Prophetical Deliriums, and was refufed his Reward. They also faid, it was a Difeafe proper it may be to certain Places, and Conftitutions, as Agues, and took occafion, from a Paffage in a Learned Author, to affert, that Wine was useful to prepare for the Illapfes of the prophetical Spirit; and thence obferved, that Drunkennefs, and Prophecy was the fame thing. Behold here Mofes and the Prophets, whofe divine Authority our Bleffed Lord owned, and himself with them, blafphemed into Drunkards, Madmen, or at best into Enthusiasts. Behold the Old Teftament with the New, which is founded upon it, and bears witnefs to the Truth of it, made no better than the Alcoran,or Notre Dame's Predictions, and by confequence the Jewish, and Christian Worthies, who believed thofe two facred Codes to be the Oracles of God, and of Divine Inspiration, reprefented as credulous, and as deluded Men, as the Hiftory of any Religion can fhew. And then as for the Miracles mentioned in the Scriptures, they treated them with as much Reverence, as they did the Prophecies. The paffing over the Red Sea, they faid, was not miracuLous, but natural. By which they gave the Lye first to Mofes, who tells us, That it was the blast of the Breath of God's Noftrils that gathered together the Waters of the Red Sea, and made them ftand upright as an Heap Secondly, to the Pfalmist, who faith, It was God that divided it, and made Ifrael to pass through the midst of it; that he rebuked and dried it up, and made the People pass through the depth thereof, as through a Wilderness; And Laftly, to the Apostle, who tells us, That by Faith they paffed through the Red Sea as by dry Land, which the Egyptians attempting to do were all drowned therein. The Pillar of Fire, they faid, was fome fort of artificial Preparation in the nature of a Phofphorus, though it is reckoned by Mofes and

• Deur. i. 33.

t

in the Pfalms among the Wonders which God did in the fight of their Fathers, when in the day time he led them with a Cloud, and all the night with a Light of Fire. Elijah's Sacrifice, they faid,was by artificial Fire, and one of them, who was a Priest, and undoubtedly a Prieft after their own Heart, faid he could do the fame. As for the Scriptures in general, they said, There were many Contradictions in them, that the Holy Ghost could fpeak his own Mind plainly if he pleafed, and therefore that 'tis the highest Blafphemy, and worthy of Death, for any to pretend, by their Explications of the Text, to fpeak plainer than he, and to interpret the Mind of God, as if he were not able to tell his own meaning, and that all Priefts were monstrously guilty of it, and that the Author of the Rights doth the very fame thing as Christ and his Apoftles did, in fpeaking against Priefts. Laftly, That multitudes of Religion were as much for God's Honour as variety of Faces, and that God must have a mind to be fo worshipped.

O bleffed Table, which was fanctify'd with fuch Talk as this! Where they also faid, That the Marriage in Cana was a merry meeting, and that He, meaning our Lord, made the Water Wine with Spirit of Wine. And that the one thing needful, of which he fpake to Martha, was a good Difh of Meat! O bleffed Family, which must hear fuch Table-talk! That blafphem'd the Scriptures into Contradictions, that reproach'd the Holy Spirit with not speaking plainly, because in fome places he was pleased to wrap up his meaning in Figures, and Similitudes, and Parables, as in the Prophetical Books, and other Paffages of Scripture; and because his plain meaning in other places accidentally became obfcure, like the meaning of old human Authors, for want of knowing the ancient Hiftories, Customs, Proverbs, and Idioms of Speech, which are requifite to make them be understood. How few among us understand the Books that were written by our Ancestors, but two

