RARE 809*5. A-5 S755 tibvavy of t:he Cheoio0icai £$minaxy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY *£* s£l *r£ J&fj*i ^^* *z>^~ s£* r-~*J sZf,* g^^gg^ z*~^ ^r /y+jZL*/- 7+/^ £ ^ <- ^o^ 7&-^r ^^ ^z-J^S^m? *&. Z~^?c) /&y 0^^l^>m-*s' jC# ^i ** *^*J **mf £2**. *> THOUGHTS O N Nature and Religion. OR, AN A P O LOGY, FOR THE RIGHT OF Private Judgment, MAINTAINED. By MICHAEL SERVETUS, M. D. INHIS ANSWER TO JOHN CALVIN. This I confefs, that after the way which they call Herefy, fo worfliip 1 the God of my Fathers ; believing all things which are written in the Law, and the Prophets : And have hope towards God, that there mall be a Refurrection of the Dead, both of the Juft and Unjuft. And herein do I exercife myfelf, to have always aConfcience void of oifence, towards God and towards Man. Acts, Chap. xxiv. v. 14, 15, 16. Eft modus in rebus, fuut certi denique fines, Quos ultra, citraque, nequit conliftere re&um. Hor. Satir. lib. 1. Virtute Tutus. Printed by Phineas Bagnell and Company. 1774- THE INTRODUCTION. WERE one to confider tile various feels and opinions, which have fprung up at different times in the world, and have divided mankind into parties ; and reflect with what bigotted zeal, each adheres to the fyftem it has embraced, fo as to look on others, as men to be either defpifed for their ignorance, or perfecuted as enemies to truth ; it muft raife in his mind, a very difagreeable idea of human underflanding. For as each party look on their own belief as the ilandard of truth, fo do they look on all who differ from them to be wrong. To aflign a caufe for this felfifh uncharitable way of condemning others, one is almoft tempted to imagine, that con- ception, in different people, is not conveyed to the mind thro' the fame channel, but that the ideas of truth and fahhood, right and wrong, moral and im- moral, do not prefent themfelves in the fame light to all men ; or that there muft be fome jarring in the iirft principles of the human underflanding: for if thefe firil principles were the fame in all men, it is difficult to comprehend how fuch different conclufions could be drawn from them. I can only account for this, by fuppofing the mind to be as liable to be led aft ray, and as capable to be enflaved, as the body is. When the body is enflaved, an appeal to the mind makes it fenfible of its fetters ; and altho* it knows its condition, it is ftill obliged to obey: but when the A mind ii. INTRODUCTION. mind is enflaved, it has no higher power to appeal to. Ignorant of its privileges, it is fatisfied with its fub- je&ion, and thinks it its duty to acquiefce. Certainly all men enjoy by nature -an equal liberty of thinking and determining for themfelves ; and if left alone until their judgments were ripe enough, they would moflly agree in fentiment. But before they attain to that age, education hath generally fo byas'd their judgment, in favour of thofe opinions in which they have been brought up, that it becomes a flave to it's prejudice. Men implicitly rely on the truth of thofe tenets, which they have already embraced ; they become convinced without enquiry, and being ac- cuftomed only to hear what may be faid in fupport of the opinion of their own feci:, they will not allow themfelves patience to examine what may be faid againft it ; and if any arguments mould be propofed, which they cannot properly anfwer, prejudice will flill hinder them from acknowledging their error, and for want of argument, they become angry, and have recourfe to fcolding and defamation, in place of reafoning ; and as they cannot confute their oppo- nents from reafon, they endeavour to filence them, by throwing reflections on their private characters, and then telling the world, that fuch men as they have painted, muft be wrong in whatever they al- ledge as truth. I have obferved this to be the con- ftant practice of thofe who perfift in defence of tenets, which reafon cannot fupport. It is not only the privilege, but the duty of a Man, (who would judge impartially) to throw all prejudice alide. He mould firfl examine with care, and then determine with calmnefs, according to the dictates of his reafon ; and altho* cuflom, paffion or prejudice are apt to byas his judgment, in favour of what he would chufe mould be right, yet he may be allured, that whatever is impcfed on his underftanding, which his con- INTRODUCTION. in. confcience and reafon cannot firmly fupport, is an acl: of injuftice to his judgment. But if he impartially eftabiilhes his belief on the beft foundation his reafon can inform him of, altho' he may miftake in his con- clufions, he is to be excufed ; he was open to con- viction, and hath framed his belief agreeably to thofe principles, which were given by the Almighty to direct him ; he hath done his duty : For as St. Paul tells us, Every Man Jhould be convinced in his own mind. Why doft thou judge thy Brother f and (St. James) there is one law giver who. is able tofave and to deftroy. Who art thou thatjudgefl another Mant Learning is the improvement of knowledge by comparing ideas, and from thence deducing conclu- hons which enlarge the underftanding. Where there is no liberty allowed for the mind to examine, there can be no improvement in knowledge. Under a tyrannical government, he dares neither tell his doubts, nor even think with freedom, who is to fuffer for entertaining thoughts contrary to his mailer's orders ; who, inftead of taking the trouble to inform and convince his underftanding, would take the fhorter method to convert him ; he would punifli him for difobedience. In whatever country a Man is allowed full liberty in his fearch after truth, there knowledge will improve, by a free enquiry, into learning : But where this liberty is denied, the mind will fink into ignorance and fuperftition ; for as learning is the child of liberty, fo is fuperflition that of flavery ; and the lefs the mind is informed, the more tenacious it is of its opinions. It is the happinefs of our govern- ment, that liberty is granted to every Man to improve his knowledge by a free examination ; he may communicate every thought, or propofe any doubt in publick, which does not interfere with the moral law, or good of fcciety : And notwithstanding the opprobrious name of libertine or freethinker, beflcw- A 2 ed IV. INTRODUCTION. ed, indiscriminately by the Clergy, on all thofe who prefume to take reafon for their guide ; I fhall ex- amine what I am to believe, comformable to the laws of nature, and that liberty recommended by the Chriftian Religion, under the indulgence which the law of the land affords me. C H A P~ C 5 J CHAPTER I. AS E N S E of what is good and evil diftinguifhes the human from the brute creation. It is that rule imprinted on the human mind, by which we are directed to conform to certain laws, of which brutes have no conception. To fpeak truth, to do juftice, to love mercy and fhew benevolence to our fellow creatures, is what every man knows to be his duty and that to a£t contrary to thefe, muft be criminal. This is an univerfal law ; and, if we ex- amine into the caufes of the difference of opinions which prevail in the world, we mall find, that they do not arife from a denial of the law, but from a miftake in the proper fenfe of it ; as that, which may appear agreeable to juftice and mercy to the mind of one man, may, through prejudice or mifinformation, appear in a different light to another. It often hap- pens that our paffions hurry us on to tranfgrefs the law, notwithstanding we acknowledge the juftice of it. When Cain killed Abel, he knew he had done wrong, and endeavoured to evade a confeffion : his brother's facrifice was more acceptable than his ; he was provoked at this : he envied him, and envy made him kill him. Ignorance of his duty he did not al- ledge ; for God laid to him, If thou dofl weU, fhalt thou not be accepted f but if thou dojl not well, fin lyeth at thy door. He is here fuppofed perfectly ac- A 3 quainted [ 6 ] quainted with the duty required and expected of him ; but becaufe he did not adi up to it, his facrificc was not accepted, and fin lay at his door. All animals (except in the cafe of parents) enjoy by nature the fame independent liberty. It is as abfurd to imagine one man has a natural right over another, as to fuppofe one horfe has a natural right over another. If I fee a dog commit an ad of vio- lence, I excufe him ; he wants that natural law of retraint on the mind, confeience, which orders him to abflain from violence ; therefore his committing violence is no crime in him : but if the want of this law, only, makes it no crime, it is to be fuppofed, were he under the dominion of this law, this act of violence would be criminal. Men are under the dominion of this law, and are therefore criminal when they tranfgrefs it. I confider man as an intermediate being, between the angel and the brute, whofe mind is endued with the difpofitions of both : and thefe clafh one with the other. The angelic, (or what is called by Mofes, the likenefs of God, and by Philofophers, right rea- fon,) is that fenfe of duty, which nature hath ftamped on the human mind, and which a man cannot obli- terate or divefh himfelf of ; it is always prefent with him ; it is that inward law, which his confeience tells him, God requires he mould obey. The brutal part is that inclination, which dhpofes him to gratify every defire, which his appetites may excite. Thefe two oppofite difpofitions create that war in the mind, which St. Paul fpeaks of, when he fays, I find that ivhen I would do good, evil is prefent with me. 1 delight in the lap) of God, after the inward man ; hut I find another law in my members y warring again/} the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin, whkJh is in my members." and again," If we live after the flefb we fball die, but if through the jpirit, C 7 ] fpirit, we conquer the defires of the body, we foci I I live. 'To be carnally minded is death ; but to be fpiritually minded is life and peace ; for the carnal mind is at enmity with God ; it is not fubjecl to his law, neither indeed can be. The Almighty in placing man in this middle ftate between the angel and the brute, and endowing his mind with the difpofitions of both, refers him to his own behaviour in life, to entitle him either to reward or punifhment hereafter : his behaviour in life is his trial, which mud determine what his future ftate will be : If he does well, he fhall be rewarded ; if he does evil, fin will lye at his door. Abfolute obe- dience to the divine will, or an entire neglect of it, by indulging ev^ery paflion, are the two extremes be- tween which every man doth act ; and according as he approaches nearer to the one or the other, he becomes more or lefs virtuous or vicious. I believe the Almighty being is endued with mercy, as well as juftice, and will have compamon in proportion to our infirmities: this is our hope. If our minds were only endowed with the angelic part, we could have no virtue ; for where there is no temptation to break a law, there can be no merit in obeying it. Were our minds endowed only with the brutal part, we could have no vice ; for where there is no law to inform our minds, there can be no tranfgreflion through difobedience : our being endowed with both makes our trial. Should a man, fubjecl: to the temptations of human frailty, fo entirely conquer them, as to act agreeably only to the angelic part of his mind, he would be, in merit, above an angel : as he who re- fills temptations has more merit from obedience, than he who obeys, having no temptation to difobey : of this clafs, we have no example but one, viz. Jefus Chrift: If a man acts only agreeably to the brutal part of his mind, he is below the brute, who, be- A 4 caufe C 8 ] caufe he has no fenfe of moral obligations, has there- fore no law to reftrain him ; of fuch we fee many ex- amples. If we enquire into the caufes, which tempt men to this defection, we fhall find them to proceed, either from their pamons, from the violence of others, or from prejudice. As to the firft, when our pafhons, whether lull, envy, hatred, revenge, covetoufnefs, intemperance, &c. prefent themfelves to the mind, in too ftrong a light, to give time for our reafon to examine, or our virtue to refift, we fearch after ex- cufes for our actions ; we flatter ourfelves with the thought, that God would not have endowed us with pamons, and at the fame time have forbid the gratifi- cation of them. We will not allow, that our being endowed with them, is only to try our virtue : we argue, that as thefe palhons are natural, fo whatever nature dire&s, mould be obeyed. This indeed is a proper argument for brutes to ufe, who have no con- fcious rule of duty to curb their wills ; but cannot be ufed by men, who acknowledge an inward fenfe of duty, to reftrain their appetites, by truth and juftice. We often obferve, that men will indulge them- felves in fome particular vices, while they hold others in abhorrence ; and will exclaim againfl thofe who indulge pamons, which their own difpofitions do not tempt them to gratify. The crime in both is equal. Adultery, revenge, and oppreflion are as criminal as murder, theft, or perjury. The law is equally obligatory in any one part as in another ; and in the whole as in any one part. There are fome men fo abandoned as to difregard the whole law ; they indulge every defire, which their appetites pre- fent to their minds. They believe in no future ftate, and therefore admit of no tie from moral duty. Should that confcious pleafure a man perceives in his mind from doing good, or that fecret reproach from doing evil, even in private, be objected as a proof [ 9 ] proof of a future judgment ; he anfwers, that thefc fenfations arife only from the prejudice of educa- tion ; maxims inculcated into the minds of children, for the convenience of fociety, which a man is no further obliged to conform to, than as the iocial laws compel him: That fortune beftows its favours indifferently on all men ; that he only, who is moffc unconfmed in his principles, has the bed opportunity to make the proper ufe of her favours : That when a man dies, his body becomes earth, and nourifhment for that, of which another man's body may be com- pofed: That to luppofe a refurreclion of the body, muft alfo fuppofe a re-exiftence of its parts ; but thefe parts having pafTed thro' feveral bodies, each of which will have an equal title to them at the fup- pofed refurreclion ; he afks, to which individual can they properly belong ? He therefore denies any fu- ture refurrecYion, any future ftate of examination, or any future rewards and punifhments. This argument was anfwered by Jefus Chrifl, on the quefl ion (put to him by the Sadducees) whofe wife (of the feven) ihe mould be at the refurreclion, who had feven hui- bands on earth ? he told them, they erred ; for that at the refurreclion, men would become beings unca- pable of any fenfual relation ; for they Ihould be then as the angels or fpirits, who are not cloathed with a material fubiiance. When a man once eftablifhes this principle in his mind, of no future exiflence, he becomes tied by no rule. As he expects neither happinefs nor mifery beyond this life,, his intereft here becomes his conf- cience, and his reafon is dedicated to the promotion of it. It would be impomble to account for the acYions of fome men, but on this fuppoiition. hu:h a man is of the utmoft danger to fociety ; for fociety cannot be fupported, but on a fuppoiition, that in every man's mind, there is fome tie, fome inward law. [ io ] law, that will oblige him to tell truth, even againflhis intereft : in him there is none. No lbciety therefore allows the open profeflion of fuch tenets \ he who thinks thus, rauft conceal his thoughts. Befides fenfual defires, pride and vanity lead the mind into grofs errors. Pride is the conceit of a merit, fuperior to others, arifmg either from birth, riches, flation of life, or a fuppofed fuperior excel- lence, either in the body or mind of a perfon, which makes him defpife thofe of a lower order, as below him in merit. He takes the lot affigned him, as his proper right, independent of Providence. It is the moil foolifh, the moft ridiculous of all paffions. He does not confider, that before he came into life, he was nothing ; he had neither merit nor option to claim any particular flation in the creation ; that whatever flation a perfon is placed in, or according to whatever endowments his mind poffeffes fuperior to others, his Maker will require a fuitable return from him. The potter, of the fame clay maketh one veffel to honour, and another to difhonour ; of the fame lump he maketh both. Shall the thing form- ed fay to him that formed it, why haft thou made me thus? What the potter requires is, that each veffel mould execute the purpofe for which it was made. Thus if a man is born to power, God re- quires he mould fee juftice done to thofe, over whom he hath appointed him : if he is born to riches, his Maker, who hath cntrufled him with means to re- lieve the diftreffed, requires he mould aflifl thofe who want his help: if with fuperior flrength, he is to aflifl. the weak. Each perfon is to perform his part agreeably to thofe powers with which he is endowed by his maker ; but if he employs thofe endowments to other purpofes than thofe for which they were conferred, he abufes his trufl. If he is tyrannical, avaricious, if he defpifes, deceives or diftreffes others : if [ tf 3 if he compels them to be fubfervient to his will, his fuperior ftation in life becomes not his merit, but his curie, and will be his condemnation* He has con- verted to the gratification of his own paflions, what was entrufted to him, for the afliflance of others. Jeremiah favs, Let not the wife man glory in his wif- dom, the mighty man in his ftrength, or the rich man in his riches ; but the Lord faith », let him that g/oriethy glory in this, that he knoweth me 9 who exercife judgment, loving kindnejs and righteoufnefs on the earth. As the imagination of fuperior excellence from an accidental ftation in life, makes the foolim man proud : fo doth the conceit of the mind's fu- perior knowledge, make the wife man vain. It was vanity in philofophers which produced fo many different feels and fyftems. Each feci conceived their wifdom fufficient to penetrate into the Divine councils ; they judged of the wifdom of the Divinity, by their own capacities ; and concluded, that in giving laws to nature, God mufl have acted after their imaginations ; and that what they thought beft, mud have been the rule he acted by. But the more we fearch into nature the more we difcover our folly ; and later difcoveries have fucceffively fhewn their miflakes. It was at firfl imagined that the earth was a wide extended plain ; but it was afterwards found, that the fun did not fnine in the fame di- rection, on the fame day of the year, on places removed further north or fouth ; they concluded from thence, that the earth could not be a plain, but mufl be round. It continued for a long time an uncontefted belief, that the earth was the centre of the univerfe, and that the whole expanded nrmamerit whirled round it, in four and twenty hours. This has been alfo exploded of late years, as a fuppohtion unneceifary to have recourfe to, and inconfiflent with pro- C i? ] probability ; as the fame appearances would happen in the heavens, were the earth to move round its axis in that time, as if all the heavenly bodies fhould roll round the earth. The following fyftem was then adopted, viz. that the earth turned round on its axis in twenty -four hours, whence day and night ; that it moved round the fun in a year's time, whence the different appearances of the liars, at different times of the year ; that this motion was in a plane, not at right angles to its axis, whence the different feafons of the year. At firft, the belief of this was judged, not only wrong, but wicked. Gallileo, (not much above a century ago,) was put into the inquifition for afferting this. At prefent everv one thinks as Gallileo did. Defcartes thought the planets were carried round the fun, fufpended in fluids, like corks fwimming in water. Thefe ftreams, he called vortices. Sir Ifaac Newton fhewed, that there was no occa- fion for fuch complicated machinery to account for their motions ; but that the gravity they were at firft endowed with, the diftance they were placed at from the fun, and the motion originally communicated to them, (provided they moved in vacuo) fufficiently accounted for the order obferved by the planets: that thofe three powers, being in exact proportion one to the other, was whatkept their courles regular. As this is the molt hmple fyftem, lb it is the mofl agreeable to what we conceive nature to be directed by. The tides are fuppofed to be occafioned by a compound caufe, viz. the diurnal rotation of the earth round its axis, and the monthly rotation of the earth and moon, round their common centre. The nature of the fun is too obfcure for the vanity of philofophers to attempt to explain : we even know not, whether the continual expence of light and heat has at all diminifhed its power. The leneth of human life C '3 3 life is too fhort to enable men to make experiments to determine this. There is however one circumftance, which would incline us to think that the heat of the fun is not fo great at prefent as it was formerly. There are fome countries, fuch as the Orkneys and Shetland, where the cold is too intenfe to allow trees to grow at prefent ; yet, from the flumps and roots of trees found there, it is evident thefe places were formerly overrun with woods. But vanity is a vice not peculiar to the wife ; for among the lowed, the mod ignorant clafs of men, we find thofe who pride themfelves in knowing, and maintain them- felves by fhewing, that in the moft trifling, the moft inngnificant endowments they excell others. Jug- glers and ropedancers are evidences of this. Honour is a fpecies of vanity efteemed a virtue in the world : it bears in fome things a near refem- blance to honefty; but on examination, they are eafily diflinguifhed. The principles of an honelt man arife from a fear of offending God ; thofe of a man of honour, from a fear of leffening the efleem which other men entertain of him. Fear is the motive which fpurs on both to their refpective purpofes ; and, altno' they have different ends in view, they often produce the iame effect. Honefty proceeds from a fear of offending God by being unjuft ; honour proceeds from a fear of leffening one's efleem with men. Honefty is juft in all things ; honour is fo alfo in fmall matters ; it fcorns to be unjuft in trifles ; but for the increafe of worldly power and dignity, it will not hefitate to throw juftice afide. Honour will not fteal, but it will rob. Julius Caefar was a man of the leaft honefty, and of the greateft honour of any man in the world : he fcorned to re- lent private injuries : Cicero tells us, that thefe were the only things he forgot. Yet he overturned the laws of his country, deftroyed liberty, and made both C >4 ] both it and the red of the world his Haves : but he took care, that they, whom he had reduced to that (hue, mould obferve ftrict juflice to one another. This we obferve to be the general practice of usur- pers. The Romans, in their conquefls, deftroyed all 'thofe who would not fubmit to be their flaves ; but for thofe who did fubmit, they inflituted laws, to oblige them to behave with juitice to one another. Simple honelly is held by the world to be a cowardly, or at belt a negative virtue. It is always on the de- feufive, like one clad in armour, which it dares at no time throw off*. But honour is held a brave, a dar- ing quality, which fcorns danger ; it is made to rule and command ; and will punifh any one who dares to difpute its will, or quellion its integrity. A man of honour mufl be fuppofed incapable of doing wrong ; yet a man of honour will lie with his friend's wife, he will baftardize his eftate, and put the hufband afterwards to death, if he prefumes to tell him, he did wrong. He dares no more refufe a fine woman, who is willing to be debauched, (altho* his friend's wife) than a challenge from a man to fight him. His reputation is his confeience : his con- cern is not, what he knows himfelf to be, but what the world dare fay of him ; to their opinion he is a flave. This made Alexander exclaim, how much fatigue do I undergo to gain the efteem of the Athe- nians ! A man of honour will undergo as much in fupport of his reputation and dignity, as a man of honefty can for his confeience ; he will die for it ; be his engagements right or wrong, no future infor- mation can difengage him from his promife ; he has pawned his honour to perform it, and cannot forfeit it. A man of honour is more bound by that, than by his oath, or any moral obligation. In a late pub- lic trial, the judges were applyed to in thefe words, Gen- C '5 ] Gentlemen, I appeal to your oath, or, what is more, I appeal to your honour, The next caufe which induces men to deviate from truth, is violence, or that compulfion which tyrants ufe over the minds of their subjects. Nebuchadnezzar was a tyrant, and exacted obedience from the minds, as well as from the bodies of his fubjects. He made an image, and ordered all men to worihip it, under the penalty of being thrown into the fire. The Roman pontiffs have done the fame. Henry the eighth did the fame : in fhort all tyrants exact the fame implicit conformity from the minds, as in the actions of their fubjecls. Violence, aitho' coloured over with the fpecious name of ambition, and digni- fied with the title of glory, is moil oppofite to natu- ral juilice, and mofl destructive to fociety, and to the human race of any other pailion. The Almighty created all men innocent, and equally free, and re- quires they fhould continue fo. Nothing but felf- defence can authorize one man to hurt another, and deprive him of liberty. When a man throws his innocence afide, and by force or craft enilaves another, he throws afide all regard to juilice and confcience. He mud either fuppofe there is no God, who obferves his actions, and can penetrate into his mind ; or that God doth not require an obfervance of his laws from thofe, whom he hath endowed with fuperior flrength, either of body or mind, to compell or circumvent others ; he mud institute a new religion, more agreeable to his designs than that built on confcience. By natural juftice, it is an abfurd pofition, that when a man, by force or craft, brings another into fubjection, and deprives him of his liberty, that it mould be deemed a crime in that other, to endeavour to recover his liberty : yet no- thing is more common, than to claim a legal domini- on, from the right of conquest ; and to punifh as cri- t -,■-»«: .3 criminal thofe, who endeavour to throw off this yoke. As this fyftem of duty is quite different from the liber- ty, which nature hath given every man a right to ; tyrants who rob mankind of their natural right, are therefore obliged, in fupport of their authority, to change both the object of worfhip, and fyftem of duty. Thus in the old world, violence was imme- diately followed by a change in the object of worfhip ; from the true God to the holt of Heaven, to the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Nothing makes the human mind degenerate fo much as 11 aver y ; men in that ftate will facrince their reafon to their fafety, they are too much taken up in obferving the will of their mafters, to examine into the propriety of the orders they re- ceive, or think with liberty for themfelves ; when the punifhment for difobedience is the forfeiture of their lives. The great, the beneficent effects of the fun and moon were perceived by every one ; by them nature feemed regulated : and men were made to believe, that thefe viable objecls, were the beings to whom they owed their exiftence. To the ftars they attributed the different deftinies of men ; that according as they mewed themfelves at their birth, fo were their lives and fortunes ordained to be after- wards. From this arofe aflrology, a prejudice not vet rooted out of weak minds. Thefe are the means which tyrants ufe, the maxims they inculcate, to keep their fubjecls in obedience ; for as the Stars had predeftinated them to rule ; they told their fubjects it was highly impious in them to withftand the decrees of fate, by contradicting them. Men thus forced to give up their reafon, were eafily led into greater ab- surdities. Men of renown, whofe names tradition had handed down, as inventors of arts, became to be confidered as Gods, who had come to refide on earth for fome time, for the inftruetion of mankind Hence that multiplicity of Gods they worshipped. For C *7 J For it is the policy of a tyrant, to crufh every attempt towards freedom of thought or judgment, in the minds of his fubjecls : his bufinefs is to keep them in ignorance, and the more abfurdities he can bring them to believe, the flronger hold he has of their wills, and the more certain he is of their obedience. Upon this is founded that maxim of the clergy ; It is dangerous, for the laity to knov) much. On a liberty of enquiry depends learning, and it was a great over- fight in Leo the tenth, to encourage it by promoting printing* The Turkifh Mufti was wifer : he found that printing promoted learning, and learning made men inquilitive : he therefore fuppreffed all printing in the Turkifh dominions. I would not be thought to infer from this, that fuch an unbounded liberty is allowable, as that there mould be no fubordination among men : were every man to adhere ftriclly to the obfervance of truth before God, and juftice and mercy towards his fellow creatures, there would be no occafion for fubordination. Ifaiah's words would then come to pafs, The zaolf Jhoidd dwell with the lamb, and the leopard ly down with the kid, and the earth would be full of the knowledge of the Lord. But as that is not the prefent (late of mankind, where attempts from fraud and violence, render it