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THE

SACRED CLASSICS

'©afcfoet atbtnrj) of Dfofaitg.

EDITRD BY
THE REV. R. CATTERMOLE, B.D.
AND
THE REV. H. STEBBING, M.A.

FfiTO* XTJ1BEE.

M)n tymlaxQ an* Son, PccaMlB ;
WHITTAKER & CO. AVB-AIARIA LANE; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL,
STATIONERS' COURT J TALBOYS, OXFORD; DEIGHTON,
CAMBRIDGE; OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH;
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.

MDCCCXXXY.

TREATISES

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7

HIGH VENERATION MAN'S INTELLECT
OWES TO GOD: .7 '•
¦¦¦* ~ .'*¦-'• .^
ON • ,;v
THINGS ABOVE REASON : "' ':

THE STYLE OF THE HOLY SCRIPS
HON. ROBERT BOYLB Cjj" ^ O

—  V ft *
WITH A- * \ n i
AN INTRODUCTORY ESS^Y^^,

HENRY ROGERS,
AUTIJOU OF CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTIONS
TO THE WORKS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS, EDMUND BURKE, AND
JEREMY TAYLOR.

LONDON:
3Ioljn ¥jalri)arti anB Son, PccaBUIe ;
WHIT'TAKER 4 CO. AVE-MARIA UHBi S1MPKIN & MARSHALL,
STATIONERS' COURT J TALBOYS, OXFORD! DEIQHTON,
CAMBRIDGE ; OLIVER & BOYDj EDINBURGH J
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.

CONTENTS.

Page.
Introductory Essay . . . . .vii
Of the High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God . 1
Reflections upon a Theological Distinction. According to
which it is said that some Articles of Faith are above
Reason, but not against Reason. . • .69
Some Considerations touching the Style of the Holy Scrip
tures. . . ... . .91

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

This is the first volume of the "Sacred Classics"
from the pen of a layman. This circumstance,
however, is by no means to be taken as an indica
tion that the number of works which the secular
genius of our country has contributed to the sup
port of religion, is inconsiderable. So far from
this being the case, the only difficulty is in select
ing from so much that is excellent, those volumes
which it is most desirable to include in the present
series : it is less easy to stop than to begin. It is,
in truth, one of the chief glories of England, that
almost all the greatest names connected with her
literature and science, have been scarcely less dis
tinguished for their reverence for religion.
This has been more especially the case with all
our greatest philosophers. In these men, happily for
themselves and for mankind, philosophy produced
its genuine fruits. Their splendid discoveries, and
the wonders of the universe they unfolded, only
b

Vlil INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
inspired them with a more profound reverence for
the all-glorious Creator ; and, what is not less im
portant, prepared them, by purifying their minds
from prejudice, and imbuing them with a reve
rential regard for truth wherever they might find it,
for seriously and candidly investigating, and, as an
inevitable consequence, for duly appreciating the
evidences by which revealed religion sustains its
origin. Thus, like the eastern magi, who reached
Bethlehem under the guidance of a star, their very
observation of nature only led them the more in
fallibly to Christ.
Nor is this all. Many of them have not been
content with merely declaring their deliberate con
viction of the truth of Christianity ; like the same
eastern sages, they have brought their ' gold and
frankincense,- and myrrh,' and all the precious
things of their philosophy, and laid them with the
profoundest homage at the feet of the Redeemer.
Amongst the most impressive examples of this
sublime consecration of philosophy and genius to
the cause of God and Christianity, must be ranked
the Honourable Robert Boyle, the illustrious author
of the following treatises ; which, together with se
veral others of a similar character, and composed
with a similar design, have as much endeared his j
name to piety, as his splendid discoveries have en
deared it to science. s"
The following Essay will contain a brief sketch

i

I

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IX
of his life; — an analysis of his character; — and a
few observations on the treatises which compose
the present volume.
The Honourable Robert Boyle was a native of
Lismore, in the, province of Munster, Ireland.
He was the seventh son of Richard, commonly
called the " Great Earl of Cork ;" and was born on
the 26th of January, 1626. His early nurture was
such as might be expected from one who possessed
the masculine mind and manly sentiments of his
father; in other words, he was brought up in a
simple and hardy manner. He himself tells us,
in the brief narrative which he has left us of the ¦
early part of his life, (and the vivacity and talent
with which it is written, make us regret that it is
but a fragment,) that his parent " had a perfect
aversion for their fondness who use to breed their
children so nice and tenderly, that a hot sun or a
good shower of rain as much endangers them, as
if they were made of butter or of sugar.''
At three years of age he lost his mother, a most
amiable and talented woman. When quite a child,
he acquired a slight habit, of stammering, of the
origin of which he gives the following account:
"The second misfortune that befel him, was
his acquaintance with some children of "his own
age, whose stuttering habitude he so long counter
feited, thafr at last he contracted it ; possibly a
b2

X INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
just judgment upon his derision, and turning the
effects of God's anger into the subject-matter of
his sport. Divers experiments, believed the pro-
bablest means of cure, were tried with as much
successlessness as 'diligence; so contagious and
catching are men's faults, and so dangerous is the
familiar commerce of those condemnable customs,
that being imitated but in jest, come to be learned
and acquired in earnest.'
Whether this account of a habit which might
have been the result of some slight natural defect,
be satisfactory or not, the reflections with which it
closes are equally just. It will not have been the
fi rst time that sound truths have been deduced from
inconclusive premises.
He was not sent to school till he had acquired a
knowledge of the Latin and French languages, and
the usual rudiments of learning, under one of his
father's chaplains, and a French tutor. In 1635
he was sent to Eton, then under the superin
tendence of the celebrated Sir Henry Wotton.
Here his great natural abilities, and that insatiable
thirst for knowledge, which characterized him
throughout life, soon displayed themselves. After
pursuing his studies at this school for more than
three years, he was removed to his father's seat at
Stalbridge, in Dorsetshire, and committed to the
care ofthe rector ofthe place. At the close ofthe
year 1638,he accompanied his father to London, and

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XI

after staying with him a short time at the Savoy, was
sent with an elder brother, Francis Boyle, and under
the care of a tutor named Marcombes,- to make the
tour of the. most celebrated countries of Europe.
The principal places he visited were Rouen,
Paris, Lyons, Geneva, Grenoble, Venice, Florence,
Rome, and Genoa. At some of these places he
made a' considerable stay, more especially at Ge
neva, where the family of his tutor, Marcombes,
resided. In May, 1642, while at Marseilles, he re
ceived a letter from his father, acquainting him
with the breaking out of the Rebellion in Ireland,
commanding his immediate return to England, and
telling him, that in the present distracted state of
public affairs, he had with difficulty remitted a
sum sufficient to pay the expenses home. But
what was far worse, these remittances never came
to hand, and Mr. Boyle and his brother were com
pelled to remain on the continent till 1644; when,
by disposing of some jewels through the good offices
of their tutor, Marcombes, who had, during their
stay abroad, befriended them in the most generous
manner, they managed to reach England : Mr.
Boyle did not arrive, however, till after his father's
death. The manor of Stalbridge and several con
siderable estates in Ireland formed his share of the
ample patrimony. Yet such was the confusion in
which public affairs were involved, that it was

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

some time before he received any money from-
these estates.
As he was abroad for several years, it may
readily be conceived, that one so characteristically
eager for knowledge, did not neglect his studies.
Not content witli the information which he ac
quired by his travels, and which must have been
very extensive to a mind so intclligcntand observant,
he staid for a considerable time at Geneva, Venice,
and Florence, and during his residence in these
places pursued his studies as if he had been at
home. Indeed, during no period of his travels
could his ardent mind be completely restrained
from the pursuit of knowledge. We are told that
" during his travels, he pursued his studies with
great vigour; and his brother Francis, afterwards
lord Shannon, used to say, that even then he would
never lose any vacant time ; for if they were upon
the road, and walking down a hill, or in a rough
way, he would read all the way ; and when they
came at night to their inn, he would still be study
ing till supper, and frequently propose such diffi
culties as he met with in his reading, to his
governor." During the whole of his stay abroad, Mr. Boyle'
was preserved from that levity and dissipation of
character which are so often acquired in travel,
and which so frequently transform the youth who

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

Xlll

has left home, modest and virtuous, into a cox
comb and an infidel. Happily for him, however,
the principles of religion, which had been so early
instilled into his mind, kept him from paying
for his knowledge the dear price of his virtue.
Nay, it even appears by his own account, that
his religious sentiments and feelings acquired
strength and solidity during his stay on the con
tinent. He left his native land impressed with
every feeling of respect and reverence for religion,
but he returned a confirmed and decided Chris
tian. From 1646 till 1650, he resided principally at
his manor of Stalbridge. Here he quietly, but
with his characteristic ardour of mind, pursued
his studies. This period of his life too is memo
rable as that in which he made his first essays
in chemistry; the science which he afterwards
pursued with success scarcely inferior to his dili
gence. During these years of retired study, he
frequently made visits to Oxford and London, and
enlarged his acquaintance and correspondence
with learned men. He was also one of a small
society of virtuosi, who, under the name ofthe "Phi
losophical College," used to meet for the purpose
of mutual aid and encouragement in the prosecu
tion of science. They were afterwards incorporated
under the well-known name of the " Royal So-

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XV

ciety."' It has been often said, that there is no
evil which is not incidentally productive of some
good. This was eminently the case in the present
instance ; for the immediate cause of the formation
of the Philosophical College was the Civil War,
from the confusion and misery of which, Boyle
and his intellectual associates sought refuge in a
more devoted pursuit of science. Thus, those
very calamities, which in general so effectually
arrest the progress of science and knowledge, as
indeed of all else that is good, produced in this
solitary instance the opposite effects. i
The greater part of the years 1652 and 1653
was spent in Ireland, where, with his friend, the
well-known Sir William Petty, he pursued, to some
extent, the studies of anatomy and physiology.
In 1654 he returned to England, and fixed his
residence at Oxford, where he remained till 1668.
He had long meditated this step, principally that
he might pursue his studies under more advanta
geous circumstances, as well as for the sake of that
philosophical society which he could not so rea
dily find elsewhere. Here he cultivated with the
utmost assiduity the exact sciences, and almost
every branch of experimental philosophy, giving
his chief attention, however, to his favourite pur
suit, chemistry : here, by the assistance of his
friend Hooke, he perfected the air-pump, and made

many of his most valuable discoveries ; and here
he produced many of his most important philoso
phical works.
But he did not restrict himself to science alone.
With the aid ofthe great orientalist, Pococke, and the
celebrated theologians, Barlow, afterwards bishop of
Lincoln, and Samuel Clarke, he prosecuted the study
of the sacred languages, of theology and of biblical
criticism. Nor was his life merely that of a lazy
speculatist or intellectual voluptuary. Theology
was not with him, as it has been with too many,
a barely speculative science; he studied, that he
might practise it. Its truths operated upon him
with the force of so many powerful practical prin
ciples. Under its influence, his ample fortune
was constantly employed in the encouragement
of projects of public utility, more especially such
as had for their object the diffusion of religious
truth and the progress of the gospel ; in a word,
in whatever tended to promote the honour of God
and the welfare of his species. During the period
of the civil wars and the commonwealth, it is
hardly necessary to say that a man whose pursuits
were so exclusively scientific and literary, whose
temper was so peaceful and catholic, whose life
was so • inoffensive, and who took no active part
whatever in politics, was permitted to enjoy un
disturbed tranquillity.
After the restoration, he was honourably no-

' \

XVI

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

ticed by the king and several of his ministers,
more especially by Clarendon. This nobleman
rightly judging that one who had reflected such
lustre on the profession of Christianity as a lay
man, would sustain with no less honour the cha
racter of a clergyman, even pressed him to enter
the church. This proposal, however, after much
deliberation he declined. His principal reasons,
the latter of which is abundantly creditable to that
tenderness of conscience which distinguished him
throughout life, were as follows : —
" He knew that the irreligious fortified them
selves against all that was said by the clergy with
this— that it was their trade, and that they were paid
for it. He hoped, therefore, that he might have
the more influence, the less he shared in the patri-,
mony of the. church., But his main reason was,
that he had so high a sense of the obligations, im
portance, and difficulty of the pastoral care, that
he durst not undertake it; ' especially,' says bishop
Burjiet, ' not having felt within himself an inward
motion to it by the Holy Ghost ; and the first
question that is put to those who come to be ini
tiated into the service of the church, relating to
that motion, he, who had not felt it, thought he
durst not make the step, lest otherwise he should
have lied to the Holy Ghost. So solemnly and
seriously did he judge of sacred matters.'" ¦.«¦.. >
But though he refused to enter the church, he

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XVII

5

i

nevertheless filled several important public stations.
He became one of the directors of the East India
Company, and in this situation exerted " himself
to the utmost to render the extension of commerce
instrumental to the progress of religious truth
amongst the natives of the East. He was also
appointed governor of the Society for propagating
the Gospel in New England and the parts adja
cent. In 1663 the Royal Society was incorpo
rated, and he was appointed one ofthe council.
In 1664 he was elected into the company of the
Royal Mines, and appears to have been engaged
during the whole of that year in public business.
In 1665 he was nominated provost of Eton College :
this office, however, he declined, under the idea
that its duties would interfere with the prosecution
of his studies.
In- 1668 Mr. Boyle removed to London, where
he spent the remainder of his days at the house of
his much-loved and highly-accomplished sister,
Lady Ranelagh, in Pall-Mail. Not very long
after his arrival in London he was seized with
a severe paralysis, from which he very slowly re
covered, and which did not permit him to resume
his studies till 1671.
¦He attributes his recovery to the joint influence
of a great number of strange remedies, and, amongst
the rest, to his taking every day, for a considerable
period, a portion of *' the flesh of dried vipers," a

xviu

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

remedy which many would think hardly more toler
able than the disease.
From this period, until 1680, he pursued his
studies with the same assiduity as at Oxford.
Scarcely a year passed in which he did not pro
duce some work or other connected with his multi.
farious scientific pursuits, while his noble fortune
was still expended as freely as ever in various pro
jects of beneficence and Christian philanthophy.
Amongst the principal of these mny be mentioned,
that he ordered five hundred copies of the Gospels
and the Acts to be translated and printed in the
Malayan tongue, and sent to the East at his own
charge ; and a considerable number of Pococke's
Arabic translation, (of which he was a munificent
patron,) to be distributed in every country in which
that language was spoken. He also contributed
large sums to the translation ofthe Welch and
Irish Bibles.
In 1680, the Royal Society, as a mark of the
great esteem in which they held his character, '
elected him as their president ; but owing to some
scruples on the subject of oaths he declined that
honour. About this time he engaged in the noble
attempt to aid the celebrated missionary Elliot in
his endeavours to propagate Christianity amongst
the aborigines of North America. The corres
pondence between these two men, equally extraor
dinary, and equally worthy of reverence in dif-

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

xix

ferent ways, may be seen in the Appendix to
Birch's Life of Boyle. It is deeply interesting.
About 1689, finding his infirmities increasing,
he resolved to forego some of his public engage
ments, aud much of the gratification of literary
society, that he might obtain leisure to complete
and digest some of his yet unfinished works. With
this view he published an advertisement, part of
which runs thus : — " He is also obliged further to
intimate, that by these and other inducements he
does at length, though unwillingly, find himself
reduced to deny himself part of the satisfaction
frequently brought him by the conversation of his
friends and other ingenious persons, and to desire
to be excused from receiving visits (unless upon
occasions very extraordinary) two days in the week,
namely, on the forenoon of Tuesdays and Fridays,
(both foreign post-days,) and on Wednesdays and
Saturdays in the afternoon, that he may have
some time, both to recruit his spirits, to range his
papers, and fill up the lacuna of them, and to take
some care of his affairs in Ireland, which are very
much disordered, and have their face often changed
by. the public calamities there."
In the summer of 1690 the inroads on his health
became so alarming, that he resolved to execute
his last will ; a document which is throughout a
noble proof of his ardent love for science and for

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

religion. In the codicils attached to it, he makes
provision for the institution of that noble lecture
which, named from him, has blessed this country
with so many, able pieces in defence of natural
and revealed religion. He also left considerable
sums in aid of his favourite project for promoting
Christianity amongst the American Indians. The
preamble is well Worthy of a Christian, and de
serves to be quoted.
" In the name of God, Amen. I Robert Boyle,
of Stalbridge, in the county of Dorset, Esq., young
est son of the late right honourable Richard, earl
of Cork, deceased, being,' God be praised, of good
and perfect memory, and taking into due and seri
ous consideration the certainty of death, and the
uncertainty both of the time and manner of it;
being likewise desirous, when I come to die, to
have nothing to do but to die christianly, without
being hindered by any avoidable distractions from
employing the last hours of my life in sending up
my desires and meditations before me to heaven,
do make and ordain this my last will and testa
ment in writing, in manner and form following, hk
" First and chiefly, I commend my soul to Al
mighty God, my Creator, with full confidence of
the pardon 'of- all my sins in and through, the
merits and mediation of my alone Saviour Jesus
Christ; and my body T commit to the earth, to be

l
\

decently buried within the cities of London or
Westminster, in case I die in England, without
escutcheons, or unnecessary pomp, and without
any superfluous ceremonies."
In the autumn of the same year he appeared
visibly sinking; he lingered on however till the
month of December. His end is supposed to have
been a little hastened by the death of his beloved
sister, the Lady Ranelagh, whom he survived
only a week.; He died on the 23rd of December,
1691. ¦¦¦-:$*>¦
On the 7th of January he was buried in St.
Martin's Church, in the Fields. His funeral ser
mon was preached by his friend Bishop Burnet,
who chose for his text, on the melancholy occa
sion, those most appropriate words of Solomon :
" God giveth to a man that is good in his sight,
wisdom, knowledge, -and joy."1 :;> ¦:
: Mr. Boyle was never married, nor does he ever
appear to have had any serious thoughts of enter
ing into that state. He is said, however, to have
paid his addresses to the daughter of the earl of
Monmouth, and that it was his disappointment in
this suit which gave rise to his little' treatise, en-
titled "Seraphic Love." >.Xh &- •-'•'>¦•(- :-¦.-' .~!' ¦'
•"'"•That he had determined to abstain from matri
mony ' long ' before age would have rendered it
ridiculous to think of it, sufficiently appears by an
1 Eccles. ii. 2G.

xxu

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XX1U

amusing letter to his niece Lady Barrymore, who
had heard a report that he had been lately mar
ried. " * * * It is high time for me to hasten the pay
ment of the thanks I owe your ladyship for the
joy you are pleased to wish me, and of which that
wish possibly gives me more than the occasion of
it would. You have certainly reason, madam, to
suspend your belief of a marriage celebrated by no
priest but fame, and made unknown to the sup
posed bridegroom. I may possibly, ere long, give
you a fit of the spleen upon this theme; but at
present it were incongruous to blend such pure
raillery, as I ever prate of matrimony and amours
with, among things I am so serious in as those
this scribble presents ' you. , I shall, therefore,
only tellyou, that the little gentleman and I are
still at the old defiance. You have carried away
too many of the perfections of your sex, to leave
enough in this country for the reducing so stubborn
a heart as mine, whose conquest were a task of so
much difficulty, and is so little worth it, that the
latter property is always likely to deter any, that
hath beauty and merit enough to overcome the
former. But, though this untamed heart be thus
insensible to the thing itself called love, it is yet
very accessible to things very near of kin to that
passion; and esteem, friendship, respect, and even
admiration, are things, that their proper objects

i
I. 7 ';

fail not proportionately to exact of me, and conse
quently are qualities, which in their highest degrees
are really and constantly paid my lady Barrymore
by her " Most obliged humble Servant,
" And affectionate Uncle,
" Robert Boyle."
In person, Mr. Boyle was tall and slight, .his
countenance pale, his eyes weak, his constitution
delicate, and demanding, throughout the greater
part of his life, simple and regular habits, an exact
regimen, and the most scrupulous temperance in
diet. Under such circumstances, his prodigious
acquisitions and unwearied labours show, in a
striking manner, how the energies of a noble mind
can triumph over the infirmities of a feeble body.
To characterize or even to enumerate the various
philosophical works which Mr. Boyle published
during his long career Would far exceed the limits
of the present Essay, and would be wholly fo
reign from its design. Suffice it to say, there
are few topics connected with any of the branches
of natural philosophy, on which he did not at
one time or other touch. — It is more to the pre
sent purpose, to mention his theological writings.
The principal, besides those contained in the
present volume, are his " Christian Virtuoso;" c

XXIV

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

" Seraphic Love ;" a tract, entitled, " Greatness of
Mind promoted by Christianity;" and his "Ex
cellency of Theology, or the Preeminence of the
Study of Divinity above that of Natural Philoso
phy." Most of these pieces, — and the same remark
applies in great measure, to his philosophical writ
ings,— appeared under singularly disadvantageous
circumstances. Some of them were written or
commenced in very early life, though they were not
published for many years after ; and then in such
haste and amidst the pressure of so many engage
ments, that the noble author had not time to re-
.vise and correct them as he would otherwise have
done, or even to purify them from those juvenilities
which occasionally disfigure his " Seraphic Love,"
and one or two other of his theological pieces.
Some of them were mere sections and fragments of
larger works, which the author never found time to
complete ; and most of them were composed while
he was still prosecuting, with his characteristic
ardour, his researches and studies into almost
every branch of literature and science. It may be
added lastly, that most of his writings were pub
lished as peculiar exigencies demanded or leisure
afforded opportunity. ."
No complete collection was made during his life
time, though it appears that he was earnestly soli
cited by the celebrated Cudworth, to allow such an

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXV
edition to be put forth. After his death, they were
all published, together with his life, and some few
posthumous pieces, by Birch.'
We must now say a few words of the character
of this great man.
Though chiefly known to the world as an expe
rimental philosopher, Boyle possessed powers which
were almost equally adapted to several different
departments of human pursuit. To him belonged
all the noblest qualities of intellect, and none of "\
them in scanty measure; aptitudes for almost
every branch of science and of literature, and a
capacity to excel in them all. His was none of
those mutilated intellects, whose tendencies are so
exclusively in one direction, that, although almost
more than men in some respects, they are scarcely
better than children in others, and who present to
us a spectacle of strength and weakness, power and
imbecility, as humiliating as it is instructive. The
limits of any one science, however ample, could
not circumscribe him. In a word, he was distin
guished by that comprehensiveness, that compass of
mind, which, more than any other quality, has
characterised the greatest of our British philoso
phers, and which, while fitting them for taking the
highest station in those particular departments of
1 They were published in five volumes, folio, and afterwards
in six volumes quarto. c 2

XXVI

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXVII

science to which they have respectively devoted
themselves, has enabled them to attain no mean
eminence in widely different directions.
In Boyle, this happy versatility of talent found
its proper stimulus, for he conjoined with it the
most ravenous appetite for knowledge. The severe
sciences, experimental philosophy in all its branches,
— pneumatics, hydrostatics, chemistry, physio
logy, anatomy, the study of plants and animals,
. — history, theology, the learned languages, more
especially Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldee, and sa
cred criticism, of which he was no mean master —
— all these he prosecuted with an ardour scarcely
second to that with which he watched the processes
ofthe crucible and alembic. - -i.
Though he cultivated poetry and polite .litera
ture only in early life, his whole writings show that
he possessed imagination and taste in a degree
which would have secured him no mean place in
these departments, had not circumstances deterr
mined him to pursuits still more important.
Perhaps, considered simply as an experimental
philosopher, great and just as is the fame heiac-
quired, the multifarious objects of his pursuit
prevented his attaining that reputation, which a
more exclusive devotion to some single branch
of science would have insured him. It has been
well remarked by an eminent philosophical writer
of the present day, that " Boyle seemed animated

^

by an enthusiasm of ardour, which hurried him
from subject to subject, and from experiment to
experiment, without a moment's intermission, and
with a sort of undistinguishing appetite."1 This
boundless and often ill-directed curiosity was to
be expected in an age like his, when the Baconian
methods of discovery first turned philosophy loose
into the wide field of nature. The philosophers
of that period resembled the first colonists in some
new and singularly fertile country, who wander
about hither and thither, perplexed where to settle,
where all is new and so much is beautiful, and
snatching at the spontaneous fruits which the exu
berance of nature offers. It was left to a subse
quent period, when the votaries of science had be
come more numerous, and discovery more rare and
difficult, to bring every spot to the highest point of
cultivation. This was not to be expected at first.
Boyle and many of his contemporaries rioted and
revelled in that first vintage of science, and threw
away many a cluster that was only half pressed.
Boyle was one of the very first who avowedly
and systematically reduced to practice the Baconian
theory of induction. He was born in the same year
that greatest of philosophers died; and as a certain
writer has said, " he seemed to have been designed
by nature to succeed to the labours and inquiries
1 Sir John Herschell's "Discourse on the Study of Natural
Philosophy."

xxvm

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

of that extraordinary genius." It is true, many
of Mr. Boyle's experiments were purely tentative,
that is, made at random, without any sagacious
and distinctly formed conjecture as to the result in
which they might terminate. This was to be ex
pected, however, from that eager and boundless
curiosity, which the experimental method, the laws
of which were still but imperfectly understood,
could not fail to stimulate ; and might be excused,
when such was the ignorance of chemistry and the
kindred sciences, that hardly any experiment could
be totally barren. " . ,• ;¦ ..y- ¦
That Boyle, as a philosopher, did not surmount
all the prejudices of his age ; vthat, for example, he
believed in the transmutation of metals and some
other strange things; that he sometimes speaks ofthe
"mysteries1 of his favourite science a little too much
in the "style of the empirics of the hermetic art, will
excite little surprise in those who consider that
even Bacon believed in : witchcraft ; and none at
all in those who reflect on the gradual progress of
human knowledge, the slow process by which truth
supplants error, and the,' at best, partial liberty
which the most vigorous intellect can obtain from
the prejudices imposed by education. To expect
the human mind, in even a Bacon or a Boyle;; at
once .to put off all the prejudices of ages, and all
the early-formed habitudes of thought, is about as
rational as to expect that there shall be no long

est

and tedious dawning between midnight and mid
day. .. The imaginative powers of Boyle were such as
have not often fallen to the lot of distinguished
philosophers ; and it is evident from his early
life, that had not peculiar circumstances come in
aid of his strong propensities for science, it would
have been doubtful whether literature or philoso
phy would ultimately have obtained his suffrage.
He tells us that in early life " he would very often
steal away from all company, and spend four or
five hours alone in the fields, and think at random,
making his delighted imagination the busy scene,
where some romance or other was daily acted ;
which, though imputed to his melancholy, was in
effect but an usual excursion of his yet untamed
habitude of roving, a custom (as his own experience
often and sadly taught him) much more easily
contracted than destroyed." = - - v'
."= He also informs us, that having addicted him
self rather too freely to the perusal of books of
fiction, " they meeting in him with a restless fancy,
then made more susceptible of any impressions
by; an unemployed pensiveness, accustomed his
thoughts to such a habitude, of roving, that he has
Jscarce ever been their quiet master since, but they
"•¦ would take all occasions to steal away, and go
a gadding to objects then unseasonable and imper
tinent ; so great an unhappiness it is for persons

XXX

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

that are born with such busy thoughts, not to have
congruent objects proposed to them at first."
In order to tame his imagination, and to reclaim
his wayward thoughts, he applied himself sedu
lously to the severe sciences. This was undoubtedly
an effectual remedy ; the diagrams of mathematics
and the mystic symbols of algebra form as potent
a spell to subdue an untamed and truant fancy, as
ever were a magician's cabalistic characters to bind
a rebellious and roving spirit.
- Happily for his readers, however, Boyle's imagi
nation was only sobered, not destroyed, by this
severe dicipline. It was still an active principle,
and has imparted no little vivacity and beauty to
the style of his theological works.
The resemblances on which the imagination
founds its illustrations will, of course, be as is the
knowledge from which such analogies are supplied.
It will reflect the tints and colours of the objects
by which the mind is filled. In accordance with
this, the comparisons and similies of Boyle are
borrowed from science far more frequently than
from any other source. Many of them are not
only singularly just and happy, but from this very
circumstance singularly impressive ; because they
derive additional force and lustre from their novelty
and originality. It is rarely that a poet's fancy
ventures into the regions of science ; if it did, it
might probably find, that independently of far

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXXI

higher benefits which science could confer, it
would not fail to augment the mere materials of
poetical combination to a wondrous extent. It has
been said, indeed, (with what truth the present
writer is not able to say,) that a late celebrated
author used sometimes to attend lecturers on sci
ence, principally for the purpose of furnishing his
imagination with new and beautiful illustrations.
But -Mr. Boyle's illustrations are often in the
highest degree felicitous, even where he does not
fetch them from the favourite realms of science.
We should particularly instance those which he
has derived from an apt application of incidents
and facts of the Scripture history. In this he
resembles many of the most eminent divines of his
day. To particularize would be endless : they oc
cur in almost every page of the " Considerations
on the Style of the Scripture," and the singular
brilliancy and appropriateness of many of them
cannot fail to arrest the attention of the reader.
Mr. Boyle's powers of • acquisition must have
been unusually vigorous. : He, himself, it is true,
often complains of the treachery of his memory.
It is very possible, certainly, that it may not have
been so tenacious as in many men ; still his vast
and very various acquisitions sufficiently prove that
he has greatly overrated its deficiencies.
••The style of Boyle's theological writings will
advantageously bear comparison with that of most

XXXII

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXXIII

of the divines of his age. 'In many respects, it
far surpasses that of the generality of them. < Fa
miliar with the manners of the world, and of
polished life, he is free from the pedantry
which so often deforms the. theological writers of
the age, and from the formality and stiffness which
are so characteristic of retired . scholarship. His
composition is consequently marked by a more
easy, natural, unconstrained manner, as well as by
greater elegance and taste than are usually found
among the theological writers of the day. His
method of treating a subject, too, is far superior to
theirs. This advantage is to be attributed in great
measure to his comparative ignorance of the school
men. It was difficult, as almost all the theological
productions of the age show, to be, familiar with
those writers, ' without becoming in some measure
infected with their vices of manner. Boyle was
exposed to no such hazard. Detesting their philo
sophy; as he was bound to do as a disciple of: the
new system, Boyle was far less read in them than the
theologians of the age, who were of course expected
to be versed in them. • The authority of their ethics
and their divinity long outlived that of their
physics; and though,: therefore, Boyle or.1 any-
other philosopher might neglect, a theologian could
not be safely ignorant of them. The consequence
was, that many ofthe schoolmen's faults,'^ in
point of style and method, very generally charac-

M.

.--> o-f "

"•V

terized the compositions of the divines of the
seventeenth century: the principal are, an affec
tation of logical precision ; a superabundance of
subtle distinctions and refined definitions; a need
less parade ofthe forms of syllogistic reasoning, and
all the technicalities of the school-logic, and all this
with divisions and subdivisions, without end. From
• faults of this kind Boyle is entirely free: his me
thod is usually remarkably simple and natural.
•¦?;¦ The chief vices of his style are excessive copious
ness of diction, and a wearisome length and invo-
Jution in the structure of the sentences. It may
also be noted, that with a degree of taste and ele
gance such as rarely belonged to the writers of the
age, he is occasionally guilty of inaccuracies such
as very few, even of his most careless contempo
raries fell into ; as for instance, in the formation of
the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives.
Thus, whatever the laxity of criticism which dis
tinguished the day, and whatever the licence in
•which writers indulged, such comparatives as " im-
partialler," "distanter," or " d^advantageouser ; ''
:or such superlatives as " seducingest, sparklingest,
loudliest," are not often to be met with in any
writings but his own. Upon the « hole, however,
ithey are marked by a degree of taste and propriety
-very unusual in his time.
n; Such briefly was Boyle's intellectual character.
But great as he was as a philosopher, he was dis-

xxxiv

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

tinguished by far higher qualities than any we
have yet enumerated. He was great far beyond
all the ordinary and vulgar estimates of greatness,
—for he was truly good. His genius and his phi
losophy were sanctified by religion, and that reli
gion, Christianity.
It is a sad proof of the degeneracy and depravity
of our race, that intellectual excellence should in*
spire such idolatrous admiration, while moral great
ness — the highest style of greatness — even where
it is recognized and felt, — receives a homage so
much less hearty, spontaneous, and enthusiastic,
and so rarely stimulates, as does'every other species
of character we admire, to emulation. But heaven
will revise all the false estimates of earth ; nay, the
time is fast coming, when the earth will , correct
them herself; when Robert Boyle shall appear
more truly great as an eminent Christian than as
an eminent philosopher.
Like many other men who have distinguished
themselves by their achievements in science, he ap
pears to have been little troubled with his mere
animal appetites, and to have easily subjected them
to control. Throughout life he practised the severest
temperance. He tells us, that he was naturally
somewhat irascible, but that he was early taught to
repress this tendency; the attempt, if we may
judge from all that has reached us of his habits in
after-life, seems to have been completely successful.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXXV

The early traits of Boyle's character sufficiently
indicate a mind of unusual amiability. His dispo
sition was open, frank, generous, affectionate, and
gentle in a remarkable degree: he was, from
his very earliest childhood, characterized by a
scrupulous love of truth.* At what time Chris
tianity first laid hold of these rude elements of a
noble and virtuous mind, and transformed them
1 A ludicrous instance of his scrupulous love of truth occurs
in the narrative he has left us of his youth, wliich we shall in
sert here for the amusement of the reader.
" Lying was a vice both so contrary to his nature, and so in
consistent with his principles, that as there was scarce any thing
he more greedily desired than to know the truth, so was there
scarce any thing he more perfectly detested, than not to speak
it : which brings into my mind a foolish story I have heard him
jeered with by his sister, my Lady Ranelagh, how she having
given strict order to have a fruit-tree preserved for his sister-in-
law, the Lady Dungarvan, he accidentally coming into the
garden, and ignoring the prohibition, did eat half a score of
them, for which being chidden by his sister Ranelagh, (for he
was yet a child,) and being told by way of aggravation, that he
had eaten half a dozen plums, ' Nay, truly, sister, (answers he
simply to her,) I have eaten half a score.' So perfect an enemy
was he to a lie, that he had rather accuse himself of another
fault, than be suspected to be guilty ofthat. This trivial pas
sage I have mentioned now, not that I think, that in itself it de
serves a relation, but because as the sun is seen best at his rising
and his setting, so men's native dispositions are clearliest per
ceived whilst they are children, and when they are dying. And,
certainly, these little sudden accidents are the greatest discover
ers of men's true humours ; for whilst the inconsiderateness of
the thing affords no temptation to dissemble, and the sudden.
ness of the time allows no leisure to put disguises on, men's dis-

xxxvi

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXXVH

into the brighter graces of the gospel is uncertain.
It must have been, however, at a very tender age.
The religious knowledge early instilled into his
mind, seems to have been blessed to him ; hut the
decisive change, according to his own account, ap
pears to have taken place during his stay on the
continent. Though mercifully preserved, as we
have already observed, from any taint of immora
lity during the perilous period of his travels, he ac
knowledges that his sense of the importance and
reality of religion had at one time perceptibly de
clined. He was excited to salutary reflection by
the terrors of a night of fearful tempest, and from
that time religion ruled with the force of an abiding
principle. /
. Though Boyle was favoured with rehgious edu
cation, and was early impressed with a sense of
the importance of religion, his was not a mind
which was likely to adopt any system from respect
for his relatives, or reverence for antiquity, or in
mere conformity with the custom of his nation or
age, or from any thing short of a sober, well-founded
conviction of its truth. He accordingly studied with
diligence the whole subject of the evidences of
positions do appear in their true genuine shape, whereas most of
those actions, that are done before others, are so much done for
others ; I mean most solemn actions are so personated, that we may
much more probably guess from thence, what men desire to seem,
than what they are ; such public formal acts much rather being
adjusted to men's designs, than flowing from their inclinations."

Christianity, and above all, examined with devout
reverence, that inspired volume in which its reve
lations are contained. An investigation thus ho
nestly conducted, issued, as it ever will issue, with a
candid and upright mind — he gave to Christianity
his deliberate approval, the approval of an en
lightened intellect, not less than of a sanctified
heart. Seldom has Christianity produced a piety more
elevated, or a conduct more blameless or uniformly
consistent than it produced in Robert Boyle. His
spirit was habitually serious and devout. Such
was his reverence for God, that it is said, he
never even casually mentioned that sacred name in
the most ordinary conversation, without making a
visible pause in his discourse, as though he would
place his soul in a posture of devout and humble
adoration, before making the slightest reference to
a subject so aWful. '¦ '
The Scriptures ever found him a diligent and
prayerful student. That he might prosecute the
study of it the more successfully, he obtained a
familiar acquaintance with the languages in which
it was written, and eagerly availed himself of all
the aids of sacred criticism. The account he gives
of the pains he justly thought it worth while to
take to make himself master of the contents of the
sacred volume is so deeply interesting, that we
feel we should be guilty of unpardonable neglect

XXXVlll

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

if we omitted to lay it before the reader. It is ex
tracted from some loose sheets, intended to form
part of an "Essay on the Scriptures," of which the
"Considerations on the Style of the Scriptures"
published in the present volume is but a frag
ment. " As I shall not exact (says he) the study of
the original from those, whose want of parts or leisure
dispenseth them from it; so canrspt I but discom
mend those, who wanting neither abilities, time, nor
convenience to range through I know not how
many other studies, can yet decline this ; and who,
sparing no toil nor watches to. put it out of the
power of the most celebrated philosophers to de
ceive them in another doctrine, leave themselves
obnoxious to the ignorance, fraud, or partiality of
an interpreter . in that- of salvation ; and thereby
seem more shy of taking any opinions upon trust,
than those, in whose truth or falseness no less than
God's glory, and peradventure their own eternal
condition, is concerned. Methinks those that
learn other languages, should not grudge those
that God hath honoured with speaking to us, and
employed to bless us with that heavenly doctrine,
that comes from him, and leads to him. When I
have come into the Jewish schools, and seen those.
children, that were never bred up for more than
tradesmen bred up to speak (what hath been pecu-
cularly called) God's tongue, as soon as their
mother's, I have blushed to think, how many

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

XXXIX

gown-men, that boast themselves to be the true
Israelites, are perfect strangers to the language of
Canaan : which I would learn, were it but to be
able to pay God the respect usual from civil infe
riors to princes, with whom they are wont to con
verse in their own languages. For my part, I * * *
that have a memory so unhappy and so unfit to
[supply] my intellectual deficiencies, and the rest of
my disabilities, that it often strongly tempts me to
give over my studies, and abandon an employ
ment, wherein my slow acquists are (by the treach-
erousness of my memory) so easily lost ; besides
this disadvantage, I say, those excellent sciences,
the mathematics, having been the first I addict
ed myself to, and was fond of, and experimental
philosophy with its key, chemistry, succeeding
them in my esteem and applications; my propen
sity and value for real learning gave me so much
aversion and 'contempt for the empty study of
words, that not only I have visited divers countries,
whose languages I could never vouchsafe to study,
but I could never yet be induced to learn the native
tongue of the kingdom I was born and for some
years bred in. But, in spite of the greatness of
these indispositions to the study of tongues, my ve
neration for the Scripture made one of the greatest
despisers of verbal learning, leave Aristotle and
Paracelsus to turn grammarian, and where he could
not have the help of any living teacher, engaged
d

xl

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

him to learn as much Greek and Hebrew as suffi
ced to read the Old and New. Testament, merely
that he may do so in the Hebrew and Greek, and
thereby free himself from the necessity of relying on
a translation. And after I had almost learned by
rote an Hebrew grammar, to improve myself in
Scripture criticisms, in the Jewish way of reading
the oracles committed to them, I, not over-cheaply,
purchased divers private conferences with one of
their skil fullest doctors, (as St. Jerome had those
nocturnal meetings, which scfmuch helped to make
him the solidest expositor of all the fathers, with
Barraban or ** * the Jew,) I received of him few
lessons that cost me not twenty miles riding, at a
time when I was in physic, and my health very
unsettled. A ChaldeeKgrammar I likewise took
the pains of learning, to be able «to understand that
part of Daniel, and' those few other portions of
Scripture, that were written in that tongue ; and I
have added a Syriac grammar purely to be able
one day to read the divine discourses of our Savi-
our in his own language; in which I can truly pro
fess, ...with the famous publisher of the Syriac Tes
tament, Guido Fabricius, (in his dedication ofthat
book, and his version of it, to the then French king,)
that I had.no instructor to teach me so much as to
know the letters, but have been, to use the words he
borrows of the learned; Budaus, airo&Wos *
SeotiiSanTos, have had no. other living teacher but

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

xli

'"}

%-

God and myself in the little grammatical learning
I have acquired in those four tongues, in which the
better understanding and relishing of the Scripture
limit my pretensions. Nor do I at all repent my
labour, though, to secure my progress and acquists
in these languages, my bad memory still reduces
me to a constant and frequent recollection of some
choice institutions of them all. For certainly the
satisfaction of understanding God, and those ex
cellent persons celebrated even in his book, express
themselves in their own very terms and proper
languages, doth richly recompense the pains "of
learning them; for, according to the known say
ing. ' Quamvis allatS gratus sit sapor in undd,
Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aqua;.
1 Though we stream-waters not unpleasant think,
:-S£s=s. Yet with more gusto of tlie spring we drink.'
*''¦" It is true, that a solid knowledge of that myste-'
rious language God and his prophets spake (what
ever is given out to the contrary by superficialists,
amongst whom I remember a Jewish professor of '
my acquaintance used to reckon many, that are
thought and think themselves Hebricians, because
they could without hesitation' and the help of a
translation or a dictionary read and render in their
own tongue an Hebrew chapter) is, I say, some
what difficult, but'not so difficult but that so slow a
proficient as I could in less than a year, of which not
- d2

xlii "

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

the least part was usurped by frequent sicknesses
and journeys, by furnaces, and by (which is none
of the modestest thieves of time) the conversation of
young ladies, make a not inconsiderable progress
towards the understanding of both Testaments in
both their originals. * * *
" For my part, that reflect often on David's ge
nerosity, who would not offer as a sacrifice to the
Lord his God that which cost him nothing, I
esteem no labour lavished, that illustrates or en
dears to me that divine book; my addictedness to
which I gratulate to myself, as thinking it no treach
erous sign, that God loves a man,, that he in
clines his heart to love the Scriptures, where the
truths are so precious and important that the pur
chase must at least deserve the price. And I con
fess myself to be none of those lazy persons, that
seem to expect to obtain from God the knowledge
of the wonders of his book upon as easy terms, as
Adam did a wife, by sleeping profoundly, and
having her presented to him at his awaking."
The Treatise " on the Style of the Scriptures,'
printed in this volume, will best show how he pro
fited by his diligence; with what veneration the
sacred volume was regarded, and how well it wass*.
understood !
His whole conduct in public and private life
adorned the religion he professed, and demon
strated at once its power and its excellence. In

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY*.

xliii

him Christianity bore its appropriate fruits ; and,
as in a thousand other cases, his impressive and
lovely example furnished a far more powerful argu
ment for. the truth of the gospel, than could be
afforded by the cold homage of even the loftiest
understanding. Such a spectacle of uniform gen
tleness, humility, integrity, courtesy, and benevo
lence, as was exhibited in his lire, will extort, even
from the most unreflecting, some admiration of
the excellence of that religion which produced it.
To several of his most munificent benefactions in
the cause of Christian philanthropy, some allusion
has been already made in the biographical sketch.
Suffice it to say here, that over and above extraor>
dinary acts of beneficence, his charities, during by
far the greater part of his life, never amounted to
less than 1,000/. a-year.
He took no part in the unhappy controversies
whicli distracted the age: * His serene and placid
spirit recoiled from controversies of every kind, but
especially1 from such as were alike distasteful to
his temper and alien from his pursuits, and which
appeafed to him, as they must to every other sober
mind, to have been prosecuted with an animosity
and rancour so utterly dispT'op6rtionate to their im
portance. Both his philosophy and his Christianity taught
him the utmost tolerance towards others. Many
passages in his writings and letters show that he

xliv

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

abhorred perception in whatsoever form disguised,
and by whatsoever party practised.
If, upon all this, it be said that philosophy might
have produced this varied excellence, we ask, where
a.e the men, in whom philosophy has produced
itP Where are the men, not merely of inoffen-
sne lives and externally decent conduct-for, happily
for society, these common fruits do not require even
philosophy to mature them-but of active benevo-
!7,and, -,°lid g°°dneSS' Wh0 have b*e« "-de
such by philosophy alone ?
And here we may add, that Boyle was emi
nently distinguished by those species of moral ex-
- cellence to which philosophy, singly considered, is
not only not favourable, but almost uniformly un
friendly. We refer to such traits of character as hu-1
niility, meekness, patience of human infirmities and
human prejudices, and pity for human ignorance/all
conjoined with that unwearied benevolence which
busies itself in endeavouring to relieve the wretched
ness lt compassionates. Whatever the peculiar
nioral excellencies philosophy may. pretend to"
chensh.-to such as these, she undoubtedly cannot
lay claim as her characteristic fruits: and alas ¦ if
we may judge from the prevailing dispositions of
many of her most eminent votaries, she does not
even wish to lay claim to them: When .unverified
by a far mightier principle than any she can, bring
to bear on human character, her. tendencies are the

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

dv

very reverse of all this. Alone, she produces pride
of intellect, self-sufficiency, the vain self-gratula-
tions of supposed superiority, scorn of human in
firmities and impatience of human ignorance.
On the whole, it may be affirmed, that few men
have ever been distinguished by a more blameless
and even course of life, or by one more strongly
marked by all the traces of true worth, than was
Robert Boyle. He descended to his grave rich in
all the honours which humanity should most covet,
and followed by the benedictions of his own and of
all coming ages.

We cannqj close this Essay without offering a
remark or twd," suggested by the character of this
illustrious man, to those who, like him, are engaged
in the pursuit of science. It was once a popular,
and is still a somewhat prevalent prejudice, that the
study of natural philosophy is in some way or
other intimately connected with religious scepti
cism^ more especially with a disbelief of Christi
anity. That there is any such direct connexion be
tween the two may be safely denied ; and the sup
position is satisfactorily confuted by the fact, that
by far the greatest names of science are associated
with a full belief of Christianity, after a fair inves
tigation of its evidences. But that such pursuits
may become accidentally the causes of scepticism,
and that in two ways, must be admitted.

xlvi

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

xlvii

L They may become so, as indeed every thing
else may, by being made the , exclusive objects of
the mind's attention. This is not at all wonderful ;
for it is only saying, that a man, whatever his
knowledge of physical science, is not likely to be
lieve that of which he knows nothing, and that he
is not likely to know what he has never studied.
Now Christianity, as much as those sciences of
which the philsopher is such an idolater, appeals
to its appropriate evidences, and submits them
to candid examination. Is it any wonder that a
man who has never paid the slightest attention to
those evidences, should withhold his assent from
them? *
Now, it may be safely affirmed, that it is in this
class, that by far the larger number of the sceptics
who become such in the pursuit of natural philo
sophy are to be ranked. The bulk of them have
never fairly investigated the evidences of that sys
tem of religion which they take upon them to re
ject and to deride. They have, in flagrant and
open inconsistency with the principles on which
they usually philosophize, taken the "high priori
road ;" and determined that a system, which ex
hibits truths so widely different from those with
which they are chiefly conversant, and which is
substantiated by an appeal to a species, or at least a
degree of evidence so very different from that which
enters into their scientific reasonings, cannot be

J

true. Such conduct as this, whatever such men
may be in their own department, is any thing but
philosophical. We may easily conceive the immeasurable scorn
with which they would regard a theologian, who,
however well acquainted with his own science,
should presume to pronounce on the merits of some
philosophical hypothesis, of which he was proved to
be ignorant. This contempt would be just ; yet not
more just than that with which they may be visited
when tbey presume to dogmatize on matters of
which they have no adequate knowledge. The
conduct ofthe one party is precisely the same with
that ofthe other.
Experimental philosophy maintains, and justly,
that nothing shall be received but upon the basis
of well ascertained experiments or observation;
and that nothing shall be rejected which has been
thus established, however it may oppose long-rooted
prejudice or venerable error ; that no d priori rea
soning shall be permitted to throw any doubt on
indubitable matter of fact. Christianity claims
the same privilege; a keen, but at the same
time, honest investigation of its evidences, is no
thing but the experimental philosophy applied to
religion. If rejected at all, the Bible can be justly
rejected only after a full and dispassionate exami
nation of its claims to our belief.
That by far greater number of sceptical men of

xlviii

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

science have been grossly ignorant ofthe evidences
C^tianity, will be doubted by none
had much pnvato intercourse with such persons or
-e versed in the writings of those among^hem wh
have made their books of science a vehide of thd '
nr de, t The absurd> and not l^
^^ectionstheywillurge-objeLnswhichhey might have seen answered over and over again
m the merest manuals of Christian evidences-
^ow that they have never entered even into Ihe
™st cursory investigation of the subject. In the
meantime it should at least rendj them more
-odes, »f it cannot persuade them to a thorough
he neatest philosophers who have investigated
1Vh tr* °f Christianity ^yo proclaimed
^deliberate and solemn conviction of its
2. But it was hinted that the ardent pursuit of
physical scxence might accidentally become, in ano
ther way, acause of scepticism. It is not to be de_
n.ed, that oftentimes the species and always the de-
gree of evidence, on which its truths depend, are of
a very different character from any which can be '
employed to substantiate the truths of Christianity <'-
or mdeed any other truths which can be established
only by the same species of evidence. And as
physical science, from its very nature, recommends
itself chiefly to such minds as by their native ten-

/
' ,V
) >\

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

xlb

dencies are better aole to appreciate the former
species of evidence than the latter, it is not to be
wondered at, that from the influence of this twofold
cause, the habits of mind engendered by a long-con
tinued and almost exclusive Addictedness to such
pursuits should not only disincline the mind, but in
some degree incapacitate it for a candid and fair in
vestigation ofthat kind of evidence on which other
truths must be established ; established, not in
deed less conclusively to a truly philosophical and
comprehensive mind, but only in a totally different
way. In conformity with these remarks, it has
been sometimes observed, that some very eminent
mathematicians have been in some measure inca
pable of perceiving the force of all evidence but
such as is strictly demonstrative; while, on the
other hand, it has been remarked that eminent
lawyers have been far more ready to appreciate
the force of the Christian evidences than those who,
distinguished for their devotedness to the pursuit of
the pure or the mixed sciences, are tempted to de
mand a species of proof of which the very subject
is confessedly insusceptible. The simple fact is,
that the one party is far better acquainted with the
nature and force of moral evidence than the other,
for, it is the sole element of all his reasonings.
It is no matter of surprise then, that the student
of the exact sciences, when he withdraws his atten
tion from his mathematical demonstrations, or turns

1 -

INTRODUCTORY "ESSAY.

his gaze from those phenomena of nature, which
present a spectacle of harmony and uniformity so
beautiful, to the totally different elements ofthat evi
dence on which the truths of ethics and religion are
founded, should manifest, not only a distaste for it,
but, unless gifted with unusual comprehensiveness
and grasp of mind, a degree of incapacity to ap
preciate it. In balancing testimony, in harmo
nizing contradictory statements, in weighing pro
babilities, he sees nothing of that constancy, uni
formity and precision, which he has been accus
tomed to admire; and the very habits of mind
which in the exact sciences are so useful to him
m some measure disqualify him for doing justice
here. Laplace, whose gigantic powers of analysis
were equal to anything in his own department,
made but a sorry figure as a public functionary;
The sagacious remark of Napoleon is well known
When these tendencies of mind strongly exist
or have been unduly indulged by a too exclusive
pursuit of the severe or exact sciences, the obvious
remedy is to lose ho time in familiarizing the
mind, at least in some degree, with the nature and
objects of moral science. At all events, before'
presuming on the strength of such habits as those
just mentioned, to dogmatize on a theme so awful
and so unspeakably important as the Christian
evidences, it is the unquestionable duty of the
philosopher fairly to investigate them. If he will

INTRODUCTORY ESSAYi

li

not do so, his conduct will as well merit the rebuke
of Apelles to the too critical cobbler, as would that
of some eminent lawyer, who profoundly ignorant
of astronomy, should venture an opinion on the
Copernican theory : they may both be reminded
that their knowledge of one subject, does not en
title them to dogmatize on another of which they
are ignorant.
If the above remarks be correct, then — so
far as the. authority of the votaries of physical
science, on a subject with which, by the structure
of their minds and their habits of thought, they
are too often but ill-qualified to judge; we say
so far as the authority of such men is at all de
cisive of the question of the truth of Christianity —
the appeal should be made to the opinion of those
amongst them who have been distinguished for
that vastness and comprehensiveness of mind
which could not be Confined within the bound
aries of any one science, and whose profound ac
quaintance with many other departments of human
knowledge entitles their judgment to respect; not
surely to those men whose native tendencies and
all whose habits make them great mathematicians, or
great astronomers, or great physiologists, or great
chemists, but nothing morei Now what' would be
the issue of such an appeal ? We should be
well content that Christianity should abide it; for
amongst this class of philosophers, Christianity has
found many of her warmest friends. If we look

Iii

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

liii

to these men, equally distinguished by their com
prehensiveness of mind and prodigious knowledge ;
if, in a word, we appeal to such men as Newton,
or Leibnitz, or Bacon, or Boyle, who were most
distinguished, it is true, as philosophers, but who
were also a great deal more than philosophers, the
argument is triumphant. Authority, at best an
indecisive and dubious argument, is altogether
with us. For shall we for a moment compare with
such large and full-orbed minds,— minds which
possessed in perfection all the attributes of lofty
intellect,— those defective, and if the expression
may be used, those mutilated intellects which may
be capable of the highest achievements in some
specific branch of science, but are limited by
4hat? Shall we compare the mind of Newton, for
example, -with such a "mind as that of Laplace on
such a question as this ? Surely not. On the
other hand it is almost uniformly found, that it is
the mere mathematician, or the mere astronomer, or
the mere physiologist, who doubts of Christianity;
that is, the man who has no business to venture an
opinion at all on the subject, until he has carefully
studied it. . - - - - ; :
Let then the youthful enthusiasts of science re
member, that no degree of knowledge on one sub
ject will qualify them for pronouncing on another
of which they are ignorant; that such conduct1 is
in utter and reckless defiance of all the principles
ofthat philosophy they pretend to reverence; that

if in forgetfulness of their character as philoso
phers, they will on this subject appeal to that
argument from authority, which on other subjects
they despise; it at least becomes them to defer to
the opinions of those men whose comprehensive
ness of intellect and whose extent of knowledge
best qualified them to form a judgment; and lastly,
that if they act upon this principle, they cannot but
admit that all those names in science which they are
bound most to venerate, are associated with the
belief of Christianity.
How far the honourable Robert Boyle was qua
lified by nature and by habit, by the structure of
his mind and by the degree of his knowledge, to
form an opinion on this subject, has been already
shown in a former part of this Essay : what that
opinion was, will be best seen by a perusal of the
present selection. -•' ¦" ^ V- •
- Of the pieces which compose the present volume,
it is not necessary to say more than a few words/
The " Considerations on the Style of the Scrip
tures/' though placed last for the sake of preserving
a natural arrangement, is by many degrees supe
rior to the other two pieces. Though it is, after all,
but a fragment of a work projected on a much larger
scale; though it was commenced; and for the most
part written at a very early age; though, as his
" Prefatory Letter to the Publisher" shows, it was
both composed and published under the most
disadvantageous circumstances; still it is a per-

\

Wa-2.

