be that bath receiv'd a Prophet in the Name of a Pro pbet, fhall receive a Prophet's Reward.

But one of the moft blazing Innovators of this Age, who moves in a neighbouring Sphere, (and there for ever may he move in fpight of all the Intreague to tranfplant him hither) is the admir'd Le Clerc, a fworn Enemy to the Primitive Chriftians; one who has wrote himself (poor Man) to the Stumps, to Martyr 'em over again, to Gibbet up their Names and their Doctrines, and the very Matters of Fact they all relate, especially when they seem to reflect upon the Devil, and rejoice that the Demons were fubje& unto them; one who is confessedly worn out almost in the Service of the Party; that is, in debafing the divinely-infpir'd Scriptures, in tranflating the Rights, falfly fo called, and in tranflating and commenting away the New Teftament, and in his laft Days hath done as much for the Old, and to fill up his MeaSure, has prefix'd his Name, and dedicated the Per formance to one of the Angels of our Church, and wou'd fain have the World believe as if he wrote it at the Instinct and Encouragement of that learned Prelate, for my own part, I will not, I cannot believe it: For he has perfectly made another Tale of a Tub of the Holy Scriptures, and I had rather believe no Bible at all, than believe it in the Sense of that Com mentator. I know of no Reason he has to boast his kind Reception among English Divines; for feveral, I am fure, have feverely animadverted upon his unjust Cenfures of the ancient Fathers; the Reverend Dr. Whitby, who agrees with him only in the Perfon dedicated to, has given him due Correction for his perpetual Abuses throughout the Apoftolick Wri tings and the Right Reverend the Bishop will find a time, no doubt, to exprefs his Refentments for the like Affront to the Law and the Prophets patroniz'd on him, in fpight of all the Encomiums given him by the Man, whofe Commendation is a Blot even upon his Lordship's Expofition. And that he may no longer

longer boast our Approbation of his outlandish Divinity, I have ftept out of the way in the Margin, to give a Proof of the Size of the Man, both as to his Ability and his Confidence; where to fhew his Parts in fpoiling a Miracle, he has made Shipwreck of common Senfe, even to a Demonftration. He will find I have been very merciful in fingling out one Inftance only; of the many that might be produc'd, for I affure him it would be wondrous eafy to fur nifh out yearly a Bibliotheque of his own Blunders; but the living upon the worst of the best Authors, is a Diet I leave to this Critick. The Inftance in the Margin is of fuch a kind, wherein his untutor'd

Fancy

Le Clerc. Jofh. x. 12. Quod fieri potuit infolitis Refractioni bus, quibus, ut notum eft, Sol nobis fupra Horizontem effe videtur, cum nondum ortus fit, & jam occiderit. Idemq; in Laponia oculis non occidit folftitialibus diebus, licet revera Horizontem fubeat. To naturalize Miracles, and thereby to undermine the Authority of Scripture which exprefly afferts 'em, and is built upon 'em, he has recourfe to Refractions; the Nature of which had he but to ferably understood, he wou'd have known how very little fervice able it is to the wretched purpose for which he alledgeth it. For by the natural Laws hereof, as Opticians give 'em, 'tis impoffible to make the Sun feem to ftand still for a whole Day, as Joshua (x. 13.) exprefly faith it did; fo that one Day was as long as two, as the Author of Ecclefiafticus comments on this Text, cap. 46. v. 4. To make an Object in a very swift and oblique Motion to the Eye to appear Quiefcent for a whole Day, or which in effect is the fame, to make that which is feen under different Angles and in divers Places, to appear by Refraction; as if, for many Hours, it ftill kept the very fame place, is a Problem in Dioptricks yet unknown to the Mafters of that Science. Our Critick, I find, has heard that 'tis ufual for Refraction to make the Sun appear higher than it is; and thence concludes, that he can thereby raife it as high as he pleases, and without a Miracle prolong the Day to what length he will. But he will find himself much mistaken in his conclufion. For though 'tis true, that the Sun is fomewhat elevated by Refraction, especially when very near the Horizon; yet the Angle of Elevation, when largeft (as at its Rifing and Setting) doth not exceed 32 Minutes, (which is about the appearing Diameter of the Sun and this Angle gradually decreases to the Altitude of 30 Degrees, where Aftronomers tell us it quite vanifhes, and is no longer fenfible. So that the ufual bending of the Rays caufed by N

