manifest consequences deduc'd thence And by this one Declaration so many unnecessary and perhaps hurtful Retainers to Christianity will be at once thrown off that I doubt not but if you consider the Matter aright you will easily discern that by this first Distinction I have much lessen'd the work that is to be done by those that are to follow it SECT II. In the next place among the things that seem not rational in Religion I make a great difference between those in which unenlightned Reason is manifestly a competent Iudge and those which Natural Reason it self may discern to be out of its Sphere You will allow me That Natural Theology is sufficient to evince the Existence of the Deity and we know that many of the old Philosophers that were unassisted by Revelation were by the force of Reason led to discover and confess a God that is a Being supremely perfect under which Notion divers of them expresly represent him Now if there be such a Being 't is but reasonable to conceive that there may be many things relating to his Nature his Will and his management of things that are without the Sphere of meer or unassisted Reason For if his Attributes and Perfections be not fully comprehensible to our Reason we can have but inadequate Conceptions of them and since God is a Being toto Coelo as they speak differing from all other Beings there may be some things in his Nature and in the manner of his Existence which is without all Example or perfect Analogy in inferior Beings For we see that ev'n in Man himself the Coexistence and intimate Union of the Soul and Body that is an Immaterial and a Corporeal substance is without all President or Parallel in Nature And though the truth of this Union may be prov'd yet the manner of it was never yet nor perhaps ever will be in this Life clearly understood to which purpose I shall elsewhere say more Moreover if we suppose God to be Omnipotent that is to be able to do whatever involves no Contradiction that it should be done we must allow him to be able to do many things that no other Agent can afford us any Examples of and some of them perhaps such as we who are but finite and are wont to judge of things by Analogy cannot conceive how they can be perform'd Of the last sort of things may be the recollecting a sufficient quantity of the scatter'd matter of a Dead humane Body and the contriving of it so that whether alone or with some addition of other Particles upon a reconjunction with the Soul it may again constitute a living Man and so effect that Wonder we call the Resurrection Of the latter sort is the Creation of Matter out of nothing and much more the like Production of those Rational and Intelligent Beings Humane Souls For as for Angels good or bad I doubt whether meer Philosophy can evince their Existence though I think it may the possibility thereof And since we allow the Deity a Wisdom equal to this boundless Power 't is but reasonable to conceive that these unlimited Attributes conspiring may produce Contrivances and frame Designs which we Men must be unable at least of our selves sufficiently to understand and to reach to the bottom of And by this way of arguing it may be made to appear That there may be many things relating to the Deity above the reach of unenlightned humane Reason Not that I affirm all these things to be in their own Nature incomprehensible to us though some of them may be so when they are once propos'd but that Reason by its own light could not discover them particularly and therefore it must owe its knowledge of them to Divine Revelation And if God vouchsafes to disclose those things to us since not only he must needs know about his own Nature Attributes c. what we cannot possibly know unless he tells us and since we know that whatever he tells us is infallibly true we have abundant Reason to believe rather what he declares to us concerning Himself and Divine things than what we should conclude or guess about them by Analogy to things of a nature infinitely distant from his or by Maxims fram'd according to the nature of inferior Beings If therefore he clearly reveal to us That there is in the Godhead Three distinct Persons and yet that God is One we that think our selves bound to believe God's Testimony in all other Cases ought sure not to disbelieve it concerning himself but to acknowledge that in an unparallel'd and incomprehensible Being there may be a manner of Existence not to be parallel'd in any other Being though it should never be understood by us Men who cannot clearly comprehend how in our selves two such distant Natures as that of a gross Body and an immaterial Spirit should be united so as to make up one Man In such cases therefore as we are now speaking of there must indeed be something that looks like captivating ones Reason but 't is a submission that Reason it self obliges us to make and he that in such points as these believes rather what the Divine Writings teach him than what he would think if they had never inform'd him does not renounce or inslave his Reason but suffers it to be Pupil to an Omniscient and Infallible Instructer who can teach him such things as neither his own meer Reason nor any others could ever have discovered to him I thought to have here dismiss'd this Proposition but I must not omit to give it a confirmation afforded me by chance or rather Providence For since I writ the last Paragraph resuming a Philosophical Enquiry I met in prosecuting it with a couple of Testimonies of the truth of what I was lately telling you which are given not by Divines or Schoolmen but by a couple of famous Mathematicians that have both led the way to many of the Modern Philosophers to shake off the reverence wont to be born to the Authority of great Names and have advanc'd Reason in a few years more than such as Vaninus and Pomponatius would do in many Ages and have always boldly and sometimes successfully attempted to explain intelligibly those things which others scrupled not either openly or tacitly to confess inexplicable The first of these Testimonies I met with in a little French Treatise put out by some Mathematician who though he conceals his Name appears by his way of writing to be a great Virtuoso and takes upon him to give his Readers in French the new thoughts of Galilaeo by making that the Title of his Book This Writer then speaking of a Paradox which I but recite of Galilaeo's that makes a point equal to a Circle adds Et per consequent l'on peut dire i. e. and consequently one may say that all Circles are equal between themselves since each of them is equal to a point For though the imagination be overpower'd by this Idea or Notion yet
defect A sinner among other words in Scripture is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to miss the mark and therefore he should repent and learn to aim better Sin among other names is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a going astray He must needs be out of his way who by sin is departed from the God of his life and therefore he should take up as the Apostles advice is Repentance towards God i. e. he ought to repent and return to God We have been told and that truly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the beginning and end of all happy life and perfection is the lifting up of our souls to God And by another that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man doth naturally return to God and therefore if we have by sin gone astray from him and our own Nature it is most reasonable as his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repair the mischief of our flight from above from God and Vertue by returning to him To show the reasonableness of Repentance a little further I shall only add two things to be considered viz. 1. That sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul. 2. That it is a bold contempt of that excellent Order which the Divine Wisdom hath planted in Humane Nature 1. Sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul and is as destructive of its health beauty and safety as distempered humours defect in any Member solution of parts or dislocation of a Joynt can be to the Body and if it be not timely cured will be the death of the Soul Therefore the recovery of a sinner is expressed in Scripture by words which signifie Restoring of health to a sick Man the cure of a wound the Reparation