necefTary for men, for mutual defence and protection, to enter into focieties, the better to protect themfelves, either againft foreign enemies, or domeftic frauds, they were obliged to inftitute laws, which every one ■willing to be a member of that fociety, engaged to obferve, under the penalties then fpecified. But to have thefe laws properly executed, it was necefTary to delegate the judicial and executive power, into the hands of fome particular men, of whofe juilice they had a good opinion, and whofe example might in- duce others, more readily to conform to the laws. Or if an invafion from a foreign enemy, obliged them B to t 18 ] to join in mutual defence ; in this time of danger it was neceffary, to inveft fome individuals, of wiiclom and fortitude, with power to direct and command them ; that the repelling the common enemy might be executed with mod efficacy and difpatch. This could not be done, were every one of the fociety to give his opinion, before any refolution was carried into execution. . But thefe magistrates and command- ers, had this truft conferred on them, merely from the choice of the people. The fociety ftill kept a power in themfelves,. to degrade or punifh them, if they made a wrong ufe of the power committed to them ; or did not properly anfwer the purpofes, for which they were entrufted with that power. Thefe commanders never claimed this preference from natural right : they owed it to the choice of the people, and were as much under the laws of the fociety, as any other member of it. This is what conftitutes a free (late, and in this manner doth it differ from a tyrannical one. CHAP- C 19 ] CHAPTER II. TH E third and principal caufe of error, which keeps the mind moil firmly in bondage, is pre- judice, or a perfuafion of a thing being true which is falfe ; it is a habit of belief inflilled into us, before we are able to judge for ourfclves, and becomes fo confirmed through time, that we are unwilling to change our belief on any future information : for mould reafon afterwards object to it ; rather than change our opinions, we are apt to think our reafon not rightly informed ; and continue to believe, con- trary to conviction. Perfuafion and conviction dif- fer in this ; one is a belief of the truth of a thing afTerted, from the good opinion we have of the know* ledge and fmcerity of him who reports it. Conviction is the belief of a thing, not from the teflimony of others, but in confequence of felf evident principles. There are certain axioms in morals, as well as in phyfics, univerfaily affented to by the human mind ; the knowledge of which arifes altogether from nature. The belief in myileries and hiflorical relations, we may be perfuaded to admit of, but they do not admit of conviction. On the other hand, the truth of a propofition in Euclid is built on conviction ; the mind is no way byas'd by opinion, or led affray by prejudice ; it refers to nothing for a proof, but what the mind allows as felf-evident. When violence had obliged men, for mutual defence, to form themfelves into focieties, it was found neceffary, firft to inftitute laws, by which the fociety fhould be governed, and then to invefl fome particular men with power to enforce the execution of thefe laws. But it was foon found, that fome of B 2 thofe C ** 3 thofe who took the advantage of public protection from foreign enemies, did not obferve juftice to one another. They therefore decreed punifhments for fuch as tranfgrefled the laws. But altho* the dread of punifhment might deter men from open crimes, yet fecret ones could not be judged of, where an open proof was wanting ; and where no witnefs or circum- ftance appeared fufficient to detect the crime, the judges were obliged to appeal to the criminal himfelf : They exacted an oath, an appeal to the Divine power, and made him imprecate the wrath of God on himfelf and his children, if what he then averred, was not truth* But in order to make men obferve their oaths, they mufl firft be made to under- ftand the nature of one, and what they were to ex- peel if they fwore falfely. Thus religion became ne- ceffary for government, in order to inforce good morals in the minds of the ignorant, for without it fociety could not fubfifL Truth is a duty we owe to God, and juftice that which we owe to men. No fociety can fubfift, whofe laws are not built on thefe two principles. It is neceffary for that purpofe, that men mould believe, that the divine Being would certain- ly judge all men, and as certainly punifh fuch who fwore falfely. To convince men of this, their inftructors appealed to their own minds, where every one might perceive a confeious fenfe of what was good and v evil ; and thereby be convinced that this inward principle was given, to direct them in their duty ; that as this inward law was imprerTed, for them to obferve; fo if they would not obferve it, they would certainly be puniihed by God for difobedience. And in order to keep up in the minds of the people, a terror of offending the Divine power, to whom the innermoft fecrets of hearts were known ; it was found necef- fary to appoint fome men from among them, of approved morals and knowledge, whofe fole bufinefs it [ 21 ] it fhould be, to mew the necefiity men were under, to obferve good morals ; if they would efcape the puni laments which God would inflict on thofe who acted otherwife. And the better to enable thofe teachers to dedicate their whole time to this fo necef- fary purpofe, they were exempted from all other care or burthen of the date ; and fupplied by the community, with all the neceflaries of life, without any labour of their own. Thus were the clergy inftituted by civil power, for civil purpofes. This inftitution was certainly both wife and neceflary - y and had it continued uncorrupted, and directed only for thofe purpofes, for which it was inftituted, man- kind would have been both good men and good citizens. The office of a teacher begets, in the minds of thofe taught, an awe towards his perfon, and a deference to what he fays. This made the vulgar place confidence in the knowledge and integrity of thofe, whofe time and care were folely devoted to their inftruction. The ignorance and avocations of the vulgar, allowed them neither leifure nor inclina- tion, to examine what they were defired to believe, and if at any time their priefts told them what did not coincide with their reafon or apprehenfion, they imputed it, rather to their own ignorance, than to any miftake in their teachers ; for they could not be fuppofed to underftand thofe matters fo well as they, whofe fole bufmefs it was to ftudy them : So they received as truth, and conceived as duty, whatever they were defired to believe. The clergy having got this afcendancy over the minds of the people, took advantage of their credulity, and inftead of improv- ing the underftanding of the people, they modeled their belief. They told the vulgar, that their under- ftanding was too weak to judge, and therefore inca- pable to direct them, in what was right or wrong : that what they might conceive to be the dictates of reafon and [ 22 ] and conference, was no further to be trufled to, than where information from them did not direct them otherwife ; that by the office they held, they were fubflitutes of the Divinity, who had, in an efpe- cial manner, appointed them to make known to men what his will was ; that it was impious in the laity to take on themfclves to judge of what God had directed, and that a crime againfl his minifters, was equally punifhable, as a crime againfl himfelf. When a man throws off his own reafon, as in- fufFicient to direct him ; and in its place adopts the opinion or will of another, that man becomes the {lave of that other; he is no more to be confidered as a rational creature, but as clay in the hands of a potter, to be moulded into whatever fhape, and appointed for whatever ufe, he pleafes. The clergy having obtained this dominion over the minds of the people, took every proper method to improve and fupport their authority : they difcouraged all free enquiry into the nature of the Deity, and the wor- ship proper to be paid him: they divided him into different beings, and affigned to each his particular office, and proper worfhip. The natural and origi- nal moral law was thrown afide, as too painful for men of ftrong paflions to be bound by ; and in its place, men were directed the performance of certain ceremonies, vows and facrifices, as an equivalent for fm. This new fyflem pleafed the people, who could, by thefe means, both worfhip the Gods and indulge their own defires ; they greedily embraced it : The method of appeafing the Deity was thus made eafy. The religion of nature required neither vows, facrifice, nor penance ; and what that is, Ifaiah tells us very plainly, Hear the word of the Lord, and give ear unto the law of your God : bring me no more vain oblations, Incenfe is an abomination to me j the new moons and fabbaths % the calling of affem- [ n ) affemblieSy I cannot away with : it is an iniquity. Tour new mcons and your appointed fe aft s my foul hateth? And Micah faith " Will the Lord be f leafed with thoufands of rams, or ten thoufand rivers of oil f Shall I give my fir ft born for my tranfgrefjions, or the fruit of my body, for t be fin of my foul f The Lord hath fhezved, what he requires of thee ; do juftice 9 love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. This then is the only facrifice acceptable to God. Sacrifices originally were euchariftical ; an ac- knowledgement or thanks-giving for mercies fhewn, as were thofe of Cain, Abel, and Noah. Propitia- tory facrifices took their rife from a wrong con- ception of what would pleafe the Deity, viz. that he was capable to be bribed or flattered, and that the offering facrifices or punifhing themfelves, would be accepted as an equivalent for offences. Their vows were a bargain with the Deity, that if he granted their requefls, they would recompence him by facrifice, or pleafe him by punifhing themfelves. Pythagoras offered an euchariftical facrifice of an hundred oxen, for being able to prove the proper- ties of a right angled triangle. Jephtha offered a propitiatory one ; he vowed, that provided God would give him viclory, he would facrifice the firii: he fliould meet with, coining out of his houfe on his return. The King of Moab in the fame manner facrificed his fon, which (the Jewifh writers fay) was accepted ; and the fame God, who conducted the armies of Ifrael, on this, changed fides and gave victory to Moab, and there was great indignation againft Ifrael. The Priefls of Baal, when they could not prevail on him to mew his God-head by prayers, thought they might do it by penance ; they cut themfelves with knives. J Tis a flrange idea, men entertain of the Diety, to think, that facrifices can add to his felicity, or that punifhing ourfelves B 4 in C ^4 ] in time of trotible, mould avert his anger for crimes committed before. I believe repentance is a pre- vailing facrifice, but it mould proceed from a fenfe of our crimes, not of our danger. This delufion prevails more or lefs, as learning and liberty of think- ing is more or lefs encouraged. Among the Grecian and Roman philosophers, fome came back, in a great meafure, to the original religion of nature ; they ridiculed the impoftures of the priefts. Socrates was put to death for doing fo ; and Cato was furprifed, that when two priefts met, they did not laugh at one another. In the time of Jefus Chrift, men had, in a great meafure, recovered from this delufion : Learning prevailed ; and men were laid fo open to conviction, that chriftianity made great progrefs among the Heathens, notwithstanding the perfec- tions it fuffered. But the irruptions of the Northern nations, and afterwards of the Saracens, deftroyed all learning ; and men became again immerfed in ignorance : they were deferted by civil government, and their care and thoughts were employed entirely in felf prefervatipn. In this ftate of Anarchy, they had none to apply to but their clergy for advice. This truft and confidence, the clergy improved to the advancement of their own power : They followed the fame maxims, as the Heathen priefts had done, and in order to gain profelytes, or rather fubjects, they made the tranfition eafy from Paganifm to chriftianity : it was fubjects more than converts they wanted : They therefore, to induce men more readily to conform, introduced rites and ceremonies fimilar to the pagan worfhip ; they divided the God- head into three, to anfwer the three brothers, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto ; and introduced images inftead of idols. But altho' chriftianity was a religion of liberty, they ordered the laity not to fearch into it, left they mould know their liberty. How- t «S 3 tlowever there were fome parts of the fcriptures, which they took care mould be known, viz. that Chrifl had faid, Wbofe foever fins ye remit, they /ball be remitted) and w b of o ever fins ye retain^ t bey //mil be retained ; and that the gates of heaven were open and ftiut at their command. When men were in- duced to believe, that their future happinds or mifery depended on the will of the clergy, they paid an implicit obedience, in all things, to their orders : they commanded the world, and difpofed of king- doms at their pleafure. The kingdom of Chrifl was not a kingdom of this world, but theirs was ; they ufed his religion for other purpofes than he did. No fenfe of confeience, of right or wrong, durfl be objected to their orders : they relied altogether on the ignorance, and eftablifhed prejudice of the vulgar, to fupport their authority ; and extended their arro- gance to fuch unreafonable lengths, as induced men at lafl to enquire and examine, by what authority, they ordered, as religious duties, what feemed fo in- confiflent with natural reafon. When ever prejudice yields fo far, as to allow a doubt in the mind, and any free enquiry to be made, it lofes its dominion : Error cannot fupport itfelf long, if not protected by ignorance : Prejudice without this fupport, turns weak by degrees ; and at lafl vanilhes. The more men examined the fcriptures and the precepts of Jefus Chrifl, the more they found their reafon had been led aftray, and their judgment impoird en. As learning increafed, and freedom of thought was allowed, ignorance and fuperflition lofl ground : When men's belief was pulhed too far, the bubble broke, and they came back to a reference to thole original laws, confeience and reafon, as the real judges to which only they ought to appeal to inform the mind and direel the belief in the doctrine of Chrifl. Sozac [ * ] Some others there were, who would not take the trouble of an examination ; but, accuftomed only to view religion in the manner prefcribed by the clergy, looked on their fuppofition of a divinity, as inconfiftent with reafon ; as that the divine Being fhould delegate his power to wicked and immoral men, to diftribute eternal rewards and punifhments, according as bed fuited their purpofes, or wordly interefts ; merely becaufe fuch men were Priefls. The juftice of a God, they conceived to be irrecon- ciieable to the immoral lives of thofe who claimed this power. They therefore threw off, as faife altogether, any Iuppofition of a God, or Divine Providence. Leo the tenth faid, he was certain there was neither a God nor a Providence ; for if there were, he never would have placed him at the head of his church. The fame confederation hath railed in Turkey a fet of Atheifts, who call them- felves Muferim^ or we have the fecret. Mahomet Effendi died a martyr to this opinion ; he faid, his regard for truth obliged him to think fo ; for if there were fuch a being as a God, he would not have allowed him to live, who was a fcorner and difpifer of his Divine EiYence. If atheifm prevails any where in the chriftian world, it muff be at Rome, where the immoral lives of the clergy, the power they affume from their office, and the means they ufe to attain to thtfe offices, are fo inconfiftent with the. idea of an all juff. , omnipotent and omniprefent being, by whofe wifdom and providence, the world ihould be di- rected, that they conclude all religion to be a forgery, and that there can be neither God nor Pro- vidence to direcl the world. Thus far is prejudice capable to lead the mind affray, and thence we may fee what fatal errors it may incline us to entertain 3 and what wrong actions it [ ** ] it may induce us to commit. I fhall therefore throw aiide all evidence, built merely on the afTertion of others ; and confider things only as my reafon fup- ports my belief. I difregard the cenfure of tfic clergy, I look on my reafon and ccnfcience to be implanted in me by God, for to dire£k my judgment; and that they are to be the witnelfes, to giveevidence at the lail day, of my thoughts and actions while on earth. I look on it as blafphemy, to put this evi- dence of God, in competition with the afiertidlis of men. And I am convinced that I mail be acquitted or condemned, as I mall be found to have acted agree- able or difagreeable to their admonition, and zlrrt it will not be accepted, as an excufe for my tranf- grefTions, that a diffidence of my own judgment, induced me to throw afide thefe monitors implanted in me by God, and in their place to have adopted the opinions of fallible men. C IT A I 1 - [ *3 ] CHAPTER III. ALL ideas of things external, are conveyed to us by our fenfes ; and the propriety of thefe ideas are afterwards examined by our reafon. When I look up on the Heavens, the fun, moon and flars, and that immenfe expanded fpace occupied by them ; when I confider that each of thefe fixed flars may probably be fuch a fun as ours, furrounded with planets, in- habited worlds, as ours is ; when I flretch my ima* gination to that infinite unbounded fpace beyond the mod diflant flar we can obferve, which, in all probability, is filled with other flars or funs illumina- ting an infinity of different worlds ; I mufl admire the omnipotence of that Being which made them. If I turn my thoughts to this our Globe, that fmall portion of the univerfe allotted to us, and examine the methods, which nature follows in its various operations ; if I confider the return of the feafons, fo neceffary for vegetation ; if I look on the animal and vegetable world, and examine their organs, by which life is carried on in them ; how the form and difpofition of each, is exactly fuited to its element, to its climate and nourifhment ; it raifes in my mind fome idea of that infinite wifdom, by which they are fo difpofed. I find vegetables are the ultimate fupport of animals. The earth is the common mother of all vegetables : it affords nourifhment for every plant : the fame earth produces what is falutary and poifon- ous. According as the moiflure extracted from it, is differently modified by the organs of the feed, fo doth the vegetable contract different qualities from the fame foil ; the organs of each converting the imbibed moiflure, into juices of the nature of the plant. t *9 Q plant. It is not the foil which alters the nature of a plant ; for altho' different plants are produced in different climates, yet if an artificial climate is made in any place, fimilar to a foreign one, the plants of that foreign climate, will grow in that artificial one. In each, rain-water is converted into the proper folid fubflance of the plant, and produces its peculiar fruit. Both vegetables and animals, left to nature, have their flated time of life ; they have their infancy, their maturity, fhed their feed, and die in their dated time. The return of the feafons directs the operations of nature in the vegetable world, and in a great many of the animal. All animals have a will, a choice, a thinking faculty in them, each after its kind : They fearch for their nourifhment ; they are capable of pain and pleafure ; they avoid danger ; they defend themfelves when attacked, and endeavour to offend their enemies. In all of them, infancy and innocence go together : as they increafe in age and flrength, fo do their minds enlarge, and put on that difpofition peculiar to their fpecies. When their body is in its greatefl vigour, their thinking faculty, or natural difpofition, is in its greatefl flrength ; as they grow old and decrepit, their thinking faculty diminifhes in pro- portion ; and they become flupid or infenfible at lafb As the different modifications in the feed of vegetables, make their fhape and qualities different, fo, in the animal creation, doth the different modi- fication in the brain, give them different degrees of knowledge, difpofitions and paffions. The orders and operations of the Creator, are too intricate and exteniive,forthe human mind to comprehend; and the only method we have to attain to knowledge, is by obferving and following nature in our fearch after truth. A man who purfues this method may be right, but he who proceeds to judgment, without obferv- C 30 ] obferving it, Vviil find himfelf miflaken in his pur- fuits. It has been long a difpute, at what time the world began : the vanity of fome nations has made them flretch back their progenitors to an immenfe time : I mail examine the probability of their pretenfions, by the following principles. All animals receive their nourifhment immediately or ultimately from vegetables, and all vegetables receive theirs from the mould on the furface of the earth. But I obferve that earth alone will not produce vegetables : moif- ture and heat mud be joined with it : without rain the earth would produce nothing ; I conclude from thence, that rain mud have been from the beginning. But T obferve that rain does more than merely inoif- ten the earth ; there is an overplus that is carried off to the fea by the rivers, and conflantly takes a- Jong with it, fome of that mould on which it falls. This cccafions a continual wafle of the earth, and muft at J aft, carry along with it every particle capa- ble of being moved by it. • The fea muff rife in pro- portion to the earth fo warned into it ; and the earth become lower in the fame proportion to what is car- ried off from it by rain. Nothing but rocks will at Iaft remain. Vegetation muff ceafe for want of earth ; and the animal world muft become extinct for want of nourifhment. Befides the wafte made by rain, we find, in the vegetative parts of the earth, a conftant difpofition to petrifaction. The fhapes and fubftances obferved in many rocks and ftones, fliow that thefe rocks and ftones were formerly in a fo ft ft ate, capable of affording nourifhment to vege- tables, which they cannot do now. The continua- tion of this converfion is another caufe, why vege- tation muft ceafe in time. Nothing capable of wafte can be eternal ; fo that there muft have been a time, when this wafte, or, in other words, when the world began : C 3' ] began : and this wade is, by obfervation, too great to allow the beginning of it, to be fo far back as the the Egyptian, the Chaldaic or Chinefe reports make it. When we receive the knowledge of things pad by tradition only ; and when that tradition differs among different nations, as to point of time ; we mud judge of the truth of their different aflertions by analogy. If the accounts we have of fome parts of the world, as let down by hidorians, give us a jud defcription of the date thefe parts were in, a thoufand years ago ; and compare it with that, in which we find them at prefent ; we may judge fome what of the wade committed on the land, and how much the fea has rifen, during that time. The Gampania of Home was in the time of the Sabins, and long afterwards, a healthful and well inhabited country. Since that, the furface of the fea has rifen fo high, as to make it a defolate, unhealthy bog ; there is not now a fufficient fall, to drain off the waters. In the time of the Romans, we read of no ditches employ- ed, to keep out the fea from the low grounds of Holland. Goodwin Sands were formerly an arable, well inhabited country, until the fea, by degrees, overflowed it. What was formerly the pavement of Rome, is now twenty feet below the furface of the Tyber. Carthage, formerly the greated fea port in the world, is now under water. Where Memphis the metropolis of Egypt dood, is now the channel of the Nile. The vail quantities of trees found in bogs, fliew that thefe were woods formerly, which are now covered over by the mould, warned down from the neighbouring higher grounds. We ourfelves obferve, that houfes built in flat feaport towns, are obliged every thirty or forty years, to be raifed in their foundation, to prevent their being overflowed by the tides; It has been alledged by fome [ 32 J fome, that altho* the fea gains on the land in fome* places, yet the land gains from the fea in others ; as there are many feaports (formerly goad harbours for {hipping) which are now choked up ; and the land carried out much beyond them. This circum- ftance never happens, but in the mouths of rivers, where the mould brought down by them from the land, is allowed to fubfide ; for when the force which carried it down is taken off, it flops and forms a heap : this is the occaiion of bars in the mouths of rivers. From thefe circUmftances we may form fome judgment, how far back a proportionate wafte will allow us to go r to fix a time when this w r afle began : and I believe it would be difficult, by this analyfis, to carry the beginning of it, further back than Mofes has done; I therefore take his account to be the julteft, as it comes nearefl to what we obferve in nature* I believe that Mofes gave a jufl account of what happened in the beginning of time \ he is at lead the author I fhall follow ; but that what he wrote, is juftly handed down to us by tranflators, I do not believe : for altho' the Hebrews, before their capti- vity, were debarred, by their conftitution, from a free intercourfe with other nations, and might, for fo long* preferve their language pure ; yet from their conquelt and captivity by the Babylonians, they were ever after, more or lefs under the dominion of other na- tions ; and their language muff have been corrupted by their intercourfe with them. The laws prefcribed by thefe different conquerors, neceffarily introduced words and phrafes, different from that original lan- guage in which Mofes expreffed himfelf. Their lan- guage would, by this means, change from what it had been. The idioms belonging to words of uncertain meaning, are only judged of, from a probability of what they might ngnify, agreeably to the fenfe of the C 33 ] the context. That the tranflators of the Hebrew have fometimes mifinterpreted words, may be known by one quite ignorant of that language. It is faid (Ezekiel, Chap. 29th, verfe 10th) / will make the land of Egypt utterly wajle and deflate^ from the toiler of Syene, even unto the borders of Ethiophia. This tranilation is plainly abfurd ; Syene is a fron- tier town between Egypt and Ethiophia, fo that what they tranilate Ethiophia, mould be Arabia ; which is the oppofite border of Egypt to the tower of Syene. Wherefore any incongruity, which I may find in Mofes's account of the creation, I fhall impute to a miftake in the tranflators, and fubftitute what I think ought rationally to have been his meaning. CHAP- C 34 ] CHAPTER IV. Of the Creation. MOSES acquaints us, that the creation of the world took up the fpace of fix days ; after which it was left to the direction of nature. He fays, In the beginnings God created the heaven and the earthy that the earth was without form and void ; and darknefs was upon the face of the deep. By the earth's being without form and void, I underftand, that it was endowed with no other quality be- fides fubftance and extenfion ; and by darknefs being upon the face of the deep, I underftand that matter was at abfolute reft. The firft act of the divine power on matter is thus expreffed, The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, or on the confufed mixed Chaos. By this I conceive is meant, the firft inftitution of nature, when matter was divided, into fluid and folid particles, and each particle was endowed with its peculiar qualities, either with regard to. itfelf, or what it might acquire by being in conjunction with others. Mutual attraction, every particle was more or lefs endowed with ; thefe between whom it was ftrongeft conftituted the folid part of the earth, of fuch an irregular fhape as their proximity might induce them to put on ; and gravity, which operated on the whole mafs of matter, formed the whole into a globe. The firft day's work is, Let there be light and there was lights and the evening and the morning were the jirfl day. As light is here put as the Antithefis to what was before called darknefs being on the face of the deep, or abfolute reft ; I muft conceive that by light is meant motion as the firft day's [ 35 J day's wcrk. It is the earth's turning round its- axis, which makes the day ; and I believe, that the firft act after the inftitution of nature, was to put the earth in motion. It is the rotation of the globe round its axis, and not light and darknefs which conftitutes the day. Any point on the furface of the earth, from its leaving its oppofition to a point in the heavens, until it returns to it, that fpace of time it takes up to perform this, is called the day : The receding from that point, until it comes to an oppo- fite point in the heavens, is called by Mofes the even- ing ; and when by the continued rotation, it comes oppofite to the point it firfl left ; he calls that fpace of time the morning: he therefore puts the evening before the morning. Immediately on the earth's being made to turn round, there mud have followed a feparation of the elements. The earth's turning round its axis, created a new power, centrifugal force, which counteracts gravity, or a tendency to the centre. This centrifugal force, would act with greater! power, on the lighted particles : Thofe it would throw off to the greated didance. The air as the lighted, was therefore thrown off at the greated diftance ; the dry land appeared, and the fca took up the place left in the interdices of it. Water, altho' fpeciiically heavier than air, is fiill capable of being expanded by heat, fo as to make it become lighter than air. It will then mount up, until the cold makes it of equal gravity with the air, and there it will form clouds. This fufpenfion by evaporation is what I conceive to be meant by the firmament's divid- ing the waters from the waters. What is the exacl: difference between water and air, I cannot determine, but they are certainly capable of mixing and uniting, one with the other, according as they are affected by heat or cold. There is a heat in the earth independent of what is communicated bv the fun ; if it were not Cz fo [ 36 ] fo, the bottom of the fea would be always frozen, and the deeper we would dig in the earth, the colder we ihould find it ; but the reverfe of this is true. It is not the divifion of matter into fmaller parts, which alters its gravity : A grain of gold, or any other fub- ftance, fuftaining no other alteration than divifion, is of the fame Ipecific gravity, whether it be fmgle, or joined to a million of others. In like manner a drop of water, if not expanded or rarified by heat, would never rife and mix with a lighter element. We know of no fluids, or matter capable of being made liquid by heat, even gold, but will evaporate or become lighter than air, and fo long as the heat a&s upon them with fufficient force, they will con- tiuue to rife in it ; but when this heat ceafes, thefe rarified particles will collapfe, and recover their fpecific gravity. As extreme heat makes water rife, and mix with air ; fo doth extreme cold make air condenfe and mix with water. Thus water frozen, fwims on the top, from the air being mixed with it; but on melting, it throws off this air, and returns to its natural gravity. A {tone locked up in the earth by the froft, is in contact with the earth about it ; but on a fucceeding thaw, the earth will be found to have receded ; the fhape of the flone is preferr- ed in the mould, but the fpace it occupied during the frofl, is greatly enlarged ; the air incorporated with the water by the froft, has now feparated and gone off, and the particles of earth and water, which furrounded it, are come into a clofer contact. When the common roads have been frozen, and a thaw follows, the ground is covered with a froth, like foap fuds ; the air is then difengaged from the water, but flill fhews, by the bubbles on the furface, from whence it came laft. Extreme heat makes water C 37 3 water become as air, and extreme cold fo condenfes the air, as to make it mix with water. The elements being difpofed into their proper places, the next work is the creation of vegetables. God created every plant of the fields and every herb before it grew \ he placed them in the ground andfaid, Let the earth bring forth grafs, the herb yielding feed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whofe feed is in iff elf. The vegetables being planted, the fun, and moon, are next created, or rather fhew themfelves on the fourth day, to give light to the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, and to be for figns and for feafom, for days and years ; the^fun to rule the day, and the moon the night. It is evident from this, that before the creation of the fun, it was not light and dark- nefs which made the day and night \ fo that what is called light, on the firfl day's work, cannot mean what we commonly underftand by it. It is fubjoined, He created the flars alfo. What are here called flars, Mofes explains in the beginning of the fecond chapter, Thus the heavens and the earth were finifhed, and all the heft of them. By what is called The hoft of heaven is not meant, the fixed flars, but the planets or wandering flars, which men afterwards adored, when they fell off from the worfhip of the true God : For it is natural and neceffary to fuppofe, that the whole foiar fyflem was created at the fame time. As the fixed flars had no concern with our world, it was not Mofes' s bufmefs to fay any thing of them in his hiflory. The immediate confequence of the heat of the fun, was to exhale the moiflure, and warm the furface of the ground ; this brought on vegetation. It is faid, God had not yet caufed it to rain, but there went up a mijl, which watered the whole face of the ground. When vegetables were provided, God proceeded C 3 to C 38 ] to create animals. On the fifth dav, he faid, Let the waters bring forth abundantly, and fowl that may fly on the earthy every one after its kind. On the fixth day terredrial animals are created, beafts, cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth, after their kind. There is a beautiful propriety and harmony, in this account of the creation. In the beginning matter lay at reft, in a mixed, irregular mafs, without lhape or relation. Then nature was in- ftituted. The fpirit of God, moved on the face of the deep. Each particle had its peculiar qualities aftigned to it, and ranged into its proper clafs. They formed themfelves into a globe by one univerfal quality, viz. gravity : Some unite, adhere, and form a folid part or land, others continue fluid, but of different gravity. In this date, the earth is fet in motion, by wheeling round its axis ; on which follows a feparation of the elements ; thefe, ac- cording as they are affecled by gravity and centrifugal force, occupied different fpaces, at a greater or fmaller diftance from the center. The adheiion of the folid parts would not allow them to move ; the centrifugal force could only act upon the fluids ; and the air, as the lighted , would be thrown off to the circum- ference of the fphere. By the receftion of the air, the waters were gathered together, they filled up the fpace left by the air, and the dry land appeared, rifing out of the waters ; on which vegetables, the food for animals, are created and implanted. The fun is next created, whofe heat exhaling the moidure, brought on vegetation. The next aft was the creation of fifties and fowls, their elements being the firft prepared to re- ceive them. On the fixth day, terredrial animals were created, their food being previoufty provided ; as the vegetables had been three days implanted and increaf- [ 39 ] increafed. The lafl part of the creation was man ; to whom God gave dominion over all other creatures, and afterwards created a companion for him, out of part of himfelf, the more to unite them in love and friendfhip. The name he gave them both was Adam. Male and female created he them, and called their name Adam*. Thefe God diftinguifhed above all his other creatures, for he created them after his own likenefs ; he endowed them with faculties fuperior to all others, he imprinted on their minds, a lenfe of moral duties to direct them, which he had communicated to none others of his creatures ; he let them know, there were other ties on their minds befides the gratification of their paffions ; he endowed them with confcience to be their law, and reafon to direct them in the execution of it. After fmifhing the creation, and leaving nature to carry it on, God is faid to have refled the /event h day. This expref- fion of the hiftorian is ufed to accommodate the work of the Almighty, to the idea of human labour \ for labour and fatigue are not applicable to God : It was meant to ferve as an order for man, to dedicate the feventh part of his time particularly, to the wor- fhip of God, and the contemplation of his power. And here, I think, is a ftrong prefumption of the truth of the Mofaic account ; as no other reafon can be given, for the divifion of time into weeks, fo univerfally ufed from the earlied ages. When God created man male and female, he gave them a conditional command by which they might be enabled to continue in the happy (late in which they then were. What thefe orders were, and how they came to forfeit that happinefs, by difobedience, is reprefented under the allegory of a garden, into which he had put them, with liberty to eat of the C 4 fruit * Gen. chap. v. ver. 2. [ 4o ] fruit of every tree, except one which grew in the middle of it. Of that they are forbid to tafte ; that if they abftained from that fruit, they mould never die ; but that if they difobeyed him, by eating of that fruit, they mould be fubjecl to death as other animals were. What is called a garden, I take to mean the human mind, endowed with all its rational faculties and natural defires : by the river which watered the garden, and afterwards divided into four branches, is meant confcience, or the moral law of duty, commonly divided into the four cardinal vir- tues : by the tree of lip is fignined innocence, that firft (late in which they were when created ; by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is fignifled carnal defires : by the ferpent, which tempted them, is meant lull : by the angel with the flaming fwori, is meant remorfe and fhame ; and by the coat of fkins, with which their nakednefs was covered after their tranf- greffion, is meant that natural covering of the private parts, which grows in both fexes at the age of puberty, when carnal defires firft enter the mind. It has been long an enquiry, where a local para- dife could be fituated, to correfpond to that extreme happinefs which Adam enjoyed in it ; to the defcrip- tion of thefe flrange trees which grew in it ; and to the rivers which watered it : And what fpecies of ferpent that could be, by whom Eve was feduced, whofe fpeech even occafioned no furprize, and who not only held converfation with her, but had alio fuch infinuating art, as to lead her into difobedience by fpecious pretences. It is certain that neither geography, nor natural hiftory inform us, of any fuch trees, of any fuch rivers, or of any fuch fer- pents. Neither do we know of any fruit, the eat- ing of which would enlarge the understanding, or abafh it into fhame or remorfe. And if fuch a ferpent did then exiii, as enjoyed the faculties of fpeech [ 41 ] fpeech and reason, there are none fuch to be found now; altho* the curfe denounced againft it, tends neither to deftroy the fpecies, nor diveft it of its h or rational faculties. The account which :s has hitherto given of the creation, is not only rational but probable. But if we take this relation of paradife, and the fall of man, in a literal fenfe, neither probability, nor reafon will fupport it. It is beyond any rational fuppofition. If on the other hand, we interpret it in an allegorical fenfe,we find a rational probability run thorough the whole, and a clofe connection in all the parts of the relation, ifh The word ferpent, as ufed in fcripture, is not confined to fignify always an animal ; it is ufed frequently to fignify, either the devil, or thefe wicked fuggeftions and difpofitions which prompt men to act contrary to the law of God. Thus our Saviour calls the fcribes and pharafees Serpents and a generation of Vipers-^ thus Ifaiah fays, The Lord with a great /word would pump Leviathan^ that great that cr coked ferpeni, 2d. The word nrw Gharum, that quality by which the ferpent is enabled to feduce Eve, and which our tranflators have made to fignify fubtility or cunning, properly fignifies naked, as may appear in many paiTages, particularly in the immediate preceding verfe, where ramp Gharumim, fignifies lhey were naked. 3d. Nakedncfs is the phrafe, conflantly ufed by Mofes and the prophets, to fignify the pri- vate parts, or the paflion of concupifcence. If ac- cording to this allegorical meaning, we interpret what Mofes has related, it will turn out thus.-- Our firft parents while in paradife, were naked anj were not afiam$4 \\ they were forbid to have carnal know- ledge of each other, and fo long as they abflained from it, they continued in a (late of innocence. They were f Chap. 1 j. Y fill the earth and fubdue it ; therefore this order mult be previous to their fall, yea even to their being put into the the garden of Eden. But if this proves any thing, it proves too much ; it proves that man was created male and female, before Eve ; the caufe and manner of whofe creation, we are told of in the fecond chapter ; and by which it appears, there was fome conliderable fpace of time, between the creation of Adam and Eve. If the antecedence of place, proves the ante- cedence of time ; man and woman were created before Eve. If Eve was the woman nrit created, then the fecond chapter is only an explanation of what was related in the firft. If it is an explanation only, we mult think, that when God fays, it is not meet for man to be alone, that the woman was not then created. He fays I will make a help meet for him ; and he brought to Adam every bead of the field, and every fowl of the air, to view them, and to give them names ; and whatever names he gave them, they were called by ; and after examining all the creatures brought before him, there was not found a companion meet for man: So Gcd caufed a deep fleep to fall upon him, &c. By this it appears that the man was created forne confiderable time before the woman ; that after his creation,, it was enquired into by examination, whether any of the animals already [ 47 ] already created, was a fit companion for him ; that after viewing them, and confidering their different difpofitions, he gave them names according to thefe difpofitions ; but as none of them was found a proper companion for him, God proceeded to a new creation of one, who fhould be a proper companion : and to make him look on this newly created being, as one he mould have a greater regard to than others, he made her out of part of himfelf ; he caufed a t'eep fleep to fall on him, and took one of his ribs, &c. From the creation of the woman, the hiftory is uniformly continued thro' the fecond, third, and fourth chapters. The third gives an account of their tranfgreflion and banifhment from Paradife ; and the fourth chapter begins thus, (as in the old tranilation,) Afterwards the man knew Eve his ivife 9 who conceived and bare Cain. This cannot well admit of any other fenfe, than, that after what was related in the pre- ceding chapter, Adam had carnal knowledge of his wife ; upon which fhe conceived and bare Cain. So I fee no reafon to think, that the order to increafe and multiply was given, till after the fall. As population encreafed, Adam f&w his children de- generate from that purity of morals he had inftru&ed them in; he faw one of his fons murder another; we are told, he was one hundred and thirtv vears old when that happened ; his defendants by this time, mull have been considerably multiplied ; and the next fon after this murder was Seth. It is probable that this murder, and the degeneracy he obferved in his other children, made him more particularly careful in the inftruction he gave Seth, his new born fon. It is faid he begat him in his own likenefs, after his own image. Adam, originally initru&ed by the Almighty in his moral obligations, took more par- ticular care to inculcate thefe precepts into the mind of Seth, of which he found his other children de- [ 48 ; 3 deficient : and this fon is faid more particularly to have obeyed him, both in his own behaviour, and the precepts he delivered to his family. It may feem ftrange that mankind mould fo c^ickly apoftatife and forfake the worfhip of the true God, the invifible creator of all things ; and in his ftead to worfhip thefe vinble objects the fun, moon, and flars, while Adam, originally inftructed by God himfelf, remain- ed with them for above nine hundred years, and was certainly as willing, as able to inftrucl: his chil- dren in the proper object of worfhip. But it mud be obferved that this apoftacy began and prevailed only among the children of Cain, who had no op- portunity of being inflructed by Adam. Mankind were divided into two feels, called the Jons of God (thofe who kept with and followed the precepts of Adam,) and the Jons of men, or the poflerity of Cain, who had no communication with the others. When Cain, for the murder of his brother, was condemned to be a fugitive and vagabond on the earth, horror and dread took fuch pofTeiTion of his mind, that he was afraid left every one who met him mould kill him. But God who referves vengeance to himfelf, denounced a curfe againfl any one, who mould kill Cain, and fet a mark on him, that he might be known by. What that mark was, we are not told : it is probable, that it was that expremon in the countenance and behaviour, which defpair and a preying confeious guilt generally produces. He therefore fled from his father and all fociety, to a diftant part of the earth, that he might not be feen of men : He went and dwelt in the land of Nod. His children, thus difunited from the reft of men, could receive no inftruction from Adam ; and, it is probable, Cain would not inftrucl them in the know- ledge and precepts of that offended God, who had thus marked him out as a criminal, left they alfo mould I 49 ] mould upbraid him ; and be tempted to inflift that punifhment, to fhun which, he had fled from all ibciety. His poflerity, deprived of all information of the true God, formed their ideas from their fenfes ; and the mofl glorious objects their fenfes prefented to them, were thofe of the heavens, the fun, moon and ftars, them therefore they worfhipped. To form a jufl idea of an invifible, omnipotent and omnifcient God, merely from the ftrength of natural reafon and reflection, requires the penetration of a philofopher, and few have attained to that knowledge ; I take this to have been the origin of Zabaifm among Cain's pof- terity. But it feems they did not flop at this, for even fo early as the third generation, great men af- fumed divine honours to themfelves ; for in the laft verfe of the fourth chapter, it is faid, Iben began men to call themfelves by tbe name of the Lord. The children of Adam, being thus divided into two different fefls, are diflinguifhed by the hiftorian, under the appellations of tbe fons of God and tbe fons of men. Thefe two feels of people, kept themfelves, for fome time, diflinfl from one another ; but at laft, the fame temptation, which induced Adam to com- mit his firft tranfgreflion, induced them to mix and become one people. Tbe fons of God faw tbe daugh* ters of men, that they were fair ; they took them wives of all that they chofe. Then God 9 s anger arofe again/I all ma?ikind ; and the Lord faid, 7?iv fpirit fhall not always drive with man ; tbat the wickedyiefs of man was great on the earth ; that every imagination of his heart was only evil continually ; for the wbole earth was corrupt, and filed with violence \for tbat allflefb had corrupted tbeir ways ; nor was there any man found on the earth righteous, befides Noah. What next follows in the hiilory, is that remarkable judgment inflicted, for this their univerfal defection, D CHAP t So 1 G H A P T E R V. Of the Flood. THE account which Mofes has given, that a flood of waters, deftroyed mankind, is confirm- ed by the teflimony of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Indians and Chinefe; fo that no doubt remains of fuch a circumflance having happened. But how to account for its natural caufe, or for the quantity of water that could effeft it, has been long the fubject of conjecture ; and many different hypothefes have been formed, and many fuppofitions made, to render it poffible. Some have imagined that it was done by the approach of a comet, in the atmofphere of whofe tail, the earth was involved ; Others, that what form- ed the land before the flood, was only a crufl, which broke and funk down at the flood, unto the abyfs below ; Others have thought, that the centre of gravity mufl have fucceflively changed in the earth, and fo have occafioned a fucceflive inundation over the different parts of it : but each of thefe fuppo- fitions is liable to unanfwerable objections. There is one circumflance (hitherto not adverted to) which, without any additional water, or any great alteration in nature, would neceffarily overwhelm that part of the world, which, in all probability, could only be inhabited before the flood. It has been, and I think with reafon fuppofed, that before the flood, the axis of the earth was perpendicular to the plane of the Ecliptic ; by which difpofition, it would conflantly move in one direction, during its annual . courfe round the fun. The earth was at firft de- ; figned for the habitation of two people only, who would find fufficient fupport from the natural pro- ductions C 51 2 ducYions of vegetables, without any labour of their own ; as every herb, and the fruit of every tree was food for them. If this was the ftate of the antede- luvian world, there could be no variety of feafons, of fummer and winter, feed time and harveft, heat and cold, as was inftituted after the flood* The earth mull: have enjoyed a continual equinox, the fun muft have been always vertical to one line on the globe ; a famenefs muft have reigned in every part of it throughout the year, according to its latitude : and the habitable world would have been confined to that fpace, which is within twenty or thirty degrees of that line, to wheh the fun was vertical, or (what may be now called) the fpace between the tropics* As the natural ftate of man was to be naked, and the ufe of cloaths was invented to defend them from the rigour of the cold, it may be reafonably fup* pofed, that mankind would continue, while they could, in that climate, which did not require the ufe of them. It was only immediately before the flood, when mankind, too confined for w T ant of room in the warm climate they were accuftomed to, were obliged to take up with a colder one, that Jabal invented tents to defend them from the wea- ther. Had mankind before the flood, been dif- perfed into cold climates, the ufe of tents would have occurr'd, long before Jabal's time. If the habitable world was confined to within five and twenty, or thirty degrees of the equator ; and the intent of the flood was to deftroy mankind ; the over- flowing that part of the earth only, would have exe- cuted that purpofe, and this would certainly come to pafs, by a very finall alteration in the courfe of nature. At the creation, .the different elements afiumed each its particular place, as gravity, attra&ion or centrifugal force affected it: and the difpofition- of D 2 the C 52 ] the whole, would be in proportion to that force, which each of thefe powers exercifed, in conjunction with the others. But if afterwards, the force of either of thefe three powers, were either encreafed or diminifhed, while the others continued unalter'd, the former effect of their united force muft be alfo altered ; and the earth would affume a fhape, agree- able to the united force of thefe powers thus altered. The earth turns round its axis in twenty four hours, and I believe it did the fame before the flood ; if at the flood, the Almighty Power fhould make this circumvolution to be performed in lefs time, fuppofe in twenty three hours, the centrifugal force would be encreafed in proportion ; and every element, capable of being affected by it, would fly off further from the centre, towards the cir- cumference of the circle ; and, inftead of a globular form, the earth would affume a fpheroidal. or turnep fhape ; the waters near the poles would fink, and flow towards the Equator : this muft occafion the waters to rife, and cover all the lands near the Equa- tor, the then only inhabited part of the world. As the effect of centrifugal power is to counteract gra- vitation, all the lighter parts, fuch as the air or fir- mament, would be expanded, and fly off to a greater diftance from the earth ; and thereby become in- capable of fufpending the evaporated moiflure : the waters contained in the clouds muft then fall to the earth ; or it wouuld rain, while any watry par- ticles were left in the firmament. As the fame caufe, which gathered the waters together near the Equator, was what occafioned it to rain, fo thefe two effects muft be produced at the fame time ; and we are told by Mofes, that they happened on the fame day : he fays, On the f event eenth day of the fecond months the fame day, were all the fountains of the great deep broke up y and the windows of heaven were ofened - ? that L 53 ] that the waters continued to encreafe, and the rain continued to pour down, until the waters rofe to fifteen cubits above the land, and the tops of all the hills were covered ; lb that every thing perifhed in the flood, befides what was preferved in the ark. Upon this encreafed motion of the earth round its axis, the flux of waters from the poles towards the Equator, would, like the torrent of a river, carry every thing moveable along with it. But when this additional velocity was flopped, by the time of the circumvolution being again prolonged to its for- mer length, the additional centrifugal force would ceafe, and the waters would return towards the poles with the fame velocity, as they had formerly flowed towards the Equator ; and in like manner carry along with them, whatever was moveable by the torrent. But it cannot be fuppofed that the earth, fand, and marine fubflances, thus drove on during the encreafe of the flood, would, on its decreafe, be carried back and depofited, exactly in the fame places from whence they were taken. Rocks, and fuch parts of the earth, whofe adhefion was too flrong to allow them to be forced and carried off, would, both on the flux and reflux of the waters, flop thefe move- able fubflances, which mufl there be collected, would rife into heaps and form mountains, where none were before ; and this is verified by the quantities of fhells and other marine fubflances, found in dif- ferent flrata in mountains and other places, to which the fea feems now, never to have had any accefs. As this convulfion, which nature fuffered at the flood, mufl have, in a great meafure, changed the fhape and furface of the land ; it feems idle to aflign fituations to places before the flood, by any fimili- tude to places now on the earth. When Adam and Eve were created, they were put together to try their obedience, and were en- dowed C 54 ] dowed with fuch Stamina vita, as, had they ob- ferved the order given them, might have preferved life, until the end of time ; and even after their tranf- greflion, when population made death neceffary, we find their children poflefTed of fuch ftrong ftamina, as prolonged their lives to near a thoufand years. Some people have from thence taken upon them to make a calculation, of what number mankind might have confided, at the time of the flood ; they have confidered their longevity as fo many additional numbers to mankind ; they fuppofed none died, but by the natural death of old age, and that procrea- tion began as early, and was carried on as quickly, as at prefent. On thefe fuppofitions they have made their numbers to amount to above a hundred thoufand millions, a number of which the prefent world could not fupport the fiftieth part, altho' the curfe of flerility was taken off. But to make a probable conjecture of their numbers, the following consider- ations muftbe attended to ; Animal life, like a tide, is either conftantly advancing, by certain periods, to its perfection (its A^un) or defcending by fimilar flages to its diifolution. It never ftands flill, or is the fame to-day, as it was yefterday. And thefe dif- ferent periods or flages, are always at certain flated times, or diflances from each other, in proportion to the natural length of life. Puberty, or that time of life, at which animals begin to propogate their fpecies, is always in proportion to the length which nature hath afligned them, before old age puts an end to life : The longer the natural life of an animal is, the later it is, before the age of puberty begins ; and the fhorter their natural life is, the fooner doth it fhow itfelf. It is that period, when the arteries are extended, nearly, to the utmofl length, to which the force of the heart can flretch them. And before this period I 55 1 period, the animal muft encreafe in ftature continually. With the prefent date of mankind, the common ex- tent of life is feventy or eighty years, and their age of puberty is about feventeen or eighteen. The natural life of an antedeluvian extended to above nine hundred years, and the different periods of their lives muft have been at a proportionate diftance from each other ; and we accordingly find none of them to have had children before the age of fixty-five ; and but two, who had them fo early. If this was their age of puberty, they muft have increafed in ftature and bulk, until that age. Mofes tells us, that in thofe days there were giants on the earth ; and if nature obferved the fame rule at that time, which fhe doth now, none but giants (with refpect to us,) could have been on the earth in thofe days. And for the fame reafon, the time which mothers took to fuckle their children, muft have been longer than is now neceflary ; fo that nei- ther could women have connubial commerce fo foon after delivery, nor could thefe children fo foon arrive at the age of puberty as they do now, and of con- fequence procreation could not be carried on fo quickly, as it is at prefent. Befides thefe natural caufes, which made population flower, there was another, which would contribute more than any thing elfe, to deftroy mankind, and lefien their num- bers, viz. that univerfal violence with which the earth is faid to have been filled, and corrupted. By violence I can underftand nothing elfe, but univerfal rapine, wars and bloodfhed. When the morals of men are fo corrupted, as to thro# off all regard to juftice, and to gratify their defires by whatever means they can attain to the end they propofe ; the different in- terefts and paffions of men will fet them at war one with another. And they had then an extraordinary temptation to do it. The fize of man was large, D 4 and i 56 ] and would require a proportionate quantity of nourifhment to fupport it ; the earth was curfed, and would not produce its fruits without