"V INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
formance of great power, originality, and beauty.
There are, it is true, in the style, some few traces
of a juvenile and unripe taste, but these are not
very frequent. Taken altogether, the work is the
most finished of the author's theological produc
tions ; and in many parts, as he confesses, cost him
far more time, and was elaborated with far greater
care than any of the rest. It has well repaid the
pains expended on it. It indicates a thorough
knowledge of Scripture, not only considered as a
collection of separate treatises, but as a coherent
system of truth; it contains many profound and
beautiful views of the philosophy of the Bible — of
the reasons of its being thrown into such a form and
contexture ; it displays, in every part, an astonish
ing superiority to the prejudices which fettered the
interpreters of the Scripture in that day, and in one
or two instances even anticipates the spirit and
the principles of modem biblical criticism. This
superiority to many of the prejudices which beset
the biblical critics of the age, was to be expected
from one of his catholic, enlightened, and philoso
phical spirit; from one who was not confined
within the little limits of a system ; who had no pre
conceived hypothesis to support; and who read the
Scripture, not only with the advantage of a
thorough critical apparatus, but simply with a view
to ascertain its meaning.'

This little work also displays, in many parts, a knowledge

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

Iv

The first treatise in the volume, entitled, " The
Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God," was writ
ten with much haste; and though possessing many
passages both of force and beauty, it is, on the
whole, far inferior to that just mentioned. That
some few of the alleged facts, by which he illus
trates the divine wisdom and power, are not cor
rectly stated, will easily be forgiven by those who
recollect the vast progress which natural philosophy
has made since his time. That they do not affect
the conclusiveness of his reasoning need hardly be
stated ; since, so far as he has in these instances
failed of the truth, he has, in fact, only understated
his own argument, every addition to science being
a confirmation of all the grand truths of natural
religion. Thus, for example, the stupendous proofs
which he has brought forward of the divine power
and wisdom from the consideration of astronomy,
would derive far greater force, if the splendid dis
coveries which have taken place since he wrote the
tract in question, were substituted for his own
defective statements. The argument, as Paley
has justly remarked, is cumulative; every fresh
acquisition of science is continually adding to the
pile. The following is the Author's apology for the
unfinished and fragmentary form in which this tract
of the philosophy of rhetoric, and of the higher principles of
eloquence not often seen in writers of that period. e

lvi

INTRODUCTORY1 ESSAY.

was published :— " The abrupt beginning of the
following paper will not (it is hoped) be wondered
at, when it is declared, that the whole excursion is
to be looked upon as a fragment of a discourse,
from which, for certain reasons, it has been sepa
rated, in its present form."
The " Reflections on a Theological Distinction"
is brief, but contains, not only sound and forcible
argument, but argument somewhat more closely
and cogently expressed, than is always to be found
in the productions of our Author. He shows con-.
clusively, that unless this distinction, which has so
often been ridiculed by pretended philosophers,
be admitted, not only Christianity but philosophy
would be exposed to insurmountable difficulties ;
in a word, that the distinction is justified- by
reason and common Sense,. ¦
H. R.
May 23, 183o,

or THE

HIGH VENERATION

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

I

DF THE
HIGH VENERATION, &c.

1. Upon this occasion, I shall take leave to de
clare, that it is not without some indignation, as
well as wonder, that I see many men, and some of
them divines too, who little considering what God
is, and what themselves are, presume to talk of
him and his attributes as' freely and as unpre-
meditately as if they were talking of a geometrical
figure, or a mechanical engine. So that" even the
less presumptuous discourse as if the nature and
perfections of that unparalleled Being were objects
that their intellects can grasp ; and scruple not
to dogmatise about those abstruse subjects, as
freely as about other things that are confessedly
within the reach of human reason, or perhaps are
to be found among the more familiar objects of
sense. .'¦:/:
2. The presumption and inconsiderateness of
these men might be manifested by divers conside
rations,- if I had leisure to insist on them; but at
present I shall employ but these two : 1. That it

¦i OF THE HIGH VENERATION
is probable God may have divers attributes, and
consequently perfections, that are as yet unknown
to us; and 2. That of those attributes that we
have already some knowledge of, there are effects
and properties whose sublimity or abstruseness
surpassing our comprehension, makes the divine
cause or author of them deserve our highest
wonder and veneration.
3. To begin with the first of these: whereas
there are two chief ways to arrive at the knowledge
of God's attributes, the contemplation of his works,
and the study of his word ; I think it may be
doubted whether either or both of these will suffice
to acquaint us with all his perfections.
4. For, first, though philosophers have rationally
deduced the power, wisdom, and goodness of God
from those impresses of them that he hath stamped
upon divers of his visible works, yet since the
divine attribute's which the creatures point at, are
those whereof themselves have some, though but
imperfect, participation or resemblance, and since
the fecundity (if I may so speak) of the divine
nature is such that its excellencies may be parti
cipated or represented in I know not how many
ways, how can we be sure that so perfect and
exuberant a being may not have excellencies that
it hath not expressed or adumbrated in the visible
world, or any parts of it that are known to us ?
5. This will be the more easily granted, if we
consider that there are some, of those divine at
tributes we do know ; which being relative to the
creatures, could scarce, if at all, be discovered by
such imperfect intellects as ours, save by the con
sideration of some things actually done by God.
As, supposing that just before the foundations of

fi

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD. 3
the visible world were laid, the angels were not
more knowing than men now are, they could
scarce think that there was in God a power of
creating matter (which few, if any at all of the
Peripatetics, Epicureans, to omit others of the
ancient philosophers, seem ever to have dreamed
of) and of producing in it local motion, especially
considering the puzzling difficulties that attend
the conception of the very nature and being of the
one, and of the other. And much less (as far as
we can conjecture) could the angels spoken of,
have known how the rational soul and human
bodjr act upon one another. Whence it seems
probable, that if God have made other worlds, or
rather vortices, than that which we live in, and
are surrounded by, (as who can assure us that he
hath not ?) he may have displayed, in some of the
creatures that compose them, divers attributes that
we have not discovered by the help of those works
of his that we are acquainted with : but of this
more hereafter* :if-
6. I. readily grant; ' (that I may proceed now to
the second help to acquire the knowledge of the
divine attributes,) that the revelations God hath
vouchsafed us in the holy Scripture (which we
owe to that Spirit which ' searcheth all things,
even ra (i&Br) rS 9eS, the depths of God") have
clearly taught us divers' things concerning their
adorable author, which the mere light of nature,
either would not have shown us at all, or would
have but very dimly discovered to us. But the
Scripture tells us, indeed, that the promulgators
of the Gospel, declared to men ' the whole counsel

' ICor. ii. 10.

b 2

* OF THE HIGH VENERATION
of God, ' (as far as was necessary for their salva
tion,) but never says, that they disclosed to them
the whole nature of God ; who is said to ' inhabit
an unapproachable light,'8 which human specula
tions cannot penetrate. Upon which score, per
haps, it was, that the Jews would have the proper
name of God to be ineffable, to signify that his
nature is incomprehensible. And, though I will
not adopt their opinion, yet I cannot but take
notice that it is at least no mere Talmudical
tradition, since we find not that cither our Saviour
himself or his apostles (who are introduced so fre
quently making mention of God in the New Tes
tament) expressed in speaking either to him or of
him, the nomen tetragrammaton (or four-lettered
name !) But not to insist on conjecture, the Scrip
ture itself, that brings so much light to things
divine, that the Gospel is called light in the ab
stract, the Scripture, I say, informs us, that in this
life ' we know but in part, and see things but
darkly as in a glass;'3 and that we are so far from
being able ' to find out God to perfection,'4 as to
his nature and attributes, that even the ways of
bis providence are to us untraceable.5 ¦ " ¦
7. These are some of the considerations that
inclined me to think that God may have attributes
that are not known to us. . And this opinion
perhaps will appear the more allowable, because,
of what I am going to add in answer to a weighty
objection. For 1 know it may be alleged that,
besides tbe two ways 1 have mentioned, of. attain
ing to the knowledge, of God's attributes, there;
1 Acts, xx. 27. 2 1 Tim. iv. 1C. 3 I Cor. xiii. 12.
' Job, xi. 7. 1 ¦ ^Rom. xi. 33.

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

6

may be a third way preferable to both the others,
and that is, by considering the idea of a Being
supremely or infinitely -perfect; in which idea it
may be alleged, that all possible perfections are
contained, so that no new one can be added to it.
But though I readily grant, that this idea is the
most genuine that I am able to frame ofthe Deity;
yet there may be divers attributes which though
they are, indeed, in a general way contained in
this idea, are not in particular discovered to us by
it. It is true, that when, by any means whatsoever,
any divine perfection comes to our knowledge, we
may well conclude, that it is in a sense comprised
in the comprehensive notion we. have of a Being
absolutely perfect; but it is possible that that per
fection would never have come to our knowledge
by the bare contemplation of tbat general idea,
but was suggested by particularities, so that such
discoveries are not so much derived from, as re
ferred to, the notion we are speaking of.
The past considerations have, I presume, per
suaded you, that God may have, as divers attri
butes, so divers excellencies and perfections, that
are not known to us. It will therefore now be
seasonable to endeavour to show you, that of divers
ofthe attributes we do know that he hath, we men
have but" an imperfect knowledge, especially in
comparison of that he has of them : which is not
to be wondered at, since he possesses them in a
manner or a degree peculiar to himself, and far
transcending that wherein we men possess them, '
or rather some faint resemblances of them.
It would be very unsuitable to my intended
brevity, and more disproportionate to my small
abilities, to attempt the making this good by in-

6 OF THE HIGH VENERATION
sisting particularly on all the divine excellencies
that we are in some measure acquainted with. I
therefore hope it may suffice to instance two of
the most known ones: God's power and his
wisdom. Which two I pitch upon, as being those
that men are wont to look on as the principal, and
for which they have the greatest admiration and
respect, because we are not able to confer them
on ourselves, as we think we can divers other virtues
and perfections. For every man easily believes
that he may be as chaste, as temperate, as just,
and in a word, as good as he pleases — those virtues
depending on his own will ; but he is sensible that
he cannot be as knowing, as wise, and as powerful
as he would. And thence he not irrationally con
cludes, that power and wisdom flow from, and
argue an excellency and superiority of nature or
condition. The power and wisdom of God display
themselves by what he does in reference both to
his corporeal and his incorporeal creatures.
Among the manifold effects of the divine power,
my intended brevity will allow me to mention
only two or three, which, though to discerning
eyes they be very manifest, are not wont to be
very attentively reflected on. The immense quan
tity of corporeal substance that the divine power
provided for the framing of the universe; and the
great force of the local motion that was imparted
to it, and is regulated in it.
And first, the vastness of that huge mass of
matter that the corporeal world consists of, cannot
but appear stupendous to those that skilfully con
template it. That part of the universe which has
been already discovered by human eyes, assisted
with dioptrical glasses, is almost inconceivably

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD. 7
vast, as will be easily granted, if we assent to what
the best astronomers, as well modern as ancient,
scruple not to deliver. The fixed stars of the first
magnitude, that to vulgar eyes look but like shin
ing spangles, are by artists affirmed to exceed,
each of them, above a hundred times in bigness
the whole globe of the earth : and as little as these
twinkling stars appear to our naked eyes, they do
(which probably you will think strange) appear
much less through our telescopes, which taking
off those false lights that make them look to our
maimed sight as they are wont to be painted,
show them little otherwise than as specks or phy
sical points of light. And the sun, which is
granted to be some millions of miles nearer to us
than the other fixed stars are, though it seem at
'^, this lesser distance not to be half a foot broad, is,
by the generality of .mathematicians, believed to
be above a hundred and threescore times bigger
than the earth. Nay, according to the more recent
Calculations of some more accurate modern artists,
it is estimated to be eight or ten thousand times as
big as. the terraqueous globe, and by further ob
servation, may perhaps be fouud yet much vaster.
And it plainly appears by the parallaxes and
other proofs, that this globe of earth and water
that we inhabit, and often call the world, though
it be divided into so many great empires, and
kingdoms, and seas, and though, according to
the received opinion, it be 5,400 German leagues
in circuit, and consequently contain 10,882,080,000
cubic miles in solid measure, and according to the
more modern observations have a greater circum
ference, (amounting to above 26,000 miles,) yet
this globe, I say, is so far from being, for its bulk,

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

a considerable part of the universe, that without
much hyperbole, we may say that it is in compa
rison thereof, but a physical point; nay, those far
greater globes ofthe sun and other fixed stars, and all
the solid masses of the world to boot, if they were
reduced into one, would perhaps bear a less pro
portion to the fluid part of the universe than a nut
to the ocean. Which brings into my mind the
sentence of an excellent modern astronomer, that
the stars ofthe sky, if they were crowded into one
body and placed where the earth is, would, if that
globe were placed at a fit distance, appear to
us -no bigger than a star of the first magnitude
now does. And after all this, I must remind you
that I have been hitherto speaking but of that part
of the corporeal universe that has been already
seen by us. And therefore I must add, that as
vast as this is, yet all that the eye, even when
powerfully promoted by prospective tubes, hath
discovered to us, is far from representing the
world of so- great an extent as I doubt not but
more perfect telescopes hereafter will do; and
even then the visible part of the world will be far
enough from reaching to the bounds of the uni
verse, to which the Cartesians and some- other
modern philosophers will not allow men to set
any, holding the corporeal world to be (as they
love to speak) indefinite, and'beyond any bounds
assignable by us men.
8. From the vast extent of the universe, I now
proceed to consider the stupendous quantity of
local motion, that the divine power has given the
parts of it, and continually maintains in it. Of
this we may make some estimate by considering
with what' velocity some of the greater bodies

-'I

themselves are. moved, and how great a part of the
remaining bodies of the universe, is also, though
in a somewhat differing way, endowed with motion.
As for the first of these, the least velocity that
I shall mention, is that which is afforded by the
Copernican hypothesis, since according to that, it
is the earth that moves from west to east about its
own axis (for its other motions concern not this
discourse) in four and twenty hours. And yet
this terraqueous globe, which wc think so great
that we commonly call it the world, and which, as
was lately noted, by the more recent computations
of mathematicians, is concluded to contain six or
seven and twenty thousand miles in circuit ; some
part of this globe, I say, moves at such a rate, that
the learned Gassendus confesses, that a point or
place situated in the equator of the earth, does in
a second minute move about two hundred toises
or fathoms ; that is, twelve hundred feet; so that a
bullet, when shot out of a cannon, scarce flies with
so great a celerity.
9. But, as I was saying, the motion of the earth
is the least swift that I had to mention, being
indeed scarce comparable to tbe velocity of the
fixed stars, if with the generality of astronomers
we suppose them to move in four and twenty hours
about the earth. For supposing the distance as
signed by the famous Tycho (a more accurate
observer than his predecessors) between us and
the firmament to be fourteen thousand semi-
diameters of the earth, a fixed star in the equator
does, as Mullerius calculates it, move 3,153,333
miles in an hour, and consequently in a minute
of an hour, fifty -two thousand five hundred and
fifty-five miles, and in a second, (which is reckoned

10

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

11

to be near about a single pulsation or stroke of
the artery of a healthy man,) eight hundred and
seventy-five miles; which is about, if not above,
three thousand times faster than a cannon-bullet
moves in the air. It is true that, according to the
Ptolomean hypothesis, a fixed star in the equinoc
tial doth in a second move, at most, but three
semi-diameters of the earth ; but according to the
learned and diligent Ricciolus,1 this velocity (of
our fixed stars) is fifty times greater than in
the Ptolomean hypothesis, and threescore and teii
times greater than in the Tichonian hypothesis ;
for according to Ricciolus, such a fixed star as we
speak of moves in a second minute (or one beating
of the pulse) 157,282 German leagues, which
amount to 629,128 English miles.
And now I shall add (what possibly you have
not observed) ,that that portion of the universe
which commonly passes for quiescent, and yet has
motion put into it, is so great, that, for aught I
know, the quantity of motion distributed among
these seemingly quiescent bodies, may equal, if
not exceed the quantity of motion the first mover
has communicated to the fixed stars themselves,
though we suppose them whirled about the earth
with that stupendous swiftness that the Ptolomeans
and Tychonians attribute to them ; for I reckon
that the fixed stars and planets, or if you please,
all the mundane globes, whether lucid or opacous,
of which last sort is the earth, do all of them to
gether bear hut a small proportion to the inter
stellar part of the universe ; and though I should
allow all these globes to be solid, notwithstanding
1 See Kicciol, Almag, nov. lib. ix. sect. iv. cap. 6.

i

that it can scarce be proved of any of them, and
the Cartesians think the sun (which they take to
be a fixed star, and therefore probably of the same
nature with the rest) to be extremely fluid, though
I should, I say, grant this, yet it must be confessed,
that each of these solid globes swims in an ambient
fluid of very much greater extent than itself is;
so that the fluid portion of the universe will in
bulk almost incomparably exceed the solid. And
if wc consider what is the nature of a fluid body,
as such we shall find that it consists in having its
minute parts perpetually and variously moved,
some this way and some that way, so that though
the whole body of a liquor seems to be at rest, yet
the minute parts that compose that liquor are in a
restless motion, continually shifting places amongst
themselves, as has been amply shown in a late
Tract, entitled the History of Fluidity and Firm
ness. 10. And because the quantity of motion shared
by the corpuscles that compose fluid bodies is not
usually reflected on even by philosophers, it will
not be here amiss to add that how great and ve
hement a motion the parts of fluid bodies (perhaps
when the aggregates of those particles appear
quiescent) may be endowed with, we may be— as^
sisted to guess, by observing them when their
ordinary motions happen to be disturbed, or to be
extraordinarily excited by fit conjunctures of cir
cumstances : this may be observed in the strange
force and effects of boisterous winds and whirl
winds, which yet are but streams and whirlpools
of the invisible air, whose singly insensible parts
are by accidental causes determined to have their
motion made either in a straight or almost straight

12

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

man's INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

13

line, or, as it were, about a common centre. But an
instance much more conspicuous may be afforded by
a mine charged with gunpowder, where the flame
or some subtle Ethereal substance that is always
at hand in the air, though both one and the other of
them be a fluid body, and the powder perhaps be
kindled but by one spark of fire, exerts a motion
so rapid and furious as in a trice is able to toss
up into the air whole houses and thick walls, to
gether with the firm soil, or perchance solid rocks,
they were built upon.
11. But since the velocity of these discharged
flames may be guessed at by that which the flame
of gunpowder impresses on a bullet shot out of
a well-charged gun, which the diligent Mersennus,
who made several trials to measure it, defines to
be about seventy-five toises, or fathoms (that is,
four hundred and fifty foot) in a second, being
the sixtieth part of a minute : if we admit the
probable opinion of the Cartesians, that the earth
and divers other mundane globes, as the planets;'
are turned about their own axis by tbe motion
of the respective aethereal vortices or whirlpools
in which they swim, we shall easily grant that
the motion of the celestial matter that moves,
for instance, upon the remote confines of the
earth's vortex, is by a vast excess, more rapid than
that of the surface of the earth. And yet we
formerly observed, that a place situated under the
equator does (if the earth turns about its own axis)
move as swiftly as a bullet shot out of a cannon.
But if we choose rather the Tychonian hypothesis,
which makes the firmament,' with all the vast
globes of light that adorn it, to move about their
common centre in twenty-four hours, the motions

of the celestial matter must be allowed a far
greater, and indeed a scarce imaginable rapidity.
These things are mentioned, that we may have
the more enlarged conceptions of the power as well
as wisdom of the great Creator, wbo has both put
so wonderful a quantity of motion into the uni
versal matter, and maintains it therein, and is able
not only to set bounds to the raging sea, and
effectually say to it, ' Hitherto shalt thou come, and
no further, and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed,' but what is far more, so to curb and
moderate those stupendously rapid motions of the
mundane globes and intercurrent fluids, that
neither the unwieldiness of their bulk, nor celerity
of their motions, have made them exorbitate or
fly out, and this for many ages, during which no
watch, for a few hours, has gone so regularly. The
sun, for instance, moving without swerving, under
the same circular line, that is called the ecliptic ;
and if the firmament itself, whose motion in the
vulgar hypothesis, is. by much the most rapid in
the world, do fail of- exactly completing- its revolu
tion in twenty-four hours, that retardation is so
regulated, that since Hipparchus's time, who lived
two thousand years ago, the first star in Aries,
which was then near the beginning of it, is not
yet come to the last degree of that sign.
12. After what hath been discoursed of the
power of God, it remains that I say something
about his wisdom, that being the attribute to
which those that have elevated understandings
are wont to pay the highest veneration, when they
meet it even in men, where yet it is still but very
imperfect. The wisdom of God which Saint Paul some-

14

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

where justly styles voXvTrokiXoc^ manifold or mul
tifarious, is expressed in two differing manners or
degrees ; for sometimes it is so manifestly dis
played in familiar objects, that even superficial
and almost careless spectators may take notice of
it ; but there are many other things wherein the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge* may be said
to be hid, lying so deep that they require an in
telligent and attentive considerer to discover them ;
but though I think I may be allowed to make this
distinction, yet I shall not solicitously confine
myself to it ; because in several things both these
expressions of the divine wisdom may be clearly
observed. Those objects of this wisdom that we shall at
this time consider are of two sorts, the material
and visible, and the invisible and immaterial
creatures of God.
In the first of these, whose aggregate or collec
tion makes up' the corporeal world, commonly
called universe, I shall briefly take notice of the
excellent contrivance of particular bodies ; of the
great variety and consequently number of them ;
of their symmetry, as they are parts of the world ;
and of the connexion and dependence they have
ih relation to one another ; and though under the
two first of these heads, I might as well as under
the other tw.o, take notice of mahy inanimate
bodies, as well as of those that are endowed with
vegetative and sensitive souls, (as naturalists com
monly call them,) yet for brevity sake I shall here
take notice only of that more perfect sort of living
creatures that we call animalsi

MAN S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

15

f

13. I. The contrivance of every animal, and
especially of a human body, is so curious and
exquisite, that it is almost impossible for any body
that has not seen a dissection well made and ana
tomically considered, to imagine or conceive how
much excellent workmanship is displayed in that
admirable engine; but of this having discoursed
elsewhere more fully, I shall here only tell you in
a word, (and it is no hyperbole,) that as St. Paul
said on another occasion, ' That the foolish things
of God are wiser than men, and the weak things
of God stronger than men;'1 so we may say, that
the meanest living creatures of God's making, are
far more wisely contrived than the most excellent
pieces of workmanship that human heads and
hands can boast of. And no watch nor clock in
the world is any way comparable for exquisiteness
of mechanism, to the body of even an ass or a
frog. 14. II. But God's wisdom is recommended as
well by the variety, and consequently the number
of the kinds of living, creatures, as by the fabric
of each of them in particular; for the skill of
human architects and other artists is very narrow,
and for the most part limited to one or to a few
sorts of contrivements. Thus many an architect
can build a house well that cannot build a ship :
and (as we daily see) a man may be an excellent
clock-maker that could not make a good watch,
and much less contrive well a fowling-piece or a
windmill. : - :-,--¦¦
15. But now the great author of nature has nqt
only created four principal sorts of living engines,

1 Ephes. iii. 10. !i.

8 Col. ii. 3.

1 Cor. i. 25.

:J:

16

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

namely beasts,, birds, fishes and reptiles, which
differ exceedingly from. one another, as the several
regions or stages where they were to act their
parts, required they should do ; but under each
of these comprehensive genera are comprised I
know not how many subordinate species of animals
that differ exceedingly from others of the same
kind, according to the exigency of their particular
natures; for not only the Aibric of a beast (as a
lion) is very differing from thatof a bird, or a fish,
(as an eagle or a whale,) but in the same species
' the structure or mechanism of particular animals
is very unlike. Witness the difference between
the parts of those beasts that chew the cud, and
those that do not; and between the hog and the
hare, especially in their entrails ; and so between
a parrot and a bat, and likewise between a whale,
a star-fish, a lobster, and an oyster; (to mention
no other instances;) and if with divers philoso
phers, both ancient and modern, we admit vege
tables into the rank of living creatures, the number
of these being so great, tbat above six thousand
kinds of vegetables were many years ago reckoned
up, the manifold displays of the divine me'ehan-
ism, and so of its wisdom, will, by that great
variety of living engines, be so much the more
conspicuous. 16. III. That which much enhances the ex
cellent contrivances to be met with in these auto
mata is the symmetry of all the various parts that
each of them consists of. For an animal, though
considered in his state of entireness, he is justly
looked upon as one engine; yet really this total
machine (if I may so call it) is a complex thing
made up of several parts, which considered sepa-

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

17

rately, may pass each of them for a subordinate
engine excellently fitted for this or tbat particular -
use. As an eye is an admirable optical instru
ment to enable a man to see, and the hand is so
well framed for a multitude of mechanical uses,
that Aristotle thought fit to call it the organ of
organs, or instrument of instruments; it ought
therefore highly to recommend the wisdom of the
great yotser hakkol, ' former of all things,' ' as the
Scripture styles him, that he has so framed each
particular part of a man, or other animal, as not
to let the skill bestowed on that, hinder him from
making that part or member itself, and every other,
neither bigger nor less, nor, in a word, otherwise
constituted than was most expedient for the com
pleteness and welfare of the whole animal ; which
manifests that this great artist had the whole
fabric under his eye at once, and did at one view
behold all that was best to be done in order to the
completeness of the whole animal, as well as to
that of each member and other part, and admirably
provided for them both at once. Whereas many
an excellent artificer that is able to make a single
engine very complete, may not be able to make it
a commodious part of a complex or aggregate of
engines : as it is not every one that can make a
good pump that can make a good ship-pump, nor
every chymist that can build an oven for a bake
house, that can make one fit to be set up in a ship :
and we see that our pendulum-clocks, that are
moved with weights and go very regularly ashore,
cannot yet be brought to perform their office, of
constantly measuring of time, when set up in a
sailing ship. 1 Jer. x. 1G. C

i

18

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

17. IV. The fourth way by which God manifests
his wisdom in his corporeal creatures is, their
mutual usefulness to one another, in a relation
either of dependency or of co-ordination : this
serviceableness may be considered, either as the
parts of the animal have a relation to one another,
and to the whole body they make up, or as entire
and distinct bodies have reference to or depen
dency on each other. To the first sort of utility
belong the uses of the parts of the human body,
for instance, which are so framed, that besides
these public offices or functions that some of them
exercise for the good of the whole, as the stomach
for correcting aliments, the brain for supplying
animal spirits to move the limbs and other parts.
the kidneys to separate the superfluous serum of"
the blood ; there are many other particular parts
that have that subserviency to one another, that
no despicable portion of the books of anatomy is
employed in the mention of them. And divers
consents of parts and utilities that accrue from one
to the other, are further discovered by diseases
which, primarily affecting one part or member of
the body, discover that this or that other part has
a dependence on it, or a particular relation to it,
though perhaps not formerly taken notice of. To
the second part of utility belong those, parts that
discriminate the sexes of animals, which parts have
such a relation one to another, in the male and the
female, that it is obvious they were made for the
conjunction of both in order to the propagation of
the species. I cannot here spend time to consider
the fitness of the distance and situation of the sun,
the obliquity of its motion under the ecliptic, and
especially the compensations that nature makes by

%

h

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

19

one thing for another, the excess of whose qualities
would else be noxious to men ; as the great heats
and dryness that reign in many parts of the torrid
zone and some neighbouring climates, would ren
der those countries barren and uninhabitable, as
the ancients thought them, if tbey were not kept
from being so by the etesians and the trade- winds,
which blow regularly, though not always the same
way, for a great part of the hottest seasons of the
year, and are assisted by the length of the nights,
by the copious and lasting rains that fall at set
times, by the greatness of the rivers, some of them
periodically overflowing their banks to great dis
tances, and by the winds that in many places
blow in the night from the land seaward, and in
the morning from the sea towards the land; for
these and some other such things do so moisten
and refresh the ground, and contemperate tbe air,
that in many of those climates which the ancients
thought parched up and uninhabitable, there are
large kingdoms and provinces that are both fruitful
and populous, and divers of them very pleasant
too. But, as I was saying, I cannot stay to prose
cute what might be represented to show the use
fulness of many of God's other sensible works to
the noblest kind of them, men ; but I shall rather
Content myself by adding a few lines, to point
further at the reference that God has been pleased
to make many other things have to the welfare of
men and other animals, as we see that according-
to the usual course of nature, lambs, kids, and
many other living creatures are brought into the
world at the spring of the year, when tender grass
and other nutritive plants are provided for their
food ; and the like may be observed in the pro-
c 2

20

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

duction of silk-worms, whose eggs, according to
nature's institution, are (hatched when mulberry-
trees begin to bud and put forth those leaves
whereon these precious insects are Co feed, the
aliments being tender whilst the worms themselves
are so, and growing more strong and substantial
as the insects increase in vigour and bulk.
18. There is one thing which, though it might
perhaps have been more properly brought in be
fore, must not bere be pretermitted; for, besides
what was lately said of the excellent fabric of the
bodies of men and other animals, we may de
servedly take notice how much more wonderful
than the structure of the grown body must be the
contrivance of a semen animatum; since all the
future parts, solid as well as soft, and the functions
and many of the actions (and those to be variable
pro re nata) of the animal to be produced must
be durably delineated, and as it were couched in a
little portion of matter, that seems homogeneous,
and is unquestionably fluid ; and that which much
increases the wonder is, that one of these latent
impressions or powers, namely, the plastic or pro
lific, is to lie dormant, perhaps above thirty or
forty years, and then to be able to produce many
more such engines as is the animal itself.
I have hitherto, among the corporeal works of
God, taken notice only of those productions of his
power and wisdom that may be observed in the
visible world ; so that I may be allowed to con
sider further, that not only the Peripatetics, but
the generality of other philosophers, believe the
world to be finite ; and though the Cartesians will
not say it is so, but choose rather to call it inde
finite, yet, as it is elsewhere shown, their opinion

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

21

\\

is rather a well-meant piece of modesty than a
strict truth ; for in reality, the world must every
way have bounds and consequently be finite, or it
must not have bounds, and so be truly boundless,
or, which is the same thing in other terms, infinite.
And if the world be bounded, then those that be
lieve a Deity, to whose nature it belongs to be of
infinite power, must not deny that God is, and still
was, able to make other worlds than this of ours.
And the Epicureans, who admitted no Omipotent
Maker of the world, but substituted chance and
atoms in his stead, taught that by reason the
causes sufficient to make a world, that is, atoms
and space, were not wanting : chance has actually
made many worlds, of which ours is but one; and
the Cartesians must, according to their doctrine of
the indefiniteness of corporeal substance, admit
that our visible world, or, if they please, vortex, by
which I mean the greatest extent our eyes can
reach to, is but a part, and comparatively but a
very small one too, of the whole universe, which
may extend beyond the utmost stars we can see,
incomparably further than those remotest visible
bounds are distant from our earth.
Now, if we grant with some modern philoso
phers, that God has made other worlds besides
this of ours, it will be highly probable that he has
there displayed his manifold wisdom in produc
tions very differing from those wherein we here
admire it ; and even without supposing any more
than one universe, as all that portion of it that is
visible to us makes but a part of that vastly ex
tended aggregate of bodies; so if we but suppose
that some ofthe celestial globes, whether visible to
us or placed beyond the reach of our sight, are

22

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

peculiar systems, the consideration will not be
very different ; for since the fixed stars are many
of them incomparably more remote than the
planets, it is not absurd to suppose that, as the
sun, who is the fixed star nearest to us, has a
whole system of planets that move about him, so
some of the other fixed stars may be each of them
the centre, as it were, of another system of celestial
globes, since we see that some planets themselves,
that are determined by astronomers to be much
inferior in bigness to those fixed stars I was speak
ing of, have other globes that do, as" it were, de
pend on them, and move about them ; as, not to
mention the earth that has the moon for its atten
dant, nor Saturn, that is not altogether unaccom
panied, it is plain that Jupiter has no less than
four satellites that run their course about him ;
and it is not to be pretermitted, that none of these
lesser and secondary planets, if I may so call
them, that moves about Saturn and Jupiter, is
visible to the naked eye, and therefore they were all
unknown to the ancient astronomers who lived
before the invention of telescopes. Now, in case
there be other, mundane systems, if I may so
speak, besides this visible one of ours, I think it
may be probably supposed that God may have
given peculiar and admirable instances of his un
exhausted wisdom in the contrivance and govern
ment of systems, that for aught we know may be
framed and managed in a manner quite differing
from what is observed in that part of the universe
that is known to us ; for besides that here on earth
the loadstone is a .mineral so differing in divers
affections, not only from all other stones, but from
all other bodies that are not magnetical, that this

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

23

heteroclite mineral scarce seems to be originary of
this world of ours, but to have come into it by a
remove from some other world or system; I re
member that some of the navigators that discovered
America, took notice that at their first coming into
some parts of it, though they found great store of
animals and plants, yet they met with few of the
latter, and scarce any of the former, of the same
species with the living creatures of Europe.
19. Now in these other worlds, besides tbat we
may suppose- that the original fabric, or that
frame into which the Omniscient Architect at first
contrived the parts of their matter, was very differ
ing from the structure of our system : besides
this, I say, we may conceive that there may be
a vast difference betwixt the subsequent phaeno-
mena and productions observable in one of those
systems, from what regularly happens in ours,
though we should suppose no more than that two
or three laws of local motion may be differing in
those unknown worlds from the laws that obtain
in ours; for if we suppose, for instance, that every
entire body, whether simple or compounded, great
or small, retains always a motive power, (as philoso
phers commonly think that tbe soul does, when it
has moved the human body, and as the Epi
cureans and many other philosophers think all
tatoms do, after they have impelled one another,)
this power of exciting motion in another body,
without the movent's losing its own, will appear
of such moment to those that duly consider that
local motion is the first and chiefest of the second
causes that produce the phamoinena of nature,
that they will easily grant that these phasnomena
must be strangely diversified by springing from

24

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

25

principal causes so very differingly qualified. Nor
(to add another way of varying motion) is it ab
surd to conceive, that God may have created some
parts of matter to be of themselves quiescent,
(as the Cartesians and divers other philosophers
suppose all matter to be in its own nature,) and
determined to continue at rest till some outward
agent force it into motion ; and yet that he may
have endowed other parts of the matter with a
power like that which the atom ists ascribe to
their principles, of restlessly movirfg themselves,
without losing that power by the motion they
excite in quiescent bodies ; and tbe laws of this
propagation of motion among bodies may be not
the same with those that are established in our
world ; so that but one half, or some lesser part,
(as a third,) of the motion that is here communi
cated from a body of such a bulk and velocity,
to another it finds at rest, or slowlier moved than
itself, shall there pass from a movent to the body
it impells, though all circumstances, except the
laws of motion, be supposed to be the same. Nor
is it so extravagant a thing as at first it may seem,
to entertain such suspicions as these ; for in the
common philosophy, besides that the notion and
theory of local motion are but very imperfectly
proposed, there are laws or rules of it not well, not
to say at all, established.
20. And as for the Cartesian laws of motion,
though I know they are received by many learned
men, yet I suspect that it is rather upon the autho
rity of so famous a mathematician as Des Cartes,
than any convictive evidence that accompanies the
rules themselves : since to me (for reasons that
belong not to this discourse) some of them appear

h

not to be befriended, either by clear experience or
any cogent reason ; and for the rule that is the
most useful, namely, that which asserts, " that
there is always the same quantity of motion in the
world, every body that moves another losing just
as much of its own as it produces in the other,"
the proof he offers being drawn from the immuta
bility of God, seems very metaphysical, and not
very cogent to me, who fear that the properties
and extent of the divine immutability arc not so
well known to us mortals as to allow Cartesius to
make it, in our present case, an argument a priori.
And a posteriori I see not how the rule will be
demonstrated, since, besides that it may be ques
tioned whether it is agreeable to experience in
divers instances tbat might be given of communi
cated motions here below, I know not what expe
rience we have of the rules by which motion is
propagated in the heavenly regions of the world,
among all the bodies that make up the ethereal,
which is incomparably the greatest part of the
universe ; so that the truth of the Cartesian rules
being evinced neither d priori nor d posteriori, it
appears not why it should be thought unreasonable
to imagine, that other systems may have some pe
culiar laws of motion, only because they differ
from those Cartesian rules, whereof the greatest
part are, at least, undemonstrated.
21. But though, if we allow of suppositions and
conjectures, such as those lately mentioned, that are
at least not absurd, they may conduce to amplify
some of our ideas of divine things, yet we need
not fly to imaginary ultra mundane spaces to be
convinced that the effects ofthe power and wisdom
of God are worthy of their causes, and not near

26

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

27

adequately understood by us, if with sufficient at
tention we consider that innumerable multitude,
and unspeakable variety of bodies, that make up
this vast universe ; for, there being among these a
stupendous number that may justly be looked
upon as so many distinct engines, and many of
them very complicated ones too, as containing
sundry subordinate ones ; to know that all these,
as well as the rest of the mundane matter are
every moment sustained, guided, and governed
according to their respective natures, and with an
exact regard to the catholic laws of the universe ;
to know, I say, tbat there is a being that doeth this
every where and every moment, and that manages
all things without either aberration or intermission,
is a thing, that if we attentively reflect on, ought
to produce in us, for that Supreme Being that can
do this, the highest wonder and the, lowliest
adoration. ..- V?.- ;-..-. -v' ^^^rA^^ ¦ • ..
The Epicureans of old did, with some colour of
reason, as well as with much confidence, urge
against the belief of a divine Providence, that it
is inconceivable, and therefore incredible, that the
gods should be sufficient for such differing and
distracting employments, as, according to the exi
gencies of nature's works, to make the sun shine
in one place, the rain shower down in another,
the winds to, blow in a third, the lightning to
flash in a fourth, the thunderbolts to fall in a fifth,
and in short, other bodies to act and suffer accord
ing to their respective natures. Wherefore we,
that upon good grounds believe that God really
does what these philosophers thought impossible
to be done by any agents whatsoever, are much
wanting in our duty if we do not admire an all-

!
i
7\

pervading wisdom, that reaches to the utmost
extent of the universe, and actually performing
what philosophers professed they could not so
much as conceive, highly merits that those diffi
culties which they thought insuperable, and so
a sufficient excuse for their unbelief, should be a
powerful motive to our veneration of that trans
cendent wisdom that without any trouble sur
mounts them.
22. We have seen some displays of God's
wisdom as well as power, by what we have ob
served in his corporeal works ; but it will be easily
granted that some of the divine perfections could
not be so well expressed or copied upon corporeal
creatures as upon the rational and immaterial soul
of man and other intellectual beings, as the picture
of an apple or a cherry, or the character of anumber,
is not capable of receiving or containing so much of
an excellent painter's skill as he may exhibit in a
piece wherein the passions of the mind and the
laws of optics and of decency may be fully ex
pressed. And it may well be presumed, that if
we were as familiarly acquainted with God's in
corporeal creatures as we are with his visible ones,
we should perceive that, as spirits are incompa
rably more noble than bodies, so tlie divine
wisdom employed in the government and conduct
of them, is more glorious than that which we
justly admire in the frame and management of his
corporeal works; and, indeed, let a portion of
matter be never so fine, and never so well con
trived, it will not be any more than an engine
devoid of intellect and will, truly so called, and
whose excellency, as well as its distinction from
other bodies, even the grossest and most imperfect,

28

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

can consist but in mechanical affections, such as
the size, shape, motion and connexion of its parts,
which can neither excite themselves into motion,
nor regulate, and stop the motion they once are in.
Whereas true spirits, by wliich I here mean imma
terial substances, have, by God's appointment,
belonging to their nature, understanding, will,
and an internal principle, both of acting so and so,
and of arbitrarily ceasing from action. And
though God, as the sole Creator of all substances,
lias, and if he please may exercise an absolute
dominion over all his creatures, as well immaterial
as corporeal, yet since he has thought fit to govern
spirits according to the nature he has given them,
which comprehends both understanding and will,
to create such intelligent, free, and powerful
beings, as good and bad angels, to say nothing
now ofmen, and to govern them on those terms so
effectually to make them, however they behave
themselves, instruments of his glory, which multi
tudes of them do as subtly as obstinately oppose ;
to do these things, I say, requires a wisdom and
providence transcending any that can be displayed
in the formation and management of merely cor
poreal beings ; for inanimate engines may be so
contrived as to act but as we please, whereas
angels and human souls are endowed with a
freedom of acting, in most cases, as themselves
please. And it is far easier for a skilful watch
maker to regulate the motions of his watch than
the affections and actions of his son.
23. And here give me leave to consider, that
angels, whether good or bad, are very intelligent
and active beings, and that each of them is en
dowed with an intellect capable of almost innu-

MAN S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

29

merable notions and degrees or variations of
knowledge, and also with a will capable of no
less numerous exertions or acts, and of having
various influences upon the understanding, as, on
the other side, it is variously affected by the dic
tates of it ; so that, to apply this consideration to
my present purpose, each particular angel being
successively capable of so many differing moral
states, may be looked upon as, in a manner, a
distinct species of the intellectual kind ; and the
government of one demon may be as difficult a
work, and consequently may as much declare the
wisdom and power of God as the government of
a whole species of inanimate bodies, such as stones
or metals, whose nature determines them to a
strict conformity to those primordial laws of
motion which were once settled by the great Cre
ator, and from which they have no wills of their
own to make them swerve.
The Scripture tells us that in the economy of
man's salvation, there is so much of the mani
fold wisdom of God expressed, that the angels
themselves desire to pry into those mysteries.
When our Saviour, having told his apostles that
the day and hour of his future coming to judgment,
and (whether of the Jewish nation or the world,
I now enquire not,) was not then known to any,
subjoins, ' No, not to the angels, of heaven, but
to his Father only,'1 he sufficiently intimates
them to be endowed with excellent knowledge,
superior to that of men ; and that perhaps may
be one of the reasons why the Scripture styles
the mangels of light. It also teaches us that the
1 Matt. xxiv. 3G.

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OF THE HIGH VENERATION

good angels are vastly numerous; and that, as they
are of differing orders, some of them being arch
angels, and some princes of particular empires or
nations, so that God assigns them very differing
and important employments, both in heaven and
in earth, and sometimes such as oblige them, in
discharge of their respective trusts, to endeavour
the carrying on of interfering designs. The same
Scripture, by speaking of the devil and his angels,
and of the great dragon, that drew clown with his
tail the third part of the stars from heaven to
earth, and by mentioning a whole legion of devils
that possessed a single man, and by divers other
passages that I shall not now insist on, giving us
ground to conclude, that there is a political go
vernment in the kingdom of darkness, that the
monarch of it is exceedingly powerful, whence he
is styled the prince of this world, and some of his
officers have the titles of principalities, powers
rulers of the darkness of this world, &c.' that the
subjects of it are exceedingly numerous; thatthey
are desperate enemies to God and men, whence
the devil is styled the adversary, the tempter, and
a murderer from the beginning; that they are
very false and crafty, whence the devil is called the
'father of lies,' ' the old serpent,' and his stratagems
are styled ' the wiles and depths of satan ;' that
their malice' is as active and restless as it is great,
whence we are told that our adversary, the devil,
' walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour :'' these things being taught us in the
Scripture itself, though I shall not now add any
of the inferences that may be drawn from them to
my present purpose, we may rationally suppose,
1 Eph. vi. 12. 2 1 Pet. v. 8.

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

31

that if we were quick-sighted enough to discern
the methods of the divine wisdom in the govern
ment of the angelical and of the diabolical worlds,
or great communities, if I may so call them, we
should be ravished into admiration how such in
telligent, free, powerful, and immortal agents,
should be, without violence offered to their nature,
made in various manners to conspire to fulfil the
laws, or at least accomplish the ends of that
great theocracy, that does not alone reach to all
kinds of bodies, to men, and to this or that rank
of spirits, but comprises the whole creation, or the
great aggregate of all the creatures of God. And,
indeed! to make the voluntary and perhaps the
most crafty actions of evil men and of evil spirits
themselves subservient to his wise and just ends,
does no less recommend the wisdom of God than
it would the skill of a shipwright and pilot, if he
were able to contrive and steer his ship so as to sail
to his designed port, not only with a side-wind or
very near a wind, as many do, but with a quite
contrary wind, and that a tempestuous one too.
24. Perhaps you will think it allowable, that on
this occasion I antedate what in due time will in
fallibly come to pass, and now briefly take some
notice, as if it were present, of the diffused and
illustrious manifestation of the divine wisdom, as
well as justice and mercy, that will gloriously ap
pear at the day of the general judgment, when every
good Christians' eyes shall be vouchsafed a much
larger prospect than that which his Saviour himself
had, when he surveyed in a trice, and as it were at
one view, ' all the kingdoms ofthe world," and shall
1 Luke, iv. 5.

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OF THE HIGH VENERATION

behold a much more numerous (not to say num
berless) assembly, than that which is said to have
consisted of all people, nations, and languages,1
that flocked in to the dedication of Nebuchad
nezzar's golden image.
At that great decretory day, when the whole
offspring of Adam shall, by the loud voice and
trumpet of the archangel, be called together, from
the remotest ages and the most distant climates in
the world ; when, I say, besides the fallen angels, all
the human actors that ever lived, shall appear
upon the stage at once, ' when the dead shall be
raised, and the books shall be opened,'8 (that is,
the records of heaven and of conscience,) then
the wisdom of God will shine forth in its meridian
lustre, and its full splendour. Not only the oc
currences that relate to the lives and actions of
particular persons, or of private families, and other
lesser societies of men, will be there found not to
have been overlooked by the divine Providence ;
but the fates of kingdoms and commonwealths, and
the revolutions of nations and of empires, will
appear to have been ordered and overruled by an
incomparable wisdom ; and those great politicians
that thought to out-wit Providence by their refined
subtleties shall find themselves ' taken in their
own craftiness,' shall have their deepest ' counsels
turned into foolishness,' and shall not be able to
keep the amazed world from discovering, that
whilst they thought they most craftily pursued
their own ends, they really accomplished God's ;
and those subtle hypocrites tbat thought to make

i

MAN S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD,

33

1 Ban. iii.

* Rev. xx. 12.

pretended religion the instrument of their secular
designs, shall find those designs both defeated and .
made truly subservient to that advancement of
religion, which they really never aimed at.
25. To employ and keep in order a very com
plicated engine, such as the famous Strasburg
clock, or a man-of-war, though all the parts of it
be inanimate and devoid of purposes and ends of
their own, is justly counted a piece of skill; and
this task is more difficult, and consequently does
recommend the conduct of the performer, in pro
portion to the intricate structure and the number
of pieces whereof the engine consists. At which
rate, how astonishing and ravishing will appear
that wisdom and providence that is able to guide
and overrule many thousand millions of engines
endowed with wills, so as to make them all be
found, in the final issues of things, subservient to
purposes worthy of divine providence, holiness,
justice and goodness.
In short, when all the actors that had their parts
in this world, shall appear at once upon the stage,
when all disguises shall be stripped off, all in
trigues discovered, all hearts and designs laid
open, then to find that this whole amazing opera,
that has been acting upon the face of the earth
from the beginning to the end of time, has been
so contrived aud carried on by the great Author of
the world and of men, that their innumerably various
actions and cross designs are brought (commonly
without and often against their wills) to conspire
to the accomplishment of a plot worthy of God,
will appear an effect of so vast and so all-pervad
ing a wisdom as human intellects will admiringly

34

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

confess, that nothing but a divine and omniscient
one could compass.
26. It is like you may have taken notice, that
among the several instances I have given of the
wisdom of God, T have not (unless perhaps inci
dentally and transiently) mentioned the economy
of man's salvation by Jesus Christ ; and therefore
I think myself obliged to advertise you that,
though for reasons to be given you, if you desire
it, by word of mouth, I have thought fit, that sub
ject which has been already handled by so many
professed divines, should be left untreated of by
me, who am a layman ; yet I did not pretermit it
upon the score of thinking it at all inferior to
those other manifestations of God's wisdom that I
expressly discourse of.
For I think that in the redemption of mankind,
more of the divine attributes than are coiiimonly
taken notice of have their distinct agencies, and
that their co-operation is so admirably directed by
the divine wisdom, that an apostle may very justly
call it the great mystery of godliness,1 and that it
no less deserves our wonder than our gratitude.
27. I am not ignorant that many learned divines
have largely and some of them laudably treated
of this subject; but I confess,. I doubt whether
most of them have not been more happy in their
care to avoid, errors about it, than skilful in their
attempts to unveil the mysteries couched in it.
There are in the great work of man's redemption
some characters and footsteps of the divine wisdom
so conspicuous, not to say so refulgent.^ that a
believer endowed but with a mediocrity of parts
'ITim.iii. 16."

-V

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

35

\-

'A

may easily enough discern them. But there are
also, in this ,, sublime and comprehensive work,
some depths of God, (to use a Scripture phrase,)
and so much of the • wisdom of God in a mystery,'1
(that is, of the mysterious wisdom of God,) that I
cannot think it an easy matter to have a mental eye,
so enlightened and so piercing as to treat largely
and worthily of so vast and abstruse a subject ;
and, indeed, when I consider that a man must
know much of the nature of spirits in general,
and even of the Father of them, God himself; of
the intellect, will, &c. ; of the soul of man ; of>- the
state of Adam in paradise, and after his fall ; of
the influence of his fall upon his posterity ; of the
natural or arbitrary vindictive justice of God; of
the grounds and ends of God's inflicting punish
ments as a creditor, a ruler, or both ; of the ad
mirable and unparalleled person of Christ the
mediator; of those qualifications and offices that
are required to fit him for being lapsed man's
Redeemer; of the nature of covenants, and the
conditions of those God vouchsafed to make with
man,- whether of works or grace; of the divine
decrees, in reference to man's final state; of the
secret and powerful operations of grace upon the
mind, and the manner by which the Spirit of God
works upon the souls of men that he converts and
brings by sanctification to glory ; — to be short,
there are so many points (for_I have left divers
unnamed) most of them of difficult speculation,
that are ' fit to be discussed by him that would
solidly and fully treat of the world's redemption
by Jesus Christ, that when I reflect on them I am

' B<£6ij tS etS, 1 Cor. ii. 10. ii. 7.