their

Fancy cannot fo eafily rove, and therefore (if I miftake not) what he or his admirers, will scarce ever have the Hardiness to answer.

Since

their paffing out of the thin Ather into our thicker Atmosphere, call'd Refraction, can in no cafe do him any Service to make the Sun ftand ftill for one Moment, much less to make a Winter's Day as long, or longer than a Summer's. 'Tis well he calls the RefraElions he makes ufe of, uncommon ones, fince they are fo monftroully unlike those which Nature works. But, as if it ftill look'd too much like Miracle, to allow any thing that is fo much as uncommon in facred Hiftory, in his following Words (as if he retracted the foregoing) he tells us, That fomewhat like it happens ev'ry Day at the Rifing and Setting of the Sun; and that in Lapland almost the Jame Miracle appears once or twice every Tear by the most common Refraction, the Sun being there feen for feveral Days together, and as it were to stand fill, when in truth it is quite Set under the Horizon. And this feafon he reprefents as the Solstice, or the Time when the Sun for fome Days ftands ftill, as it did in the Text. This I am fure is Art or Sincerity very uncommon, whatever his Refrallions are: For it wrefts the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth to countenance an Abfurdity, and to impofe upon unwary Readers. The Laplanders have no fuch Appearance among 'em as he quotes. The Sun at its Solstice, is fo far from being at their Horizon for several Days, that it is at its utmoft height in their Meridian. Directly under the North and South Poles indeed, where we know of no Inhabitants, and where the Sun Rifes and Sets only by its annual Motion, the Equator and the Horizon becoming all one, its Refraction there, as at all other Horizons, is 32 Minutes; but this is fo very little (as I have already told him) that it can never do him the fignal Service he wou'd have it, tho' he were allow'd thus monftroufly to chop the Solftices into the Equinoxes, and to confound the Trop. of and vp with the Equator. He needed not have gone fo far as Lapland tor so small a Refraction as one of 32 Minutes, for that he had at Home, if 'twould do him any Service. One thing more alfo I must tell him, which for good Reafon he conccals from the Reader, that not only the Similitude of the Sun, but the Body it felf is as truly feen through the refracted Ray at the Horizon, as through the direct one at Noon Day. But if inftead of the ufual refracting Atmosphere, he afferts from his Friend Spinoza, That the Sun-beams then pafs'd through a much denier Medium, Ice, fuppofe, or Water, which gives a much greater bent to the Rays than the thickeft Air can, the Sine of the Angle at Incidence to that of Refraction being then as 4 to 3. Yet this fuppofition being a very abfurd one, cannot be allow'd, and if it were, it cannot do the Bufinefs he affigns it. It

3

cannor

Since therefore the Plague of Innovating is begun, and the Peftilence walketh not in Darkness only, but wafleth at Noon-day, 'tis high time to think of an