great labour, and the habitable part was confined to little more, than what is now between the tropics. During the infancy of the world, that warm climate was fuffi- cient to fupport its inhabitants, without tempting them to plunder one another; but when mankind had increafed, and filled up that fpace, their numbers would oblige them, either to goto new fettlements, or to rob their neighbours of their pofleflions. Any new fettlement they could fix on, would be in a colder, worfe, and more barren climate than where they came from ; there their labour would be grea- ter ; the decreafe of the heat of the fun, would make the fruit of their labour come flower to perfection, and the fuccefs of it would be rendered much more precarious. Jabal, the inventor of tents, feems to have lived on the borders of thefe inhofpitable cli- mates ; for the vegetable productions of the earth were not what he cultivated. He was the father of thofe who keep cattle, or whofe livelihood was by flocks. Under thefe circumftances men were tempted to invade the pofTemons of others. Nothing but fuperior force would oblige a man to give up his pofTemons to a robber : this produced that univerfal violence, which men committed, one againfl another ; and the mofr. powerful and fuccefsful invaders, would be (as in our days) accounted the greateft men: and Mofes tells us, that there were then men of great renown on the Earth, Thefe confiderations oblige me to think, that at the time of the flood, the earth could not be fo populous, as thefe calcu- lators hav^e fuppofed. After the flood, the axis of the earth was made, as it now does, to incline three and twenty degrees on the plane of the Ecliptic, fo that the fun, inftead of t 57 1 of being always vertical to one line on the globe, travcrfed, during the year, feven and forty degrees on the meridian. By this the habitable world was enlarged ; by this, the curfe of fterility was taken off (as the different parts of the earth was fertilized by the fucceflive return of the heat of the fun) and by this, the year was divided into different feafons. God faid, While the earth remaineth, feed time and harvcf}^ cold and heat, fummer and winter, and day and night Jhall not ceafe. At the fame time that the habitable world is enlarged, the curfe of fterility taken off, and the age of man fhortened to a hundred and twenty years, Noah is ordered to multiply and re- plenilh the earth. The duty required of man, by the fecond covenant made with Noah, is not fuch as was formerly required of Adam ; For God faid, That the imaginations of man's heart were evil from his youth ; therefore the chief law given, was to ah- ftain from violence and fhedding man's blood (that crime for which the former inhabitants of the earth had been deftroyed) He fold. At the hand of every man, at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man ; fo that no affinity might protect a murderer. This is the fir ft command given to man af- ter the flood ; and this makes the hrft law of fociety.' As the natural length of human life was now fhort- ened, fo the age of puberty came on earlier in life. Semwzs a hundred years old when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood ; but Arphaxad was only five and thirty years old, when he begat Salah. It has been queftioned, whether the ark, (whofe dimenfions are fpecified by Mofes) was capable to contain all the animals faid to be prefcrved in it, along with their food and water. Celfus ridicules it, as too fmall ; but it ought to be adverted to, that a cubit, the meafure by which it was built, is a relative meafure ; it was according to the fize of what men then [ 53 ] when the conftruction of it was ordered ; and altho' the flze of men, by which Noah took the cubit, was larger than it is now, from their longevity, yet we have no reafon to fuppofe that the iize of other animals, which were preferred in it, was any larger then, than it is now. What particular mountain the ark retted on, is not material to know ; whether it w r as a high or a low r one. Upon the receffion of the waters, Noah came down from the ark and facrifked, in acknowledge- JVJl I1V_ \\ AiclUiLailUliO, uiii.il Lii^) \_gi.iiv. iw a iv-iui^ jpiaiii, the land of Shinar (fuppofed to be Mefopotamia) Hitherto they had been few in number, and were directed and governed by Noah and his fons ; but now being increafed to fuch a multitude, as to make it impcmble for thofe only, to judge and direct them, they propofed to eftablifh fome political government ; which, without applying to their fathers, they ima- gined, might fo unite them, as that nothing could deftroy their concord and government. This is ex- preffed by Mofes, by their building a city and tower, ijo hops topjhould reach to Heaven, to make t hem/elves a ■name, when they JJmild be fc after ed abroad on the face of the earth ; but that God, who would have men go- verned by the laws of natural duty only, was difplea- fed at this. Our tranflation fays, that he confounded their language, fo that they could not underftand one the other, on which* the name of the place was called Babels or confufion. What is here tranflated language, properly fignifies lit ; and is as applicable to the exprefiion of fentiment, as to the found of words. Difference in opinion would hinder them as effectually, from coming to any final refolution, as their not underftanding what one another laid. I do not think a miracle is ever em- ployed, [ 59 1 ployed, when the fame efledl may be brought about by natural caufes : an obftinate difference in fentiment, would as effectually break off their con- fultations, and fruftrate their intentions, as a con- fufion of languages ; befides it is evident, no fucli new formation of languages ever happened : for the old Eaftern languages, have, all of them, the Hebrew for their root ; and the variety, which after- wards enfued, may be fuppofed, at nrft only differ- ent dialects, which, in procefs of time, degenerated into different languages. Had their deiign been, by this high tower, to protect themfelves from ano- ther flood, they never would have built it on a plain ; nor was that their reafon, for they faid, they did it, left they fhould be fcattered abroad on the earth. In confequence of this difagreement, they who diffented from this propofal, feparated themfelves from the others, to find out new habitations ; and they who agreed to the propofal, ftaid where they were, and formed a certain model of government. The chief of thefe was Nimrod, who put himfelf at their head, and the firft government we have any account of, is faid to be in thefe plains of Shinar, over which Nimrod reigned. What happened after- wards in the Mofaic account of the world, is con- fined to Abraham and his progeny; fo I mail not follow it further. — I have thus far given my fenti- ments on the Mofaic account of the creation ; and mould now go on to enquire what was the duty originally required by the Almighty, of man to per- form, from the natural knowledge he had endowed his mind with. But before I do this, I mall enquire fomewhat into the nature of the human mind, of which I cannot help entertaining thoughts, different from what are commonly received among men. C II A P- C 60 3 CHAPTER VL Of the Soul. IT is an opinion, almofl univerfally received, that man confifls of two diftinft parts, quite different from each other, viz. the foul and the body ; that the foul is that part which directs, and the body the inflrument acted upon, and put in motion by the foul ; that one is perifhable, and the other not ; that death is only a feparation of the foul, or directing part, from the body or inflrument em- ployed ; that the foul is immortal, but the body perifhable. This hypothecs, altho' univerfally re- ceived, I think liable to many objections. It feems to me contrary to reafon^ to obfervation and to re- vealed religion. The vanity of fchoolmen hath made them determine this by the following fyllogifm — Mere matter cannot think ; the body is mere matter, therefore the body cannot think : Man thinks, there- fore he mufl be endowed with fomething befides his body, to enable him to think, and that fomething elfe, or foul, which enables him to think, mufl be immaterial. Spirits cannot decay, therefore the fpirit, or foul of man, mufl be immortal. I allow that matter, abftracled from every other quality befides fubftance and extention, cannot think ; it would be as the earth was before nature was infti- tuted ; but we know of no fuch matter. The organs of both animals and vegetables are fo modified, as to feparate juices, each proper to itfelf, after its kind. The fame earth, moiftened by rain, will produce vegetables different from, yea oppofite to one another : and the fame food given to dif- ferent animals, will equally nourifh them. It is therefore [ 6i 3 therefore the different modification of the nou- rifhment, by the organs which receive it, that conftitutes this difference in their natures and qualities. But to follow the fchoolmen in their own way : I mufl afk how comes it, that my body is put in motion by my foul ? They anfwer, it is by the influx of the animal fpirits into the ditferent mufcles. If thefe fpirits are matter, they cannot be impelled by what is immaterial. Mere matter muft be diflodged and put in motion, by other matter preffing on it, to compel it to leave its place. A fpirit is immate- rial, and cannot prefs upon it, or oblige it to change its place. If my will were a fpirit, it therefore could not aft on my body, fo as to put it in motion ; but my body is put in motion by my will, therefore my will is not a fpirit. If my will or thinking faculty be not a fpirit, it mufl be a circumftance attending my body, and muft be perifhable with it, whenever it ceafes to perform the functions of life. I obferve a gradation in all organic bodies, from the meaneii: plant to the wifefl man : the fenfibfe. plant will fhrink when hurt ; fome animals do little more. The chief difference between a vegetable and an animal is this ; the one is ftationary or permanent ; the roots, by which it receives nourifhment, are fixed and without ; in the place where the feed falls, there muft it remain, for there it muft be nourished. Animals are locomotive ; the roots by which they are nourifhed are within them ; they mud fearch for, and choofe their food ; they are unconnected al- together with the place where they get their nou- rifhment ; they receive it by the mouth and pre- pare it in the ftomach, and their guts aft the part of roots ; they feparate what is proper for nouriih- ment, and difcharge what is not. I know of no animal but what has a will, a fenfe of pleafure and pain : many of them have an evident judgment. They [ 62 2 'They compare ideas together, and fix upon that re- ibiution, moft probable to bring about the end propofed, The cunning of the fox, the caution of the hare, the watchfulnefs and fidelity of the dog, the care of mothers to defend their young, their attacking other animals, from whom they dread offence to their young, mow their judgment, which is only a lefs degree of the human. Have all animals immortal fouls ? They have all a mind or faculty of thinking and judging, and by the fchoolmen's account muft have an equal right to an immortal director, as the human fpecies ; but they don't alledge this. It is the vanity of men only, which makes them deny what they cannot comprehend. They cannot comprehend how matter mould think ; they therefore deny it the power of thought, and have joined a fpirit or immortal part to the body, to perform thought, and inforce it to action. The queftion is not made clearer by this fuppofition, nor the folution nearer ; it only makes way for another queftion ; how can objects, applied to the fenfes, affect this fpirit ? The figure of an object painted on the retina, or the effluvia ftriking the noftrils, can make no impreffion on a fpirit ; for this is altogether done by the application of matter to matter. It all comes to this queftion, mow, how matter can either affect, or be affected by, what is immaterial ; but this they have never at- tempted to do. We have numberlefs inftances of men, who, from being endowed with the moft pro- found knowledge, penetration and learning, fo as to feem, even to furpafs human capacity, have been afterwards fo altered by difeafes, as to become below brutes in their mental faculties, altho' at the fame time they continue poffeffed of their natural ones in great ftrength and vigour. What has become of their foul at this time ? Where doth it mow its exiftenee C 63 ] cxiftence ? If an alteration in the body is capable to make this alteration in the foul ; for the fame reafon, a diffolution of the body mull alfo make a dif- folution of the foul. There are many operations in nature which we cannot account for. The mag- net, Electricity, and many other things, mow us effects we cannot account for : are we therefore to deny them ? or fay they are directed by a fpirit ? It ieems to me, that to fay matter^ which ever way modified, cannot think, is to fet bounds to Almighty Power. It is nonefenfe ; every thing is poifibie to him, which does not imply a contradiction. To account for the modification of matter in the growth of vegetables, or thought in brute animals, is as far above the comprehenfion of the human mind, as to account for thought and will in themfelves. It is certain, that judgment is in a greater degree of perfection in the human race, than in any other animal ; but that this fuperior perfection muft be owing to the attendance of an extroardinary being, as a foul or immortal fpirit, is not neceflary. Secondly. I mall enquire what information, obfervation gives us on this head. It would have conduced a great deal to illuftrate this* had it been determined, what is the nature of this im- mortal fpirit, this incomprehenfible being, Which attends and directs the body. For want of fuch information, I am obliged to underftand a fpirit in this light : It is an intellectual being, without fubftance or parts ; who enjoys at all times, an uninterrupted power of thought, without being affected by matter, fo as to add to, or take from its intellectual power of judging. Thought in it is an intrinfic knowledge, a quality which retains its force without fatigue or decay ; experience may make it wifer, but never weaker ; for what- ever is capable of becoming weaker in its faculties, mar C 64 ] may at lad lofe them altogether, and become non- existent or mortal : and a fpirit without its intel- lectual faculties is nothing. Let us compare this idea of a fpirit with the human mind. There are none fo little converfant with human nature, as not to have obferved, that as children advance in years, they advance in judgment ; their firfl ideas are thofe of pleafure and pain ; next is joined memory, and afterwards reafon ; whence proceeds judgment, compofed both of memory and reafon : Alio, that when the body has attained to its utmoft growth and ftrength, the mind is then in its utmoft vigour ; that when old age has wore out the body, fo doth the mind lofe its faculties, and become foolifh. But a knowledge of the animal oeconomy has en- abled us to carry our obfervations further, and with more certainty ; it has pointed out the particular organs of the body, whence proceed life and thought. Thefe are found to be the brain, as divided into two parts ; from them are fent forth the nerves, thefe inflruments thro' which, all fenfation and action are communicated to the judgment by the fenfes, and through them, by the will, to the mufcles of the body. If we examine man phyfically, and begin with his conception, and follow him thro' the different ftages, from the origin of life to natural death; it will appear in the following light : When the Se?nina maris et femina are at the fame time thrown into the womb, and conception follows, the embrio is nourifhed in a vegetative way, by receiving its nou- rishment, by an ^external root from the mother, by veiTels which carry and return the blood from her to the child : by thefe, the parts of the child form, and enlarge themfelves to that ftate which enables it to execute its own functions. The firfl action of animal life is, fiom the cerebellum to the heart; this brings on a contraction of the heart : the mechanifm C 6 5 ] of which, occafions an alternate contraction and dilatation in it ; and the foetus does then become an animal. In animals the brain is the organ, or re- fiderice oi life and thought ; it is divided into two parts, viz. the cerebellum and cerebrum ; the cere- bellum is folid, its function is to be in continual action ; from it are fent thefe nerves, which go to the parts which are the immediate inflruments of life, whole action cannot ceafe, but death muff en- fue. The cerebrum is not folid ; it has fcveral cavities ; it is the feat of thought, memory, judg- ment and fenfation ; it cannot bear continual action ; it is capable of being tired, and becomes unable to continue its functions ; its operations mufi be fome- times mfpended, and allowed red to recover its flrength : circumftances quite incompatible with the idea of fpirit. When by circulation and ncurifhment, the cere- brum is fo enlarged, as to be able to execute any of its functions, the fectus fhows the beginning of thought by voluntary motion. This period is com- monly called the mother's being quick. It con- tinues after this to be nourifhed in the womb, until its parts are fufhciently formed, and the mind en- dowed with fuch inilincYive faculties, as to enable it to live without the root, or immediate communica- tion with the mother : the connexion is then difibl- ved, it is thruft out from the mother, and demands nouriihment by the mouth. The mind is then in in that degree of flrength, which fhows its dehres to what pleaies it, and uneahnefs to what offends it. As it is the action of the cerebellum which gives motion to the heart ; fo long as the flrength of the heart, in impelling the blocd thro' the arteries, is fuperior to their refiftance, fo long will thefe vefTels continue to extend themfelves further ; fo long will the body continue to enlarge and expand ; fo long E will c 66 : will the cerebrum continue to enlarge and dilate itfelf ; and fo long will the ftrength of the mind con- tinue to encreafe. And as the body acquires its ut~ mod degree of ftrength, fo doth the mind, its utmoft degree of vigour. And when the extremities of the arteries, are removed to fuch a diftance from the heart, or impelling power, as makes their refiftance equal to the impelling force of the heart, the veffels then cannot be further extended ; the body ceafes to grow longer ; thefe two powers become in equi- librio ; the vefTels retain their extenfion, the heart cannot force them further ; the body has arrived at its full growth, and the judgment to its utmoft vigour. When by age the veffels become rigid, fo that the force of the heart is infufficient to keep up a ftrong circulation in the extreme arteries, their elaftic power makes them contract, the body turns weaker, and the mind lefs vigorous ; it be- comes diffident and cautious ; it confults experience and obfervation to aflift the judgment. As age ad- vances, judgment and memory gradually decay ; the fenfes are blunted ; and as the body approaches, thro' age, to diffolution ; fo doth the mind fink into idiotifm. Thus, in a natural progrefs, doth the body and mind proceed in equal ftages, from the beginning to their utmoft ftrength, and from thence defcend again to their difTolution; in which courfe, the ftrength of the mind depends altogether on the ftate of the body. But obfervation has carried us ftill further, it enables us to determine what are the par- ticular organs which are the feat of life, and what are thofe of judgment, independent one of the other : for as life feldom goes on, in one equal uninterrupted ftate, the vital faculties may be entire, and yet the judgment be weakened ; as in the cafe of drunkennefs, madnefs, a ftroke of an apoplexy, fevers, fractures or contufions of the ikull, &c j where the heart con- C 67 ] continues its ftrength, but judgment and memory are both loft. At other times, from a failure in the action of the heart, or executive power of the cere- bellum, a perfon faints and dies, while his memory and judgment continue ftrong to the laft. While the cerebellum performs its function, the heart will propel the blood through the arteries, and the per- fon may continue vigorous, altho', at the fame time, in a great meafure deprived of his judgment, from any caufe which hurts the cerebrum. In like man- ner, if the cerebrum is in a found ftate, and the cerebellum hurt ; the perfon dies in a full enjoyment of his judgment and recollection : So that the facul- ty of thought depends entirely on the cerebrum, and that of life, on the cerebellum. From obferva- tion I muft therefore conclude, that thought and judgment is not a Fpirit diftinct from, but only a cir- cumftance attending matter particularly modified ; and that the cerebrum is that matter thus modified. Was it otherwife, I cannot reconcile to my reafon, how an apoplexy, a palfy, drunkennefs, a fracture of the fkull or old age mould deprive a fpirit of its faculties ; for a fpirit can receive no change in its faculties, by the application of . matter. It there- tore mull be inferred from obfervation, that matter may be fo modified, as to become endued with fuch intellectual powers, as to make it approach near to fpirit. The author of the pfalms, in contemplating the Divine Power, in his formation of the human mind, and endowing it with wifdom, fuperior to all his other works on earth, breaks out in thefe words, When I behold the heavens the work of thy bands, what is man that thou art mindful of him f for thou, baft made him a little lower than the Angels (or fpi- rit s) and crowned him with glory and worfhip. It feems from this, that he did not think the human mind was in itielf a fpirit, otherwife he would not E 2 have C 68 ] have called it lower than one ; but only that God had made it approach near to one. Thirdly. The idea of an immortal fpirit, diflincT, yet directing and commanding the body, is contrary to that doclrine taught by Jefus Chrift and his Apoflles. The bafis of chriftianity is an affurance, that, at the end of the world, all the human race fhall be raifed from the dead to receive judgment, according to their works while on earth ; and at that time of appearance, that their bodies, which were mortal, will be changed into immortal fpirits, Mark, chap. xii. and 24. Jefus faid unto them, you are deceived, you know not the fcriptures, neither the foiver of God, for when men fb all rife from the dead, they fhall be as the Angels or fpirits in heaven. The Sadducees defigned, in an ironical manner, to expofe the fuppofition of a future exiflence after death, by aiking whofe wife Ihe mould be at the refurreclion, who had feven hufbands, while on earth. This queftion was built on a fuppofition, that the refurrecYion fpoke of by Chrift, was to be a re-exiflence ot the body, when mankind would reafTume the fame relation to one another, as they pofTefTed on earth ; ' but he told them they were miftaken, and deceived themfelves by this fuppo- fition ; that they did not conceive how far the power of God extended ; which was fuch, as would change that body which we poflefs here, into a fpiritual one ; and that men at the refurrection would become fuch beings, as the angels are, who are incapable of any fuch relationship as hufband and wife. Hence it follows, that before that folemn day of judgment, men are not as angels or fpirits ; and that this immortality doth not commence until that time : they to whom he fpoke, did not conceive how a refurrecTion of the body could be, or future judgment without it : he therefore told them, they knew not the [ 69 ] the power of God. Paul in the ift. Corinth, chap. 15, has attempted to explain this. How fay fome among you , there is no refurreclion of the dead? But if there be no refurreclion of the dead; then is Chrifl not rifen, and they who are afleep in Chrift are per? ifhed; but now Chrifl is rifen from the dead, and is made the fir fl fruits of them that flept. But fome will fay, how are the dead raifed up i And with what body come they forth : Oh fool! That which thou fowefl, is not that body which fball be, but Godgiveth it a body at pleafure, There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies ; fo alfo at the refurreclion of the dea$> the body that is fown in corruption, is raifed in incor- ruption; it is fown a natural body, and it is raifed a fpi ritual body ; howbeit that was not firfl made f which is fpiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is fpiritual ; and as we have borne the image of the earthly, fo /hall we alfo bear the image of the heavenly, and when this corruptible puts en incorruption, and this mortal flj all have put^ on im- mortality, then fi all be brought to fafs the faying that is written, Death is fwallowed up in victory. Here is not fuppofed a feparation, but a change of a body into a fpirit ; for flefh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Behold / fhow you a myftery,^ we JhaUnot all fleep, but we fh all all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead fh 'all 'be raifed incorruptible : Or that altho' fome may be alive when that general day of judgment comes ; yet they (hall all undergo the fame change, from a corruptible to an incorruptible body, both the living and the dead : and that the fpiritual body does not commence until this general change at the refurrec- tion ; that it makes no part of the earthly body, or any way joined to it ; he fpeaks of the fpiritual body, as a future circumftance to befall us ; So alfo /hall we bear She image of the heavenly. If this fpi- £ ^ ritua! C 70 ] ritual body exifted immediately after death, and was then judged, there would be no future, or general judgment, nor any occafion for it ; yet Jefus Chrift, in many places, refers the rewards and punifhments, to this future day of judgment, when every idle Word which men mall fpeak, they mall give account thereof. Paul fays, If there is to be no re-fur reflion* then they who are dead are perifhed ; and if in this life only we have hope in Chrift, we are of all men the moft miferable. For without a refurre&ion, we can have no future expectation, no further exiftence : We here undergo pain and mifery, without any hope of reward; we become annihilated. But if the mind or intellectual part is not fufpended by death, the man cannot be faid to be perifhed without a refurrec-* tion. A refurreclion mud .fignify a re-exiftence of fomething, which betwixt death and this period, did not cxift : And both Chrift and the Apoftles have declared plainly, that this re-exiftence is not to be a bodily one, or compofed of matter ; but one after the manner of Angels or fpirits. What is it then, that is to commence at the refurrecYion ? if it is not a body, it mufl be a fpirit. But if the foul or mind is only a circumftance attending life, then the extent of thought in one animal above another, or in one man above another, mult be owing, merely to the modification of the brain being more ex^ quifite in one animal, or in one man, than in another ; and upon this fuppofrtion, all the difficul- ties which arife, in accounting for the different de- grees of knowledge in different animals, or in dif- ferent individuals of the fame fpecies, and in the fame individual at different times of life, or affecled with different difeafes, vanifh. It has been believed by mankind tince the begin- ning of time, that there will be a future exiftence, and judgment pronounced after death, and certain- ty C 71 J ly with great juflice thought fo. The fecret horror, with which our minds reproach us, when we do a bad action, (tho* entirely unknown to the world) and the fecret pleafure it gives us, when we do a good one, without looking for applaufe or reward from men, convinces me that a time will come for all men to be judged, to be rewarded or punifhed for what they do here on earth. Before Chrifl, it was believed, that this future judgment was, on death, immediately pafled on the foul or intellectual part, which death did not deflroy, but only feparate from the body : hence came their notions of Elyfian fields, Tartarus and the infernal judges. Chriftianity does not countenance any fuch opinion, as a feparation of the foul from the body at death ; it fays plainly, that the dead will reft in their graves until the refurrec- tion, when man is to be converted into a fpirit, and judged at the laft day, each according to his works done in this life. Both Pagans and Chriftians believe in a future (late ; they differ only as to the manner and time of its commencing. How this change is to be wrought, I cannot conceive ; but if I denied it, from my ignorance, I mould deny the power of God. It is above my capacity to comprehend what a fpirit is ; I can form no idea of it ; yet I am cer- tain fuch beings may be, for the Almighty power exifts, the firft caufe ; and I am alfo certain that his exiftence cannot be circumfcribed by a body or fhape. And if fuch beings as fpirits do exift, I cannot fee why an infinite gradation of fuch, may not exift alfo, down to the capacity of animated matter. It is impomble for a man to comprehend how he himfelf is formed ; yet it is evident his origin is a fecretion by a gland, from the common mafs of blood, pro- duced from food taken into the ftomach. Solomon and Sir Ifaac Newton were the production of what their fathers eat. This is an operation in nature, beyond E 4 'the [ r- 1 the human mind to conceive; yet he would be ac- counted a madman who denied it. On thefe conliderations i think, that the mind or foul dies with the body ; and continues in the ft ate of death, until the divine power fhall, at the lall general flay, or time of judgment, change it into a fpirit. It is agreeable to reafon, to obfervation, and to the doctrine taught by Jeius Chriil and his