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Chriftian Re ligion.

All this very plainly demonftrates, that we only receive our Religion after our own Fashion, The Foundaand by our own Hands, and no otherwife tion of the Prothan as other Religions are received. Whe- feffion of the ther we happen to be in Countries where it is in Practice; whether we have a Veneration for the Antiquity of it, or for the Authority of the Profeffors of it; whether we fear the Menaces which it fulmi-. nates against Unbelievers, or are encouraged by its Promifes: Thefe Things ought to be confidered only as Auxiliaries to our Faith, for they are Obligations altogether, human. Another Country, other Evidences, the like Promifes and Threatenings, might, by the fame Rule, imprint a Belief quite contrary. We are Chriftians by the fame Title as we are either Perigordins, or Germans: And what Plato fays, that there are few Men fo obftinate in Atheism, but a preffing Danger will reduce them to an Acknowledgment of the Divine Power, does not relate to a true Chriftian: 'Tis for mortal and human Religions to be received by human Recommendation. What kind of Faith muft that be which is planted and established in us by Pufillanimity and Cowardice? A pleasant Faith, that only believes what it believes for Want of the Courage not to believe it! Can a vicious Paffion, fuch as Inconftancy and Aftonishment, produce any Thing regular in our Minds? The Atheists, fays Plato, are confident, upon the Strength of their own Judgment, that what is advanced about Hell and future Torments, is a Fiction; but when an Opportunity prefents itself, for their making the Experiment, at the Time that old Age or Sickness brings them to the Confines of Death, the Terror of it poffeffes them with a new Belief, from a Horror of their future State. And, by reafon they are terrified by fuch Impreffions, Plato, in his Laws, forbids all fuch threatening Doctrines, and all perfuafive Arguments, that any Evil can come to Man from the Gods, unless it be for his great Good when it happens to him, and for a medicinal Effect. They fay of Bion, that, being infected with Theodorus's atheistical Principles, he had, for a long Time, held religious Men in Derifion, but that, when Death stared him in the Face,

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Book II. he became fuperftitious to an extreme Degree, as if the Gods were to come off and on just as Bion wanted them. From Plato, and thefe Examples, we conclude, that we are reduced to the Belief of a God, either by Reason, or by Force. Atheism being a Propofition not only unnatural and monftrous, but difficult, and very hard to be digefted by the Mind of Man, be he ever fo haughty and diffolute; there are Inftances enough of Men, who, out of the Vanity and Pride of broaching uncommon Opinions, and of being Reformers of the World, outwardly affect the Profeffion of fuch Opinions, who, if they are Fools enough, have not the Power to plant them in their own Confciences: Nevertheless, if you plunge a Dagger into their Breafts, they will not fail to lift up their Hands towards Heaven; and when the Fear, or the Distemper, has abated and fuppreffed this licentious Heat of a fickle Humour, they will immediately recover themselves, and fuffer themselves, very difcreetly, to be reconciled to the public Creeds and Forms. A Doctrine seriously digested is one Thing, and thefe fuperficial Impreffions another, which, fpringing from the Depravity of an unsettled Mind, float rafhly and at Random in the Fancy. Miferable, hair-brained Wretches, who would, if it was poffible, fain be worse than they are!

to God.

The Errors of Paganifm, and the Ignorance of our What ought to facred Truths, led Plato, that great Geattach us firmly nius, but Great only with human Grandeur, into another Error, next a-kin to it, that Children and old People were moft fufceptible of Religion; as if it fprung and derived its Credit from our Weakness: The Knot that ought to bind the Judgment and the Will; that ought to reftrain the Soul, and faften it to the Creator, must be a Knot that derives its Foldings and Strength, not from our Confiderations, our Arguments and Paffions, but from a divine and fupernatural Conftraint, having but one Form, one Face, and one Luftre, which is the Authority of God and his Divine Grace. Now, the Heart and

y This Reflection, which is so just and natural, is by Diogenes Laertius himfelf, who having no great Fund of his own, it would have been cruel to reb him of this. See his Life of Bion, fett. 55.

and Soul being governed and commanded by Faith, 'tis reasonable that it fhould draw in the Affiftance of all our other Faculties, as far as they are able to contribute to its Service.

The Divine Being known by bis vifible

Works.