of a decayed or lost Sense the setting of a dislocated Bone in the right place again and giving ease to one that is in pain And there is good Reason for it For is not an ignorant mind as bad as a blind eye A will disabled to all virtuous choice worse than a lame hand And vile affections more ugly than distorted Members An evil Conscience as afflictive as a Cancer in the Breast Pining Envy as vexatious as the gnawing of the Stomach Are not the Furies of Lust and the Rage of Drunkenness or Hellish Malice as unnatural Distempers in the Soul as Feverish heats in the Body Is not the Soul as much tormented with thinking of the folly of Surfeits as the Body is afflicted with the bad consequences of them Is not insatiable desire of worldly Greatness Riches and Pleasure as bad as the Hydropick Thirst A man would think himself in a bad Condition if he should find himself deprived of Sense deformed in any principal Member weakned in the powers of his Body troubled with a deaf Ear a lame Hand and gouty Feet his Blood inflamed and feel himself racked with the pain of the Stone he would have so little pleasure in himself that he would hate life But he who is corrupted with sin is in a worse condition for he hath neither beauty health or vigour in his Soul He is maimed in his excellent Faculties disabled to the use of his best powers and hath defaced the beauty of his Soul which is Vertue A good man is pleased with himself because he feels that his soul is in health and that all his powers are in due symmetry and finds that in his soul which should make a man in love with himself He perceives as Plato said that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as his Scholar Plotin expressed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Psalmists words beautiful within that his soul is adorn'd with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo called it with compleat vertue which is the highest participation of the Divine Nature by which we are capable to imitate God which we then do when our souls are inriched with the sincere Love of God true Wisdom venerable Prudence exact Justice Godlike Benignity generous Courage lovely Temperance pure Chastity discreet Moderation composed Passions and in short when we have as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honest Endeavours good Designs prudent Conversation temperate Manners and indeed all the Actions and Dispositions of Vertue These are the fair Delineations of the Divine Image and finding those in his soul a good man is pleased with himself and desires to be as he is But these beautiful Characters of Immortal Spirits are all defac'd by wickedness and after they are blurr'd whensoever the sinner is forc'd to hold a Looking-glass before his soul he throws it away because he cannot endure to see himself Aristotle said well concerning this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad man hath no love love for himself because he finds nothing in himself that is worthy to be loved Much to the same purpose Philo Iud. A wicked man hath no joy in himself after he hath debauched his Nature and vitiated whatsoever was good in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having now nothing to rejoyce in And writing upon that Verse in Genesis that after man had perverted his Nature by sin as a punishment the Earth brought forth for his sake Briers and Thorns I saith he and so did his heart too it could not do otherwise adding these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for what else can grow or spring upon the soul of a Fool but such passions as do prick and wound it Besides that which I have said upon this matter I must add one particular mischief and that no small one which will always disturb a sinner till he return to God by Repentance and that is an evil Conscience a Serpent in the Bosome which hath been well represented in our Saviour's Discourses by a Worm gnawing the Bowels or as a Rust fretting the heart a Fire in the Veins It is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euripides calls it a Divine Goad sticking in the soul which the Heathens acknowledged under the name of the Thespesian Vipers and the merciless Furies This Cotta the Atheist if we may believe Tully confessed to be a very great vexation without reference to God his words are these Sine ullà Divina ratione grave ipsius conscientiae pondus est It is as vexatious as the company of an unpleasant Ghost to such as are haunted by it day and night who can never be quiet till it be laid But when respect is had to God which it must and will have for it is his Deputy the case is much worse for it will torment the sinner both with the sense of his Disfavour under which it puts him at present and with the fear of that punishment which it makes him expect in time to come It is a huge misery to be in such a state as makes a man afraid of God which the guilt of sin always doth This I cannot better say than in the words of a forementioned Author who speaking
of the sad Condition in which Adam was after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit and upon the sense of his Fault had hidden himself from God hoping at least wishing he had done so when God enquiring after him though knowing well enough where he was asked him this Question Adam where art thou He makes this Answer for him proper enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am where they are who are not able to look upon God where they are who obey not God I am where they are who hide themselves from their Maker where they are who are fled from vertue and are destitute of wisdom I am where they are who tremble by reason of guilt and cowardise This being the melancholick condition of wretched sinners after they come to consider how things are with them in the cool of the day when the heats of their Wine and Lust are over their ranting mirth ended their Passions becalm'd and they begin to bethink themselves and to reflect upon their Extravagancies and are made to hear that still voice which call'd to Adam after his prevarication Wise men having compared the sprightly erect chearful temper of good men with this Law justly pronounced that vertuous persons do not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not only exceed a vitious man in that which is honest but also overcome him in pleasure for which only the sinner seems to betake himself to wickedness And this pleasure is so considerable that Aristotle could say that it did exceed that of the wicked those Fugitives from Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that it is more pure and more solid and so is as another calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a pleasure as one shall never have cause to repent of But those pains which I forementioned are more considerable because they are both more pungent and more lasting than those of the Body which made Simplicius say of them That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they are more grievous stay longer and are harder to be cured A bodily Distemper is more easily relieved than an evil Conscience take away the present pain and the Body returns to its health but the soul is pain'd with the remembrance of what is past and the sear of what is to come which is so great an affliction that many times it makes the present state intolerable Therefore Holy Scripture and Ancient Philosophers called the state of Sin the Death of the Soul So our Saviour said of the vitious Prodigal that he was dead and the Apostle of the wicked world that they were dead in sins and trespasses and the Heathen Philosopher the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The death of the soul is the deprivation of God and Reason which are accompanied with a turbulent conflict of inordinate passions And that none might think that he dully supposed that an Immortal Being can dy he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not that they cease to be but that they fall from the happiness of life And in another place he says that wickedness is the corruption of an Immortal Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it corrupts it as much as is possible For this reason when any of Pythagoras's Sholars abandoned the practise of Vertue and lest his Society they hung up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an empty Coffin for him