apof- tles. It (betas to me abfurd, to fuppofe a general day of judgment at the end of the world, and at the fame time, a previous judgment immediately on death. One fet of Chriftians have endeavoured to remove this abfurditv, by fuppoling an intermediate Irate, betwixt death and judgment ; and have alTigned purgatory, as a place of refidence for the fouls of men, before the general day of judgment. But this notion has been broached by men, for lucrative pur- pofes ; to enrich themfelves and deceive the ignorant ; who ought to be told, that the chriftian doctrine afTures us, that there is no forgivenefs without repen- tance, and that there is no repentance after death ; that we then return to the earth from whence we were taken. Duff ive are and into du(l /hall we re- turn, until it pleafes the Almighty, to raife us at the day of judgment, by changing thefe our earthly bo- dies into fpiritual ones : for to fuppofe rewards and punifhments are immediately aihgned to men after death, is to fuppofe juftice to be executed, before judgment is pronounced. There is to be one general dav of judgment at the end of the world, when rewards and punifhments will be affigned, according to every man's deferts ; tvhen every hidden thinz u-;ll come to bvbt. Among men, punilhment before judgment is un- jufl and abfurd ; how much more fo in that Being, whofe attributes are juftice and mercy. From C 73 J f m what I have faid in another place, I believe e was certainly a time when this world began : I if I mav 1; ■■: allowed to iuppofe, what was before this per . fee no abfurdity in thinking, that many wqrujs ""' bave prececcd ours, in fucceilion to one another: whole inhabitants nnVht be endowed as we are, who had been tried and judged, as we thai! be. I ca/.rct think that the ail juft Being would have created any one, either to eternal happinefs or miff thaut fome previous acl of their own, to deferve thefe rewards or punifhments. We believe in good and bad fpirits, angels and devils. I am apt to believe that thefe are Beings, to whom, on fome former trial, thefe rewards and punifhments have been adjudged ; and that, at the day of judgment, we mall be converted into fuch, according to our merits here on earth. The fuppohtion of the fouls being diilincl from the body, and to exifl after death, involves a Chriflian in an hypothecs he is not aware of; which is, that at the refurrection, man will have two fouls ; for by the information of Chrift and his apoflles, he mud believe, that, at the refurrec~tion, this earthly corruptible body will be changed into a fpiritual one, for corruption cannot inherit incorruption\ that at the day of judgment, the feci and the grave r xill deliver up their dead, in order to undergo this change ; and that our not conceiving how this can be done, our Saviour tells us, is owing entirely to our ignorance of the power of God. St. Paul, in explaining this, tells us, that the body which dies, or is fawn a cor- ruptible body, fball, at the refurreclicn, be changed into an incorruptible, or fpiritual one. As thofe palTages fhow this fpiritual change muft happen at the refur- rection ; the other fpirit or foul, which fullered no change on death, muft make a fecond foul at the refurrec~tion. I (hall [ 74 3 I fhall conclude this chapter, with obferving, that as there is to be a refurre&ion of the juft and unjuft, when all men fhall be judged, each according to the deeds done in the body ; it no w r ay concerns our falvation or condemnation, whether we believe, that the foul is immortal, and only feparated from the body by death ; or that the human mind dies with the body, which, at the refurrecYion, is to re-exifl, and put on the nature of a fpirit, and from that time become immortal. Deut. xxix, v. 29, The fecrei things belong unto the Lord our God, but thofe which are revealed, belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may obey all the words of the law. Our Saviour sfter his refurrection, told his difciples, that it does not belong to us to enquire after thofe things, w r hich the Father hath been pleafed to conceal, and I mould not have fpoken on this fubjeft at all, had not that grofs abufe which hath crept into Chriftianity, viz. purgatory, and prayers to dead men, obliged me to fpeak of it, and mow the falfe foundation, which that delufion is grounded upon. CHAP- [ 75 ] CHAPTER VII. Of 11 E L 1 G I o n; Qr, tbofi Duties required of M a n by G o d. I Have given my reafons, for fuppofing that this our earth, neither has been, nor can continue for ever; that its beginning muff have been from a limited time ; and its difpofition, the work of an Omnipotent Power ; that the Creator hath appointed animals into different dalles ; and endowed each with a different proportion, or degree of reafon and judgment ; that the human race is diftinguifhed, by 'fuch fuperior endowments, as that fomething more is required from this fuperiority, than what is ex. acted of brutes. If I believe in the exiftence of a fupreme Being, I muff alfo believe that I ought to obey him. I cannot imagine that divine juflice would require obedience, without informing me, what are theie laws, which he requires I mould obey. It is impollible for the human mind to comprehend what God is ; that is an idea, too great to be circumfcribed by our conception. Yet, from what we are enabled to form, it is impomble to feparate truth and juffice from that idea, or that he will require a duty from man, which he has not endowed him with knowledge of, and capacity to perform. Human laws, made for the good and convenience of fociety, may t>e impofed on a multitude under fuhjecYion, by ver- bal or written orders, although the multitude are left ignorant of the motives, for which thele laws were enacted ; they are bound to obey them, or quit that fociety. But laws given by God to man, muff be fuch as every one, as a man, mult be acquainted with; for C 76 ] for.'m the fight of God all men are equal, and make but one fociety ; and thefe laws rauft be equally Lm- preflcd on his mind, as the knowledge of his exis- tence : to fuppofe otherwife, is to fuppofe the Al- mighty capable of injuftice. I mall conhder religion, firft as a man, and then as a chridian. As a man, I rind the only beings on earth fubject, to religious obligations, are the human fpecies ; and that they alone, are endowed with conicience and reafon. The juftification, or condem- nation of one brought to judgment, muft be deter- mined from his conforming, or not conforming, to fome known law or rule of acYmg. There is no rule of acting, which fubjects a man to judgment, and excufes the brute, but that endowment which the human mind poddies, and the brutes do not. This therefore mult be the law, by which man is to be tried : his confidence is fuppofed to tell him his obligation, and his reafon the manner, in which he is to execute it. If then I want to know the duty which God requires of me, I muft examine what are thefe laws, he has not only imprinted on my mind, but alfo, by univerfal confeilion, what are required of all others to conform to. This univer- fal afifent to what is our duty, is called confcience y or the religion of nature ; which tells me, I am to lead a life of humility to my maker, and be refigned to his will ; to obferve truth, juftice, mercy and benevolence to all mankind \ and to make no other life of my dominion, over that part of the creation, which he has put under me, than what my necef- fities, or ufe of life require : that altho' my ftation in the clafs of beings, gives me a privilege to de- mand their fervice, it gives me none, to divert my- felf with their pain : We and they are made of the fame materials (day), and are both at an infinite diftance from that Being who made us. The whole in- C 77 ] information, which my confcience gives me as duty, feems comprehended in thefe ; and that it I think or adt, either beyond, or not up to them, I tranf- grefs the law of God. But altho' confcience (or the idea of right and wrong,) is the fame in all men, yet reafon which is to explain and apply this rule, con* fcience, is not equal in all men : our reafon is often led aftray by ignorance, by paflion or prejudice ; from whence different opinions, or ways of worfhi-p have fprung up. Some few think that the Almighty is able, ofhimfelf to direft the world, and will require of no man a further conformity to his will, than as his confcience has informed him, what that will is ; while the major part of the world think, that God has been deficient in his information, and that his omimons mud be fupplied ; that the obfervance of bodily ceremonies, and the belief of certain tenets, neither intruded to confcience, nor comprehend- ed by reafon, are neceifary, if men would be accept- able to God ; that he requires their aihTtance to ex- plain and enforce his will. In confequence of this, they declare their wifdom to be the wifdom of God ; and out of zeal to ferve him, think it their duty to exterminate every opinion, which fuppofes God may be worfhipped, in a manner different from their imaginations ; and conclude, that all men mould be deftroyed as wicked, who diflent from them ; and altho' neither reafon, confcience, nor fcripture tell them, they have a right to judge their brother, they think, that by perfecuting fuch as differ from them, they do God fervice. They will not trud the Almighty with vengeance, or delay punifhment until the day of judgment, but will ferve God, whether he will or not, in the manner, they judge moil proper, he fhould be ferved. — Were the Almighty as ignorant of my thoughts as men are, who can only judge of w T hat panes in the mind by external fignals, I fhould think I 78 ] think myfelf obliged to fhow the fmcerity of my- worfhip, by fuch rites and ceremonies, as fads* penance, facrifkes, bending the knees, &c. but he who knows my moft fecret thoughts, needs no external fignals, to inform him of my intentions ; he requires to be worfhipped, infpirit and in truth, Hy- pocrify cannot deceive him; it may add to my crime, but cannot take away from his knowledge. Ceremonies have tended more, to deceive the under- (landing and lead it affray, than inflruct it. Men who think it a religious duty to obferve them, are apt to neglect the weightier matters of the law. The Jewifh prophets are conftantly upbraiding them with this neglect. Jeremiah fays, Truftnot in lying words ; the church or temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this : Amend your ways and judge uprightly be- tzveen man and man ; opprefs not the ftr anger, the fatherle/s nor the widow ; fbed not i?inocent blood, nor worfhip ft range gods. What have I to do wih the multitude of your facrifices f who hath required them cf your hands f I /poke not to your fathers, nor com- manded them, concerning facr if ces and burnt offerings i But this I commanded them, that they obey my voice, (or that inward law implanted in their mind to direct them.) And Ifaiah, Chap. 58. 'J hey fay, wherefore havewefaftcdf wherefore have we afflicted our fouls, and thou regardefl us not f Behold in the days of 'your j "aft, you fndpleafure. Ton f aft for ft rife and debate ; to bow down the head like a bidrufh, to ffread fackcloth and apes under you ; will you call this a faft acceptable to mef The f aft I require is, to loefen the bond of wickednefs, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, &c. Shall you fteal, murder, commit aduU try, [wear falfty, and burn incenfe to Baal ; and then c:j and ft and before me in this houfe, and fay, we are delivered, notvithflanding thefe abominations, f* IV ha!, is my houfe become a den of robbers f or in modern C 79 1 modern words, will your going to church excufe your wicked actions ? does the obfervance of cere- monies and external rites, give you a privilege to commit iniquity ? Therefore, faith the Lord, my fury Jb all be poured out agauijl this -place to deflroy it. When the Jews accufed the difciples of Chrift, of a breach of the ceremonial law of Moles, by pluck- ing the ears of corn on the fabbath, he told them-, that if they knew the meaning of thefe words of the prophet Hofea, / require mercy and not facrif.ee, they would not have condemned the innocent : and he dcfires them to learn it, When Job is tempted by his wife, and wrongfully accufed by his friends, he, in his juftification, recounts his behaviour, in the different fcenes, wherein men may be fuppofed to trefpafs ; and cannot find one inftance, to accufe himfelf of (in : he indeed wonders at his afflictions, and in this furprize, wifhes his adverfary had wrote a book, which might more amply acquaint him of his duty \ that he would examine it with a greedy attention, to difcover wherein he had (unknowingly) offended ; but not in all the crimes, either fuppofed by himfelf or his accufers, does the neglect of external rites and cere- monies ever enter their thoughts. Their whole rea- soning is employed, in his afTerting, and their doubting his conformity to the moral duties. Among the heathens, of clear judgment and un- byafed confeience, all religion is faid to confiffc in obferving a humble reverence to the Gods, and a (trie! conformity to the moral duties ; that neither pleafure nor pain, threats nor promifes, hopes nor fears, mould induce men to deviate from that internal rule, right reafon. Jefus Chrift told the Jews, he was not come to deitroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them : And when they told him, that, by the law of Mofes, a man might di- vorce his wife on any caufe of diflike, he anfwered, that I So ] that altho* Mofes, for thehardnefs of their hearts, or pervcrfe difpofitions, was obliged to allow them this, liberty, yet the law was not fo from the begin- ning, or by the law of nature, which he came to felrik Paul fays, When they, who have not the law, do by nature, the things contained in the law, they are a law unto themfelves ; their confci- ence hearing witnefs, accufing or excuftng their thoughts at that day, when God Jhall judge the fecrets of hearts. My confcience is then the evidence by which I am to be tried ; it is the monitor within' me, which tells me what is right or wrong. My reaibn tells me, that the Divine Being is not to be im- pofed on, that he requires the worihip of the mind, and not of the body : Rites and ceremonies regard the body only ; and are therefore no part of the worfhip he requires. That being, who knows my molt fecret thoughts, requires no expletive by out- ward fhoar. Jeremiah, fpeaking of thofe, who in future times, were to be obedient to the law of con- fcience, fays, In thofe days, they Jhall no longer fay, the fathers have eaten a four grape, and the children's teeth are fet on edge ; but every man pall die for his own iniquity. The covenant which I Jhall make with them, is this; I will put my law in their minds , and in their hearts will I write it ; they Jhall no more teach every man his brother, nor every man his neighbour, faying, know the Lord ; for they fh all all know me, from the leaf to the greatejl ; and if they obey this cove- nant, I will be their God, and they Jhall be my people ; I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their jins no more. To remember fins no more, fignifies a pre- vious commimon of fins, which, on repentance and amendment, were to be forgiven. This pafTage comes nearer to the aiTurance given by Jefus Chriit, than any other in the Jewifh prophets ; it implies a promife of forgiveneis of fms,. on repentance and amend- [ 8i Q amendment of life. This is what natural rcafoh (merely) does not give us any eaufe to hope for : that only tells us, that if we do good, we Jhall be re- warded, but if we do evil, we Jball be f unified. With refpect to religious duties, the religion of thrift differs no more from that of nature^ than the root of a tree does from its branches ; the fruit pro- duced is the fame ; for chriitianity doth not alter, but explain the law of nature.— A ftricl: obfervance of moral duties conflitutes natural religion : Chrift fays, be innocent and all virtue follows of courfe. In the Mofaic Allegory, innocence is called the tree of life : and if we purfue the allegory, it will come out thus ; The fruit of the tree (which Adam was re- quired to iced on) is the execution of our duty ; the branches fignifies a knowledge of what thefe duties are, which are to influence and direct our actions " y The body of the tree fignifies a good confeience, which prefents thefe duties to our mind ; and the root is innocence, from whence they all proceed, and on which they all depend, jefus Chrift com- monly makes ufe of allegories to expreis his doctrine, and to convey his inftructions to the world : he fays, except a man be born agdik he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. This can admit of no other, than an allegorical interpretation \ Innocence can be re- prefented by nothing fo properly, as by a new born child. It means, that if a man does not reduce his defires and appetites, to that innocence, as of a new- born child, he will not be accepted of by God. Verily I fay unto you, whofocver Jhall not receive the kingdom of God, as a little child) he [ball not enter therein. Nothing can be agreeable to good morals, which is not innocent. Whatever God requires of man, muft be agreeable to innocence ; the precepts of God are all built on it. It is the fimpiefl rule that can be given, and the moil difeernabie ? men may F be C 82 2 be much eafier miftaken in what they think virtuous, than in what is innocent. Wifdom, directed by confcience and curbed by innocence, is that ftate of mind, to which the fupreme Being, in his covenant with man, has promifed the great reward of a future happinefs in his prefence. The fole caution given by Chrift to his difciples, when he fent them abroad to teach the world, was, Be ye wife asferpents and innocent as doves, Wifdom is the particular gift of God, and is diflributed to man in different propor- tions ; but a fenfe of confcience and knowledge of innocence* is given to all men, and by thefe they are directed to apply their wifdom in their defigns and actions. This is reprefented in the parable, by a prince giving money to his fervants, to trade with during his abfence : on calling them to an account on his return, each, who had improved his Hock, is rewarded accordingly ; but he who did not improve it is condemned. Solomon fays, God made man up- right 9 but he hath found out many inventions. God introduced man into life in a (late of innocence, but leaving him afterwards to the direction of his own will, he left that ftate. God, faith the fon of Sirach, hathfet before man, life and death ; and whether him liketh^flmll be given him. Natural religion acquaints man, that according to his conformity to the moral law, he will be either rewarded or punifhed,- but here it flops; it goes no further; here it leaves him. — By tranfgrelTing a law, a man becomes fub- ject to the penalties of it, and none can pardon the trefpafs, but the fame power, by which the law was enacted. The religion of nature gives us no room to think, that repentance for crimes, will procure pardon from God : by it, they who tranfgrefs the law have no hope ; but are left under the dreadful expectation of judgment and condemnation, jefus came and told mankind, that on a fincere repent- ance C 83 3 ance and amendment of life (by returning to that flate of innocence they had left) God would accept of their fubmiffion, pardon their pad faults, and receive them again into favour: and to fhow that he fpoke by authority, he confirmed it by miracles. Miracles are a trefpafs on the laws of nature* The laws of nature are the laws of God, and no power can alter them, but the power that inftituted them : therefore when a miracle is wrought, and brought as an evidence to an afiertion, to which our reafon can neither affent or diffent ; if we are convinced of the reality of the miracle, we muft alfo be con- vinced of the fufficiency of the evidence. Natural reafon gives us no right to expect forgivenefs of crimes ; but neither does it oblige us to think, that God will not pardon thofe, who, on a fmcere re- pentance, return again to their duty. The idea we have of this mercy confirms this hope. Confcience and reafon are the (lamp of God on the human mind, and if it fhall pleafe him to give us further informa- tion, it will not be in contradiction to his former laws ; for God cannot contradict himfelf : But pardon, on repentance and a fubfequent amend- ment of life, does not contradict his former laws ; we have reafon therefore, on fuch evidence to be- lieve it. The gofpel Jefus preached, reduces religion to the greatefl fimplicity ; it requires no learning to fe- parate virtue from vice, by intricate diftinctions ; but may be comprehended by the weakefl judgment. God made man innocent, when he brought him into life ; he requires he mould continue fo, while in it. This is the whole duty of man. He who conforms to this, has not finned ; he wants no pardon. Jefus in the firfl part of his fermon on the mount, pro- nounces fuch particularly bleffed, who conform to it ; whom no reyilings nor perfection can make to de- F 2 part t s 4 1 part from innocence. In the other part of his fer= mon, he (hews wherein men are generally miftaken in their thoughts of good and evil ; he fays, he is not come to deftroy or alter the law, but to fulfil and explain it. But that the law, which fays, Ibott Jhait not murder 9 nor commit adultry^ nor fteal, not bear faJfe witnefs ; that men fhould honour their parents, and love their neighbours, extends much farther than what is implied, by the actual commiflion of what is forbid, or the bare omiflion of what is expreifed ; for that except our righteoufnefs exceeds this, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. 7/ is /aid, thou Jhalt not murder ; but I fay unto you, who- ever Jhall be angry with his brother without a caufe, or, in contempt of his ignorance, fliall upbraid him with being a fool, commits a breach of the law ; for to upbraid a man for natural ignorance, rs to accufe God who made him. In like manner he goes thro* the whole law, and mows that it is the intention of the mind, and not the actual commiflion of any fa& only, that makes a thing criminal before God ; that if our neighbour offends us, we are not to revenge eurfelves ; but we are s to leave both judgment and vengeance to God ; that what befalls an innocent man, is by his per minion - 7 even a hair of your heads flail not fall to the ground without it : Vengeance be- longs to God, who will reward every man according to his works, whether they be good or evil. Te have heard it f aid, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ; but I fay unto you, refifl not evil : take not upon you, to avenge yourfelves of thofe who hurt you ; do good to thofe that hate you and fray for thofe that defpite fully life you : for if you only love and affi(l thofe\ who love and djfift you, what merit have you f What reward can you expeel: ? This is that ftate of inno- cence, he requires finners to return to, which if they do, they will obtain forgivenefs : Were their fins as nd C s 5 ] rrd as fcarkt, they Jhould be blotted out y and become qs while as /now. There is one fin excepted, and which he declares fhall not be forgiven, either in this world or in the next ; viz. the fin againfl the Holy Ghofl : and what this is, we may gather from, the following paflage. (John, Chap. 14, verfe 26.) The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghofl, flail come ; he flail teach you all things, and (chap. 15, verfe 26.) When the Comforter flail come, whom I will fend from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father, he flail tejlify of me. The fin againfl the Holy Ghofl, is then a rebellion, or dif- cbedience to an order communicated direclly from God to man : none but the prophets, infpired by God, fee m to be liable to this fim Thus Jonah's difobedience to the divine commands, comes nearefl to the fm againfl the Holy Ghofl, of any inilance in the old teflament ; but as his difobedience did not arife from perverfenefs, but from terror, he was firil ftopt in his flight by a remarkable punifhment ; and then pardoned on his repentance, and conforming to the orders he firft received* But in the Acls, it is faid, (chap. 6. verfe 3.) Chafe cut from among you, feven men of honefl report, full of the Holy Ghofl and wifdom. So that the Holy Ghoft does not always fignify that fpirit of truth, which can only be had by infpiration from God; but that which fprings from a thorough conviction and knowledge of the duties which God requires of man. Hypocrify, or a de- ceitful orientation in the obfervance of religious ceremonies, in order to be taken notice of by men, is a crime he accufes the Pharifees of; and which he often and particularly warns his difciples againfl. He compares fuch to fepulchral monuments, which are ornamented without, but full of corruption within. This is a denying the omnifcient power of God, whom they would thus impofe on ; he fays 9 F 3 verily [ 86 2 verify they have their reward. They ufe the mow of religion, to deceive men, and avail themfelves of their belief, for vain purpofes. In order to make men conceive his doclxine, he explains the inflitution of life and purport of religion ; that God created mankind to become, at the end of the world, immortal Beings ; that he gave them rules to walk by ; which, accord- ing as they obferved, mould entitle them either to a (late of happinefs or mifery, in that eternity ; that their life here, was only a Itate of trial, which left them to the freedom of their own will, and by obe- dience or difobedience, by their conforming or not conforming to thefe laws he had laid open to their minds, they were to chufe, which ftate they would inherit hereafter. He fet before man, life and death, and which ever he chofe mould be given him. That at the end of the world, all men mould be judged according to their actions in this life, and be reward- ed or punifhed fuitably ; that their own confeience and reafon, (now their monitors) would then be their accufers or excufers, the chief witnefles either to juftify or condemn them; but, that rewards and punifhments are not diftributed here. Do you think, that they, on whom the tower of Si loam fell, were greater finners than all others f I tell you, no. — That riches, grandeur, or long life, were no particular figns of favour from God ; on the contrary, that the great and opulent were in more danger of con- demnation than others ; their ftation tempting them to employ that power entrufted, more to their own vanity and fatisfaction in life, than to the ends for which it was given them. A man cannot ferve two maflers, God and Mammon ; and he who dedicates his mind to riches and ambition, can claim no re- ward at the day of judgment, for his actions on earth $ that it is as difficult for a camel to go thro* the C 87 3 the eye of a needle, as for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven ; that length of days, in general, is fo little eflential to eternal happinefs, or fo feldom employed in a ftrict conformity to the divine law, that the kingdom of heaven is chiefly compofed of thofe, whofe fhort lives had not rendered fubjectto temptation. Suffer little children to come unto me, for offuch is compofed the kingdom of heaven. This doct- rine he fent his difciples abroad to publifh ; which office the clergy now aflume : and what is required of thofe who do affume it, I fhall next examine, both from the prophets, and from Jefus Chrift, and his apoflles. CHAP- CHAPTER VIII. Of the Office of a Clergyman. THE office of a clergyman is, in the old tefta- ment, typified by a watchman or fhepherd ; in the new, by that of a prince fending his fervants abroad to invite men to come to a feaft. In the book of Ezekiel are thefe words, If the people of the- land takz a man from among them, and make him a watchman ; if he feeih the fword come, and bloweth the trumpet and warmth the people, he that will not be warned^ his blood fball be on his own head, and he that re- ceiveth warning, fl?all fave his own life : But if the watchman blow not the trumpet, and if the people be not warned ; if the fword come and take any perfon from among them y his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman ; therefore hear my word an give warning: And if you. do not admonifk. the wicked of his wicked- Tiefs, that he may live ; that fame wicked man Jhall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. (Chap. 34.) As I live, faith the Lord, be- c,aufe my flock is fpoiled, and the fhepherds fed them- felves, and not my fieep ; therefore I come againfl the fhepherds, and will require my fbeep at their hands. Jefus Chrift fpeaking to his diiciples fays, Ye are the light of the world., ye are the fait of the earth : but if the fait fhall lofe its favour, wherewith fhall it be failed f It is good for nothing, but to be cafl cut, and trodden under foot. Peter (ifl Epif. chap. 5th) fays, feed the flock of God, which dependeth on you ; not by conftraint, but willingly, not for fit hy lucre, but of a ready mind ; not as tho 1 , ye were lords, over God's heritage ; but that- & I 39 ] ye may be examples to the flock. Jefus conftantly illuftrates his dodtrine by metaphors, and compares the duty of his difciples, to an invitation to a fupper, by the fervant of a great man. This parable is twice made ufe of. The people invited refute to come ; he therefore orders his fervants to invite all the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind ; and on the table not being full, he commands his fervants to go the high ways and hedges, and compel them to come to the feaft. The meaning of the parable is, that when the Jews, among whom the gofpel was fjrft preached, refufed to liften to it, he fent his difciples abroad in the world to preach it to other nations ; and diredled them., that they were not to confine them- felves to fuch only, who were willing to be inftrucl- ed ; but that tl;ey mould take