D 2

4„H;i

36

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

ready to exclaim with St. Paul, ' who is sufficient
for these things;' and I am so far from wondering
that the generality of divines and other writers on
this subject have notfully displayed the wisdom that
God has expressed in this great work, that to have
been able to accomplish it in so admirable a way,
as God has actually contrived and made choice of,
is one ofthe chief reasons of my admiration ofthe
wisdom itself. And I am persuaded that, for God
to reconcile his inflexible justice, his exuberant
mercy, and all those other things that seemed to
clash inevitably about the designed salvation of
men, and make them co-operate to it, is a stu
pendous manifestation of wisdom, there being no
problem in Diophantus, Alexandrinus, or Appollo-
nius Pergseus, in algebra or in geometry, near so
difficult to be solved, or that requires tbat a greater
number of proportions and congruities should be
attended to at once and made subservient to the
same ends,' as that great problem propounded by
God's infinite goodness to his divine wisdom, — the
redemption of lost and perverse mankind, upon
the terms declared in the Gospel, which are admi
rably fitted to promote at once God's glory and
man's felicity.
28. Though what has been said of tbe greatness
of God's power and wisdom may justly persuade
us that those attributes, are divine and adorable,
yet I must not deny that the representation that I
have made of them is, upon several accounts, very
disadvantageous : for first, there has not been said
of them in this paper all that even I could have
mentioned to set forth their excellency, because I
had elsewhere treated of that subject, and was
more willing to present you with some things I

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

37

had not said before, than trouble you with many
repetitions ; but if instead of so unfit a person as I,
the manifestation of the divine wisdom had been
undertaken by the knowingest man in the world,
or perhaps even by an angel, he would find him
self unable fully to make out the matchless excel
lency of it; for how much wisdom has been
exercised by an Omniscient Being cannot be fully
comprehended, or, consequently, described, but by
an infinite understanding. Besides, I have consi
dered the wisdom displayed by God in the works
of his creation and providence, ivith respect to
them, not to ns ; for they are excellent, absolutely
and in their own nature, and would simply upon
that account deserve the wonder and praises of
rational beings, as they are rational; as Zeuxis
justly celebrated the skill of Appelles, and modern
geometers and mechanicians admire Archimedes.
But in this irrelative contemplation of God's works,
a man's mind being intent only upon the excel
lencies he discovers in them, he is not near so
much affected with a just sense of the inferiority
of his to the divine intellect, as he would be if he
needfully consider how much of the vast subjects
he contemplates are undiscovered by him, and
how dim and imperfect the knowledge is, which
he has of that little he does discover. And now,
lastly, to the other disadvantages with which I
have been reduced to'repres'ent, and so to blemish,
the divine attributes, I must add, that I have in
sisted but upon two of them, God's power and his
wisdom, whereas we know that he has divers other
perfections, as, besides those incommunicable ones,
his self-experience, self-sufficiency, and indepen
dency, his goodness to all his creatures, his mercy to

38

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

sinful men, his justice, his veracity, &c. ; and as I
long since noted, we may rationally conceive, that
he may have divers attributes and consequently
divers perfections, whereof we have at present no
knowledge, or perhaps so much as particular con
jecture, the inexhaustible fecundity of the divine
nature being such, that for aught we know, we
are acquainted with but a small part of the pro
ductions of an almighty power, accompanied with
an infinite wisdom, and excited to communicate
itself by an exuberant goodness. And indeed I see
not why we may not say that by the notion or idea
we have of him, and by tbe help of some attributes
we already know he has, we may in general con
ceive, that he has other perfections that we yet
know not in particular, since, of those attributes
that we do already know, though the irrelative
ones, if I may so ¦ call them, such as his self-
existence, eternity, simplicity, and independency,
may be known by mere speculation, and as it were
all at once, by appearing to us as comprehended
in the notion of a being absolutely perfect, yet
there are divers relative attributes or perfections
that come to be known but successively, and as it
were by experience of what he has actually done
in relation to some of his creatures : as. the mercy
of God was not known by Adam himself before
his fall, and God's fidelity or faithfulness to his
promises, as particularly that of sending the
Messiah in the fulness of time, was not (not to say
could not be) known but in process of time, when
some of them came to be fulfilled ; and therefore,
since some of God's perfections require or suppose
the respective natures and conditions of his crea
tures, and the actings of some of them towards

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

39

»'

i iv

him, as well as some of his towards them, we that
cannot be s>** all sure that he may not have made
many sorts of creatures, and have had divers re
lations to them according to their several states
and conditions, that we are altogether unacquainted
with, cannot know but that some of the attributes
of God exercised towards these creatures, may
remain unknown to us.
29. But whether the attributes, known and un
known, be thought to be more or fewer, it will not
be denied, but that the natural and genuine result
of all these divine perfections (wliich we conceive
under distinct notions, because we are not able to
see them at one view, united in God's most simple
essence) must be a most glorious majesty, that
requires the most lowly and prostrate venerations
of all the great Creator's intelligent works : and ac
cordingly we may observe, from some of the for
merly cited texts, that the angels, who of all his
mere creatures are the most excellent and knowing,
are represented in the Scripture as assiduously
employing themselves, not only in obeying and
serving but in praising and adoring the divine
majesty. The very name of angel in the original
languages of the Old and New Testament, is a
name of ministry, the Hebrew malach and the
Greek ayytXoe signifying properly a messenger.
And our Saviour intimates in his most excellent
pattern of prayer, that the will of God is done
• most obsequiously and cheerfully in heaven, since
Christians are directed to wish, that their obe
dience there paid him might be imitated upon
earth. And as they style themselves the apostles'
' fellow servants,'1 so these celestial envoys,if I may
1 Rev. xix. 10.

40

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MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

41

so call them, make no scruple of going upon the
meanest errands, as we would think them, consi
dering rather by whom than to whom or about
what they are sent ; so the first angel that we read
of, to have been sent to a particular person, was
employed to Hagar,1 a wandering and fugitive
female slave, ready to perish for thirst in a wilder
ness, to direct her to a well of water, and tell her
somewhat that concerned her child. And. another
angel is represented as taking the part of an ass
against a false prophet ;* nay, of this glorious
order of creatures in general, the Scripture tells
us, that ' they are all ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs of sal
vation.'3 Though the angels are creatures so glorious in
their apparitions here below, that they use to strike
amazement and veneration, if not terror, even into
the excellent persons they appear to,4 (as we may
learn from divers passages of the Scripture/ where
we are told that their presence was accompanied
with a surprising splendour, and one of them is
represented in the Apocalypse, as enlightening the
earth with his glory,6) and though their multitude
be so great that sometimes the -myriads of them,
and sometimes the legions are mentioned ; and
elsewhere we are told of ' thousand thousands, and
ten thousand times ten thousand of them ;' yet
these celestial courtiers, that in comparison of us
men are so glorious, as well as intelligent and
spotless, when they appear in multitudes about

1 Gen. xxi. 17, &c.
3 Heb. i. 14.
6 Luke, i. 20.

8 Num. xxii. 33.
4 Dan. x. 0, 11,17-
c Rev. xviii. 1.

>\X

the throne of God, according to that vision of the
prophet, who told the two kings of Judah and
Israel, ' that he saw the Lord sitting on his throne,
and all the host of heaven standing by him on his
right hand and on his left,'1 they stand not to gaze,
but as the prophet Daniel expressly says, ' to mi
nister.'4 And in Isaiah's vision, the seraphims
themselves are represented as covering their faces3
before their great Maker, seated on his elevated
throne ; and we may easily guess that their em
ployment is most humbly to adore and celebrate
such dazzling majesty, by what we are told of
their crying one to another, ' Holy, holy, holy, is
the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his
glory.' This profound respect of the angels is not
to be marvelled at, since, where esteem springs
not from ignorance but knowledge, the greater
the ability and opportunities are of having the
knowledge clear and heightened, the greater vene
ration must be produced in an intelligent being,
for the admired object, whose perfections are such,
that even an angelical intellect cannot fully reach
them, since as a line by being never so much ex
tended in length cannot grow a surface, so neither
can created perfections be by any ideas so stretched
as to be amplified into divine ones, or ideas equal
to them ; and, indeed, speaking in general, the
creatures are but umbratile (if I may so speak)
and arbitrary pictures of the great Creator, of
divers of whose perfections, though they have
some signatures, yet they are but such as rather
give the intellect rise and occasions to take notice
1 King, xxii. 19. » Dan. vii. 10. 3 Isa. vi. 2.

.i 'i

42

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MAN'S .INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

43

of and contemplate the divine originals than they
afford it true images of them ; as a picture of a
watch or man, or the name of either of them
written with pen and ink, does not exhibit a true.
and perfect idea of a thing, whose internal consti
tution a surface cannot fully represent, but only
gives occasion to the mind to think of it, and to
frame one. And what I have said of the creatures
in general, holds true of the angels themselves, who
by several prerogatives do indeed much surpass
the rest of their fellow-creatures, but yet are but
creatures, and therefore of a nature infinitely in
ferior to God's; as though a thousand is a far
greater number than ten, and a million than a
thousand, yet the latter as well as the two former
is beyond computation distant from a number
supposed to be infinite; since otherwise a finite
number, that by which the lesser differs from the
greater, would" be able by its accession to make a
finite number become infinite. But to return to
what I was saying of the angels, I thought fit to
mention both the nobleness of their nature, the
splendidness of their apparitions, and the profound
veneration and ardent devotion which they paid
to'their Creator; because we are wont to estimate
remote things by comparison, as modern philo
sophers tell us, that we judge the rising or setting
sun or moon, to be greater and more distant from
us than when they are nearer the meridian ; be
cause when tbey are in the horizon we consider
them as placed beyond mountains or long tracts
of land or sea, that we know to be great objects,
and look upon as remote, ones, and yet see them
interposed and consequently nearer than the celes

tial globes; for thus since the Scripture? proposes
the angels to our imitation,' the awful reverence
paid to the Supreme Being by those excellent
spirits, who, as St. Peter tells us, ' are greater in
power and might than we,'* ought to admonish us
of the ecstatic respect we mortals owe him, and
teach us that whensoever we speak either to God
or of him, we ought to be inwardly affected, and
in our outward expressions appear to be so, with
the unmcasuiable distance there is between a most
perfect and Omnipotent Creator and a mere im
potent creature, as well as between a most Holy
God and a most sinful man.
If the conjectures formerly proposed about
worlds differing from ours, may pass for probable,
then it will be so too, that God in these other
systems may have framed a multitude of creatures,
whose fabric and motions, and consequently whose
properties and operations must be very differing
from what is usually met with in our world; and
the various contrivances wherein those differences
consist will be so many peculiar instances, as well
as productions, of tbe manifold wisdom of the
great Former of all things,3 or, as the original ex
pression yotser hackol will bear, Maker of the
whole universe. But to add something now of
nearer affinity to what was last said about God's
government of spirits, how much will this archi
tectonic wisdom, if I may Lso call it, exerted in
framing and regulating an innumerable company
of differing creatures, be recommended, if the
other worlds or vortexes we not long since spoke
of, and the invisible part of ours, as we may call

7;

Jude, 9.

« Pet. xi. 11.

' Jer. li. 10.

44

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

the air and aether, be peopled with intelligent,
though not visible, inhabitants ? For, though the
Scripture seems not to speak expressly of any
moi\V sorts of spirits than those good ones that
retain the name of (the whole genus) angels, and
the apostates that are commonly called devils, be
cause these are the two sorts of spirits tbat it most
concerns us men to be informed of; yet the Scrip
ture, that in the history of the creation does not
clearly so much as mention the production of
angels, and elsewhere represents them, as well the
bad as the good, of very differing orders, (as far as
we can guess by the several names it gives them,1)
the Scripture, I say, does not deny that there are
any other sorts of spirits than those it expressly
takes notice of; so that without any affront to it,
we may admit there are such, if any probable ar
guments of it be suggested to us, either by reason
or experience; and it seems not very likely that,
while our terraqueous globe, and our air, are fre
quented by multitudes of spirits, all the celestial
globes, very many of which do vastly exceed ours
in bulk, and all the sethereal or fluid part of the
world, in comparison of which all the globes, the
celestial and terrestrial put together, are inconsi
derable for bulk, should be quite destitute of in
habitants. I have not time to set down the opi
nions of the ancient, as well eastern as Grecian
writers, especially the Pythagoreans and Platonists,
to whose master this sentence is ascribed concern
ing the multitudes of demons, a name by them not
confined to evil spirits, that lived in the superior
part of the world, Aalftovee ui'ipiov yivog. I will
1 Eph. vi. 12, compared with Col. i. 16.

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

45

not presume to be positive in declaring the sense
of those two expressions which the Scripture em
ploys, where speaking of the head of the satanical
kingdom, it calls him ' the prince of the power of
the air,' ' (and the word air is, among the Hebrews,
taken in a great latitude, and several times used
for the word heaven,) and where speaking of the
grand adversaries of the gospel, it styles the ' spi
ritual wickednesses,' or rather, as the Syriac reads
it, ' spirits of wickedness,' that is, wicked spirits,
not in high places, as our translators have it, but
in heavenly ; but though, as I was saying, I will
not be positive in giving these two texts such a
sense as may make them direct arguments for my
conjecture, yet it seems that if they do not require,
at least they may well bear, an interpretation
suitable to my present purpose ; and whatever be
come of the assertions of heathen philosophers
and poets, it is very considerable what is noted by
the excellent Grotius,8 who quotes several Hebrew.
authors for it, that it was the opinion of the Jews,
that all places from earth to heaven, even the
starry heaven are full of spirits. '; If this' be so,
the wisdom and power of God must reach much
further than we are commonly aware of,3 since he
has created, and does govern, such an inestimable
multitude of spiritual beings of various kinds, each
of them endowed with an intellect and will of its
own ; especially since, for aught we know, many or
most of them, and perhaps some whole orders of
them, are yet in a probational state, wherein they
have free-will allowed them, as Adam and Eve
were in Eden, and all the angels were, before some
> Eph. ii. 2. ' Grot, on Eph. ii. 2. » On Eph. vi. 12.

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MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

47

of them, as the Scripture speaks, left their first estate
and their own mansion ;' and if to these angelical
communities we add those others of children, idiots,
and madmen, of whom, though all be in a sense
rational creatures, yet the first community have
not attained the full Use of reason, for want of age,
and the two others cannot exercise that faculty for
want of rightly disposed organs, the wisdom and
power of God in the divine government of such
various and numerous communities of intellectual
creatures, will, to a considering man, appear the
more illustrious and wonderful.
31. The distance betwixt the infinite Creator and
the creatures, which are but the limited and arbitrary
productions of his power and will, is so vast, that
all the divine attributes or perfections do, by un-
measurable intervals, transcend those faint resem
blances of them/ that he has been pleased to im
press, either upon other creatures or upon us men.
God's nature is so peculiar and excellent, tbat
there are qualities which, though high virtues in
men, cannot belong to God, or be ascribed to him
• without derogation ; such as are temperance, valour,
humility, and divers others, which is the less to be
wondered at, because there are some virtues, as
chastity, faith, patience, liberality, that belong to
man himself only in his, mortal and infirm con
dition. But whatever excellencies there be that
are simply and absolutely such, and so may, with
out disparagement to his matchless nature, be
ascribed to God, such as are eternity, indepen
dency, life, understanding, will, &c. we may be
sure that he possesses them, since he is the original
author of all the degrees or resemblances we men
'•' Jude, 6.

\ .

M

have of any of them. And the Psalmist's ratio
cination is good:' 'He that planted the ear, shall
he not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall not
he see ? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall
not he- know?'1 since all the perfections com
municated to, or to be found in the creatures,
whether men, angels, or any other, being emana
tions of the divine excellencies, do as much belong
to God, as in a bright day all the luminous beams
that are lo be found in the air belong to the sun,
in whom they are united, and from whom they all
proceeded. The vast difference then between the
perfections of the great Creator, and those that are
analogous to them in the creatures/ reaches to all
the perfections that are, though in' very differing
manners, to be found in both ; but yet the human
understanding, as it values itself upon nothing
more : than wisdom and knowledge, so there is
nothing that it esteems and reverences more in
other beings* apd is less willing to acknowledge
itself surpassed in ; for which reason, as I have in
the foregoing part of this r paper inculcated by
more than one way, the great superiority of God's
intellect to man's, so I think it not improper to
prosecute the same design, by mentioning to you
some few particulars~whereby that superiority may
manifestly appear. We may then consider, that
besides that God knows an innumerable company
of things that we are altogether unacquainted
with, since he cannot but know all the creatures he
has made, whether visible or invisible, corporeal
or immaterial, and what- he has enabled them to
do, according to that of St. James, ' known unto
' Psalm xciv. 9, 10.

J- I

48

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

wtt^'f hl- WOi'ks from the beginning of the
Sof^r* ^f > Cannot b«t°know the ex!
SLSLi^T mte power- he cannot but kn™
mSe IT ^ ™ P°SsibIe' that he has »<* yet
made, nor perhaps ever will please to make. But
ls° his' mySelV° thin^s -dually existent, be-
the 1 I t°rP°real "^ imraat^ creatures and
kindo^ot- orP°rerai whereof^ have some
o her thino.t1C\and,beSifes PerhaP" multitudes of
S!L? P^h,ere°f We have no Particular idea or
conjecture ; he knows those things whereof we men
have al30 kxiowhdge> in * ~
peculiar to himself; as what we know but in part
he knows fully; what we know but dimly he
mediums6^ "* ^^ W but * «&"""
mediums, he knows most certainly. ; • , -
iprf?p ?U*th,e^eat prerogative: of God's know-
knowl h' \ h6 perfeCtly knows Mmself: that
knowledge being not only -too wonderful for a
man,, as even an inspired person confesses touch
ing himself, but beyond the reach of an an
gelical intellect since, fully to comprehend the
infinite nature of God, no less than an infinite'
undemanding is requisite; and for the works of
Uod even those that are purely corporeal, (which
are therefore the nearest,) our knowledge ^f th Se
is incomparably inferior tc This; for though some'
modern philosophers- have made ingenious a£
tempts to explain the nature of thing! corporea
yet their explications generally suppose the nre
sent fabric of the world,' and tie £ of morion
that are settled in it ; but God knows particular^
both why and how the universal matter was S
,: .'Ach,, XV. 18.

man's intellect owes to "god.

49

t

contrived into this admirable universe, rather than
a world of any other of the numberless construc
tions he could have given it, and both why those
laws of motion, rather than others, were esta
blished, and how senseless matter,' to whose nature
motion does not at all belong, comes to be both
put into motion, and qualified to transfer it accord
ing to determinate rules, which itself cannot un
derstand ; but when we come to consider the par
ticular and more elaborate works of nature, such
as the seeds or eggs of living creatures, or the
texture of quicksilver, poisons, antidotes, &c. the
ingenious confess their ignorance, (about the man
ner of their production and operations,) and the
confident betray theirs. But it is like we men
know ourselves better than what is without us ;
but how ignorant we are at home, if the endless
disputes of Aristotle and his commentators and
other philosophers about the human soul, and of
physicians and anatomists about the mechanism
and theory of the human body, were not sufficient
to manifest it, it were easy to be shown (as it is
in another paper1) by the very conditions of the
union of the soul and body, which, being settled
at first by God's arbitrary institution, and having
nothing in all nature parallel to them, the manner
and terms of that strange union is a riddle to phi
losophers, but must needs be clearly known to him
that alone did institute it, and, all the while it lasts,
does preserve it. ' And there are several advan
tages of the divine knowledge, above that of man,
that are not here to' be pretermitted. For first, we
' The title of this paper is, ' The Imperfection of Ruman
Knowledge manifested by its own Light.', E

1/1

50

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

men can perceive and sufficiently attend but to
few things at once, according to the known saying,
" Pluribus intentus, minor est, ad singula sensus." i i
And it is recorded as a wonder of some great men
among the ancients, that they could dictate to
two or three secretaries at once. But God's know
ledge reaches at once to all that he can know : his
penetrating eyes pierce quite through the whole
creation at one look; and, as an inspired penman
declares, ' There is no creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked,'1 and (if I
may so render the Greek word) extraverted to his
eyes.4 He always sees incomparably more objects
at one view than the sun himself endued with sight
could do : for God beholds at once all that every
one of bis creatures, whether visible or invisible to
us, in the vast universe, either does or thinks.'
Next, the knowledge of God is not a progressive
or discursive thing, like that acquired by our ratio
cinations, but an intuitive knowledge ; since, though
we men, by reason of the limitedness and imperfec
tions of our understandings, are fain to make the
notice we have of one thing a step and help to acquire
that of another, which to us is less known; as may
easily be observed even in the forms of syllogisms ;
yet God, whose knowledge as well: as- his other
attributes are infinitely perfect, needs not know
any one thing by the help of another ;' but knows
every thing in itself, as being the author of it : and
all things being equally known to him, he can by
looking, if I may so speak, into himself, see there,
as, in a divine' and universal looking-glass, every
thing that is knowable most distinctly and yet all

MANS INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

51

Heo. iv. 13.'

¦ TtTgaxifij'i'ltBva..

at once. Thirdly, God knows men's most secret
thoughts and intentions: whence he is called,
Kapfaayvdirris, and the ' searcher of all hearts,
that understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts;'1 nay, he knows men's 'thoughts afar
off,'* and even never vented thoughts, which the
man himself may not know ; for not only St. John
says, * that if our heart condemns us, God is
greater than our heart and knows all things ;'3 but
God enabled Daniel to declare to Nebuchadnezzar,
the whole series of the prophetic dream, whereof
that monarch's own memory could not retrieve any
part.4 And here give me leave to observe, what
perchance you have not minded, that even of a
thing that happens to a man's self, and is of a nature
capable to make the most vivid impressions on
him, God's knowledge may surpass his; since St.
Paul, speaking of his being caught up into Para
dise, after having twice said, ' Whether in the
body I cannot tell, or whethe"*1 out of the body, I
cannot tell,' he both times subjoins, that ' God
knows.'5'. Our knowledge of ourselves, as well as
that of those other creatures that are without us,
being so defective, the confident of some that
dare to pretend to know God fully, Toy the light of
their natural reason, will not hinder me from
taking hence a rise to ask this short question,
' How imperfect must mere philosophers' know
ledge of God's nature be, since they know him but
by his works, and know his '' works' themselves but:
very imperfectly I" The other and fourth conspi
cuous prerogative of the divine knowledge, is the
1 1 Chr. xxviii. 9. ! Psal. cxxxix. 2. » 1 John, iii. 20.
¦•Dan.ii.6j 3i. .. t> ¦:,; 6 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, 4.
E 2

52

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

prescience of future contingents, that depend upon
the determinations and actions of free agents : for
we men are so far from being able to stretch our
knowledge to the discovery of that sort of events,
that the greatest clerks have tried their wits in
vain to discover how God himself can foreknow
them ; and therefore too many, even among Chris
tians, deny that he can, though by divers accom
plished predictions recorded in Scripture, it mani
festly appears that he does.
33. When I consider the transcendent excellency
and the numerous prerogatives df the Deity, I
cannot without wonder, as well as trouble, observe,
that rational men professing Christianity, and
many of them studious too, should wilfully, and
perhaps contemptuously, neglect to acquire or
reflect on those notices that are apt to increase
their knowledge of God, and consequently their
veneration for him. To aspire to a further know
ledge of God, that we may the better adore him,
is a great part both of man's duty and his happi
ness. God who has put into men an innate desire
of knowledge, and a faculty to distinguish the
degrees of excellency in differing notices, and to
relish those most, that best deserve it, and has
made it bis duty to search and inquire after God,
and to love him above all things, would not have
done this, if he had not known that those that
make a right use of tlieir faculties, must find him
to be the noblest object of the understanding, and
that which most merits their wonder and venera
tion. And, indeed, what can be more suitable to a
rational creature than to employ reason to con
template that divine Being, which is both the
author of its reason, and the noblest object, about

man's intellect owes to god.

53

which it can possibly be employed ? The know
ledge of some dead language, or some old rusty
medal, or the opinions and customs of some na
tions or sects, that did not perhaps reason nor live
any better than we do now, are thought worthy of
curiosity, and even of the laborious industry of
learned men ; and the study of things merely cor
poreal, gains men the honourable title of philoso
phers : but whatever these objects of inquiry be in
themselves, it is certain the greatest discoveries we
can make of them are but trifles in comparison of
the ' excellency of the knowledge of God,' which
does as much surpass that of his works as he him
self does them : and it is the prerogative of his
nature, to be infinitely above all that he has made,
whether we contemplate the works of nature, or
those of art, whereof the former are under another
name, his more immediate works, and the others
the effects of one of-his works, and by consequence
are originally his, though produced by the interven
tion of man. And though it be true, that on the
corporeal world, God has been pleased to stamp
such impresses of his power, wisdom, and good
ness as have justly exacted the admiration even
of philosophers, yet the great Author of the world
is himself incomparably superior to all his work
manship, insomuch that, though he could have
made, and always will be able to make, creatures
more perfect than those he~> has made, by incom
putable degrees of perfection, yet the prerogative
of his nature will keep him necessarily superior to
the excellentest creatures he can make, since the
very condition of a creature hinders it from being
(to name now no other of the divine attributes) self-
existent and independent. It is, therefore, me-

54

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

thinks a sad tning, that we men should grudge
to spend now and then a few hours in the con
templation and internal worship of that most
glorious and perfect Being, that continually em
ploys the devotion of angels themselves. This I
judge probable from hence, that those blessed
spirits are represented in the Scripture as cele
brating, with joyful songs and acclamations, the
nativity of the world ; and I think they may well
be supposed to have an ardent desire to obtain a
further knowledge of God himself, since, as an
apostle assures us, they earnestly desire to look
into the truths contained in the gospel, and the
dispensations of God towards frail and mortal
men. 34. I know I may be told that scrutator majes-
talis, §c. and that it is a dangerous^ thing to be in
quisitive about the nature of God ; but not to urge
that the Latin sentence is taken but out of an apocry
phal book, I answer that the secret things of God
that are to be left to himself seem to be his unre
vealed purposes and decrees, and his most abstruse
essence or substance, the scrutiny whereof I readily
acknowledge not to belong to us: but I think
there is a great difference between contemplating
God out of a saucy curiosity, merely to know
somewhat that is not common of him, and doing it
out of an humble desjre, by a further knowledge of
him, to heighten oui* reverence and devotion to
wards him. It is an effect of arrogance to endea
vour, or so much as hope, to comprehend the
divine perfections, so as to leave nothing in them
unknown to the inquirer ; but to aspire to know
them further and further, that they may propor-
tionably appear more and more admirable and

?¦

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

55

e i

¦i i

lovely in our eyes, is not only an excusable but a
laudable curiosity. The Scripture in one place
exhorts us ' to grow' not only ' in grace,' but 'in
the knowledge of'Christ;'1 and in another 'to add
to our'virtue, knowledge;'4 and when Moses begged
to be blessed with a nearer and more particular
view of God, though part of his request was re
fused, because the grant of it was unsuitable to
his mortal state, and perhaps must have proved
fatal to him whilst he was in it; yet God vouch
safed so gracious a return to his petition, as shows
he was not displeased with the supplicant;3 no
action or suffering of his having procured for him
so glorious a view as was then vouchsafed to his
holy curiosity." ATid tbat we may aspire to great
degrees of knowledge, even at those supernatural
objects that we cannot adequately know, we may
leam from St. Paul, who prays that his Ephesians,
as all true Christians, may be able to comprehend
what is the breadth and length and depth and
height, and to know the love of Christ, which, says
he in the very next words, passeth knowledge.5
Supposing it then lawful to contemplate God, not
with design to pry into his decrees and purposes,
nor to dogmatize in points controverted among
the learned about his nature and attributes, but to
excite in ourselves the sentiments which his indis
putable perfections are by a more attentive view
qualified to produce ; I consider that the devout
contemplation of God, besides other great advan
tages that it brings the mind, insomuch that tbe
human understanding, like Moses in tbe Mount,0
1 2 Pet. iii. 18. s 2 Pet. i. 5. 3 Exod. xxxiii. 1 .
1 Exod. xxxiv. 5, G, &c. 5 Eph. iii. 18.
0 Exod. xxxiv. 20, 30, &c.

.« .

OF THE HIGH VENERATION
assiduous converse with God acquire
fuminousness ; — besides this, I say, and
living influence that this happy conver-
nay have upon the graces and virtues of
d, I take it to be' one of the most delight
ful exercises that the soul is capable of on this side
heaven. It is generally acknowledged that admi
ration is one of the most pleasing affections of the
mind, which sometimes, when the object deserves
it, is so j)osscssod thereby aa lo forget all other
things or leave them unregarded, as it often hap
pens in masks and other pompous and surprising
shows or spectacles; and as upon a better ground
it happened to St. Peter, when being ravished
with the glorious transfiguration of his and our
master upon Mount Tabor, he exclaimed that it
was good for them to be there, and talked of build
ing tabernacles for those that had heavenly man
sions; being so transported with the ravishing
sight, that the evangelist expressly notes that ' he
knew not what he said.' l Now, the pleasure that
admiration gives, being usually proportionate to
the uncommon nature and endearing circum
stances of the thing admired, how can any admi
ration afford such a contentment as that which has
God himself for its object, and in him the most
singular and the most excellent of all beings. The
wonder produced in us by an humble and atten
tive contemplation of God has two rp.iin advan
tages above the admiration we have for any of his
works or of our own. For first, when we admire
corporeal things, how noble and precious soever
they be, as stars and gems, the contentment that
1 Luke, ix. 23.

MAN'S INTELLECT. OWES TO GOD.

37 f

* r

accompanies our wonder is alloyed by .'a kind sf
secret reproach grounded on that very '.-woiider ;
since it argues a great imperfection in our under*
standings to be posed by things that are but ei;ea- ,;
tures, as well as we, and which is worse, of a
nature very much inferior to ours: whereas it is
no disparagement at all for a human, and conse
quently a finite intellect to be possessed with
wonder, though it were heightened to amazement
or astonishment, by the contemplation of that most
glorious and infinitely perfect Being, wliich must
necessarily exceed the adequate comprehension of
any created intellect. But I consider that there is
a further and much greater (which is the second)
advantage of the admiration of God above that of
other things; for other objects having but a
bounded nature, and commonly but some one
thing fit to be wondered at, our admiration of
them is seldom lasting, but after a little familiarity
with them, first languishes and then ceases : but
God is an object whose nature is so very singular,
and whose perfections are so immense, that no
assiduity of considering him can make him cease
to be admirable, but the more knowledge we ob
tain of bim, the more reason we find to admire
him ; so that there may be a perpetual vicissitude
of our happy acquists of further degrees of know
ledge, and our eager desires of new ones. Because
we give him but one name, we are apt to look
upon him as but one object of speculation ; but
though God be indeed but one in essence or nature,
yet such is his immensity, and if I may so speak,
fecundity, that he is unspeakably various in the
capacity of an object. Thus heaven goes under
one name, but contains so many fixed stars and

/ •'>'¦¦

58

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

planets, and they, by their diversity of motions ¦
exhibit so many phenomena, that though they
have employed the curiosity of astronomers for
many ages, yet our times have, in the celestial part
of the world, made discoveries as considerable, if
not as numerous, as all those of the ancients ; and
as our optic glasses have detected many fixed stars
and divers planets that were unknown to former
times, so our navigators, by their voyages beyond
the lino, have discovered divers whole constella
tions in the southern hemisphere. So that, though
heaven be an object that has been perpetually and
conspicuously exposed to men's view and curi
osity for some thousands of years, yet it still
affords new subjects for their wonder ; and I scarce
doubt but, by the further improvement of tele
scopes, posterity will have its curiosity gratified
by the discovery both of new constellations, and of
new stars in those that are known to us already.
-We need not/' therefore/- fear our admiration of
God should expire for want of objects fit to keep
it up. That boundless ocean contains a variety of
excellent objects, that is as little to be exhausted
as the creatures that live in our sublunary ocean
or lie on the shores that limit it can be numbered.
To ; the wonderful i excellency of God, may be
justly applied that notion which Aristotle lays
down as a kind of definition of infinite, namely,
that it is that of which how much soever one takes
there still remains more to be taken. If the in
tellect should for ever make a further and further
progress in the knowledge of the wonders of the
divine nature, attributes, and dispensations, yet it
may still make discoveries of fresh things worthy -
to be admired; as in an infinite series or row, of

MAN'S INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

59

¦ i

' f

i

ascending numbers, though you may still advance
to greater and greater numbers ; yet all that you
can do by that progress, is to go further and
further, (from the first and least term of the
progression, which in our case answers to the
smallest degree of our knowledge of God,) without
ever reaching, or, which may seem strange, but is
true, so much as approaching to an infinite num
ber, in case there were any such, or even to the
greatest of all numbers, as will be acknowledged
by those that have looked into the properties of
progressions in infinitum.
35. The two advantages I come from mention
ing, which the admiration of God has in point of
delightfulness joined to the other advantages of
our contemplation of him, have, I hope, persuaded
you that they are very much wanting to themselves,
as well as to the duty they owe their Maker, that
refuse or neglect to give their thoughts so pleasing
as well as noble an employment : and I am apt to
think, upon this account in particular, that reason
is a greater blessing to other men than to atheists,
who, whilst they are such, cannot employ it about
God, but with disbelief or terror ; and that on this
very score Epicurus was far less happy than Plato ;
since whereas the latter was oftentimes, as it were,
swallowed up in the contemplation of the Deity,
the former had no such glorious object, to possess
him with an equally rational and delightful admi
ration. 36. But now, to apply this to the scope of this
whole discourse, though so pure and spiritual a
pleasure is a very allowable attractive, to elevate
our thoughts to the most glorious and amiable of
objects, yet it ought to be both tbe design and the

60

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

effect of our admiration of God, to produce in us
less unworthy ideas and more honourable and reve
rent thoughts of that wonderful and unparalleled
Being, of whom the more we discover, the more
we discern him to be superior to all his works,
and particularly to ourselves, who are not of the
highest order of them, and who, as mere men, are
scarce in any thing more noble than in the capa
city and permission of knowing, admiring, and
adoring God; which he that thinks a mean and
melancholy employment, might be to seek for
happiness in heaven itself, if so unqualified a soul
could be admitted there. The genuine effect of a
nearer or more attentive view of infinite excellency
is a deep sense of our own great inferiority to it,
and of the great veneration and fear we owe (to
speak in a Scripture phrase) to this glorious and
fearful name, (that is, object,) ' the Lord our God.'1
And accordingly, when God had spoken to Job
out of the whirlwind, and declared somewhat to
him of the divine greatness, this holy philosopher
much alters his style, and confesses that in his
former discourses of God, he had ' uttered what
he understood not; things too wonderful for him,
which he knew not;' and having hereupon im
plored instruction from God, he declares how fit
a nearer knowledge of him is to make a man have
low thoughts of himself : ' I have heard of thee,'
says he to his Maker, ' by the hearing of the ear ;
but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore,' infers he,
' I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.'4
I know you may look upon a good part of this
excursion as a digression ; but if it be, it will

Nil

' Deut. xxviii. 68.

8 Job, xlii. 3, 4, 5, C.

!, V

' h ?'

MANS INTELLECT' OWES TO GOD.

61

quickly be forgiven, if you will pardon me for it
as easily as I can pardon myself, for finding my
self in David's case, when he said, ' My heart was
hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned.'
As he said, ' then spake I with my tongue,' ' so I
was content to let my pen run on in so pleasant
and noble a theme, and endeavour to excite, at
least in myself, such a well-grounded admiration
of God, as may perhaps be a part of my reason
able service to him,4 or rational worship of him.
God is pleased to declare that he that offers (or as it
is in the original, ' sacrifices') praise, glorifies him ;3
and the Scripture expressly . styles our devotion
' sacrifices of praise ;'4and we may well suppose that
if the calves of our lips, as our celebrations of God
are somewhere called, are encouraged by God,
those mental offerings that consist in high and
honourable thoughts of him, and in lowly humble
sentiments of ourselves in the view of his excel
lency, will not be less acceptable to him : such
' reverence and devout fear'5 (to speak with the in
spired writer to the Hebrews) being indeed a kind
of ' adoring God in spirit and in truth ;G and he that
is so employed, may with contentment compare
his condition to that of Zacharias, when it was
said of him that ' his lot was to burn incense,'7 to
offer up to God the noblest and purest sort of the
legal sacrifices. But that I may not too far di
gress, I shall only add, that I think myself very
worthily, as well, as delightfully employed, when
I am seeking, after bringing together what helps
I can, to greaten, as much as I am able, those sen-
1 Psal. xxxix. 3. 8 Rom. xii. 2. s Psal. 1. 23.
1 Heb. xiii. 16. s Heb. xii. 28. '• John, iv. 23. ' Luke, i. 0

vij

62

' OF THE HIGH VENERATION

man's intellect owes to god.

63

timents of wonder and veneration for God, that
l am sure can never be great enough : especially
since the more we know and adore that infinite
excellency and exuberant fountain of goodness, the
more influence and advantages we derive from it;
agreeably to which God is introduced in the Scrip
ture, saying of one of his adorers, to whom in the
same Psalm many other blessings are also pro-'
mised 'Because he has set his love upon me,
therefore will I deliver him ? I will set him on
mgh because he has known my name.'1
We have generally, through incogitancy, or vice,
or prejudices, or the majesty and abstruseness of
the subject, so great an indisposition to excite and
cherish in ourselves an awful veneration for God :
and a studious contemplation of his adorable attri-';
butes, that it seemed no more than needful to
employ variety of arguments, drawn from different
topics, to engage our own and other men's minds
and repeated inculcations to press them to an
exercise, which they neither are, nor are wil
ling to be acquainted with. This consideration
will I hope be my apology, if in the present'
tract I lay hold on Several occasions, and make'
use of diversities' of discourse, to recommend a
dutythat does very much both merit and need to
be not only proposed but inculcated : and yet I
will not any further lengthen this foregoing ex-'
cursion, (as I hope you will think it rather than
a mere digression,) nor any longer forget, that
when I began it I was discoursing of the °reat
caution and profound respect with which we ought
to speak of God. &
1 Psal. xci. 14, 15, 16.

t 1

37. It were tedious to insist on all the argu
ments that may be brought of the immense infe
riority of man's intellect to God's ; and therefore
I shall here content myself to illustrate some part
of it by a simile borrowed from the superior and
inferior luminaries of heaven : human reason, in
comparison of the divine intellect, being but like
the moon in reference to the sun ; for as the moon
at best is but a small star in comparison of tbe
sun, and has but a dim light, and that too but
borrowed, and has her wane as well as her full, and
is often subject to eclipses and always blemished
with dark spots ; so the light of human reason is
but very small and dim in comparison of his
knowledge, that is truly called in Scripture the
fountain as well as the Father of light:1 and this
light itself, which shines in the human intellect, is
derived from the irradiation it receives from God, in
whose light it is that we see light;4 and this, as it
is but a communicated light, is subject to be in
creased, impaired, and oftentimes lo be almost
totally eclipsed, either by the darkening fumes of
lusts or passions, or the suspension of the pro
voked donor's beams, and in its best estate is
always blemished with imperfections that make it
incapable of an entire and uniform illumination.
Upon these and divers other considerations, I,
for my part, think it becomes us men, to use an
awful circumspection, not only when we make
philosophical inquiries or scholastic disputes about
God, that is, when we presume to discourse of
him, but when we solemnly design to praise him ;
for it is one thing to say true things of God and

1 Psal. xxxvi. 9 v James, i. 11.

* Psal. xxxvi. a.

64

OF THE HIGH VENERATION

man's INTELLECT OWES TO GOD.

65

another to say things worthy of God. Our ideas
of him may be the best we are able to frame, and
yet may far better express the greatness of our
veneration for him than the immensity of his per
fection : and even those notions of them that may
be worthy of the most intelligent of men, will fall
extremely short of being worthy of the incom
prehensible God. The brightest and least unlike
idea we can frame of God, is infinitely more in
ferior in reference to him than a parhelion is in
reference to the sun ; for, though that meteor ap
pear a splendid and sublime thing, and have so
much resemblance to the sun, without whose own
beams it is not produced, as to be readily per
ceived to be bis image, exclusively to that of any
.other; yet residing in a clou''., whose station is
near the earth, it is by an immense distance
beneath the sun, and is no less inferior to him in
bigness and splendour, as well as in many other attri
butes. He has, in my opinion, the truest venera
tion for God, not who can set forth his excellencies
and prerogatives in the most high and pompous
expressions ; but be who willingly has a deep and
real sense of the unmeasurable inferiority of him
self and his best ideas, to the unbounded and un
paralleled perfections of his Maker. And here
indignation prompts me to this reflection, that if,
as is the case, even our hymns and praises of God
the Supreme Being deserve our blushes and need
his pardon, what confusion will one day cover the
faces of those, that do not only speak slightly and
carelessly, but oftentimes contemptuously, and
perhaps drollingly, of that supreme and infinitely
perfect Being, to whom they owe those very
faculties and that wit which they so ungratefully

as well as impiously mis-employ ; and, indeed, such
transcendent excellencies as the divine ones must
be, might justly discourage -us from offering so
much as to celebrate them, if infinite goodness
were not one of them. I shall not, therefore, allow
myself the presumption of pretending to make as
it were a panegyric of God, of whom it is very
easy to speak too much, though it be not possible
to say enough; contenting myself with a humble
adoration of perfections whereof my utmost praises
would rather express my own weakness than their
excellency, since of this ineffable object the highest
things that can be expressed in words, must there
fore fall short because words cannot express them.
Which assertion, though it be a paradox, yet I
think it is not truly an hyperbole ; for we are not
able to determine and reach, so much as in our
thoughts, the greatest of all possible numbers,
since we may conceive that any one, whatsoever
it be, that can be pitched upon or assigned, may
be doubled, trebled, or multiplied by some other
number, or may be but the root of a square or
cubical number ; by which instance, that perhaps
you have not met with, you may perceive, that
any determinate conception that we can have (for
example) of God's [immensity (to specify now no
other of his attributes) must therefore be short of
it, because it is a determined or bounded concep
tion. It is fit, therefore, that I should at length
put limits to my discourse, since none can be put
to the extent or perfections of my subject.

66

•CONCLUSION.

67

1

CONCLUSION.

The result of what hath been said in the past ex
cursion, will, I hope, amount to a sufficient justi
fication of what hath been said at the beginning of
this discourse, about ' the high veneration our
intellects owe to God.' For, since we may .well
think in general, tbat he hath divers attributes and
perfections of which we have no knowledge or
suspicion in particular, and since of those attri
butes of his that are the most manifest to us, as
his power and wisdom, we have but a very dim
and narrow knowledge, and may clearly perceive
that there is in these an unbounded extent of per
fection, beyond all that we can evidently and dis
tinctly discern of them ; how unfit must such imper
fect creatures as we are, be to talk hastily and confi
dently of God, as of an object that our contracted
understandings grasp, as they are able, or pretend
to be so, to do other objects! . And how deep a
sense ought we to have of our inestimable infe
riority to a Being, in reference to, whom both our
ignorance and our knowledge ought to be , the
parents of devotion! Since our necessary igno
rance proceeds from the numerousness and incom-
prehensibleness of his (many of them undisco
vered) excellencies, and our knowledge qualifies us
but to be the more intelligent admirers of his con

spicuous perfections.

i

1 \

r \

If we duly and impartially consider these and
the like things, we may clearly perceive how great
an effect and mark of ignorance as well as pre
sumption it is for us mortals to talk of God's
nature and the extent of his knowledge, as of
things that we are able to look through and to
measure. Whereas we ought whenever we speak
of God and of his attributes, to stand in great awe,
lest we be guilty of any misapprehension or mis
representation of him, that wc might by any wari
ness and humility of ours have avoided ; and lest, by
an over-weening opinion of ourselves, we presume
that we have a perfect, or at least a sufficient
knowledge of every thing in God, whereof we
have some knowledge, since this at the least consists
in such notions as are rather suited to our limited
faculties, than any way equal to his boundless
perfections. That higher order of intellectual beings, the
angels, though their minds be so illuminated and
their knowledge so extensive, the angels them
selves, I say, are in the Scripture affirmed to 'be
desirous to pry into the mysteries of the Gospel,'
whence we may guess how far they are from pene
trating to the bottom of what the Scripture calls
' the depths of God,'1 and how much further they
are from comprehending the infinite nature of
God; and, accordingly, when in the (formerly
mentioned) majestic vision that appeared to the
prophet Isaiah,4 they are' set forth as attendants
about the throne of God, they are represented
' covering their faces with their wings,'3 as not able
to support, or not presuming to gaze on the daz-

1 1 Cor. xiii. 10.

4 Isa, vi.

3 Ibid, verse 2.
F 2

Ihi \ "¦-

6S

CONCLUSION.

zling brightness of the Divine Majesty ; and shall
We poor sinful mortals, who are infinitely beneath
them, not only by the degeneracy and sinfulness of
our lives, but even by the imperfection and infe
riority of our nature, presume to talk forwardly or
irreverently of the divine essence and perfections,
without considering the immense distance betwixt
God and us, and how unable as well as unworthy
we are to penctate the recesses of that inscrutable
as well as adorable nature ; and how much better it
would become us, when we speak of objects so much
above us, to imitate the just humility of that in
spired poet, that said, ' Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me: it is high I cannot attain unto
it;'1 and join in that se«?aingly, and yet but
seemingly, lofty celebration of God, ' That his
glorious name is exalted above all blessing and
praise.'4 .,

REFLECTIONS

THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

ACCOBD1NO To WHICH IT IS SAID THAT 80MB ARTICLES OF FAITH ARE
• ABOVE REASON, BUT NOT AOAINST REASON.

Psal. cxxxvi. 6.

4 Nehem. ix. 5.

IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND.

3. i

li

n\

REFLECTIONS, &c.

Sir,
I can neither admire nor blame the curiosity you
express, to receive some satisfaction about the im
portant distinction that is made use of, in defence
of some mysteries ofthe Christian religion ; namely,
that " they are indeed above reason, but not against
reason." For though divers learned men have,
V( i especially of late, employed it; yet I perceive you
and your friends think that they have not done it so
clearly, as both to prevent the exceptions of infidels
or render them more groundless ; and at least, to
obviate the surmises of those others, who have been
persuaded to look upon this distinction but as a
fine evasion, whereby to elude some objections that
cannot otherwise be answered. And indeed, as far
as I can discern by the authors wherein I have met
with it, (for I pretend not to judge of any others,)
there are divers that employ this distinction, few
that have attempted to explain it, (and that I fear,
not sufficiently,) and none that has taken care to
justify it.
2. In order to the removal of the difficulties that
¦\ you take notice of, I shall endeavour to do these
¦

fr.",

72

REFLECTIONS UPON

two things : I. To declare in what sense I think
our distinction is to be understood; and, II. To
prove that it is not an arbitrary or illusory distinc
tion, but grounded upon the nature of things.
Though I do not desire to impose my sentiments
on any man, much less on you ; yet because I, as well
as others, have had some occasions to make use of
the distinction we are considering, I think myself
obliged, before I go any further, to acquaint you in
what sense I understand it.
3. By such things then in theology, as may be
said to be above reason, I conceive such notions
and propositions as mere reason, that is, reason
unassisted by supernatural revelation, would never
have discovered to us ; whether those things be to
our finite capacities clearly comprehensible or not.
And by things contrary to reason, I understand
such conceptions and propositions as are not merely
undiscoverable by mere reason, but also, when we
understand them, do evidently and truly appear to
be repugnant to some principle, or to some conclu
sion of right reason.
4. To illustrate this matter a little, I shall pro
pound to you a comparison drawn from that sense,
which is allowed to have the greatest cognation
with the understanding, which I presume you will
readily guess to be the sight. Suppose then, that
on a deep sea. a diver should bid you tell him
what you can see there ; that which you would an
swer would be, that you can see into a sea-green
liquor, to the depth of some yards, and no further:
so that if he sbould further ask you, whether you
see what lies at the bottom of the sea, you would
return him a negative, answer. If afterwards the
diver, letting himself down to the bottom, should

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

73

SW

i
' -\

thence bring up and show you oysters or muscles
with pearls in them ; you would easily acknow
ledge both that they lay beyond the reach of your
sight, and consequently argued an imperfection in
it; though but such an imperfection as is not per
sonal, but common to you with other men, and that
the pearls have the genuine colour and lustre that
naturally belongs to such gems. But if this diver
should pretend, that each of these pearls he shows
you, is as large as a tennis-ball, or some of them
bigger than the shells they were inclosed in, and
that they are not round but cubical, and their
colour not white or orient, but black or scarlet;
you would doubtless judge what he asserts to be
not only (or not so properly) undiscernible by
your eyes, but contrary to the informations of them,
and therefore would deny what he affirms. Be
cause, that to admit it would not only argue your
sight to be imperfect, but false and delusory;
though the organ be rightly qualified, and duly
applied to its proper objects.
5. This illustration may give you some superfi
cial notion of the difference betwixt a thing being
above reason, and its being contrary to it. But
this may better appear, if we consider the matter
more distinctly. And to offer something in order
to this, I shall beg leave to say, that, in my opinion,
the things that may be said to be above reason are
not all of one sort, but may be distinguished into
two kinds, differing enough from each other.
6. For it seems to me, that there are some
things that reason by its own light cannot dis
cover; and others that, when proposed, it cannot
comprehend. 7. And first, there are divers truths in the

74

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• X '

REFLECTIONS UPON

Christian religion that reason, left to itself, would
never have been able to find out, nor perhaps to
have so much as dreamed of. Such as are most of
those that depend upon the free will and ordina
tion of God ; as that the world was made in six
days, that Christ should be born of a virgin, and
that in his person there should be united two such
infinitely distant natures as the divine and human ;
and that the bodies of good men shall be raised
from death, and so advantageously changed, that
the glorified persons shall be like, or equal to, the
angels. 8. Of this kind of theological truths, you will
easily believe, that it were not difficult for me to
offer divers other instances ; and indeed there are
many truths, and more I think than we are wont to
imagine, that we want mediums, or instruments to
discover, though if they were duly proposed, they
would be intelligible to us : as, for my part, when
by looking on the starry heaven, first with my
naked eyes, and then with telescopes of differing
lengths, I did not only descry more and more stars,
according to the goodness of the instruments I em
ployed, hut discovered great inducements to think
that there are, in those inestimably remote regions,
many celestial lights, that only the want of more
reaching telescopes conceal from our sight.
9. And thus much I presume you will close
with the more easily, because it disagrees not with
the sentiments of some few (for I dare say not,
many) orthodox divines. But I must take leave to
add, that besides these mysterious truths, that are
too remote and hidden to be detected by human
reason, there is another sort of things that may
be said to be above reason.

