And the business of the Clergy and their Maintenance with the belief of some Authority and Power conveyed in their Orders lookt as he thought like a piece of Contrivance And why said he must a man tell me I cannot be saved unless I believe things against my Reason and then that I must pay him for telling me of them These were all the Exceptions which at any time I heard from him to Christianity To which I made these Answers For Mysteries it is plain there is in every thing somewhat that is unaccountable How Animals or Men are formed in their Mothers bellies how Seeds grow in the Earth how the Soul dwells in the Body and acts and moves it How we retain the Figures of so many words or things in our Memories and how we draw them out so easily and orderly in our Thoughts or Discourses How Sight and Hearing were so quick and distinct how we move and how Bodies were compounded and united These things if we follow them into all the Difficulties that we may raise about them will appear every whit as unaccountable as any Mystery of Religion And a blind or deaf man would judge Sight or Hearing as incredible as any Mystery may be judged by us For our Reason is not equal to them In the same rank different degrees of Age or Capacity raise some far above others So that Children cannot fathome the Learning nor weak persons the Councels of more illuminated Minds Therefore it was no wonder if we could not understand the Divine Essence We cannot imagine how two such different Natures as a Soul and a Body should so unite together and be mutually affected with one anothers Concerns and how the Soul has one Principle of Reason by which it acts Intellectually and another of life by which it joyns to the Body and acts Vitally two Principles so widely differing both in their Nature and Operation and yet united in one and the same Person There might be as many hard Arguments brought against the possibility of these things which yet every one knows to be true from Speculative Notions as against the Mysteries mentioned in the Scriptures As that of the Trinity That in one Essence there are three different Principles of Operation which for want of terms fit to express them by We call Persons and are called in Scripture The Father Son and Holy Ghost and that the Second of these did unite Himself in a most intimate manner with the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ And that the Sufferings he underwent were accepted of God as a Sacrifice for our Sins Who thereupon conferred on Him a Power of granting Eternal Life to all that submit to the Terms on which He offers it And that the matter of which our Bodies once consisted which may be as justy called the Bodies we laid down at our Deaths as these can be said to be the Bodies which we formerly lived in being refined and made more spiritual shall be reunited to our Souls and become a fit Instrument for them in a more perfect Estate And that God inwardly bends and moves our Wills by such Impressions as he can make on our Bodies and Minds These which are the chief Mysteries of our Religion are neither so unreasonable that any other Objection lies against them but this that they agree not with our Common Notions nor so unaccountable that somewhat like them cannot be assigned in other things which are believed really to be though the manner of them cannot be apprehended So this ought not to be any just Objection to the submission of our Reason to what we cannot so well conceive provided our belief of it be well grounded There have been too many Niceties brought in indeed rather to darken then explain these They have been defended by weak Arguments and illustrated by Similies not always so very apt and pertinent And new subtilties have been added which have rather perplexed than cleared them All this cannot be denied the Opposition of Hereticks anciently occasioned too much Curiosity among the Fathers Which the School-men have wonderfully advanced of late times But if Mysteries were received rather in the simplicity in which they are delivered in the Scriptures than according to the descantings of fanciful men upon them they would not appear much more incredible than some of the common Objects of sense and perception And it is a needless fear that if some Mysteries are acknowledged which are plainly mentioned in the New Testament it will then be in the power of the Priests to add more at their pleasure For it is an absurd Inference from our being bound to assent to some Truths about the Divine Essence of which the manner is not understood to argue that therefore in an Object presented duly to our Senses such as Bread and Wine We should be bound to believe against their Testimony that it is not what our Senses perceived it to be but the whole Flesh and Blood of Christ an entire Body being in every Crumb and drop of it It is not indeed in a mans power to believe thus against his Sense and Reason where the Object is proportioned to them and fitly applied and the Organs are under no indisposition or disorder It is certain that no Mystery is to be admitted but very clear and express Authorities from Scripture which could not reasonably be understood in any other sense And though a man cannot form an explicite Notion of a Mystery for then it would be no longer a Mystery Yet in general he may believe a thing to be though he cannot give himself a particular account of the way of it or rather though he cannot Answer some Objections which lie against it We know We believe many such in Humane matters which are more within our reach and it is very unreasonable to say We may not do it in Divine things which are much more above our Apprehensions For the severe Restraint of the use of Women it is hard to deny that Priviledge to Jesus Christ as a Law-Giver to lay such Restraints as all inferiour Legislators do who when they find the Liberties their Subjects take prove hurtful to them set such Limits and make such Regulations as they judge necessary and expedient It cannot be said but the Restraint of Appetite is necessary in some Instances and if it is necessary in these perhaps other Restraints are no less necessary to fortifie and secure these For if it be acknowledged that Men have a property in their Wives and Daughters so that to defile the one or corrupt the other is an injust and injurious thing It is certain that except a man carefully governs his Appetites he will break through these Restraints and therefore our Saviour knowing that nothing could so effectually deliver the World from the mischief of unrestrained Appetite as such a Confinement might very reasonably enjoyn it And in all such Cases We are to ballance the Inconveniences on both hands and where we find they