pains, and ufe their ut- inoft endeavours to convince men of their errors, that they might amend their lives., The propriety of the parable lies in this ^ conviction is to the mind, what compulfion is to. the body ; neither depend on the will : but it would be abfurd to apply thofe means to one, which belong altogether to the other. I might as well lift a burden by thinking of it, as make a man learned by blows. If I want to convince a man of a proportion in Euclid, I mud apply to his reafon ; and (how him, that the properties avert- ed, are the neceffary conlequences of the figure fup- pofed. It is a certain truth, that the three angles of a plain triangle are equal to two right ones. But if I would compel a man to. believe this, I mud demonflrate, from principles which he himfelf allows to be true, that which ever way the angles are in- clined, yet when joined together, they are conftant- ly equal to two right ones : and when his mind is thus informed, he is compelled to believe it. This is the compulfion meant in the metaphor ; altho' £>ad men, for the vileft purpofes, have fubftituted blows I 90 1 blows and tortures, to compel the mind to believe, what it cannot be convinced of by reafon, and ad- duce their authority for doing fo, from this parable. In the other parable in Mathew, the fervants are ordered to go to the high ways, and gather together, as many as they found, both good and bad, and bring them to the feaft. When the prince after- wards, furveying his guefts, obferved one who had not a wedding garment on, him he ordered to be bound hand and foot, and cafl into outer darknefs. To this the kingdom of Heaven is compared ; and which, if taken in a literal fenfe, is a moft unjuft fentence. The invitation was to gather all thofe, both good and bad, that could be found in the high ways, without regard to their drefs or cloaths. But if by compulfion is meant conviction, the fentence is juft. By the wedding garment is meant a life conformable to a man's conviction, and the gueft is punifhed for hypocrify, or acting contrary to his conviction. Paul fays, " If we fin wilfully, after " we have received the knowledge of truth, there " remains no more facrifice for fin, but a certain " looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, " which will devour the adverfaries." CHAP- C 91 ] CHAPTER IX. Of the Messiah. TH E excufe made by our firft parents, far not conforming to the divine law, was, that the feelings of their paflions were too ftrong ; and had therefore yielded to a temptation, which they were unable to refill : but God, to mow he had laid no re- ftraint on them, which they might not have conform- ed to, told them, that one ihould defcend from them, whom no temptation mould make deviate from his obedience, and thereby take off that ex- cufe, the ftrength of paflion, which they allcdged could not be refitted. This defcendant was by the report of the prophets, to come by the line of Abra- ham, Jeffe, fee. " In thy feed mall all the nations " of the earth be blerled." What manner of man this was to be, is thus defcribed by Ifaiah, " There " (hall come forth a rod from the item of JelTe, a " branch mall grow out of his roots ; the fpirit of " the Lord fhall be upon him, the fpirit of wifdom " and understanding, the fpirit of counfel and might, " the fpirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. " He (hall not judge after the fight of his eyes, nei- u ther reprove after the hearing of his ears ; but " with righteoufnefs mall he judge the poor, and re- " prove, with equity, the meek of the earth : he (hall " finite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with " the breath of his lips will he flay the wicked : llight- 9 they are remitted '; and whofe fins ye retain, they are retained. He had cautioned them before his death, to take heed that no man mould deceive them, tor that many would come in his name and deceive many ; but he now gave them the figns, to know the true from the falfe teachers. And thefe figns fhall follow them that believe ; In my name, fhall they cafl out Devils, they fhall fpeak with new tongues, they fhall take up ferpents ; if they drink any deadly thincr, itfhallfiot hurt them; they JJ) all lay their hands on the fick and they fhall recover ; that he was then to afcend to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God ; and would fend them the Holy Ghofl (or that Divine Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father) to inflrucl and direcH them : that theyjhould he brought before kings and governors, to give teflimojiy of his doclrine : but defires them not to be afraid, or concerned at what they w r ere to anfwer ; for it mould be given them at the fame time, what to ray ; for that it would not be they, but the fpirit of God, that fpoke in them. It is the greateft power that can be given by God to men, to forgive fins committed againft himfelf: but Jcfus Chrift has left us evident marks to know fuch, to whom this power is delegated. He who can forgive fins againft God, is one, whom neither the venom of animals, nor poifon can hurt; the applica- tion of whofe hands mould inftantly cure the fick ; and who, without learning, can fpeak all languages. , When I find fuch a man, I fhall believe he has power to forgive my lins, for I believe in Chrift. But if I find any man, or body of men, take on themfelves G 2 to C ioo 3 to forgive fins ; and yet be fubjeft to be hurt, either by venom or poifon ; or who cannot cure the fick by the application of their hands ; I fhall believe fuch to be deceivers, for I believe in Chrift. Paul tells the Galatians, There be fome that trouble you, and would pervert the go/pel of Chrift ; but alt ho* we y or an Angel from heaven, -preach any other gof pel, than 1 have preached, let him be accurfed : for the gofpel which I have preached, is not of man ; neither re' ceived I it of man ; but by the revelation of Jefus Chrift. To the Ephefians, he fays, Let no man de- ceive you with vain words ; for becaufe of thofe things, cometh the wrath of God, upon the children of dif- obedience. Jefus Chrift, after leaving his final in- ftru&ions with his difciples, and telling them that he would be conftantly with them, (or that they Ihould be conftantly under his direction,) afcended into heaven in their fight. It had been a received opinion among the Jews, that, about this time, the Mefliah mould come, and reftore the kingdom to Ifrael ; which they miftook to be that temporal power they had under David. The difciples of Chrift were of the fame opinion ; and altho' by his miracles and refurre&ion, they were convinced he was the Chrift, yet they (till imagined his kingdom was to be a temporal one. Lord, is it at this time, thou wilt reftore the kingdom to Ifrael ? Acls, i ft, 6th. He told them, he would fend them the Holy Ghoft, whereby they ihould know the truth ; he expounded to them the fcriptures, and made them fenfible, what the nature of his kingdom was ; that is was not of this world, but a fpiritual one, to be enjoyed after death. It was foon after the afcenfion of Chrift, that they gave an evident proof of this power, of being authorifedto aft by the Holy Ghoft or Divine Spirit. A man forty years . old, (lame from his birth, and whofe fupport was begging [ 101 ] begging at the gate of the Temple) at the word of Peter, is inftantly cured, to the amazement of every one that knew him : for his being lame, from the place he conftantly attended at for chanty, mud have been known to all in Jerufalem. This miracle, wrought on fo known an object, made fo much noife, as enduced the rulers to examine into it. They cal- led the man reftored to his ftrength of limbs, and Peter before them ; and being fatisfied, that the man, now before them, was the fame beggar they had fo long known lame ; they afked the Apoftles, in whofe name, and by what power they had done this ? to whom Peter anfwered, Te rulers of the people, and Elders of Ifrael, if we are to be examined, by what means this man is made whole ; be it known unto you, that in the name of Jefus, whom ye crucified, who?n God hath raifed from the dead, even by him, doth this man fland before you whole. This anfwer, from men whom they plainly perceived to be unlearned, difconcerted the council. There was no denying the miracle ; it was evident, both to them prefent, and to all in Jerufalem. It reduced them to this dilemma, either that they had wrongfully put a juft man to death, or that the Almighty had perverted nature, and wrought miracles in fupport of falfehood. The firfl they would not allow, and the laft could not be fuppofed ; for, as the man cured of blindnefs, anfwered on a fimiliar occafion, We know that God heareth not finners, but if a man be a worfhipper of God, and doth his will, him he heareth. There was no evading this alternative, and therefore, to fmo- ther all further enquiry, they ordered the Apoftles to preach no more in the name of Jefus, and difmiffed them. On their continuing to preach in his name, the rulers had the Apoftles brought before them a fecond time, and faid, Did we not flriclly command you to preach no more in the name of Jefus f and be- G 3 hold [ 102 J } hold you have filled Jerufalem with your doftrine, and intend to bring this marts blood upon us. It is a practice among bad men, to afperfe thofc they hate, and to alledge every crime againfl them, which a malicious world may be induced to believe. To excufe themfelves for putting Chrifl to death, they afperfed his doctrine, and thofe who followed it, as guilty of what the world mud think criminal. The apoftles (guided only by the fpirit of truth or the Holy Ghoft) were open to the fraudulent defigns of their enemies, They were characterized by them, then judged and condemned by the world, without examination. Paul, to avoid being put to death by the Jews, was obliged to appeal to Csefar, and was thereon delivered up to the Roman governor, in order to be tranfmitted to Rome. He had been examined by Felt us, and his accufers called, to know what charge they had to lay againft him, that along with his prifoner, he might tranfmit his crime. But Feftus told Agrippa, that the Jews had no accufation againil him, of fuch things, as he, from the'ir clamour, imagined they had : but only foine things concerning their own fuperftition ; and about one Jems, who had been put to death, and whom Paul affirmed to be flill alive. This was a crime he had no conception oL If it was a miflake in Paul , it was of too trivial a nature, either for the fenate to inquire into, or for Cxfar to determine on. And it was unreafonable to fend a man prifoner, and at the fame time not withal to fignify his crime. When Paul came to Rome, he addreifedhimfelf to the chief of his countrymen there ; and told them that altho' he had nought to accufe his nation of ; yet to fave himfelf from the fury of fome, who had fw'orn to kill him, he was obliged to appeal to Cxfar. The Jews told him, they had received no letters, nor knew of any particular charge, their na- tion had againfl him: but as to that feci, of which he C I0 3 ] he profeffed himfelf a member, it was univerfally fpoken againft. It is probable, that when Paul was delivered up among the reft of the prifoners, the report of his crime was alfo made, when it appearing, that nothing was laid to his charge, but a difpute with the Jews, whether or not, fome certain man was ftill alive, whom they had put to death ; and which the Jews refented fo greatly, as obliged the prifoner to fave himfelf from their fury, by appealing to Casfar, and putting himfelf under the immediate protection of the Roman governor ; and was fent to Rome, not fo much for being a criminal, as one who fought protection, as being a Roman, that he was then difmifTed : and he remained at Rome for two years in his own hired houfe, where he had full liberty to preach the gofpel, both to Jews and Pagans. But there was one very material difference between thofe whom he was to convert. Both the Jews and he believed in one omnipotent Being as God : to them he was to prove that the Mefliah, promifed and ex- pectedj was this fame Jefus whom they had cruci- fied, but whofe kingdom was not of this world. But the heathens, and particularly the Romans, had an infinite number of gods, which had each their parti- cular temple and mode of worfhip. He was to prove to them, that thefe fuppofed beings, they worfhiped as gods, were only the fictions of men : this was downright atheifm to them. To tell them of one omnipotent, eternal and invifible God, whom no image could reprefent, nor could dwell in temples built by hands, but was every where, and at all times prefent, over all the expanded univerfe ; to tell them of Jefus Chrijl who was come into the world for their inftruction, whofe precepts they were to obferve, whofe example they were to follow, who was born and brought up in Judea, whom the Jews had un- juftly put to death, who afterwards re-afiumed life, G 4 con- [ I0 4 ] converfed with men on earth, and then (in their fight) was taken up to heaven ; this was a doctrine or fyftem,- fo widely different from what they were brought up to believe ; from what they could conceive ; that they ■would naturally conclude with Feftus, that Paul was mad, and thefe notions the productions of a diftem- pered brain. All new fyftems require time to make them fami- liar to the mindj before it will allow an examination of them. . It is with difficulty prejudices can be laid afide, or the judgment induced to confider fuch no- velties in a ferious manner. But when by the conti- nuance of Paul's preaching, and the curiofity of thofe ■who went to hear him, men were induced to examine into the credibility of what he preached; they firft began to doubt their own, and afterwards to adopt his doctrine. Curiofity is natural to mankind : A doct- rine even feemingly abfurd, inclines men to hear and examine, what can be faid in fupport and juftification of it. This produced more hearers, and a further inclination to examine. The more they heard, the more they wanted to examine, until their curiofity ended in conviction ; the confequence of which was, an evident defertion of the heathen temples. The heathen priefts were too much concerned in this, not to be alarmed : they applied to government, to abolifh this new feet. Men who denied the very exiflence of their gods, could have no regard for them, and they who did not regard the gods, would not be bound by any tie of virtue ; whence arofe that uni- verfal prejudice againft them, as men capable of every vice. Thus Tacitus reports them to be men, who, for their deteftable crimes ', were univerfally hated. To tell truth in part of any thing, and falfify the reft, is the fureft method to make calumny believed. It was true, the Chriftians paid.no regard to the gods of the Romans, but their believing in one univerfal omni- [ <°5 ] • omnipotent God, was concealed ; and inftead of that, it was laid that they allowed of none other God, bat one J ejus Chrifl, who, in the reign of Tiberius, fuffered death as a criminal, when Pontius Pilate was p-ocurator of Judea. Calumny thus artfully propo- gated, was the caufe of all the fubfequent perfec- tions of the Chriflians. Had Tacitus enquired, or informed himfelf of the tenets of the Chriflians, he would have allowed them to be more pure in vir- tue than all thefe gods he worfhipped, cf whom he fays,/ "'Such was the lukewarmnefs or indifference " of the deities, that they were alike unmoved by Jf patterns of righteoufnefs and thofe of iniquity,'* (Anal. 7th) The increafe of the Chriflians, notwith- standing the fevere punifhments inflicted on them> induced Pliny to enquire particularly into their te- nets. He wrote to Trajan, that he had examined them in the ftri&eft manner, even by torture ; but that, befide an obflinate fuperftition, he found no- thing but innocence and fimplicity of manners among them ; that by their profeflion, they were neither to ileal, rob, defraud, commit adultery nor tell a falfe- hood ; that they had meetings before day, where they eat together, and then difperfed ; but although he found nothing criminal done at their meetings, yet he had forbid them ; but that, notwithstanding, their numbers were fo great, that he begged the emperor's directions what to do with them. This queftion could arife only from a fuppofition in Pliny, that although their ftubborn fuperftition, in denying the very exiftence of the Roman gods, made them juftly punifhable, yet their innocence of manners, and ftricl observance of all the moral duties, deferved pity. Trajan thereon direcls, that if the Christians • were brought before him, he mufl punifh them ; but that no inquiry Ihould be made after them. This anforer is rediculed by Tertullian as inconfvftent. To punifh [ I0 6 ] ptinilh men, when brought before a magiftrate, fup- pofes them criminal; and to forbid any enquiry to be made after them, fuppofes them innocent. But if Tertullian's partiality had not outweighed his judg- ment, he would have conhdered, that to fupport the religion eftabliihed in any well regulated government, is the firft object the laws attend to. Chriftianity was quite oppofite to that which the Romans profefied, not only as to the manner, but as to the object of worfhip. If they had any regard for their gods> Chriflianity was the greateft infult that could be offer- ed to them. la defence of their religion, they were obliged to perfecute the Chriftians, and the emperor by his office, was obliged to put the laws in force. Pliny wrote, that except their ftubborn fuperftition, they were a harmlefs and innocent people ; and Tra- jan's order means only this, that in fupport of the laws, they mud. be punifhed when brought before him : but in regard to their moral behaviour in other refpecls, they mould not be fought after. In this light, I fee nothing inconfiftent in Trajan's letter : The Chriftians have not mown the like lenity in like circumftances. Under the Chriftian govern- ment, innocence in morals is no excufe for him, who differs from the orthodox faith. For a man to plead his confcience, will not fave him from being punifh- ed as aheretick. Periecution never anfwers the end propofed ; men are inclined to pity thofe who fuffer, and their pity makes them enquire more minutely into the caufe of their fufrerings ; and often-times makes thofe converts to that religion, who would not otherwife have thought of it. Nero's punifh- ing the Chriftians, by thofe cruel and wanton deaths, for a crime, which all Rome knew, he himfelf only was guilty of, raifed companion in the fpeclators, and made them, notwithftanding the bad opinion inftilled into them of the Chriftians, more minutely enquire in- to [ ^7 ] to the nature of their crimes, into the nature of theb opinions; for their opinions were their crimes. Truth always gains by enquiry. I am perfuadecL. Nero's cruelty did not deflroy more Chriflians, than it gained profclytes to Chriftianity : they v/ere ilDI pfcrfecuted and they (till increafed. I cannot tell whether it was companion or policy, that made Alex- ander Severus favour the Chriflians ; but had he known their tenets, he never would have applied to an oracle to know, whether he mould allow temples to be built to the God of the Chriflians. Demetrius the filver-fmith at Ephefus, had determined that point long before : He heard Paul preach, and foon found that what he taught, was destructive of his interefl; he thereon called together his fellow craftfmen, and candidly laid their mutual danger before them, viz, " By this craft, we have our wealth, but this Paul " has perfuaded and turned away many people, fay- rt ing, that they be no Gods who are made by hands; " fo that not only our craft is in danger to be fet at " naught, but the temple of the great goddefs Diana. " will be defpifed, and her magnificence fet at " nought and deflroyed, whom all .Aiia and the •' world, worfhip." The mod orthodox priefl in the Empire could not have given a more juil, nor a more honefl reafon for abolifhing chriflianity than Demetrius did, withou* the ailiftance of an oracle. The wormip of the God of the chriflians, and that of the fuppofed gods of the reft of mankind, he found, would be inconfiflent. And this was the aniwer the oracle gave to Alexander. CHAP- C 108 3 CHAPTER XL Of Faith. FAITH is a belief, built folely on thefe principles which realbn prefents to the mind. It is de- nned by St. Paul to be, the fubfiance of things hoped for, the evidence of things notfeen. It is a belief, our fenfes can give us no information of; it does not come under comparifon with what we obferve. Our confcience, fupported by our reafon, is the only evidence upon which we are to ground our belief : by them only we are to judge. The fub/iance of hope is belief which we can never increafe to perfuafion, except our reafon firft makes it probable. Through faith we under fl and that the world was formed by the word of God, fo that the things which are feen^ were not made by the things that do appear. The human mind from its confined knowledge, cannot conceive the power, or manner how the fpirit of God oper- ated, when he formed the world : but the idea I have of his omnipotence, is (to my reafon) evidence fufficient, that it was formed at his command. In matters of faith, there mud be a conhftency, be* tween the efficient power and the effect produced : this, when examined by my reafon, and approved of by my judgment, becomes faith or belief in my mind. The idea I have of omnipotent power, is confident with that, of his creating the world, and the inflitution of thefe laws, by which it is go- verned ; but I am obliged, at the fame time to annex to it, an equal idea of juftice in that power ; or, that as he has created inhabitants for this world, and requires obedience from them, fo he muft alfo have endowed them with a knowledge of what thefe laws [ I0 9 ] laws are, to which he requires obedience ; but obe- dience or difobedience fuppofes; a free will, or liberty to chufe if they will obey or not. The idea I have of Divine Juftice, is to my mind, a fufficient con- viction, that he will reward or punifh men accord- ing to their obedience : and univerfal observation tells me, that thefe rewards and punifhments are not diftributed, while men are here on earth. If then men are to undergo a trial, there muft be a re-ex- iftence given them, to fubject them to this trial. Now altho' human knowledge does not extend fo far, as to inform us of the manner of this re-exiftence, or of the nature of thefe rewards or punifhments, then to be allotted ; yet our ignorance, or want of con- ception, from our confined judgment, is no reafon for us to deny that power in the Almighty ; no more than that our not being able to conceive the manner by which the world was created by him, mould in- duce us to believe, that it was never created. That God who created the world, has a power to give a re-exiftence to man, that he will execute this power at an appointed time of judgment after death, and reward every man according to his works, is the bafis of all religion, and the faith fpoken of by St. Paul. The power of God we cannot judge of: but in affairs of this life, we are enabled to judge by comparifon and obfervation ; and by thofe, and our reafon, we are bound to judge. There are many things the objects of faith, in which reafon does not immediately interfere. We often believe hiflory from the faith we have in thofe who report it ; and altho' we were not witneffes of the facts related, yet if our reafon has nothing to object, we receive the relation as truth ; but if our reafon does not difcover fome near affinity between the facts related, and the caufe which produced them, our reafon doubts their truth ; and if it difcovers a con- tradiction C ri ° 3 tradition between what is related and what we ob- ferve, we diibelieve the facts, and conclude the re- lation to be falfe. No hiftorian could induce me to believe, that a fparrow could fly away with an ox ; be* caufe the idea I have of the ftrength of a fparrow, is inconfiftent with the idea I have of the weight of an ox, No caufe occurs to my reafon to object againfl the fuppofed exiftence of Alexander, Julius Cedar or Vef- paiian : But when I am told that Vefpafian wrought miracles, that he cured the blind and the lame ; I afk, to what purpofe did nature fo far go out of its manner, to fhew this power in Vefpafian ? Was it to convince the world, that God had appointed him Emperor, as the kings of England did, when their touch cured the Scrophula ? or was it in evidence to mankind, of fome propofition or particular informa-- tion, which could not be proved without this inter- pofition of providence ? I am told that neither of thefe appeared, or was alledged. I am perfuaded that na- ture will never vary, or go out of its way, to no purpofe ; and that therefore in this, hiftory has re- ported a falfehood ; as one of their own poets very juftly obferves, Nee Dots interfile nifi d'ignus vindice nodus incident. There are certain limits to the na- tural affent of the mind, beyond which true faith or real belief cannot be pufhed : if it is attempted, rea- fonfleps in, and forbids it. Whoever therefore would cnilave the mind, muft inftil into it fome principle to counteract reafon. Dread and fear have been, with great fuccefs, called in for this purpofe. It has been inculcated by the clergy into weak minds, that except men give up their reafon, they cannot be chrhlians, or acceptable to God ; and give for inflance the example of Thomas the Apoftle, who would not give up his reafon or belief on the report of others, that Jefus was come to life again, until he had the demonflration of his fenfes. And he was, on that account C '« J account, blamed by his matter. But this difbeliefin Thomas, did not rife from his reafon but his prejudice : Obfervation on things paft, did not allow him to underftand, or give credit to what his matter had foretold. The other Apoftles were of the fame be- lief with Thomas, before they faw him ; they be- lieved the report of the women was an idle tale. It is aflertedby the clergy, that chrittianityis a re- vealed religion ; the knowledge of which could not therefore be attainable by reafon, which with conf- cience, is the bafis of the religion of nature ; but that Chritt had revealed to mankind a new obligation* quite unknown before, which revelation mutt relate to fome principles of faith, different from, and inde- pendent of thofe, on which the religion of nature k built : for if it did not, it could not be called anew or revealed religion. It therefore cannot be confined to thofe rules, (confcience and reafon) on which that of nature is built. From this it mutt follow, that the Chriftian faith is not to be judged of, by the law of reafon ; and except a man gives up his reafon, and believes in what he cannot conceive, and be fullr convinced of the truth of a proportion he is inca- pable to judge of, he cannot, by the churches doclrine, efcape the wrath of God. After fuch a hard fentence, a man is naturally led to enquire, what are thefe inconceivable proportions, which, in contra- diction to reafon and judgment, he is obliged to be convinced of, to efcape the wrath of God. If I fearch for them among the precepts delivered by Jefus Chritt, I mall not find them ; but I am told they are myfteries, found out by the fathers, con- firmed by councils, and adopted by the church, which has an exclufive power to interpret the pre- cepts and do&rine of Jefus Chritt ; and therefore have a right to pronounce damnation againtt every one, who does not receive their interpretation. To them ( m ) them, to whom this power feems evident, fear and dread will certainly make them throw afide both their confcience and reafon, as the greateft enemies to their falvation. But I am convinced that my reafon and confcience is the law implanted in me by God : I will therefore give more credit to that law, than to their interpretation, whatever be the power, by which they claim a right to impofe it ; and will examine by myfelf, the doctrine delivered by Chrift, without regard either to the power or the threats of the church. I find in the doctrine of Jefus Chrift, fome things, which my reafon could not inform me of, but none that I cannot alfent to : and altho' he hath opened a w r ay to mercy unknown to me before, yet my falvation does not depend on my knowing this, but on my conforming to the terms of it. " If * c ye know thefe things, happy are ye if ye do to teach what Chrift had commanded them ; them; but not the le aft intimation given them to impofe, or require any thing beyond what he him- felf has fpoken. And Mr. Locke obferves, " that «< fetting up as articles of faith, proportions not di- " reeled by Chrift or his Apoftles, is the foundation « of all thacfuperftition, which Popery has introduced ; « that were men, umbianed, fent fairly to the Bible to t "9 ] purpofe, than on that, for which life was given them ; for they knew not how foon it might be demanded of them. The fyftem of morals he gave, was the moll complete, and built on the fimpleft and plained foundation, that could be given, to make all the actions of men, while on earth, directed to one fole object ; that, at the time of judgment, they may obtain mercy, and enjoy happinefs in eternity. In order to this, he recommends truth, juftice and mercy, (the attributes of the Deity) to be obferved by men ; and to leave to God, to judge and avenge the injuries done them by others ; to be patient under affliction, and refigned to the will of God ; to imitate God, to the utmoft of their power, by being perfecl as their father in heaven is per/eel ; that the utmoft happinefs which men can enjoy here, is of a fhort duration ; that riches and power on earth, are not to be regarded as blemngs ; they are only opportunities given men to try their obedience, by which they mould be judged ; and to whom much was given, cfthem much would be required) that as God, by him, had promifed forgivenefs of fins, upon a fmcere