or

or three hundred Years ago? Which are plain to thofe, who understand the ancient Saxon, and Norman-Saxon Tongue. How many dark and difficult places of Scripture have of late been made plain to Demonstration, by Nic. Fuller, Mede, Lightfoot, and Pocock, and other learned Men? But these Bravos, because they hate the Scriptures, and because Priests for the most part are, and have been Expofitors of them, damn all Expofitions, and fentence the Expounder, and by confequence all the Translators, and Paraphrafts of them to death. A modeft, and merciful Sentence! In which is involv❜d the lxxii Interpreters of the Old Teftament into Greek, the Chaldee Paraphrafts, and not to mention our Blessed Lord, who is not excepted from it, the Apostles, and after them the Apoftolick Writers, who expounded, and apply'd several Paffages of the Old Teftament to Chrift,and his Church under the New, as St. Clement, St. Barnabas, and the Bishops, who expounded the Prophecies to Constantin, and St. Hermas, whom they despise, and hate; because he speaks so much, and fo plainly, against Senfuality, and Voluptuoufnefs, and in preference of one of the two opposite Principles, and Defires in Man to the other; and then, as for the New Testament, this meek Sentence alfo hangs up all the ancient Fathers without Mercy, who have rescued the Senfe of Holy Writ, even of the Old as well as New Teftament, from the perverfe Interpretations of Jews, and Hereticks, and all the Tranflators of the latter, ancient and modern, into the eastern, or Western Languages of the Chriftian World, with all the Commentators, and Criticks; nay their dear Fathers, Hobbes, Selden, and Spinofa, are included in their general Doom, with all the Unitarians, who have given the World new Explications of Scripture in oppofition to the old Nicene Creed-Makers, tho' I fuppofe they did not b

mean

mean them. This Cenfure alfo highly reflects upon our Lord, who bid the Jews fearch the Scriptures, who appeal'd to Mofes, and the Prophets, and bid them obferve, and do whatfoever the Expofitors of their Law, who fat in Mofes's Chair, bid them obferve. It condemns the Bereans for fearching the Scriptures, and Timothy for reading of them from a Child, by which he became a Chriftian, and plainly fhews how much thefe Deifts, and Atheists are griev'd that the Scriptures are tranflated, and expounded to mantain revealed Religion against them, and that there is yet an Order of Men, a peftilent Order of Priefts, and Clergymen, to read, and expound the Scriptures to the People, and deferve Death for their Pains.

These are the Men, the worthy Men, who hate Priests, and Priesthood, and for my own part, I think it a great Honour that our Order, and Perfons for the Sake of our Order, have them, and the Devil, who walks about roaring in them, against the Priesthood, for our utter Enemies. They are as mad again us, as King Philip of Macedon, was against the Orators of Athens, because they defended the People; they rail against the Shepherd, because they would devour the Flock, and because the Revenues, upon which the Clergy live, would be very convenient for them; and therefore also they reprefent Priesthood, as Prieftcraft to the People, and the Chriftian Priests from the beginning without any Exception, as Cheats, and Knaves. Cheats, who, at first made the Scriptures, and have ever fince expounded them: Cheats, and Ufurpers, who have affumed to themselves an Authority over the People in the Name of God, and Christ, whom thefe dare blafpheme,as much in private, as they reproach his Minifters in publick, witnefs the beginning of his Miracles in Cana, which the Evangelift faith, he did to manifeft forth his Glory. But instead

of

of a Miracle, according to their Table-talk, it was but an artful Trick to deceive the People, and if it were so indeed, then all his other Miracles from this fham beginning to the end, muft have been fuch, so alike are the Malice, and Blafphemies, by Belzeebub, and by Spirit of Wine.

The Liberty thefe men have already taken is aftonishing, and would not be fuffered in any other Chriftian Countrey, and a little more Forbearance, and Impunity will make them prefume more, and fport themselves in boldness, and blafphemy ftill more, and at length crucify their Redeemer as of ten, and as impudently in publick, as they do with Jewish Malice in private. As they have treated him in his Priefts, fo if let alone, they will in a little time treat him in his Office, and Perfon, and put him to open Shame in the fame Names. If in the firft part of the RIGHTS they have fo abufed thofe of his Household, may we not expect in the fecond, that they will abufe the Mafter of the Houfe. One of them not long ago told a worthy Gentleman, who upon Chriftian Principles hath a Reverence for the Clergy, he would fhew him what Priefts, and Priefthood were, and then turning to SABINI in Feftus Pompeius, fhew'd him these words. Sabini a Cultura Deorum dicti, id eft, anо TE σiCola. Sabini • quod volunt Somniant, vatus proverbium effe, & inde manale ait Sinnius capito, quod quotiefcunque facrificium propter viam fieret, hominem fabinum ad illud adhibere folebant: Nam his promittebat fe pro eis fomniaturum, Idemque poftquam evigilaffet Sacra facientibus narrabat omne quid quid in quiete vidif fet, quod quidem effet ex facrificii Religione. Unde

See The Axe laid to the Root of Christianity, with the Preface to the Apologetical Vindication of the Church of England, and the excellent weekly Paper called the Rehearsal. b 2

veniffe