Animadversions on a treatise entitled Fiat lux, or, A guide in differences of religion,…Animadversions on a treatise intituled Fiat lux, or, A guide in differences of religion,…

An unsearchable abyss in many of God's Providential dispensations, wherein the Infinite Sovereignty, Wisdom, and Righteousness of Him who giveth no account of his matters, are to be ⟨p. 179⟩adored, we readily acknowledge; and yet I dare freely say, that most of the things instanced in by our Author, are capable of a clear resolution according to known Rules and Principles of Truth revealed in the Scripture; such are, God's suffering the Gentiles to wander so long in the dark, not calling them to repentance; with the necessity of Christian Religion, and yet the punishment of many of the Professors of it by the power of Idolaters and Pagans, as the Church of the Jews was handled of old by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and others. Of this sort also, is his newly inserted Story of the Cirubrians, which it may be was added to give us a cast of his skill in the investigation of the original of Nations, out of Camden; For if that which himself affirms of them, were true, namely, That they were devout adoring the Crucifix, which men usually are, when they cease to worship aright him who was crucified, (the sin mentioned, Rom. 1.25.) we need not much admire, that God gave them up to be scourged by their Pagan adversaries; but, not to mention ⟨p. 180⟩that which is not only uncertain whether it be true, but is most probably false; If our Author had ever read the Stories of those Times, and the Lamentations made for the sins of them, by Gildas, Salvianus, and others, he would have found enough to justify God in his proceedings and dealing with his Cirubrians, according to the known Rules of his Word. The like may be affirmed concerning the Irish; whose decay, like a true English-man, he dates from the Interest of our Kings there, and makes the progress of it commensurate to the prevalency of their Authority; when it is known to all the world, that by that means alone they were reclaimed from Barbarism, and brought into a most flourishing condition, until by their rebellion and unparalleled cruelties; they precipitated themselves into confusion and ruin. As for that which is insinuated as the conclusion, fit to be made out of all these premises, concerning the obscurity of God's Nature, and the works of Providence, viz. that we betake our selves to the infallible determination of the Roman-Church, I shall only say;