repentance and amendment of life, they ought not to delay it ; but be always ready to fubmit to death, when fummoned to leave life ; that with- out repentance there could be no forgivenefs ; and that there was no repentance in the grave. He accufes the Jews, that they would not hearken to him, tho' neither his doctrine, nor his example could be accufed. / tell you truth and ye believe me not. Which of you convinces me of Jin f Why then do ye not believe me f His unexceptionable doctrine fhewed them their duty ; and his ex mple, conformable to it, mewed them, that God required nothing of them, but what they might conform to ; yet would they not hearken to him, nor believe him. H 4 Thc C **o 3 The. Jews feem to have been a people, from the beginning, whom reafon could not convert : it was figns and wonders which directed their faith. They were worfe than the heathens ; for with the Jews, reafon was no motive for conviction. They afked a fign, and Jefus told them, that fmce neither the mi- racles they had feen him perform (which they at- tributed to Necromancy) nor the do&rine he preach- ed, could convince them he was fent by God ; they fhould have no other fign but that of Jonas, who was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, and then came again into the world ; fo he fhould be fo long under the power of death, and then reaf- fume life. That the fame prophecy which had foretold his coming, had alfo foretold his death, by thofe he came to inftruct : but that it would be better, on the day of Judgment, with thofe of Sodom and Gomor- rah, than with that perverfe generation ; that thofe of Ninevah mould condemn them, for that they had repented, on the preaching of Jonas, while a greater than Jonas was there. Our Saviour here upbraids the Jews with incorrigible incredulity, and feems to give them up to the perverfe difpofition of their own hearts. The miracles he had already wrought, had not convinced them, that he was amiled by a divine power ; neither had the conformity of his behaviour to the precepts he taught, cleared their minds of the fufpicion of hypocrify. He therefore afks them, Which of you convinces me of Jin f He had explained to them the will of God, as recorded by the pro- phets ; and by his own example fhown, that God requires no more than man can perform. They had now therefore no cloke for their fin ; nor fhould thefe Jews have any other fign from him, to evince his divine mimon, than that which fhould be the confe- quence of their own wickednefs, viz. his refurreclion to life, after being put to death by them. Jefus's per- fevering C w ] fevering in his uprightnefs (under all his temptation* and perfecutions) unto death, made him that exam- ple, which takes off from men, all excufe for fan ; He fays, If I had net come among them they would tisQt have had fin, hut now they have no clcke for their fin. And Peter fays, He acled in all things conformable to the will of God: he did well, yet fuffered for it-, he bore his f iff e rings patiently, and was therefore accepta- ble to God; and has left us an example whereby to follow his /reps \ who alt bo* he committed no fin, nei- ther was guile found in his mouth ; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he fuffered, he threat- ened not, but committed himjelf to him, that judgeth righteoufly. An example, by which the world can be condem- ned, or which leaves no cloke or excufe for fin, mud be between beings equally qualified. It is no crime in an elephant, that he has not the fwifaiefs of a grey-hound ; nor in the grey-hound, that he has not the flrength of an elephant : they are not iimilarly qualified, and their different perfections cannot con- demn one the other. If Jems was endowed, above the ability of man, his conformity to the doctrine he taught, could be no condemnation to mankind : they are not e- qually qualified ; they would therefore have ftill had a cloke for their fms. All men would be good, if they had no temptation to be otherwife; but all men are liable to temptations, and the refilling them more or lefs, diftinguifhes the good from the bad, the virtuous from the vicious. Jefus (hewed they might be refifted altogether ; he overcame every temptation, which, either the Devil, or the per- secution of human malice could prefent to him : and his example becomes our condemnation. He wa* tried to the utmoft, and like gold tried in the fire, he remained pure. The miracles lie performed, were [ I2 * 3 were the confequence of his uprightnefs ; and by his words, it would feem, that an exad conformity to the Divine will, would give anv man that power. He fays to his Difciples, If ye had faith, as a grain afmufiard feed, ye might fay to this mountain, be re- moved to yonder -place ; or to this fycamore tree, be -plucked up by the roots, and planted in the fea, and ilyey would obey you. Jems, having committed no fin, having never tranfgrefTed the laws of God; and the day of judg- ment being appointed, at the end of the world, to try fuch as had tranfgreiTed, it was not required of him to continue in the (late of death, until the gene- ral time of trial: for as no crime could be ailedged againft him, he had none to detain him under the power of death ; he therefore rofe from the dead the third day. He continued fo long under the power of death, as to mew that he had been dead ; and rofe to fhow, that as death was the confequence of fin, fo was life that of righteoufnefs : it was therefore not required of him to wait for judgment, but was immediately changed into that frate of immortality, the promifed reward of obedience to the Divine laws. He told alio, that at the day of judgment, he fhould be appointed judge of the world, agreeable to what Ifaiah had prophefied. Thus Jaith the Lord, I will death him with thy robe ; and JJrengthen him with thy girdle ; and commit thy government into his hands. He/hall open, and nonefball fhut ; and he fball Jbut and none fball open. If any thing can raife in our minds, an idea of Divine mercy and juflice, it mud be, that we are not to be judged by a Being. " infen- " fble of our paflions or fuperior to our feelings ; " but by one made, in all refpects, as we are." The t-emendous judgment, when all the human race are to reaiTume life, thole who have done good to the refurre&ion of life, and thofe who have done evil to ( "3 ) to the refurre&ion of damnation, is allegorically dc!*- cribed in the Revelations by a book ; in which the merits and demerits of every one are written, and out of which they were to be judged. It is proclaim- ed by a great Angel, that if any could be found, whofe life was free from fin, he fhouid then come forth, that he might open the book, and be appointed to judge mankind, whofe actions were all recorded there. — And I wept much, becaufe no man was found worthy to open the book ; neither to look on it : and one of the Elders (aid unto me, weep not ; for behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, of the root of 'David \ he hath prevailed to open the book, and to loofen the feals thereof And they fung a new fong, faying, thou art worthy to take the book ; and to open the feals thereof ; for thou wad flain, and haft redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and nation, and people. And I heard the voice of many Angels faying, worthy is the Lamb that was flain, for receiving pew- er, riches, wifdom, flrength, honour, glory and blef fing. And every creature in heaven and in earthy heard I faying, blejfing, and honour, and power, and glory be to him, who fitteth upon the ihro?:e,and unte the Lamb for ever and ever. Revel, chap. v. Paul to the Corinthians, fpeaking of the refurrec- tion, and laft judgment, faith, Ihen ccmeth the end? when he flmll deliver up the kingdom to God, even to the Father ; for he mufl reign, until he have put all things under his feet. Now, when he faith, all things are put under him ; it is manifeft that he is excepted, who put all things under him : and when all things fhalt be fubdued unto him ; then fhall the fon alfo him [elf be fubjeel to him, who had put all thin as under him) that God may be all in all. I obferve an exacl conformity between what is prophefied of the Mefliah, and what is related of Jefus. The defcription, given by the prophets of the t t#4 I the Mefiiah, was very particular; and he in every particular anfwered it, both as to the time of his ap- pearance in the world, his doctrine, his reception in the world and manner of death •, fo is there between the principles he lays down, and the duty he requires ; my belief here is nowhere ftretched beyond my reafon j nor does any part of the fyflem clalh with the other. That the Almighty, who created man, fhould at the fame time, by an internal law, inform him of the duty he requires, and that he mould endow him with paflions to try his obedience to this law, is quite agreeable both to my reafon and experience. That he fhould have companion on our infirmities ; and when we become fenfible of our errors, repent and amend our lives ; that he fhould then extend his mercy to pardon us, is like- wife agreeable to the idea I have of his divine mercy. That through jefus Chrifl we have a plain and juft ex- planation of the duties God requires of man, and a true information of the terms, on which we are to ex- pect forgivenefs if we trefpafs, the which, if we do not accept of, or alledge we are unable to conform to j his example, who (by being one of ourfelves) was en- compafTed with the like infirmities, and in all points tempted like as we are, will, by his proved obedience and conformity, condemn us : This, my reafon obliges me to believe. That to take from mankind all excufe, God hath appointed this man Jefus to be our judge, en that great day of trial, who, from his knowledge of human frailty, and his experience of the force of tempt- ation, will have companion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, wherein to excufe and whereon to inflict punifhment, raifes in my mind the hlghefi idea of divine juftice and mercy joined toge- ther. Heb. ii. v. 17. For in allthings, it behoved him to be made like unto his brethern, that he might be a merciful and faithful high prieft, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the fins of the peo~ fie 1 C MS 1 fie ; for in that he himf elf hath fuffered, being tempted f •he is able to fuccour thofe that are tempted. And chap. 5. For every high frieft taken from among men, is ordained for men, in things pertaining to God-, that he may offer both gifts and facrifces for fins ; who can have companion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himf elf alfo is ccmpaffed with infirmity, and by reafon hereof, he ought, as for the people, fo alfo for himf elf to offer for fins; and no man taketh this honour unto himf elf, but he that is called of God, as Aaron was : fo alfo Chrifl glorified not himf elf, to be made an high priefl, but he that J aid unto him, " Thou art my fon this day have I begot- " ten thee," who in the days cf his flefh, when he had offered up prayers and Juf plications, with ftrong crying and tears, unto him who was able to fave him from death, and was heard, in that he feared ; though he were a fon, yet learned he obedience, by the things which he fuffered : and being made per fed, he became the author of eternal falvation unto all that obey him. And chap. 1, v. 9, thou has loved right eoufnefs and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath a- nointed thee with the oil of gladnefs, above thy fellows. To the Ephefians he faith, (chap. 1) wherefore I ceafe not to give thanks for you in my prayer* — that the God of cur Lord J ef us Chrifl, the Father of Glo*y, may give you the fpirit of wifdom, in the knowledge cf him, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Jefus Chrifl, when he raifed him from the dead, and fet him on his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but alfo in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet ; and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. I am therefore convinced of the truth of what St Paul fays, when he tells us, "That God hath appointed a day, t »« 3 a day, oh which he will judge the world in right- eoufnefs by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given ajfurance unto all men, in that he hath raifed him from the dead. As to the moral obligations, which the Chriftian religion requires, I believe they may be all compre- hended in thefe three. Let us obferve truth and in- nocence before God, benevolence and mercy towards our neighbours, and juftice and fortitude as members of fociety. I believe that he, whofe conduct in life, comes neareft to a Uriel: obfervance of thefe, will be neareft to mercy at the day of judgment CHAP- CHAPTER XIII. Of the D o c t r i n e of the Church. IN the foregoing chapter I have declared what my faith is, and I am convinced, it is the faith re- commended to me, by him who vi to be my future judge : and that whatever a man fjfrweth, that will he alfo reap: my reafon is no where ftretched to believe this. This fyfteni is fimple and eafy to be underitood : but the church has condemned it, and in its place has fubftituted another ; one incomprehenfible, un- intelligible, and inconfi(t.ent with human underltand- ing: for they tell us, that God has been defi- cient in his information to the human mind, but that they have found out another faith, which they call niyjlery, or a belief beyond the capacity of the hu- man mind to conceive, the which neverthelefs if we do not believe, we cannot be faved. I cannot form, in my mind, an idea of God, without conceiving, at the fame time an idea of juftice. I cannot conceive, he would require of man a belief of any thing, which he has not endowed him with powers to conceive : This new faith I cannot conceive, I am therefore convinced, he will not require the belief of it as a duty in me. I am told by the prophets, that at the latter times, there will be a great deflection from the truth : And when I confider what the prophet Danid muft mean, when he tells us of the little horn, which, in his vifion, was to rife, on the declenfion of the fourth empire ; What Paul to the ThefTalonians tells us of the man of Jin ; what the defcription of the woman, (the emblem of error) in the Revelation means, whofe refidence was the great city built on feven hills, full of blafphemy, perfecution and cruel- ty, who was drunk with the blood of die faints. and [ i«8 J and made tramck of the fouls of men ; on whofe forehead was wrote myflery, the mother of abomina- tions ; anci compare thofe to the canons and discip- line of the church at the latter end of the 15th cen- tury ; I am convinced that the prophecy is fulfilled. The feat of error, fpoken of by St. John, was to be that great city built on feven hills, which ruleth over the kings of the earth ; whofe dominion was to be fupported by a great delufion, which God would fend, on account of the wickednefs of men ; the which mould induce them to believe a lie. Rome was this great city built on feven hills, by which the world was conquered, and long kept in llavery. ■ The dominion of error is there represented by two beafts, Revelations, chap. xiii. I Jaw a great beafl rife out of the fe a, having feven heads and ten horns ; and on his heads was the name of blafphemy ; and the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority : and power was given him, to make war with the faints, and to overcome them : and power was given him over every tongue, and over every kindred and nation. And 1 faw, as it were one of his heads wound- ed to death ; but his deadly wound was healed \ and all the world wondered, and followed the beaft ; and they worf hipped the dragon who gave power to the beafl, whofe deadly wound was healed; and I beheld ano- i her beafl come out of the earth, which had two horns like the Lamb, but he f poke like the Dragon, and did ail thai the firfl beafl could do before him ; he cattfed the earth and them that dwell therein, to worfbip the f.rfl beafl, whofe deadly wound was healed ; and he deceived them byfigns, which were permitted him to do ; and he made all both rich and poor, fmall and great, free and bond to receive a mark, fo that no man might buy or fell who had not that mark \ and caufed that they, who would not worf/ip the image of the beafl fhould be killed* Rome [ "9 ] Rome had conquered and long governed the world by military power. Pride, rapine and ambition, were the motives which initigated it, to this univer- ial invafion of the natural rights of mankind. Their emperors let themlelves up as gods ; they perfecuted and put to death, all who denied them this worihip, or worshipped the living and true God. But when the empire, diftrafted by ^ civil wars, was invaded ; and Home plundered by the Barbarians, and the feat of the Empire removed from it, no man could im- agine that this great city would recover its ancient glory and power : It teemed wounded to death. But at this time the delufion fpoken of by Paul took place : the greatelt and moil univerfal ignorance be- gan, that ever darkened the human underftanding, and continued to keep the mind in flavery for above athoufandyears. It was then that the fecond bead made its appearance, which had two horns like the Lamb. Rome became the feat of the ecclefiaflical empire, and acquired a dominion more extenfive, than it had pouefTed by the military power of its former empire : it did all that the firft beafl did before it. The pre- text of its exercifmg this dominion and power, was the religion of Chrift ; it is therefore faid to have had two horns like the Lamb : but the means ufed to acquire this dominion, were the fame, as were ufed bv the Romans, in their univerfal invafion of the liberties of mankind. Pride, and ambition of worldly grandeur, made it ufe all the arts of fraud to deceive, and force to compel mankind, to be fubjed to its will. It fucceeded, and that delufion took place, for no one was allowed to buy or fell, who did not ac- knowledge it's authority : and wherever any one was difcovered, who diiallowed it, he was killed ; audit maintained its power fo long, as this ignorance, or ilrong delufion kept the human mind in fubjedion. Bar at laft the impudence of its orders, and nlthmefs T o f [ W ] of its abominations, firft provoked men to enquire into, and afterwards doubt of the claim it affumed to this unlimited, and univerfal authority. Were rea- fon only to prefide^ and direct, the human mind, very little authority would remain to the church. The Proteftant clergy in Holland, very candidly acknowledged this, when, in their addrefs to the ftates to abolifh the tenets, and profcribe the fol- lowers of Fauftus Socinus, they faid that thefe here- ticks were the moft dangerous enemies the church could have ; for they taught a doclrine not above the reach of reafon. This reafiumption of reafon, aflifted by the convenience of printing (then invented) made feveral countries diflent from the more grofs errors of Popery ; but as the minds of men had been long im- merfed in ignorance, and habituated to error, they could not at once throw off all their prejudices ; they departed from the church, only inthofe very grofs articles, which appeared more immediately repug- nant to confcience, to reafon, and the evident and plain meaning of the precepts of Chrifl laid down in the New Teframent; which now, in defiance of the church, and in neglect of its cenfures, men pre- fumed to examine themfelves, and judge of by rea- fon. But they ftill retained in their faith, that there was that myftery in the religion of Chrifl, which human reafon neither was, nor could be a judge of; and the clergy, who, at this juncture, found they could not retain all their power, endeavoured to pre- ferve as much of it as they were able, while re- flection and learning were yet in their infancy. They got it eftablifhed by law, in thofe countries which had diflented from the church of Rome, that at leaft, the fyftem of faith eftablifhed by the council of Nice, fhould be ftill retained and believed, under the penalty to be inflicted on blafphemy and herefy; and that neither the law of liberty ^ by which we are to bejudg- [ *3i ] ed, nor the directions given, that every man ought to be convinced in his own mind, fhould be allowed as any excufe, or alledged as reafons, fufficient to differ from it. The council of Nice had decreed that the Divine Being fhould be compofed of three perfons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, each diftinft from the other, and each feparately to be God eter- nal ; and yet, that they Jhould noi\ for that the three together fhould make but one God : that the fecond perfon was begotten by the firft , and that the third proceeded from the other two ; and yet that they did not ; for all the three were co-eternal, which can admit neither of begetting, nor proceeding. But that this, neverthelefs, fhould be the true Catholick faith ; the which if a man does not believe, they declare and ordain, that he neither can, nor fhall be faved. This fyftem of belief (conceived by this council and impofed on mankind) is beyond human conception, and of confequence beyond human belief ; for the mind impofes on itfelf, which pretends to believe that, which it cannot conceive. All the parts of a regular fyftem are built on an equal authority ; for the truth of the whole muft depend on the connection of its parts : but if any part of a fyftem clafhes, or dis- agrees with another, this clafhing or feeming con- tradiction muft be removed, before the mind can comprehend, either what that is, or how the fyftem propofed, is to be conceived, before it can be believed. Belief is the perfuafion of a truth : In truth there is that harmony in the circumftances of the thing nar- rated, which will not allow of the leaft jarring, much lefsof a contradiction. In our common courts of juftice, there is not any other method to find out the truth, and to diftinguifh it from falfehood, but by a careful examination, whether there is that perfect harmony in the circumftances of the thing narrated, which I 2 alwavs [ !# J always attends truth , and if we find there is this har- mony, we conclude, that what is narrated may be true ; but if we find, that there is not this harmony, wc conclude, that what is aflerted to be true, mufl be falfe ; from this plain principle, that truth mufl be always confiftent with itfelf. In examining the truth of this creed, I (hall confine my enquiry to this one propofition, whether Jefus Chriit (the fecond perfon in the Trinity) is, from the evidence I have any oppor- tunity to examine, to be thought God from all eternity, co-equal with the Father. As they, who affert he is, have excluded common reafon from being a witnefs on this occafion, I fhall confine myfelf to that evi- dence which they allow of, viz. The Bible. They allow that he is the Mefliah prophefied of, in the Old Te (lament : and if what is foretold of the Mefliah by the Prophets ; if what is related in the Evangelifls of the life and doctrine of Chrifl ; if what is afterwards faid by the Apoflles, in their different letters to the primitive chriflians ; if all thefe evi- dences concur, in theteflimony of his being God from all eternity, co-eval with, and equal to the Father ; then the decree of the council of Nice may be true. But if, on examination, there fhall appear to be a want of harmony, or an evident difagreement, either between what is prophefied of the Mefliah, or re- lated by the Evangelifls and Apoflles, of his life and doctrine, and this ordinance given out by the council of Nice ; then their determination, I conclude, mufl be wrong, and their affertion falfe ; or that he may not be God eternal, co-eval and equal with the Father. The Apoflle Paul tells us, that every man fhould be convinced in his own mind : thefe differences mufl therefore be removed, and this harmony take place, which always attends truth, before lean believe that this, or any other creed can be true, which I am directed to believe by any human authority. In the prophecies, [ *33 3 prophecies where the promifed MeiTiah is defcribed, he is faid not only to be given as an initructer, but Iikcwifc as an enhgn to the people, an example to point out and (hew, that thefe ordinances of God, which he had declared, may, and ought to be obfervedby men ; as one who, from the womb, mould be endowed with the fear of God ; one, who, being perfecuted and put to death by thofe whom he came to mftruct, mould in all his temptations and fufferings, ftill pre- ferve his integrity ; one, whofe exact conformity to the Divine will/ mould procure him fuch favour with God, as to conftitute him a judge of mankind. « The Lord hath called me from the womb and faid " unto me, thou art my fervant, in whom I mail be " o-lorified. And now faith the Lord, who hath " formed me from the womb, altho' Ifrael be not « gathered, yet mail I be glorious in the eyes of the « Lord; he has given me the tongue of the learned, « that I might know how to fpeak a word m feafon « to him that is weary ; he has opened mine ears. " Thus faith the Lord, to him whom man defpuetn, " in an acceptable time have I heard thee, in the « day of falvation have I helped thee; I will preferve « thee and give thee for a covenant to the people. It cannot be imagined that the Almighty God fpeak- eth thus of himfelf. Thou art my fervant : here is evi- dently the pifture of one, who, from his birth, fhould be held forth as an example to the world ; who would teach and fhew mankind what manner of man he muft be, in whom the Lord delighteth ; one, on whom, (being endowed with the fear of the Lord) the fpirit of truth, wifdom and perfuanon mould be conferred : here a man is fpoken of, who was toexik in future times, in the common courfe of nature ; whom, on account of his righteoufnefs as a ^rvant, God would exalt above his brethren. But this dei- cription is not applicable to one above human capa- o x 34 ] city, and much lefs to God himfelf. « He has given me the tongue of the learned," fuppofes an endow- ment conferred on, and not inherent in the per- fon who porTeffes it. It was from the merits of the Mefliah, that God delighted in him ; it was on account of his fuperior merit, that the Almigh- ty fays, _ / will ftrengthen him with thy girdle and cloath him with thy. robe, and commit thy government into his hand'. Surely the Almighty fpeaks of one different from himfelf in this dcfcription. If the favour of God was conferred on the Mefliah from his merit ; merit is a quality not applicable to God, he is above merit ; no being can have merit in a&ing conformable to its own will. Merit is an inferior virtue, and only applicable to men, who, from the love of God, live in conformity to his ordinances, and imitate thefe his attributes, wherein he is ins- table by men. That Being, at whcfe command all creatures exifl, what he wills is jufticc, and muft have an equal regard to all his works ; his favour muft anfe afterwards from the behaviour of men them- felves : he endowed them with a capacity of judging for themfelves ; he told them the confequences of obedience and difobedience, and left them to the free- dom of their own will, to chufe whether they would obey or not : Their merit confift s in their obedi- ence to thofe laws, which God has made known to them. In this light, Paul fpeaking of Jefus fays, " He took not on him the form," (or as I underftand it, was not appointed in the capacity) " of an angel ; " but was in all things made like unto his brethren, " that he might be an example to men :" which could not be, had he been endowed as an angeL In this light alfo, St. Paul fpeaks of Jefus Chrift, as one who attained to his glory, through his merit. He gives him as an example for men to endure with patience, whatever perfecutions, whatever afflictions may £ *3S 1 may befall them: He fays, i)t and his zeal deceived his mailer : for when Jems afked the twelve, whom the world faid, and they thought he was, Peter anfwered, " thou art the Chriji the Son of the living God : Then J ejus faid, bleffed art thou Simon Barjona,for flefh and blood hath not reveal- ed this to thee, but my Father which is in Heaven. I Jay unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will 1 build my Church, and the gates of Hell Jb all not pre- vail againfl it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whomfoever thou fb alt bind on Earth, Jhall be bound in Heaven?' But he was miftaken in Peter's knowledge of him, who, it is evident, had no right conception, either of what the Chrift was to be, or to undergo on Earth. For when jefus told his Difciples immediately afterwards, what he, as the Chrift, muft undergo according to the Prophets : that on his coming to Jerufalem, he mould be taken up by the elders, the chief Priefts and Scribes ; and that he was to be judged and put to death by them, Peter was fo mocked, at hearing him cxprefs himfelf fo different from what his thoughts pf the Chrift were, and fo oppofite to what his expec- tations were, that he rebuked him for faying fo ; " Mercy to thee, Lord! thefe things cannot befall thee:" For Peter, as well as the other Difciples, imagined the promifed Chrift was to be a temporal Prince ; who was to reftore the Kingdom to the houfe of David. On which, Jefus finding Peter to have an idea of the Meffiah or Chrift, very different from what he conceived he had, when he promifed him thefe powers, he turned to him both in furprize and anger, faying, " get thee behind me Satan, thou art a fcandaltome, for thou conceiveft not the things which are of God, but thofe that are of men" It feems by this that the knowledge of Jefus being the Chrift, had [ »*< 3 had not been revealed to him, by the Father } neither had he formed his idea of Chrifl from the Pro phets ; for he was ignorant, both of what the office and the fufferings of the Chrifl were to be. Jefus, at firft, thought he had a right conception of him, and mull have attained to it, by a revelation from the Father, and therefore gave him