The King’s Sollicitor in the Supreme Court of Audience at PARIS.
Most Noble and Excellent Sir,
I should offend against Justice, if I should divert another way that time which you employ in the Exercise of Justice in your high Station: But I am encouraged in this Work, because it is for the Advancement of the Christian Religion, which is a great Part of Justice, and of your Office; neither would Justice permit me to approach any one else so soon as you, whose Name my Book glories in the Title of. I do not say I desire to employ part of your Leisure; for the Discharge of so extensive an Office allows you no Leisure. But since Change of Business is instead of Leisure to them that are fully employed, I desire you would in the midst of your forensick Affairs, bestow some Hours upon these Papers. Even then, you will not be out of the way of your Business. Hear the Witnesses, weigh the Force of their Testimony, make a Judgment, and I will stand by the Determination.
Paris, August 27, ciͻ-c-sc; iͻ-c-sc;c XXXIX.9
HUGO GROTIUS.
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THE
TRANSLATOR’S Preface
TO THE
CHRISTIAN READER.
The general Acceptation this Piece of Grotius has met with in the World, encouraged this Translation of it, together with the Notes; which, being a Collection of Antient Testimonies, upon whose Authority and Truth the Genuineness of the Books of Holy Scripture depends, are very useful in order to the convincing any one of the Truth of the Christian Religion. These Notes are for the most Part Grotius’s own, except some few of Mr. Le Clerc’s, which I have therefore translated also, because I have followed his Edition, as the most Correct.
The Design of the Book, is to show the Reasonableness of believing and embracing the Christian Religion above any other; which our Author does, by laying before us all the Evidence, that can be brought, both Internal and External, and declaring the Sufficiency of it; by enumerating all the Marks of Genuineness in any Books, and applying them to the Sacred Writings; and by making appear the Deficiency of all other Institutions of Religion, whether Pagan, Jewish, or Mahometan. So that the Substance of the whole is briefly this; that as certain as is the Truth of Natural Principles, and that the Mind can judge of what is agreeable to them; as certain as is the Evidence of Mens Bodily Senses in the most plain and obvious Matters of Fact; and as certainly as Mens Integrity and Sincerity may be discovered, and their Accounts delivered down to Posterity faithfully; so certain are we of the Truth of the Christian Religion; and that if it be not true, there is no such Thing as true Religion in the
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World, neither was there ever or can there ever be any Revelation proved to be from Heaven.
This is the Author’s Design to prove the Truth of the Christian Religion in general, against Atheists, Deists, Jews, or Mahometans; and he does not enter into any of the Disputes which Christians have among themselves, but confines himself wholly to the other. Now as the State of Christianity at present is, were a Heathen or Mahometan convinc’d of the Truth of the Christian Religion in general, he would yet be exceedingly at a Loss to know what Society of Christians to join himself with; so miserably divided are they amongst themselves, and separated into so many Sects and Parties, which differ almost as widely from each other as Heathens from Christians, and who are so zealous and contentious for their own particular Opinions, and bear so much Hatred and ill Will towards those that differ from them, that there is very little of the true Spirit of Charity, which is the Bond of Peace, to be found amongst any of them: This is a very great Scandal to the Professors of Christianity, and has been exceedingly disserviceable to the Christian Religion; insomuch that great Numbers have been hindered from embracing the Gospel, and many tempted to cast it off, because they saw the Professors of it in general agree so little amongst themselves: This Consideration induced Mr. Le Clerc to add a Seventh Book to those of Grotius; wherein he treats of this Matter, and shows what it becomes every honest Man to do in such a Case; And I have translated it for the same Reason. All that I shall here add, shall be only briefly to enquire into the Cause of so much Division in the Church of Christ, and to show what seems to me the only Remedy to heal it. First, to examine into the Cause, why the Church of Christ is so much divided: A Man needs but a little Knowledge of the State of the Christian Church, to see that there is just Reason for the same Complaint St. Paul made in the primitive Times of the Church of Corinth; that some were for Paul, some for Apollos, and some for Cephas; so very early did the Spirit of Faction creep into the Church of God, and disturb the Peace of it, by setting its Members at Variance with each other, who ought to have been all of the same common Faith, into which they were baptized; and I wish it could not be said that the same Spirit has too much remained amongst Christians ever since. It is evident that the Foundation of the Divisions in the
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Church of Corinth, was their forsaking their common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, into whose Name alone they were baptized; and uniting themselves, some under one eminent Apostle or Teacher, and some under another, by whom they had been instructed in the Doctrine of Christ; whereby they were distinguished into different Sects, under their several Denominations: This St. Paul complains of as a Thing in itself very Bad, and of pernicious Consequence; for hereby the Body of Christ, that is, the Christian Church, the Doctrine of which is one and the same at all Times and in all Places, is rent and divided into several Parts, that clash and interfere with each other; Which is the only Method, if permitted to have its natural Effect, that can overthrow and destroy it. And from the same Cause have arisen all the Divisions that are or have been in the Church ever since. Had Christians been contented to own but one Lord, even Jesus Christ, and made the Doctrine delivered by him the sole Rule of Faith, without any Fictions or Inventions of Men; it had been impossible but that the Church of Christ must have been one universal, regular, uniform Thing, and not such a Mixture and Confusion as we now behold it. But when Christians once began to establish Doctrines of their own, and to impose them upon others by humane Authority as Rules of Faith, (which is the Foundation of Antichrist,) then there began to be as many Schemes of Religion as there were Parties of Men who had different Judgment, and got the Power into their Hands. A very little Acquaintance with Ecclesiastical History does but too sadly confirm the Truth of this, by giving us an Account of the several Doctrines in Fashion, in the several Ages of the Christian Church, according to the then present Humour. And if it be not so now, how comes it to pass that the Generality of Christians are so zealous for that Scheme of Religion, which is received by that particular Church of which they profess themselves Members? How is it that the Generality of Christians in one Country are zealous for Calvinism, and in another Country as zealous for Arminianism? It is not because Men have any natural Disposition more to the one than the other, or perhaps that one has much more Foundation to support it from Scripture than the other; But the Reason is plain, viz. because they are the established Doctrines of the Places they live in; they are by Authority made the Rule and Standard of Religion, and Men are taught them from the Beginning; by
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this Means, they are so deeply fixed and rooted in their Minds, that they become prejudiced in Favour of them, and have so strong a Relish of them, that they cannot read a Chapter in the Bible but it appears exactly agreeable to the received Notions of them both, tho’ perhaps those Notions are directly contradictory to each other: Thus instead of making the Scripture the only Rule of Faith, Men make Rules of Faith of their own, and interpret Scripture according to them; which being an easy Way of coming to the Knowledge of what they esteem the Truth, the Generality of Christians
