A censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society [by Thomas Sprat] as being destructive to the established religion and Church of England / [Henry Stubbe].

Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.

Date:: 1671

Credit: A censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society [by Thomas Sprat] as being destructive to the established religion and Church of England / [Henry Stubbe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

40/150 (page 28)

$\ * , 28 A CENSURE ON THE HISTORY breach of his RELIGIOUS 'DUTY towards Cod ) was a defi* ciency from the ftudy of EXPERIMENTAL PKILOSO- P H IE : or that be was not ejeded paradire for the breach of a po/itive command, but for not minding the cultivation of the Garden, and natural curio/ ties. I never heard that this was that fm for which See the Article death pa fed upon all men, nor this the tranCgreffion wherein Eve was about Original*-he ft/. I would willingly have conjlrained my felf fo as to carry fm. on tberelation of thefe words beyond thofe immediately preceding them: but I find it too far a fetch. It is true, our Author doth acknowledg pag. 346, elfewhere, that there are principles of natural Religion , -which confrfis in the acknowledgment and worjkip of a Deity: and alfo , that the fiudy of Nature will teach an Experimentatortowor/kiptbat wifdom, by which pag. 349. all things are fo ea/ly fujlained. But thefe paffages are too remote from this place to have any influence upon the text; and the words that follow next argue for me herein. , viz. This was the firfl fer- ■“ vice that Adam perform’d to his Creator, when he obey'd him in mufter- “ ing , and naming , and looking into the nature of all creatures. <c This had been the ONELY RELIGION, if men had continued “ innocent in paradife , and had not wanted a Redemption. Of this “ the Scripture makes fo much ufe, that if an) devout man fall rejefl all “NATURAL PHI LOS OP HIE , he may A/ofGenefis, and]obt cc and the Plalms, aud fome other books out of the Canon of the Bible. From whence it feemsmanifeft:, that our Virtuofo fo reprefents the matter, as if NATURAL and Experimental PHILOSOPHIE, not Natural Theology , had been the Religion of Paradife: nor doth he mention any thing of the obligation Adam had to fulfill the Moral JLaw , or obey the po/itive occafonal precepts , or to believe the inci¬ dent Revelations with which bis Creator might acquaint him„ 1'1 ~ • /. ■' V'1 •: 1 '■ • - ’• * 1 i.yV.; 1 ■ 1 ;:rl,f r r / / i ' \ 4 ■ ■ - ••; - '• 1 'i i , ’ * . ; • , . • . , 1 iiijlor. y$