higher and more lasting pleasure to a Man than to give them their full scope and range And if other Rules of Philosophy be observed such as the avoiding those Objects that stir Passion Nothing raises higher Passions than ungovern'd Lust nothing darkens the Understanding and depresses a mans mind more nor is any thing managed with more frequent Returns of other Immoralities such as Oaths and Imprecations which are only intended to compass what is desired The expence that is necessary to maintain these Irregularities makes a man salse in his other dealings All this he freely confessed was true Upon which I urged that if it was reasonable for a man to regulate his Appetite in things which he knew were hurtful to him Was it not as reasonable for God to prescribe a Regulating of those Appetites whose unrestrained Course did produce such mischievous effects That it could not be denied but doing to others what we would have others do unto us was a just Rule Those men then that knew how extream sensible they themselves would be of the dishonour of their Families in the case of their Wives or Daughters must needs condemn themselves for doing that which they could not bear from another And if the peace of Mankind and the entire satisfaction of our whole life ought to be one of the chief measures of our Actions then let all the World judge Whether a Man that confines his Appetite and lives contented at home is not much happier than those that let their Desires run after forbidden Objects The thing being granted to be better in it self than the question falls between the restraint of Appetite in some Instances and the freedom of a mans thoughts the soundness of his health his application to Affairs with the easiness of his whole life Whether the one is not to be done before the other As to the difficulty of such a restraint though it is not easie to be done when a man allows himself many liberties in which it is not possible to stop Yet those who avoid the Occasions that may kindle these impure Flames and keep themselves well employed find the Victory and Dominion over them no such impossible or hard matter as may seem at first view So that though the Philosophy and Morality of this Point were plain Yet there is not strength enough in that Principle to subdue Nature and Appetite Upon this I urged that Morality could not be a strong thing unless a man were determined by a Law within himself for if he only measured himself by Decency or the Laws of the Land this would teach him only to use such caution in his ill Practices that they should not break out too visibly but would never carry him to an inward and universal probity That Vertue was of so complicated a Nature that unless a man came entirely within its discipline he could not adhere stedfastly to any one Precept for Vices are often made necessary supports to one another That this cannot be done either steddily or with any satisfaction unless the Mind does inwardly comply with and delight in the Dictates of Virtue And that could not be effected except a mans nature were internally regenerated and changed by a higher Principle Till that came about corrupt Nature would be strong and Philosophy but feeble especially when it strugled with such Appetites or Passions as were much kindled or deeply rooted in the Constitution of ones Body This he said sounded to him like Enthusiasme or Canting He had no notion of it and so could not understand it He comprehended the Dictates of Reason and Philosophy in which as the Mind became much conversant there would soon follow as he believed a greater easiness in obeying its precepts I told him on the other hand that all his Speculations of Philosophy would not serve him in any stead to the reforming of his Nature and Life till he applied himself to God for inward assistances It was certain that the Impressions made in his Reason governed him as they were lively presented to him but these are so apt to slip out of our Memory and we so apt to turn our thoughts from them and at some times the contrary Impressions are so strong that let a man set up a reasoning in his Mind against them he finds that Celebrated saying of the Poet Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see what is better and approve it but follow what is worse to be all that Philosophy will amount to Whereas those who upon such Occasions apply themselves to God by earnest Prayer feel a disengagement from such Impressions and themselves endued with a power to resist them So that those bonds which formerly held them fall off This he said must be the effect of a heat in Nature it was only the strong diversion of the thoughts that gave the seeming Victory and he did not doubt but if one could turn to a Problem in Euclid or to Write a Copy of Verses it would have the same effect To this I answered That if such Methods did only divert the thoughts there might be some force in what he said but if they not only drove out such Inclinations but begat Impressions contrary to them and brought men into a new disposition and habit of mind then he must confess there was somewhat more than a diversion in these changes which were brought on our minds by true Devotion I added that Reason and Experience were the things that determined our perswasions that Experience without Reason may be thought the delusion of our Fancy so Reason without Experience had not so convincing an Operation But these two meeting together must needs give a man all the satisfaction he can desire He could not say It was unreasonable to believe that the Supream Being might make some thoughts stir in our Minds with more or less force as it pleased Especially the force of these motions being for most part according to the Impression that was made on our Brains which that power that directed the whole frame of Nature could make grow deeper as it pleased It was also reasonable to suppose God a Being of such goodness that he would give his assistance to such as desired it For though he might upon some greater Occasions in an extraordinary manner turn some peoples minds Yet since he had endued Man with a faculty of Reason it is fit that men should employ that as far as they could and beg his assistance which certainly they can do All this seemed reasonable and at least probable Now good men who felt upon their frequent Applications to God in prayer a freedom from those ill Impressions that formerly subdued them an inward love to Vertue and true Goodness an easiness and delight in all the parts of Holiness which was fed and cherished in them by a seriousness in Prayer and did languish as that went off had as real a perception of an inward strength in their Minds that did rise and fall
