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would tend only to the hurt and difcredit of chriftianity it felf, by faftening upon it a doctrine contradictory to fact and experience.

• But, in truth, all the arguments which are alledged for this doctrine, are generally fo trifling, that, instead of confirming, they render it only more contemptible to men of judgment. Thus the learned Lightfoot attempts to prove the divine infpiration of Luke, from the word ywder, in the preface of his gofpel, which implies, as is interpreted by this critic, that Luke had received his information of the things which he relates, from above, or from heaven; whereas it fignifies nothing more, but that he had fearched and traced them out from their very fource, or beginning in which fenfe it is frequently applied by all the best writers of antiquity, and even by Luke himself in another place.'

The doctor now proceeds to confider the prophecies of the old teftament, as they are applied in the new, and endeavours to fhew, that we are not obliged to receive all the applications of them as infallible; that chriftianity does not depend upon it; and that, whoever fhall attack it on this article, will labour only in vain, unless he can fhew, that the miffion and character of Jefus were not, in any manner or fenfe at all, prefigured in the old teftament, or that Mofes and the prophets had no where teftified of him. This, lays he, is the fingle point which can affect or hurt the cause of chriftianity; and all the cavils, which fall fhort of this, may justly be flighted, as of no real weight in this question.

To conclude; the chief purpose of these enquiries is, to fhew, that chriftianity cannot be defended to the fatisfaction of fpeculative and thinking men, but by reducing it to its original fimplicity, and ftripping it of the falfe gloffes, and fyftems, with which it has been incumbered, through the prejudices of the pious, as well as the arts of the crafty and the interested. One of the principal of thefe incumbrances, as far as I am able to judge, is the notion, which is generally inculcated by our divines, concerning the perpetual infpiration and infallibility of the apostles and evangelifts: a notion, which has imported fuch difficulties and perplexities into the fyftem of the chriftian religion, as all the wit of man has not been able to explain which yet will all be eafily folved, and vanish at once, by admitting only the contrary notion, that the apostles were fallible: which is a fort of proof that generally paffes with men of fenfe for demonftrative;

monftrative; being of the fame kind, by which Sir Ifaac Newton has convinced the world of the truth of his philofophical principles.

For this great philofopher, by confidering the real effects and productions of nature, and applying the causes of thofe, which were within the reach of fense and experiment, to all other phænomena of a fimilar kind, more diftant and remote from the fame trial, arrived at last, by a chain of confequences, at the discovery of that univerfal principle, by which the beautiful order of this vifible world is regulated, and all the particular motions and activities of its constituent parts perpetually directed; which, in every other hypothefis, had been perplexed with infuperable diffi culties. Defcartes took the contrary method: he first conceived the idea of his univerfal principle, and, by the force of his great wit and comprehenfion, made it correspond fo aptly with the principal phænomena of nature, that it was received with great applaufe by the learned. But when it came to be examined afterwards with rigour, and was found irreconcileable to fact and experience, it gradually loft ground, and is now generally rejected by men of science.

"The cafe is the fame in theological, as in natural inquiries: it is experience alone, and the obfervation of facts, which can illuftrate the truth of principles. Facts are stubborn things, deriving their existence from nature; and, though frequently mifreprefented and difguifed by art and falfe colours, yet cannot be totally changed, or made pliable to the systems which happened to be in fashion, but, fooner or later, will always reduce the opinions of men to a compliance and conformity with themselves.

• Wherefore, as we learn from daily experience, that prejudice, paffion, want of memory, knowledge or judgment, naturally produce obfcurity, inaccuracy, and miltakes, in all modern writings whatsoever, fo, when we see the fame effects in ancient writings, how facred foever they may be deemed, we must neceffarily impute them to the fame caufes. This is what fenfe and reafon prefcribe, and what will be found at laft the only way of folving all the difficulties above intimated: whereas our theorifts, who come provided with fyftems, which they impofe as the catholic rule, by which the chriftian doctrine must be explained, are driven to fuch miferable shifts and abfurdities, in their attempts to accommodate that rule to the particular facts of the gofpel, that inftead of clearing it of its difficulties,

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culties, they never fail to obfcure and perplex it ftill more, till they render it incompatible with any confiftent and rational belief."

In the third tract our author endeavours to explain the proper notion and nature of the gift of tongues, as it is defcribed and delivered to us in the facred fcriptures. He introduces it with the account of the original collation of this miraculous gift, as it is given us in the fecond chapter of the A&is of the apoftles. The principal end and proper use of it, he thinks, was to ferve, on fome folemn occafions, as a fenfible proof, and illustrious fign, that a divine influence rested on those who were indued with it. This he imagines may be collected from the account of its firft communication with the apostles. For in fuch an affembly, fays he, as is there defcribed, compofed of feveral different nations, it is not reasonable to think, that this diverfity of tongues was given to the apoftles, for the fake of converting thofe nations, by the mere force of fuch difcourfes as they were enabled to make to each in their own tongue: for that would have required more time than the nature of fuch a mee ing could allow; nor could any fpeeches of that fort made fucceffively to different parts of the company, in different languages, be proper to perfuade the whole, but to confound rather and perplex them. For if we suppose the apoftles to have made each a feparate difcourfe; to the Parthians, for inftance, in the Parthian; to the Egyptians, in the Egyptian; or to the Romans, in the latin tongue; it is certain, that the greatest part of the affembly, who did not understand thofe languages, would remain all that while amazed, and unedified; and this gift of tongues, if it had not been accompanied by fome other power more perfuafive and efficacious, would have expofed the poffeffors of it to ridicule only and contempt; agreeably to what St. Paul declares to the Corinthians: If the whole church be come together in one place, and all Speak with tongues, and there come in thofe, who are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not fay that ye are mad?

