Mr. Blount's oracles of reason examined and answered in nine sections in which his many heterodox opinions are refuted, the Holy Scriptures and revealed religion are asserted against deism & atheism / by Josiah King ...

SECT. V. Of the Deists Religion.

PAg. 88. and 89.

The Deists Religion is first ne∣gative: God is not to be worshipt by an Image, nor by Sacrifice—the positive is, by an inviolable ad∣herence in our lives, to all the things 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by an imitation of God, in all His imitable Perfecti∣ons; especially in His Goodness, and believing mag∣nificently of Him.

ANSWER.

As to the negative Religion of the Deist, we confess, That in the two first negatives, we have no controversy with them, in the sense they are here proposed. For we acknowledge, There ought not to be made any material Image of God; neither ought God to be worshipped by any Sa∣crifice of any bruit Creature: but that God's infinite Mercy excludes a Mediatour, that we deny. The whole System of Christian Religion requires our Belief thereof: and therefore, as we have said in the end of the foregoing Section, the Deist is repugnant to Himself, when He sup∣poseth some advantage from Christianity; and yet wholly rejects the grand Hypothesis, upon which it is built.

As to the positive Proposition, we say, It is defective, and leaves us in great uncertainties. Cornelius Agrippa, de vanitate Scientiarum, c. 54. truly affirms, Quod aliquando vitium fuit, modo virtus habetur; quod hic virtus est, alibi vitium sit, quod uni honestum, alteri turpe; quod nobis justum, aliis injustum: apud Athenienses licuit viro soro∣rem germanam habere in Matrimonio, apud Roma∣nos nefas habetur:

That which hath at some times been accounted a vice, is now account∣ed a vertue; that which in this Country is accounted a vertue, in another is accounted a vice; among the Athenians it was lawful for a man to marry his own Sister, which by the Romans was abominated; and much more hath Agrippa to the same purpose: that of Lu∣can concerning the Parthians, is unknown to none:

Cui fas implere parentem quid reor esse ne∣fas:

Nothing in Nature can be thought to be unjust to that man, who thinks he may law∣fully lie with his own Mother.

Julius Firmi∣cus, in his Epistle to Lollian, gives also this In∣stance, Apud Aegyptios & Lacedaemonios furari honorificum, apud nos furca suspensi strangulantur.

Among the Egyptians and Lacedemonians it is not only accounted lawful, but honourable to com∣mit theft; but with us 'tis punished with death.

Diogenes Laertius vita Pyrrhonis,—〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉— And so he goes on, instancing in particulars, that which is allowed by those to be just, is condemned by

others as unjust; that which by some is account∣de good, by others is accounted evil: The Persi∣ans think it lawful to lie with their own Daugh∣ters; the Greeks detest it. The Massagetes have Wives in common, &c. the Greeks abhor it: The Cilicians think Robberies to be lawful; 'tis otherwise with the Greeks: And much more is to be found in the same Laertius to this effect.

Out of which 'tis manifest, what a blind guide Nature is in matters of Religion: how vain the Religion of the Deist is, and what necessity there is of Divine Revelation.

What our Author adds of the Imitation of God in all His imitable Perfections, and especially in His Goodness, and believing magnificently of it, destroys His Hypothesis, and supposes revealed Re∣ligion: And I appeal to the Reader, whether Mr. Blount can think magnificently of the Goodness of God, when He and His Deist affirm, That a Mediator derogates from the Infinite Mercy of God, equally as an Image doth from His Spirituality and Infinity. And that not by the by, but openly in the Chapter where the Articles of the Religion of the Deist are treated of, there it is where this Position is laid down: for this is the third Ar∣ticle; —

Not by a Mediator, for it is un∣necessary, and derogates as much from God's Mercy, as an Image doth from His Spirituality and Infinity.

The Repugnancy of which to Holy Scripture, appears from the First of Ti∣mothy, 2. Chap. v. 5.

For there is one God,

and one Mediatour between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus: Our Lord is also called Me∣diatour of a better Covenant, Hebr. 8.6. the Mediatour of the New Testament, Heb. 9. v. 15.

