3² A Viev of the DEisrieAL Writers. Let. 3.

which I ſhall have occaſion to mention, he ſuppoſeth them to have no authority but what they derive from the prince or civil power. He ſometimes ſeems to acknowlege inſpiration to be a fupernatural gift, and the immediate hand ꝗf God; at other times he treats the pretence to it as a ſign of madneſs; and by a jingle upon the words repreſents God's/ſpeaking to the ancient prophets in æ dream or viſion, to be no more than their dream- ing that he ſpoke to them, or dreaming between fleebing and uaking b. To weaken the authoriry of the ſacred Canon, he endeavours to fhew, that the books of Moſes, and the hiſtorical writings of the Old Teſtament, were not written by thoſe whoſe names they bear; and that they are derived to us from no other authority, but that of Bſdras, who reſtored them when they were loſt e. A ſuppoſition in which he hath been ſince followed by others on the ſame ſide, and very lately by a noble Lord: though the abſurdity of it is manifeſt, and hath been fully ex- poſed d. As to the writings of the New Teſtament, he acknow- legeth, that they are as ancient as the times of the apoſtles, and that they were written by perſons who lived in thoſe times, ſome of whom ſaw the things which they relate; which is what many of our modern Deiſts ſeem unwilling to own. And tho' he inſinuates that the copies of the ſcriptures were but few, and only in the hands of the Eccleſiaſtics, yet he adds, that he ſees no reaſon to doubt, but that the books of the New Teſtament as we have them, are the true regiſters of thoſe things which were done and ſaid by the prophets and apoſtlese. But then he moſt abſurdly pretends, that they were not received as of divine authority in the Chriſtian church, till they were declared to be ſo by the council of Laodicea, in the year after Chriſt 364: though nothing is capable of a clearer proof, than that their authority was acknowleged among Chriſtians from the apoſtolic times.

He expreſsly aſſerts, that we have no aſſurance of the certainty of ſcripture, but the authority f the church, and this he re- folveth into the authority of the commonwealth: and declares, that till the ſovereign ruler had preſcribed them,“ thé precepts „¹of ſcripture were not obligatory laws, but only counſel and „¹advice, which he that was counſelled might without injuſtice *«⁴ refuſe to obſerve, and being contrary to the laws could not *„*without injuſtice obſerve;“ that the word of the interpreter

„ Leviath. p. 196. c Ibid. p. 200, 201, 203. d Reflec- tions on Lord Bolingbroke's letters, p. 51,&c.* Leviath. p. 204.

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