looking upon him as one dead And they might very well do so for is it not the destruction of a reasonable Being to be corrupted in those Principles which are essential to it to be spoiled in its best Faculties to be hindred from the free exercise of its Natural Powers to be bereav'd of that joy which a man hath when he acts according to that which is best in him to be deadned to a vital sense of his chief good and to be deprived of the love of God which is the very life of good men Whatsoever intercepts the favourable Influences of God's Benignity doth as much contribute to the death of the soul as he would promote the bodie 's life who by some fatal obstruction of the inward passages should hinder the communication of vital Spirits to all the parts of the body What joy can a man have when the indwelling God is grieved and the Fool lives in contradiction to the connate Principles of his soul 2. This brings me to the second Demonstration of the Reasonableness of Repentance because sin is an insolent contempt of that excellent order which God hath planted in Humane Nature which is his Law upon it and is the ornament and preservation of it There are few who have so little use of their soul bestoweds upon them but that they know they are better than their Bodies and that the Faculties of it do transcend those of the sensual Part and that the mind doth not only understand what is best but hath Authority bestowed upon it to govern the bodily Appetites which being inferiour in Nature and needing a Guide ought to receive Law from it The soul doth discover being it self taught of God by its natural light and super-added Revelation what is the happiness to which it was made the best good of which it is capable and shows the means by which it may be attained directs assists in the use of them propounds rational Arguments to persuade to use and persist in the use of them can baffle such Objections as are raised either by the homebred Enemy or Forreign Tentations to hinder the soul in its chearful progress towards its Felicity The soul tells us what satisfaction is allowable to the bodily appetites disting uisheth between lawful and unlawful utterly forbids the latter and commands that there be no excess in the former shows what Moderation is and the benefit of it and represents the mischief as well as the sin of excess threatens death upon the eating of all forbidden Fruit. Order is then observed as it ought to be when all the Faculties do obey this Superior upon whom God hath bestow'd power to discern Freedom of choice and authority to command For which reason ancient Philosophers have call'd it by very agreable Names as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the part to which is committed the guidance of all the rest It was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which rides and governs the lower Faculties as the Charioteer doth his Horses with Rains because it was placed in man to guide the Affections and conduct the Faculties of soul and body in what way they should go and what pace and to teach them when to rest and when they went astray to curb their Extravagancies and to reduce them into the right Path. It is worthy of all reasonable Beings to maintain this Dignity and it is their Duty to see that it be not trampled upon This made a great Philosopher say that when a man is assaulted by any
Reason will suffer it self to be persuaded of it I know continues he divers other excellent Persons besides Galilaeo who conclude the same thing by other ways but all are constrain'd to acknowledge that indivisible and infinite are things that do so swallow up the mind of Man that he scarce knows what to pitch on when he contemplates them For it will follow from Galilaeo's Speculation c. which passage I have cited to shew you that Galilaeo is not the only Philosopher and Mathematician who has confess'd his Reason quite passed about the Attributes of what is Infinite The other Testimony I mention'd to you is that of the excellent Des-Cartes in the second Part of his Principles of Philosophy where speaking of the Circle to be made by Matter moving through places still lesser and lesser he has this ingenious acknowledgment Fatendum tamen est sayes he in motu isto aliquid reperiri quod mens quidem nostra percipit esse verum sed tamen quo pacto fiat non comprehendit nempe Divisionem quarundam particularum Materiae in infinitum sive indefinitam atque in tot partes ut nulla cogitatione determinare possimus tam exiguam quin intelligamus ipsam in alias adhuc minores reipsa esse divisam And in the Close of the next Paragraph he gives this for a Reason why though we cannot comprehend this indefinite division yet we ought not to doubt of the truth of it That we discern it to be of that kind of things that cannot be compriz'd by our minds as being but finite If then such bold and piercing Wits and such excellent Mathematicians are forc'd to confess that not only their own Reason but that of Mankind may be passed and non-plus'd about Quantity which is an Object of contemplation Natural nay Mathematical and which is the Subject of the rigid Demonstrations of pure Mathematicks why should we think it unfit to be believ'd and to be acknowledg'd that in the Attributes of God who is essentially an Infinite Being and an Ens singularissimum and in divers other Divine things of which we can have no knowledge without Revelation there should be some things that our Finite understandings cannot especially in this life clearly comprehend SECT III. To this Consideration I shall for Affinities sake subjoin another which I leave to your Liberty to look upon as a distinct one or as an Enlargement and Application of the former I consider then that there is a great difference between a Doctrines being repugnant to the general and well-weigh'd Rules or Dictates of Reason in the forming of which Rules it may be suppos'd to have been duly consider'd and its disagreeing with Axioms at the Establishment whereof the Doctrine in Question was probably never thought on There are several Rules that pass current ev'n among the most Learned Men and which are indeed of very great use when restrain'd to those things whence they took their Rise and others of the like nature which yet ought not to overthrow those Divine Doctrines that seem not consonant to them For the Framers of these Rules having generally built them upon the Observations they had made of Natural and Moral things since as we lately argued Reason it self cannot but acknowledge there are some things out of its Sphere we must not think it impossible that there may be Rules which will hold in all inferior Beings for which they were made and yet not reach to that infinite and most singular Being call'd God and to some Divine matters which were not taken into Consideration when those Rules were fram'd And indeed if we consider God as the Author of the Universe and the free Establisher of the Laws of Motion whose general Concourse is necessary to the Conservation and Efficacy of every particular Physical Agent we cannot but acknowledge that by with-holding his Concourse or changing these Laws of Motion which depend perfectly upon his Will he may invalidate most if not all the Axioms and Theorems of Natural Philosophy These supposing the Course of Nature and especially the Establish'd Laws of Motion among the parts of the Universal Matter as those upon which all the Phaenomena of Nature depend 'T is a Rule in Natural Philosophy that Causae necessariae semper agunt quantum possunt But it will not follow from thence that the Fire must necessarily burn Daniel's three Companions or their Cloaths that were cast by the Babylonian King's Command into the midst of a Burning fiery Furnace when the Author of Nature was pleas'd to withdraw his Concourse to the Operation of the flames or supernaturally to defend against them the Bodies that were exposed to them That Men once truly dead cannot be brought to life again hath been in all Ages the Doctrine of meer Philosophers but though this be true according to the Course of Nature yet it will not follow but that the contrary may be true if God interpose either to recall the departed Soul and reconjoin it to the Body if the Organization of this be not too much vitiated or by so altering the Fabrick of the matter whereof the Carkass consists as to restore