And the Mercy of God is frequently declared by His sending a Mediatour. So that the Deist's Religion bids defiance to Christian Religion; and yet now and then He expresses some regard for the same; which overcomes all Impudence, unless He owns that the Deist's Religion is made up of Contradictions.

Pag. 91.

To be sure the Deist is no Idolater; the Jew and the Mahometan accuse the Christian of Idolatry; the Reformed Churches, the Roman; the Socinian, the other Reformed Churches; the Deists, the Socinian for his Deus factus: but none can accuse the Deist for Idolatry, for He only ac∣knowledges one supream everlasting God, and thinks magnificiently of Him.

ANSWER.

The Immortal Deist (as our Author calls him, p. 95.) had good reason thus to boast, if He alone were free from Idolatry.

His Position may be true; His Logical Infe∣rence is faulty: For there is not one here men∣tioned, neither Romanist, Reformed, or Socinian, but will ackowledge one Supream everlasting God, and thinks magnificently of him. So that if any of the forenamed may be Idolaters, notwithstand∣ing

this ackowledgment, what should hinder but that our immortal Deists may be so too?

Dr. Pearson in his Exposition on the Creed, Article the first, says, That to imagine the Uni∣verse to be infinite, and eternal, is to imagine it to be God; the Consequence is unavoidable.

That great Deist Pliny, begins his Natural History in these words, Mundum numen esse credi par est, aeternum, immen sum, neque genitum, neque interiturum unquam;

It is fit to be believed that the World is God, eternal, immense, having neither beginning, nor end.

That this is the opinion of our Modern Deists, these Oracles of Reason prove: for in the Title Page of the Book we find it laid down as the the 16th. Oracle, That the World is eternal.

So that 'tis easy to be perceived, how un∣grounded this Vaunting of our Deist is: and that He will find it more difficult to purge Himself of Idolatry, than to fasten it on others.

Doctor More indeed in his Apologetical Epi∣stle for the Cartesian Philosophy, (p. 4.) perem∣ptorily asserts, That there were always, and even now, that there are some, who seriously conjoyn this Opinion of the Independency and Eternity of Matter, with the Religious Wor∣ship of God: But then the Dr. adds,

That this is inconsistent with the true Notion of God: and in truth it is in Scripture language, halting between God and Baal, which include Ido∣latry.

That the Infinity of the World introduces a Duality of God, is rightly inferr'd by the great Scaliger in his 359. Exerc. cont. Cardanum—In∣finiti mensura nulla est; duo infinita nequeunt esse; neque in natura, neque extra naturam, essent enim duo principia prima:

An Infinite cannot be mea∣sured, wherefore there cannot be two Infinites; Equality is the formal Reason of Commensu∣ration.

And yet the Deist makes both God and the World Infinite.

The Deist acknowledges here in words, That there is one Supreme God; yet He cannot say this upon any firm Principle, because (p. 192.) He says,

If Genesis be but a Parable, the Per∣sians may be in the right, as well as the Jews;

Which is in effect to say, That they who believe and worship two contrary Gods, with two con∣trary Services, as the Persians did, according to the appointment of their Zoroaster (who was 5000 Years ancienter than the Trojan War, if you will believe their fabulous Chronology) may be as much in the right as those, who believe one only God. To such Repugnances Men are ob∣noxious, who defend untruths: and to those may be apply'd that of the Apostle (in the 2 Ep. Thes. c. 2. ver. 11.) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie.

Saint Austin in the fourth of his Confessions, chap. 7. speaking of the miserable condition He was in, when a Manichee, breaks out into this Expression, —Non enim tu eras, sed tantum phantasma, & error meus erat Deus meus:

Not

thou, O Lord, but a vain phantasm, and my error was then my God.

— How appositely and truly this may be apply'd to the Deist, the Reader cannot but perceive; and would to God it might be apply'd, not only to them, with re∣spect to their Error; but also with respect to their Conversion.