>

i

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION. 7S
10. For there are divers truths delivered by reve
lation, (contained in the holy Scriptures,) that not
only would never have been found out by mere
natural reason ; but are so abstruse, that when they
are proposed as clearly as proper and unambiguous
expressions can propose them in, they do never
theless surpass our dim and bounded reason, on
one or other of those three accounts that are men
tioned in a dialogue about things transcending
reason ; namely either as not clearly conceivable by
our understanding, such as the infiniteness and
perfections of the divine nature ; or as inexplicable
by us, such as the manner how God can create a ra
tional soul ; or how, this being an immaterial sub
stance, it can act upon a human body, and be
acted on by it; (which instance I rather choose,
than the creation of matter, because it may be more
easily proved ;) or as symmetrical, or unsociable ;
that is, such as we see not how to reconcile with
other things, which also manifestly are, or are by
us acknowledged to be true ; such as are the divine
prescience of future contingents, and the liberty
that belongs to man's will, at least in divers cases.
II. It will not perhaps be improper to observe,
on this occasion, that, as of things that are said to
be above reason there are more kinds than one ;
so there may be a difference in the degrees, or at
least the discernibleness, of their abstruseness.
12. For some things appear to surpass or dis
tress our understandings, almost as soon as they
are proposed, at least before they are attentively
looked into : as, what is said to be infinite, either
in extent or number. But there are other things,
the notions whereof, as they first arise from the
things considered in gross, and as it were indefi-

76

7-

REFLECTIONS UPON

nitely, are such as do not choke or perplex our un
derstandings ; and are so far intelligible, that they
may be usefully employed in ordinary discourse.
But when we come to make a deep inspection into
these, and prosecute to the uttermost the succes
sive inferences that may be drawn from them, we
reason ourselves into inextricable difficulties, if not
flat repugnancies too. And to show you that I do
not say this gratis; be pleased to consider with
me, that we usually discourse of place, of time,
and of motion ; and have certain general indeter
minate conceptions of each of these, by the help
of which, we understand one another, when we
speak of them.; though if we will look thoroughly
into them, and attentively consider all the difficul
ties that may be discovered by such an inspection,
we shall find our reason oppressed by the number
and greatness of the difficulties into which we
shall argue ourselves ; or, at least, may be argued
by others ; though these men, who do make such
shrewd objections against the hypothesis we em
brace, will hardly be able to pitch on any that will
not allow us to repay them in the same coin.
13. What has been newly said, may, I hope,
assist us to clear a difficulty or scruple, (about
the , distinction we treat of,) which, since it
sprung up in my own mind, may very probably
occur also to your thoughts ; namely, that if any
theological proposition be granted to surpass our
reason, we cannot pretend to believe it, without dis
covering that we do not sufficiently consider what
we say, since we pretend to exercise an act of the
understanding in embracing somewhat that we do
not understand, nor have a notion of. •
14. But on this occasion we may justly have

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

77

recourse to a distinction, like that I have lately in
timated. For in divers cases, the notions men
have of some things may be different enough,
since the one is more obvious andsuperficial, and
the other more philosophical or accurate. And of
these two differing kinds of conceptions I have
already offered some instances, in the very differing
notions men have of place and time ; which, though
familiar objects, I elsewhere show to be each of
them of so abstruse a nature, that I do not wonder
to find Aristotle himself complaining of the diffi
culty that there is to give a clear and unexcep
tionable notion of place, nor to find so acute a wit
as St. Austin ingenuously confessing his disability
to explicate the nature of time.
15. And what is said of the great intricacies
that encumber a deep scrutiny into these familiar
objects of discourse, will hold, as to the divisibi
lity of quantity,' as to local motion, and as to
some other primary things ; whose abstruseness is
not inferior in degree, though differing as to the
kinds of things, wherein it consists.
16. By such instances as these, it may appear,
that without talking as parrots, (as your friends
would intimate that those that use our distinctions
must do ;) or as : irrational men, we may speak of
some things that we acknowledge to be on some
account or other above our reason ; since the no
tions we may have of those things, however dim and
imperfect, may yet be of use, and may be in some
measure intelligible, though the things they relate
to may in another respect be said. to transcend our
understanding; because an attentive considerer
may perceive, that something belongs to them that

78

REFLECTIONS UPON

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

79

is not clearly comprehensible, or does otherwise
surpass our reason, at least in our present state.
17. Having dispatched the objection that re
quired this digression, I shall now step again into
the way, and proceed in it by telling you, that any
one apposite instance may suffice to clear the for
mer part of the expression that is employed, when
it is said that a mystery, or other article of faith, is
above reason, but not contrary to it ; for if there be
so much as one truth which is acknowledged to be:
such, and yet not to be clearly and distinctly com
prehensible, it cannot justly be pretended that to
make use of the distinction we are treating of, is to
say something that is not intelligible, or is absurd.,
And it will further justify the expression quarrelled,
at, if we can make it appear, that it is neither im
pertinent nor arbitrary, but grounded on the nature.
of things. And this I shall endeavour to do by
showing, that though I admit two, sorts of things
which may be said to be above reason, yet there is
no necessity that either of them must always be
contrary to reason.
18. As for the first sort of things said to sur
pass reason, I see not but that men may be unable,
without the assistance of a more knowing in
structor, to discover some truths, and yet be able,
when these are, revealed or discovered to them by
that instructor; both to understand the, disclosed.
propositions by their own rational faculty, and ap
prove them for true and fit to be embraced. The
intellect of man being such : a bounded faculty
as it is, and naturally furnished with no greater a
stock or share of knowledge than it is able by its
own endeavours to giver itself, or acquire ; it would be

a great unhappiness to mankind, if we were obliged
to reject, as repugnant to reason, whatever we cannot
discover by our own natural light.and consequently,
to deny ourselves the great benefits we may receive
from the communications of any higher and more
discerning intellect. An instance to my present
purpose may be found among rational souls them
selves, though universally granted to be all of the
same nature. For though a person but superficially
acquainted (for example) with geometry, would
never have discovered by his own light that the
diameter of a square is incommensurable to the
side, yet when a skilful mathematician dexterously
declares, and by a series of demonstrations proves
that noble theorem, the disciple, by his now in
structed reason, will be able both to understand it
and to assent to it : insomuch, that Plato said that
" he was rather a beast than a man, that would
deny it."
19. Other instances may be alleged to exem
plify the truth newly mentioned. And indeed,
there is not so much as a strong presumption, that
a proposition or notion is therefore repugnant to
reason, because it is not discoverable by it ; since
it is altogether extrinsical and accidental to the
truth or falsity of a proposition, that we never
heard of it before ; or that we could never have
found it out by our own endeavours ; but must have
had the knowledge of it imparted to us by another.
But then this disability to find out a thing by our
own search, doth not hinder us from being able, by
our own reason, both to understand it when duly
proposed, and to discern it to be agreeable to the
dictates of right reason. To induce you to assent
to the latter part of this observation, I shall add,

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REFLECTIONS UPON

A THEOLOGICAL "DISTINCTION.

81

that these intellectual assistances may oftentimes
not only enlighten, but gratify the mind, by giving
it such informations as both agree with its former
maimed or imperfect notices, and complete them.
When, for example, an antique medal, half con
sumed with rust, is showed to an unskilful person,
though a scholar, he will not by his own endea
vours be able to read the whole inscription, whereof
we suppose some parts to be obliterated by time or
rust, or to discover the meaning of it. But when
a knowing medalist becomes his instructor, he may
then know some much defaced letters, that were
illegible to him before, and both understand the
sense of the inscription, and approve it as genuine
and suitable to the things whereto it ought to be
congruous. And because divers philosophical wits
are apt, as well as you, to be startled at the name
of mystery, and suspect, that because it implies'
something abstruse, there lies hid some illusion
under that obscure term, I shall venture to add,
that agreeably to our doctrine we may observe,
that divers things that relate to the Old Testament,
are in the New called mysteries, because they were
so under the Mosaic dispensation ; though they
cease to be so, now that the apostles have ex
plained them to the world: as the calling of the
Gentiles into the church of God, is by their apostle
called a mystery; because, to use his phrase, it
'hadjbeen hid from ages and generations;' though
he adds, 'but now it is made manifest to his saints.'1
And the same writer tells the Corinthians, that he
shows them a mystery, which he immediately ex-'
plains, by foretelling, that all pious believers shall
> Col. i. 26 ;' Eph. iii. 3, 0,-C: . ' •'-. - '- ¦'•

not die, because that ' those that shall be found
alive at the coming of Christ, shall not sleep, but
be changed ;'' as the other dead shall be raised in
corruptible. Which surprising doctrine, though
because it could not be discovered by the light of
nature, nor of the writings of the Old Testament,
he calls a mystery ; yet it is no more so to us, now
that he hath so expressly foretold it, and therefore
declared it.
20. Other instances I content myself to point at
the foot,4 that I may pass on to confirm the obscr-
vation I formerly intimated; that divers things
which. the Scripture teaches- beyond what was
known, or, in probability, are discoverable by na
tural light, are so far from being against reason, by
being, in the sense declared, above it ; that these
discoveries ought much to recommend the Scripture
to a rational mind; because they do not only agree
with the doubtful or imperfect notions we already
.had of things, but improve them, if not complete
them.. =j Nay, I shall venture to add, that these in
tellectual aids may not seldom help us to discern
that some things, which not only are above reason,
but at first sight seem to be against it, are really
reconcileable to reason, improved by the new helps
afforded it by revelation. To illustrate this by a
philosophical instance, when Gallileo first made
his discoveries with the telescope, and said, that
there were planets that moved about Jupiter he
said something, that other astronomers could not
discern to be true, but nothing that they could
prove to be false. And even when some revela
tions are thought not only to transcend reason, but
' 1 Cor. xv. 51, 62. * See Matt, xiii, II; Eph. v. 31.
G

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-*M

to clash with it; it is to be considered, whether
such doctrines are really repugnant to any absolute
Catholic rule of reason, or only to something, which
so far depends upon the measure of acquired infor
mation we then enjoy, that, though we judge it to
be irrational, yet we are not sure that the thing
this judgment is grounded on, is clearly and
fully enough known to us. As, to resume the
former example, when Gallileo, or some of his dis
ciples, affirmed Venus to be sometimes horned like
the moon ; though this assertion were repugnant
to the unanimous doctrine of astronomers, who
thought their opinion very well grounded, on no
less a testimony than that of their own eyes ; yet in
effect the proof was incompetent, because their un
assisted eyes could not afford them sufficient infor
mation about this case. And so, when Gallileo
spoke of hills and Valleys, and shadows, in the
moon, they were not straight to reject what" he
taught, but to have, if not a kind of implicit faith,
yet a great disposition to believe what he delivered, -
as upon his own knowledge, about the figure and
number of the planets. " For they knew that he
had, and had already successfully made use of,r,a
way of discovering celestial objects, that they were
not masters of; nor therefore competent judges of
all the things, though they might well be of many,
that he affirmed to be' discoverable by it. And
though they could not see in the moon what he
observed, (valleys, mountains, and the shadows of
these,) yet they might justly suspect, that the dif
ference of the idea that they framed of that planet,
and that which he proposed, might well proceed
from the imperfection of their unaided sight ; espe-

V

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

S3

. ,«t -

cially considering, that what he said of the differ
ing constitution of what is there analogous to sea
and land, did rather correct and improve, than ab
solutely overthrow their former notices. For he
allowed the spots they saw to be. darker parts of
the moon, and gave causes of that darkness ; which
their bare eyes could not have led them to any
such knowledge of. And the non-appearance of
the mountainous parts of the moon in that form to
the naked eye, might well be imputed to the great
distance betwixt them and us, since at a far less
distance square towers appear round, &c.
21. It now remains that I say something that
may both make some application of the form of
speech hitherto discoursed of, and afford a con
firmation of the grounds whereon, I think, it mav
he justified. This I am the. rather induced to do
because I expect it will be objected, that he that
acknowledges, that the thing he would have us be
lieve transcends our reason, has a mind to de
ceive us, and procures for himself a fair opportu
nity to delude us, by employing an arbitrary dis
tinction, which he may: apply as he pleases. ,
¦ 22. But to speak first a word or two to this
last clause. I acknowledge that such a distinction
is capable enough of being misapplied; and I am
apt to think that, by some school-divines and
others, it has been :». But, since there are other
distinctions that are generally and justly received
by learned men, and even by philosophers them
selves without having any immunity from beino-'
capable to be perverted ; I know not why the dis°-
tinction we are considering should not be treated
as favourably as they. And however, the question
at present is not, whether our distinction may pos-
g 2

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-P

sibly be misapplied by rash or imposing men ;
but whether it be grounded on the nature of things.
To come then to the thing itself, I consider, that for
an opinion to be above reason, in the sense formerly
assigned, is somewhat that, as was noted in re
ference to the first sort of things that surpass it, is
extrinsical and accidental to its being true or false.
For to be above reason, is not an absolute thing,
but a respective one, importing a relation to the
measure of knowledge that belongs to the human
understanding, such as it is said to transcend ; and
therefore it may not be above reason, in reference
to a more enlightened intellect; such as in 'pro
bability may be found in rational beings of a
higher order — such as are the angels ; and, with
out peradventure, is to be found in God ; whom,
when we conceive to be a Being infinitely perfect,
we must ascribe to him a perfect understanding
and boundless knowledge. This being supposed,
it ought not to be denied, that a superior intellect
may both comprehend several things that we can
not; and discern such of them to be congruous to
the fixed and eternal ideas of truth, and conse
quently agreeable to one another, as dim-sighted
mortals are apt to suspect, or to think, to be sepa
rately false; or, when collated, inconsistent with
one another. But to launch into this speculation
would lead me further than I have time to go;
and therefore I shall content myself to offer you
one argument to prove, that of things that may be
said to be above reason, in the sense formerly ex
plained, it is no way impossible, that even such an
one should be true, as is obnoxious to objections
not directly answerable. For I consider, that of
things above reason, there may be some which are

,1

,\

I

1 ,i

A THEOLOGICAL; DISTINCTION.

85

really contradictory to one another, and yet each
of them is maintainable by such arguments as
very learned and subtle men do both acquiesce in
and enforce, by loading the embracers ofthe oppo
site opinion with objections they cannot directly
answer. 23. This I take to be manifest in the case of
the controversy about the endless divisibility of
quantity ; as, suppose, of a straight line. For many
eminent mathematicians, and a greater number of
naturalists, and in particular almost all tiie Epicu
reans, and other atomists, stilly maintain the nega
tive. The affirmative is nevertheless asserted, and
thought to be mathematically demonstrated by
Aristotle, in a peculiar tract; and both by his\
school and by several excellent geometricians be
sides. And yet in reality, the assertions of these
two contending parties are truly contradictory;
since, of necessity, a straight line proposed must
be, at least mentally, divisible, into parts that are
themselves still further divisible; or, it must not
be so, and the subdivisions must at length come
to a stop; and therefore one of the opposite
opinions must be true. And it is plain to those
that have, with competent skill and attention, im
partially examined "this controversy, that the side.
which is pitched upon, whichsoever it be, is liable
to be exposed to such difficulties, and other ob^
jections, as are not clearly answerable ; but con
found and oppress the reason of those that strive
to defend it.
24. I have, Sir, the more largely discoursed
of the foregoing distinction, not only because I
did not find myself to have been prevented by
others, but because I look upon the explaining

86

REFLECTIONS UPON

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

87

and justifying of it to be of importance, not alone
to the defence of some mysteries of the Christian
religion, but, what perhaps may have escaped your
observation, of some important articles of natural
theology itself. For though natural religion taught
divers heathen philosophers such truths as these,
viz. the production of the rational soul or mind,
which is an immaterial substance; the formation
of the world out of the universal matter, though
this action required that an incorporeal substance
gave motion to a body; that God knows men's
thoughts and intentions, how carefully soever they
strive to hide them; and that God foreknows the
events of the free actions of such men as are
not to be born these many ages; though, I say,
these and some other sublime truths, were by di
vers men embraced before the gospel began to be
preached ; yet when I attentively consider how
hard it is to conceive the modus of these things,
and explain how some of them can be performed ;
and also, how some of the divine attributes, as
eternity, immensity, omnipresence, and some others,
belong to God ; and how some actions, as the mov
ing of bodies, and the creation of human minds,
with all their noble faculties, are exercised by him;
when I consider such things, I say, I acknowledge
that, to my apprehension, there are some doctrines,
allowed to have been discovered by the mere light
of nature, that are liable to such objections from
physical principles, and the settled order of things
corporeal, as, if they be urged home, will bring
those that are ingenuous to acknowledge, that their
intellects are but dim and imperfect, and indeed
disproportionate to the sublimest and most myste
rious truths; and that they cannot perfectly com

prehend them, and answer all the difficulties that
encumber them;, though they find themselves
obliged to admit them, because of the weighty
positive reasons that recommend those heteroclite
truths to their assent.
25. If you should now tell me, that, after all
I have said, it is plain that the questioned distinc
tion, if it were granted, might be of very bad con
sequence; as affording shelter to any unintelli
gible stuff, that some bold enthusiast or conceited
philosophizer may obtrude under the venerable title
of a mystery, above the jurisdiction of reason ;
and, that though the distinction were admitted, it
would not be a good proof of any disputed article
of the Christian religion ;— -if, I say, this shall be
objected, I shall answer, (what in partis intimated
already,) that I do not deny but that our distinc
tion is liable to be ill employed ; but that this is
no other blemish than what is common with it to
divers other distinctions that are without scruple
admitted because they are useful, and not rejected
because they have not the privilege that they can
never be misapplied ; and therefore, both in refer
ence to those distinctions, and to that we have
been treating of, it becomes men to stand upon
their guard, and strictly examine how far the notion,
or doctrine, proposed as a mystery, does require,
and is entitled to, the benefit of this distinction. I
shall also readily grant the greatest part of the se
cond member of your objection; for I think it were
great weakness in a Christian, to urge our distinc
tion as a positive proof; since,, though it be extrinsi
cal to an abstruse notion, to be, or not to be, above
reason ; (as was just now noted to another purpose ;)
yet, generally speaking, that abstruseness is less fit

M

88

REFLECTIONS UPON

to bring credit to a conception, or a doctrine, than
it is to make it to be distrusted. Nor are Chris
tians such fond discoursers, as to pretend that such
an article of religion ought to be believed because
it is above reason, as if that were a proof of its
truth; but only, that if it be otherwise well
proved, it ought to be believed, notwithstanding its
being above reason.
26. And this I shall represent in favour of
those that believe those abstruse articles, that are
clearly revealed in the Scripture, upon the authority .
of the divine Revealer; (who never deceives others,
nor can be himself deceived ;) that since, as we
have lately shown by the contradictory opinions
about the divisibility of quantity, some doctrines
must be true, whose difficulties do not appear to
be surmountable by our dim reason ; and since the
perfectness of God's knowledge permits us not to
doubt but that he certainly knows which of the
two contending opinions is the true, and can de
clare so much to men ; it would not be a sure
ground of rejecting a revealed article, to allege,
that it is encumbered with confounding difficulties,
and liable to many and weighty objections.
27. And, to add somewhat that may help to
defend some truths of natural, and others of revealed
religion ; that a thing may be rationally assented
to, upon clear positive evidence, though we cannot
directly answer the objections that a speculative
and subtle wit may devise against it, is a truth
which, as important as it is to religion in general,
and the Christian religion in particular, I think
one may sufficiently manifest by this one instance,
—that, because we can walk up and down, and so
remove our bodies from place to place, by this one

A THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTION.

89

argument, I say, we are justly satisfied, that there
is local motion in the world, notwithstanding all
the specious and subtle arguments that Zeno and
his followers have employed to impugn that
truth ; against which they have alleged such diffi
culties, as have not only puzzled and perplexed,
but (for aught yet appears) nonplused the ancient
philosophers, and, I doubt those moderns too,
that have attempted to give clear solutions of
them. 28. If now, Sir, we look back upon what hath
hitherto been discoursed, I hope you will allow
me to gather thence the conclusion I aim at, which
is, that there is no necessity that every notion or pro
position that may be found delivered in the Holy
Scriptures, that surpasses our reason, must therefore
be contradictory to it; and that, in case the Chris
tian religion be true, and its mysteries or other
articles divinely revealed, it is not enough, for the
confutation of any of them, to reject the expression
that it is above reason, but not contrary to it, as if
it involved an unintelligible or groundless distinc
tion ; for though this will not evince the truth of a
mystery, since that must be established upoh its
proper grounds and arguments, yet it will keep it
from being therefore absurd or false, because it
transcends our reason ; since to do so, may belong
almost indifferently to a chimerical notion and a
mysterious truth : and if the expression be em
ployed to justify any thing that, though styled a
mystery, is but a pretended one ; the error will lie,
not in the groundlessness of the distinction, but
the erroneousness of the application. I am, Sir,
Your most, &c.

*

fr'Y

f

''?•/

SOME
CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE
STYLE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFATORY LETTER
TO THE PUBLISHER.

Sir, „
You will perhaps think it strange, that a person,
obsequious enough to those he loves, should be
able to hold out so long against the importunity of
two such powerful solicitors, as my willingness to
own a veneration for the Scripture, and my unwil
lingness to deny you any thing. But if you will
give me leave to acquaint you with the considera
tions that have hitherto dissuaded me from the
publication of the papers you press for, you will, I
presume, rather marvel at my resolving at last to
comply with your desires, than that I have been
somewhat long contesting, before I could take up
so opposed a resolution. First, then, the treatise
of which the papers you desire make a part, was
written nine or ten years ago, when my green
youth made me very unripe for a task of that na
ture—whose difficulty requires, as well as its worth
deserves, that it should be handled by a person in
whom nature, education, and time have happily
matched a senile maturity of judgment with a

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PREJFATORY LETTER.

youthful vigour of fancy. Next, the discourse I
have mentioned being written to a private friend,
who put me upon that task, I not only had a theme
of another's choosing imposed upon me, for which
he was pleased to think me much more fit than I
had reason to think myself, but was, by the freedom
allowable among friends, tempted to vent and ex
press my thoughts with more negligence, than were
proper to be made use of in a solemn discourse in
tended for public viow : the contrary of which
were yet very requisite for a person, who though
he have, by I know not what unhappy fate, been
cast upon the learning divers languages, has yet
too great a concern for the knowledge of things to
be a diligent or solicitous considerer of words ; and
so was more fit to write almost of any thing than
of a style or of matters rhetorical. Besides, that
my essay touching the Scripture having not been all
written in one country, but partly in England,.
partly in another kingdom, and partly too on ship
board, it were strange if in what I writ there did
not appear much of unevenness; and if it did not
betray the unleisuredness and relish of the unset-
tledness of the wandering author, who, by thus
rambling, was reduced, for want of a library, to
comply with the request of his friend, who was
more desirous to receive from the author apples
and pears growing in his own orchard, than
oranges and lemons fetched from foreign parts :
whereby I was condemned not to enrich my dis
course with what T might have borrowed of real
and valuable from the eloquent composures of

t

•v-

'

... 3-.
¦)
i '

¦PREFATORY LETTER. 95
more happy pens. But these, Sir, are not all the
determents that opposed my obeying you ; for be
sides these disadvantages with which the discourse
itself was written, that part of it you demand must
appear with a peculiar, as well as great disadvan-
tage ; for m an entire and continued discourse the
several parts that compose it do mutually afford
light and confirmation to each other; and therefore
though whatsoever I here present you touching the
style of the Scripture had been written altogether
in some one place of the discourse, whereof it
makes a part; yet I could not dismember it from
the rest without a great deal of injury, as well to it
as to the rest of the treatise. But this is not the
worst of my case; for though I did in one part of
my essay of the Scripture more professedly apply
myself to the consideration of its style; yet because
divers things were interwoven even in this distinct
part, which were not so fit for public view; and
because that in divers of the other parts of my
essay, I had here and there, frequently enough, oc-
cas.on to say something of the same theme, I have
been obliged, that I might obey you, not only to
dismember, but to mangle the treatise you perused
cutting out with a pair of scissars here a whole
side, there half, and in another place, perhaps, a
quarter of one, as I found in the other parts of my
discourse, longer or shorter passages, that appeared
to relate to the style of the Scripture, that I might
give you at once all those parts of my essay which
seemed to concern that subjecct. And though I

96

PREFATORY LETTER.

have here and there, by dictating to an amanuensis,
inserted some lines or words, to make the loose pa
pers less incoherent, where I thought it easy to be
done, yet in many others I have only prefixed a
short black line, to the incoherent passages, if I
found they could not be connected with those
whereunto I have joined them, without such
circumlocution as either the narrowness of the
paper would not permit, or my present distractions
(which you know are not a few) and the weakness
of my eyes would not allow of. For to complete
my unfitness to obey you with any thing of accu-
rateness, I must, to obey you at all, do it both when
I have other composures in the press, and when
the distemper in my eyes makes me so far from
daring to transcribe the papers I send you, that I
might alter them according to the exigency of your
design in them, that I durst not so much as read
them over but with another's eyes. To which I
must add, that besides all these disadvantages I
have already mentioned, I cannot but foretell that
the following discourse may prove obnoxious to the
censures of differing sorts of readers, and particu
larly to those of courtiers, for too neglected, and
those of critics, for too spruce a dress. By all
which I presume you will be easily induced to be
lieve with me, that I cannot expose the papers you
desire so muclt to their disadvantage and my own,
without some exercise of self-denial : since without
needing much foresight I may well apprehend, that
I shall hereby hazard the loss of the most part of

PREFATORY LETTER.

97

whatever little reputation in this nature any of
my former moral or devout composures may
among favourable readers have procured me.
But by this time, Sir, I suppose not only that you
have left wondering at my making some difficulty
to put the annexed papers into your hands, but that
I owe you and my other friends an account why I
now consent to a compliance with desires which
such powerful considerations would dissuade my
assenting to.
My first inducement then to what I do, is the
favourable character that you, and some other very
competent judges have been pleased to give me of
these papers, and especially your thereupon press
ing their publication upon me, as a duty whereto
I stand obliged to those many readers whom you
would have me think likely to be benefited thereby.
For in such casest where knowing and sober per
sons think there is a great probability of a dis
course doing good, it is not impossible but that
an unwillingness to have it published, may not so
much proceed out of modesty, as from some secret
pride, almost as unjustifiable as if a physician
should refuse to come abroad upon an urgent occa
sion, because he has not his best clothes on, or is not
carefully dressed. And therefore, when I incline to
make with you a case of conscience of the matter,
I think myself obliged, whatever my private ap
prehensions may be ofthe success, to do my duty,
and leave events to the wise and sovereign Dis-
poser of them. It is not that I have the vanity to
expect that I shall convert obstinate and resolved
ii

98

PREFATORY LETTER.

cavillers, nor much instruct the great clerks; but
since I have not yet met with such a discourse as I
intended mine to be ; and since the greater part of
the things I have written in it will not perhaps be
elsewhere met with, I hope that what I have said
may not be useless to those who have considered the
subject I treat of less attentively than I have done;
and may, if not procure a veneration for the Scrip
ture in those that are altogether indisposed to it, yet
at least increase, or confirm it in those that have
already entertained it, and furnish such devout per
sons with something to allege on the Scripture's be
half, who are better furnished with affections than
with arguments for it. And I. the less scruple to
allow myself such a hope, because you have been
pleased to make, not only to me but to others, such
a mention of the following papers, that after your
preference of them to the other pieces of devotion
you have seen of mine, (without excepting that
discourse of seraphic love, which yet has had the
luck to be so favourably entertained by readers of
all sorts,) I shall confess to you, that as some of
them do now appear very much dislocated and
mangled, so others were penned with more care
than any other of my writings about matters theo- '
logical. And indeed I conceived myself obliged,
in point of gratitude as well as duty, to speak as
advantageously as I could ofthe Scripture ; because,
if I may, without vanity make such an acknow
ledgment, I am sensible I have been benefited by
it, and might have been, much more so, if I had
been as disposed to learn as the matchless book is

1
1

V

PREFATORY LETTER.

99

qualified to teach : and I confess to you also, that
since the physiological writings I have been in
duced to publish of late, and the sort of studies to
which ( for reasons to be told you at a proper op
portunity) I seem at present to be wholly addicted
to, make many look upon me as a naturalist : and
since some persons, as well philosophers as physi
cians, have either faultily, or at least indiscreetly
given many men occasion to think that those that
being speculatively studious of nature's mysteries,
depart, as I often do, from the vulgar peripatetic
philosophy, and especially if they seem to favour
that which explicates the phamomena of nature by
atoms, are inclined' to atheism, or at least to an
unconcernedness for any particular religion ; since,
I say, these things are so, I was not unwilling to lay
hold of this opportunity to give a public testi
mony, whereby such as do not know me may be
satisfied (fori presume all that do know me are
so)that, if I be a naturalist, it is possible to be
so without being an atheist," or of kin to it; and
that the study ofthe works of nature has not made
me either disbelieve the author of them, or deny
his providence, or so much as disesteem his word,
which deserves our respect upon several accounts,
and especially that of its being the grand instru
ment of conveying to us the truths and mysteries
of the Christian religion; my embracing of which
I know not why I should be ashamed to own, since
I think I can, to a competent and unprepossessed
judge, give a rational accountof my so doing.
To all this I might subjoin some apologies, which
H 2

ti

100

PREFATORY LETTER.

might perhaps serve to prevent or withdraw the
censures of some sorts of readers.
For to critics and philologers I could represent,
partly, that I have not a little impoverished my dis
course, by making use of books to shun the repe
tition of what I found obvious already; partly, that
when I wrote the essay, of which the ensuing trea
tise is a piece, I had thoughts of annexing to it an-.
notations, wherein I hoped to illustrate, and by par
ticular instances to exemplify, divers of those things
which should appear to require it; or which else
the reader might suspect I have slightly considered,
because I seem to make but a transient mention of
them ; and partly too, that I ignored not the stricter
interpretations given by modern critics to divers.
texts by me alleged, but that (not having oppor
tunity to criticise) I was eontent to use them in
their received or obvious sense; and have some
times employed them but by way of allusion, or as
arguments, ad hominem, (wherein some of my
readers are like to acquiesce, though I do not,)
and sometimes rather used them to express than
prove my thoughts.. , And indeed, in these popular
discourses, which are not written for, nor to be. ex
amined as regular disputations, men use not so
much to look whether every thing be a strict truth,
as whether it be proper to persuade or impress the
truths .they would inculcate; and especially in com
posures of the nature of this of mine, men havei
been rarely censured for being sometimes even in
dulgent to the exigencies of their themes. Those
that require more of method than they will here

PREFATORY LETTER.

101

find, may be advertised, that much of this scribble
being designed to serve particular acquaintances
of mine, it was fit it should insist on those points
they were concerned in ; and that, consequently,
much ofthe seeming desultoriness df my method,
and frequency of my rambling excursions, have been
but intentional and charitable digressions out of my
way, to bring some wandering friends into theirs,
and may closely enough pursue my intentions, even
when they seem most to deviate from my theme.
And as for the longer excursions which either you
or other judicious friends would needs have me
leave here and there, I have, for the ease of my pe
rusers, annexed to them some marks whereby, they
may be taken notice of to be digressions, that as I
submit to their judgment, who think they may be
useful to some readers, so I may comply with my
own unwillingness to let them be troublesome to
Others, who by this means have an opportunity to
pass by, if they please, such as they shall not ex
pect to find themselves (either upon their own
score or that of their acquaintances) concerned in.
To those of the wits who, happening to be disre
garded of the Scripture, may find themselves upon
that account used here with any show of slighting
or asperity, I may add to what I have already
said in the papers themselves, that it hath been
but as we pinch and cast cold water on the faces
Of persons in a Swoon, to bring them out of it to
themselves again : I have done it with as harmless
intentions as those of the angel mentioned in the

{¦¦i

102

PREFATORY LETTER.

PREFATORY LETTER.

103

Acts,1 when he struck Peter on the side, not to hurt
him but to awake him, — lead him the way out of
the prison he was bound in, and rescue him from
imminent death. And if that will not satisfy some
of the least judicious, or the most desperate, (for
others I expect to find better affected, or more mor
derate,) I am willing to leave the intelligent and pi
ous to judge between us; assuring those that are
so much more jealous of their own honour than of
God's, that as I write to reclaim them, not to deprive
them of the repute of wits, or share it with them, so
I shall not over much deplore the being by them de
nied a title to which I have as little pretension as
right. And, to dispatch, I might add, that ora
tors may not unjustly bear with some rudenesses
in the style of a person that professes n.ot rhetoric,
and writes of a subject that needs few of her; orna
ments, and rejects many as indecencies misbecom
ing its majesty ; and that severer divines may
safely pardon some smoothness in a discourse writ
ten chiefly for gentlemen, who would scarce be
fond of truth in every dress, by a gentleman who
feared., it ,might misbecome.' a person of his youth
and quality studiously to • decline :a fashionable
style. And if any divine should censure me for
intruding upon his profession, and handling my
subject less skilfully than he would have done, I
will not urge that to write well on this subject is
a task, which he that shall try will perhaps .find
.. ' Acts, xii. 7, &<=¦

*i<3>t:;

far less easy than one would imagine; but I shall
rather tell him, that I hope I may obtain his par
don, by assuring him that I shall be as little angry to
be rectified in my mistakes, as to be shown the way
when I am out of it, and as little troubled to have
this discourse,, that but skirmishes with laziness
and profaneness, surpassed by another on the same
subject, as to see another embracer of the same
quarrel come in with a fresh regiment, to assist me
against a formidable enemy in a conflict I were
engaged in but with a troop, or bring cannon
against a fortress I had but sakers to batter with.
Yes, I shall be glad if my dim, short-lived match
but serve to light another's brighter torch, and shall
think it a happiness to have contributed, though
but thus occasionally, towards the elucidation or
splendour of the Scripture. And consonantly to
this temper I would beseech any reader, that may
so much want learning as to need such a request,
not to measure what can be said in the defence
and celebration of the Scripture's style, by what
hath in the following discourse been traced by the
callow pen of a travelling layman.' For I profess
ingenuously, that there can as little be an unwel-
comer as an unjuster compliment placed upon me,
than to mistake any thing that I am able to say,
and much less what I have said, for the best that
can.be said upon such a subject. Nor is it my
least encouragement to consent to the publication
of such incomplete writings, that the considera
tions already intimated will probably keep my

i.ii

104

PREFATORY LETTER.

PREFATORY LETTER.

105

readers from doing the Scripture and their own
judgment so great an injury.
But I see I have so far transgressed the bounds
of a letter, tbat if I add any thing more of apology,
it must be for having been so prolix already.
Wherefore there scarce remains any thing for me
but to mind you, that since your persuasions have
so much contributed to my exposing the following
tract, incomplete as it is, your own credit is some
what concerned in it as well as mine ; and therefore
I hope you will have a care that there be no faults of
the printer added to those of the author, which do
so little need additional blemishes. And especially
that there pass no mistakes of the punctuation;
for in such composures as this, if the stops be
omitted or misplaced, it does not only lessen the
gracefulness of what is said,' but oftentimes quite
spoil the sense. And if by this care of yours,
which your affection, both for the subject and the
writer, makes me confident of, and by the authority
of your approbation, I find these imperfect consi
derations to be so favourably received as to de
serve another edition, it will perhaps invite me to
put them forth enlarged and recruited with what I
may meet with pertinent to their subject, in such
other papers of mine concerning the Scripture as
I had not yet the conveniency to get into mine
own hands and look over. However, though I
pretend not here to answer all objections against
the style of the Scripture, yet, as I hope, I have
been so happy as to answer some of them, and

Ji .
'¦i !

weaken most ofthe rest: so, if others that are more
able will but employ themselves as earnestly in so
useful a work, there is great hope that some an
swering this objection, another that, and a third
another, they may at length be all of them satisfac
torily replied to. And in the meantime I shall
think my labours richly recompensed, if they either
procure or establish a veneration for the Scripture
in any of my readers, or do at least encourage
those that are qualified for a far more prosperous
making such an attempt, to undertake it, by show
ing those of them that know me what were easy
for them to do, whilst they see what has been done
even by me, whom sure they will not think to be
half so much an orator, as I hope so uneasy a
proof of his obedience will make you think him.
Sir,
Your affectionate friend,
And humble servant,
Robert Boyle.

ON THE STYLE

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

These things, dear Theophilus, being thus dis
patched, I suppose we may now seasonably pro
ceed to consider the style of the Scripture : a sub
ject that will as well require as deserve some time
and much attention; in regard that divers witty
men, who freely acknowledge the authority of the
Scripture, take exceptions at its style, and by
those and their own reputation divert many
from studying, or so much as perusing, those sacred
writings'; thereby at once giving men injurious
and irreverent thoughts of it, and diverting them
from allowing the Scripture the best way of justi
fying itself, and disabusing them ; than which
scarce any thing can be more prejudicial to a book
that needs but to be sufficiently understood to be
highly venerated : the writings these men crimi
nate, and would keep others from reading, being
like that honey which Saul's rash adjuration with
held the Israelites from eating, which being tasted,
not only gratified the taste, but enlightened the
eyes. ' 1 1 Sam. xiv. 27, 29.

108

ON THE STYLE OF

7

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

109

Now those allegations against the Scripture" we
are to examine being but too various, it will be
requisite for us to consider the style of it, not in the
stricter acceptation, wherein an author's style is
wont to signify the choice and disposition of his
words, but in that larger sense, wherein the word
style comprehends not only the phraseology, the
tropes and figures made use of by a writer, but his
method, his lofty or humbler character, (as orators
speak,) his pathetical or languid, his close or inco
herent way of writing, and in a word, almost all
the whole manner of an author's expressing himself.
Wherefore, though the title of an essay prefixed
to this treatise will, I presume, invite you to expect
from me rather some loose considerations than any
full and methodical discourse concerning the style
of the Scripture ; yet I hope you will not think it
strange if so comprehensive a theme make this part
of the essay disproportionate to the others : espe
cially since the nature of your commands and that
of my design oblige me to interweave some other
things with those that more directly regard the
style ofthe Scripture, and particularly lay hold on
all opportunities I can discreetly take, to invite you
to study much and highly to esteem a book, which
there is no danger you can too much study or
esteem too highly.
It has been a common saying among the an
cients, that even Jupiter could not please all. But
by the objections I meet with against the Scrip
ture, I find that the true God himself is not:
free from the imputation of his audacious crea
tures; who impiously presume to quarrel as well
with his revelations as his providence, and express
no more reverence to what he hath dictated than

!

7-

i i ; ''..>

to what he doth. For not now to mention what
is by atheists and antiscripturists alleged to
overthrow the truth and authority of the Scripture,
(because it is not here, but elsewhere, that we are
to deal, with that sort of men,) even by some of
those that acknowledge both (for with such only
we have now to reason), there are I know not how
many faults found with the style of the Scripture.
For some of them are pleased to say that book is
too obscure, others, that it is immethodical, others,
that it is contradictory to itself, others, that the
neighbouring parts of it are incoherent, others, that
it is unadorned, others, that it is flat and unaffect-
ing, others, that it abounds with things that are
either trivial or impertinent, and also with useless
repetitions. And indeed so many and so various
are the faults and imperfections imputed by these
men to the Scripture, that my wonder at them
would be almost as great as is my trouble, if I did
not also consider how much it is the interest of the
great adversary of mankind, and especially of (that
choicest part of it) the church, to depreciate com
posures that if duly reverenced would prove so de
structive to his kingdom and designs ; and if I did
not also remember that (such is the querulous and
exceptious nature of men) it was Cicero himself
that observed, Vitari non posse reprchensionem nisi
nihil scribendo ; " It is not possible to escape cen
sure but by not writing at all." But as poets and
astronomers have fancied among the celestial lights
that adorn the firmament, bears, bulls, goats, dogs,
scorpions, and other beasts; so our adversaries im
pute I know not what imaginary deformities to a
book ennobled by its author with many celestial

7J

1 10

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Ill

lights, fit to instruct the world, and discover to
them the ways of truth and blessedness. . Although
I say this be so, yet since the misrepresentation
made by these men of the Bible is not inferior to
that made by poets and cosmographers of the fir
mament, I hope you will be as little deterred by
the most disparaging imputations from studying
the Scripture, as pilots are by the name of a bear
given to the most northern constellation, from hav
ing their eyes upon the pole-star, and steering their
courses by it.
And since you will easily believe that a person
so averse from wrangling as I, is not like to make
the disputing with these censurers of the Scripture-
style any further his design, than as the invali
dating their objections conduces to the reputation
of that sacred book, I presume you will not think
it at all impertinent' if oftentimes I intermix with'
those things that more directly regard such objec
tions; other things that seem to tend rather to cele
brate than vindicate the Scripture ; for in so doing,
I hope I shall not alone considerably, though not
perhaps so directly, strengthen my answers, by show^
ing that we justly, ascribe to the Scripture qualities
quite opposite to the imperfections imputed to it ;
but I shall perfectly comply with my main design/
which I here declare once for all, is but to engage
you to study and value the Scripture, and there
fore obliges me to answer objections only so far
forth as they may look like arguments to dissuade
you from prizing and studying it. And because I
find not that the objections to be considered have
any great coherence with, or dependence on each
other, I shall not scruple to mention them, und my

reflections on them, in no other order than that
wherein they shall chance to occur to my thoughts
whilst I am writing.
Of the considerations, then, that I am to lay be
fore you, there are three or four which are of a
more general nature, and therefore being such as
may each of them be pertinently employed against
several of the exceptions taken at the Scripture's
style, it will not be inconvenient to mention them
before tho rest.
And in the first place, it should bo considered,
that those cavillers at the style of the Scripture
that you and I have hitherto met with, do (for
want of skill in the original) especially in the
Hebrew, judge of it by the translations wherein
alone tbey read it. Now scarce any but a linguist
will imagine how much a book may lose of its
elegancy, by being read in another tongue than
that it was written in, especially if the languages
from which and into which the version is made,
be so very differing, as are those ofthe eastern and
these western' parts of the world. But of this I
foresee an occasion of saying something hereafter •
yet at present I must observe to you, that the style
of the Scripture is much more disadvantaged than
that of other books, by being judged of by transla
tions : for the religious and just veneration that
the interpreters of the Bible have had for that
sacred book, has made them in most'places render
the Hebrew and Greek passages so scrupulously
word for word, that for fear of not keeping close
enough to the sense, they usually, care not how
much they lose of the eloquence of the passages
they translate. So that whereas in those versions
of other books that are made by good linguists, the

112

ON THE STYLE OF

interpreters are wont to take the liberty to recede
from the. author's words, and also substitute other
phrases instead of his, that they may express his
meaning without injuring his reputation; in
translating the Old Testament interpreters have
not put Hebrew phrases into Latin or English
phrases, but only into Latin or English words,
and have too often besides, by not sufficiently un
derstanding, or at, least considering, the various
significations of words, particles and tenses, in the
holy tongue, made many things appear less cohe
rent, or less rational, or less considerable, which by
a more free and skilful rendering of the original,
would not be blemished by any appearance of such
imperfection. And though this fault of interpreters
be pardonable enough in them, as carrying much of
its excuse in its cause, yet it cannot but much dero
gate from the Scripture to appear with peculiar dis
advantages, besides those many that are common to
almost all. books by being translated.
For whereas the figures of rhetoric are wont by
orators to be reduced to two* comprehensive sorts,
and one of those does so depend upon the sound'
and placing of the words (whence the Greek rheto
ricians call such figures trxvpara Xlkws) that if
they be altered, though the sense be retained, the
figure may vanish; this sort of figures, I say, which
comprises those, that orators call cpanados, antana-
clasis, and a multitude of others, are wont to be
lost in such literal translations as are ours of the
Bible, as I could easily show by many instances, if
I thought it requisite.
Besides, there are. in Hebrew, as in other lan
guages, certain appropriated graces and a peculiar
emphasis belonging to some expressions, which

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

113

fi»

must necessarily be impaired by any translation,
and are but too often quite lost in those that ad
here too scrupulously to the words of the original.
And as in a lovely face, though a painter may well
enough express the cheeks, and the nose, and lips,
yet there is often something of splendour and vi
vacity in the eyes which no pencil can reach to
equal : so in some choice composures, though a
skilful interpreter may happily enough render into
his own language a great part of what he translates,
yet there may well be some shining passages, some
sparkling and emphatical expressions that he can
not possibly represent to the life. And this consi
deration is more applicable to the Bible and its
translations, than to other books, for two particular
reasons. - For first, it is more difficult to translate the He
brew ofthe Old Testament, than if that book were
written in Syriac or Arabic, or some such other
eastern language.- Not that' the holy tongue is
much more difficult to be learned than others, but
because in the other learned tongues we know there
are commonly variety of books extant, whereby we
may learn the various significations of words and
phrases; whereas the pure Hebrew being unhappily
lost, except so much of it as remains in the Old Testa
ment, out of whose books alone we can but very
imperfectly frame a ¦< dictionary and a language,
there are many words, especially the1 "AttoS Xeyo-
pEva, " those which occur but once," and those
that occur but seldom, of which we know but that
one signification, or those few acceptations wherein
we find it used in those texts that we think we
clearly understand ! whereas if we consider the
nature of the primitive tongue, whose words beinw
1

114

ON THE STYLE OF

not numerous, are most of them equivocal enough,
and do many of them abound with strangely-dif
ferent meanings ; and if we consider too how likely
it is that the numerous conquests of David, and
the wisdom, prosperity, fleets, and various com
merces of his son Solomon did both enrich and
spread the Hebrew language, it cannot but seem
very probable, that the same word or phrase may
have had divers other significations than interpre
ters have taken notice of, or we are now aware of,
since we find in the Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and
other eastern tongues, that the Hebrew words and
phrases (a little varied, according to tbe nature of
those dialects) have other, and oftentimes very dif
fering significations besides those that the modern
interpreters of the Bible have ascribed to them. I
say the modern, because the ancient versions be
fore, or not long after our Saviour's time, and espe
cially that which we. vulgarly call the Septuagint,
do frequently favour our conjecture, by rendering
Hebrew words and phrases to senses very distant
from those more received significations in our texts,
when there appears no other so probable reason of
their so rendering them, as their believing them
capable of significations differing enough from
those to which our later interpreters have thought
fit to confine themselves. The use that I would
make of this consideration may easily be conjec
tured, namely, that it is probable that many of
those texts whose expressions, as they are rendered
in our translations, seem fiat, or improper, or inco
herent with the context, would appear much other
wise, if we were acquainted with all the significa
tions of words and phrases that were known in the
times when the Hebrew language flourished, and

J

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

115

the sacred books were written : it being very likely,
that among those various significations some one
or other would afford a better sense and a more
significant and sinewy expression than we meet
with in our translations, and perhaps would make
such passages as seem flat or uncouth, appear elo
quent and emphatical. Whilst I am writing this,
our English tongue presents to my thoughts an ex
ample which may seem to illustrate much of the
foregoing consideration ; and it is this: that though,
as one would easily believe, there are but a few
forms of speaking which relate to the birth of in
fants, yet there are five or six expressions concern
ing that one affair, wherein very peculiar and un
wonted notions belong to the words and phrases,
For if I say that such a woman has looked every
hour these ten days — that yesterday she cried out —
that she had a quick and easy labour — that last
night she was brought a bed — that How she lies in
— and that it is fit we should remember the lady in
the straw ; if, I say, I make use of any or all of
these expressions, an Englishman would readily
understand me ; but if I should literally and word
for word translate them, I say not into Greek or
Hebrew, but into the languages of our neighbour
nations, French or Italian, men would not under
stand what I mean : and if a discourse wherein they
were employed were translated by an interpreter
only acquainted with the genuine and more ob
vious signification of the English word, it would
in such passages appear very disadvantageous^,
and perhaps be thought impertinent or nonsensical
to a French or Italian reader.
But this is not all ; for I consider, in the second
12

116

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

117

place, that not only we have lost diverse ofthe sig
nifications of many of the Hebrew words and
phrases, but that we have also lost the means of
acquainting ourselves with a multitude of particu
lars relating to the topography, history, rites,
opinions, factions, customs, &c. of the ancient Jews
and neighbouring nations, without the knowledge
of which we cannot, in the perusing of books of
such antiquity as those of the Old Testament, and
written by and principally for Jews, we cannot, I
say, but lose very much of that esteem, delight, and
relish with which we should read very many pas
sages, if we discerned the references and allusions
that are made in tbem to those stories, proverbs,
opinions, &c. to which such passages may well be
supposed to relate. And this conjecture will not I
presume appear irrational, if you but consider how
many of the handsomest passages in Juvenal, Per-
sius, Martial, and divers other Latin writers (not
to mention Hesiod, Musseus, or other more ancient
Greeks) are lost to such readers as are unacquaint
ed with the Roman customs, government, and sto
ries ; nay, or are not sufficiently informed of a great
many particular circumstances relating to the con
dition of those times, and of divers particular per
sons pointed at in those poems ; and therefore it is
that the latter critics have been fain to write com
ments, or at least notes upon every page, and in
some pages upon almost every line of those books,
to enable the reader to discern the eloquence and
relish the wit of the author. And if such diluci-
dations be necessary to make us value writings
that treat of familiar and secular affairs, and were
written in an European language, and in times

and countries much nearer to ours, how much do
you think we must lose of the elegancy of the Book
of Job, the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon,
and other sacred composures, which not only treat
oftentimes of sublime and supernatural mysteries,
but were written in very remote regions so many
ages ago, amidst circumstances to most of which
we cannot but be great strangers ? And thus
much for my first general consideration.
My second is this, that we should carefully dis
tinguish betwixt what the Scripture itself says,
and what is only said in the Scripture. For we
must not look upon the Bible as an oration of God
to men, or as a body of laws, like our English
statute-book, wherein it is the legislator that all
the way speaks to the people, but as a collection of
composures of very differing sorts, and written at
very distant times ; and of such composures, that
though the holy men of God (as St. Peter calls
them) were' acted by the Holy Spirit, who both
excited and assisted them in penning the Scrip
ture, yet there are many others besides the author
and the penmen introduced speaking there. For
besides the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel,
Kings, Chronicles, the four Evangelists, the Acts of
the Apostles, and other parts of Scripture, that are
evidently historical, and wont to be so called, there
are in the other books many passages that deserve
the same name, and many others wherein, though
they be not mere narratives of things done, many
sayings and expressions are recorded that either
belong not to the Author ofthe Scripture, or must
be looked upon as such wherein his secretaries per
sonate others. So that in a considerable part of
the Scripture, not only prophets and kings and

¦ :i/J

ii

118

ON THE STYLE OF

priests being introduced speaking; but soldiers,
shepherds, and women, and such other sorts of per
sons from whom witty or eloquent things are not
(especially when they speak extempore) to be ex
pected, it would be very injurious to impute to
the Scripture any want of eloquence that may he
noted in the expressions of others than its Author.
For though not only in romances, but in many of
those that pass for true histories, the supposed
speakers may be observed to talk as well as the
historian ; yet that is but either because the men
so introduced were ambassadors, orators, generals,
or other eminent men for parts as well as employ
ments, or because the historian does, as it often
happens, give himself the liberty to make speeches
for them, and does not set down what indeed they
said, but what he thought fit thatf'such persons on
such occasions should have said ; whereas the pen
men of the Scripture, as one of them truly pro
fesses, having not followed cunningly-devised fa
bles in what they have written, have faithfully set
down the sayings as well as actions they record,
without making them rather congruous to the con
ditions ofthe speakers than to the laws of truth.
Nor is it only the style of very many passages of
Scripture that may be justified by our second con
sideration, but with the same distinction well ap
plied, we may. silence some of their malicious ca
vils, who accuse the Scripture of teaching vice by
the ungodly sayings and examples that are here
and there to be met with in it. But as the apostle
said, that 'they are not all Israel that are of Is
rael;'1 so may we say, that all is not Scripture
8 Rom. ix. 6.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

119

ii

that is m the Scripture : for many wicked persons
and their perveter, Satan, are there introduced,
whose sayings the Holy Ghost does not adopt, but
barely registers; nor does the Scripture affirm
that what they said was true, but that it is true
they said it. And if I had not reduced some of
these cavillers to confess that they never did them
selves read those pieces of the Bible at some of
whose passages they cavil, I should much more
admire than I do to find them father, as confidently
as they do, nil they hear cited from it upon the
enditer of it ; as if the devil's speeches were not
recorded there, and as if it were requisite to make
a history divinely inspired, that all the blasphemies
and crimes it registers should be so too. As for the
ills recorded in the Scripture, besides that wicked
persons were necessary to exercise God's children,
and illustrate his providence; and besides the alle
gations commonly made on that subject, we may
consider that there being many things to be de
clined as well as practised, it was fit we should be
taught as well what to avoid as what to imitate ;
and the known rocks and shelves do as well guide
the seamen as the pole-star. Now, as we could
not be armed against the tempter's methods, if we
ignored them ; so could we never safelier nor bet
ter learn them than in his book, who can alone
discover the wiles, and fathom the ' depths of Sa
tan,' ' and track him through all his windings and
otherwise untraceable labyrinths, and in that book
where the antidote is exhibited with the poison,
and either men's defeat or victory may teach us at
1 Rev. ii. 24.

t!

120

ON THE STXLE OF

others costs, and without our hazard, the true art
ot that warfare we are all so highly concerned in.
And as chemists observe in the book of nature, that
those simples that wear the figure or resemblance
(by them termed signature) of a distempered part,
are medicinal for that infirmity of that part whose
signature they bear; so in God's other book, the
vicious persons there mentioned still prove, under
some notion or upon some score or other, antidotal
against the vices notorious in them ; being, to pre
sent it you also in a Scripture simile, like the brazen
serpent in the wilderness, set up to cure the poison
infused by those they resemble. 'Whatsoever
things were written aforetimes,' says the apostle,
' were written for our instruction." And to make
further use of our former comparison, those to whom
the Scripture gives the names of lions, wolves, foxes,
and other brutes, by God's assistance, prove to his
saints as instructive beasts as doth the northern
bear unto the wandering pilot; and as anciently,
God fed his servant Elias sometimes by an angel,
sometimes by a woman, and sometimes too by
ravens ; so doth he make all persons in the Bible
whether good or bad or indifferent, supply his
servants with that instruction which is the aliment
of virtue and of souls, and makes them and their
examples contribute to the verification of that pas
sage of St. Paul, wherein he says that ¦ all things
co-operate for good to them that love God.'8
My third consideration is this, that the several
books of the Bible were written chiefly and pri
marily to those to whom they were first addressed,

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

121

Rom. xv. 4.

8 Ib. viii. 28.

and to their contemporaries, and that yet the Bi-'
ble, not being written for one age or people only,
but for the whole people of God, consisting of per-
,u sons of all ages, nations, sexes, complexions, and
conditions, it was fit it should be written in such
V a way as that none of all these might be quite ex
cluded from the advantages designed them in it.
Therefore were these sacred books so wisely as
well as graciously tempered, that their variety so
comprehends the several abilities and dispositions
of men, that, as some pictures seem to have their
eyes directly fixed on every one that looks on them
from what part soever of the room he eyes them,
there is scarce any frame of spirit a man can be of,
or any condition he can be in, to which some pas
sage of Scripture is not as patly applicable as if it
were meant for him, or said to him, as Nathan
once did to David, 'Thou art the man.'1 What
has been thus observed touching God's design iu
the contrivance of the Scripture, may assist us to
defend the style of a great multitude of its texts,
and particularly of divers of those which belong
to the five following kinds.
And first, the several books that make up the
canon the Scripture, being primarily designed for
their use that lived in the times wherein they were
divulged, it need be no wonder if each of them
contain many things that principally concern the
persons that then lived, and be accordingly written
in such a way, that many of its passages allude
and otherwise relate to particular times, places,
persons, customs, opinions, stories, &c. which, by
1 2 §m. sii. 7.