it to a fitness for the Exercise of the Functions of Life Agreably to this let me observe to you that though it be unreasonable to believe a Miraculous Effect when attributed onely to a meer Physical Agent yet the same thing may reasonably be believ'd when ascrib'd to God or to Agents assisted with his absolute or supernatural Power That a Man born blind should in a trice recover his sight upon the Application of Clay and Spittle would justly appear incredible if the Cure were ascrib'd to one that acted as a meer Man but it will not follow that it ought to be incredible that the Son of God should work it And the like may be said of all the Miracles perform'd by Christ and those Apostles and other Disciples of his that acted by virtue of a Divine Power and Commission For in all these and the like Cases it suffices not to make ones Belief irrational that the things believ'd are impossible to be true according to the course of Nature but it must be shewn either that they are impossible even to the Power of God to which they are ascrib'd or that the Records we have of them are not sufficient to beget Belief in the nature of a Testimony which latter Objection against these Relations is Forreign to our present Discourse And as the Rules about the power of Agents will not all of them hold in God so I might shew the like if I had time concerning some of his other Attributes Insomuch that ev'n in point of Justice wherein we think we may freeliest make Estimates of what may or may not be done there may be some cases wherein God's supreme Dominion as Maker and Governor of the World places him above some of those Rules I say some for I say not above all those Rules of Justice which oblige all
sensual Tentation he ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to stir up his rational power to defend its proper Dignity and to secure the exercise of its Faculties according to their proper nature and so to keep the Reason of his mind from being enslav'd Who knows not that the Irascible Faculty which is in us will tempt us when occasion is offered to answer Reviling with Reproach and Wrong with Revenge but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is able as Simplicius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to suffer the Dog which is in us to bark much less to bite and to return Good for Evil both in Words and Actions Entreating for Rudeness and for Cursing Prayers And for the Concupiscible part it can deny what it craves it can reduce the sensual Appetite to that order which Nature requires and bring it into a less compass than the just measure of Nature if it please and to show its full Authority over all sensual Inclinations and Impressions it can appoint what is contrary to their Tendence and having resolved against it can put what it hath decreed in Execution and so though the Inferior part rebel it shows its power being enabled by God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to restrain it and maintain its own Superiority I'ts true bodily Objects presented by the Senses will enter into the imagination and by sudden Phantasms make some impression upon the soul but the mind can cast them out again can withdraw it self from the consideration of them can presently think upon other things and as it pleaseth deliberate whether that which the flesh desires be fit to be granted or no and if it be not can reject it and not only refuse to do that which would gratifie the sensual part but the quite contrary St. Iames says that Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Tentations to sin are presented if the Will embrace them Lust conceives and if it goes on to action it brings forth death but if a man reject the Allurement and deny the consent of his Will and refuse to act according to the incitations of fleshly Appetites the Cockatrice is killed in the shell and so cannot live to bite and hurt Thus we are secure in the Observation of God's Order which if we neglect the mischief of our disregard will soon appear in the ill Consequences which attend it For God hath so framed the Nature of our Souls and so ordered our most important Concerns that we can never break his Order but we shall suffer for it What we neglect at present will meet us in bad effects afterward When a man hath slighted the Government of himself and laid the Rains upon the neck of the Beast he shall soon find himself serv'd by his unruly Passions as Hippolytus was by his Horses thrown and torn Philosophers called inordinate Appetite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast with many Heads It is bad enough to contest with one Beast but it is much more hazardous when a man must scuffle with many To this dangerous Combat a sinner condemns himself When he hath parted with his Reason he hath subjected his mind to the command of every insulting Appetite and must comply with every foolish Phansie Being made the slave of sin he must as the Apostle says serve divers Lusts and so must needs be in a brave condition being under the Arbitrary Command not of one Tyrannical Patron but many having indeed as many Lords as Lusts and how basely they use their vitious slaves commanding by turns the poor wretches feel to their grief by the perpetual disturbance which they receive from them being sometimes more then half drowned with Wine sometimes set on fire with Wrath at other times swelled till they are ready to break with Pride and often thrown into all dirty pleasures I am not ignorant that some hardned sinners say That they feel not the pains of sin which are so talked of neither are they much concerned though they break that precise order which is forementioned They are well pleased with the life of Sense and are willing to go as their Appetites lead them they esteem that order good enough which some call Hurry though they be censured yet they think themselves well paid for what they do with sleshly Divertisements and whatever Divines or Philosophers say to the contrary they see no cause to repent of their course To these men I shall only say two things 1. That it is no sign of health in a man to want feeling 2. That there are Monsters in the World but no Argument can be made from them against Nature 1. It is no sign of health in a man to want feeling Is a man to be acounted well because he is in an Apoplexie and so not sensible of what you say or do to him Doth any man reckon it a perfection in his body to want feeling or any other sense The soul hath its Apoplexie too A man may so debauch his Nature with vitious practises that at last he shall be past feeling and commit all filthiness with greediness as the Apostle saith He sins and pleaseth himself that he feels no remorse Is glad that he is listed in the number of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He become a whining Penitent No he is one of the Fortes Esprites He makes a mock of sin Tell him of Repentance tell them that are weary of their lives he is well enough Let the sick send for the Physician out of his Bed He may sleep long enough for him he needs him not It s ridiculous talk to speak to him of a spiritual Guide he can govern himself This seems to be well but the Friends of a sick person are much troubled when they perceive that he is not sensible of pain or danger and they take it for a sign of approaching death neither do they entertain any hope of life till they have brought him to a sense of his sickness weakness The Scripture tells us of a seared Conscience of such whose minds are darkned and of a reprobate mind an undiscerning soul and of a hardned heart as callous as a Labourer's hand and of a heart waxen gross that is a soul which hath no more sense of God than the fat heart of an Ox which in other places is called the spirit of slumber nothing can awake such a person to mind his most important concerns A wicked life benums a sinner and we are no more to regard his judgment of things than what a blind man says of colours A reprobate mind is that sad punishment which God doth often inflict upon wilful sinners Since we know this we need not wonder that they do not repent though their Condition be most dangerous for they understand it not 2. There are Monsters in the World but no Argument can be taken from them against Nature Will any body say
