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ly true.

4. Whatever is clearly intelligible, is abfolute"Hence it comes to pafs, fays Dr. Cud"worth, that both Philofophers and Divines "have without fcruple measured the Divine "Omnipotence it felf, and the Poffibility of .cc Things, by their own clear Intellections con

cerning them; and to pronounce, that God "himfelt cannot make Contradictions to be true CC at the fame time; whereas it were an high "and unpardonable Prefumption thus to venແ ture to measure the Divine Omnipotence, if "there were not an abfolute Certainty of the "Truth of clear Intellections, as being nothing "elfe but the immutable Wisdom of God parti"cipated and imparted to us. And if it be ab"folutely impoffible even to Omnipotence that "Contradictories fhou'd be true together, then

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Omnipotence it felf cannot make any fuch "Faculties as fhall clearly understand that which "is falfe to be true, fince the Effence of Falfhood "confifts in nothing elfe but Non-Intelligibiliແ ty. And if they will object, That it is not "impoffible that Contradictions fhou'd be true, "because our Faculties, which make us think "fo, may be falfe and deceive us in every "thing, &c. Our Author anfwers, "Be our "Faculties what they will, and let them be fup"pofed to be made how you will, yet notwith"ftanding, whatfoever is clearly understood and "conceiv'd, has an objective Entity in it, and "muft of neceffity be true; for a clear Concep"tion cannot be nothing, &c.

"It cannot be deny'd, continues our Author, "but that Men are oftentimes deceiv'd, and "think they clearly comprehend what they do "not: But it does not follow from hence, "because Men fometimes think that they clearly

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"clearly comprehend what they do not, "that therefore they can never be cer"tain that they do, clearly comprehend any "thing which is juft; as if we fhou'd argue, "that because in our Dreams we think we have "clear Senfations, we cannot therefore be ever "fure, when we are awake, that we fee things "that really are.

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Dr. Cudworth concludes this Chapter with Origen against Celfus.

5. That Science and Knowlege is the only firm thing in the World, without a Participation of which communicated to them from God, all Creatures, fays he, wou'd be mere Ludibria and Vanity.

ARTICLE

XXXIV.

An Enquiry into the Revelation of St. JOHN: With a Letter Sent to the Author of the Present State of the Republick of Letters. Being a Continuation of ART. XXVII. of the last fournal.

T

*

HE Alogians, who cou'd not perfuade themselves that they were compil❜d by St. John, had written a Critique on them, where, among other Particulars, they objected that the Church of Thyatira did not exift in the Age of that Apoftle. As thefe were Hereticks who re

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jected even St. John's Gospel, little notice is taken of their Opinions. But 'tis not they who are hinted at in this place, but St. Epiphanius who refutes them, tho' very triflingly; and in fuch a manner as to give them to understand, that in cafe they wou'd allow him the Gospel, he'd very freely give them up the Revelations. If they, fays he, admitted the Gospel, and rejected only the Revelations, one might conclude that they did it purely for the fake of being exact, and for fear of receiving an Apocryphal Piece. What furprizing Moderation is this in St. Epiphanius, he, who upon all other occafions was fo ftubborn and unpliant. According to him, had the Alogians rejected only fuch a Piece as the Revelations, nothing cou'd have been laid to their charge, but their being too fcrupulously exact. Mr. Bafnage thinks this is speaking very coldly of one of the Books of Scripture; but why does this Writer fay coldly? 'Tis prevaricating with a witnefs.

But tho' the People of the Eaft and the Greeks had no great esteem for the Revelations, yet the Latins, especially the most Western part of them, were more inclin'd to receive them: Among those who quote them in the fourth Century, are reckon'd Firmicus Maternus in the 20th Chapter against Idolatry; Phebades of Agen in his Book against the Arians; Pacienus Bishop of Barcelona in his firft Epiftle; Prudentius the Poet in his fixth Hymn, written for those who are going to fleep; St. Hilary, in his Commentary on the Pfalms, in which he cannot comprehend (to mention this tranfiently) how 'tis poffible for Willows to grow on the Banks of Ri

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vers; which reduces him to the neceffity of giving an allegorical Interpretation to thofe Trees, on which the Jews hung their musical Inftruments. S. Paulinus is also reckon'd, who hides S. Felix under a Spider's Web to conceal him from his Perfecutors. Victorinus the African, a Platonift, for whom St. Jerom difcovers the utmoft Contempt, and who did not apply himself to the Study of the Scriptures till he was in a very advanc'd Age: All of them Spanish Writers, or born near the Garonne, the first and laft excepted; but all of them born at a great diftance from the Country which had given Birth to the Revelations: We must not omit the famous St. Ambrofe, who had a kind of magical Wand, not for diftinguishing genuine Pieces from fuch as were fpurious, but for finding out the true Bodies of Saints and the Relicks of Martyrs, which he diftinguifh'd from fuch as were falfe by certain Emotions that rofe within him, as he himself has been pleas'd to inform Pofterity. He, as well as Paulinus, had alfo during the Night, as St. Auftin his Difciple relates, Vifions and Dreams that were reveal'd to him from Heaven, by which he was inform'd of feveral Particulars that no one knew but himself. However, notwithstanding this affiftance, both himfelf and other Writers do but barely quote the Revelations; nor are we to expect any far

ther.

* Phylaftris, St. Ambrofe's Friend, is more exprefs, tho' he was not indulg'd a Revelation; for he looks upon all fuch of his Cotemporaries as Hereticks who rejected the Revelations. However, the Reader is not to imagine that thefe

Phylaft. de Hærefibus c. 13.

were

were the only People who rejected it, and that all the Churches affembled in a Body had decreed to receive it. St. Auftin was furpriz'd that Phylaftris, who was a Man infinitely inferior in Learning to Epiphanius, had neverthelefs enumerated up more Herefies than he had done; and hereupon fays with great Sagacity, That these two Authors had not the fame Idea of Herefy, becaufe, fays he, 'tis really a very difficult Matter to give a juft definition of it. Phylaftris, who had no other view but to increase his Catalogue, gives frequently the name of Herefy to what was not fo; nay he fometimes brands the foundest Opinions with that Name: He likewife confiders thofe (but purely out of his own abundant Goodness) as Hereticks who affirm, that all the Pfalms were not written by David; thofe who say that the number of Years from the Creation is not fix'd; those who affert that there are more than feven Heavens, who look upon Earthquakes as natural Effects; who think the fix'd Stars and the Firmament are immoveable: Inftead, fays he, of conceiving the Deity as drawing them every Night out of his Treafure, and fpreading, as it were, the Toilet, which he folds up next Morning. I am of Opinion that great numbers of good People, tho' they had not the fame turn of thinking as Phylaftris, were neverthelefs reputed Orthodox.

Neither can we lay much ftrefs on what * Sulpitius Severus fays, when he affirms in fo fanguine a manner, that all thofe are Fools and impious Wretches who rejected the Revelations. As he himself was a Millenarian, to reject that Book would have utterly deftroy'd the Millen

Hift. Sacra. Lib. II.

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