122

ON THE STYLE OF

our formerly-mentioned want of a good account of
such remote ages and 'regions, cannot afford us
that instruction and satisfaction that those to whom
such books were immediately addressed might
easily derive from the perusal of them.
Next, as some portions of Scripture were princi
pally designed for ages very long since past, so
some other parts of it, especially those that are
yet prophetic, may probably respect future times
much more than ours;' and our posterity may ad
mire what we cannot now relish, because we do
not yet understand it. Moreover, there being many
portions of Scripture, as almost the whole four last
books of Moses, wherein God is introduced as either
immediately or mediately giving laws to his peo
ple or his worshippers, I suppose it will not be
thought necessary that such parts of Scripture
should be eloquently written, and that the supreme
Legislator of the world, who (reckons the greatest
kings amongst his subjects, should in giving laws tie
himself to those of rhetoric, the scrupulous obser
vation of which would much derogate from those
two qualities so considerable in laws, clearness and
majesty. ¦¦.'¦.-:. Kid '..;-•;¦,
Besides, there being a sort, of men, of which I
hope the number will daily increase, who have such
a desire as St. Peter tells us the angels themselves
cherish, to look into the mysteries of religion,1 and
are qualified with elevated and comprehensive in
tellects to apprehend them in some measure, it is
not unfit that to exercise such men's abilities, and
to reward their industry, there should be some ab-
\ 1 Pet.i. 12.

/

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

123

r . V
ti i

^

r

A:

struse texts of Scripture fitted to the capacities of
such speculative wits, and above the reach of vul
gar apprehensions.
And on the other side, the omniscient Author of
the Scripture, foreseeing that it would follow, from
the condition of mankind, that the greatest part of
the members of the church would be no great
clerks, and many of them very weak or illiterate,
it was but suitable to his goodness that a great
many other passages of the books designed for
them as well as others, should be written in such
a plain and familiar way as may befit such readers,
and let them see that they were not forgotten or
overlooked by him who says, by the prophet, that
all souls are his.1 And yet in many even of these
texts which seem chiefly to have been designed
to teach the simple, scholars themselves may find
much to learn. For not only there are some pas
sages that contain milk for babes, and others that
exhibit strong meat for riper stomachs, but often
times (as cows afford both milk and beef) the same
texts that babes may suck milk from, strong men
may, find strong meat in. The Scripture itself, in
some sense fulfilling the promise made us in it,
that habenli dabitur ' to him that hath shall be
given,' and being like a fire that serves most men
but to warm and dry themselves, and dress their
meat, but serves the skilful chemist to draw quint
essences and make extracts, i ¦¦--.-- !-.••-.-
I doubt not but you are acquainted as well as I
with divers, querulous readers, who very boldly
find fault with this variety wherein God hath
thought fit to exhibit his truth and declare his will
' Ezek. xviii. 4.

/ I

124

ON THE STYLE OF

in Holy Writ, and presume to censure some texts
as too mysterious, very many as too plain. But
these exceptions at the economy of the Scrip
ture do commonly proceed from their pride that
make them ; for tbat vice inclining them to fancy
that the Bible either was or ought to have been
written purposely for them, prompts tbem to make
exceptions suitable to such a presumption; and
whilst they look upon their own abilities as the
measure of all discourses, to call all that transcends,
their apprehensions dark, and all that equals it
not, trivial. They will be always finding fault with
the Holy Ghost's expressions, both where his con
descensions make them clear, and where the sub
limity of the matter leaves them obscure ; like
bats, whose tender eyes love neither day nor night,
and are only pleased with (what is alone propor
tioned to their weak sight) a'twilight, that is both
or neither. But as a skilful fowler, (and the com
parison will be excused by those that remember
that God, in Scripture, is said to be pressed ' as
a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves,'1 and the
Son of man to be as ' a thief in the night,') ac
cording to the differing natures of his game, so
contrives and appropriates his stratagems, that
some he catches with light, as larks with day-nets ;
some with baits, as pigeons with peas ; some with
frights, as blackbirds with a sparrow-hawk or a
low-bell ; and some he draws in with company, as
ducks and such like sociable birds with decoy-
fowl : so God, knowing that some i persons must
be wrought upon by reason, others allured by
interest; some driven in by terror, and others
1 Amos, xi. 13.

in ¦

<&¦¦

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

125

again brought in by imitation, hath, by a rare
and merciful, if I may so call it, suppleness of
wisdom, so varied the heavenly doctrine into ra
tiocinations, mysteries, promises, i threats, and ex
amples, that there is not any sort of people that
in the Scripture may not find religion repre
sented in that form they are most disposed to re
ceive impressions from ; God therein graciously
dealing with his children not unlike, the prophet
that shrunk himself into the proportion of the
child he meant to revive.1 'The geniuses, the ca
pacities, and the dispositions of men, are so dis
tinct, and oftentimes so extravagant, that there is
scarce a passage of Scripture that is not suitable or
appropriate to some of those numberless differ
ences of humour the Bible was designed for, and
in that unimaginable variety of occurrences shared
amongst such vast multitudes finds not a proper
object. And therefore God who, having created
them, best knows the frame of; men's spirits, hav
ing been pleased to match them with proper texts,
I shall not quarrel with his vouchsafing to lisp
mysteries to those that would be deterred by any
other way of expressing them, and to qualify his
instruments according to the natures he designs
them to work upon, lest he should say to me, with
the householder in the gospel, ' Is thine eye evil, be
cause I am good ?' And sure it must extremely
misbecome us to repine at the greatness of God's
condescensions, only upon the score, of a know
ledge or attainments that we owe to it.
By reflecting upon the three foregoing general
1 2 Kings, iv. 34.

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ON THE STYLE OF

considerations, you will, I presume, easily perceive
what it is that is pretended to in what I represent
to you in the behalf of the style of the Scripture.
For you will easily guess by what I have hitherto
told you, I pretend not to prove or assert that
every text of Scripture, especially in translations,
is embellished with the ornaments of rhetoric, but
only to show these two things : — the one, that as
there may be drawn from divers things in the
Scripture itself (without excluding the style) con
siderable arguments of its having been written or
approved by men peculiarly assisted by the Spirit
of God ; so, if a man be persuaded either by these
intrinsic arguments (which I may in another paper
evince to be no slight ones) or by any others, of
the heavenly origination of the Scripture, if, I say;
a man be persuaded of this, he ought not in reason
by the style of these books to be kept from dili
gently studying of them, and highly valuing them ;
the other (which I add as one evincement of the
former) is, that not only the Scripture is every
where written with as much eloquence as the chief
author (whose omniscience qualified him to judge
best in the case) thought fit and expedient for his
wise ends in publishing it, but that, as we now
have the sacred books, especially in their originals,
very many passages of them are so far from being
destitute of what even our western nations count
eloquence, that they deserve to be admired for it.
And, Theophilus, if you please to keep in your eye
what I have now told you concerning my scope in
writing, and to bear in your memory the three
general considerations I have premised, I shall
need hereafter, as often as I have occasion to men-

< li. v

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127

t

tion them, only to point at them, and thereby shall
excuse you and myself from the unwelcome trouble
of many times repeating the same things.
To proceed then to the more particular objec
tions against the Scripture. The first I shall con
sider is, that it is obscure. And this I find alleged
by two sorts of men to two differing 'purposes ;
some endeavouring by it to disgrace the Bible, and
others only making the pretended darkness of many
of its passages an excuse for their not studying it.
To the first sort of objectors I answer, that it is
little less than inevitable that many passages of the
Scripture should seem obscure to us, and that it is
but fit that divers others should be so too.
For first, the objectors, as I formerly observed,
reading the Bible but in translations, are desti
tute of those helps to understand the sense of
many passages that may be afforded by skill in the
original languages. Besides, that even to those
that have taken pains to understand the original
tongues, the genuine sense of divers words and
phrases is denied by the injury df time, through
which (as was already noted) a greater part of the
Hebrew and Chaldean tongues have been lost.
Secondly, many texts appear obscure to those
that live in these latter times, only because that by
reason of the perishing of those writings and other
monuments of antiquity that were contemporary
to the books of the Old Testament, we cannot be
sufficiently acquainted with the history, the laws
and customs of the Jews and other nations men
tioned in the Scripture, so that it need be no won
der if divers passages of the Books of Genesis,
Joshua, Judges, Samuel, the Kings, Esther, and

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ON THE STYLE OF

other historical books of the Scripture, as also of
the four last books of Moses, are obscure to us,
and yet might be very intelligible to those in
whose times they were written, and for whose use
they were principally designed. As although
Lucius Floras would in many places appear very
obscure to such readers as know nothing of the
Roman affairs but by the account given of them in
his writings (whence divers late critics have been
invited to illustrate him out of other Latin authors,)
yet questionless to the Roman readers that lived in
his time, or not very long after, his book was easy
enough to be understood. How much the want of
other historians contemporary to the penmen of
the Old Testament may make things seem obscure
that might by such stories be easily cleared up, we
may observe from divers passages of the New
Testament, which can scarce be well-understood
without an account of Herod's family, and the
changes that happened about our Saviour's time in
Judea, which was sometimes all of it governed by
Herod tbe Great that massacred the children at
Bethlehem, and sometimes was governed by Pilate
and other Roman magistrates, and sometimes was
so divided that it was as to some parts only go
verned by Herod's descendants under various
titles ; the want of the knowledge of which, and of
the several princes that bore the name of Herod,
does much puzzle many readers that are strangers
to Josephus. And it seems somewhat strange
to many, that Christ should in St. Luke ad
monish his hearers to fly out of Jerusalem and
Judea, and not resort thither from the neighbouring
countries, ' when they ; should . see Jerusalem en-

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

129

compassed with armies,' ' since those armies would
probably hinder the counselled retirement, at
least as to the city. Whereas he that finds in
the story, that the Roman forces under Gratus did
on a sudden, and, as good authors tell us, without
any manifest cause withdraw from the "siege of
Jerusalem, and then return to it again, and, under
Titus, carry the town by force; he that shall read
also in Euseb. lib. iii. cap. 5, that the Christians of
Jerusalem did (divinely admonished) make use of
the opportunity presented them to quit all of
them the city and retire to Pella on the other side
of Jordan; he, I say, that shall read and take
notice of all this, will notonly clearly understand the
reasonableness of our Saviour's warning, but ad
mire the prophetic spirit by which he could give
it. And as it is difficult to collect out of the Old
Testament alone the history of those times wherein
it was written ; so it is not to be expected, that out
of those books we should be able to collect and
comprehend either complete ideas of the Israelitish
government, civil and ecclesiastical,' or the true
State of their several sects, opinions and affairs in
matters of religion: and yet without the know
ledge of those it cannot be but that many texts
will seem obscure to us, which were not at all so to
them that were eocetaneous to the penmen of those
books. The labours of some modern critics that
have put themselves to the trouble of making a
thorough search into the writings of those Jewish
rabbies that lived about our Saviour's and his
apostles' times, have by the help of this rabinical
learning already cleared up divers texts which

Luke, xxi. 21, 22.

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t I

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

131

before were dark, because they related to particular
sects, customs, sayings or opinions amongst the
then Jews, whose knowledge the writers of the
New Testament do not teach but suppose. And
I doubt not but higher and valuable attainments
in that kind of learning (how worthless soever I
should think it, if it were not conducive to the
illustration of the Scripture) will, ere it be very
long, disperse that obscurity which yet dwells upon
divers other texts, and will show the groundless
ness of all our cavils at them, as well as that of
many of our too fierce contentions about them.
I shall add, that I dare almost presume to question,
whether even our famousest critics have not left
divers Mosaieal texts in the dark, if not clouded
them by their comments, merely for want of know
ing the religion of the ancient Zabians, in opposi
tion of whose magical worship and superstitions,
I am apt to think divers ceremonies of the ritual
law of the Jews to have been institued. And yet
of those Zabiists (or D"1Y, tzabeem, as the He
brews and Arabians express the name) I find a
deep and general silence in classic authors, except
(the rabbi's oracle( Maimonides; out of whom
our great antiquary, Mr." Selden,' both in iamiliar
discourse and in his excellent tract of the Syrian
Deities, gave me first a hint, which by lighting on
another author of those parts I have since had the
luck to improve sufficiently to make me fear, that
they that are strangers to >he Zabians' rites and
creed, will scarce give us the clearest account the
theme is capable of in divers passages of the
Mosaic law : as I am apt to think that our igno
rance or want of taking notice of. the persuasions
and practices of the Gnostics, Carpocratians, and

v

the sects allied to theirs, if it do not make us mis
take and misinterpret, doth at least keep us from
giving the clearest interpretations whereof they are
capable to many passages of the New Testament,
wherein they are either clearly pointed at, or
closely related to.
Thirdly, we may reasonably suppose, that of the
texts that are now difficult unto us, there are divers
that are so but because they were principally in
tended for the use of those that shall live in after-
times, by whom they will questionless be better
understood. To the Jews that lived in and long
after Moses's time, many of those predictions, both
verbal and typical, of the Messias, seemed very
dark, which to us Christians are abundantly illus
trated by the rising of that Sun of righteousness,
who was aimed at in them. And though the mys
terious temple and city described in Ezekiel, as
also much ofthe Apocalypse and divers other pro
phetic passages of holy writ do yet seem abstruse
to us, yet they will not appear so to those to whom
their completion (the best expositor of dark pro
phecies) shall have unfolded them. For I observe,
that as some divine predictions are clearly ex
pressed, to the intent, that those that are made ac
quainted with them may beforehand know what
will happen ; so others are proposed, not so much
that those to whom they are first addressed should
know the foretold events before they come to pass,
as that, when they do come to pass, the same ac
complishment that expounds them may evince that
the foreteller of them was able to foresee them : ac
cording to that of our Saviour to his disciples, to
whom he prophesied the sufferings they should
undergo : ' These things have I told you, that when
K 2

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the time shall come ye may remember that I told
you of them.' '
Fourthly, it was fit that there should be some
obscure passages left in the inspired volume, to
keep those from the knowledge of some of those
divine mysteries, that are both delightful and
useful, though not absolutely necessary, who do
not think such knowledge worth studying for. As
it was also fit (which I partly noted above) that
there should be some clouded and mysterious texts
to excite and recompense the industry and specula
tion of elevated wits and religious inquirers.
Lastly, there are divers obscure passages in
Scripture, wherein the difficulty lies in the thing
itself that is expressed, not in the Scripture's man
ner of expressing it. For not to mention that ob-
scureness that is wont to attend prophetic raptures,
(of which there are many mentioned in Scripture,)
there are divers things that we agree to be knowable
by the bare light of nature, without revelation,
which yet are so uneasy to be satisfactorily under
stood by our imperfect intellects, that let them be
delivered in the clearest expressions men can de
vise, the notions themselves will yet appear ob
scure. Thus in natural philosophy itself, the na
ture of place and time, the origin of motion, and
the manner whereby the human soul performs her
functions, are things which no-writers delivered so
clearly, as not to leave the things somewhat ob
scure to inquisitive and examining readers. And
shall we then wonder, that those texts of Scripture
that treat of the nature and decrees of God, and of
such sublime mysteries as the trinity, the incama-,
• John, xxvi. 4.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

133

tion, the influence of the Spirit upon the soul of
man, and such other abstruse things, which it can
not be reasonably expected that human words
should keep from being hard to be comprehended
by human understandings, should be obscure to us,
especially if we suffer our not understanding their
full meaning at first to deter us from endeavouring
to find it out by further study ? I am sorry I can
add on this occasion, that divers texts are made to
appear more dark than otherwise they would, by
the glosses and interpretations of some that pretend
to expound them. For there are divers subtle men,
who being persuaded upon certain metaphysical
notions they are fond of, or by the authority of such
either churches or persons as they highly reverence,
that such or such niceties are either requisite to the
explication of this or that doctrine delivered in
Scripture, or at least deducible from it, will make
bold so to interpret dark texts (and sometimes even
clear ones) that they shall seem to hold forth not
only their own sense, but the nice speculations or
deductions of him that quotes them : so that divers
texts, which to a rational and unprepossessed pe
ruser would appear plain enough, seem to contain
inextricable difficulties to those unwary or preju-
dicate readers, who are not careful to distinguish
betwixt the plain sense of a text itself, and those
metaphysical subtleties which witty and interested
persons would father upon it, though oftentimes
those niceties are either so groundless, that though
there needs much wit to devise them, there needs but
a little reason to despise them ; or so unintelligible
as to tempt a considering man to suspect that the
proposers either mean not what they speak, or under
stand not what they say. And I could wish these

134

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THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

135

metaphysical quirks, with which several, not "only
schoolmen but other writers, have perplexed the
doctrine of predestination, of the Trinity, of the
operation of the Spirit of God upon the will of
man, and some other mysteries of Christian reli
gion, did not give advantages against those doc
trines to the opposers of them, and perhaps make
some men opposers who otherwise would not have
been so. And I fear that too great an opportunity
has been afforded to atheistical wits by the unin
telligible fancies which many have made bold to
add to what the Scripture has revealed concerning
the eternity and infiniteness of God ; for vvhilst
men indiscreetly and unskilfully twist together as
integral parts of the same doctrine a revealed truth,
with their own metaphysical speculations about it,
though these be too often such as cannot be proved,
or perhaps be so much as understood, they tempt
such examining readers as are rational enough to
discern the groundlessness of one part of the doc
trine, to reject the whole for its sake. But I fear I
have digressed : for my intention was only to inti
mate, that it is not oftentimes so much what the
Scripture says, as what some men persuade others
it says, that makes it seem obscure ; and that as to
some other passages that are; so indeed, since it is
the abstruseness of what is taught in them that
makes them almost inevitably so ; it is little less
saucy upon such a score tq find fault with the style
of the Scripture, than to do so with the Author for
making us but men. ¦> i
Thus much being said by way of answer to the
first sort of objectors of darkness against the Scrip
ture, it is easy to foresee that the second sort of
them may endeavour to . pervert what .has been

i '?¦!

i ;

delivered, to apologise for their neglect of the Scrip
ture, by alleging, that albeit what has been repre
sented may serve to show that the obscurity of the
Scripture is justifiable, yet the very proving it
needful or fit that it should be obscure, is a plain
confession that it is so. Wherefore it is requisite
that I now say something to this sort of objectors
also, who are so unfavourable to the Scripture and
themselves, as that, because they cannot understand
all of it, they will not endeavour to learn any thing
from it. I have already acknowledged it, and shall
not now deny that (as heaven itself is not all stars)
there may be parts of Scripture whose clear expo
sitions shall ennoble and bless the remotest of suc
ceeding ages, and that perhaps some mysteries are
so obscure, that they are reserved to the illumina
tion and blaze of the last and universal fire.
But here it would be considered in the first
place, that those texts that are so difficult to be
understood, are not necessary to be so. In points
fundamental and indispensably necessary, the
darkness of Scripture :is no less partial than of
Egypt, which benighted only the enemies, but in
volved not the people of God : in such articles as
these, ' If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blind
ed the minds ;' ' at least, in relation to such truths
as these, we may justly apply that of Moses, where
he tells Israel, ' This commandment which I com
mand thee this day, is not hidden from thee, nei
ther is it far off.'——' But the word is very near
, unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou
mayest do it.'1 And .surely the Bible's appro-

2 Cor. Ui. 4.

Deut xxx. 11,12,13, 14.

•> >k

136

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THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

137

priate office being, as itself tells us, ' to enlighten
the eyes, and make wise the simple;' ' and it be
ing written for the use of the whole people of God,
whereof the greater number are no clerks, things
are there expressed with an evidence proportion
able to the degree of assent that they exact, and
are as far forth intelligible to pious and industri
ous readers as they are necessary to be understood
by them ; and we may not unfitly say of the un
derstanding of those cloudy passages of Scripture,
whatl remember a father said of the sacrament,
Non privatio sed contemptus damnat, " That not the
wanting it, but the slighting it shall condemn
men." It is our duty to study them, but it is not,
always, to understand them.
And as the knowledge of those texts that are
obscure is not necessary, so those others whose
sense is necessary to be understood are easy enough
to be so ; and those are as much more numerous
than the others, as more clear. Yes, there are
shining passages enough in Scripture to light us
the way to heaven, though some unobvious stars
of that bright sphere cannot b*. discerned without
the help of a telescope. Since God then has been
pleased to provide sufficiently for our instruction,
what reason have we to repine, if we have in a
book, not designed for us alone, things provided
also for those who are fitted for higher attainments ;
especially since, if we be not wanting to ourselves,
those passages that are so obscure as to teach us
nothing else, may at least teach us humility ?
Nor does it misbecome God's goodness any more
than his wisdom, to have so tempered the canonical

V*

books, as therein to leave all sorts of readers an ex
ercise for their industry, and give even the greatest
doctors continual inducements to implore his in
structions, and depend on him for his irradiations,
by leaving amongst many passages that stoop unto
our weakness, some that may make us sensible of
it. It should, methinks, be looked upon as the
prerogative, not the disparagement of the Scrip
tures, that the revelation of his truth vouchsafed
us by God in them is like a river, wherein a lamb
may quench his thirst, and which an elephant can
not exhaust. I should think him but an ill-na
tured child who should be angry to see strong
meat provided for his elder brothers, because he
himself can yet digest nothing but milk ; and as
the same child, being grown up to riper years,
would be then troubled, that according to his first
envious wish there were no stronger aliment pro
vided in the family than milk ; so, when by the
attentive and repeated perusal of the Scripture,
a child in knowledge shall attain to some higher
measure of skill in the Scriptures, he will then be
well pleased to have his understanding exercised by
those most mysterious texts, of which he formerly
complained that they surpassed it. However, since
there are so many plain passages- of Scripture
that clearly hold forth, not only all that is neces
sary for us to know, but I fear much more than we
are careful to learn and practise, the zealous
Christian would no more decline feeding on this
heavenly food, though all the hard .places should
still remain such to him, than the Jews would
forbear to eat the paschal lamb, ' though not a
bone of it were to be broken.' l And, in earnest,

1 Psalm xix. 7, 8.

' Exod. xii. 40.

J 38

ON THE STYLE OF

would not he merit unrelieved beggary, that should
refuse the profit of a rich mine, because all those
ot the world are not yet discovered, nor those of
the Indies exhausted ?
Moreover, the pretended obscureness of the Bi
ble is a mistaken discouragement from reading it ;
for the frequency of reading it still lessens that
obscurity, which, like a mist, seems thicker at a
distance than when one enters it, and attempts a
passage through it, which in our case many pious
students have done so prosperously, as to find, by
welcome experience, that what at a distance de
terred them, was not intended to frustrate indus
try, but punish laziness.
Besides that the Scripture being avowedly the
best expositor of itself, our ignorance of those places
whose sense we seek for, makes us often occasion
ally much knowinger, and more perfect in the
meaning of all the rest ; and makes us too so much
more ready in the uses of them, that I cannot but
apply to this subject the fable of that dying hus
bandman, who, by telling his sons of a hidden
mass of wealth he had buried in a nameless place
of his vineyard, occasioned their, so sedulous delv
ing all the ground, and turning up the earth about
the roots of the vines, that they found indeed a
treasure, though not in gold, in wine : for thus out
of hope, by the light of understood Scriptures to
penetrate the sense of the obscurer ones, we occa
sionally so improve our knowledge and readiness in
the clearer passages, that our by-acquists do richly
recompense our frustrated, or rather unsucceeding,
pains; since our particular disappointments hin
der not the promotion of our general design, which
is a greater proficiency in spiritual knowledge, and
therefore ought not to deter us from the duty of

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

139

I

•;7.

those searches, in which not only to discover is
happy, but even the unsucceeding attempts are
gainful, whatever the event be ; the pains being sel
dom fruitless, but reaching either their end or re
compence. And this prompts me to represent to
you further, that not only the Scripture is instruc
tive upon the same account with other theological
writings, but that we may hope to improve our
understandings by it upon this score, that it is
also the instituted means, as well of knowledge as
of grace, and appointed for our instruction by
him who, as sin came into the world by man's
listening to the words of the devil, is pleased to
make restoring grace operate chiefly by our listen
ing to the word of God, whether heard or read.
Wherefore those whom the intuition of this en
couragement invites to be diligent perusers of the
Scripture, do to their infirm understandings, as
the inhabitants of Gennesareth did to their sick
and weak countrymen, lay them in Jesus's way,
and consequently in that of recovery.1 It is of, at
least one of tbe darkest books of the Scripture, that
it is said, ' Blessed is] he that readelb, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy.'8 The eu
nuch, in the Acts, would, though upon the high
way, needs read the prophet Isaiah ; and thoughts
appears by his question to Philip, as then he un
derstood not what he read, yet did the Spirit take
thence (perhaps a rise as well as) opportunity to
reveal Christ unto him, and both satisfy him of
the meaning of that prediction, and acquaint him
with the fresh and happy accomplishment of it.
And surely this consideration of the Bible's being

Mark, vi. 56.

8 Rev. i. 3.

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ON THE STYLE OF

one of the conduit-pipes through which God hath
appointed to convey his truth as well as graces to
his, children, should methinks both hugely animate
us to the searching of the Scriptures, and equally
refresh us in it ; for, as no instrument is weak in
an omnipotent hand, so ought no means to be
looked upon as more promising than that which
is like to be prospered by grace, as it is devised
by Omniscience. We may confidently expect
God's blessing upon his own institutions, since
we know, 'that whatsoever we ask according to
the will of God, he will give it us;'1 and we can
scarce ask any thing more agreeable to the will of
God, than the competent understanding of that
book wherein his will is contained.
The difficulty ought not to deter us from the
duty of searching the Scriptures, the difficultest
commands of God being a warrant to a believer's
confidence of being enabled acceptably, though
not exactly, to obey them; which St. Peter seems
to have known well in the theory, though he failed
in the practice, when to be enabled to walk upon
the sea, he desires only that our Saviour would
please to command him to come to him upon the
water.8 The Bible is, indeed, amongst books what
the diamond is amongst stones, the preciousest,
and the sparklingest, the most apt to scatter light,
and yet the solidest, and the most proper to make
impressions ; but were it as unsuitable to its end
as it is the contrary, I should remember, that our
Saviour could successively employ even clay and
spittle to illuminate blind eyes:3 and though I
thought the Bible to be on other accounts no more

1 J John, v. 14.

8 Matt. xi. 28.

3 John, ix. 6.

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141

than equal to other books of morality and devotion,
God's designation would make me study it more
hopefully, by minding me of that of the Syrian
leper, when he would needs have Abana and
Parphar, rivers of Damascus, likely to be as medi
cinal for his disease as Jordan, and vainly fancied
that God's appointment could not put a difference
betwixt things that knew no other.1
I know, that because ofthe intermixture of some
obscurer texts of Scripture with the clear ones,
there are divers well-meaning, and even devout
persons that leave the study of it for that of other
books of religion, which, by leaving out all such
difficulter matters seem to promise more of instruc
tion : but notwithstanding this, I shall not much
scruple to affirm, that as the moon, for all those
darker parts we call her spots, gives us a much
greater light than the stars that seem all luminous ;
so will the Scripture, for all its obscure passages,
afford the Christian and divine more light than
the brightest human authors.
To dispatch, since the Scripture is both a natu
rally proper, and an instituted instrument to con
vey revealed knowledge to the studiers of it;
and in it many clear passages may instruct ordi
nary capacities, and its darker ones may either
recompense more inquisitive wits or humble them ;
I see not, why the obscureness of a small part of
it should deter any sort of pious persons from the
perusal of the whole. And as the Word of God
is termed a light,8 so hath it this property of what
it is called, that both the plainest rustics may, if
they will not wilfully shut their eyes, by the benefit

2 Kings, v. 12. 8 Psal. cxix. 105; and Prcv. vi. 23.

142

ON THE STYLE OF

of its light direct their steps, and the deepest phi
losophers may be exercised, if not posed and daz
zled with its abstruser mysteries. . For thus in the
Scripture the ignorant may learn all requisite
knowledge, and the most knowing may learn to
discern their ignorance.THE SECOND OBJECTION.
To proceed now to the second objection against
the style of Scripture : the seemingly disjointed
method of that book is by many much cavilled at ;
to which, were the supposal a truth, I might reply,
that the book of grace doth but therein resemble
the book of nature, wherein the stars (however
astronomers have been pleased to form their con
stellations) are not more nicely or methodically
placed than the passages of Scripture :.' that where
there is nothing but choice flowers, in what order
soever you find them, they will make a good posy :
that it became not the majesty of God to suffer
himself to be fettered to human laws of method,
which, devised only for our own narrow and low
conceptions, would sometimes be improper for and
injurious to his, who may well say, as he doth in
the prophet, that his thoughts are so far from bein°-
ours, that ' As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are his thoughts higher than our
thoughts:1 that as a mixture of ambergris and
musk is more redolent than the single ingredients ;
and as in compound medicines, (as mithridate and
treacle,) the mixture gives the electuary a higher
virtue than the severed drugs possessed ; so often-
1 Isa. Iv. 8,9.

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143

j

V f

times in morality and divinity, a complication of
precept and example, of rhetoric and mystery, may
operate better than their distinction would. And
sure we should judge that man a very captious crea
ture, that should take exception at a proffered sum
only because the half-crowns, shillings, and six
pences were not sorted in distinct heaps, but huddled
into one. This, I say, with much more, might be re
presented, were the Scripture series as destitute of
method, as is pretended : but the truth is, that the
method though it be not pedantically nice, is
proper and excellent; if the goodness of a method
be to be judged less by the order of the sections
than its being in order to the author's end, and
never swerved from but upon sufficient ground, or
for some mysterious purpose : the laws of order in
the Scripture being rarely declined, but as the laws
of nature are in the world, for man's instruction.
The historical dislocations have their particular
reasons, and, for the most part are accounted for
by judicious expositors : and as for the frequent,
and sometimes long, digressions, excepted ao-ainst
m the Epistles of St, Paul, were he a bare human
writer, I should possibly attribute his frequent ex
cursions to his fulness upon all subjects, not his
want of skill to prosecute any one, and compare
his pen to those generous horses, who, though
never so well managed, will ever be jetting out
on this or that side of the path, not out of undis-
ciplinedness, but purely out of mettle: but looking
upon St. Paul under another notion, I shall rather
choose to tell you, that as rivers are said to run to
the sea, though oftentimes the interposition of
hard or rising grounds or other obstacles, force
them to such winding meanders, that they seem to

*H

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retreat from the ocean they tend to ; which never
theless with increased streams they afterwards bend
again their intermitted course to, having watered
and fertilized by their passage the grounds through
which they seemed to wander; so our apostle,
though he direct his discourse to his main scope,
may not only without declining it, but in order
to it, for in some cases the wisdom of the proverb
will inform us, that the longest way about is the
nearest way home, seem for awhile to abandon it,
by fetching a compass to answer some obvious or
anticipate some tacit objection, and afterwards
more prosperously resume his former considera
tions, now strengthened by the defeat of the inter
posing scruples, having, by the by, happily illus
trated and enriched those subjects which his inci
dental excursions led him occasionally to handle.
I must add, that in St. Paul's, as in the rest of the
inspired writings, the mere want of heeding' the
Holy Ghost's way of writing, makes the method
appear to us at a very great disadvantage. For
in the historical part of Scripture, when the
order of time is interrupted, those irpodv^epa, 7rpoX//-
\jsEte and ETnivoSoi, and such dislocations, are used
oftentimes only to comply with the connexion of
the matter; and either dispatch all that belongs to
the same long narrative at once, or else to join pas
sages allied in some other circumstance, though
severed in that of time ; and sometimes too, things
are inserted which do not readily seem pertinent to
the series of the discourse, but are extremely .so to
some scope of the author, and afford much light
and excellent hints to the reader. Sometimes the
coherence, where it appears defective, may be very
well made out by rendering Hebrew verbs (and

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

145

some Greek aorists) in a preterpluperfect sense
instead of a perfect ; or by some such other gram
matical variation of the words, as all that under
stand Hebrew well know to be allowed by the pro
priety ofthat tongue, which ignores divers moods
and tenses, &c. of our western languages. Some
times that which seems incoherent to a discourse,
serves really to prevent a foreseen (though perhaps
not always obvious) probability of misapplication
of it; and so must not be judged impertinent to a
doctrine which it hinders from being either scru
pled at or abused. Sometimes the prophets, in the
midst of the mention of particular mercies pro
mised to, or judgments denounced ' against the
people of God, sally out into pathetical excursions
relating to the Messias, which seem extremely ab
rupt and incoherent with the rest, to them that
consider not how seasonable the mention of Christ
may be, both in the mention ofthe mercies of God, of
which he is the foundation and pinnacle, the ground
and consummation, (and the promise made of him,
taught the faithful to reason thus with his apostle :
' He that spared not his own Son, but delivered
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things ?") and amidst the threats
of the judgments of God, in which he was his peo-
pie's grand consolation. Sometimes 6 Sita^aXoe
the teacher, that bishop of our souls, 8 who was in the
supreme degree of perfection, which St. Paul re
quired of a bishop, Sib-aKTiKis, both fit and forward
to teach/ takes a rise from any invitation, either of
a word, expression, or theme, though belonging to
1 Rom. viii. 32. 82Pet.ii.25
3 1 Tim. iii. 2. L

146

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ON THE STYLE OF

his own first subject, to give further instructions, by
digressing a little to that occasional and inter
vening theme ; which however it related to his
matter, suited very well with his merciful inclina
tions to instruct dim mortals. Sometimes, ' nay
oftentimes, the inspired discoursers seem to say
things, not only incoherent, but contradictory ;
(as is very remarkable in divers of St. Paul's epis
tles, where he seems to praise and dispraise the
same persons ;) whereas addressing themselves to
mixed assemblies, wherein (as Noah and Ham in
the ark, and the tares and the wheat in agro domi-
nico) there were both good and bad men, heretics,
especially Gnostics, and orthodox Christians, they
only so wisely dispensed and tempered their dis
course, that both these sorts of persons might find
something in what was in general terms delivered,
to appropriate to themselves in particular, which
application was necessarily left to their own con
sciences, to make.! | ' Sometimes the order is in
Scripture much disturbed or injured by the omis
sion or misplacing of a parenthesis. For there not
being any in the Hebrew copies, nor (as it is
thought) in the original Greek ones, the publishers
of the several editions of the Bible, have placed
parentheses as they have judged most convenient;
some including in, them what others leave out of
them ; and some making long ones where others
make none at all ; and perhaps none of them have
been so happy as to leave, no room for alterations
that may deserve the title of corrections and amend
ments. And sometimes too, the seeming immetho-
dicalness ofthe New Testament, (not to determine
any thing of the antiquity, which is certainly

t

V

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

147

great, and the authority of the accents and parti
tion of the Old Testament, because amongst very
able critics adhuc sub judice lis est) is due to the
inconvenient distinction of chapters and verses
now in use ; which though it be a very great help
to the memory, and be some other ways service
able, yet being of no greater antiquity than its
contriver, Stephanus, and being (though now of
general use) but of private authority, and by him
drawn up in haste, it will be perhaps no slander to
that industrious promoter of heavenly learning, to
say, he hath sometimes severed matters that should
have been, left united, and united others which
more conveniently he might have severed, and that
his lucky attempt ought not to lay any restraint
upon other learned men, from making use of the
same liberty he took in altering the former parti
tions (for of them I speak, not of the punctuation)
of the New Testament, in altering his alterations
to the best advantage ofthe sense or method. The
analytical works of some (I wish I could say many)
judicious expositors and divine's upon the Scrip
ture, may sufficiently manifest its being generally
reducible enough to a perspicuous order; and that
it conforms to the known laws of method, where its
diviner one doth not transcend them. And it were
not impossible for me to give divers instances to
manifest, that as the i north star, though it be less
luminous than many others, yet, by reason of its
position, doth better guide the pilot than even the
moon herself: so are there some texts in Scripture
which, though less conspicuous in themselves, are,
by reason of their relation to a context, more in
structive than other more radiant passages, to
l2

148

ON THE STYLE OF

which these would be much inferior, if they were
not as well considerable for their being there as
such. THE THIRD OBJECTION.
Allied to their objection who find/ault with the
Scripture for being immethodical, is theirs who
would fain persuade us, that it is seldom coherent,
and scarce any where discursive. And I have ob
served with trouble, that even some pious readers
are easily tempted to look upon the Bible as
barely a repository of sentences and clauses, where
divine truths lie huddled, and not ranged, and are
too ready to apply to its texts the title Nero gave
Seneca's style, of arena sine calce : " sand; without
lime." Whereas an intelligent and attentive pe-
juser may clearly enough discern, ,both that the
prophets and apostles do make frequent deductions
and inferences, and that their arguments, though
not cast into mood and figure, are oftentimes -Rs
cogent as theirs that use to make syllogisms in
Barbara. I frequently entertain myself with both
those authors, and yet methinks St. Paul reasons
as solidly and as acutely as Aristotle : and cer
tainly, according to David's logic, ' He that planted
the ear, shall he not hear ? he that framed the eye,
shall he not see ? he that teacheth man knowledge,
shall not he know ?" — the first and grand Author
of reason should as well know how to manage and
disclose that faculty, as they that possess it but by
participation, and glister so but with some ,few

1 Psalm xeiv. 7, 10.

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149

condescending beams, vouchsafed by that bright
sun, who is indeed the ' Father of lights, from
which each good and perfect gift descends.'1 But
on this occasion to point at a few particulars, I
consider, 1. That some ratiocinations of Scriptures remain
undiscerned or misunderstood, because of our un-
acquaintedness with the figurative, and oftentimes,
abrupt way of arguing usual amongst the eastern
people, who in their arguments used to leave much
to the discretion and collection of those they dealt
with, and discoursed at a wide distance from the
logical forms of our European schools, as to per
sons versed in their writings cannot but be noto
rious. 2. That the seeming incoherency of many ratio
cinations proceeds purely from the misrendering of
the original particles, especially of the Hebrew
conjunction copulative vau, or vaf, (as it is diversely
pronounced by the Jews, of whom I shall here ad
vertise you once for all, that they have confessed to
me, they differ in pronouncing Hebrew, not only
from the Christians, but exceedingly from one ano
ther,) for there is hardly any of those particles that
hath not, besides the obvious, various other signifi
cations, of which, if that were skilfully and freely in
every text taken up that would there afford the best
sense, the Scripture would, I am confident, appear
much morecoherentand argumentative than transla
tions or expositors are wont to make it: and though I
did but consider how many thousand times the
particle vaf is used in the Scripture, and that it doth
not only (though it do primarily) signify "and,"

1 James, i. 17.

150

ON THE STYLE OF

but hath also (I speak within compass) four or five
and twenty other significations (as "that," "but,"
" or," " so]" " when," " therefore," " yet," " then,"
" because," " now," " as," " though," &c. and that
the sense only gives it this great diversity of accep
tations ; I cannot but think that if we always al
lowed ourselves an equal freedom in rendering it,
where the motive (which is the exigency or conve-
niency of the sense) is the same, the dexterous use
and rendering of that one particle, would make no
small number of texts both better understood and
more esteemed.
3. That sometimes, (especially in Solomon's and
St. Paul's writings,) in many passages so penned
as to contain (like Seneca's) a tacit kind of dia
logue, that is unskilfully by readers, and even in
terpreters, taken for an argument or an assertion
which is indeed an objection. And that such a
mistake must mightily discompose the contexture
of a discourse, even a raw logician need not be
told. 4. That the omission or misplacing of paren
theses (which the Hebrew text altogether wanting,
interpreters have supplied and used at their own
discretion) makes the Scripture oftentimes appear
less discursive, as well as (what we elsewhere com
plain of) less methodical. And the like may be
said of the points of interrogation. For whether it
be true or no what the critics esteem, that in the
original Greek copies of the New Testament there
were no such points, (as indeed I have found them
wanting in the ancientest manuscripts I have seen,)
it is certain that in our modern copies, both Greek
and translated, the authors of several editions have
variously placed them as themselves thought fit ;

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

151

and though instead of the interrogative point, the
Hebrews make use of their interrogative he ; yet that
the sense of the words, and a certain supposed mo
dulation, do oftentimes make an interrogation
where that he is wanting, an Hebrician can scarcely
ignore, no more than a logician, that the interro
gation is not always supplied to the best advantage
of the Scripture's logic.
5. That the apostles and other inspired discour
sers in the Bible, divers times use arguments, not
to convince opposers, but to confirm believers:
for the persons they reason with being such, often
times, as esteem them teachers sent from God,
upon whose score all they teach exacts belief, they
may without irrationality use arguments to confirm
in their doctrine men already acquiescing in the
principles of it, and persuaded of their integrity,
sufficiency, and authority, that it would be impro
per to urge against a refractory disbeliever, that is
convinced of none of these. And as masters often
use in instructing their scholars, arguments they
would forbear to insist on against a professed anta
gonist; so the apostles, dealing with those that
thought them inspired teachers, and fully instructed
in the mysteries of Scripture and the designed dis
pensations of God, might justly draw inferences
not to be urged against an infidel, from a doctrine
first delivered by themselves, or from a text or pas
sage wherein those they reasoned with justly sup
posed they might know more of the mind and
counsel of God than other men, and would teach
nothing as such that was not so.
6. That arguments exquisite and (as artists term
them) apodictical had been oftentimes less proper
in discourses, which being addressed to popular

It 1.

1S2

ON THE STYLE OF

auditories, required rather popular arguments ;
which the inspired discoursers employ, but as
likely to be better understood, and more preva
lent than those which are so logical that they re
quire logicians to relish them. Where teaching
and persuading is the design, not only the native
cogency of a ratiocination is to be considered, but
its proportion to their spirits it is addressed to, and
its aptitude to work upon them. For as a spider
will catch flies better than a hawk can, as a cat is
more fit to destroy mice than a greyhound, though
this be stronger and swifter ; and as the crowing
of a cock will (according to famous naturalists)
sooner fright a lion than the bellowing of a bull,
though the latter be much the more terrifying
noise, and proceed from the more formidable ani
mal ; so oftentimes weaker and popular arguments
succeed better with a resembling auditory than the
irrefragablest syllogisms.
7. That divers Scripture arguments do not logi
cally and cogently prove the thing they would per
suade, merely because they were meant only for what
logicians call argumenta ad hominem ; (reasonings
designed not so properly to demonstrate the opi
nion they contend for, irrelatively and abstractedly
considered, as to convince of the truth of that opi
nion the persons they are addressed to;) and conse
quently the inspired discoursers arguing e concessis,
from principles conceded and confessed by those
they reason with, though the principles should be
unsolid, the ratiocination is not. Thus there are
divers texts of the Old Testament applied to Christ
in the New, which, though they did not now inevi
tably conclude against the present Jews, were with
out any illogicalness employed against their ances-

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

153

I

tors, because then the relation of those passages to
the Messias was so acknowledged, that there
needed but the pertinent applications made of
them in the New Testament ; whereas the refrac
toriness of the succeeding Jews hath taught them
to devise so many sophistical evasions to elude the
-texts we speak of, that they now dispute not only
the application of them, but the explication too.
St. Jude argues with ihe rodomonts of his time,
out of the story of the archangels' and the devil's
contest about the body of Moses ; and though per
haps that story be (like the Jewish book whence it
seems not improbable it was taken) somewhat apo
cryphal, yet as long as they reverenced it, it was
not irrational in him to urge them with it, and em
ploy it to the redargution of their insolence. And
as although there be nothing less solid and more
fickle than the wind, yet the skilful pilot diligently
observes it, and makes it drive on his ship more
forcibly than the powerfulest and best contrived
engines in the world could : so though there be
scarce any thing more groundless and unstable
than popular opinions and persuasions, yet a wise
teacher neglects them not, and may sometimes
make such use of them, as to draw thence argu
ments more operative than the accuratest syllo
gisms logic could devise. And indeed the most
convincing proofs of assertions being ever afforded
by the mediums wherein both parties agree, not
only Socrates in Plato's Dialogues, but dexterous
discoursers generally have often elected the drawing
of inferences from the opinions and concessions of
those they dealt with, as the most persuasive and
successful way of arguing, to all which I shall
add,

/ %

154

ON' THE STYLE OF

8. That another thing which very generally
keeps men from discerning the reasonings, and
consequently oftentimes the reasonableness and
true sense, of Scripture texts is, tho shyness of
divines to let the context and the speaker's scope
regulate their choice amongst all the various,
though not equally obvious, significations of am
biguous words and phrases. It is not that, as far
as I have observed, men almost of ail religions'
are not wont to make bold with, and perhaps for a
need to strain or wrest, phrases and words of Scrip
ture, when the giving them less usual notions may
fit them to serve their turns ; but the mischief is,
that they decline the commonest acceptations, but
to make the texts they quit them in symphonise
with their tenets, not with their neighbouring
texts. It were, methinks, impartialler, if the fre
quenter meaning of an expression be to be waved,
as oftentimes it must, for one less current, to
do this to make the Scripture coherent or discur
sive : and then, for our opinions, rather to conform
them to the sense of the Scripture than wrest the
words of Scripture to them. But perhaps this im
partiality would silence too many of our clamor
ous' controversies^ by' showing some to be ground
less and others undeterminable, to be likely to take
place in the heated spirits of men ; some of whom,
I fear, whilst their feuds and fierceness last, would
be willinger to have the texts of Scripture loose
stones, which they may more easily throw at their
adversaries, than built up into a structure, wherein
they must lose that convenience, (it being difficult
to pluck stones out of a building,) though reason
herself were the architect.' -r
But to leave these eager disputants to their ani-

i

i ;

to
u I
' I '¦ t

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

lC'O

mosities, we shall again repeat, that the Bible loses
much by not being considered as a system. For
though many other books are comparable to cloth,
in which by a small pattern we may safely judge
of the whole piece, yet the Bible is like a fair suit
of arras, of wliich though a shred may assure you
of the fineness of the colours and richness of the
stuff, yet the hangings never appear to their true
advantage, but when they are displayed to then-
full dimensions, and seen together.
These things, Theophilus, among many others,
may be represented on the behalf of the Scripture,
against those who will needs censure it as a collec
tion, not to say a heap, of immethodical and inco
herent passages. But lest you should suspect me
of partiality, I shall ingenuously confess to you,
that there are some things in the economy of
Scripture, that do somewhat distress my reason to
find a satisfactory account of; and that there are
very few things wherein my curiosity is more con
cerned, and would more welcome a resolution
in. But when I remember how many things I
once thought incoherent, in which I now think
I discern a close, though mystic, connexion ; when
I reflect on the Author and the ends of the Scrip
ture, and when I allow myself to imagine how ex
quisite a symmetry, though as yet undiscerned by
me, Omniscience doth, and after ages probably will
discover in the Scriptures' method, in spite of those
seeming discomposures that now puzzle me ; when
I think upon all this, I say, I think it just to check
my forward thoughts, that would either presume
to know all the recluse ends of Omniscience, or
peremptorily judge of the fitness of means to ends
unknown; and am reduced to think that economy

156

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

157

the wisest, that is chosen by a wisdom so bound
less that it can at once survey all expedients, and
so unbiassed that it hath no interest to choose any
but for its being fittest. I shall annex, that I think
those must derogate hugely from the Scripture,
who only consider the sense of the particular
sections, or even books of it : for, I conceive that,
as in a lovely face, though the eye, the nose,
the lips, and the other parts singly looked on may
beget delight and deserve praise, yet the whole
face must necessarily lose much by not being seen
all together ; so, though the severed leaves and por
tions of Scripture do irrelatively and in themselves
sufficiently betray and evidence their own heavenly
extraction, yet he that shall attentively survey that
whole body of canonical writings we now call the
Bible, and shall judiciously in their system com
pare and confer them to each other, may discern
upon the whole matter so admirable a contexture
and disposition, as may manifest that book to be
the work of the same wisdom that so accurately
composed the book of nature, and so divinely con
trived this vast fabric of the world. The books of
Scripture illustrate and expound each other ; Ge
nesis and the Apocalypse are in some things reci
procal commentaries ; as in trigonometry the dis-
tantest side and angle use best to help us to the
knowledge one of the other; and as in the
mariner's compass, the needle's extremity, though
it seem to point purposely but at the north, doth
yet at the same time discover both east and west,
as distant as they are from it, and from each
other : so do some texts of Scripture guide us to
the intelligence of others, from which they are
widely distant in the Bible, and seem so in the sense.

4

It is as high as pious a satisfaction to observe how
the sacred penmen supply each other's omissions,
(as is very observable in the four Evangelist's men
tion ofthe genealogy of Christ,) according to God's
degrees and seasons in dispensing the knowledge
of his truths and mysteries in the several ages of
the church ; (to which he at first vouchsafed ' but
a light shining in a dark place until the day
dawn,'1 and to which these mutual irradiations and
secret references persuade, that all these reputed
authors had their pens guided by an omniscient
hand, and were but the several secretaries of the
same enditer,) and to find in writers severed by so
many ages and regions, : a" harmony whose disso
nances serve but to manifest the sincerity and un-
conspiringness ofthe writers. And truly for my part
I am professedly enough an impartialist, not to
stick to confess to you, Theophilus, that I read
the Bible and the learnedest expositors on it, with
somewhat particular aims and dispositions. For
besides that I come not to them with a crowd of
articles which I am there resolved to find or make
arguments to defend, with the overthrow of all
antagonists, esteeming it less safe to carry my opi
nions to the Scriptures than to take them up
there : besides this, I say, though I neglect not
those clear passages or arguments that may esta
blish the doctrine of that church I most adhere to,
yet I am much less busied and concerned to col
lect those subtle glosses or inferences that can but
enable me to serve one subdivision of Christians
against another, than heedfully to make such ob
servations, as may solidly justify to my own
1 2 Pet. i. 19,

158

ON THE STYLE OF

thoughts, and improve in them, a reverence for the
Scripture itself, and Christianity in general : such
observations as may disclose to me in the Bible,
and the grand articles clearly delivered in it, a
majesty and an excellency becoming God himself,
and transcending any other author ; and such ob
servations, (to dispatch,) as may unveil to me in the
Scripture, and what it treats of, that iroXurro/ctXoe
irafia r5 Ge3, 'manifold wisdom of God,'1 which
even the angels learn by the church. These are,
I confess, the things, , as to speculative divinity,-
that I gladliest meet with, and take the heedfullest
notice of, in the writings of divines, of whatsoever
religion, that owns the Scripture, — for in this I am
almost equally gratified by the abler expositors of
all dissenting sects ; — for I can scarce think any
pains mispent that brings me in solid evidences of
that great truth, that the Scripture is the Word of
God, which , is, indeed, the : grand fundamental ;
all other articles generally thought so, being, if
truths, better deducible , from this one, than' this
from any of them. . And I use the Scripture, not
as an arsenal, to be resorted to only for arms and
weapons to defend this party, or defeat its enemies,
but as a matchless temple, where I delight to be,
to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the
magnificence of the structure, and to increase my
awe and excite my devotion to the Deity : there
preached and adored.,,. ;,.- , ..;,. ¦,.-. ';
, , THE FOURTH OBJECTION,, , _',, .'.,.,
¦¦ The apostle of the Gentiles teaching us that the
whole Scripture, for so I should rather English the

L
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KH

\ I)

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159

f>

Xiaaa. ypafa), is Scoirvevzos, ' divinely inspired, and
is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correc
tion, for instruction in righteousness; that the man
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works;'1 and the apostle ofthe circumci
sion assuring us that, 'Prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;'8
we are not to believe that so divine an enditer, by
secretaries, most of them conspicuous by the gifts
of prophecy or miracles, would solemnly publish to
the world and for his church, any thing that ought
indeed to be ', accounted impertinent or useless.
And yet of these qualities, some persons, more bold
than learned- and considerate, are pleased to im
peach many passages of Scripture. But truly that
God who was so precisely exact in the dimensions,
proportions, and all other circumstances of the an
cient tabernacle, though it were but a typical and
temporary structure, ought to be supposed at least
as careful to let nothing superfluous intrude into
those volumes, which • being consigned to the
church for the perpetual use and instruction of it,
must contain nothing unconducive to those designs,
the least text in it being as contributory to the com
pleting of the Bible, as every loop or pin was to the
perfection of the tabernacle. God, by so great a
condescension to the weakness of our capacities
and memories, as the withholding from the canon
so many writings of Solomon, and so many of the
oracles and miracles of our Saviour ; and by so
strangely preserving the whole Scripture, (for the
books pretended : to be lost, though written by

Ephes.iii. 10.

2 Tim. iii. 15, 16.

8 2 Pet. i. 21.