in the World how can there come to be any Motion amongst Bodies since they neither have it upon the score of their own nature nor can receive it from external Agents If Mr. Hobbs should reply that the Motion is impress'd upon any of the parts of the Matter by God he will say that which I most readily grant to be true but will not serve his turn if he would speak congruously to his own Hypothesis For I demand Whether this Supreme Being that the Assertion has recourse to be a Corporeal or an Incorporeal Substance If it be the latter and yet be the efficient Cause of Motion in Bodies then it will not be Universally true that whatsoever Body is moved is so by a Body contiguous and moved For in our supposition the Bodies that God moves either immediately or by the intervention of any other Immaterial Being are not moved by a Body contiguous but by an Incorporeal Spirit But because Mr. Hobbs in some Writings of his is believed to think the very Notion of an Immaterial Substance to be absurd and to involve a Contradiction and because it may be subsum'd that if God be not an Immaterial Substance he must by Consequence be a Material and Corporeal one there being no Medium Negationis or third Substance that is none of those two I answer That if this be said and so that Mr. Hobbs's Deity be a Corporeal one the same difficulty will recurr that I urg'd before For this Body will not by Mr. Hobbs's calling or thinking it divine cease to be a true Body and consequently a portion of Divine Matter will not be able to move a portion of our Mundane Matter without it be it self contiguous and moved which it cannot be but by another portion of Divine Matter so qualified to impress a Motion nor this again but by another portion And besides that it will breed a strange confusion in rendring the Physical Causes of things unless an expedient be found to teach us how to distinguish accurately the Mundane Bodies from the Divine which will perhaps prove no easie task I see not yet how this Corporeal Deity will make good the Hypothesis I examine For I demand How this Divine Matter comes to have this Local Motion that is ascrib'd to it If it be answer'd That it hath it from its own Nature without any other Cause since the Epicureans affirm the same of their Atoms or meerly Mundane Matter I demand How the Truth of Mr. Hobbs's Opinion will appear to me to whom it seems as likely by the Phaenomena of Nature that occur that Mundane Matter should have a congenit Motion as that any thing that is Corporeal can be God and capable of moving it which to be it must for ought we know have its Subsistence divided into as many minute parts as there are Corpuscles and Particles in the World that move separately from their neighbouring ones And to draw towards a Conclusion I say that these minute Divine Bodies that thus moved those portions of Mundane Matter concerning which Mr. Hobbs denies that they can be moved but by Bodies contiguous and moved these Divine Substances I say are according to the late supposition true Bodies and yet are moved themselves not by Bodies contiguous and moved but by a Motion which must be Innate deriv'd or flowing from their very essence or nature since no such Body is pretended to have a Being as cannot be refer'd as a portion either to the Mundane or the Divine Matter In short since Local Motion is to be found in one if not in both of these two Matters it must be natural to at least some parts of one of them in Mr. Hobbs's Hypothesis for though he should grant an Immaterial Being yet it could not produce a Motion in any Body since according to him no Body can be moved but by another Body contiguous and mov'd As then to this grand Position of Mr. Hobbs though if it were cautiously propos'd as it is by Des Cartes it may perhaps be safely admitted because Cartesius acknowledges the first Impulse that set Matter a moving and the Conservation of Motion once begun to come from God yet as 't is crudely propos'd by the favourers of Mr. Hobbs I am so far from seeing any such cogent Proof for it as were to be wish'd for a Principle on which he builds so much and which yet is not at all evident by its own light that I see no competent Reason to admit it I expect your Friend should here oppose to what I have been saying that formerly recited Sentence that is so commonly employ'd in the Schools as well of Divines as of Philosophers That such or such an Opinion is true in Divinity but false in Philosophy or on the contrary Philosophically true but Theologically false Upon what Warrant those that are wont to employ such Expressions ground their Practice I leave to them to make out but as to the Objection it self as it supposes these ways of speaking to be well grounded give me leave to consider That Philosophy may signifie two things which I take to be very differing For first 't is most commonly employ'd to signifie a System or Body of the Opinions and other Doctrines of the particular Sect of those Philosophers that make use of the Word As when an Aristotelian talks of Philosophy he usually means the Peripatetick as an Epicurean do's the Atomical or a Platonist the Platonick But we may also in a more general and no less just Acception of the term understand by Philosophy a Comprehension of all those Truths or Doctrines which the natural Reason of man freed from Prejudices and Partiality and assisted by Learning Attention Exercise Experiments c. can manifestly make out or by necessary consequence deduce from clear and certain Principles This being briefly premis'd I must in the next place put you in mind of what I formerly observ'd to you that many Opinions are maintain'd by this or that Sect of Christians or perhaps by the Divinity-Schools of more than one or two Sects which either do not at all belong to the Christian Religion or at least ought not to be look'd upon as parts of it but upon supposition that the Philosophical Principles and Ratiocinations upon which and not upon express or meer Revelation they are presum'd to be founded are agreable to right Reason And having premis'd these two things I now answer more directly to the Objection that if Philosophy be taken in the first sense above-mention'd its teaching things repugnant to Theology especially taking this word in the more large and vulgar sense of it will not cogently conclude any thing against the Christian Religion But if Philosophy be taken in the latter sense for true Philosophy and Divinity only for a System of those Articles that are clearly reveal'd as Truths in the Scriptures I shall not allow any thing to be false in Philosophy so understood that is true in Divinity so explain'd
be naturally such an intimate Union betwixt two such distant Substances as an Incorporeal Spirit and a Body as that the former may not when it pleases quit the latter which cannot possibly have any strings or chains that can tye or fasten to it that which has no Body on which they may take bold And I there shew that 't is full as difficult Physically to explicate how these so differing Beings come to be united as how they are kept from parting at pleasure both the one and the other being to be resolv'd into the meer appointment of God And if to avoid the abstruseness of the Modus of this Conjunction betwixt the Rational Soul and the Humane Body it be said as 't is by the Epicureans that the former is but a certain Contexture of the finer and most subtle parts of the latter the formerly propos'd abstruseness of the Union betwixt the Soul and the Body will indeed be shifted off but 't will be by a Doctrine that will not much relieve us For those that will allow no Soul in Man but what is Corporeal have a Modus to explain that I doubt they will alwayes leave a Riddle For of such I desire that they would explain to me who know no effects that Matter can produce but by Local Motion and Rest and the consequences of it how meer matter let them suppose it as fine as they please and contrive it as well as they can can make Syllogisms and have Conceptions of Universals and invent speculative Sciences and Demonstrations and in a word do all those things which are done by Man and by no other Animal and he that shall intelligibly explicate to me the Modus of matters framing Theories and Ratiocinations will I confess not only instruct me but surprize me too And now give me leave to make this short Reflection on what has been said in this Section compar'd with what formerly