Now all this is actually verified by the ftory before us; in which we find, that, as long as the apoftles were difplaying this miraculous faculty, the greatest part of the company, who heard them by turns speaking in their own languages, were ftruck with amazement, to perceive a set of rude Galileans fo learned and accomplished of a fudden, with all this variety of ftrange tongues; and they were all

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in doubt, and asked one another, what could be the meaning of it? while the reft, who understood nothing of any of those tongues took all, which the apoftles were uttering, for the mere effect of drunkennefs; till Peter, obferving that their new gift had wrought its proper effect, by imprinting a general perfuafion of fomething very wonderful in it, and raising an impatience in the company to expect the event, rose up, and putting an end to all that diversity and diffonance of languages, began to explain to them, in an affecting and continued difcourfe, and in a tongue which they all understood, how what they had just seen and heard, was not the effect of wine and drunkenness, but of the wife council and power of God, who had now fulfilled the ancient predictions of his holy prophets, concerning the character of the Messiah, and the nature of his kingdom, which were all verified by the death, the refurrection and the afcenfion of that fame Jefus, whom they had crucified. By the power of which fpeech, he added about three thousand fouls at once to the number of the faithful; and exemplified the truth of what St. Paul has alfo teftified, that it is better, to speak five words in the church with understanding, fo as to inftruct others by them, than ten thousand in an unkwown tongue.

"This account of the gift of tongues, drawn from the clear teftimonies of fcripture, plainly fhews; that it was not of a stable or permanent nature, but adapted to peculiar occafions, and then withdrawn again, as foon as it had served the particular purpose for which it was bestowed. And hence we fee the vanity of that notion, which is generally entertained about it, that from the firft communication of it to the apostles, it adhered to them conftantly as long as they lived, fo as to inable them to preach the gospel to every nation, through which they travelled, in its own proper tongue. A notion, for which I cannot find the leaft ground in any part of facred writ, but many folid reafons to evince the contrary. Agreeably to which the learned Salmatius, fpeaking of this fame miracle, fays, we are not to infer from it, that the apostles, by receiving the gift of tongues, received a faculty of speaking all the feveral languages, which are commonly used in the world. For it is not probable, that the effect of it continued beyond that very day, or any longer, than the cloven tongues appeared to fit upon their heads: when those vanished the miracle ceased, and left them deftitute of every other language, but that of their native country; for he thinks it certain, that they were not ac

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quainted with any other, except what they might afterwards imperfectly acquire by natural means, as they found occafion for it (Salmaf. de Hellenistica, p. 252.) This, tho' it be but little understood, and will not perhaps be well relished by the present pretenders to orthodoxy, is certainly the most probable account of the matter.'

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The remaining part of this effay is taken up principally with fhewing the opinion both of the ancients and the mo derns, concerning the general language of the new teftament, and the particular ftile and skill in languages of each fingle apostle or writer of thofe facred books. What our author himself advances upon this fubject we cannot but think very exceptionable: hear what he fays. If the language which the apoftles made ufe of in propagating the gofpel by preaching or writing, had been infpired into them by God, we fhould expect furely to find it fuch as is worthy of God; pure, clear, noble and affecting, even beyond the force of common fpeech. What man, fays Cicero, is more flowing in his diction than Plato? Jupiter bimfelf, the philofophers fay, if he speaks Greek, talks in the fame manner. As they had no idea of any thing more excellent, fo they imagined, that God himfelf would ufe the Platonic ftile; fince nothing can come from him, but what is the moft perfect in its kind: and this indeed is the universal sense of mankind, and the fole rule, which nature has given us, to diftinguish the genuine productions of the Deity.

But if we try the apoftolic language by this rule, we fhall be fo far from afcribing it to God, as to think it fcarce worthy of man, I mean, of the liberal and the polite: for we fhall find it in fact to be utterly rude and barbarous, and abounding with every fault, which can poffibly deform a language.

It would be tedious to enumerate all the particular imperfections which are charged to the facred ftile: whole books are written on the fubject, and filled with the barbarisms, of the new teftament: and tho' fome writers alfo, on the other hand, prompted by a false zeal, have attempted to defend the purity of scriptural Greek, yet all which they have been able to fhew, is, that certain particular words and expreffions are used there, in the fame fenfe, and with the fame propriety, with which they are employed by the claffic writers: which is nothing more, than what is natural and neceffary in all human compofitions; that many words, even of the moft elegant kind, fhould be used in common, both by the worst and the beft authors, who

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