ICO

ON THE STYLE OF

never so holy men, are either in our Bibles extant
under other names, or cannot be demonstrated to
have ever been canonical ; that is, entrusted with
the church as the infallible rule of faith and life,)
does, methinks, abundantly evince his design of in-
chasing nothing there that hath no tendency to his
people's instruction. Were not my discourse con
fined by my occasions and tbe fear of distressing
your patience, to somewhat narrow limits, I could
easily by several instances of texts, seemingly use
less, show how much men have been mistaken in
imagining them such. Many passages that at the
first or second reading I could find or guess no
uses of, at the third or fourth I have discovered so
pregnant in them, that I almost equally admired
the richness of those texts, and my not discerning
it sooner. A superficial and cursory perusal pre
sents us many things as trivial or superfluous,
which a perspicacious reflection discloses to be
mysterious. And of so precious a quality is the
knowledge of Scripture, that no one part of it
ought to be esteemed useless, if it may but facili
tate or improve the understanding of any other :
divine truths being of that worth, that the know
ledge and acquist of a few of them as much
outvalues a greater knowledge of other things, as a
jeweller's skill and stock is preferred before a ma
son's. And I consider here, that as the Bible was
not written for any one particular time or people,
but for the whole church militant diffused through
all nations and ages ; as many passages (as those
opposed to the Zabian's magical rites) have at first
been necessary for the Jews, which lose the degree,
at least, ofthat quality for us; so there are many
others very useful which will not perhaps be found

'*¦!'

I

V

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161

so these many ages ; being possibly reserved, by
the prophetic Spirit that endited them, (and whose
omniscience comprises and unites in one prospect
all times and all events,) to quell some future fore
seen heresy, which will not perhaps be born till
we be dead, or resolve some yet unformed doubt,
or confound some error that hath not yet a name :
so that all the parts of Scripture are useful in
some ages, and some in all. We read in the
gospel, that at the first institution ofthe eucharist, it
was expressly said to the disciples concerning the
sacramental wine, ' Drink ye all of it,' ' whereas
upon the exhibition of the bread the particle 'all'
is omitted.8 This difference, it is like, the primi
tive Christians marvelled at, and discerning no
reason for it, might be tempted to think the pas
sage useless or superfluous ; but we that live in an
age wherein the cup is denied to much the greater
part of the communicants, are invited not only to
absolve the recording of this particularity, but to
admire it. "The ceremonial law, with all its mystic
rites, (which, like the manger to the shepherds,
holds forth, wrapped in his swathing-clothes, the
infant Jesus,3) to many that bestow the reading on
it, seems scarce worth it ; yet what use the apostles
made of it with the Jews, and how necessary the
knowledge of it is yet to us, in our controversies
with them, he that is any thing versed in them
cannot ignore. And let me tell you, Theophilus,
that those fundamental controversies are both more
necessary and more worthy a wise man's study,
than most of those comparatively trifling ones that
1 Math. xxvi. 27. 8 Mark, xiv. 23.
3 Luke, ii. M

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ON THE STYLE OF

at present so miserably" (not to say causelessly) dis
tract Christendom. How many passages of the
prophets, by lazy readers, are thought to have
no use, which, as the star did the wise men,1 lead
the attentive considerers to Christ; and so loudly
and harmoniously, together with Moses's typic
shades, utter those words of the Baptist, ' Behold
the Lamb of God tbat taketh away the sins of the
world,'8 that I meet with numerous passages in the
New Testament, to which I cannot but apply what
St. Matthew notes upon his narrative of our Sa
viour's apprehension, ' All this was done that the
Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled;'3 or
rather, now all this was so done that they were ful
filled ; (for so oftentimes the context commands us
to render the ha in these citations;) and which
recal to my mind the history of the transfigura
tion ; for as there the apostles at first saw Moses
and Elias talking with Jesus, but at the second
view (when the cloud was withdrawn, and he had
spoken to them) 'saw none but Jesus only;'4 so
such passages as I am speaking of, in the law, the
prophets, and the gospel, at first survey appear
very distinct things, but upon a second inspection,
and the access of more light from an attentive col
lation of things, they do all, as it were, vanish into
Christ; 'of whom (to use an apostle's terms)
Moses in the law, and the prophets did write ; *
and at whom those types and those predictions
pointed. Those instances of the Old Testament, ot
the confused or dislocated mention of known pedi
grees and stories, were possibly useless, and even

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

163

Matt ii. 8 John, »• 29.
* Matt. xvii. 3, 8,

3 Matt. xxvi. 66.
6 John, i. 55.

troublesome to the ancient Jews, but serve us ex
tremely to silence the cavils of the modern ones,
when they would invalidate the New Testament's
authority ; because in St. Stephen's narrative, and
some of the Evangelist's genealogies, the Holy
Ghost is pleased to employ in the New Testament
that obscure strain he had often used in the Old :
and sure as insultingly as the Jews use to urge
against us objections of that nature, I could readily
retaliate and repay them in the same coin, were
there no common enemy that might be advantaged
by our quarrel, and employ either's arguments
against both. And as there are divers prophetical
passages in the Revelation, which 'we know as little
the use as meaning of, which yet doubtlessly our
posterity will not find barren, when once the ac
complishment shall have proved the expositor of
those predictions, whose event will (if it do no
thing else) attest the omniscience of their inspirer :
so possibly, of many Mosaic constitutions, whereof
we Christians find excellent uses, most of the old
Jews scarce knew any ; at least my conversation
with our modern rabbies shows me that they,
whilst they obstinately decline referring them to
the Messias, can scarce make any more of the in
spired and mysterious laws of Moses (except those
that relate to the Zabian superstition ; with which,
too, most of their doctors are as unacquainted as
ours) than the Egyptians or Gymnosophists could
of their sacrifices and other ritual devotions.
It is not that I think all the books tbat consti
tute the Bible, of equal necessity or equal useful
ness, because they are of equal extraction ; or that
I esteem tbe church would lose as much in the
prophecy of Nahum, as that of Isaiah ; or in the
M 2

164

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0N THE STYLE OF

Book of Ruth, as in the Epistle to the Romans, or
the Gospel of John ; as the fixed stars themselves,
though ofthe same heaven, are not all of the same
magnitude and lustre : but I esteem all the consti
tuent books of Scripture necessary to the canon of
it ; as two" eyes, two ears, and the rest of the mem
bers are all necessary to the body ; without divers
of which it may be, but not be so perfect, and
which are all of great, though not of equal useful
ness. And perhaps it might without too much
hyperbole be said yet further ; that as amongst the
stars that shine in tho firmament, though there be
a disparity of greatness compared to one another,
yet they are all of them lucid and celestial bodies,
and the least of them far vaster than any thing on
earth ; so of the two Testaments that compose the
Bible, though there may be some disparity in re
lation to themselves, yet are they both, heavenly
and instructive volumes, and inestimably out
valuing any the earth affords, or human pens ever
traced. And I must add, that as mineralists ob
serve, that rich mines are wont to lie hid in those
grounds whose surface bears no fruit-trees, (too
much maligned by the arsenical and resembling
fumes,) nor is well stored with useful plants or
verdure, as if God would endear those ill-favoured
lands by giving tbem great portions; so divers
passages of Holy Writ/ which appear barren, and
unpromising to our first survey, and hold not ob
viously forth instructions or promises, being by a
sedulous artist searched into, (and the original
word Iptvvav, used in that text of ' search the
Scriptures,'1 does properly enough signify the
1 Jqhn v. 39.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

165

searching for hid treasure,) afford out of their pene
trated bowels, rich and precious mysteries of
divinity. THE FIFTH OBJECTION.
The next thing imputed to the Scripture is, that
it contains niany things trivial or impertinent:
and it is not impossible, but that some things may
seem so, though they are not : of this sort are dis
jointed speeches and abrupt transitions observed
in many of our Saviour's discourses ; in which also
we sometimes read him to have answered, without
being asked the question, (though that be otherwise
salvable by a critic,) and sometimes to have an
swered to a quite other question than that he was
asked. But this is not to bethought an absurdity,
but an excellency in the replies of Christ, who
possessing the prerogative of discerning hearts,
did preach after that rate : his oratory took a
shorter way than ours can follow it in : he prose
cuted his designs by altering his discourses, and
wisely measured the fitness of his heavenly ser
mons, by their relation to his end, not his theme.
For as he knew his hearers' thoughts, he addressed
himself to them, and reaching them in their ear
liest formation, and as it were, their first cradle,
before they had leisure to pass into the tongue, he
not more convinced his auditory by answering
their thoughts, than by thus manifesting that he
knew them. Of his so much undervalued para
bles, some, if not most, do, like those oysters that
besides the meat they afford us, contain pearls,
not only include excellent moralities, but comprise
important prophecies. The parable of the preg-

166

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

167

nant grain of mustard-seed that so suddenly grew
to so large a plant, was a now fulfilled predic
tion of the admirably swift progress of the Gospel, '
which from despicable beginnings, soon prospered
to a height that rendered it almost as fit an object
for wonder as for faith. That other parable of the
treacherous husbandmen, clearly foretold Christ's
death by the Jews' malice, and their destruction
for it.8 And I despair not to see unheeded pro
phecies disclosed in others of them, especially
being informed that there is a critic, Monsieur A.B.
now at work upon a design of manifesting many
otherwise interpreted passages of the New Tes
tament to be prophecies, of whom no less than the
famousest of the modern rabbies, Menasse Ben-
Israel, (one time I made him a visit at his own
house in Amsterdam,) gave me this character, that
he took him for the ablest person of the Christians.
Those historical circumstances quarrelled with in
Christ's parables are like the feathers that wing
our arrows, which though they pierce not like the
head, but seem slight things, and of a differing
matter from the rest, are yet requisite to make the
shaft to pierce, and do both convey it to and pene
trate the mark. But nothing is thought more im
pertinent in Scripture than the frequent repetitions.
But the learned need not to be told, that many
things seem to the ignorant bare repetitions, which
yet ever bring along with them some light or some
accession : in that comparable to the stars, which
as like as they seem to vulgar gazers, are by the
skilful astrologer taught to contain, under that

Matt. xiii. 31, 32.

8 Matt. xxi. 33.

,v

colour and figure common to them all, very pecu
liar and distinct influences. I here also consider,
that in all languages there are some customary
geminations and expressions, which, though to
strangers they appear superfluous, if not absurd ;
to the natives, and in the propriety of that speech,
are not only current but oftentimes emphatical.
I find withal, that there is scarce any of these
seeming impertinencies, of which a learned and
judicious expositor cannot assign a pertinent cause
or reason. And I consider, too, that the books ol
Scripture being end ited, not all at once, but at
very several and distant times ; according to the
known saying, that Nunquam satis docelur quod
nunquam satis discitur, ' Nothing can be suffi
ciently taught which is not sufficiently learned ;'
the repetition of the same sins and errors, required
that of the same menaces and dissuasions, whose
frequent enforcing, serving both to attest and to
convince the sinner's obstinacy, was not a bare re
peating, but such a redoubling as we are fain to
use to drive in a nail to the head ; and the words
of tbe wise are, in the wise man's words, 'As nails
fastened by the masters of assemblies,' ¦ where though
in all the renewed strokes the busy hammer gives,
the act be still the same, yet is no blow su
perfluous, the number of them serving to com
plete their operation. They that in perusing
books have the learning and skill to strip them of
what oratory or stealth hath dressed and disguised
them in, will easily discern most of them to be
but varied repetitions ; which, for my part, I find
differing from those of Scripture, but in that the
1 Kcc. xii. 11.

i'4

168

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

169

latter do in the same words generally comprise
new matter, whereas the former usually present us
stale matter in new words. And I consider further,
that our own sad experience showing us, that there
is no single text of Scripture that subtler heretics'
sophistry cannot plausibly enough elude ; the Holy
Ghost foreseeing this from the beginning, hath
mercifully and wisely provided, that the funda
mental truths of faith and manners should be held
forth iu so many places and in so much variety
of expressions, that one or other of them must
unavoidably intercept those evasions, and escape
those misconstructions, that sophistry may put
upon the rest ; which providence alone hath pre
served many articles from the attempts of heretics,
making them both blush to question and despair
to disprove a truth attested by more than two
or three witnesses, and giving orthodox believers
the satisfaction of having their anchor tied to a
threefold cord which is not easily broken. Most
of the Bible's repetitions (or inculcations rather)
teach us something or other untaught before ; and
as in Pharaoh's vision,1 though both the ears and
the kine signified the same thing, yet Joseph's in
terpretation shows that neither was superfluous,
even those few that teach us nothing else, teach
us at least the importance, or some other attribute,
of those repeated points we were taught before.
And I scruple not to compare the expressions of
the Scripture to a rose, where though so many
leaves nearly resemble each other, there is not one
of them but contributes to the beauty and perfec
tion of the flower. I Gen. iv, 25, 31.

?

THE SIXTH OBJECTION,
Of contradictions presumed betwixt passages of
Scripture. — I am not unacquainted with the np
Keri, and the a>n:> Cethib, nor the dhsd ppn TikMn
Soph' rim, in the Old Testament, nor y et with th e varies
lectiones, especially those of the eastern and western
Jews, as they are called, taken notice of by modern
critics in the Hebrew text of the old, as woll as in
the Greek of the New Testament. I am not
neither altogether a stranger to the difficulties to
be met with in making good the citations we find
made of divers texts of the former of those sacred
instruments in the latter ; in which they seem not
unfrequently to differ much from what we find ex
tant in the ancient Testament, as to the words, and
sometimes too as to the sense. These things, I
say, though by some much urged against the
Scripture, I am not ignorant of. But I think it
not fit to consider them in this place, not only
because those that are much better qualified for
such a work than I, have done it already, but be
cause these objections relating rather to the truth
or the authority than to the style of the Scripture,
the nature of my present task does not oblige me
to examine them. Especially, since I have already-
said something of them, and may say more, in
what I write on the behalf of the Christian reli
gion. And it is upon these grounds, Theophilus,
that I also decline at present the consideration of
what is wont to be objected, as if there were a
great many self-contradictions to be met with in
the Scripture. Only I shall in the meantime in
vite you to take notice with me, that it is not often-

/

170

ON THE STYLE OF

times so much the various aspects of the texts, as
the divers prepossessions and interests ofthe exposi
tors that make books seem replenished with inter
fering passages and contradictions. For, if once
the theme treated of cw> highly concern men's in
terests, let the book be as clear as it can, subtle
and engaged persons on both sides, perusing it
with forestalled judgments or biassed passions,
will be sure to wrest many passages to counte
nance their prejudices, and serve their ends,
though they make the texts never so fiercely fall
out with one another, lo reconcile them to their
partial glosses. Of this I might produce an emi
nent instance in Aristotle's physical writings, al
leged by so many dissenting sects of schoolmen
to countenance their jarring opinions ; the injured
Stagirite, employed as second by every one that
quotes him, being by every sect brought to fight
with its antagonists, and by them all to give battle
to himself. Thus do the dissenting sects of Maho
metans quarrel as well about the sense of their
Alcoran as we do about that of our Bible, and
make the one as much a nose of wax as the Roman
Catholics say we make the other. Which brings
unto my mind, that not only the Zvovd-nra nva, the
' some things hard to be understood,' in St. Paul's
Epistles, but also the \017ra1 ypacjmi, ' the other
Scriptures' are by St. Peter said to be by the ' un
learned and unstable wrested to their own destruc
tion.' • When a sober author finds an impartial
reader, who takes his words in their genuinely
obvious acceptation, wherever the context doth not
manifestly force another on them, in which then
1 2 Peter, iii. 16.

j 1

11

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

171

the reader acquiesces, the writer is easily under
stood ; but when nimble and forestalled wits pe
ruse an author, not to sit down with his sense,
but to make him speak theirs, whether it be his
own or no, and giving themselves the pains and
leisure of considering all the possible acceptations
of a word or phrase, and the liberty of pitching
upon that which best serves their present turn, allow
themselves to conclude, that because it may signify
so and so elsewhere, therefore it docs so here ;
an author must be much warier than Homer and
Virgil, whom Eudocia and Alexander Ross have
made evangelists, to keep his words from being
tortured into a confession of what was never in his
thoughts.' And a very pregnant instance of this
truth we may observe in the law of our land, whose
very end being to prevent or abolish strifes, and
which being written so punctually and expressly,
and in so peculiar and barbarous a style, clogged
with supernumerary repetitions, that nothing but
their being conducive to so good an end could
make it supportable, is yet by men's concerned wits
so misconstrued and perverted, that not only in pri
vate men's cases we see the judges so puzzled that
suits oftentimes outlast lustres; but the prince's party
and the subjects kill and execute one another;
and, as charity tempts me to presume, think they
may do so by the law, and do so for the law. In
this belief, that we often impute to the Scripture
our own faults oi- deficiences, the instances of those
anti-scripturists I have conversed with, have very
much confirmed me ; though I have still esteemed
that the best as well as shortest way, is not to
wrangle with them about every nicety, where the
defeat of their objections give us no victory over

172

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

173

their incredulity, and by but evidencing the Scrip
ture's not being either false or absurd, can serve
but to justify our reverence to them, not to im
part it; but by solidly asserting the divine ori
gination of the Scripture, reduce men to ascribe
their scruples to the true cause, and persuade us
to the temper of the apostles, who, when Christ
had uttered a hard saying, which so unsettled
many of his disciples that they deserted him upon
it; though (their gross misapprehensions of nu
merous other much less obscure passages will
easily persuade us,) they relished it not aright, yet
would by no means forsake him for their master,
because, says their spokesman, Peter, ' thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe, and are
sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God : ' ' teaching us with one grand and compre
hensive truth, to silence particular scruples. And
one thing would not be unworthy our objectors'
considering ; that the truth arid authority of the
Scriptures, and consequently their not being con
tradictory to themselves, hath, as we may else
where have occasion to manifest more at large,
been immemorially believed by the learnedest men
in the world, many of whom may be very rea
sonably supposed to have examined opinions
without any other concern in their inquiries than
that of not being deceived, or any other end than
that of finding out the truth, and most of whom,
though by their sedulousness and their erudition
they discovered difficulties in the Bible that our
querists could never have dreamt of; yet did they
all conclude the belief of the Scriptures, grounded

on as much reason as is consistent with a due
latitude for the exercise of faith, which possibly
needs some dimness or reluctancy in the under
standing, to be an acceptable virtue of the will;
faith and the twilight seeming to agree in this
property, that a mixture of darkness is requisite
to both, which too refulgent a light would destroy,
the one vanishing into knowledge, as the other
into day. And now faith thus casually presents
herself in my way, it will, perhaps, not be im
pertinent to observe, that Christ often deals with
new believers as he is recorded to have done with
Nathanael; for, as when that guileless Israelite had
acknowledged him the Messias, upon the bare evi
dence of his having been discerned by him under the
fig-tree, our blessed Saviour tells him, ' Because I
said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree,
believest thou ? thou shalt see greater things
than these ; ' l which in the next verse he proceeds
to mention; so when men once have embraced
the persuasion of the Scripture's being divinely
inspired, that faith is a thing so acceptable to
God, that he often discovers to them, to confirm
them in their belief, arguments much clearer than
those that induced them to it, and convinces them
of the reasonableness of having submitted their
reason to him that gave it them. And, as if there
were mysteries in which faith doth more prospe
rously make way for understanding, than that is
set a-work to introduce faith, it happens to them
as it did to the two blind men mentioned in the
Gospel, in whom our Saviour first required faith,
and having found that he then opened their eyes.8

John, vi. 60, 66, 68, 69.

John, i. 50.

8 Matt. ix. 27, &c.

174 ON THE STYLE OF

THE SEVENTH OBJECTION.
From the (not long since mentioned) frequent
repetitions to be met with in the Scripture, and
from the unusual method wherein the Author of it
has thought fit that the divine truths and precepts
should be extant there, divers have been pleased
to take occasion to criminate tbe Bible, as if, its
bulk considered, it were but a barren book, wherein
instructions are but sparingly scattered in compa
rison of what is to be met with in divers other
writings, where repetitions are avoided, and more
of useful matter is delivered in fewer words.
And hence it is (say these objectors) that many
persons unquestionably religious, choose rather to
study other books of devotion and molality, as
containing more full and instructive precepts of
good life.
I might answer this allegation by representing,
that the several particulars whereon the accusation
is grounded, having been already examined by me,
I need not say any thing distinctly to this accumu
lative charge. But because I would not only de
fend my veneration for the Scripture, but persuade
it, I shall on this occasion offer two or three things
to consideration.
Although then the Scripture were less reple
nished with excellent doctrines, and were but, as
well as the best of other books, like mines, in the
richest of which the golden ore is mingled with
store of less precious materials, (and needs a labo
rious separation from tbem,) yet sure it would, like
those mines, deserve to be carefully digged in : and
it will become the grateful Christian's zeal to imitate

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

175

him in the parable, who having found ' a treasure
hid in a field,' ¦ stuck at no price within his power, to
purchase the whole field for the treasure's sake.
But God be praised, this is not the case, for it is
only our ignorance, our laziness, or our indevotion,
that keeps us from discovering, that the Scripture
is so far from being, as the objectors would have
it, a wilderness or a barren soil, that it may be
much more fitly compared to that blessed land of
promise, which is so often said in Scripture to be
' flowing with milk and honey,' things useful aud
delightful; if not to paradise itself, of which it is
said, that there ' the Lord God made to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ;
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.'2
And indeed, as the author of it was omniscient, so
experience has taught that he has so much ex
pressed himself to be so in the Scripture, that the
more knowing its pious studiers have been, the
greater, store of excellent truths they have met 'with
in it; the Scripture being indeed like heaven,
where the better our eyes and telescopes are, the'
more lights we discover. And that this may not
appear to be said gratis, let us consider, that a
book may be instructive as well by teaching its
readers speculative truths as practical ones, and
that Christians ought as well to know what God
would have us think of him and of his works, as what
he would have them do. Now as it is past question
that there are no speculative truths of so noble and
elevated a nature as those that have God himself
for their object, so there is no book from whence
there is so much to be learned, as there is from the

Matt. xiii. 44.

Gen. ii. 0.

176

ON THE STYLE OF

Bible, of the nature, and even the thoughts of God,
and of those deep mysteries into which, as I for
merly noted from St. Peter, the angels themselves
are greedy of prying.1 Nay, there is no other
book whatsoever that teaches us any thing at all,
concerning divers of these sublime subjects, that
may be safely relied on, save in what it is beholden
to the Scripture for. So that we cannot, without
an extreme injury, look upon that book as barren,
which alone contains all those revealed truths,
which are of so noble and precious a nature, that
we justly prize the composures of heathen philo
sophers, and other authors, for being enriched with
guesses at some few of them, though much em-
based by the alloy whereto the truths conjectu rally
delivered are made liable, from the imperfections of
writers always fallible, and for the most part, in
some degree or other, actually erroneous. But of
this more perchance elsewhere. Wherefore I shall
now add, that whereas those we reason with are
pleased to prefer other books of morality and devo
tion before the Scripture, in reference to good life;
they would probably be of another mind, if they
duly considered, that to engage men to live well
and holily there is much more requisite than
barely to tell them that they ought to do so, and
how they should do it. For since to lead a life
truly virtuous requires, in many cases, that we deny
and overcome our natural appetites and inclina
tions, and requires also constancy in a course that
is confessedly wont to be attended with many
hardships and dangers, it is not sufficient to engage
a man to a good life to give him precepts of it;
1 1 Pet. i. 12.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

177

which do not so much (what is yet the main thing
in this case) make men willing to conform to such
precepts, as suppose them so. And he that can do
no more, does far less than him who, besides the
rules of good life, presents men the highest and
the most prevalent motives to embrace piety and
virtue, and the most powerful dissuasives from all
that is wicked, by proposing to us such rewards
and punishments, and satisfying us that we ought,
according as wc behave ourselves, to expect either
the one or the other ; as to convince us that we can
not be either wise or happy but by being good, nor
avoid the greatest of miseries but by avoiding vice.
Now as we shall see anon, that as to the precepts of
good life, the Bible is not unfurnished with them,
so as to that most operative part of the way of
teaching good life, the proposing of the most pre
valent motives to good, and the most powerful dis
suasives from evil ; not only no other book does,
but no book not inspired can perform in that kind
any thing near so much as the Scripture alone ;
since we have not the same reason to believe any
mere man as we' have to believe God, touching
those rewards and punishments which he reserves
after death for those that conform to, or disobey
his laws; these being matters which (whatever
philosophers and other learned men may have
thought to the contrary) depend upon his free
will, and consequently are not to be explicitly
known, but by his revelation; which he has not,
that appears, vouchsafed us in any other book than
the Scripture. And therefore it is not to be won
dered at, that St. Paul should ascribe it to our
Saviour, Christ, ' that he had brought life and im-
N

178

ON THE STYLE OF

mortality to light through the gospel.'1 And
whereas hope is that spur without which men do
scarce ever cheerfully undertake and resolutely go
through things, much less difficult and dangerous
than those which a virtuous course of life is wont
to expose men to, St. Peter makes a Christian's
highest hope to depend upon a, revealed truth,
where he gives thanks to God. for having, ,f accord
ing to his abundant mercy,' begot us to awlively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.'8 And what influence such a knowledge of
God and Christ, as, if we have it at all, we must
owe to the Scripture, and such hopes and promises
as none but God himself, or those he sends, can
give a wary and intelligent person, may have upon
good life, you may guess by that other passage of
the same apostle, where not ; only he mentions
God's having, ' according to his divine power, (or
efficacy,) given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue,'3 but also
immediately after speaks of our being made ' parta
kers of the divine nature,' and ' escaping the cor
ruption that is in the world through lust,' by those
exceeding great and- precious promises that are
given of ; God unto us. . So that although the
Scripture did not expressly give us such moral
documents as ethical writers do, and taught us
good life but by acquainting us with what God has
revealed in those writings concerning himself, and
by convincingly proposing to us those highest

1 2 Tim. i. 10. : 8 1 Pet. i. 3.
3 2 Pet. i. 3, 4.

1
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170

IS I

inducements to embrace a good, and shun an evil
life, which (though reason may perchance make
some weak and confused guesses at them) revela
tion only can make examining men confidently
depend upon ; if, I say, the Scripture did no more
than thus engage us to resolve upon a good life,
leaving us to derive the particular precepts of
virtue from the inward dictates of the law of nature,
and the exercise of our own reason, (which two to
gether may well teach us almost as much as ethical
books are wont to teach, of really and considerably
useful,) the Scripture ought yet to be esteemed a
most instructive book in reference to good life !
As in effect we see, that the writings of no philoso
pher or orator ever made any thing near so many
persons virtuous as the New Testament, though
but a pocket-book, has been able to do ; especially
in those primitive ages of the church, when those
that received that book were less diverted from it
than since they have been by the reading of others.
Tlie moon may, in clear weather, lend a gardener
light enough to dig and manure his orchard, and
perhaps to prune his trees, but none will say that
the moon does as much contribute to his labouring
to produce fruit as the sun; since this nobler
planet not only affords him light to work by, and a
comfortable warmth whilst he is working, but ani
mates him by the hopes he cherishes upon the
sun's account, that in due season his diligence and
toils shall be rewarded. The application is too
obvious to need to be insisted on.
But though, upon the forementioned accounts
alone, the Scripture would deserve to be looked
upon as highly conducive to the practice of piety
and virtue, yet it is far from being true that it is
n2

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1S1

destitute of such moral documents, which it needs
not, to deserve to be looked upon as a book very
instructive in reference to good life : for there
being two sorts of virtues requisite to an embracer
ofthe gospel, which have been conveniently enough
called for distinction sake, the one Christian, and
the other moral or ethical, I suppose it will not be
doubted but that the rules of those virtues that are
properly Christian, must be sought for in the Scrip
ture; that being acknowledged by Protestants to
have such a sufficiency as to matters of mere reve
lation, (which restriction too many do inconside
rately enough leave out,) that in matters of that
nature, divines often do, and in many cases may,
argue negatively, as well as affirmatively from the
Scripture; which eases us of many things obtruded
as duties, merely by its not either expressly or by
consequence imposing them upon us. So that, as
to things of this nature, there is such a fulness
in that book, that oftentimes it says much by saying-
nothing, and not only its expressions but its si
lences are teaching ; like a dial, in which the sha
dow as well as the" light informs us. Nor must we
think that the Bible is destitute of the best sort of
such precepts, exhortations, and dissuasives as we
prize in ethical books, because they are not ex
pressed and ranged in the Bible, as they are wont
to be in systematical composures ; for not only
there is extant in the Scripture, to them that know
how to constellate those lights, a very excellent
body of moral precepts, but there are likewise scat
tered the forciblest motives to the several duties,
and the most retracting dissuasives from the con
trary vices. And truly, it hath long- lessened my
esteem. of our heathen morals, that the ethics being

but the doctrine of regulating our passions and di
recting our faculties, in order to the attainment of
felicity, they have been hitherto handled by those
to whom the nature of the faculties and passions of
the mind was but very little known : whereas to
the author of the Scripture morals, the frame and
springs, and faculties of our souls, being intuitively
and most perfectly known, the most proper and
powerful ways of working on them cannot be un
known to him : and then, certainly, one unac
quainted with the trade, will be much less likely to
mend a watch that is out of order than a watch
maker. And indeed, even in reference to that
other sort of virtues which are wont in the more
confined sense of the word to be called moral, there
are I know not how many excellent notions and
directions relating to them, dispersed up and down
in the Scripture, though by reason of their not
being drawn up by themselves, and of their being
mingled with other matters, they are not so readily
taken notice of by ordinary readers. Whereas,
those studious perusers that search the Scriptures
with a due diligence and attention, are not only
wont easily enough to descry the moral counsels
and prescriptions overlooked by the other readers,
but take notice of many excellent documents that
are plainly enough intimated or hinted there, to
knowing and diligent perusers, though not clearly
and expressly enough to be found of those that
think them not worth seeking,
Wherefore, as to those religious persons men
tioned in the last proposed objection, I cannot but
think that by neglecting the Scripture for ethical
composures, or even books of devotion, they as well
wrong themselves as the Scripture ; and therefore

182

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183

I shall take leave to think the worse, rather of the
practice of the men than of the book of God.
Scarce any thing has given me a favourabler cha
racter of Luther, than his wish, that all his books
of devotion were burnt, when he once perceived
that the people's fondness and over-valuation of
them produced a neglect ofthe study ofthe Bible;
to which you will find, Theophilus, that the best
of that nature being compared, are but (not to
draw to our present purpose that of Seneca to his
mother, Paribus interoallis omnia divina, ab omni
bus humanis distant : ' "All things divine are distant
from all things human by an equal, that is, infi
nite interval") like the stars compared to the sun,
whose emanations confer on them their lustre, but
whose presence drowns it: for though I deny not
books of devotion a due degree of praise and use
fulness, yet I refuse them the superlative degree of
either ; and since the writers of the best of that
kind of composures, either steal their best things
from, or acknowledge that they borrowed them of
the Bible, I would not have Christians neglect the
fountain for the streams, and unwisely, as well as
unthankfully, elect to read God's word, rather in
any book than his own, in which to encourage us
to study the precepts of a virtuous and holy life,
we have such peculiar and encouraging invitations.
St. Paul seems to make it the end and the result of
tbe. several usefulnesses he attributes to the Scrip
ture, ' that it can make the man of God perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works;' and is
able, (as he speaks a little higher) -ao^laai tie
aurripiav, ' to make us wise unto salvation.'8 There
1 Seneca de Cons, ad Helviam. cap. ix.
3 2 Tim. iii. 15, 17.

•7

are indeed many excellent instructions given us in
other books; but they giving us directions only
towards the attainment of the advantages, conve
niences, and ornaments of life, the ignorance of
them, only makes us miss those particular ends,
whereto they give addresses, or whereof they faci
litate our pursuits; but the knowledge whose ac-
quist or neglect imports endless joys or torments
we need seek only from the Scripture : a Christian
to understand the duty of his faith and life, needing
to understand no other book than the Bible;
though indeed to understand the Bible well, it is
ordinarily requisite, that a pretty number of other
books be understood. Christians, then, have rea
son to study most that book, which understood, all
others are needless to salvation, and which ignored,
they are insufficient. If St. Peter's vision had
been a reality, he would scarce, hungry as he was,
have ranged abroad to hunt in this desert or that
forest for game, when he had a vessel let down to
him from heaven, containing in itself all manner of
four-footed beasts, and other objects of appetite,
attended with a commanding invitation from hea
ven, 'Rise, Peter, kill, and eat.'1 So when God
sends us from heaven, in one volume, an at least
virtual collection of all those divine truths and holy
precepts others scatteringly and sparingly glean
out of human books, the Christian cannot but
prize a book so comprehensive, which by making
it safe for him to ignore others, by so merited an
antonomasia, wears the title of "the book," (for so
the Bible signifies in Greek, as the Hebrews call
it Mikra, which by excellence signifies " what is to
1 Acts, x. 11, 12, 13.

¦I

184

ON THE STYLE OF

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185

be read." •  There are precepts
enough of virtue, and motives enough to conform to
them, held forth in the Bible, if the contents of
that divine book were believed and considered as
they ought to be. It is a mistake to think that a
large system of ethics, dissected according to the
nice prescriptions of logic, and methodically reple
nished with definitions, divisions, distinctions, and
syllogisms, is requisite or sufficient to make men
virtuous. Too many of our moralists write as if
they thought virtue could be taught as easily, and
much in the same way as grammar ; and leaving
our rational motives to virtue, and determents from
vice, with other things that have a genuine influ
ence on the minds and manners of men, they fall
to wrangle about the titles and precedencies of the
parts of ethical philosophy, and things extrinsical
enough to vice and virtue : they spend more time
in asserting their method, than the prerogatives of
virtue above vice ; they seem more solicitous how
to order their chapters than their reader's actions,
and are more industrious to impress their doctrine
on our memories than our affections, and teach us
better to dispute of our passions than with them.
Whereas, as the condition of a monarch, who is pos
sessed but of one kingdom or province, is preferable
to that of a geographer, though he be able to dis
course theoretically of the dimensions, situation,
and motion, or stability of the whole terrestrial
globe, to carve it into zones, climates, and parallels,
to enumerate the various names and etymologies
of its various regions, and give an account of the
extent, the confines, the figure, the divisions, &c. of

"i

fr:

all the dominions and provinces of it ; so the actual
possession of one virtue is preferable to the bare
speculative knowledge of them all. Their master,
Aristotle, hath herein been more plain and less pe
dantic, who (by the favour of his interpreters) hath
not been nice in the method of his ethics. And
indeed, but little theory is essentially requisite to
the being virtuous, provided it be duly understood,
and cordially put in practice : reason and discre
tion sufficing, analogically to extend and apply it
to the particular occurrences of life ; (which other
wise being so near infinite as to be indefinite, are
not so easily specifiable in rules ;) as the view of the
single pole-star directs the heedful pilot, in almost
all the various courses of navigation. And the sys
tems of moralists may (in this particular) not unfitly
be compared to heaven, where there are luminaries
and stars obvious to all eyes, that diffuse beams suffi
cient to light us in most ways; and as I that with mo
dern astronomers, by an excellent telescope, have
beheld perhaps near a hundred stars in the pleiades,
where common eyes see but six; and have often
discerned in the milky-way, and other pale parts of
the firmament, numberless little stars generally un
seen, receive yet from heaven no more light useful
to travel by than other men enjoy ; so there are cer
tain grand principles and maxims in the ethics,
which both are generally conspicuous, and generally
afford men much light and much direction ; but
the numerous little notions (admit them truths)
suggested by scholarship to ethical writers, and by
'them to us, though the speculation be not unplea
sant, afford us very little peculiar light to guide
our actions by. When I remember those ancient
heroes that haye ennobled secular, and are enno-

186

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187

bled by sacred story, and whose examples sug
gested the precepts of virtue, before there were
any written ones to conform to; I am tempted to
say, that virtue was scarce ever better practised
than whilst men had not yet talked of the defini
tion of it; as many an alchymist begs with rare
notions of the nature of gold, which fills the coffers
of merchants that never saw mine nor furnace.
The grand precepts of morality are fruitful seeds,
which industriously cultivated, will bring forth
fruits still affording other seeds. And as for the
motives to pious, and dissuasions from sinful prac
tices, though out of the many voluminous books of
morality, there may be divers collected, not ex
tant in the Bible; yet may a dexterous reader find
in that heavenly book, many more invitations to
virtue, and determents from vice, than most men
are aware of; and some of them of an importance
that renders one of them as much more consider
able than many ordinary ones ; as one fair pearl
out of a jeweller's shop, outvalues a score of those
little .pearls that druggists sell by the ounce; or
doth comprise many inferior inducements, (which
wise men judge not of by tale but value,) as a
piece doth twenty shillings. .And though human
authors do often, in their ,. parenetical treatises;
allow themselves to be lavish in ornaments, to ex
patiate into amplifications, and to drain common
places; yet whilst they want an intimate admis
sion, all these are too often unable to reform, I
say not those that read them, but even those that
write them ; whereas the experience of the primi
tive and heroical ages of the church does glori
ously manifest, that the inducements and dissua
sives held forth in the Bible, though destitute of

7

-&-

those embellishments and advantages, where they
are conscionably entertained and seriously pon
dered, are sufficient to raise virtue to a pitch phi
losophy durst scarcely aim at. Nor indeed is the
number great of pertinent and rational incitements
or determents, relating to virtue; and in discourses
that have them for theme, how far soever the bows
may extend, yet generally the knot lies in a little
compass; and the analyzer that shall crack many
of those composures, having severed the shells,
shall find their kernels to be much alike. What
this writer compares to one thing, that writer likens
to another : those ungrateful persons towards God,
that one resembles to swine, who eat the acorns
without ever looking up to the tree they fall from ;
another compares to cattle, that drink of. the
streams without considering what- fountain they
flow from. These but present us several dresses
of virtue and vice, where, though the novelty and
variety of habit serve to engage attention in all,
and want not influence, at least, upon easy and
flexible natures, yet in considerate and discerning
persons, they alter not much the notion under
which the qualities themselves are entertained.
Nor will such be apt to quarrel with the author of
the Scripture, because the motives and dissuasives
extant there, are many of them old and known, or
frequently repeated, the efficacy of them being so
too. Were it not strange a physician should de
cline exhibiting of mithridate, because it was a
known medicine, and famous for its cures many
ages since ? Doth bread less nourish us, or is it
less used, because it was, as men suppose, con
temporary to Adam, and the most common food of
all nations in all ages ?, And as to the repetition

1 1

188

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

189

of the same allegations and inducements, as often
as men's condition returned to need them, the pau
city of ponderous considerations in the ethics,
often necessitating either (disguised perhaps, yet)
repetitions of the same, or the substitution of those
that must be much inferior to be new; such per
sons as little admire that reiterated employment
of the same truths, as they would to see a soldier
use a sword, though he and legions many ages
before him have constantly made use of that
weapon ; or a general encourage his engaging sol
diers, by representing to them honour, duty, spoil,
necessity, and those other known topics used by
himself at the head of his army, as often as he had
occasion to lead it on to fight. To all this I am in
vited by this occasion to subjoin, that upon the
score of God's being both an omniscient Spirit and
the supreme lawgiver to the whole creation, the
same truths, counsels, exhortations, dissuasions,
;&c. oftentimes have, and always ought to have,
another guess efficacy and prevalence on a Chris
tian reader, when he. finds them in the Scripture,
than if be should meet with the same in the books
of heathen moralists, though learned and eloquent.
And certainly, those that with such rewence
read the writings of those great wits of annuity,
that have made the greatest discoveries of truth,
because they believe them to have been endowed
with very illuminated intellectuals, ought to pay
them, and a book published by an omniscient en-
diter, a reverence somewhat proportionate to the dis
parity of their authors. Since men (as Elihu speaks
in Job) 'are but of yesterday, and know little or
nothing;' a wary person reads the wisest authors
with a reflection, that they may deceive him by

,1

*

being themselves deceived ; and undergoes a dou
ble labour, the one in investigating the meaning,
and the other in examining the truth of what they
deliver: but in the Bible, we are eased of the
latter of these troubles; for if we find the sense of
a text of Scripture, we cannot miss a truth ; being
never deceived by that book but when we deceive
ourselves by presuming we understand it when in
deed we do not. I am otherwise affected to find
the vanity of the world proclaimed and depreci
ated by him that enjoyed all the delights and. glo
ries of it, than when I meet with the same truth
from some beggarly cynic, that never was admitted
to taste those luscious and bewitching pleasures,
and needs no great philosophy to despise a world
he judges of by the scant share the narrowness of
his condition allows him of the joys of it; and of
which, consequently, his criminations should as
little move, as a blind man's of a blackamoor;
whom though he may, perchance, truly style ugly,
yet he were of a somewhat easy faith that should
think her so, barely upon the testimony of so in
competent a witness. Thus, when God himself is
pleased to reveal what is vice or virtue, sublime or
despicable, truth or falsehood, happiness or misery,
I have another guess acquiescence in his decisions,
than in the same met with in a human author,
who, having necessarily frailties and passions, is
both obnoxious to mistake and capable to deceive.
And therefore it is no wonder that the slighting
of God's dictates should receive an aggravation,
upon the score of their being his ; as our Saviour
gave the precedency of the Ninevites converted by
Jonah, to them that repented not at his preaching,

190

ON THE STYLE OF

because he was ' a greater than Jonah.' " And
therefore, though I have formerly been no very
negligent peruser of books of morality; yet know
ing that they have a power but to persuade, not to
command, and that the penalties of sin or death
are not inseparably annexed to the disobedience
of their prescriptions, I confess I often find myself
but faintly wrought on by them. For I must ac
knowledge, that frequently assuming the liberty of
questioning the reasonableness of what human
writers, whether philosophers or fathers, are pleased
to impose upon us, I find those specious and
boasted allegations, the apothegms of the sages,
the placits of the philosophers, tbe examples of emi
nent persons, the pretty similes, quaint allegories,
and quick sentences of fine wits, I find all these
topics, I say, such two-edged weapons, that they
are as well applicable to the service of falsehood
as of truth, and may by ready wits be brought
equally to countenance contrary assertions. And
really, most moralists, except in those few duties
that nature herself hath foretaught us, to a man
whose restless curiosity leads his enquiries to all
times and nations, will appear little other than
fencers with wit ; (I mean those that have any ;) for
each of these popular topics, is such an unsolid
or uncertain foundation, that one man can build
little on it that an equally able antagonist may
not, with as specious probability overthrow. And
I fear, most of us have but too often found our
corruptions sophisters enough to elude any such
thing that pressed that as a duty which they had
1 Matt. xii. 42.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

191

no mind we should peform. But when I find any
thing enjoined in the Scripture, my consciousness
to its being imposed by that ' Father of Spirits,'
(who has both right to enact laws, which must
be therefore just, because he enacts them; and
power to punish the transgression of them with no
less than eternal death,) I then leave roving, and
see where to cast anchor; I think it my part,
without disputing them, to obey his orders, and
acquiesce more in that imperious Vlvtoc ityij, ' Thus
saith the Lord,' than a whole dialogue of Plato, or
an epistle of Seneca. I therefore love to build my
ethics, as well as my creed, upon the rock; and
esteeming nothing but the true, proper, and strict
sense of the Scripture, and what is convincingly
deducible from it, to be indispensably obligatory,
either as (in matters of mere revelation) to faith or
practice, it is no wonder if I study God's will most
in that book wherein alone I think it revealed :
and, truly, finding in myself no motive more justly
prevalent to obedience than his right to exact it
that requires it, few men are more ready than I in
distinguishing what indeed God says from what
man would make him say. And if I allow my
self such liberty to discern the text from the gloss,
in the writings of our vulgar interpreters, (of most
of whose comments, for reasons prosecuted in an
other paper, I am no great idolater,) and even of
the fathers of the church ; I hope I shall not need
to tell Theophilus, that in all other moralists I
like the freedom to like or disapprove, as upon ex
amination, my impartialest reason relishes them;
or that I frequently fear their harangues will hardly
1 Heb. xii. 9.

m

THE STVLE OF

TtWBsyfio'r diknonstrations with those wary testers,
^thaiJfke^not to be cheated so much as into virtue ;
T>ut choose to act as rational or Christians, as well
in relation to the inducements as to the nature of
what they do.
 Amongst the thir
teen articles ofthe Jewish creed, one acknowledges
the very expressions of the law, or Pentateuch, to
have been inspired by God. That saying of the
rabbins is not altogether so hyperbolical as a per
functory reader would imagine, — that upon each
tittle of the law whole mountains of doctrine hang.
I shall not mention as any proof of this, the strange
mysteries they fancy in the strange accenting of
the ten commandments in the original, since their
soberer doctors have in free discourse confessed to
me, that it is as much a riddle to them as us. Nor
shall I insist upon the Jews reducing the whole
law to six hundred and thirteen precepts, affirma
tive and negative, according to the number of the
letters of the decalogue, thereby insinuating that
all the laws that regulate man's duty are virtually
or reductively comprised there; although this
rabbinical notion (not to call it whimsey) be in
such request amongst them, and so known to those
that are any thing conversant in Jewish authors,
that I have sometimes suspected that the conceit
entertained by so many Christian divines, that all
the precepts that relate to any part of the whole
duty of man, are but just consequences deducible
from the decalogue, had its rise thence. But I
shall not, as I said, ground my opinion of the
pregnant instructiveness of the Scripture upon
such questionable, not to say altogether proofless
conceits. That which may better persuade a con-

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

193

v

*-r

sidering man is, that besides those more resplen
dent and obvious truths, wherewith the Scripture
does evidently abound, there are many instructions
exhibited, many truths asserted, many errors con
futed, and many mysteries hinted in the very ex
pressions of Holy Writ, to an inquisitive and con
cerned peruser, which a heedless vulgar reader is
not wont to take notice of. God, who in the
Scripture is said, ' to cover himself with light as
with a garment,'1 justifies that expression in the
Scripture, where (as the first words that he is re
corded to have ever spoken were Tin >n> yehi-or,
' Let there be light'8) the very words and phrases,
that clothe the sense are not alone emphatical,
but oftentimes mysterious. The apostle assures us,
• whatsover things were written,' even in the Old
Testament, 'were written for our learning.'3 But
yet, besides those many particular sentences of the
Bible that are not destitute of instructions, there are
some so pregnant with them, that we may easily
find this difference betwixt them and human writ
ings, that those first-mentioned contain more matter
than words, and the other more words than matter.
Nay, many ofthe very flowers of rhetoric growing
there, have (like the marigold that in hot countries
points at the sun) a virtue of hinting the usefulest
and the sublimest truths : the Bible being in this
like the tree of life, (flourishing in the New
Jerusalem,) which not only afforded seasonable fruit,
but of which the very ' leaves were for the healing
of the nations.'4 As for those who have in this and
the last age made bold to depreciate the Old Testa-

1 Psalm civ. 2.

8 Gen. i. 3.
' Rev. xxii. 2.

3 Rom. xv. 4.

134

ON THE STYLE OF

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195

ment, by pretending that to Christians, the New is
sufficient ; I am at present apt to think that the
doctrine of the gospel, together with the light of
nature, (which it excludes not b|it rather supposes,)
contains all those duties which are absolutely ne
cessary to be performed by all Christians, in order
to salvation. And that consequently, many divines,
both Catholics and reformed, do inconsiderately
enough press many things enacted in the Old Tes
tament, as laws properly so called, which are not
now, uptfn the score of their being there enacted,
obligatory to us Christians, nor perhaps ever were
to any but the Jews, and some kind of Jewish pro
selytes. But I think withal, that though it be hard
to show that any thing is a necessary duty to
Christians, in the sense above declared, if it cannot
be shown to be so either by the New Testament or
the light of nature ; yet not only there are many
particulars relating to such duties, of which the
Old Testament may excellently assist us to give
ourselves a more distinct and explicit instruction
than is easy to be collected from the New ; but of
the mysteries of our religion there are many things
delivered more expressly or more fully in some
passages of the Old Testament, than in any of the
gospel, as I could easily evidence, if I thought it
requisite. So that the use of it is very great, as
to the credmida in divinity, though not perhaps ab
solutely necessary as to the agenda. But I con
sider further, that both the matters and the expres
sions made use of in the Old Testament, are so
very frequently and almost upon all occasions re
lated to in the New, (as if the wisdom of God were
like rivers and seas, that affect to flow in the same
channels themselves had made before,) that there is

V ,5

scarce a page of the latter, to the better under
standing of which the study of the former is not
either absolutely necessary, or at least highly
useful. Should God be pleased to instruct us as
he did Jonas, by the shadow of a weed,1 it were our
duty to acquiesce; how much more, then, when he
vouchsafes to speak to us in almost as glorious a
manner as he did to Moses ; in a Scripture that
hath such resemblances to the sanctuary, which
contained the law of God, exhibited the mercy-
seat, (the type of Christ,) and .wherein the two
golden cherubims, like the two precious and har
monious Testaments, looked towards one another,
and both towards that mercy-seat that typified the
Messias ! 8 We should therefore, not only with
acquiescence, but gratitude, look upon God's having
appointed the Scripture to be the light in which
his Spirit regularly shines upon his church ; since
the luminary is as well refulgent as the choice
of it His whose blessing can prosper any means
of grace, as without his blessing no means of grace
can prosper.
And, Theophilus, since among those that are so .
far mistaken as to postpone the study of the Bible
to that of some applauded books of morality and
devotion, there are not wanting divers persons
otherwise eminently religious; I hope you will
easily excuse me, if for fear their example should
prove a temptation to you, and add to the discou
ragements you must expect from the darkness of
some texts and the opposition that will be given
jou, especially at first, by the grand enemy to the
'Author and design of the Scripture, I venture to

1 J/onah, iv. 6.

8 Exod. xxv. 16—22. O 2

196

ON THE STYLE OF

superadd to all that I have said already concerning
these men's practice, that it is not only a commend
able, but a much more improving custom than it is
by many thought, to read daily and orderly some
set portion or chapters of the Bible : and not to
desist from that practice, though (as Naaman dipped
himself six times in Jordan, without being cured1)
we should not perceive a sudden and sensible be
nefit accruing from it ; for in diseases, bodily or
spiritual, though the mouth be out of taste, and
cannot relish what is taken in, yet wholesome ali
ments must be eaten, and do effectively nourish
and strengthen, though they be then insipid (per
haps bitter) to the distempered palate. We must
with the eunuch read divers texts we understand not
when we read them;8 and though at first we be not
able to penetrate the senses of some portions of
God's word, we must at least, make our faculties
as hospitable to it as we can ; and make our memo
ries admit and embrace it, till our understandings
be grown up to do the like : it becoming the dis
ciples of our Saviour, herein to imitate his holy
mother; of whom it is written, that 'They (the
blessed Virgin and her husband) understood not
the sayings which he spake unto them, — — but
his mother kept all these sayings in her heart;'3
and to think it may very well be, that as our Sa
viour said to Peter, ' What I do, thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter;'4 so bythe
welcome he disposes you to give his word into
your memory, he says to you, ' What I say thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter : '

1 2 Kings, v. 14. 8 Acts, viii. 30, 31.
3 Luke, ii. 00, 51 ; see verses 18, 19. 4 John, xiii. 7-

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

197

and the apostle's motive to. hospitality, 'Be not
forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares/1 will, without
being overstretched, take in the texts of Scripture
we are unacquainted with : for we may easily in
them entertain, with Abraham and Lot,8 greater
guests than we were aware of; and who, when
their true condition appears, may recompense our
entertainment of them, by showering blessings on
us, and rescuing us from the company and destiny
ofthe wicked. And sure, if the pagans laid up
with awful reverence, those dark and squinting
oracles, that came (at least many of them) from
the prince of darkness and father of lies, we should
blush to refuse attentive pesusals and lodging in our
memories, to those Xoyia Iwvra, those ' lively ora
cles,' those Xoyia tov Qeov, ' oracles of God,' who is
' the Father of lights,' and an essential truth ' that
cannot lie." And the most enigmatical texts we
meet with, which seem meant purposely to pose us,
we may make useful admonitors of our weaknesses,
and take for welcome opportunities to evince how
great a reverence we pay God's' word, upon the
single score of its being so. Nor let those distur
bances with which the devil seldom fails to ob
struct or discourage our first progress in a study
so ruinous to his malicious ends upon us, deter us;
for these are commonly but the throes and strug-
glings of Christ new formed in us; or else like
those horrid fits and outcries which preceded the
ejection of that unclean spirit mentioned in the
first of Mark :4 such parting ceremonies being not
1 Heb. xiii. 2. 8 Gen. xviii. and Gen. xix.
3 Acts, vii. 38; Rom. iii. 2 ; James, i. 17 j Tit. i. 2.
4 Mark, i. 26.