I said in the first Section That if on the one hand we lay aside all the Irrational Opinions that the Schoolmen and other bold Writers have unwarrantably father'd on Christian Religion and on the other hand all the Erroneous Conceits repugnant to Christianity which the Schoolmen and others have prooflesly father'd upon Philosophy the seeming Contradictions betwixt solid Divinity and true Philosophy will appear to be but few as I think the Real ones will be found to be none at all SECT VI. The next Consideration I shall propose is That a thing may if singly or precisely consider'd appear Unreasonable which yet may be very Credible if consider'd as a Part of or a manifest Consequence from a Doctrine that is highly so Of this I could give you more Instances in several Arts and Sciences than I think fit to be here specifi'd and therefore I shall content my self to mention three or four When Astronomers tell us that the Sun which seems not to us a foot broad nor considerably bigger than the Moon is above a hundred and threescore times bigger than the whole Globe of the Earth which yet is forty times greater than the Moon the thing thus nakedly propos'd seems very Incredible But yet because Astronomers very skilful in their Art have by finding the Semidiameter of the Earth and observing the Parallaxes of the Planets concluded the proportion of these three Bodies to be such as has been mention'd or thereabout ev'n Learn'd and Judicious Men of all sorts Philosophers Divines and others think it not Credulity to admit what they affirm So the relations of Earthquakes that have reach'd divers hundreds of miles of Eruptions of fire that have at once overflown and burn'd vast Scopes of Land of the blowing up of Mountains by their own fires of the Casting up of new Islands in the Sea it self and other Prodigies of too unquestionable Truth for I know what work Ignorance and Superstition have made about other Prodigies If they were attested but by slight and ordinary Witness they would be judg'd Incredible but we scruple not to believe them when the Relations are attested with such Circumstances as make the Testimony as strong as the things attested are strange If ever you have consider'd what Clavius and divers other Geometricians teach upon the sixteenth Proposition of the third Book of Euclide which contains a Theorem about the Tangent and the Circumference of a Circle you cannot but have taken notice that there are scarce greater Paradoxes deliver'd by Philosophers or Divines than you will find asserted by Geometricians themselves And though of late the Learned Jesuit Tacquet and some rigid Mathematicians have question'd divers of those things yet ev'n what some of these severe Examiners confess to be Geometrically demonstrable from that Proposition contains things so strange that Philosophers themselves that are not well acquainted with that Proposition and its Corollaries can scarce look upon them as other than Incomprehensible or at least Incredible things which yet as improbable as they are consider'd in themselves ev'n rigid Demonstrators refuse not to admit because they are legitimately deducible from an Acknowledg'd truth And so also among the Magnetical Phaenomena there are divers things which being nakedly propos'd must seem altogether unfit to be believ'd as indeed having nothing like them in all nature whereas those that are vers'd in Magnetick Philosophy ev'n before they have made particular Trials of them will look upon them as credible because how great Paradoxes soever they may seem to others they are consonant and consequent to the Doctrine of Magnetism whose grand Axioms from what cause soever Magnetisms are to be deriv'd are sufficiently manifest and therefore a Magnetical Philosopher would not though an ordinary Philosopher would think it unreasonable to believe that one part of the same Loadstone should draw a Needle to it and the other part drive the same Needle from it and that the Needle in a Seamans Compass after having been carry'd perhaps many hunder'd Leagues through differing Climates and in stormy weather without varying its Declination may upon a sudden without any manifest cause point at some part of the Horizons several whole degrees distant from that which it pointed to before To which might here be added divers other scarce credible things which either others or I have try'd about Magnetical Bodies but I shall hereafter have occasion to take notice of some of them in a fitter place Wherefore when something deliver'd in or clearly deduc'd from Scripture is objected against as a thing which it is not reasonable to believe we must not only consider whether if it were not deliver'd in that Book we should upon its own single Account think it fit or unworthy to be believ'd but whether or no it is so improbable that 't is more fit to be believ'd that all the proofs that can be brought for the Authority of the Scripture are to be Rejected than that this thing which comes manifestly recommended to our belief by that Authority is worthy to be Admitted I say
manifestly recommended by that Authority because that if the thing be not clearly deliver'd in Scripture or be not clearly and cogently deduc'd thence so far as that clearness is wanting so far the thing it self wants of the full Authority of the Scripture to impose it on our assent Perhaps it will procure what I have said the better Reception if I add a couple of Testimonies not of any modern Bigots no nor of any devout Fathers of the Church but of two modern Authors of Sects and who in their kinds have been thought extremely subtle Reasoners and no less rigid Exacters of Reason in whatever they admitted The first passage I shall alledge is the Confession of Socinus who in his second Epistle to Andreas Dudithius speaks thus I am verò ut rem in pauca conferam quod ad meas aliorúmve opiniones quae novitatis prae se ferunt speciem attinet mihi ita videtur si detur Scripturam sacram ejus esse Authoritatis ut nullo modo ei contradici possit ac de interpretatione illius omnis duntaxat sit scrupulus which he allows nihil utut veri simile aut ratione conclusum videatur asserri contra eas possit quod ullarum sit virium quotiescunque illae sententiis atque verbis illius Libri aut rationibus liquidò inde deduct is probatae atque assertae fuerint Which confession of Socinus is surpass'd by that of his Champion Smalcius to be produc'd elsewhere in this Paper The other passage I met with in the Excellent Monsieur Des Cartes's Principles of Philosophy where discoursing of the either Infinite or Indefinite Division of the Particles of Matter which is necessary to make them fill exactly all the differingly figur'd spaces through which various motions do sometimes make them pass he confesses as he well may that the point is exceedingly abstruse and yet concludes Et quamvis quomodo fiat indefinita ista Divisio cogitatione comprehendere nequeamus non ideo tamen debemus dubitare quin fiat quia clarè percipimus illam necessario sequi ex natura materiae nobis evidentissimè cognitā c. And in this place it may be seasonable as well as pertinent to take notice of three or four particulars which though they be in some measure imply'd in the former general Consideration yet deserve to be distinctly inculcated here both for their importance and because they may as well be deduc'd as Corollaries from the foregoing Discourse as be confirmed by the proofs I shall add to each of them Of these the first shall be this that we must not presently conclude a thing to be contrary to Reason because Learned Men profess or ev'n complain that they are not able clearly to comprehend it provided there be competent proof that it is true and the thing be Primary or Heteroclite For it is not alwayes necessary to the making the belief of a thing Rational that we have such a Comprehension of the thing believ'd as may be had and justly required in ordinary Cases since we may be sure of the Truth of a thing not only by Arguments suggested by the Nature of the thing it self clearly understood by us but by the external Testimony of such a Witness as we know will not deceive us and cannot at least in our Case be reasonably suspected to be himself deceiv'd And therefore it may in some Cases suffice to make our belief Rational that we clearly discern sufficient Reason to believe that a thing