which these three are no inconsiderable Branches) may seem in a great measure [Page 161]to have been already hand­led; but however there is a peculiar consideration reser­ved for this head which consists in charging them with those impious and intolerable Abuses which they have offered to Divine Revelation and the Ho­ly Scriptures in general: For what Difficulties, Obscurities, and uncertainties have they ascribed to that Easie, Perspi­cuous, and Infallible Rule! that they might deter the Protestants from making it [Page 162]their Canon, and advance their own unwritten Traditions into its place? they esteem our Translated Bible to be only an Asylum for Hereticks, and Schis­maticks, a Refuge for the Dis­obedient and Runagate, where they may shelter themselves under doubtful Texts, grow obstinate in their own Interpre­tations, and revile the Autho­rity of the Catholick Church: It is reported that there was once held a Consult in Rome whether they should expunge [Page 163]all St. Pauls Epistles, as be­ing the noted Mint of Se­perating Doctrines; nay, they account the whole Body of the Scriptures the most pernitious Engines that men could ever have been in­trusted with: and he who se­riously considers those Indigni­ties and Invectives which they have cast upon those Sacred Vo­lumns will be apt to believe that some of them at least are scarce agreed among them­selves, whether their Original [Page 164]was from Heaven or from Hell.

What Provocations, what Warrants are such hints as these to a vitious Age? What confidence and security will the Anti-Scripturist assume, when he shall reflect how those who pretend to have had the sole Custody of the Scripture-Canon, and to have been the great Guardians of Revelation ever since the Apo­stles times, shall be found to slight, Contemn, and Blaspheme [Page 165]those reverend Truths? what havock of Christian Religion must that Man make in whom Origi­nal Sin shall chance to be im­proved and made, bold by Edu­cation, Custom, Habit, and the applause of Vice; be made pow­erful and Eloquent by the advantages of Wit and Parts; and especially when he shall have his Argument recommen­ded to him by the Learning and Merits of a Cardinal, by the Authority of the Romans See!

If we now look back and take a Survey of those Ruines which I have only pointed at, what a Landskip of Deformi­ty will the Intellectual World ap­pear? such a Confusion, such a Chaos as nothing but an Al­mighty Wisdom can bring it to the beauty of Order again, no­thing but a Civil Creation can re-establish it: and altho we cannot but acknowledg it a just Judgment of God upon us, yet I hope I have demonstra­ted how the Papists have been [Page 167]the immediate Executioners; as the Devil himself is said to be subservient to the ends of Pro­vidence in those very Actions wherein he intends nothing but his own Malice; and if ever we hope to settle the Foundations of the Intellectual World amongst us, we must with true Courage and Zeal, with Heart and Soul renounce all manner of Popery, not on­ly that which is openly pro­fessed in their known and Common Doctrines, but also that [Page 168]which is secretly disguiz'd in Sects and Factions.

Yet let this dismal Survey which I have now given be no objection to the goodness of God and the Promises of Christ, for suffering the little Remnant of his Religion to be almost devoured and under­min'd by the Tyranny and Craft of Anti-Christ: whilst by the Coutroversies of the Church our Saviour only exa­mines the soundness of our Faith, and by the Afflictions [Page 169]of it the Sincerity of our Love.

For God be praised we have still some amongst us who can, and dare assert the just Prerogative of Reason, and maintain its ample subservi­ency to Religion, both to make void the necessity of an Infallible Chair, and to curb the extravagancies of Enthu­siasm: the Clamors and Noises of Sceptical men, have only taught their Reason its surest guard, brought it out of its [Page 170] Eclipse, and awakened it into a fuller Orb of Evidence.

Also the pure and immacu­late Rules of Moral Righteous­ness still shine in our practical Divinity; where the Precepts of Christ are faithfully inter­preted to their utmost Perfecti­on, and their utmost perfection is made our Rule and Duty.

Government has its peculiar Royalty in the Doctrines our Church, it has a Ti­tle in other Places, but a true Empire here, in our Con­stitutions [Page 171]tho not in our Pra­ctices, Religion and Loyalty go hand in hand, Righteous­ness and Peace embrace each other. Here the true Church of Christ is our Established Center, and Oh that the Civil Power were its just Circle of Defence.

Here lastly Divine Revela­tion enjoys its full Splendor and Reverence, in its transla­ted Form, 'tis a Pillar of Fire, a Cloud without any Darkness, the Immediate Presence of the Lord [Page 172]both to conduct us, and secure us Victory; by this alone we can hope to withstand the Fury of the Nations, the Gates of Hell, and Plots of Papists.