AS

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ON THE STYLE OF

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199

unusual to the dislodging devil, who, when he
finds himself upon the point of being expelled,
' hath great wrath, because he knoweth he hath -
but a short time.'1 And though ' the God of peace,'
however he 'will bruise Satan under your feet
shortly,'8 should for a while try us even with de
sertions in the study of the Scripture ; let us not
for all that desert so improving a study, but reso
lutely persevere in the constant and faithful use of
the means of grace : as the moon, when she suffers
an eclipse, forsakes not her orb or motion, but by
continuing her unretarded course, regains the ir
radiations she was deprived of. We find the word
of God compared to seed, (that deathless seed by
which Saint Peter saith we are born again,3) and
that, we know, may seem for a long time as well dead
as buried in the ground, and yet afterwards spring
and grow up into a plentiful harvest. Nor must
our^proficiency any more dispense with us, from
the being conversant with the Scripture, than our
frailties : ' I will never,' saith the Psalmist, 'forget
thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened
me.'4 And, indeed, the word of God is not to be
used like active physic, taken once that it may not
be taken again ; but it is compared to food, which
indeed it is, of the soul ; in which sense it may be
literally enough said, ' that man liveth not by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.'* Now as our having
fed never so well and heartily on excellent and
nutritive meats yesterday, will not keep us from
1 Rev. xii. 12. 8 Rom. xvi. 20.
3 Matt. xiii. 19, 20, &c. 1 Pet. 1, 2, 3. " Psal. cix. 93.
3 1 Pet. ii. 2, and elsewhere ; Matt. iv. 4.

vv

needing to eat again to-day or to-morrow, and so
daily, as long as we continue in these ruinous cot
tages of clay;' so in spiritual refections with full,
without repeated meals the soul will scarcely thrive.
And as, generally, the more healthy and lusty men
are, the frequenter and stronger appetites they have ;
so the best Christians, and (witness David) the
greatest proficients in Scripture knowledge, have the
keenest stomachs to this food of souls ; and the
vigorousest piety, by a desuetude and neglect of it,
is subject to faint and pine away.8 Nor have we
just cause to repine at any engagement to assi
duity in the Scriptures ; for there are not near so
many things that will require, as there are that
will deserve and recompense a serious study in a
book, where both the strict sense and the circum
stances and expressions that clothe it are richly
instructive : like that aromatical fruit, of which
not only the kernel is a nutmeg, but the very in
volving skin is mace. This inexbausted fulness,
occasioned that panegyrical precept of the rabbies
concerning the law; na ,l?i3 >-in na ysm na "pan
' Turn it over, and again tura it over, for all
is in it:' concurrently to which the Jew that
translates the Arabian Apopthegms into Hebrew
thus pronounces : " There proceedeth not a true
sentence out of the mouths of this world's wise
men, that is not intimated in our law."
The usefulness of divers texts is such, that we
should not only have them in our possession, but
in a. readiness ; and as David distressed by his
mortal enemies, took Goliath's sword from near
the ephod, to wear it withersoever he went, so

1 Joh. iv. 19.

TpoQrj ^v^fji ij 7pa0ij. Athana

#

200

ON THE STYLE OF

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201

Christians, prosecuted by ghostly enemies, should
be diligent, not only to have an armoury well fur
nished with spiritual weapons, but to wear this
' sword of the Spirit'1 always by their sides, to
ward and thrust with upon all occasions ; without
needing to depend upon any such things as con
cordances, which often cannot be come by, and
oftener, not soon enough to keep us from being
ibilcd by the father or the champions of lies. But
now, to engage us to grow ready Scripturists, it is
not only true, that as the texts of the Bible inter
change light with one another, and every new de
gree of Scripture-knowledge, is not only an ac-
quist of so much, but an instrument to acquire
more ; so is that book a theme so comprehensive
and so fertile, that the last hour of a Christian's
longest and industriousest life will still leave un
discovered mysteries in it : this, I say, is not only
true, but it is also true that the doctrines of it are
ofthat importance, and find that opposition in our
depraved nature, that even those truths that require
but few perusals to be understood, require many
to be duly impressed : our preposterously partial
memories being rarely like quicksilver, wherein
nothing will sink but (that preciousest of metals)
gold ; for that alone is heavier than mercury. The
word of Christ, must not be as a passenger,8
or sparingly entertained in our minds, but must
dwell there, and that richly : and the word, which
Saint James pronounces, ¦ able to save our souls,'3
he describes as a graft*, which must not only be
closely embraced, by that wherein it is to fruc
tify, but must continue there, to bring the stock

j.

and graff to, if I may so speak, concorporate.
And, indeed, we are so indisposed to admit, and
so obnoxious to deface, religious impressions, that
we need, during our whole life, be conversant with
the precepts of leading it piously. But it is
scarce more faulty in, than incident to the fro
ward nature of man, to be ever quarrelling with
God's method of prosecuting his intentions; and,
as if he were wiser than his Maker, to criminate
his conduct in his dispensations. Even that ex
cellent person, the gloriousest of virgins and of
mothers, whom all ages must deservedly call
blessed, incurred her divine Son's reprehension,
for an intimated offer to alter his purposed me
thod in disclosing himself.1 But God is too just
to himself and too merciful to us to degrade, as it
were, his omniscience so far as to suffer himself to
be swayed against, the dictates of it, by such pur
blind and perverse tutors as we : his goodness
concerns him too much in our instruction, to suf
fer him to let our fancies endite his word : to
attain his own ends, he makes choice of his own
means and instruments, without needing our pur
blind eyes in the election; and what with unfathom
able wisdom he hath been pleased to contrive
for man's instruction, with a gracious though often
misunderstood constancy he persists in. Pie knows
that many who are disposed to cavil at the present
contrivance or style of Scripture, would be apt to
take exceptions at any other : for something or
other it must necessarily be ; and the unimaginable
diversity of humours, judgments, and preposses
sions is such, that as these now say, why thus, and

Ephes. vi. 17. 8 Col. iii. 16.

3 James, i. 21.

1 Luke, i. 48 ; John, ii. 3, 4.

202

ON THE STYLE OF

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203

not so ? others would, in case of alteration, be ready
(to ask, why so, and not thus ? It is questionable,
whether the Israelites were greater murmurers at
Pharaoh in Egypt or at Moses in the desert : and
the children complained of by their companions
in the market-place, have had either posterity or
predecessors in all ages,1 which have still been of
the disposition of those Jews, who imputed the
more than prophet's rigidness of virtue to the
great enemy ofthat lovely quality, and the greater
than Solomon's condescensions to the vices he de
signed tbem to destroy. But the great physician
of mankind is too compassionate ahd wise to let
his distracted patients prescribe their own course
of physic; or, to decline our fond and peevish
quarrels, shuffle or discompose those mysterious
and profound contrivances, whose wisdom engages
the attention and exacts the wonders of those
heavenly unclogged spirits,8 that are scarce more
advantaged over us by their native abilities than
by the means they have of improving them. And,
therefore our Saviour refused to descend from the
cross, though they whose malice served to fix him
there, the chief priests and scribes themselves, de
clared that on those terms they would believe on
him.3 And though we are but too apt to fancy
that we should be won to our duty, if it were
taught or pressed in such or such a way, yet we
may be pleased to remember, that it was one in
hell that would needs have another means than the
Scripture of having sinners preached to, and one
in heaven, that, referring them to the Scripture,
declared, ' that if men heard not Moses and the
1 Matt. xi. 16—19. ' l Pet. i. 12.
3 Matt, xxvii. 42.

!'

v

prophets, neither would they be persuaded, though
one rose from the dead to preach to them.'1
If I addressed what I write, not to so intelligent
a person as Theophilus, but to promiscuous readers,
I should add to what I have said of the several ex
ceptions against the Scripture, a cordial advice to
all, whose parts and leisure give them not a just
hope of being able solidly to vindicate it either to
themselves or others, to decline as much as dis
creetly they can, the listening to objectors or ob
jections, of what sort or under what disguise soever,
against that heavenly book, especially if proposed
by plausible and insinuating wits. For it not
being necessary, nor indeed possible, for every
private Christian to know the opinions and reasons
of all dissenters about the Scripture, no more than
for every traveller to be a geographer ; nor requisite
to the knowledge of the way to heaven, to know
all those in which they that miss it wander ; (as to
learn the way from Dover to London, I need not
teach those that lead not thither;) it is not prudent
to run a very probable hazard of disquieting one's
faith, and a not improbable one of subverting it,
only to gratify a needless curiosity, an itch, which
we are delighted to have scratched, but which is
exasperated by being so. And frequently, though
your design seem innocent, as only to hear with
out believing, and please yourself with something
of wit and novelty, yet these conversations rarely
enough . prove harmless, and, as too frequent and
sad experience proclaims, generally either abate
a degree of your faith, or qualify some ardour
of your love, or lessen your reverence for that
1 Luke, xvi. 31.

li

201

ON THE STYLE OF

matchless book, or put some strange and disquiet
ing scruples into your thoughts, which it is much
easier to confute than to silence. Wherefore, as
in infectious times, when the plague reigns, physi
cians use more strictly to forbid the smaller
excesses and inordinances of diet, and the use
of meats of ill digestion, or apt to breed any
distemper, because every petty fever becomes,
through the malignity of the air, apt to turn
into the plague ; so now that anti-scripturism
grows so rife, and spreads so fast, I hope it will
not appear unseasonable to advise those that
tender the safety and serenity' of their faith, to be
more than ordinarily shy of being too venturous
of any books, or company, that may derogate from
their veneration of the Scripture ; because by the
predominant and contagious profaneness of the
times, the least injurious opinions harboured of
it are prone to degenerate into irreligion. But
I fear you will think I preach.
THE EIGHTH AND LAST OBJECTION.
And now, Theophilus, I am arrived at that part
of this discourse, wherein it will be fit to ex
amine that grand objection against the style of
the Scripture, which, though a philosopher would
not look upon it as the most considerable, is yet
most urged by many of its witty adversaries, es
pecially such as are wont to exercise and gratify
their fancy more than their reason. The objection
itself is this, " That the Scripture is so unadorned
with flowers of rhetoric, and so destitute of elo
quence, that it is flat, and proves commonly ineffi-
catious upon intelligent readers, Insomuch, that

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

205

divers great wits and great persons, especially
statesmen, do either despise it, or neglect to study
it ;" and truly, the story is famous of that cardinal,
who flourished in the last age, that said, that once
indeed he had read the Bible, but if he were to do
so again, it would lose bim all his Latinity. And
amongst those great orators, as they thought them
selves, who lived in the same age and country that
be did, the complaint was ordinary, that the read
ing of the Bible untaught them the purity of the
Roman language, and corrupted their Ciceronian
style. And I remember no obscure prince, though
he shall here be nameless, because for other quali
ties I honour him, in no obscure company, dis
puted with me one day, an opinion about the style
of the Scripture, to which the cardinal's scorn was
a compliment. I wish these saucy expressions
were but outlandish, and could not cross those
seas that environ England, which is not so happily
severed from the world's vices, as from its conti
nent ; this profane judging so boldly that book
men shall be judged by, being, if not a native, yet
at least a free denizen of England ; for not only
it was one, that I am sorry I can call our country
man, who is recorded to have solemnly preferred
one of the odes of Pindarus before all the Psalms
of David ; but I could easily add divers resembling
instances, that I have myself been troubled to meet
with, were it not that I somewhat doubt whether
this kind of profane sayings be not as well fitter as
worthier to be forgotten than remembered, and to
be suppressed than divulged ; for, not to mention
that the recording of such enormities puts an ill
compliment upon mankind, the satisfaction some

il

206

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

207

men's curiosities receive by such relations, will
scarce account for the temptation it gives others,
to imitate what they find some had dared. For
there are some sins whose grand determent is a
kind of persuasion that they are too horrid to
have been committed : and some wise legislators
thought it better against certain crimes to use the
silence of the laws than their threats. I shall
therefore, without any further mention of scandalous
particularities, take it for granted, that there have
been, and are but too many witty disrespecters of
the Scripture. But as for the accusation itself,
which they are alleged to countenance, many de
fences might be here made against it, if divers
considerations, pertinent to that purpose among
others, did not belong to some of those ensuing
parts of my discourse, wherein it is not the style
of the Scripture, but other themes that are princi
pally and directly treated of. Yet that you may
be assisted to refer hither such parts of the follow
ing discourse as are applicable to the matter under
consideration, I shall here take notice to you, that
my answers to the objection above proposed may,
for the most part, be reduced to these five heads of
argument. First, that as to divers parts of the Scripture, it
was not requisite that they should be adorned with
rhetorical embellishments.
Next, that the Bible seems to have much less
eloquence than indeed it has, to those that read it
only in translations, especially the vulgar Latin
version. Thirdly, that by reason of the differing notions
several sorts of men, especially of distant nations

7 7

and climates," have of eloquence, many passages
that are thought uneloquent by us, may appear
excellently expressed to another part of mankind.
Fourthly, that there are in the Scripture a mul
titude of those texts, wherein the author thought fit
to employ the ornaments of language, conspi
cuously adorned with such as agree even with our
notions of eloquence.
And lastly, that it is very far from being conso
nant to experience, that the style of the Scripture
does make it unoperative upon the generality of its
readers, if they be not faultily indisposed to receive
impressions from it.
As to the first of these, having already above de
clared, that there are many parts of Scripture,
wherein it would have been improper to affect elo
quence ; I am willing to suppose that you have not
yet forgot what has been formerly said. And
therefore I am unwilling to detain you on this first
consideration. Yet I cannot but on this occasion
take notice to you, that we allow all sorts of people
expressions proper and fitted to their several pro
fessions and themes. How many of us can dwell
on lawyers, physicians, and chymists' books,
though oftentimes written in terms as harsh and as
uncourtly as if those rudenesses were their design ?
and yet we can neglect and scorn the Scripture,
because in some passages we there find the myste
ries and other matters of religion, delivered in a
proper and theological style. I remember Machia-
vel, in the dedication of his famous work, after he
had (not causelessly) acknowledged to Lorenzo de
Medici, (to whom his book is addressed,) that he
had not stuffed it with lofty language or big words,
nor adorned with any of those enveigling outward

208

ON TIJ12 STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

209

ornaments, usual to other authors in their writings,
gives this account of the plainness of his style,
Perche *o ho voluto, o che veruna cosa la honori (la
mia opera) o che solamente la veritd della materia,
et la gravitd del soggetto lafaccia grata : " that he
thought fit either that nothing at all should recom
mend his work, or that the only. truth of the dis
course and the dignity of the subject should make
it acceptable, and exact its welcome." If a mere
statesman, writing to a prince upon a mere civil
theme, could reasonably talk thus, with how much
more reason may God expect a welcoming enter
tainment for the least adorned parts of a book, of
which the truth is a direct emanation from the
essential and supreme truth, and of which the con
tents concern no less than man's eternal happiness
or misery ? And if our nice Italian critics them
selves cannot, by the plainness of Machiavel's
style, nor the forbidding of his writings by the in
quisition, be deterred from as assiduous as prohi
bited a study of his books, what excuse will they
one day have, that now make the unaffected style
of Scripture the sole excuse of their despising (or
at least neglecting) that divine book ?
Secondly, as to the disadvantage the Scripture
receives by its not being read by those I now reason
with, in their originals; though I have said some
thing to it already, yet I must not resume it into
consideration, and represent, that it is no wonder
they reverence not the Bible style as they ought,
whilst they judge of that of an Hebrew book by
their vulgar translation; which (though sometimes
causelessly enough censured by divers Protestant
divines, that would find it no easy task to make a
better, yet) certainly is in many places strangely

r

It-

harsh and barbarous; and by a partial and un
lucky affectation of literality, misseth the propriety
both of the Hebrew speech and of the Latin : and
to adhere to the original's words commonly injures
its eloquence, and oftentimes its sense; rendering
excellent expressions in such ungraceful ones as
would probably fright readers from it, if it could
not very well spare fine language: so that to our
present theme we may not ill apply that notable
saying of Mirandula, Hebrcei bibunt fontes, Graci
rivos, Latini paludes. The old French rhyming
translation of Virgil, makes not the yEneids
much more eloquent than Hopkins and Sternhold
have made the Psalms: which sure, being written
by a person who (setting aside his inspiration) was
both a traveller, a courtier, and a poet, must at
least be allowed to contain polished and fashion
able expressions in their own language, how coarsely
soever they have been misrendered in ours. What
opinion the eastern world hath of the sweet singer
of Israel, may appear both by other hyperbolical
fictions they believe of him, (whom, with Moses,
Jesus, and Mahomet, they reckon amongst the four
great prophets,) and by what Kessseus (the famed
Mahometan writer of the Lives of the Fathers)
relates concerning him, " that when David sang
the praises of God, the hills, and birds, and beasts
therein accompanied him."1 Which gross literal in
terpretation of figurative expressions in the Psalriis,
and of the Psalmist's pathetical invitations to the
inanimate creatures to join with him in celebrating
their common Creator, he seems to have borrowed
from the Alcoran itself; where Mahomet brings
1 Kessams, page 99. See Psalm cxiv. 4 ; xix. F

210

ON THE STYLE OF

God in, saying, "We reduced the mountains to
comply with him, who ! should join with him in
praises morning and evening ; the birds also flock
to him ; all these are obsequious to him."1 And
though the New Testament be not written in He
brew, yet its writers 'being! Hebrews, have chiefly
conformed themselves to the style of the translators
of the Old Testament (which; whether or no it con
stitute what critics- of late- so dispute of under the
name of Lingua or Dialcclus HeUcnislica, I pretend
not to define) and that of the Apocryphal authors
and other Jews writing in the same language ; who
(except, perhaps, Josephus and Philo) wrote rather,
if I may so speak, a Hebrew than an Attic Greek ;
or, at least, in a dialect/ which (by reason of their
frequent references to ' the Septuagint's version)
abounds, if not with :Hebraisms,! with expressions
obvious in 'Hebrew,!writings," and1' unfrequent' in
Greek ones, and 'so'^relishes" much of the Hebraic
style ; of which, as 'well 'in the New as : the- Old
Testament, those we reason with, being strangers to
that primitive tongue, must be incompetent judges ;
there being in the idiotisms of all languages, pecu
liar graces, which (like ' those ' most subtle spirits,
which exhale in' pou ring' essences out of one vessel
intd another) : arc lost ih most '(especially if literal )
translations ; and the holy tongue being that which
God himself made choice of to dignify with bis ex
pressions, having divers whose penetrancy is, as
little transfusible into' any other as the sun's daz
zling brightness}' or the water df a diamond can be
undetractingly painted : and having divers words
and phrases,' ''whose 'pithiness and r copiousness
1 Suiat. iii. vide II. Hot tin. G2, and G3.

4-

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

211

none in derived or other languages can match.
Some ofthe Hebrew conjugations, as chiefly those
called hiphil and hithpael, give significations to
verbs, which the want of answerable conjugations
in western languages, makes us unable to fill or
equal without paraphrases, wliich are very rarely
so comprehensive as the original words; and (to
hint this upon the by) the ignorance, or not consi
dering of this one grammatical truth, hath kept
men from fully understanding divers passages of
theNew Testament, wherein the G reck tongue's want
of those conjugations, hath made active or intransi
tive verbs be used in a transitive or reciprocal sig
nification. : How impertinently men's ignorance of
its originals may make them censure the Scripture,
I had once occasion to take notice of, by finding a
famous commentator note St. Paul of impropriety
of speech,' in the beginning of that which is com-
"monly thought to be his first epistle to the Thessa
lonians, but by the learned Grotius (in his para
doxes, Be Antichristo) not improbably esteemed to
•be his second: for whereas instead of the Greek
words a.(f vpS>vfi^r)xrirai 6 Xoyog rS Kvpia, which
i ours have rightly Englished, ' From you sounded
out the word;'1 he found in his translation, a
vobis diffamatus est sermo, not knowing Paul to
have' written in Greek, he would needs correct him
for having written diffamatus est, instead of divul-
gafus est. ;••! :: . -.-
Thirdly, We may yet further consider, that as to
many > passages of Scripture accused of not ap
pearing 'eloquent to European judges, it might be
justly represented, that the eastern eloquence clif-

1 2 Thes. 1. 8.

p2

;< 71

-I* ON THE STYLE OF
fers widely from the western. In those purer
climates, where learning, that is here but a deni
zen, was a native, the most cherished and ad
mired composures of their wits, if judged by
western rules of oratory, will be judged destitute
of it. Their dark and involved sentences, their
figurative and parabolical discourses, their abrupt
and maimed way of expressing themselves, which
often leaves much place to guesses at the sense,
and their neglect of connecting transitions, which
often leaves us at a loss for the method and cohe
rency of what they write, are qualities that our
rhetoricians do not more generally dislike than
theirs practise ; there being perhaps little less dis
parity in our opinions than in our ways of writing.;
for their pens (as if it were a presage of the dif
ferent changes the Jews and Greeks have made in
point of religion) move from the right hand to
wards the left; ours (therein imitated by those of
the Ethiopians) from the. left towards the right;
so that we think they write backwards, and they,
that we do so. Of this difference of the notions,
that the eastern and western colonies of the sons
of Adam have harboured concerning eloquence, I
shall need to mention but one instance, that one is
so remarkable; and that is the Alcoran. How
much the Mahometan world boasts the eloquence
of that book, can scarce be unknown to those that
have, though but a little, busied their curiosity in
that sort of enquiries. The ablest Arabian ex
positors and other authors tells us, that all the wit
and art of men and demons, would be unable to
hinder that book from being matchless.1 Mahomet
1 Beidavi, Ahmedibn,' Edris, and others.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

213

himself was so proud of it, that in some passages
in it, he defies its opposers to equal one surat or
section of it, and seems to make its peerlessness
an argument of its not being of barely human au
thority;1 and the Saracens, pressed with their reli
gion's being destitute of attesting miracles, will not
scruple to reply, that, though there were no other
miracle to manifest the excellency of their reli
gion above that taught by the prophets, yet the
Alcoran itself were sufficient, as being a lasting
miracle that transcends all other miracles.8 How
charming its eloquence may be in its original I
confess myself too unskilful in the Arabic tongue
to be a competent judge; my other studies and
distractions having made me forget most of the
little knowledge I had once acquired of that flou
rishing language. But though the Alcoran have
stolen too much from the Bible not to contain divers
excellent things, which is one inducement to me to
cite it the oftener, yet certainly, not only the ancient
Latin version of it, made by orders of the abbot Pe-
trus Cluniacensis, and published in the last age, by
the procurement of Bibliander, (and of which this
is the grand critic. Scaliger's exclamation, Deum
immortalem, quam inepta est vulgaris ilia, quam
habemus, inter pretatiop3) would scarce, by our Eu
ropean orators, be thought so much as of kin to
eloquent; but the recent translations I have seen
1 S. Suratx. S. ll.&ndS. 17. "rj*.
* ~T~ „Etsi nihil Pra'er solum Alkoranum (adduxiwet)
satis hoc foret ad eximiam excellentiara supra reliqua, qua;
propheta; adduxcrunt : nam ille miraculum est, quod in secula
durat pra omnibus aliis miraculis. H. Hotting. Hist. Orient.
pagina circitcr 300.
? J. Scaliger Epist. 362; apud Thcod. Hackspan in libro
cui Titulus, Fides et Leges Mohamiedis, p. 2.

214

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

215

of it in French, and, as to divers of it in Latin,
elaborated by great scholars, and accurate Arabi-
cians, by making it very conformable to its eastern
original, have not so rendered it, but that persons
that judge of rhetoric by the rules of it current in
these western parts of the world, would-; instead of
extolling it for the superlative, not allow it the
positive degree of eloquence; would think the
style as destitute of graces, as the theology of
truth; and would possibly as much admire the
Saracen's admiration as they do the book. And
not only what I have seen of the eminent East-
Indians, is strangely incongruous to our notions of
eloquence, but what I have perused of the famous
literati (as they call the learned men) of China,
though written with great care by the authors, and,
as it seems, translated with no less by the knowing
interpreters, would, to an ordinary European ora
tor, appear rather ridiculous than eloquent. But
to content ourselves with the examples we formerly
selected out of the less remote parts of the east ;
since Mahomet, whose eloquence, almost as pros
perous as his sword, was able to bring credit and
proselytes even to such a religion as his; since
Moses, that so celebrated legislator, bred up in the
refining court and all the famed wisdom of the
Egyptians; since Solomon, who had such incom
municable advantages .to improve himself, and
whose wisdom (esteemed capable to have go
verned more kingdoms than his had subjects) the
western world hath for so many ages admired, and
the eastern only not idolized ; and since the pro
phet Daniel, whose promising youth was not only
cultivated by the instructions of the Chaldean
sages, but enjoyed the diviner tutorage of God's

Spirit; and whose matchless abilities preferred
him from a captive, to be the chief as well of the
i Chaldean wise men as the Median princes : since
these applauded writers, I say, whom the eastern
l; 1 1 nations so much and so justly admired, by many
| of our Latinists are not thought good writers, be-
j cause of our differing notions of eloquence; nay,
if amongst Europeans themselves, Cicero hath
found many censurers, and a book hath been pub
lished to prove that Tully was not eloquent, may
not we rationally enough suppose, that the Gre
cian and Roman style amongst the eastern writers
may not be- much better relished than theirs is
amongst us; and that, consequently, in those parts
of the Scripture whose eloquence is not obvious to
us Europeans, the pretended want of eloquence
may be but a differing and eastern kind of it?
Especially if we consider that the ancientest wri
ters in prose now extant amongst us, were scarce
contemporary to the latest writers of the Old Tes
tament; and yet that eloquence, the dress of our
thoughts, like the dress of our bodies, differs not
only in several regions, but in several ages. And
oftentimes in that, as in attire, what was lately
fashionable is now ridiculous, and what now
makes a man look like a courtier, may within these
few lustres make him look like an antic : though
how purely it is the mode that makes such things
appear handsome or deformed, may be readily col
lected from the vicissitudes observable in modes ;
men by intervals relapsing irito obsolete fashions.
That there are great changes in that mode of writ
ing men commonly mistake for eloquence, I shall
produce no less illustrious a witness than Seneca,
who in his hundred and fourteenth epistle, (to

216

ON THE STYLE OF

omit other passages in his works,) not only proves
it at large, but shows that in some ages, even the
faulty ways of expression, conspired in by the
wits of those times, have passed for eloquence.
The Scripture style, then, though it were not elo
quent now, may have excellently suited the genius
of those times its several books were written in ;
and have been very proper for those people it was
primarily designed to work upon. And if I would
presume to be paradoxical in a thing I so little
pretend skill in as eloquence, I might further re
present on this occasion, that rhetoric being but an
organical or instrumental art, in order chiefly to per
suasion, or delight, its rules ought to be estimated
by their tendency and commensurateness to its end,
and consequently are to be conformed to by a wise
man, but so far forth as he judgeth them seasonable
and proper to please or to persuade; which, when
he sees he can do better by declining them than
by practising them, as orators, like hunters, must
oftentimes leave the most beaten paths, if they will
not lose their game, he should not scruple to prefer
the end to the means, the scope of the artist to
what the schools are pleased to call the scope of
the art, and to think it more eligible to speak
powerfully than to speak regularly. And we may
hence consider, that it may be somewhat incon
siderate to judge of all eloquence by the rules of
it that Cicero's admirers impose on us, and con
found their systems of precepts with the art of
rhetoric, as if they were equivalent or of the same
extent. For Cicero being reputed, and that deserv
edly, an. eloquent man, and very successful in per
suading his thus and thus qualified hearers, divers
whose modesty or despair kept them from aspiring

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

217

to more than imitation, observing that Tully often
made use of such and such a contrivance, and such
and such figurative forms of speaking, took the pains
to reduce those observations into rules, which being
highly applauded by their successors, and by them
recruited with some resembling rules drawn from
the practice of a few other orators, were afterwards
compiled into an art, which as I deny not to be a
great help to the imitation of Tully and Demosthenes,
or those others from whose structure and fashions of
speech such institutions have been drawn, so I shall
no more take it foracomplete system of rhetoric than
any instructions deducible from the journals of
Solomon's Tarshish fleets, and from the Grecian
and Romans' sea-voyages, for the true and entire
art of navigation. For if other persons, either by
an endowment or improvement of nature, can find
other equally or more happy and powerful or mov
ing, though never so differing, ways of expressing
themselves, they ought as little to be confined by
the prescriptions acquiesced in before them, as
Columbus thought himself obliged to be by the
rules or practice of ancient navigators, whose
methods and voyages, had he not boldly ventured
to vary from and pass beyond, how vast and rich
a portion of the world had his conformity left un
discovered ! And on this occasion, Theophilus, I
must mention „. one thing that I have observed,
which perhaps you will not think either despicable
or impertinent; and it is, that though the people
of China be esteemed the most numerous, the most
flourishing, and, very few if any excepted, the
most civilized nation in the world, though amongst
them the greatest part of preferments be attainable
by verbal learning, and though they have books

218

ON THE STYLE OF

in their language, how well written I know not,
having never read any of them, of almost all kind
of liberal arts and sciences; yet I find by the late
traveller in China that writ the Italian history of
that kingdom, and by other authors that mention
their literature, that this populous and ingenious
nation, that has been so long settled in a flourishing
condition, and more than any other people allows
encouragements and recompences to, learned men,
has not cared to receive rhetoric into the number of
their arts and sciences ; presuming, as one may
guess, that the confining men's expressions to estab
lished rules would not be so likely to enable those to
express themselves eloquently, that nature has in
disposed to do so, as to hinder others from express
ing themselves, as well as were they left to their
full liberty they would do. I will not say, never
theless, that our strict Ciceronian rules are crutches
that may be helps to weak or lame fancies, but are
clogs or burdens to sound;. and active ones: but
this I observe, that these Utopian laws of oratory
are seldom rigorously imposed by any that publish
other books that may be examined by them : and
that wise men, as well in the west as in the east,
will not easily lose good thoughts or good expres
sions, because they are not reducible to them. And
this I the rather press, because I have found but
too many so blindly servile as to imitate without
discretion or reserve, in applauded authors, as well
the bad as the good ; create such artist's errors,
rules of art ; and make one man's particular fancies,
or perhaps failings, confining laws to others, and
convey them as such to their succeeders, who are
afterwards bold to missname all unobsequiousness
to their incogitancy, presumption ; as Seneca tells

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

219

us of divers imperfections of style, which being fa
miliar to some one who at that time hath the
vogue for eloquence, are upon his score copied by
his imitators, and by them taught to others;1 as,
(says he) when Sallust flourished, his style made
maimed and abrupt sentences, words surprisingly
misplaced, and an obscure brevity pass for orna
ments : and indeed, it is not uneasy for any man to
observe the very weeds of cried up rhetoricians,
cried up for flowers of rhetoric. But having al
ready wandered, perhaps, too far in this digression,
I shall now conclude it ; thou&n since it is for the
Scripture,and with its enemies thatl am contending,
I shall venture to do it with minding our cardinal,
and those that so undervalue the Scripture's ways
of expression in comparison of Tully's, because his
books do so regularly express the rules of elo
quence ; that it is no marvel they should find Ci
cero's writings to be so conformable to their laws
of art, whilst they frame those laws of art out of
his writings.
But, Theophilus, I fear I have detained you too
long in a digression whereinto I slipped but occa
sionally, which is not so necessary to my present
argument, but that I am content you should look
upon the paradox as any thing rather than an
opinion or reasoning whereon I lay any great stress.
In the fourth place then, let me represent to you,
that there are very few, if any, books in the world,
that are no more voluminous, in which there is
greater plenty of figurative expressions than in the

1  Haic vitia unus aliquis inducit, sub quo tunc elo-
quentia est : ccoteri imitantur, et alter alteri tradunt. Sic Sallustio
vigente, amputatic scntcntise, et verba ante exspeclatum cadentia,
ct obscura brevitas, fuerc procultu. Seneca. Epist. cxiv.

220

ON THE STYLE OF

Bible. Though this may seem strange, it is no
more than may be made good by more than some
hundreds of instances; there being few tropes or
figures in rhetoric of which numerous examples
are not collectible out of the expressions of holy
writ. I insist not upon this, because a bare cata
logue of the rhetorical passages I could enumerate
would too much swell an essay ; and I am informed
that task hath been already prosperously under
taken by abler pens. Wherefore I shall now only
say, that the eloquence of the Scripture hath been
highly celebrated by no small number of persons,
highly celebrated for eloquence; and that many,
who thought themselves as intelligent in oratory as
those that censure the Scripture, have suspected
their own eloquence of insufficiency worthily to
extol that of the prophet Isaiah ; and some of them,
(amongst whom I cannot but name that excellent
prince of Mirandula, whom even the greatest rabbi
of this age1 styles the phcenix of his age,) who after
having unsatisfiedly travelled through all sorts of
human volumes, have rested and acquiesced only
in these divine ones : which will not a little recom
mend the Scripture, since we may apply to books
what an excellent poet says of mistresses,
" 'Tis not that which first we love,
But what dying we approve," *

that we express the highest value of. And
indeed, the best artists making two parts of ora
tory; the one which consists in the embellish
ments of our conceptions, and the other that con
sists in the congruity of them to our design and

1 Menasse Ben-Israel.

2 Waller.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

221

method, and the suitable accommodation of them
to the various circumstances considerable in the
matter, the speaker, and the hearers ; this latter is pe
culiarly and inimitably practised in the Scripture ;
and as much of the former (which is not only less
considerable, but is changeable and unagreed of, as
we have newly seen) is made use of as is requisite
to the author's purposes, and to manifest that deli
cacy or smoothness never ceases to be the property
of his style, but because in some cases it would be
incongruous to his des^n. And where these verbal
ornaments are spared, they are not missed ; for as
there are some bodies so well shaped and fashioned
that any clothes become them much better than
the most fine and graceful would do ordinary,
much more crooked or mishapen, persons ; so
there are writings whose matter and structure are
such, that, the plainest language can scarce misbe
come them so as to hinder them from eclipsing a
trifling or ill-matched subject, with the sprucest
and gaudiest expressions tbat can be lavished on
it. But the truth is, that this florid eloquence is
great in many texts, where it is not at all conspi
cuous, being hidden in the matter, as in roses of
diamonds, the jewels often times keep us from
minding the flower and the enamel, and appears
not great, but because it is not the greatest. Some
famous writers have challenged Demosthenes and
Cicero to compare with the prophet Isaiah, in
whom they have not only admired that lofty strain
which artists have termed the sublime character,
but even that harmonious disposition and sound of
words, I mean in their original, which the French
prettily call ' La cadence des periodes.'
Wherefore, Theophilus, whereas I have formerly

222

ON THE STYLE OF

acknowledged that there are some witty men that
speak very disrespectfully of the Scripture, I hope
that if you meet with any such, you will consider,
that it has, among the wits, as well celebrators and
admirers as disregarded. And that you may
think this desire of mine the more reasonable, be
pleased to consider with me, that there are divers
things which ought to lessen the authority of the
disparagers of the Scripture, in the case under con
sideration. For first, how few of them, think you, are wont
to read it in its originals, and how much less a
number is there of those who both know and duly
consider all those particulars represented in the
past discourse on the behalf of the Scripture's
style! So that in a great many men of parts,
their undervaluation of the Scripture proceeds not
from their having great wits, but from their not
having a competent information of what can be
alleged for its justification. :
But though we should suppose those we speak
of not to want information, yet we may well sup
pose many of them not to be free from vanity and
envy, there scarce being any fault so incident to
great wits as the ambition of being thought still
more and more so, and the unwillingness that any
composures but their own, or those they have a
hand in, should be celebrated : as if all praises
were injurious to them that are given to any
other. It need be no great wonder then if so ex
cellent a book as the Scripture, have as well enviers
as admirers; and if there be divers who cavil at it
and seem to undervalue it, out of a criminal fond
ness of the over-ambitioned title of a wit, which
they hope to acquire by unherding and keeping

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

223

out of the road, and owning their being able to
slight and disgrace that which so many others re
verence and venerate.
But, thirdly, it is sufficiently notorious, that of
the opposers of the Scripture, there is a great part
whose vanity and envy, though no small faults, are
not their greatest crimes ; but who live so disso
lutely and scandalously that the suspicion cannot
but be obvious, that such decry the Scripture for
fear of being obliged, at least, for mere shame, to
live more conformably to it. And that it were no
slander to affirm it to be their interest, not their
reason, that makes them find fault with a book that
finds so much fault with them; and they who
are sensible of the truth of that of our Saviour,
where he says, ' That maiiy love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds are evil : ' and that
' he that cloth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh
tothe light, lest his deeds should be reproved,' • will
not be much moved to find conscious malefactors
find fault with the statute-book, but will rather
look upon these sinners' censures of the Scripture
as apologies they judge necessary to palliate their
sins, or as acts of revenge, for their being exposed
in all their deformity to the eyes of the world, and
of their own consciences, in the Bible ; and conse
quently will be inclined to think that their irreli
gious expressions do rather show what they would
have men believe of them, than what they believe
of the Scripture, by seeming to slight which they
hope to have their vices imputed rather to a supe
riority of their reason over that of others, than a
servitude of their reason to their passions.

John, 19, 20.

224

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

225

A long Digression against Prqfaneness, as il
relates io ihe Scripture.
Here I thought to pass on to another argu
ment, but, to express myself in David's words,
' while I was musing, the fire burned,'1 and my zeal
for the Scripture, together with the charity it has
taught me to exercise even towards its opposers,
suffers me not, with either silence or languid re
sentments, to see how much that incomparable
book loses of the opinion of less discerning men,
upon the account of their disrespects, who are,
whether deservedly or not, looked upon as wits.
And therefore to what I have represented to invali
date the authority of those few persons, otherwise
truly witty, that undervalue the Scripture, lam
obliged to add, that besides them there is a number
of those that slight. the Scripture, who are but
looked upon as wits, without being such indeed :
nay, who many of them would not be so much as
mistaken for such, but for the boldness they take
to own slighting of the Scripture and to abuse the
words of it to irreligious senses, and perhaps pass
ing to the impudence of perverting inspired ex
pressions, to deliver obscene thoughts., But to
knowing and serious men, this prevaricating with
the Scripture will neither discredit it nor much re
commend the profane prevaricator ; for a book's
being capable of being so misused, is too unavoid
able to be a disparagement to it. Nor will any
intelligent reader undervalue the charming poems
of Virgil or of Ovid, because by shuffling and dis
guising the expressions, some French writers have
1 Psal. xxxix. 3.

i

of late been pleased out of rare pieces to compose
whole books of what they call vers burlesques, de
signed by their ridiculousness to make their readers
sport; and on the other side, to abuse dismembered
words and passages of any author to meanings
he never dreamed of, is a thing so easy that
almost any man may have the wit to talk at that
profane rate, that will but allow himself the sauci-
n ess to do so. And indeed experience shows, that
if this vice itself do not make its practisers sus
pected of being necessitous of the quality they put
it on to be thought masters of, yet at least persons
intelligent and pious, will not be apt to value any
discourse as truly witty, that cannot please the
fancy without offending the conscience, and will
never admire his plenty that cannot make an en
tertainment, without furnishing out the table with
unclean meats ; and considering persons will scarce
think it a demonstration of a man's being a wit,
that he will venture to be damned to be thought
one. And that which aggravates these men's pro-
faneness, and leaves them excuseless in it, is, that
there are few of these ' fools'' ( for so the wise man
calls them that make a mock of sin) tbat 'have
said in their hearts that there is no God ;'¦ or that
the Scripture is not his word ; their disrespect to
the Scripture springing from their vanity, not their
incredulity. They affect singularity for want of
any thing else that is singular; and finding in them
selves strong,' desires of conspicuousness with small
abilities to attain it, they are resolved, with Eros-
tratus, that fired Diana's temple to be talked of for
having done so, to acquire that considerableness
1 Psal. xiv. 1.

226

t

ON THE STYLE OF

by their sacrilege, which they must despair of from
their parts. And indeed there want not many
who have so little wit as to cry up all this sort of
people for great wits. And as withes, whilst they
are sound, grow unregarded trees ; but when they
once are rotten, shine in the night ; so many of
these pretenders, whilst they were not very profane,
were, and that justly, esteemed very dull ; but now
that their parts are absolutely corrupted and per
verted, they grow conspicuous, only because they
are grown depraved. And I shall make bold to
continue the comparison a little further, and ob
serve, that as this rotten wood shines but in the
night; so many of these pretenders pass for wits
but amongst them that are not truly so. For per
sons really knowing, can easily distinguish be
twixt that which exacts the title of wit from our
judgments, and that which but appears such to our
corruptions. And how often the discourse we cen
sure is of the latter sort, they need not be in
formed that have observed how many will talk
very acceptably in derogation of religion, whom,
upon other subjects, their partiallest friends ac
knowledge very dull ; and who are taken notice of
for persons that seldom say any thing well but
what it is ill to say. And questionless there is no
small number of these scorners, whose censures of
the Scripture's style are little less guilty of pre
sumption than profaneness. I have of late years
met with divers such vain pretenders, who blush
not to talk of rhetoric more magisterially than
Aristotle or Tully would ; and superciliously to
deride, in comparison of their own writings and
theirs who write like them, not the Bible only,
but the most venerated authors of antiquity ; and,

'*', .

V7

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

227

to use Asaph's words, 'They speak loftily, they
set their mouth against the heavens, and their
tongue walketh through the earth;'1 they speak
arrogantly and censoriously both of God and men ;
whilst themselves oftentimes understand no tongue
but their mother's, and are strangers enough to
rhetoric, not to know the difference betwixt a trope
and a figure, betwixt a prosopopoeia and a meta
phor, or betwixt a climax and a metonymy. Nor
is our wonder like to cease, to find these trans
cendent wits (as they are pleased to think them
selves) so undervalue the Scripture, by consider
ing the rare composures they despise it for; these
being commonly no other than some drunken song
or paltry epigram, some fawning love-letter, or
some such other flashy trifle, that doth much more
argue a depressed soul than an elevated fancy.
Some of these gallants, by their tavern-songs, use
the muses like anchovies, only to entice men to
drink. Another, with more solemnity and ap
plause, makes the muses (what the French call)
the confidants of his amours, prostitutes his wit to
evince and celebrate the defeat of his reason, and
never considering how apt self-love makes us to
magnify any thing that magnifies us, is proud to
have wit ascribed him by as bribed as incompe
tent judges of it; and takes it for as high a proof
as desirable a fruit of eloquence, to persuade a
vain mistress that she is handsome and adored, to
whom it were eloquence indeed to be able to per
suade the contrary. Divers of the Jews are wont
to mention the names of deceased sinners with that
brand taken out of the Proverbs, ' May the name

Psalm lxxiii. 8, 0.

Q 2

228

ON THE STYLE OF

ofthe wicked rot;' but as the filthiest swine after
their death are salted, and the gammons made of
their flesh are served in, all stuck with bays ; so
divers that have lived notorious epicures, have too
often, after their death, not only their names salted
(not to say embalmed) with flattering epitaphs,
and, I wish, seldomer, as flattering funeral ser
mons ; but have their drunken or lustful rhymes
extolled with such eulogies by their surviving re-
semblers, that not only good Christians but good
poets cannot but grieve and blush, thus to see
bays, that should be appropriated to and crown
that heavenly gift called poetry, when, mindful of
its dignity and extraction, it endears to us by our
fancies, truths that should have an influence on
our affections, (by clothing excellent thoughts in
suitable and winning dresses,) prostituted and de
graded to make wreaths for those who have no bet
ter title to them than a few sensual rhymes, where
the dictates of Horace are as little conformed to
as the example of David ; and the laws of art little
less violated than those of religion. It is pleasant
to observe in how many of such copies of verses
the themes appear to have been made to the con
ceits, not the conceits for the themes ; how often
the words are not so properly the clothes of the
matter, as the matter the stuffing of the words;
how frequentlysublime nonsense passes for sub
lime wit; and (though, according to my notion
of it, that is indeed true wit which it is more
easy to understand than it is not to admire it)
how commonly confused notions, and abortive or
unlicked conceptions are, in exotic language or am
biguous expressions, exposed to the uncertain adop
tion of the courteous reader ; which the writers are

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

229

emboldened to expect favourable, by finding men
once thought (whether deservedly or otherwise)
lofty wits, to have so often the luck of parrots and
of those that talk in their sleep, who are not seldom
understood by others when they do not understand
themselves. And very much of kin to their verses
is their prose. For though I am far from denying
that those that have store of wit, may express some
of it in an address to a great man, or in writing to
a mistress ; yet as for such rirofane persons I am
now speaking of, who rather would be thought
wits than are so, it is easy to discern that very
many of their almost as much flattered as flatter
ing letters of love and compliment, are but pro
logues to, and paraphrases ofthe subscription," your
humble servant." Though love be universally
thought to make the fancy soar, (lovers like sealed
pigeons, flying the higher for having been blinded,)
and though even the wiser observe, that, like war
which is wont as well to raise soldiers of fortune as
to ruin men of fortune, love warms and elevates
lesser wits, though it too often infatuate the great
ones ; yet a witty lady did not scruple to say fre
quently, that give her but leave to bar half a score
words, such as she pleased to name ; and she would
undertake to spoil all the fine letters of our amorous
gallants. I applaud not the severity of this lady;
and think her challenge relishes as much of vanity
as skill ; but yet, to express the sense of these few
words, " I desire you should think I can write well,
am^a civil person, and your humble servant," being
the drift and substance of most of these ceremonial
papers; these (oftentimes as tedious as servile) am-
plificators, with all their empty multiplicity of fine
words, do but, like market-people, pay a piece in

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231

twenty shillings. In witsnot blessed with solid reason
and learning, (that is, in most readers,) fancy being
the predominant faculty, makes them relish those
writings most where fancy unrivalled reigns. And
therefore, though I dare not say that it requires no
great parts for those to write high and acceptable
compliments, that think nothing fit to be endea
voured in compliments, but to make them accept
able by making them high enough; (flattery and
profaneness seeming in such composures what
spots are in leopards, blemishes that make a great
part of their beauty ;) or for a flatterer to persuade
those vain persons that will readily believe a man,
even when he doth not believe himself; yet sure it
gives much latitude and liberty to a writer, not to
be obliged to believe what he says, nor say but
what he thinks either will be or ought to be be
lieved. And truly, they that exercise their pens
on either sort of themes (I mean those that require
only new or pleasing fancies and smooth language;
and those that require learning and knowledge per- .
tinently and handsomely expressed) do, I doubt not,
find it much less difficult for writers to delight,
where they propose themselves no higher end, and
scruple at nothing they judge conducive to that in
ferior one, than to please, where to do so is but a
subordinate end, which men allow not themselves
even the use of all proper means to attain ; nor
do I question but such persons find it far more
easy to write acceptably on subjects where they
are not tied to speak either reason or truth, than
to write well on a theme where men are con
fined to write nothing but what they judge useful,
and what they can make good ; as considering that
they may be called to account by men for what

4

they publish, if not by .God, both for their own
time and that of their readers. And, indeed, when
I compare the most applauded trifles of these un
dervalues of the Scripture style, with the celebra
ting discourses of it extant in the learned writings
of St. Austin, St. Jerome, Tertullian, Lactantius,
Chrysostom, Mirandula, and others, whose pene
trant and powerful arguments defeat not God's
enemies, as Samson did the Philistines with a jaw
bone of an ass,1 nor as Shamgar with an ox-goad *
(I mean with blunt and despicable weapons,) but
as Elias did, with fire from heaven;3 and whose
apologetical defences of the spiritual Jerusalem are
glittering and solid, as the wall of the heavenly
Jerusalem is described to be of jasper, and the
foundations of the wall garnished with all manner
of precious stones : 4 when I compare, I say, the
composures of our frothy censurers with those of
the sacred orators ; methinks I discern such a dif
ference betwixt them, as I have observed betwixt
those justly admired statues I have seen in the
Capitol, and the larger sort of babies that we find
in the Exchange : for the former, besides their vast
ness, are so recommended by the worth and per
manency of their matter, the excellency of the
workmanship, and the nobleness of what they re
present, that they are most prized by the best
artists, and time is not only unable to consume
them, but still increases men's value of them ;
whereas the latter are little trifles, scarce welcome
to any but children in understanding ; and ad
mired only for a gaudy effeminate dress, which

Judges, xv. 15. a Ibid. iii. 31. 3 2 Kings, i. 10.
4 Rev. xxi. 10, 10, 1 0.

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will quickly either be sullied or worn out ; and a
fashionableness which within a short while will
perhaps be ridiculous. But, supposing at length
that the profane aspirer should be so lucky, or so
successful, (for happy I cannot think it,) as to at
tain the so criminally courted notedness, yet will
he have no great cause to boast the purchase, when
he seriously considers, that the devil, who seduces
other sinners like men with current coin or spark
ling jewels, (something that either advantages
their interests or delights tlieir senses,) hath in
veigled him, like a child, with a whistle ; a trifle
that only pleases with a transient and empty sound;
and, that fame is a blessing only in relation to the
qualities and the persons that give it : since "other
wise, the tormented prince of devils himself were
as happy as he is miserable; and famousness un
attended with endearing causes is a quality so un
desirable, that even infamy and folly can confer it.
As Momus is little less talked of than Homer ; the
unjust Pilate is more famous than Aristides the
Just; and Barabbas's name is signally recorded in
Scripture, whereas the penitent thief is left unmen-
tioned. And sure the highest favours that applause
can impart, and the being (though never so loudly)
cried up for a wit, will hardly so repair the punish
ment of profaneness, but that its wretched sufferer
will find but small satisfaction in having his name
celebrated in other books, whilst it is blotted out of
tbat of life. And as for those (you know whom I
mean) that aspiring to posthumous glory,endeavour
to acquire it by irreligious writings, destinated not to
see the light till their authors be gone to the region
of darkness, I cannot but admire to see an ambi
tion that projects beyond the grave, stop short of

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233

heaven ; and cannot but think those wits the great
est fools, who to tempt praises they shall never
hear, provide themselves torments that they shall
ever feel. For, though profaneness by those that
are guilty of it be too often thought but a small
sin, because they look upon it but as a verbal one,
yet I could easily represent it under another notion,
if I would here repeat what I have discoursed
touching indulgence to reputedly small and verbal
sins in another paper, from which, though I will
not now transcribe any thing, yet I cannot but
wish it were well considered how affronting speeches
concerning God's word are like to be looked upon
in that great day, when (to borrow St. Jude's
terms) ' the Lord shall come with ten thousands of
his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to
convince all that are ungodly among them,' not
only ' of all their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed ;' but also ' of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
him.' * And, indeed, these presumed peccadillos,
though oftentimes in health and prosperity, they
appear not to us to blemish much our consciences,
yet, when in our distresses or at the approaches of
death, God comes, as the prophet speaks, to ' search
men's hearts as it were with candles, and punish
the men that are settled upon their lees,'5 (which
whilst a liquor is, it may look clear, and be taken
for defecated, but a little agitation of the vessel
strait makes it troubled and muddy,) they appear
in a terrifying form. For as paper written upon
with juice of lemons may wear white (the livery of
innocence) whilst it is kept from the fire, but

Jude, ver. 14, 15.

Zcph. i. 12.

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ON THE STYLE OF

being held to ii, black lines do presently appear ;
so out of many consciences that seem clear in
prosperity, the fire of adversity draws out the latent
blacknesses, and makes us read things undiscerned
there before. And questionless, if, as the Scripture
informs us, there are sins whose cry is able to reach
heaven,' so loud a crime as the profaneness I am
now speaking of, is likely to do more than whisper
there ; especially since it is much to be feared, that
many of these scoffers (as they seem to be called in
the Scripture, which they bear witness to, by
cavilling at it) do 'rebel against the light,' and
'kick against the pricks'8 of their own consciences;
such a crime, I say, will be so far from whispering
in heaven, that it will rather give an alarm that
will rouse up provoked justice ; whose inflictions,
like stones tumbled down from the towers of an
assaulted place, the longer they are in falling on
men, the more fatally they oppress them ; in which
regard, perhaps, the feet of our Saviour in the Apo
calypse are described to be like unto fine brass, as
if they burned or glowed in a furnace;3 to intimate,
that though he be very slow in his march to destroy
the wicked, yet be is as sure, when once he pleases
to tread them under foot, to crush and consume
them. If there be no injury that more exasperates
than contempt, and no contempt that more pro
vokes than that which offends directly and imme
diately, (the affronters thereby proclaiming that
they are neither ashamed nor afraid of angering,)
how provoking may we think that crime which
makes God the subject of our derision ; and that

Gen. xviii. 21.

' 2 Pet. iii. 3; Jude, ver. 17, IB.
3 Rev. i. 15.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

235

with so little circuition, as to abuse that word
which he so solemnly declared his mind by to man
kind ! Plutarch, to manifest how much some idola
ters did more incense the Deity than some atheists,
tells us, he should esteem himself less injured by
the man that should doubt or deny that there was
ever any such man as Plutarch ; than by him tbat
should affirm that there was such a one indeed, but
that he was an old fellow, that used, like the poet's
Saturn, to devour his children ; and was guilty of
those other crimes imputed by the heathen to their
gods. Upon a like account we may esteem God
less provoked by their unbelief that doubt or reject
the Scripture, than by their profaneness that make
so sacrilegiously bold with it ; since the latter im
pute to God the enditing of what they endeavour
to make men think fit to have sport made with.
This of profaneness is so empty and unprofitable a
sin, that it scarce gets the practiser any thing but
an ill name amongst good men upon earth, and a
worse place amongst bad men in hell ; by making
his enmity to piety so malicious and so disinterest
ed, that he will endeavour to do religion harm,
though it be to do himself no good.: He is such a
volunteer sinner, that he hath neither the wit nor
the excuse of declining his conscience in compli
ment to his senses ; and though he ever makes but
an ill bargain that gets in hell to boot; yet those
I would reclaim, come far short of the comparative
wisdom of their folly, who to gain so considerable
(though yet over-purchased) a possession as tbe
whole world, should part with their own souls.
And sure a sin that is injurious to God's glory,
and is apt to subvert (what he and good men prize
next) the dearly purchased, immortal, and invalu-

236

ON THE STYLE OF

able souls of men ; and to •" destroy them for whom
Christ died;" will not, by being verbal, be pro
tected from being heinous ; and to those that prac
tise it, I shall recommend the latter half of the
epistle of Jude; which, though it seem properly to
relate to the Gnostics or Carpocratians of his time,
will deserve a trembling attention from those that
revive the sins there condemned in ours ; and who
would do well, by seasonably considering the fate
there threatened to their predecessors, to tremble at
their crime. But for fear of losing it, I shall not
spend more time in endeavouring to disabuse our
scorners; whom I should have left to the quiet
enjoyment of their unenvied self-admiration, had
not their despising the Scripture upon a pre
sumption of their own matchless wit, (like Jero
boam that forsook that incomparable structure,
the temple, where God did so gloriously and pecu
liarly manifest himself to men, to worship calves
of his ovyn making, s) engaged me, in conformity
to the wise man's counsel in such cases, to ' an
swer the fool according to his folly, lest he be wise
in his own conceit :'3 for my reproofs are addressed
to those called, wits, but as they are traducers or
undervalued of the Scripture ; not as they either
pretend to, or enjoy a quality which I have the
justice to esteem, though not the happiness to pos
sess; and which my value for it, and my charity
for men, makes me troubled to see arrogated by
many that want it; and by too many that have it,
prostituted to gratify other people's pride, or their
own lusts.