is true whether that Reason spring from the Evidence and Cogency of the extrinsick Motives we have to believe or from the Proofs suggested to us by what we know of the Thing believ'd nay though there be something in the nature of that Thing which do's puzzle and pose our Understanding That many things that are very hard and require a great attention and a good judgment to be made out may yet be true will be manifest from what I shall within a Page or two note about divers Geometrical Demonstrations which require besides a good stock of knowledge in those matters an almost invincible Patience to carry so many things along in ones Mind and go thorow with them That also there are other things which though they be as manifestly Existent as those newly mention'd can be demonstratively True are yet of so abstruse a kind that it is exceeding difficult to frame clear and satisfactory Notions of their Nature we might learn if we were inquisitive enough ev'n from some of the most obvious things such as for instance Matter and Time As to the former whereof Matter though the World and our own Bodies be made of it yet the Idea's that are wont to be framed of it ev'n by the greatest Clerks are incumber'd with too great difficulties some of which I elsewhere mention to be easily acquiesc'd in by considering Men. And as for the latter Time though that justly celebrated saying of Augustine Si nemo ex me quaerat quid sit Tempus scio si quaerenti explicare velim nescio seem in the first part of it to own a knowledge of what Time is yet by the latter part wherein he confesses he cannot declare what it is I am not only allow'd to believe that he could not propose an intelligible Idea of it but invited to think that in the first part of the sentence he only meant that when he did not attentively consider the Nature of it he thought he understood it or that he knew that there is such a thing as Time though he could not explain what it is And indeed though Time be that which all Men allow to be yet if per impossibile as the Schools speak a Man could have no other Notion or Proof of Time and Eternity even such Eternity as must be conceded to something than what he could collect from the best Descriptions of its Nature and Properties that are wont to be given I scarce doubt but he would look upon it as an unintelligible thing and incumber'd with too many Difficulties to be fit to be admitted into a wise mans Belief And this perhaps you will grant me if you have ever put your self to the Penance of perusing those confounding Disputes and Speculations about Time and Eternity that partly in Aristotle and his Commentators and partly among the Schoolmen and others are to be met with upon these abstruse Subjects And no wonder since the Learned Gassendus and his Followers have very plausibly if not solidly shewn that Duration and Time is but Duration measur'd is neither a Substance nor an Accident which they also hold of Space about which the Altercations among Philosophers and Schoolmen are but little if at all inferiour to those about Time And I the rather choose to mention these instances of Time and Space because they agree very well with what I intimated by the expression of Primary or Heteroclite things To which may be referr'd some of those things that are
Metal to it That without any sensible alteration in the Agent or the Patient the Loadstone will in a trice communicate all its virtues to a piece of Steel and enable that to communicate them to another piece of the same Metal That if a Loadstone having been markt at one end be cut long-wise according to its Axis and one Segment be freely suspended over the other the halves of the markt end that touch'd one another before will not now lie together but the lower will drive away the upper and that which regarded the North in the markt end of the intire Loadstone will join with that extreme of the lower half which in the intire stone regarded the South That as appears by this last nam'd Property there are the same Magnetical Qualities in the separated parts of a Magnet as in the intire stone and if it be cut or even rudely broken into a great many parts or fragments every one of these portions though perhaps not so big as a Corn of Wheat will if I may so speak set up for its self and have its own Northern and Southern Poles and become a little Magnet sui juris or independent upon the stone from which 't was sever'd and from all its other parts That if a Loadstone be skilfully made Spherical this little Magnetick Globe very fitly by our Gilbert call'd a Terrella will not only being freely plac'd turn North and South and retain that Position but have its Poles its Meridians its AEquator c. upon good grounds designable upon it as they are upon the great Globe of the Earth And this will hold whether the Terrella be great or small I might not only much encrease the number of these odd Magnetical Phaenomena's but add others about other Subjects But these may suffice to suggest to us this Reflection That there is no doubt to be made but that a Man who never had the opportunity to see or hear of Magnetical Experiments would look upon these as contrary to the Principles of Nature and therefore to the Dictates of Reason as accordingly some Learned Aristotelians to whom I had occasion to propose some of them rejected them as Incredible And I doubt not but I could frame as plausible Arguments from the meer Axioms of Philosophers and the Doctrine of Philosophick Schools against some Magnetical Phaenomena which Experience hath satisfi'd me of as are wont to be drawn from the same Topicks against the Mysterious Articles of Faith since among the strange Properties of the Loadstone there are some which are not only admirable and stupendious but seem repugnant to the Dictates of the received Philosophy and the course of Nature For whereas Natural Bodies how subtile soever require some particular Dispositions in the Medium through which their Corpuscles are to be diffus'd or their Actions transmitted so that Light it self whether it be a most subtile Body or a naked Quality is resisted by all opacous Mediums and the very effluvia of Amber and other Electricks will not permeate the thinnest Glass or even a sheet of fine Paper yet the Loadstone readily performing his Operations through all kind of Mediums without excepting Glass it self If the Poles of two Magnetick Needles do both of them regard the North another Philosopher would conclude them to have a Sympathy at least to be unlikely to disagree and yet if he bring these Extremes of the same Denomination within the reach of one another one will presently drive away the other as if there were a powerful Antipathy between them A somewhat long Needle being plac'd horizontally and exactly poiz'd upon the point of a Pin if you gently touch one end with the Pole of a vigorous Magnet that end shall manifestly dip or stoop though you often take it off the Pin and put it on again And this inclination of the Needle will continue many years and yet there is not only no other sensible change made in the Metal by the Contact of the Loadstone but one end has requir'd a durable Preponderancy though the other be not lighter nor the whole Needle heavier than before And the Inclination of the Magnetick Needle may be by another touch of the Loadstone taken away without lessning the weight of the part that is depriv'd of it The Operation that in a trice the Loadstone has on a Mariners Needle though it makes no sensible change in it or weakens the Loadstone it self will not be lost though you carry it as far as the Southern Hemisphere but it will not be the same in all places but in some the Magnetick Needle will point directly at the North in others 't will deviate or decline some degrees towards the East or the West And which seems yet more strange the same Needle in the same place will not always regard the same point of the Compass but lookt on at distant times may vary from the true Meridian sometimes to the West and afterwards to the East All the communicable virtues of the Magnet may be imparted to Iron without any actual Contact of the two Bodies but barely by approaching in a convenient way the Iron to the Loadstone for a few moments And the Metal may likewise be depriv'd of those virtues in a trice without any immediate Contact by the same or another Loadstone