thofe extraordinary powers of binding and loofening ; but when, by the rebuke of Peter, jefus found he was miftaken in his thoughts of him, he calls him the Devil, and that he was a fcandal to him. It cannot be imagined that thefc very extenfive powers could be given to one, whom he afterwards compares to the Devil, and who was a fcandal to the doctrine he profeffed to teach, as having no conception of heavenly things. Here jefus judged as a man and was deceived as a man. The next remaining inftance of our Saviour's acting in a private character, is in his fufferings at his death : he knew that according to what was foretold of the Mefliah, he mud be put to death by the Jews. He had told his Difciples, that to fulfill the pro- phecies, that circumftance mud happen him ; but that he fhould rife from death the third day, and would (hew himfelf to them after his refurreclion, and acquainted them of the place he fhould then meet them in, viz. in Galilee. Yet when the hour approached, his refolution failed him, and he prays molt fervently, that he might not fuffer ; My foul is troubled even unto death, and what flail I fay f Father fave me from this hour. But on reflection he reconciles his mind to the thoughts of it, faying, But for this caufe have I come to this hour. Yet upon the nearer approach of death, he ftill foilicits God, that he mould not fuffer, Oh ! my lather, if it bepoffible, let this cup depart from me. All things are pojjible with thee, take away this cup. Under thefe agonies of mind, he is faid to be fupported by K 4 a fpech! z 15* ] a fpecial meffenger from God, Luke, xxii. And there appeared unto him an Angel from Heaven Jlrengthening him ; and being in ago?iy, he prayed more earneftly ; and his fweat teas as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. But as his moft earneft prayer could not obtain this of the Father, he feems to have thought, that as the Father had refufed, fo he had alfo forfaken him, and exclaims at the crofs, My God, my God! why baft thou forfaken me. Let us review this a little : Our Saviour had the full affurance, that he the Meffiah would, on death, be quickly transformed into that happy ft ate, where an end fhould be put to all his fufrerings, to all bis cares and the perfecutions of wicked men ; ftill this affur- ance did not diveft him of that human frailty, the terror attending death ; yet, altho' this fenfibility made him earneftly pray to fhun it, his righteoufnefs and refignation to the will of God, hindered him from making ufe of any other effort, than prayers to avoid it, yet not my will but thine be done. Had Jefus been infenfible of, or had defpifed the terrors of death, he would have been no example to fuch, who, by natural conftitution, are endued with that timidity of mind, which mocks them at the approach of it, and which they cannot help. But his Struggles, at that pcriod,and his refignation, when he found it could not be avoided, takes from men all excufe, for ufing any other means to avoid death, than a calm refignation to the will of God, when, through the wickednefs of perfecutors, a perfeverance in their uprightnefs is the caufe of their fuffering. Jefus Chrift our Saviour had all the feelings of a man ; or as St. Paul fays of him, (Heb. 5th) He was one who can have compaffion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way ; for that he himfelf was compaffed with infirmities ; and by rea- fon hereof he ought, as for the people, fo alfo for himfelf t "S3 ] himfelf to offer for fins. Thus his laft and grcatefl: temptation ended with his mortal life : his trial was over ; he had fmiihed his courle. On hisrefurrection his behaviour was quite different. Fears from men, and prayers to his Father were no more ; he was rewarded and crowned with Glory : for all paver was given him in Heaven and in Earth. And, as his knowing the infirmities of man will make him a merciful Judge and mediator with the Father for repenting finners ; fo will his example be a condemna- tion to the perverfe and obftinate. I fhall end this fubject, with obferving, that Jefus, after his refurrection, when he was no longer mortal, but going to enjoy the reward promifed, fays to Mary, Go tell my Brethren, that I ajcend to my Father, and their Father, to my God and their Gcd. Who his brethren were, he had told in his life -time, when he flretched out his hands to his Difciples, faying, Behold my brethren. And again when he lays, illy brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it. And in the lame fenfe, the Angel fpeaks to John in the revelation, when he was going to worfhip him ; See thou do it not, for I am thy feikw-fervant, and of thy brethren the Prophets, who keep the flyings of this book ; worjhipGod. As all good men are called the fons of God, fo are they called brethren to one another : And Mary was ordered to inform his Dif- ciples,that he was going to afcend to his God and their God; to him who was equally his Fathtr, and trie Father of all thofe who hear his w r ord and do it. Paul to prove a future refurreclion, gives Chrift as an example ; he fays, if there be no refurrefticn of the dead, then Chrift is not rifen : but now Chrift is rifen, and is the firft fruit of them who flept ; or in other words, you aik how it is poflible for a man once dead to become alive again ? But Chrift was dead, and is now alive \ therefore it is poflible for men to '■:■ come [ 154 J become alive after death. Here the companion (the analogy) lies in Chrift/s being a man as others were ; for it would be a falfe inference, if Chriil was not a man as others were, that his refurreclion mould be alledged as a proof to (how it poihble, that all other men might become alive after death like wife. Paul fays, As many as are led by the fpirit of God % they are the fons of God, and if children, then heirs cf God and joint heirs with Chrift ; for if we fuffer in like manner as he did, fo fball we be alfo glorified in like manner («*s/» ' Wherefore St. Paul fays, Let a man fir ft examine himfelf, left he do it rafhly ; let him confider ferioufly what is the ftrength of his refolution, his faith ; whether his re- pentance is fo fmcere, and refolution fo ftrong, that he can rely on his future behaviour ; and if he thinks he can, then let him eat or the bread, and drink of the cup ; but if he does it, without confidermg the im- portance of the oath he takes, and returns to his evil ways, he will heap fin on his own head. This fecond covenant announced by our Saviour, differs eifenti- ally from the firft made with Abraham, and repeated by Mofes. The rewards and punimments of the Jewifh covenant concerned only this life, and had fo little relation to a future ftate, that it continued a difpute among the Jews (from any information which Mofes had given them) whether there was to be a future flate or not ; for the precepts of Mofes had not afcertained this point : it was by the light of nature only, the Pharifees believed in a refur- reclion. « If r ,6 7 ] " If ye walk in my (latutes, and keep my com- mandments, faith the Lord, I will give you rain in due feafon : ye fhall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in the land fafely. I will rid evil beads out of your land ; your enemies mall fiy before you, five of you ihall chafe an hundred, and an hundred of you (hall put ten thoufand to flight. But if ye do not obey my commandments I will appoint over you, terror and the burning ague. Ye ihall few your feed in \::in, for your enemies (hall eat the fruit of it ; ye (hall be (lain before your enemies, and they who hate you, (hall reign over you. I will fend wild beafts among you, which fhall rob you of your children, and deftroy your cattle. I will bring a fword among you, and avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And if ye fiill walk contrary to me, 1 will alfo walk contrary to you, and chaftife you fevenfold for your fins. Andthefe threatnings have been remarkably fulfilled, by the prefent abjecl: flate the Jews are reduced to. But the fecond covenant, announced by Jefus Chrift, hath quite different rewards and punifhments an- nexed to it : and the obfervance of it, is fo far from promifing temporary blefhngs, that they, who em- brace it, become thereby, the more expofed to per- fection and opprefiion in this life, than other men ; but that thofe fufferings, (on account of their adher- ing to the truth) inflead of being confidered as marks of the divine wrath, will be confidered as me- rit in the eye of God. Jefus faith, Biejfed are ye when men fiall revile you and ' perfecute you, and Jhall fay all manner of evil again ft you falfely, for my fake ; rejoice and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in Heaven. Paul tells the Corinthians, We are naked and buffeted^ and have no certain dwellings \ When we are reviled, we blefs ; being perfecuted we fuffcr it ; being defamed, we entreat* We are as the filth L 4 of C 168 1 of the world, and the offscourings of all things unto this day. They, who truft to the fecond covenant, mud lay afide all thoughts of rewards on earth ; they muft have fuch faith in Chrift, as to believe, that after this life, there will be a general judgment ; when all men (hall be examined on their behaviour while on earth, -when they will be rewarded or puniihed, according to what they have done on earth. Jems therefore directs his Difciples, to tura their thoughts altogether to fuch objects, as will make them accepted of by God, when they come to be judged. Lay up treafures in Heaven, and fear not them who kill the body, hut are not able to kill the foul, but fear him who can kill both foul and body in Hell. Paul acknow- ledges, That if in this life only we have hope thro* Chrift, we are of all men the mojl miferable. This is not applicable to the heads of the church for thefe fourteen hundred years paft, who have, of all men, been the mod happy in affairs of this life, if riches, grandeur, and abfolute dominion can make them fo. CHAP- t 169 ] C II A P T E R XV. Of the Manner ivherehj the Church acquired its Power. H5^ O know how this great dominion hath been J[ acquired, requires fome recollection of the hiftory of Chriftianity. — When Jefus Chriit delivered his doclrine to the Apofdes and Difciplcs, whatever they did not rightly comprehend, he explained to them : he told them, that his kingdom (or that Hate of happinefs prepared for the righteous.) was not of this world ; but cne to commence, when all men fhal! be brought to judgment : when their earthly bodies mould be changed into fpiritual ones,when the righte- ous mould be rewarded, and the wicked mould be punifhed, each according to his works in this life. That in this life the righteous are perfecuted by the wicked ; but that perfecution here is only a trial of their obedience, and not a punimment inilicied by God for offences ; that they were not to be afraid of men, who can only kill the body, and then can do no more ; but to fear him, who can kill both body and foul in hell. After his refurrecYion, he ordered them to go and teach all nations thefe things they had heard from him. In obedience to this, they difperfed them- felves ; and preached his doclrine in all countries where their zeal led them to. If any doubts arofe among the new Converts, they applied to the Apof- tles to refolve thefe doubts ; as was the cafe at An- tioch, where fome imagining, that all Chriilians ought to be circumcifed, they fent to the Apofdes and Church of Jerufalem, to know if this was necefTary \ who, on that account, met together in council, and refolvcd their doubts. There was no written law, for I '7° J for Chriftlans at that time to appeal to ; men were converted, merely, from what they heard and faw. I am alfo perfuaded that many converts were made, not fo much from the propriety of the Chriftian Doc- trine being laid open to them, as from the follv and abfurdity of the Heathen worfhip being expofed. After the death of the Apoftles, men had no longer an opportunity to apply to thofe, who had been conver- fant with jChrift ; and it was a long time after their death, that the Gofpels and Epiftles, which com- pole the New Teftament, were collected into one book ; and even when they were, very few had copies of it. Therefore w r hen any considerable number of Converts were made in one town or place, they ufed to meet together, and converfe on their faith, or on thefe duties, which their new religion laid them under. And thefe collected bodies, or meetings of Chriftians, were called the Churches of thefe towns or places ; and whoever was efteemed the wifeft, the beft informed, and mod zealous in the faith, became Bifhops, or overfeers of thefe Churches : hence the dignity and importance of the Bifhop,was in proporti- on to the Church he prefided over ; and when any doubts or difputes happened in the fmaller Churches, the only method they had to decide thofe difputes was, by a reference to a neighbouring Church, where a greater 'number, and of confequence, a fuppofed more knowing body of Chriftians compofed it. In all doubts and difputes, the reference was from the fmaller to the greater Church : the villages appealed to the towns, the towns to the cities, and the cities to the metropolis : and according to the greatnefs of thefe Churches in different places, they who prefided over them, were called Pallors, Bilhops, Arch-bilhops and Patriarchs. From the metropolis there could be no appeal ; for none could Iy from a larger to a faiallcr body. When Paul was carried to Rome, chriftianity C 171 ] elVriftianity had been heard of, bur not known there. He ftaid there two years, and had full liberty to preach the Goipel : the field was large before him, and he wanted neither time, opportunity nor inclina- tion to improve it ; iufomuch that fome of the Em- peror's houfhold became Chriftians. Rome was then the metropolis of the world ; there, the men of the moil learning were ; and the Church of Rome, as it was the moil numerous, fo was it the moft know- ing. And of courfe after the death of the Apoftles, all doubts and difputes in the fmaller churches, were finally determined by it ; the ultimate appeal was to Rome ; fo that the Chriftian faith became in a man- ner lodged in it ; and the Bifhop, or he who pre- fided among the Chriftians of Rome, became the firft man of the whole Chriftian Church. And all other churches were obliged to acquiefce with the opinion of the church convened at Rome. The confufion and anarchy occafioned by the civil wars in the empire, during the iecond and third cen- tury, obliged the different ufurpers to endeavour to gain the afFecuons of the people, they purpofed to govern ; and notwithstanding the conftraint put on chrillianity,by the fomer Emperors, Conftantlne found their numbers fo encreafed, that it was necedary for him to gain them ; and for this purpofe he declared himfelf a Chriftian, (for the other account, given of a miraculous conversion by a dream, fcems a ridicu- lous forgery) Policy obliged him to take this ftep. The good and quiet of the ftate required, that there mould be but one religion eftablifhed in the empire His predecefibrs had endeavoured to bring this about, by extirpating chriflianity, but could not effect: it : he therefore^ tried the contrary method, which was to make chriftianity the eftablifhed religion of the empire. But, on enquiry into what that religion was, he found the Chriftians fo diftra&ed, fo divided ifi thek [ , 7 2 ] their opinions relating to fome of the principal articles of ehriftianity, that he could notafcertain,wherein con- iiftedthat religion, which he was to embrace and au- thorife : he therefore called a council to determine > what was the Chriftian faith. This council met at Nice from whom that remarkable decree proceeded. Before ehriftianity was authorifedby the Emperors,no man would take on himfelf to be the Bifhop of a Church, but fuch whom a thorough conviction of the truth, and a itrong zeal excited to take that office upon him : it was an office expofed, in a particular manner, to perfecution. But when ehriftianity be- came the eftablilhed religion, and all danger from perfecution was thereby removed, the Biihops, or directors of the different churches became men of importance. The influence they had over the peo- ple, made it neceffary for the Emperors to gain their favour and approbation ; and the chief Biihops be- came the chief favourites. In this fluctuating ftate of government, then prevailing in the empire 5 the Biihops kept the people in obedience ; they directed their wills ; for as the people placed a confidence in their paftors, fo they paid a blind obedience to them. The church of Rome, long habituated to give advice when applied to, now took on itfelf a power to direct, when not applied to. From this time we may date the corruptions of ehriftianity. Before Conftantine's time, no motives befides conviction, could induce a rrun, from a Heathen to become a Chriftian : Temp- tation lav altogether on the other iide. But when power and riches attended the office of a Bifhop ; then bad men, men of cunning and ambition, ufed their utmoft e videavonrs, by art and hypocrify, to obtain that office. And jerom tells us, that the church < 7 by that revolution, loft as much of its virtue, as it gained of to\vcr and wealth. Inftead of that fimplicity of man- ners recommended by Jefus Chrift, and preached by L '73 ] by the primitive chriftians, that univerfal benevo- lence, that liberty of judgment (that every man ihould be convinced in his own mind) that exprefs prohibition for one man to judge of anothers merit, when he fays, Judge not, leal} ye be judged ; condemn not, andye fljall not be condemned ; forgive, and ye f ball be forgiven. Shall the blind lead the blind ? ft all they not both fall into the ditch? or ihall fallible men pre- fume to determine for God ; all this was laid ahde, and the clergy, in their councils afterwards, quite altered the very fundamental principles of chriftian- ity : they made the kingdom of Chrift altogether a kingdom of this world. And inftead of its being next to an impo liability, for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven, they decreed it next to an im- pombility for any other but the rich to enter. In« dulgences and forgivenefs of fins were to be pur- chafed by money, or by gifts to the church. They de- prived men of the liberty, wherewith Chrift had made them free, and put them again under the yoke of bondage. And to fecure their conqueft over human un- derftanding, they deprived men of the liberty of ex- amining into their aflumed power ; they made it penal to read the fcriptures. They became as the Jewifii lawyers were, to whom Chrift fays, Wo unto you law- yers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge ; ye enter not in yourfelves, and thefe that were entering in 9 ye hindered. The means ufed by the clergy, to bring mankind under this flavifh fubjeclion, were always conformable to the circumftances of the times. The diffractions and confufion, which raged thro' the Empire on its decline, brought on fuch an univerfal neglect of learning, and inability of reflection, as made it eafy for artful and defigning men, to impofe on the underftandings, and delude the minds of the ignorant. The Biihop of Home aflumed a fuperipr power to others by prefcription ; as all doubts and difputes [ 174 ] difputcs between the different focieties of chriftrarfe, ever iince the Apoitles time, had been ultimately de- termined by the church of Rome. It was the impe- rial city, which had long governed the world in civil affairs, by its right of conquefl : and it was therefore proper, for the dignity of the If ate, that the church of Rome mould likewife have the fupremacy, and di- rect all other churches in religious matters. But when the bifhop of Conftantinople, on this account, took on himfelf, the title of univerfal bifhop, Giegory of Rome exclaimed againfl it, " as antichrjftian, blaf- " phemous, infernal, and diabolical for any man to *' affume the title of univerfal or oecumenical bifh- " op ; for that it was imitating Lucifer, who being " fwelled with pride, had exalted himfelf above his " equals." But thefe reafons did not prevail with the bifhop of Conftantinople to give up a title, which both he and the emperor Mauritius, thought belong- ed to the imperial feat. Yet when Mauritius was dethroned, and he and all his family murdered by Phocas, who ufurped the empire ; then, becaufe Cyriacus (then bifnop of Conftantinople) endeavoured to fave the lives of the emprefs and her daughters, Phocas, in revenge, took the title of univerfal Bifhop from Cyriacus, and conferred it on his antogonift Boniface Bifhop of Rome ; which, notwithstanding all the ftrcng and pious reafons, urged againft fuch ar- rogance in any particular bifhop by Gregory, wasne- verthelefs accepted of by his fucceffor. And that which appeared fo wicked, fo blafphemcus and diabolical, in the eyes of Gregory, appeared in a quite different light to Boniface, when the fame temptation was thrown in his way. And this title, thus conferred by an ufurper (the moft wicked man in his time) on the See of Rome, hath been ever fmcekept, andexercifed by the bifhop of Rome at the expence of an infinite number of lives. Men, c m i Men, whofc power is built on the deluded im- agination of thofe whom they govern, have but a precarious title : they will therefore fortify it, by all the means and by every method they can think of. The world was ignorant ; men received their inftructions from the clergy ; very few took it from the New Teitament, or had an opportunity to examine it : and on this ignorance, the church of Rome hath built its power. For they did not allow that it was, folelv, the gift of Phocas, which gave it a fuperiority over all others ; they infilled that they pollened it by- Divine right ; that as Jefus, after his refurrection, had told the eleven Apoftles, that all power was given him in heaven and in earth, and laid to them, As the Father hath fent me, fo fend I you ; they infill that they as the fucceflbrs of the Apoftles have the fame power as the Apoftles had ; that Peter was the prince of the Apoftles (as to him, had been given, in a particular manner, the keys of heaven and hell) therefore the biihop of Rome by being fuc- ceflbr of Peter, mint alio have this power inherent in him above his brethren. It would be difficult to mow that Peter ever aflumed any power, fuperior to his brethren ; or ever thought himfelf infallible. It is very evident that Paul did not think him fo, for, at Antioch, he withflood him to the teeth, becaufe he was to blame, and that not from his miflaking, but from his perverting the orders of his matter. And by theteftimony of Paul alfo, this claim of their being fucceflbrs to Peter, in the Bifhoprick of Rome, appears equally badly founded. By him it would feem, that Peter neither was, nor ever could be biih- op of Rome. His words to the Galatians are, " When they (the Apoftles) law that the gofpel of the " uncircumcifion was committed to me, as the gof- " pel of the circumcihon v/as to Peter, (for he that " wrought effectually in Peter, to the apofdefnip of " the C »76 ) iC the circtimcifion, the fame was mighty in me to- " wards the Gentiles.) And when James and Ce- " phas and John, (who feemed to be pillars,) per- " ceived the grace that was given unto me, they $<■ gave unto me and Barnabas the right hand of * c fellowship, that we fhould go to the Heathen, and 6i thev to thofe of the circumcifion." Here, by agree- ment, is allotted the province each mould take. All then that is wanting to determine whether Peter w; s ever Bifhop of Rome or not, is to know, whether the Romans were Heathens or Jews, when their con- verfion was undertaken : a queftion which may be eafilv refolved in the negative ; and thence all claim of power, derived from Peter, to the biihop of Rome, mud fall to the ground. If it mould be afked, why the biihops of Rome did not take Paul for their pre- decefTor, (who certainly was their firil -bifhop) rather than Peter, who could not be fo ? the whole deport- ment of the Popes hath mown the motives for acting as they have. It was power, and not truth which they aimed at ; it was fubjeclion and. not infr.rucYion they required of the people ; and the only feeming pre- eminence, given by Chrifl to one Apoirle above another, was to Peter : the keys of heaven and hell were not given to Paul : and as they claimed a power fuperior to their fellows, this claim mint be derived from fome one, on whom it had been conferred : it was therefore neceflary, (in fupport of their claim) to make themfelves the fuccefiors of Peter, whatever Paul or any one elfe fhould, or could fay to the con* trary. As the church at firft acquired its power, from the ignorance which overfpread the world, and had im- proved the deluhon, during fo many centuries, by depriving men of the means of better information, there is little of prophecy required in faying, that •when, mankind (haft have thrown , oil that bi;;ukv.;e, ( *77 ) which the church hath fo long fubje&ed them to, and fhall have reaffirmed that liberty, wherewith Chrift hath made them free, by taking to, themfelves the privilege to judge of that faith and duty, which the religion of Chrift allows and recommends, that then this deception, this imagined power of the clergy, will be at an end. Truth requires no fupport but from knowledge and reafon. Search the fcriptures, for thefe are they which te/Iify of me, are the words of Chrift. It is an inward conviction only, which makes a man a chriftian. Wherefore the fword, with which the Mefliah conquered the enemies of God ; is always put (not in his hand, but) as pro- ceeding from his mouth. On the other hand, as falfhood is built on ignorance, it mull be fupported by violence. To punifh a man for worfhiping God according to his confcience, or becaufe he differs from others in opinion, about the manner he is to be worfhiped, is perfecution. It is punifhing the body for a difagreement of the mind. The defign of religion is to convert men from their errors, by convincing their underftanding, and it is reafon only that can convince the under- ftanding, or change their conceptions. It is a free- will offering, which God requires. We muft ferve him from a fenfe, and love of our duty ; for he is to be worfhiped in fpirit and in truth ; wherefore St. Paul tells us, that every one fhould be convinced in his cwn mind. Perfecution, or punifhing the body for a difagreement in the mind, may be very proper means in the hands of an ufurping power, to compel men to be fubje&s, but fuch arguments will never make them converts. Where the underftanding is to be informed in order to rectify the judgment, the arguments to be ufect, muft be applied to the mind. The religion of Chrift is therefore called a religion of liberty, it refers men M to L 178 ] to their reafon and confcience. Perfecution is never applied, but when arguments from truth and reafon are deficient ; it is only falfehood that requires perfe- cution to fuppoVt it : and he who will not give his afTent willingly, mud be forced, or put to death ; left his opinion mould infect the minds of others, Delenda eft Carthago. Thus Pope Paul the fourth, gave this pofitive advice on his death bed, that the inquifition only, could preferve the church. Were perfecution al- lowable, the Jews committed no fin in putting our Saviour to death : but if the putting him to death, becaufe he differed from the high priefts, or Jewiih church, was a crime, then perfecution cannot be al- lowable, but rauft be a fin, in any church. . There is not an inftance, or precept in all the New Tefta- men t, which even countenances, much lefs author- izes perfecution, for mea's differing in opinion from Chrift. When our faviour, in his journey from Sa^ maria-to Jerufalem, came to a village, the inhabit- ants of which would not receive him, the zeal of James and John was fo inflamed, that they afked their matter, Lord wilt thou, that we command fire to come down from heaven, to confume them, as Eli as didf but he turned and rebuked them, and .[aid, Ye know not tvhat manner off pint ye are of ; for the Son of Man is not come to deflroy men's lives \ but tofave them. An& the only refentment he mewed, was to leave the in- habitants of that village to themfelves, and go to a*, nother. By the religion of Chrift, it is" highly cri- minal to endeavour even to impofe on the under- Handing. St, Paul fays, Prove all things x and hold fa ft that which is good ; that we fhould renou?ue the hid-,, dm works of darknefs, not walk'mg in crqftinefs, nor handling the word of God deceitfully -, but by a ?nanU feflation of the truth, to commend ourfelves to every man's c071fcien.ee in the fight, of God. But how can we obey this precept. £rwe all things and I m 1 tirJ hold f aft thai which is good? When the church hath deprived us of the liberty of proving any thing by our own judgment \ and hath decreed, that who- ever ihull prelume to put this advice of St^ Paul, in competition with their orders, (hall be punifhed m like manner as St. Paul was ; who, for teaching a dodrine different from the then eftablifhed church, was put to death : Nay they do not flop here ; they will profecute their revenge alter death ; they wall order God to fend their fouls to hell after they have burned their bodies. If our Saviour is to be believed, the greater!: duty incumbent on men to obferve, next to the love of God, is to love our neighbours. But there never hath appeared in the world any religious fed, fo devoid of brotherly love and charity, as that which calls itfeif the infallible church of Chrift. Paul fays, Tho' I /peak with the tongues of men and Angels ; Ml have the gift of prophecy, and under fl and all myfleries and all knowledge ; tho' I have faith fo as to remove mountains; tho> I befiow all my goods to feed the poor ; and tho 9 I give my body to be burned, yet if I want charity, all thefe virtues will profit me nothing. God hath declared (Deut. Chap. 32.) That to him belon