true ends of Worship come within another consideration which is this A man is never entirely Reformed till a new Principle governs his thoughts Nothing makes that Principle so strong as deep and frequent Meditations of God whose Nature though it be far above our Comprehension yet his Goodness and Wisdom are such Perfections as fall within our Imagination And he that thinks often of God and considers him as governing the World and as ever observing all his Actions will feel a very sensible effect of such Meditations as they grow more lively and frequent with him so the end of Religious Worship either publick or private is to make the Apprehensions of God have a deeper root and a stronger influence on us The frequent returns of these are necessary Lest if we allow of too long intervals between them these Impressions may grow feebler and other Suggestions may come in their room And the Returns of Prayer are not to be considered as Favours extorted by meer Importunity but as Rewards conferred on men so well disposed and prepared for them according to the Promises that God has made for answering our Prayers thereby to engage and nourish a devout temper in us which is the chief root of all true Holiness and Vertue It is true we cannot have suitable Notions of the Divine Essence as indeed we have no just Idea of any Essence whatsoever Since we commonly consider all things either by their outward Figure or by their Effects and from thence make Inferences what their Nature must be So though we cannot frame any perfect Image in our Minds of the Divinity Yet we may from the Discoveries God has made of Himself form such Conceptions of Him as may possess our Minds with great Reverence for Him and beget in us such a Love of those Perfections as to engage us to imitate them For when we say we love God the meaning is We love that Being that is Holy Just Good Wise and infinitely perfect And loving these Attributes in that Object will certainly carry us to desire them in our selves For what ever We love in another We naturally according to the degree of our love endeavour to resemble it In sum the Loving and Worshipping God though they are just and reasonable returns and expressions of the sense we have of his Goodness to us Yet they are exacted of us not only as a Tribute to God but as a mean to beget in us a Conformity to his Nature which is the chief end of pure and undefiled Religion If some Men have at several times found out Inventions to Corrupt this and cheat the World It is nothing but what occurs in every sort of Employment to which men betake themselves Mountebanks Corrupt Physick Petty-Foggers have entangled the matters of Property and all Professions have been vitiated by the Knaveries of a number of their Calling With all these Discourses he was not equally satisfied He seemed convinced that the Impressions of God being much in Mens minds would be a powerful means to reform the World and did not seem determined against Providence But for the next State he thought it more likely that the Soul began anew and that her sense of what she had done in this Body lying in the figures that are made in the Brain as soon as she dislodged all these perished and that the Soul went into some other State to begin a new Course But I said on this Head That this was at best a conjecture raised in him by his fancy for he could give no reason to prove it true Nor was all the remembrance our Souls had of past things seated in some material figures lodged in the Brain Though it could not be denied but a great deal of it lay in the Brain That we have many abstracted Notions and Idea's of immaterial things which depends not on bodily Figures Some Sins such as Falshood and ill Nature were seated in the Mind as Lust and Appetite were in the Body And as the whole Body was the Receptacle of the Soul and the Eyes and Ears were the Organs of Seeing and Hearing so was the Brain the Seat of Memory Yet the power and faculty of Memory as well as of Seeing and Hearing lay in the Mind and so it was no unconceivable thing that either the Soul by its own strength or by the means of some subtiler Organs which might be fitted for it in another state should still remember as well as think But indeed We know so little of the Nature of our Souls that it is a vain thing for us to raise an Hypothesis out of the conjectures We have about it or to reject one because of some difficulties that occur to us since it is as hard to understand how we remember things now as how We shall do it in another State only we are sure we do it now and so we shall be then when we do it When I pressed him with the secret Joys that a good Man felt particularly as he drew near Death and the Horrours of ill men especially at that time He was willing to ascribe it to the Impressions they had from their Education But he often confessed that whether the business of Religion was true or not he thought those who had the perswasions of it and lived so that they had quiet in their Consciences and believed God governed the World and acquiesced in his Providence and had the hope of an endless blessedness in another State the happiest men in the World And said He would give all that he was Master of to be under those Perswasions and to have the Supports and Joys that must needs flow from them I told him the main Root of all Corruptions in Mens Principles was their ill life Which as it darkened their Minds and disabled them from discerning better things so it made it necessary for them to seek out such Opinions as might give them ease from those Clamours that would otherwise have been raised within them He did not deny but that after the doing of some things he felt great and severe Challenges within himself But he said He felt not these after some others which I would perhaps call far greater Sins than those that affected him more sensibly This I said might flow from the Disorders he had cast himself into which had corrupted his judgment and vitiated his tast of things and by his long continuance in and frequent repeating of some Immoralities he had made them so familiar to him that they were become as it were natural And then it was no wonder if he had not so exact a sense of what was Good or Evil as a Feaverish man cannot judge of Tasts He did acknowledge the whole Systeme of Religion if believed was a greater foundation of quiet than any other thing whatsoever for all the quiet he had in his mind was that he could not think so good a Being as the Deity would make him miserable I asked if when by the