Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures

The Philosophers, whom Tertullian calls the Patrons of Heretics, have established two peremptory Maxims, utterly repugnant unto what the Scripture reveals to us, both concerning our Happiness & Comfort: The one is, Ex nihilo, nihil habetur: Out of nothing, nothing can be made; directly levelled against the Creation of the World. And the other is, A privatione ad habitum non datur Regressus: There is no Restoration of the same Being, after a total Corruption and Dissolution of it; which still continues a great Prejudice against the Resurrection of our Bodies; which the Oracles of Reason have so much troubled the World with, that whatsoever seemed in the least contradictory to it, they judged contradictory ⟨p. 89⟩to common Sense, and exploded it as ridiculous and impossible. Under these great Disadvantages the Christian Religion laboured, whilst it not only owned the Creation of the World out of nothing, formerly described by Moses; but more clearly and openly attested the Resurrection of the Dead, which before was not either so clearly known, or so clearly proved; for these Doctrines were held so absurd by the great Sophisters of the World, whose Minds were too deeply tinctured with contrary Notions, that they looked upon the Christian Religion as a Design rather to destroy Reason, than to save the Soul; accounting it a very absurd thing to believe in a crucified Saviour, as being a Person weak and impotent; or the future Resurrection, as being a thing utterly impossible.

The Philosophers, whom Tertullian calls the Patrons of Hereticks, have established two peremptory Maxims, utterly repugnant unto what the Scripture reveals to us, both concerning our Happiness & Comfort: The one is, Ex nihilo, nihil habetur: Out of nothing, nothing can be made; directly levell'd against the Creation of the World. And the other is, A privatione ad habitum non datur Regressus: There is no Restoration of the same Being, after a total Corruption and Dissolution of it; which still continues a great Prejudice against the Resurrection of our Bodies; which the Oracles of Reason have so much troubled the World with, that whatsoever seem'd in the least contradictory to it, they judged contradictory ⟨p. 89⟩to common Sense, and exploded it as ridiculous and impossible. Under these great Disadvantages the Christian Religion labour'd, whilst it not only own'd the Creation of the World out of nothing, formerly described by Moses; but more clearly and openly attested the Resurrection of the Dead, which before was not either so clearly known, or so clearly proved; for these Doctrines were held so absurd by the great Sophisters of the World, whose Minds were too deeply tinctur'd with contrary Notions, that they look'd upon the Christian Religion as a Design rather to destroy Reason, than to save the Soul; accounting it a very absurd thing to believe in a crucified Saviour, as being a Person weak and impotent; or the future Resurrection, as being a thing utterly impossible.