ページの画像
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

BESIDES, this book, called the holy Bible, contains many things that are greatly below, and unworthy of the Supreme Deity. That God should specially interpose to acquaint men with, and to tranfmit to pofterity, fuch trifling obfervations, as that two are better than one, that which is crooked cannot be made freight, that which is wanting cannot be numbered, and the like: Or that he should spirit men with, approve of, or countenance, fuch malevolent defires as thefe, Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow; let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg, let them also seek their bread out of their defolate places; let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the Stranger fpoil his labour; let there be none to extend mercy to him, neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children; let his pofterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. I fay, that such trifling obfervations, and fuch malevolent defires as thele, fhould be confidered as the offspring of God, is playing at hazard indeed. That the travels and adventures of Naomy and her two fons, Mahlon and Chilion, into the country of Moab, (as in the book of Ruth) is true, perhaps, may

[ocr errors]

not

not be difputed; but that God fhould fpecially interpofe, to transmit such an infignificant relation to pofterity, when we have nothing to ground the fuppofition upon, seems, to me, to be taking too great a liberty with the character and conduct of the Deity. There are many things, contained in that collection of writings, commonly called the Bible, that are much below and unworthy of the most perfect intelligence and boundless goodness; that these should be made the act of the Supreme Deity, fhould be declared to be a revelation from, and the very word of God, without so much as a feeming reason or ground for fo doing, any otherwise than to fupport the religious fyftems men have imbibed, or, perhaps, the fchemes of worldly policy they are engaged in; this, furely, is not acting properly, nor even justly, by the common and kind parent of the univerfe. For men thus to father upon God whatever they please, is taking fuch a liberty with the character and conduct of the fupreme Deity, as no honest upright man would take with that of his neighbour; and if fuch practising should not come under the denomination of blafphemy, which it fcarcely falls fhort of; yet it must, at least, be a very strange kind

of

of piety. Yea, fuch is the extraordinary piety of this age, (like that of doing honour and service to God, by killing his fervants) that if a man, in confcience of that duty he owes to his maker, takes upon him to vindicate the moral character of the Deity, in oppofition to the religious fyftem in vogue, or what paffes for current orthodoxy, he may be fure to fall under the imputation of being a free-thinker, a Deift, (those terms being ufed in a bad fenfe) or, perhaps, an Atheist.

AND as to the preceptive parts of the Bible, there is a difficulty attends them that is unfurmountable to me; viz. what is required to be done at one time, and under one difpenfation, is forbid to be done under another, whilft human nature continues the fame, and men's relations, and dependencies, and the obligations that arife from them, continue the fame allo. The Deity cannot but perceive things as they really are, at all times, whatever colouring or fhading men may draw over them; and therefore, to suppose that he commands and forbids the fame thing, whilst the natures, the relations, and the circumstances of men and things continue the fame; this, I fay, is to me an unfurmountable difficulty. Matthew v. 38. Ye

bave

have heard that it hath been said, or ye have read, Exodus xxi. 23, 24, 25. Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for band, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, firipe for stripe. Upon which I obferve, if fuch a retaliation of injuries as this, is, in it's own nature, proper to restrain men's viciated appetites and paffions, and therefore was appointed under the difpenfation of Mofes; then, for the fame reason, it ought to be appointed and executed under all difpenfations, because mankind are the fame, they have the fame appetites and paffions, and are liable to indulge them to excefs at all times, and under all difpenfations. Whereas, Jefus Chrift reverfed the aforefaid law of retaliation, ver 39. But I say unto ye, that ye refift not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thý right cheek, turn to him the other also. Here, we fee, Chrift hath not only forbid all refiftance of evil, but he alfo requires the patient, when he has sustained a first injury, to be a volunteer with regard to a fecond, and to meet it half-way. The having the body dismembered, by the loss of an eye, a hand, or a foot, were not flight and trivial injuries, but were of great consequence to the fufferer; these were the evils the law of

Mofes

[ocr errors]

Moses appointed should be retaliated; and yet these are the evils Chrift's difciples are not to refift, not to retaliate, nor to seek a reparation for. What Chrift faid, Luke xxii. 35, 36, is fo far from giving any encouragement to the refifting of evil, that it is rather the reverfe. And he faid unto them, when I fent you without purfe, and fcrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they faid, nothing. Then faid he unto them, but now he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewife his fcrip: and he that hath no fword, let him fell bis garment, and buy one. Thefe directions were a kind of figurative language, in which the reverse to what is expreffed is pointed out; that is, in the then prefent conjuncture, purses, and fcrips, and fwords were things there would be no use nor place for. For, faid Chrift, verfe 37. that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, and he was reckoned among the tranfgreffors; for the things concerning me have an end. The inference from which is, that therefore purses, and fcrips, and fwords will be useless things. This, I think, must be the meaning, elfe it will be hard to find the connection, or relation of the latter to the former. And, as the disciples underflood the words abovementioned

« 前へ次へ »