1 Romans, xv. 15. ' I Kings, xii. 28, 32.
3 Proverbs, xxvi. 5.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

237

\i

An Appendix to ihe former Digression, inviting one
sort ofivitty men to make amends for the prof ane-
ness of another.
How much happier were it for persons of
choice parts to employ them, as Bezaleel and
Aholiab did theirs, in working for the sanctu
ary; in asserting and embellishing divinity ! The
structure will not alone deserve the skilfullest
hand; but though it reject not goats' hair, and
coloured badgers' skins, will admit not only purple
and fine twined linen, but gold, silver, and pre
cious stones : ' the richest ornaments that learning
and eloquence can grace theology with, being not
only merited by that heavenly subject, but being
applicable to it, as much to their own advantage
as to that of their theme. We see how ambitious
are men to leave a good name behind them, and
appear in the habit of virtue to their own and after
times. Witness the artifices and hypocrisy men
generally veil or disguise their sins with, and the
flattering, epitaphs with, which so many vicious
persons endeavour to convey themselves to the
opinion of posterity. Now, they that write piously
as well as handsomely, have the advantage of get
ting themselves the reputation as well of virtuous
as of able men ; and besides that double recom
pence, may expect a third, transcending both, in
heaven, where they that, in the true Scripture sense,
be ' wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firma
ment, and they that turn many to righteousness,
as the stars for ever and ever.'8 It is the general
complaint and grief of persons truly zealous, that

Exod. xxiii. 3, 4, 5, &c

s Dan. xii. 3.

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ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

239

there are many more wits and grandees now-a-days,
who, by perverting God's gifts to the service of
idols (of pride or pleasure) of their own setting
up, resemble the degenerate Jewish church, of
whom God complains by Hosea, that 'she did
not know that he gave her the corn and wine and
oil, and multiplied her silver and her gold which
they prepared for Baal ;' ¦ than that, by an hum
ble dedication of their choicest abilities to God's
service, imitate holy David and his princes; who,
having consecrated their gold and silver and pre
cious stones, towards the enriching and embellish
ing of the temple, perfumed that vast offering
with this acknowledgment to God ; ' All things
come of thee, and thine own have we given thee."
But though now I know divers great persons and
great wits amongst us, who, very unmindful of
that text, ' What hast thou that thou didst not re
ceive?'3 like those ungrateful clouds that obscure
the sun that raised them, oppose the glory of that
God who elevated them to that height ; yet I do
not absolutely despair, that as God hath been
pleased to make use of several royal pens for the
tracing of his word, and to make a person learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians his first secre
tary ; so he will one day engage both the grandees
and the wits to strive to expiate, by their devo
tion and service tothe Scripture, the injuries that
irreligious parts and greatness have done it. I
will not tell you, Theophilus, that an early study
of religion would gain to its party most of those
many wits that will be sure to contend for what
ever opinion is expressed by the wittiest things
1 Hosea, ii. 8. * 1 Chron. xxix. 14. a 1 Cor. iv. 7.

they can say. But I will tell you, that a particu
lar consideration that makes me wish to see witty
writers more generally employ their pens on the
behalf of religion, is, that the services they do it
\t endear it to them ; for as Macchiavel smartly ob
serves, and as the love of parents and nurses to
children may evince; La natura degli huomini e
cosi obligarsi per i benefici che si fanno, come per
quelli che si ricevono. ' " It is natural to men to be
as well engaged by the kindnesses they do as by
those they receive." And for the encouragement
ofthe possessors of great parts to employ them on
religious themes, such as the Holy Scripture, I
shall represent to them, that even that immortality
of name which worldly writers, for the most part,
solely aim at, is not by pious writers less found for
being last sought : their theme contracts not their
fame by a true diminution, but only by compari
son to a greater good : their looking upon their
own glory but as an accession to God's, not hinder
ing others from praising that wit and eloquence
they praise God with; as beauty makes itself ad
mirers, though in vestals; and a rare voice may
ravish us with a psalm ; or as the jewels that
adorned it, shone with their wonted lustre on
Aaron's breast-plate. Yes, 'as godliness is pro
fitable unto all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come;"
and as the ' hundred-fold now in this time,' is
very consistent with the ' eternal life in the world
to come;'3 so is it very possible for the same pi
ous writer to have his name written, at once in

1 Nicholo Macchiavelli, nellibio del principe, c. 10.
8 1 Tim. iv. 8. ' Mark, x. 30.

240

ON THE STYLE OF

both those immortal books of life and fame; and,
like the inspired poet, holy David, wear as well
here a crown of laurel, as hereafter, tov apapavnvov
rije coijjjs ¦styavov, that unfading crown of glory
St. Peter speaks of.1 And though we are too gene
rally now-a-days, grown so sinful, that we scarce
relish any composure that endeavours to reclaim us
from being so ; yet less licentious and more discern
ing times, which may be, perhaps, approaching, will
repair the omissions and fastidiousness of the pre
sent, by an eminent gratitude to the names of
those that have laboured lo transmit to others, in
the handsomest dress they durst give them, the
truths themselves most valued. And I observe,
that though Solomon himself delivered so many
thousand songs and proverbs, and the nature of
beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, together with the
history of plants from the ' cedar of Lebanon,
even to the hysop that springeth out of the wall ;'s
yet those three only treatises, designed peculiarly
for the instruction of the church, survive their lost
companions. And, as anciently the manna which
the Israelites gathered to employ in their domes
tic uses, lasted not unputrefied above a day or
two ; but that which they laid up in the sanctuary,
to perpetuate or secure God's glory, continued
whole ages uncorrupted ;3 so the books written to
serve our private turns of interest or fame, are
oftentimes short-lived ; when those consecrated to
God's honour are, for that end's sake, vouchsafed
a lastingness and kept from perishing. And those
many dull and uneloquent glosses and expositions
1 Pet. v. 4. '1 ICings, iv. 31, 32, 33.
3 Exod.xvi. 20, 33, 34.

1

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

241

of the ancient Jews, that the merit of their theme
hath preserved for so many ages, may assure us,
that the Scripture doth often make their names
and writings that illustrate it, partakers of its own
prerogative of immortality. Not to mention that
(according to that of the Psalmist, 'I have more
understanding than all my teachers ; because thy
testimonies are my meditation,'1) such an em
ployment of parts doth oftentimes invite God
to increase them ; as he that had most talents
committed to him, for improving them to his
Lord's service, was trusted with more of them ; 3
and he who employed some few cups of his wine
to entertain our Saviour, had whole vessels of his
water turned into better wine.3; Certainly, tran
scendent wits, when once they addict themselves to
theological composures, improve and grace most
excellently themes so capable of being so improved.
They need small time to signalize their pens; for
possessing already in a sublime degree all the re
quisites and appropriates of rate writers, they need
but apply that choice knowledge and charming
eloquence to divine subjects, to handle them to ad
miration ; as Hiram successfully used the skill he
had learned in Tyre, in the building and adorning
of God's temple;4 and Jephthah victoriously em
ployed the military gallantry and art that had
made him considerable in the land of Tob, in de
fending the cause, and defeating the enemies of
God.s Of this truth the primitive times afford us
numerous and noble instances; but especially that
stupendous wit St. Austin, (whom I dare oppose

Psalm cxix. 90. s Matt. xxv.
* 1 Kings, vii. 13, 14, &c.

2C.

3 John, ii. 1 — 10.
5 Judges, xi.
R

242

ON THE STYLE OF

to any of the wits that have clared to oppose, the
Scripture,) the production of whose wit in his un-
regenerate state, and after his conversion to the
Catholic faith and piety, oblige me to resemble him
to Aaron's rod, which, supposing the truth of their
opinion that think it to be the same that Moses
used, whilst it was employed abroad, did indeed
for a while work wonders, that made it much ad
mired ; but when once it came to be laid up in the
tabernacle, unconfined to the usual laws of other
plants, it shot forth and afforded permanent fruit in
a night.1 But, Theophilus, to recover myself at
length from my over-prolix digression, I must re
member, that it was objected, that'as well divers
great princes and great statesmen, as many great
wits disesteem, or at least neglect, the Scripture;
and, indeed, though I am. sorry it cannot, yet it
must not be denied, that notwithstanding all the
prerogatives of the Bible, there needs not much ac
quaintance with great men, to show many of them,
that though they deny not God to be tbe author,
deny themselves the blessing of being readers of
it : some out of laziness, and others out of pride ;
both which lurk under tbe pretext of multiplicity
of important avocations. But, since . your quality,
Theophilusi and station in the world, may either
make you need to be armed against this temptation,
or give you opportunities to. assist those that are
endangered by it, give me leave on this occasion
to tell you, that those grandees that pretend want
of leisure for their neglect of the reading of the
Scripture, muse be able to give a rare account of
all the portions of their time, to make those pass
for a misemployment of it that are laid out lo-
1 Numb. xvii. 4, 8.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

243

wards the purchase of a happy eternity, which it is
not over modest for those to expect from God, that
grudge him the rent of that time of which they are
but his tenants at will. But to manifest how un
likely this pretence is to pass current, I shall re
present, that in the self-same chapter where God
fashions a king fit to govern his own people; he
enjoins concerning the book of the law, that ' it
shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the
days of his life;'1 which the next verse intimates
shall be thereby-prolonged ;s and, indeed, it often
happens, that as Samuel's barren mother, for lend
ing one of her children fr^ly unto the Lord, was
blessed with many others ;3 lso the days consecrated
to God's service rather improve than impoverish
our stock of time. Nay, the king was (in that
place of Deuteronomy') not only obliged to read
the law, but to write it too : upon which subject,
if I misremember not, the learnedest of the rabbies
tells us, that the king (as indeed God usually
charges eminence of place with eminence of piety)
was bound to write it out himself, and that as king;
for, though before his ascending the throne, as any
other Israelite.* he had a transcript of his own
writing, yet was there annexed to the acquist of
the regal sceptre, a duty of copying with the same
hand that swayed it.s To Joshua, both a general
and a judge, who was to wield the swords both of
Astrea and of Bellona ; to govern one numerous
people and conquer seven ; the words of God are
very remarkable : ' This book of the law shall not
depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate

1 Deut. xvii,
* Verse 18.

18, 19. ' Verse 20. 3 1 Sam. ii. 20, 21.
5 Rambam, or, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon.

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ON THE STYLE OF

therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to
do according to all that is written therein ; for then
thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then
thou shalt have good success.' ' David was a
shepherd, a conqueror, and a king, and had cer?
tainly no unfrequent distractions, both before he
came to the crown, (whilst he lived a despised
younger brother, an envied courtier, a diffident fu
gitive, and a distrusted captain,) and after, whilst
he wore, lost, and regained it; but how little the
time employed in the study of the Scripture pre
judiced his secular affairs his story and successes
may attest ; and how large a portion of his time
that study shared, you maybe plentifully informed
by himself, and save me the transcribing much of
the Book of Psalms. He gathered bays both on
Parnassus and in the field of honour; and equally
victorious in duels and in battles, his exploits and
his conquests were such, as (transcending those in
romances almost as much in their strangeness as
their truth) needed an infallible historian to exact
a belief which their greatness and their number
would dissuade; he added to his regal crown of
gold, two others (of bays and laurel) which his
successful sword and numerous pen, making him
both a conqueror and a poet, gained him from
victory and the muses; and yet for all this great-'
ness and this fame, and that multitude of distrac
tions that still attends them, the (then extant)
Scripture was so unseveredly his study, and he so
duly matched in his practice what the apostle
couples in his precept, ' diligence in business,' and
' fervency in Spirit," that it is not easy fitlier to re-

Josh, i. 8.

8 Rom. xii.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

245

semble him, than to the winged cherubims in the
old tabernacle, whom all the gold and jewels that
glittered about them, and all the clouds of incense
that fumed before them, could never divert from a
fixed posture towards the ark ofthe testimony that
contained the law, and the mercy-seat that repre
sented Christ.1
And indeed, it is a saying equally ancient and
true, that none should know things better and
better things than princes. For their virtues and
their vices participate the eminence and authority
of their condition; and by an influential exem-
plariness, so generally fashion and sway their sub
jects, that as we find in sacred story that the Jews
served God or Baal as their kings did ; so profane
history tells us, that Rome was warlike under
Romulus, superstitious under Numa, and so suc
cessively moulded into the dispositions of her
several princes. Subjects, all the world over, be
ing apt to think imitation a part of the duty of
obedience; and being generally but too sensible
of the requisiteness of their being like their prince
to the being liked by him ; a state, like Nebuchad
nezzar's mysterious image, should have the head
of gold, and the inferior members of a value pro
portionate to their vicinity to that noblest part.8
When once I shall see such monarchies and com
monwealths no rarities, and see the addictedness of
princes to the study of the Scripture, furthering the
ulterior accomplishment of that part of it which
once promised God's people, 'that kings should
be its nursing fathers, and their queens its nurs-

1 Deut. xxr. 18—21.

8 Dan. ii. 31, 32, &c.

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ON THE STYLE OF

.ing mothers;'1 I shall expect to see the golden age
elsewhere than in poets' dreams. For I take not
absoluteness to be like a plague, whose almost
boundless power is confined to do mischief; but I
esteem sovereignty little less applicable and effec
tual to good than ill. Trajan and Constantine
were as great and public blessings, as Nero or
Caligula were mischiefs; and virtue on a throne
hath not a much less imperious influence than
crowned vice. And accordingly I shall permit
my good wishes for mankind to turn to expecta
tions, when I shall generally see sovereigns nobly
contend for as great a superiority over each other
by their virtues, as they possess over their subjects
by their fortune ; when I shall see potentates make
use of Mars' sword but to restrain others from
abusing it; and kings affect their resemblance to
God less in his unlimitedness of power than his
employment of it. , But, to step back into myjvay,
and leaving princes to fitter monitors, say some
thing to men of either great titles or employments.
There is none of these'pragmatical persons that will
suffer himself to be so enslaved to his business, but
he will allow himself set times, and can daily find
leisure for eating, drinking, and other corporeal re
fections, and frequently for ; recreations; and cer
tainly, if we valued not our own bodies above bur
souls, we would, in spite of the urgency of secular
affairs and employments, reserve and set apart
some time to feed] our souls with their true food,
God's word ; else we shall never be able to say of
God with, holy; Job, 1 1 have esteemed the words
1 Isaiah, xlix. 23.

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THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

247

#

of his mouth more than my necessary food.'1 I
will not urge that Daniel, whose vast abilities had
a resembling theatre, and who surpassed other
statesmen as much in the number and weight of
the affairs he had to manage, as in the excellent
spirit and dexterity wherewith he managed them,
amidst transactions that busied six score princes,
who loaded him with a weight of business capable
to have crushed Atlas, could yet find leisure to
study the prophet Jeremiah:8 because it will be
perhaps more proper to mention, that even Mac-
chiavel himself, that secretary and reputed oracle
of state, could find time not only to read but to
write plays, (some of which I have seen in Italian,)
such as I would not think excellent, though a per
son from whom so much might be expected had
not written them. Let us not then think our busi
ness or our recreations a sufficient dispensation
from an employment, for which, were they incon
sistent, they ought both to be declined ; since it is
both more concerning than the first, and more
satisfying than the latter. . But tbat which is often
the true, though seldom the avowed cause of these
men's neglect of the Scripture, is not their unlei-
suredness, but tlieir pride ; which makes them
think it too mean and trivial an employment for
one that is great and wise enough to counsel and
converse with princes, and have a vote or hand in
those great enterprises^ and transactions that make
such a noise in the world, and are the loud themes
of the people's talk and wonder, to amuse them
selves to examine the significations of words and
phrases. For my part I am no enemy to the call-

Job, xxiii. 12.

8 Dan. vi. 3 ; ix. 2.

248

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

240

ing of statesmen ; I think their profession as re
quisite as others in a commonwealth ; and should
think it very injurious to deny them any part of a
purchase they pay their care and time for: nor
perhaps have I so little studied the improvements
of quiet, as to think myself less obliged than others
are, to those whose watchings or protection affords it
or secures it me. But after all this is said, I love
to look upon the world with his eyes that is justly
.said to ' humble himself (when he vouchsafes)
to behold the things that are done in heaven and
in earth ;' ¦ and to take measure of the dimensions
of things by the scale his word holds forth. Now
in the esteem of him that hath made all things for
himself, and of whom his Spirit by his prophet
truly says, that the ' nations are as a drop of a
bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the
balance;' nay, that 'all nations before him (are)
as nothing, and they are counted to him less than
nothing and vanity;'8 the importantest employ
ments are the study and the glory of God. He
created this vast fabric ofthe world to manifest his
wisdom, power, and goodness ; and in. it created
man, that it may have an intelligent spectator, and
a resident whose rational admiration of so divine
a structure may accrue to : the glory of the om
niscient and almighty Architect. And as he
created tbe world to manifest some of his attri-;-
butes, so doth he uphold and govern it to disclose -
others of them. The revolution of monarchies, the
fates of princes, and destinies of nations, are but
illustrious instances and proclamations of his provi
dence. The whole earth once perished by water to

\t

Psalm cxiii. G.

8 Isaiah, xl. 13, 17.

signalise his justice on his enemies; and the whole
world shall one day perish by fire to exercise that
former attribute and evidence his goodness to his
children ; for whom his faithfulness to his promises
will oblige him to build a gioriouser mansion for
such glorified residents. The angels, some of whom
the visions of Daniel represent as at the helm of
kingdoms and of empires,1 and whose power is so
great, that one of them could in one night destroy
a force capable, if divided, to have made half a
dozen formidable armies:8 these glorious spirits,
I say, whose nature so transcends ours, that the
very devil can, without the assistance of virtue,
despise the objects of our ambition by a supe
riority of nature only ; for all their high preroga
tives and employments think the mysteries unfolded
in Scripture worthy their bowing as well as desire
to look into,3 think not themselves too emi
nent to be messengers and heralds, of what
fond mortals think themselves too eminent to
read : and, ' being all ministering spirits sent forth
to minister to them who shall be heirs of salva
tion,'4 disdain not to think our instruction worth
their concern, whilst we disdain a concern for our
own instruction; nay, the very Messias, whose
style is ' King of kings and Lord of lords.'5
though he be not recorded to have ever read but
once,6 did yet read the Scripture; and think it
worthy his expositions and recommending; and
well may any think that book worth the reading
that God himself thought worth the enditing.
When Moses and Elias left their (local not real)
1 Dan. x. 13. 8 2 Kings, xix. 35. ' napttMai, 1 Pet. i. 12.
* Heb. i. 14. * Rev. xvii. 14. ^Luke.iv. 17, &c.

250

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

251

heaven, and appeared in glory to converse with
our transfigured Saviour on the Mount, their dis
course was not of the government of kingdoms, or
the raising of armies forthe subversion of empires,
or of those other solemn trifles, which heaven places
as much beneath men's thoughts as residence ; but
of ^the inspired book's chief theme) ' his decease
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.' ' And
after that St. Paul had been caught up to the third
heaven,8 and had been blest and refined with his
ineffable entertainment there, I wonder not to
find him profess so resolutely, that he * counteth all
things but loss for the excellency ofthe knowledge
of Jesus Christ his Lord;'3 in whom * faith cometh
by hearing, and that hearing of the Word of God ; '*
and who addresses men to the Scriptures,: as those
which testify of him. And perhaps our Saviour
used so frequently to conclude his divine dis
courses, with that just epiphonema, 'He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear,'4 but to teach us that
there is no employment of our faculties that more
deserve their utmost attention, than the scrutiny of
divine truths. That which is pretended to by this
discourse, is to impress this truth, that where God
is allowed to be an intelligent and equal valuer of
things, a man cannot have so great an employment
as to give him cause to think the study of the
Scripture a mean one : since, thus saith the Lord,
' Let not the wise man glory iu his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the
rich man glory in his riches; but let him that
glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and

1 Luke, ix. 31. 8 2 Cor. xii. 2. 3 Phil. iii. 8.
• Rom. x. 17. 5 John, v. 39.

\-

knoweth me.'1 For sure, if the knowledge of God
be so glorious a thing, the study of that book
whence that knowledge is extracted, and where it
it is most refulgent, is not a despicable employment :
which sure (to add that upon the by) it is some
what injuriously thought by those who are so in
dustrious and proud in profane histories and other
political books, to discover, or even guess at, those
intrigues wliich commonly but tell us by what crafty
arts a knave cozened a fooh Nor (to mention this by
the by) even in relation to his own profession, is the
Scripture unable to recompense the study of a Chris
tian statesman; fortoomitthe (perhaps too) extolling
mention Machiavel himself makes of Moses amongst
the famousest legislators, the historical part of the
Bible being endited by an omniscient and unerring
Spirit, lays clearly open the true and genuine
causes of the establishment, flourishing, and vi
cissitudes of the princes and commonwealths it
relates the story of; whereas other histories (for
reasons insisted on in other papers) are liable to
great suspicions in the judgment of those that
duly ponder the several narratives made often of the
same transaction or event by several eye-witness
es : and that the true secret of counsels is so closely
locked up, or so artificially disguised, that to have
interest enough to discern (what statesmen mind
and build on) the truth and mystery of affairs, one
must be biased and engaged enough to be shrewdly
tempted to be a partial relator of them. But Theo-
philus, I perceive I have slipped into too long a di
gression, which yet I hope you will pardon as the
effect of an indiscreet, perhaps, but however a great
concern for a person, to whom nature, education,
and fortune have been so indulgent, that I cannot
1 Jer. xix. 23, 24.

252

ON THE STYLE OF

but look upon his condition as liable to the tempta
tions which either parts or employments singly,
and much more both together, are wont to expose
men to. But to return.
Yon may remember, Theophilus, that among
the answers which I told you might be made to
those that objected against the Scripture, " That
it is so unadorned, and so ill-furnished with elo
quent expressions, that it is wont to prove ineffi
cacious, especially upon intelligent readers." The
fifth and last was this, " That it is very far from
being agreeable to experience, that the style of the
Scripture does make it unoperative upon the gene
rality of its readers, if they be not faultily indis
posed to receive impressions from it."
To make good this reply, I must take notice to
you, that that part of the objection which inti
mates that intelligent readers are not wont to be
wrought upon by the Scripture, has been in great
part answered already ; for I have lately observed
lo you, that as it may be granted that some witty
men who have read the Scripture, have, instead of
admiring it, quarrelled with it; so it cannot be
denied that many persons as eminent for wit as
they, have upon reading it entertained a high ve
neration for it. So that I see not why the celebra
tions of those wits that admire it, may not counter
balance the disrespects of those that cavil at it.
Especially if we consider, that as to most of those
that are looked upon as the witty disregarded of
the Scripture, scarce any thing so much as the
vanity and boldness of owning that they disregard
it, makes them (but undeservedly) be looked upon
as wits.
But to this, I shall now add, that whereas the
objection speaks of intelligent readers, the greatest

\?

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

253

part of such have not that quickness which is wont
to make men pass for wits, though they may have
other abilities more solid and desirable. And yet
that the Bible has a great influence upon this lat
ter sort of intelligent readers, I presume you will
easily believe, if you consider how many great
scholars, not only professed divines, but others,
have, by their learned comments and other writings,
endeavoured either to illustrate or recommend the
Scripture ; and how much a greater number of un
derstanding and sober men, that never published
books, have evinced the Scripture's power over
them, partly by their sermons and other discourses,
public and private, and partly by endeavouring to
conform their lives to the dictates of it : which last
clause I add, because you can scarce make a better
estimate of what power the Scripture has upon men,
than by looking at what it is able to make them
part with. For not to anticipate what we shall
ere long have occasion to mention, let us but con
sider what numbers of intelligent persons almost
every age, without excepting our own, (as degene
rate as it is,) has produced who have been taught
and prevailed with by the Scripture, and consider
ations drawn thence, to renounce all the greatest
sinful pleasures, and embrace a course of life that
oftentimes exposes them to the greatest dangers,
and very frequently to no small hardships.
And, indeed, there is scarce any sort of men on
which the Scripture has not had a notable influence,
as tothe reforming and improving many particular
persons belonging to it; and to the giving them an
affectionate veneration for the book whereunto
they owed their instruction. The accounts eccle
siastical history gives us of the rate at which devout

254

ON THE STYLE OF

TIIE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

255

persons, both in former and latter ages, would pur
chase the Bible, when it was dangerous, and per
haps capital, to be found possessed of it, would, if
I should here repeat them, much confirm what I
say, and might equally create pur wonder and our
blushes. Those sorts of professed Christians that
seem the most evidently to be liable to temptations
to neglect or disregard the Scripture, are either
those that do, or would pass for wits, or those that
live in courts. The former oftentimes thinking
themselves too wise to be taught, especially by a
book they think not eloquent ; and among the lat
ter there being but too many whose pleasures are
so bewitching, or so dear to them, that they like
nothing that would divert, much less divorce them
from their pursuit, or else whose business is so
much and perhaps so important, that they have not
leisure enough to learn, or have too much pride to
think they need do it ; but yet even among those
that have worn crowns either of gold or bays, or
(what perhaps some value above both) of myrtle,
the Bible has not wanted votaries ; for not to repeat
the names of those whom I have formerly men
tioned to have been as well lovers of the Scripture
as favourites of the muses; ; among the other sort
of men,: "those that' (to speak in our Saviour's
terms) ' are gorgeously apparelled, lived delicately,
and are in kings' courts,' ' there have been divers
persons, upon whom the power of the Scripture
has been almost as conspicuous as their station
among men. I will not mention that devout trea
surer of the ./Ethiopian queen, who even upon the
highway (whose length neither deterred nor tired
1 Luke, vii. 25.

X-V

his devotion) could not forbear to read the prophet
Isaiah, and inquire even of a mere stranger that
passed by alone, and on foot, the meaning of a pas
sage of whose sense he doubted. Nor will I urge
any other instances of great men's studiousness of
the Scripture, afforded us by sacred story. And
therefore I shall not press the example of that
great and wise Daniel, whose matchless parts not
only cast upon him the highest employment of
the world's monarchy, and disengaged him from
the ruins of it; but (what has scarce a precedent
amongst the very wisest statesmen) continued him
in as much greatness as ever he possessed under
the predecessor, under the successor ; and such a
successor too as made his predecessor's carcass the
ascent to his throne; I will not, I say, at present,
urge the examples extant in the sacred records of
great men's studiousness of them, because even
secular and more recent histories may inform us,
that even in courts all men's eyes have not been so
dazzled by the glittering vanities that are wont to
abound there, but that some of them have dis
cerned, and practically acknowledged the preroga
tives of the Scripture. Though I cannot say that
many kings have been of this number, because
there have been but few kings in all, in respect of
the numbers that compose the inferior conditions
of men : yet, even among these, and in degenerate
ages, some have been signally studious of the
Bible ; such was that Sixth Edward, who imitated
the early active piety of Joash, without imitating
his defection from it, and whose short heavenly
life manifests how soon, even amidst the tempta
tions of courts, grace can ripen men for glory; and

256

ON THE STYLE OF

such was that learned king,1 whose having more
than perfunctorily studied the Scripture, his solid
defence of divers of its truths against its misinter-
preters, have sufficiently proclaimed to the world.
Nay, even in those darker times that preceded the
Reformation, that excellent Aragoni.an king, Al-
phonsus, the honour both of his title and his times,
in spite of his contemplations and his wars, could,
(as himself used to glory) spare time from studies
and his distractions, to read the Bible forty times
with comments and glosses on it : being not, for all
his astronomy, so taken up with the contemplation
of heaven, as to deny himself leisure to study in
his book that made it the ways of getting thither.
Nor shall I forbear to mention here the last pope,
(Urban the Eighth,) who, when being cardinal, he
wanted not the hopes of becoming both temporal
and ecclesiastical lord of that proud city, which
(as if she were designed to be still, one way or
other, the world's mistress,) doth still rule little
less of the world upon the score of religion, than
she did before upon that of arms ; in the midst of
affairs perhaps more distracting than busied most
potentates, and honours almost as great as are
paid to monarchs, could find room in a head
crowded with affairs enough to have distressed
Machiavel, for reflections upon the Scripture;
some of whose portions I have delighted to read in
the handsome ' paraphrases of his pious muse.
Which I scruple not to acknowledge, because that
though I did, which I do not, look upon every one
that dissents from me, as an enemy ; yet I should

1 King James.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

257

be apt to think that they can scarce love virtue
enough, that love it not in their very enemies; con
gruously to which we find that Hannibal had
statues erected in Rome itself: and, though I were
so uncharitable and so unexperienced as to think a
man that holds an error can scarce have any good
qualities, yet, upon such a kind of score as that
which made David so angry with him that took
away the poor man's single lamb, the fewer com
mendable qualities I see in my adversaries, the
more scruple I would make to rob them of any
way of them. Nor hath that very sex that so
often makes divertisements its employments, been
altogether barren in titled votaries to the Scrip
ture. Not to mention tbat Grecian princess,1 whose
proselyted muse made Homer turn evangelist, how
conversant that excellent mother and resembling
daughter, Paula and Eustochium, were in the
sacred rolls, is scarce unknown to any that are not
strangers to the writings of St. Jerome ; for some
of whose learned comments on the Scripture we
are indebted to the charitable importunity of their
requests. And even in our times, that so much
degenerate from the primitive ones, how eminent
a student and happy a proficient in the study of
the Bible, that glory of princesses, and the envy
of the princes of her time, Queen Elizabeth was,
her life and reign sufficiently declare. Her sister's
predecessor, that matchless lady Jane, who had all
the qualities the best patriots could desire in a
queen, but an unquestionable title, and in whose
sad fate, besides her sex and the graces that ena
mour ours of it, her country, philosophy, virtue,

Eudoxia, wife to tho emperor Theodosius.

258

ON THE STYLE OF

and religion, did all sustain a loss, was a conspi
cuous studier of the inspired books ; wherein her
prospered sedulousness gave her an understanding
much above her age and sex, though not above her
virtue. And besides Eudoxia, there have been
divers other persons of the highest quality of that
sex, and even some of those on whom nature or
fortune, or rather beauty or providence, had con
ferred a sovereignty, whom the splendour, the
pleasures, and the avocations of courts could not
keep from searching in God's word preservatives
against the contagion of their condition, and partly
history, and partly even conversation have some
times with delight made me observe, how some of
those celebrated ladies, whose fatal beauties have
made so many idolaters, have devoutly turned
those fair eyes, that were, and did such wonders,
upon those severe writings that depreciate all but
the. beauty ofthe soul, from those flattering ascrip
tions that deified that of the body. Arid it is notT
to be marvelled at, that such readers as are riot
infidels, by reading the Bible once should be pre
vailed with to read it oftener, not only because of
the inviting excellency of what it teaches, but be
cause its author1 does so earnestly in it enjoin the
study of it, that scarce any can think the neglect of
it no fault, save those that are guilty of it, Nor is
their so assiduous perusal of the Scripture so much
to be marvelled at, as commended, in persons of
that softer sex, which is perhaps more susceptible
than ours of 6trong impressions of devotion. For
sure, if we loved God, I do not say as we ought to
love Him, but as we can and do love inferior
things, it would hugely endear the Scripture to us,
that the object of our devotion is the author of that

\ir

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

259

f

book. When a true flame, though but for a fad
ing object, cloth once possess a fervent lover's
breast ; what a fondness doth his passion for his
mistress give him for all .things related to her. Her
residences, her walks, her colours, and the least
trifles that have belonged to her, exact a kindness
that is not due to trifles, though it be but for pre
senting to his memory its almost only object,
and refreshing him with an ideal in the absence of
an immediater presence of her. But if the fa
voured amourist be blest with any lines dignified by
that fair hand (give me leave to talk of lovers in
their own language) especially if ^Uiey be kind as
well as hers, how assiduously, and with what rap
tures do his greedy eyes peruse them, tasting each
several expression with its own transport, and find
ing in each line at each new reading some new de
light or excellency : this welcome letter grows
sooner old than stale ; and although his two fre
quent kisses have worn it to tatters, (in which he
preserves it, if not worships it too, as a relic,) with
fresh and still insatiate avidities doth the unwearied
lover prize that, too often, either deluding or insig
nificant writing, above the noblest raptures of
princes, and liberallest patents of poets; and (not
to urge the superstitious devotion of our worshippers
of relics) certainly if we had for God but half as
much love as we ought, or even pretend to have,
we could not but frequently, if not transportedly,
entertain ourselves with his leaves, which (as par-
helions to the sun) are at once his writings and
his picture, both expressing his vast and unme
rited love to us, and exhibiting the most approach
ing or least unresembling idea of our beloved, that
the Deity hath framed for mortals to apprehend.s 2

260

ON THE STYLE OF

It was the devout quarrel of a devout father to some
of the choicest composures antiquity hath left us,
that he could not find Christ named there ; and if,
as it is not to be doubted, divers of the devout ladies
I was lately speaking of, were of his mind, sure at
that rate they were not ordinarily kina" to the
Scripture; where the prophets and the, apostles,
those darker and more clear evangelists, do so
unanimously and assiduously celebrate the Mes
siah, that when I read and confer them, I some
times fancy myself present at_ our Saviour's
triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, where both
' those that went before him, and those that fol
lowed after him, sung Hosannah to the Son of
David." Wherefore, since even great wits, great princes,
and great beauties, have not still, by all those temp
tations to which these attributes exposed them,
been kept from being also great votaries to the
Scripture, it cannot charitably be doubted, but that
in most ages some pious persons have been able to
say truly to God, in Jeremiah's terms, ' Thy words
were found, and I did eat them ; and thy word was
to me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart :'8 and
if the persons I mention have been but few, I can
attribute that fewness but to the paucity of wise
and good men ; and as for persons of other ranks
in ecclesiastical stories, the instances are not so
rare of the addictedness of God's children to his
word, but that we might thence produce them al
most in throngs, if we had not nobler inducements
to the reading of the inspired volume than ex
ample : and if it were not less to be venerated,

1 Mark, xxi. 9 j xi. 9.

8 Jerem. xv. 16.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

261

because so many saints have studied it, as because
the study of it made many of those men saints,
(I mean not nominal but real ones,) which we
need not much wonder at, whilst such a saint as
Saint Paul was, assures us, that it is all of it di
vinely inspired and improveable to all the uses
requisite to the entire accomplishment of God's
servants.1 But, Theophilus, to return to what I was
formerly discoursing of, the transforming power
the Scripture has upon many of its readers, I must
subjoin, that though through the goodness of God,
these be far more numerous than the professed ad
versaries and contemners of the Scripture, yet these
make not so great a part of those that acknowledge
the Bible, as it were well they did ; because both
experience and our Saviour's parable have suffi
ciently taught us, that good seed does not always
fall into good ground, and that many intervening-
accidents may, after it has been sown, make it mis
carry and prove fruitless ; but when you find (as I
fear you may but too often) that the Scripture has
not upon its readers, and especially upon those that
are profane, that power which I seemed to ascribe
to it, and which it ought to have,, you may be
pleased to remember, that I plainly 'Suppose in my
fifth answer, that those to whom the Scripture is
addressed must not be culpably indisposed to be
wrought upon by it; which that profane persons
are, I presume you will easily grant ; for w hen our
Saviour said, that ' If any man will do the will of
him that sent him, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God, or no :" he clearly intimates
that there is required a disposition as well in the

2 Tim. iii. 1 0.

John, vii. lj

262

ON THE STYLE OF

eye of his soul (if I may so speak) as in the ob
ject proposed, to make a man discern the excel
lency and origination of what is taught, how
valuable soever. Saint Paul, speaking of himself
and other penmen and teachers of the Scriptures,
affirms, that they ' speak wisdom among them that
are perfect;' and though not this world's wisdom,
yet, ' tho wisdom of God in a mystery, even that
hidden one which God ordained before the world,
unto our glory.'1 But for these scorners, it is no
wonder they so fruitlessly read the Scripture, with
out descrying any of this mysterious wisdom, it
being a sentence of the Scripture itself, ' that a
scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not,'8 (the
expression is odd in the original, but I must not
stay to descant upon it,) as the Sodomites could
not find the angels, when once they sought them
to prostitute and defile them.'
But besides profane wits, there are too many
other readers who are,- more or less, guilty of op
posing- the reforming and improving influence of
the Scripture, upon their own hearts; either upon
the score of their not sufficiently believing the
truths contained in the Scripture, or upon that of
their not duly pondering them. ' That unbelief is
the fruitful mother of more sins than are wont to
be imputed to it,, and that many baptized persons
are not free from greater degrees of it than they
are suspected of by others, or even by themselves,
I could here easily manifest, if I had not professedly
discoursed of that subject in another place. And
indeed, there needs but a comparing of most men's
lives with the promises and threats held forth in

1 Cor. ii. 7-

8 Prov. xiv. 6. 3 Gen. xix. 5, 11.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

263

the Scripture of no less than everlasting joys and
endless torments, to make us believe that there are
multitudes of professed Christians, to whom may
be applied what the. writer to the Hebrews says of
the perverse Jews of Old, ' That what they heard
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it," or (as the Greek will bear)
because they were not united by faith to the things
they heard. But this is not all ; for oftentimes
the doctrines of the Scripture lose much of their
efficacy, even where they are cordially believed,
because they are not sufficiently laid to heart.
The disparity of the influences of the bare be
lief and the due perpension of a truth, is, me
thinks, conspicuous enough in men's thoughts
of death. For though that they shall die is so
truly believed that it cannot seriously be doubted,
yet how doth men's inadvertency make them live
here as if they were to do so always! whereas,
when once grace, sickness, the sight of a dying
friend, or some other tragic spectacle, .hath seri
ously minded them of death, it is amazing to ob
serve how strange an alteration is produced in their
lives by the active and permanent impression of
that one obvious and unquestioned truth, that
those lives must have a period; and to see how
much the sober thoughts of death contribute to fit
men for it : it being so imperious an inducement
to deny ungodly and worldly lusts, and to -live
o<i><pp6vii>s Kai SiKaiios Se iv(n\%C>Q iv rig vvv alUvt, ' so
berly, righteously, and godly in this present
world,'8 that we must one day leave it; that I ad
mire not much that father's celebrated strictness

1 Heb. iv. 2.

8 Tit. ii. 12.

264

ON THE STYLE OF

and austerity, who tells us, that he fancied always
sounding in his inward ears, that dreadful alarum
of, Surgite mortui et venite ad judicium, ' Arise, ye
dead, and come to judgment.'
Yet, notwithstanding the indisposition of many
readers to reverence and obey the Scripture, and
notwithstanding that in divers passages of it, the
ornaments of language are, Cor reasons above spe
cified, purposely declined ; yet we find not but that
the Scripture for all these disadvantages, is by the
generality of ils readers both esteemed and obeyed
at another guess rate than any other book of ethics
or devotion. And multitudes, even of those whose
passions or interests will not suffer them to be in
some points guided by it, are notwithstanding
swayed by it, to forbear or practise divers things
in cases wherein other books would not prevail
with them. As Herod, though the Baptist could
not persuade him to quit his Herodias, did yet,
upon John's preaching, do many other things, and
' heard him gladly.'1 ..... I was
going to say, that we may not unfitly apply to the
word of God what divines have observed of God
the word ; for as those accidents that loudliest pro
claimed our Saviour's having assumed our human
nature and infirmities, were attended with some cir
cumstances that conspicuously attested his divinity ;
so in those passages in which the majesty of the
author's style is most veiled and disguised, there is
yet some peculiarity that discloses it. But I shall
less scruple to tell you, that in divers of those pas
sages in which the Holy Ghost (who in the Greek
father's wonted expression, does often avyKara-
1 Mark, xii. 37.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

265

f

taivuv rjpiv, stoop to our capacity, and.'as it were,
sink himself down to our level) seems most to have
vouchsafed a condescension to the style of men ;
and to have commanded his secretaries, as he once
did the prophet Isaiah, to write, ivjn Dina be-cheeret
enosh, • with a man's pen;'1 in divers of those very
places, I say, there is something so awful, and
so peculiarly his, that the sun, even when he de
scends into the west, remains still lucidcr than any
of the stars; sothe Divine Inspirer of the Scrip
tures, even when his style seems most to stoop to
our capacities, doth yet retain a prerogative above
merely human writings. 'Known unto God are
all his works from the beginning of the world,' 8
says an apostle ; and God, whose attribute is to be
KapStoyvwtrjQ, 'the knower of hearts,' and whose
prerogative it is to * form the spirit of man within
him. understandeth our thoughts afar off.'3 Cer
tainly, then, if we consider God as the creator of
our souls, and so likeliest to know the frame and
springs, and nature of his own workmanship, we
shall make but little difficulty to believe, that in
the book written for and addressed to men, he
hath employed very powerful and appropriated
means to work upon them. And in effect, there is
a strange movingness, and, if the epithet be not
too bold, a kind of heavenly magic is to be found
in some passages of the Scripture which is to be
found no where else; and will not easily be better
expressed than in the proper terms of the Scripture ;
' For the word of God,' says it, ' is quick and pow
erful, and sharper than any two-eged sword, pierc
ing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
1 Isaiah, viii. 1. « Acts, xv. 18.
3 Acts, i. 24 ; Zech. i. 1 ; Psalm xiii. 2.

266

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,

267

the thoughts and intents of the heart:'1 wherefore,
that Junius (as himself relates) was converted from
a kind of atheist to a believer, upon the reading of
the first chapter of John ; that a rabbi, by his own
confession, was converted from a Jew to a Chris
tian, by the reading of the fifty-third of Isaiah ;
that St. Austin was changed from a debauchee into
a saint, by that passage of the thirteenth to the
Romans and the thirteenth verse; and that ano
ther father, whose fear had made hini disclaim his
faith, burst out publicly into a shower of tears,
opon the occasional reading of the sixteenth verse
of the fiftieth Psalm, are, effects that I do not so
much admire, as I do that such are produced ho
oftener. And truly, for my own part, the reading
of the Scripture hath moved me more, and swayed
me more powerfully to all the passions it would in
fuse, than the wittiest and eloquentest composures
that are extant in our own and some other lan
guages. Nay, so winning is the majesty of the
Scripture, tbat many (like those that fall in love
in earnest with the ladies- they first courted but out
of what the French call gallantry) who began to
read it out of curiosity, have found themselves en
gaged to continue that exercise out of conscience;
and not a few of those that did at first read the
New Testament only to learn some unknown lan
guage it is translated into, or for some such tri
vial purpose, have been, by the means that they
elected, carried beyond the end that they de
signed, and met a destiny not ill resembling that of
Zacheus, who, climbing up into a sycamore grow
ing in our Saviour's way, only to look upon him,
passed thence to be his proselyte and convert, and
to entertain him joyfully, both in his house and
1 Heb.lv. 12.

I

heart.1 And though it be true that the church's
testimony be commonly our first, yet it is not al
ways our chief inducement to believe the divinity
of holy writ; its, own native prerogatives height
ening that into faith which the church's authority
left but opinion. To which purpose I remember
a handsome observation of some of the ancients ;
that the Samaritans that first believed in Christ
upon the woman's report, when afterwards they
were blessed with an immediate conversation with
himself, they exultingly told the woman, ' Now
we believe, not because of thy saying ; for we have
heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Saviour of the world :'8 for so di
vers that first believed the Scripture but upon the
church's score, are afterwards by acquaintedness
brought to believe the Scripture upon its own
score, that is, by the discovery of those intrinsic
excellencies and prerogatives that manifest its hea
venly origination. . . " . . This sacred
book, even where it hath not embellishments of
language, doth not want them ; being so much re
commended by its imperious persuasiveness with
out them, that it is more ennobled by their Heed
lessness, than it would be by their affluence, And,
if to some passages of Scripture we must apply
that of St. Paul, (whereby yet he thought to re
commend his ministry to the Corinthians,) 'that
his speech and his preaching was not with the en
ticing words of man's wisdom, but' kv cwroSti'&i
irvivfiaroe k) hwapews, ' in demonstration of the
spirit of power;'3 we may also remember, that he

1 Luke, xix. a v. 1, ad. 10 f Matt. xiii. 19, 20, &c.
8 John, iv. 39—42. 3 1 Cor. ii. 1—4.

268

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

269

subjoins as the reason that moved him to use this
plain and unadorned way of teaching his Corin
thians, ' that their faith might not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God.'1 And
truly, the efficacy arid operations of the Bible, in
comparison of those of all other books, duly consi
dered, we may esteem, that as God oftentimes doth
in the Scripture, what in the Scripture he is said
to do, 'draw us with the cords of a man,' (pas
sages wreathed with flowers of rhetoric,) so is it
npt unfit, that he should sometimes employ expres
sions that, carrying away our obedience, our rever
ence, and our assent in spite of our indispositions
to them, might manifest their derivation from him,
who is not tied to such means as men would think
necessary, but can compass his ends as well by as
without any : nor can I often consider the instances
experience affodrs us of the efficacy of many texts,
(which some that pretend to eloquence accuse of
having none,) without sometimes calling to mind,
how in the book of nature God has veiled in an ob
scure and homely stone an attractiveness (unvouch-
safed to diamonds and rubies) which the stubborn-
est of metals does obsequiously acknowledge. And,
as the loadstone not only draws what the sparkling-
est jewels cannot move, but draws stronglier, where
armed with iron than crowned with silver, so the
Scripture, not only is movinger than the glittering-
est human styles, but hath oftentimes a potenter
influence on men in those passages that seem quite
destitute of ornaments, than in those where rhetoric
. is conspicuous. 1 1 Cor. ii. 5.

The Conclusion of one part of the Discourse concern
ing the Scripture and the transition to the next.
I should now, Theophilus, immediately pass on
to the other things I am to discourse to you of,
concerning the Scripture, but that the curiosity
wherewith you are wont to take notice of my prac
tices, and to make inquiries after iny private
opinions, makes me imagine you telling me, that I
do often read, and do much oftener commend books
of devotion, notwithstanding all the prerogatives I
have attributed to the Scripture; wherefore to this
I shall answer, that I esteem indeed the truths of
Scripture so important and valuable, that I cannot
be troubled to see them presented to us in variety
of dresses, that we may the more frequently and
the more attentively take notice of them. And,
though some devout composures are so unskilfully
written as to be much fitter to express the devotion
of the writer than to excite it in the reader, yet
there are others so handsomely and so pathetically
penned, that a good man can scarce read them with
out growing better, and even a bad man must be
very much so, without becoming less so by perusing
them. Nor do I at all design to disparage books
of devotion, when I prefer the Scripture to them,
that being so noble and matchless a work, that a
book may attain to a high degree of excellence,
whilst it remains inferior to the Scripture, of whose
pre-eminences I have already on several occasions
named divers to you ; and therefore shall at pre
sent only recommend to your observation this one
advantage of the Scripture, even as to those things
that are also to be met with in other books of devo-

270

ON THE STYLE OF

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

271

tion — that if ' the words of the wise be (as Solomon
tells us they are) like nails fastened by the masters
of the assemblies,'1 the selfsame nail must enter
less or deeper according to the strength of the hand
that drives it in ; and doubtless, any doctrine be
lieved to come from God, in the same terms it is de
livered to us, is like to be entertained with a deeper
and obsequiouser respect; concurrently where
unto, the apostle, to set forth the Thessalonians' re
ception ofthe gospel, says, 'that they received it
not as the word of men, but (as it is in truth) the
word of God.'8 After which, it is no wonder he
could immediately subjoin, that ' it did also effec
tually work in them that believed.' And, though it
be very true that the foreignness and obscurity of
some texts will require, as well as the teeming rich
ness of others will bear, their being alleged in
words much more numerous than those whose in
volved or contracted senses they are to display ;
yet is it also as true, that men do not unfrequently
mistake themselves in thinking to deliver the Holy
Ghost's conceptions in fitter terms than his own,
the proper precise expressions of Scripture being
oftentimes so pathetical and sinewy, that he that
stretches them, enervates them ; and paraphrases,
though handsome, do as much wrong them, as a
mixture of silver, though no ignoble metal, does
wrong an ingot of gold. And though some texts,
like pearls, lose indeed of their beauty, but ope
rate, and are administered more successfully, beaten
to powderj or with other cordial ingredients made
up into a confection, yet divers sacred expres
sions do, like diamonds, lose both their spark-

1 Eccles. xii. ,11.

8 1 Thess. ii. 13.

ling lustre, and engraving faculty, when ground
to dust, and lose more in their entireness and
form than can be recompensed by any addition :
and truly, as to my own particular, no book
of devotion cloth constantly affect me so powerfully
as the Bible. And whereas I am of so nice a
palate, that in my esteem composures of that kind
still lose at the second reading, in the inspired
volume familiarity breeds not contempt but rever
ence; and I like a book which acquaintance still
endears. When I first began attentively to read
the Scripture, and, accordingly to my custom when
I read books whereof Ihave a promising expec
tation, to mark : in the margin the passages that
seemed to deserve a peculiar notice or reflection,
I marked but here and there some verses in a
chapter, but when upon a greater familiarity with
the idiotisms, the sense, and the applicableness of
Scripture I came to resurvey it, I then in some
places marked the whole chapter, and in most
others left much fewer texts than before unfur
nished with some mark of reference. ¦.- And whereas
at my entrance I took even the choicest part ofthe
Bible to be at best but like some Indian province,
wherein, though mines and gems were more abun
dant than in other countries, yet they were but
sparingly to be met with here and there ; after a
competent stay my ensuing perusals presented it
me, if not as a royal jewel made up of gold and
precious stones, yet, which is gloriouser, like
Aaron's breast-plate, a sacred jewel, the particular
instructions for which were given by God himself,
and which, besides the various number of flaming
gems set in fine gold, and placed in a mysterious
order, was ennobled by that Urim and Thummim,

272

ON THE STYLE OF

wherein God vouchsafed to reveal himself to moi-
tluir ad°1'1ed With S° much cun™8" work
n gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen
tha the contrivance and workmanship lent a lustre
to the glittering materials, without being obscured
b them. This experiment keeps me from won-
denng to find in the inspired poet's description of
the man he attributes a blessedness to, that his
chapatz 'his delight is in the law of the Lord, and '
m his law will he meditate day and night.'1 ¦ For
the word other translations render voluntas ct slu-
dium, ours Englishes delight, and indeed the
Hebrew mi will bear both senses, and seems there
emphatically to signify a study replenished with so
much delight to the devout and intelligent prose
cutors of it, that, like the hallelujahs of the blessed
it is at once a duty and a pleasure, an exercise and
a recompence of piety. And, indeed, if God's
blessing upon the devout Christian's study of that
book do, according to the Psalmist's prayer, -open
his eyes to discern the' niK^DJ Niplaot, ' hidden
wonders contained in it,'8 he should, in imitation of
him that in the same Psalm says of his God ' I
rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil '3
be as satisfied as navigators that discover unknown
countries And I must confess, that when some
times with the apostles in the mount, I contem
plate Moses and Elias talking with Christ, I mean
the law and prophets symphonizingwith the gospel,
I cannot but (resemblingly transported with a like
motive) exclaim with Peter, ' It is good for me to
be here, " and cease to think the Psalmist an hy-
perbohst, for comparing the transcendant sweet-

1 Psal. i. 2.
Verse 162.

Psal. cxix. 8.
Matt. xvii. 4.

r

1.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 273
E^fi 7'd t0?at infed01> °"e °f ^ney,-
besides the style. For Z , ScnP'««
havebeen representing 2 \ ** * SUCh as l
our progress L Tti l\AV£°Z?t ?"* j"
to this matchless book that of "S? heathen ^
' Materiam superabus opus  »
than that sacred one of the Psalmist, where he ,s
well says, that 'the king's daughter i«. nil i
within,' as that ' her cU^?£»a**£™>

Psal. cxix. 103.

Psal.xlv. 13.

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