If you mark one end of a Rod or other oblong piece of Iron that never came near a Magnet and hold it perpendicularly you may at pleasure and in the hundreth part of a minute make it become the North or South Pole of a Magnetical Body For it when 't is held upright you apply to the bottom of it the North-extreme of an excited and well-poiz'd Needle the lower end of the Iron will drive away that Extreme which yet will be drawn by the upper end of the same Iron And if by inverting you make this lower end the uppermost it will not attract but repel the same Lilly or North-point of the Needle just under which it is to be perpendicularly held Though vis unita fortior be a receiv'd Rule among Naturalists yet oftentimes if a Magnet be cut into pieces these will take up and sustain much more Iron than the intire stone was able to do If of two good Loadstones the former be much bigger and on that account stronger than the other the greater will draw a piece of Iron and retain it much more strongly than the lesser and yet when the Iron sticks fast to the greater and stronger Loadstone the lesser and weaker may draw the Iron from it and take it quite away These Phaenomena to mention now no more are so repugnant to the common sentiments of Naturalists and the ordinary course of things that if antecedently to any Testimony of experience these Magnetical Properties had been propos'd to Aristotle himself he would probably have judg'd them fictitious things as repugnant to the Laws of Nature Nevertheless though it seems incredible that the bare touch of a Loadstone should
impart to the Mariners Needle a Property which as far as we know nothing in the whole World that is not Magnetical can communicate or possess and should operate as Men suppose upon it at three or four thousand Leagues distance yet this is believ'd by the Peripateticks themselves upon the Testimony of those Navigators that have fail'd to the East and West-Indies and divers even of the more rigid of the modern Philosophers believe more than this upon the Testimony of Gilbert Cabaeus Kircherus and other Learned Magnetical Writers who have affirmed these things most of which I can also averr to you upon my own knowledge Thus the Habitableness of the Torrid Zone though as I lately noted upon probable grounds deny'd by Aristotle and the generality of Philosophers for many Ages yet not only that but its Populousness is now confidently believed by the Peripatetick Schoolmen themselves who never were there And though Ptolomy and some other eminent Astronomers did with great care and skill and by the help of Geometry as well as Observations frame a Theory of the Planets so plausibly contriv'd that most of the succeeding Mathematicians for 12 or 14 Ages acquiesc'd in it yet almost all the modern Philosophers and Astronomers that have search'd into these matters with a readiness to believe their Eyes and allow their Reason to act freely have been forc'd if not to reject the whole Theory yet at least to alter it quite as to the Number and Order of the Planets though these last nam'd Innovations are sometimes solely and always mainly built upon the Phaenomena discover'd to us by two or three pieces of glass plac'd in a long hollow Cane and honour'd with the name of a Telescope The last of the two things I invited you to consider with me is this That when we are to judge which of two disagreeing Opinions is most Rational i. e. to be judg'd most agreeable to right Reason we ought to give sentence not for that which the Faculty furnish'd only with such and such Notions whether vulgar or borrow'd from this or that Sect of Philosophers would prefer but that which is prefer'd by the Faculty furnish'd either with all the Evidence requisite or advantagious to make it give a right Judgment in the case lying before it or when that cannot be had with the best and fullest Informations that it can procure This is so evident by its own light that your Friend might look upon it as an affront to his Judgment if I should go about solicitously to prove it And therefore I shall only advertise you that provided the Information be such as a man has just cause to believe and perceives that he clearly understands it will not alter the case whether he have it by Reason as that is taken for the Faculty furnish'd but with its inbred Notions and the more common Observations or by some Philosophical Theory or by Experiments purposely devis'd or by Testimony Humane or Divine which last we call Revelation For all these are but differing ways of informing the Understanding and of signifying to it the same thing as the Sight and the Touch may assure a Man that a Body is smooth or rough or in motion or at rest and in some other instances several senses discover to us the same Object which is therefore call'd Objectum Commune and provided these Informations have the conditions lately intimated which way soever the Understanding receives them it may safely reason and build Opinions upon them Astronomers have within these 100 years observ'd that a Star hath appeared among the Fix'd ones for some time and having afterwards disappear'd has yet some years after that shew'd it self again And though as to this surprising Phaenomenon our Experimental Philosophers could have contributed nothing to the producing it and though 't is quite out of all the received Systems of the Heavens that Astronomers have hitherto deliver'd yet the Star it self may be a true Celestial light and may allow us to Philosophize upon it and draw Inferences from the Discoveries it makes us as well as we can from the Phaenomena of those Stars that are not extraordinary and of those Falling Stars that are within our own Ken and Region That the Supernatural things said to be perform'd by Witches and Evil Spirits might if true supply us with Hypotheses and Mediums whereby to constitute and prove Theories as well as the Phaenomena of meer nature seems tacitely indeed but yet sufficiently to be acknowledg'd by those modern Naturalists that care not to take any other way to decline the Consequences that may be drawn from such Relations than sollicitously to shew that the Relations themselves are all as I fear most of them are false and occasion'd by the Credulity or Imposture of Men. But not to do any more than glance at these matters let us proceed upon what is more unquestionable and consider that since ev'n our most Critical Philosophers do admit many of the astonishing Attributes of Magnetick Bodies which themselves never had occasion to see upon the Testimony of Gilbert and others who never were able to give the true causes of them because they look upon those Relators as honest Men and judicious enough not to be impos'd upon as to the matter of Fact Since I say such amazing things are believ'd by such severe Naturalists upon the Authority of Men who did not know the intimate nature of Magnetick Bodies and since these strange Phaenonomena are not only assented to as true by the Philosophers we speak of but many Philosophical consequences are without haesitancy deduc'd from them without any blemish to the judgment of those that give their Assent both to the Things and the Inferences why should it be contrary to Reason to believe the Testimony of God either about his Nature which He can best and He alone can fully know or about the things which either he himself has done as the Creation of the World and of Man or which he means to do as the destroying the World whether the whole World or our great Vortex only I dispute not and the raising both of good and bad Men to life again to receive Rewards and Punishments according to their Demerits For methinks that Apostle argues very well who says If we receive the testimony of men the testimony of God is greater especially about such things concerning his own Nature Will and Purposes as 't is evident that Reason by its own unassisted light cannot give us the knowledge of So that we Christians in assenting to Doctrines upon the account of Revelation need not nor do not reject the Authority of Reason but only appeal from Reason to it self i. e. from Reason as it is more slightly to its Dictates as 't is more fully inform'd Of which two sorts of Dictates there is nothing more rational than to prefer the latter to the former And for my part I am apt to think that if what has been represented in