cannot be allow'd, because nothing lefs than a Miracle, which he cares not to be beholden to, can sustain fuch a Quantity of Wa ter either Liquid or Frozen, fufpended in the Air for a whole Day: The fpecifick Gravity of thefe two Elements is fo very un equal, that Caftles may be as eafily built and inhabited in the Air by our Mechanical Critick, as Rivers of Water, or Mountains of Ice lodg'd there upon fuch yielding Foundations. But to perfue his Fancy, let us throw him this Impoffibility alfo into the Bargain, yet his darling Refraction (except miraculously affifted and divefted of its ufua! natural Properties) even then is as far as ever from ferving of his turn, and helping him at a dead lift. For let him have what Oceans of Water and prodigious Cakes of Ice he pleafes, and in fpight of all the Laws of Gravitation, let him fix 'em pendulous in the Air for as long a time as he fancies; yet, without another Miracle thefe pellucid grofs Bodies, as to their Figure, fite and measures of Refracting, must still obferve the eftablifh'd Laws of their Nature. They muft confequently be fomewhat plain and hang fomewhat Parallel to the Horizon, from the Principles of their Generation; and for the fame Natural Rea fons, as Rivers here on Earth (whether Fluid or Frozen) are fo. And if this be the Shape, and Site, then the Refraction of the Rays coming from above into the fubjacent Ice, being as about Four to Three, they muft when coming out of the fuperior Ice into the fubjacent Air be as about Three to Four; fo the fuperior Refraction being rectify'd by the inferior one, the Sun muft appear in the fame Place as if look'd at in a direct Line, through the fame Medium, and without any other vifible Effects of Refraction, then when fhinning on us through a common Glafs Window.

A bold and boundlefs Fancy, as our Critck's is, may still rove on, and form ten thousand Shapes and Situations of Ice and Rivers in the Clouds in fpight of Hydrostaticks, and draw as many beloved Confequences from 'em, in fpight of Opticks. For he that is no Friend to Scripture-Miracles may be the more fond of those which are of his own making. But instead of thus amufing the Ignorant, and tickling the Profane with his audacious Potuit's and precarious Peut Etre's and May be's, (which I am not the first who has charg'd him with) he had much better condefcend to learn Philofophy from the Moderns, and Divinity from the Ancients; elfe in ev'ry Book that he obtrudes on the Publick, he may be thus expofing himself to the Correction of the Learned and the Pity of the Pious. For he muft never think, that the new Advancements in Philofophy, and the old Establishments in Divinity, Fathers, Bible and all, will be turn'd out of Doors to make room for his eternal Bibliotheques and free Comments.

N 2

Antidote,

Antidote, and to be as Induftrious in Saving, as others are in the Arts of Deftruction. Upon this view I thought it proper to conclude with this Prefervative against Novelties in Religion; it being recommended by the best Criticks as a fhort but excellent and judicious Tract, concerning the Rule of Faith, the Neceffity of Church-Communion, and the juft Au thority of the Primitive Fathers, &c. And I am in hopes, by the Bleffing of God, that it may prove a Receipt of good Ufe in an Age, when fo many are for living without Fefus Chrift in the World; when Rule and Faith, Communion, Church and Priesthood, are all cry'd down for pious Frauds, Prieftcraft, and the Cant only of the gown'd Tribe for the Benefit of the Impoftors. The divinely infpir'd Writings we profefs to be our Rule, and our only perfect Rule of Faith and Manners; but we fay withal, that the Ancients were not only the faithful Guardians of the facred Depofitum, but the ableft Interpreters alfo of that Rule; and that their Writings are left too for our Admonition, upon whom the Ends of the World are come. And therefore the mighty Applications of late to get 'em out of the Way, put me in mind of the whining of the Wolves in the Fable, who wou'd enter into Alliance with the Sheep, provided they wou'd put away their Dogs.

Vincentius indeed is the youngest by much of the Ancients here tranflated, but his want of Antiquity is confiderably ballanc'd by fome peculiar Advantages in the Time he liv'd. According to his own Account he compos'd this Commonitory about three Years after the Council of Ephefus, in CCCCXXXIV, a Time when the Church had been extremely pefter'd with fucceffive Plagues of various Herefy, which put the Orthodox upon distinguishing and wording themfelves with all the Care and Correctnefs imaginable, to provide (if poffible) against fuch as lay in wait to deceive and wreft ev'ry loofe unguarded Expreffion. A Time, when by the Advantage of General Councils, all the