Neither is it to be imagined, that this whole Machine has not fome Marks imprinted on it by the Hand of its Almighty Architect, and that there is not, in the Things of this World, fome Image that bears a fort of Resemblance to the Workman who has built and formed them. In these sublime Works he has left the Stamp of his Divinity, and 'tis only owing to our Weakness that we cannot difcern it. 'Tis what he himself tells us, that he manifefts his invisible Operations to us by thofe that are vifible. Sebonde applied himself to this worthy Study, and demonstrates to us, that there is not any Piece in the World that derogates from its Maker. It would be a Wrong to the Divine Goodness, if the Univerfe did not concur in our Belief. The Heavens, the Earth, the Elements, our Bodies, our Souls, all Things unite in this, if we can but find out the Way to make it of Ufe to us: They instruct us, if we are capable of learning: For this World is a very Sacred Temple, into which Man is introduced to contemplate Statues not made with mortal Hands, but fuch as the Divine Purpose has made the Objects of Sense, the Sun, the Stars, the Water, and the Earth, to reprefent them to our Understanding. The invifible Things of God, fays St. Paul, from the Creation of the World, are clearly feen, being understood by the Things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead".

Atque adeò faciem cæli non invidet orbi

Ipfe Deus, vultufque fuos, corpufque recludit
Semper volvendo feque ipfum inculcat et offert,
Ut bene cognofci poffit, doceatque videndo
Qualis eat, doceatque fuas attendere leges*,

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i. e.

And God himself envies not Men the Grace
Of seeing and admiring Heaven's Face;
But, rolling it about, does ftill anew
Object its Face and Body to our View,
And on our Minds himfelf inculcates fo,
That we th' Almighty Mover well may know;
Inftructing us, by feeing Him the Caufe

Of All, to rev'rence and obey his Laws,

Now, as to our human Reafon and Arguments, they are but as lumpith barren Matter: The Grace of God is the Form; 'Tis this which gives the Fashion and Value to it. As the virtuous Deeds of Socrates and Cato remain vain and fruitless, for not having had the Love and Obedience due to the true Creator of all Things, for their End and Object, and for their not having known God; fo is it with our Imagination and Reafon: They have a kind of Body, but 'tis an inform Mafs, without Fashion, and without Light, if Faith and God's Grace be not added to it. Sebonde's Arguments, being tinged and illuftrated by Faith, are thereby rendered firm and folid: They are capable of ferving as Directions, and of being the principal Guides to a Learner, to put him into the Way of this Know, ledge: They, in fome measure, form him to, and render him capable of the Grace of God, by the Means of which he afterwards compleats and perfects himself in our Belief, I know a Perfon of Authority, bred up to Letters, wha confeffed to me, that he was reclaimed from the Errors of Infidelity by Sebonde's Arguments: And should they be ftripped of this Ornament, and of the Affiftance and Sanction of Faith, and be looked upon as mere human Fancies, to contend with those who are precipitated into the dreadful and horrible Darkness of Irreligion, they would, even then, be found to be as folid and firm as any others of the fame Nature that could be brought against them fo that we fhall be inabled to fay to our Opponents, Si melius quid babes, accerfe, vel imperium fer,

i. e.

If you have Arguments more fit,
Produce them, or to thefe fubmit,

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Let

↳ Hor, lib, i. Ep. 5. v. 6,

Let them either fubmit to the Force of our Proofs, or let them produce others, or on any other Subject, that are better connected and more fubftantial. I am, unawares, already half way engaged in the Answer which I propofed to make, in the Vindication of Sebonde, against the second Objection.

Anfwer to the

Charge against
Sebonde's
Book, that the
Arguments are

weak.

Some fay, that his Arguments are weak, and unable to make good what he intends; and they undertake, with great Eafe, to confute them. Thefe Objectors are to be handled a little more roughly, for they are more dangerous and more malicious than the former. Men are apt to wrest the Sayings of another, to favour their own prejudicate Opinions. To an Atheist all Writings lead to Atheism: He infects innocent Matter with his own Venom: These have their Judgments fo prepoffeffed, that Sebonde's Arguments appear infipid to them. As for the reft, they think we give them fair play, in allowing them the free Ufe of Weapons that are mere ly human, to combat our Religion which they durft not attack in its Majefty, full of Authority and Command. The Method which I take, and think to be the most proper for curing this Frenzy, is to crufh, and fpurn under Foot, this Arrogance and Pride of Men; to make them fenfible of their Emptinefs, Vanity, and extreme Nothing nefs; to wreit the wretched Arms of their Reafon out of their Hands; to make them bow down and bite the Ground, under the Authority and Reverence of the Divine Majefty. 'Tis that alone to which Knowledge and Wisdom appertain; that alone which can form any Eftimate of itself, and from which we purloin whatever we value ourselves upon.

Οὐ γὰρ ἐᾶ φρονέειν ὁ Θεὸς μέγα ἄλλον ἢ ἑαυτὸν.

i. e.

God permits not any Being, but Himself, to be truly Wife.

Let us demolish that Prefumption, the firft Foundation of the Tyranny of the Evil Spirit: Deus fuperbis refiftit, bumilibus

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