of his Book. He continually runs back to this Argument, as to the Foundation of all his Hypothefes; and he has fo much confidence in it, that he prefumes to advance this fo new, and fo extraor dinary a Paradox; viz. That Miracles would rather difprove the Existence of God, than prove the fame. Nevertheless this great and mighty Argument has nothing of strength, nor the least appearance of it; for by the Laws of Nature, he muft either underand an external and foreign Principle, an intelligence distinct from Matter, which directs all things, and links second Causes together; and then will grant him, that the Laws of Nature, or, to speak more strictly, that that which prescribes Laws of Nature, is nothing else but God's Will, or, if you will have it, his De crees. But what can he infer from thence against us? The fame Will of God free and independent from all external Beings, that hath established the Laws of Nature, may either fufpend or interrupt the Course of it, when ever he pleafes. Miracles as well enter in the Scheme of God's Defigns, as all other natural Beings: And there is to be found in the very Miracles themselves, the execution of the immutable Decrees of God. But it appears, that this Author proceeds yet further, for he holds that God is nothing else but Nature her felf, and by Nature he understands Matter, toge ther with the Laws and determination of its Motion. What ever then he fays of God, is but a cover for a worfe defign; for in preferving the Name, he anni hilates the thing it felf; but you must look for the Refutation of this Opinion in the Discourse of the Existence of God. Neither as Hobbs has con Dior they do not very well know ther That is very foor fic. bet teen quelin matter barely to imegu an tung be we fall f whether they will not pounce all the precarious imayA:BOT.. They are pleated fr Scripture relates 20: al Matters of Fat, and that, were thot Cumber once known to in, they would pay both trans none of them imples any tag inmens L they are grody miftaker, torre nolung tree circumftantial than all the linze, wuk Le ftances are much more wonder town the Manet, é Fact themfives. Pillar of a Cloud, vikt be some her and which darkness; the Sea which form as it Wall, the defroying Angel vint free on he First-born to Lay them they be the he Mofes had ime i wit ko, brdne v happen in all the parts of Kare, the Sea, in the Repers and in the Las I lay d out of Egypt, at the pleatre of the Prom, when they are requifite for the prefervation of the Core of Ifrael. The Iraelites exempted from thole Pages which forely vexed the Egyptians; Peart's Namams counterfeiting fome of the Miracles of Mofes, our arm, able to imitate the reft; all the Court of that Perce being witness to thofe Wonders: The hardrefs of Pharoah's Heart overcome by those terrible blows received from an invifible Hand; and the Plagues dif continued upon Pharaoh's defifting from his Obstinacy; the Waters not only of the great River, but of the little Rivulets alfo, of the Ponds and Marfhes, cf all the Wood and ftone Veffels turned into Blood, fo that the Fifh died, the River ftank, and the Egyptians could not drink of them; all thefe, I fay, are fuch Matters of Fact, fo well circumftantiated, and Circumstances as wonderful as Matters of Fact themfelves: They are, befides Matters of Fact, fo link'd to one another, fo often repeated and recited with fuch an Ingenuity, on which the whole Mofaic Religion is grounded, and fo continually inculcated into the Minds of the Jews by fo many fenfible and lafting Practices, any fingle one of which is fufficient for the eftablishment of the Divinity of the Jewish Religion, and which altogether would certainly have convicted Mofes of Deceit, if they had been false; which can never have been contrived fucceffively one after another, as we have proved elsewhere; which are related to us as being then generally known by all that Nation, which procured Mofes his Authority, and which gave force to his Exhortation, and which laftly, he propofes as the great and perpetual Motive of the Obedience due to thofe Laws he gave them in God's Name, bringing in the Supream Lawgiver speaking after this manner, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the Land of Ægypt, &c. with a mighty band, and a Stretched out arm. CHAP 350 1. The firft ftumbling Block of the Incredulous, is, the Love of Philofophy, they would have the Holy Ghost to speak in the ftile of Philofophers, they upbraid the Author of the Book of Joshua, for not being fo well skill'd in Aftronomy, as Copernicus, and they can't endure, that Mofes fhould pretend to write a Hiftory of the Creation of the World, which has fo little agreement with the Speculations of that Science: 'Tis a furprizing thing to me, that fo vain an objection fhould be fo often repeated; is it poffible that thofe Perfons should defire, that God fhould forget the Language of the People, when speaking to the People, and that we fhould be obliged to fear God, which is the whole fcope and defign of the Holy Scriptures, no further than we are perfwaded of the truth of the Hypothefes of Copernicus? Thus the Books of Scripture would have been intelligible only to fome Philofophers of these latter times, and in order to read and understand them 'twould have been neceffary, Men fhould have tarried, till Copernicus came into the World, or that the Holy Ghoft had given them a new Syftem of Aftronomy; but that was not fufficient neither, and to please these new Philofophers, God must have revealed in thofe Wri tings, how Colours, Light, Sound and all other fenfible. qualities exift in our Souls, that brutes have the appearance only of being endowed with fenfitive knowledge, and the like, &c. And amended many vulgar-like expreffions, that we often meet with in the Holy Scripture in this respect. In a word, he must have changed his ftile, and made the People turn Philofophers, as well as Religion become meer speculation. ན But this was never the delign of the Holy Ghost, who does not reveal himself after the way which is proper to humour the vain curiofity of the Learned, but only after the manner, which is neceffary for the Sanctification of Men, for whether he speaks to us of |