I must add, that I have read that Book of Spinofa with application from the beginning to the end; but I proteft at the fame time before God, that I have found no folid arguments in it, nor any thing that cou'd shake, in the leaft, my belief of the Gospel. Instead of solid reasons, it contains meer fuppofitions, and what we call in the School, petitiones principii. The things which the Author advances, are given for Proofs, which being denied and rejected, the remaining part of his Treatife will be found to contain nothing but Lies and Blafphemies. Did he think that the World wou'd believe him blindly upon his word, and that he was not obliged to give good reasons and good proofs for what he advanced?

Lastly, feveral Writings, which Spinofa left after his death were Printed in 1677, in which year he alfo died. They are called his Pofthumous Works, Opera Posthuma. These three Letters B. D. S. are to be found in

the Title of the Book, which contains five feveral Works. The firft, is a Treatife of Morals demonftrated Geometrically, Ethica more Geometrico demonftrata. The fecond, is about Politicks. The third, treats of the Understanding, and of the means of rectifying it, De emendatione Intellectus. The fourth, is a Collection of Letters, and Answers to them, Epiftolæ & Refponfiones. The fifth, is an Abridgement of the Hebrew Grammar, Compendium Grammatices Linguæ Hebrææ, The Printer's name and the place wherein that Book was Printed, are not mention'd in the Title-page; which fhews that the Person who published it, did not care to be known. But Mr Vander Spyck, Spinofa's Landlord, who is alive still, tells me that Spinofa ordered that immediately after his death, his Desk, which contained his Letters and Papers, fhou'd be fent to John Rieuwertzen, a Printer at Amfterdam: Which Vander Spyck dit not fail to perform according to his Will. And

John Rieuwertzen acknowledged that he had received that Desk, as it appears by his Anfwer dated from Amfterdam the 25th of March, 1677. He adds towards the latter part of his Letter, that The Relations of Spinofa wou'd fain know to whom it was directed, because they fancied that is was full of Money, and that they wou'd not fail to enquire about it of the Waterman, who had been intrusted with it. But, fays he, if the Packets, that are fent hither by water, are not registred at the Hague, I don't fee how they can be informed about it, and indeed it is better they fhou'd know nothing of it, &c. He ends his Letter with thofe words, and it does clearly appear by that Letter, to whom we are beholden for fo abominable a Production.

Several Learned Men have already fufficiently discovered the impious Doctrines contained in thofe Pofthumous Works, and have given notice to every Body to beware

of 'em. I fhall only add fome few things to what has been faid by them. The Treatise of Morals begins with fome Difinitions or Defcriptions of the Deity. Who would not think at first, confidering fo fine a beginning, that he is reading a Chriftian Philofopher? All thofe Difinitions are fine, especially the fixth, wherein Spinofa fays, that God is an infinite Being; that is, a Substance, which contans in it felf an infinity of Attributes, every one whereof represents and expresses an Eternal and infinite Subftance. But whe. we enquire more narrowly into his Opinions, we find that the God of Spinofa is a meer Phantom, an imaginary God, who is nothing less than God. And therefore the words of the Apostle Tit. 1. 16. concerning impious Men, may be very well applied to that Philofopher: They profess that they know God, but in Works they deny him. What David says of ungodly Men Pfalm 14. 1. does likewife fuit him: The Fool has faid in his Heart, there is no God.

T

This is the true Opinion of Spinofa, whatever he might say. He takes the liberty to use the word God, and to take it in a fenfe unknown to all Chriftians. This he confeffes himself in his 21ft Letter to Mr. Oldenburg: I acknowledge, fays he, that I have a notion of God and Nature, very different from that of the Modern Chriftians. I believe that God is the Immanent, and not the Tranfient Caufe of all things: Deum rerum omnium Caufam immanentem, non vero tranfeuntem ftatuo. And to confirm his Opinion, he alledges these Words of St. Paul; In him we live, and move and have our Being. Act. 17. 28.

In order to understand him, we must confider that a Tranfient Caufe is, that the Productions whereof are external, or out of it felf; as a Man, who throws a Stone into the Air, or a Carpenter, who builds a House: Whereas the Immanent Cause acts inwardly, and is confined without acting outwardly. Thus when a Man's Soul thinks of, or defires