123. of Infallibility the result of which is that our Faith is infallible though we are not infallibly assured but this is beyond my first design only I could not but take this occasion to show you what a man of reason this is when he argues at his own natural rate and dares forsake his Masters and it were very easie to make it appear that he has not one good argument but what he has borrowed from some late Modern Authors who are far enough from being Fanaticks which is an excellent way of proving that Fanaticks are great friends to Reason But to give you some few instances more of Mr. Ferguson's transcribing from Modern Authors M. F. p. 48. If all things be the result of matter how comes a principle of reason to be conveyed into us by that which had it not inherent in it self Sir C. W. The unreasonableness of Atheism page 92. The casual conjunction of these atoms could not make the world because it is made with a principle of Reason and they could not have induced such a principle by chance unless some way or other they had it inherent in themselves before M. F. This Hypothesis supposeth that to have been the effect of chance which carries in it the characters of a wise contrivance Ibid. Dr. Til. Serm. 1. p. 40. Nothing can be more unreasonable than obstinately to impute an effect to chance which carries in the very face of it all the arguments and characters of a wise design and contrivance M. F. If the fabrick of the world be nothing but the result of the casual meeting and concatenation of Atoms how comes it to pass that by their daily motion and justling one another they do not dance themselves into more worlds Ibid. Sir Ch. Ibid. p. 91. If the dancing motion of these Atoms in this fancied space did by chance first dance the world into this form c. what is the reason these Atoms never danced themselves into any thing else You may see Sir what a youthful fancy Mr. Ferguson has to be so pleased with this metaphor of dancing which much better becomes a Gentleman than a Divine but yet I perceive Mr. Ferguson has so little skill in the thing that he spoils all these Metaphors if he attempts to vary the least word for I remember I have heard some say that justling is no very gentile way of dancing M. F. p. 50. To the fortuitous jumbles of blind matter Dr. More 's Antidote p. 42. From a blind fortuitous jumbling of the parts of matter And in the next words some body or other has put a trick on him for thus he proceeds The consideration of the Fabrick of things made Plato say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I may english in the words of the Holy Ghost that all things are made in number weight and measure which are not the words of the Holy Ghost unless he will acknowledge the book of Wisdom to be Canonical Scripture for there it is 2 Wisdom 20. M. F. p. 51. What convictions are we furnished with of the Being of God from the innate harmony that is in the several parts of the Creation and the convenient disposure of all the Creatures to a subserviency to one another in mutual offices chance cannot have linkt one thing to another nor can contraries combine into a mutual coalition without the influence of a supreme Being who overrules them Sir Charles ibid. p. 42. The natural rectitude and innate harmony of the world and the due subordination of things one to another and to the whole of the world Direct contraries are over-ruled to a perfect harmony and coalition in the propagation of the world p. 87. Here Mr. Ferg has a little altered the phrase but much for the worse for to combine into a coalition I doubt is not good sense M. F. p. 52. Men have rather chosen to worship any thing for a God than wholly to be without one Dr. Till Serm. p. 55. Men will rather have any God than none and rather than want a Deity will worship any thing M. F. p. 53. For not onely Cicero tells us that there is nothing so absurd which some of the Philosophers have not maintained But Aristotle informs us that there have been some who have held That a thing might at the same time be and not be Sir Charles ibid. p. 74. Aristotle tells us that there were some that affirmed A thing might be and might not be at the same time and Cicero has long since told us that nothing could be so absurd that had not some Philosopher for its Patron Now though these are very familiar sayings yet I have reason to think that Mr. Ferg transcribed them out of Sir Charles because he has not given us the Latine and Greek of these sayings as Sir Charles has not which Mr. Ferg never fails to do when he can come easily by it of which we have an instance or two in the same page Ferg ibid. Reason becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infected with those evil opinions that proceed from lust when men are once sunk into the greatest sensualities their reason becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compliant with their sensual appetites Mr. Smith's select Discourses p. 15. That reason that is within us as Plotinus hath well expressed it becomes more and more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be infected with those evil opinions that arise from our corporeal life Their highest reason is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complying with their senses M. F. ibid. Besides men living as if there were no God can make no apology to the world but by espousing such notions as may justifie them in their courses Dr. Till Serm. p. 104. For when men live as if there were no God it becomes expedient for them that there should be none Besides that men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess M. F. p. 63. There hath been no Nation so savage nor people so barbarous who have not acknowledged some kind of external Performances necessary for the expressing of the inward Sentiments of Devotion and Honour which they bear to the Deity Amyrald of Religion p. 2. There is no Nation so savage no people who do not essay by some kind of Performances to express the Sentiments of Devotion and Honour they bear towards him M. F. p. 132. Words that are intelligible when they are spoken are as intelligible when they are written Now as God can speak as plainly as any of his Creatures can and as words are at least as easie to be understood when they are written as when they are spoken so we have no reason to think that God affects obscurity or envies that men should understand him Dr. Till Rule of Faith p. 66. First Whatever can be spoken in plain and intelligible words and such as have a certain sense may be written in the same words Secondly That the same words
are as intelligible when they are written as when they are spoken Thirdly That God if he please can indite a Book in as plain words as any of his Creatures Fourthly That we have no reason to think that God affects obscurity and envies that men should understand him c. M. F. p. 140. Nor is it any argument that these Texts of Scripture are not easie to be understood because some out of prejudice or perverseness have wrested them to a corrupt sense seeing God did not endite the Bible for the froward or captious but for such who will read it with a free and unprejudiced mind and are willing to come to the knowledge of the truth Dr. Till ibid. p. 87. And what if some out of prejudice do mistake or out of perverseness do wrest the plainest Texts of Scripture c. Is this any argument that those Texts are not sufficiently plain Can any thing be spoken or written in words so clear which a perverse or prejudiced mind shall not be able to vex and force to another meaning God did not write the Scriptures for the froward and the captious but for those who will read them with a free and unprejudiced mind and are willing to come to the knowledge of the truth M. F. p. 148. We have the attestation of Reason which tells us that nothing is well known but by that which hath a just analogy to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing is best understood by that which bears a resemblance of it things of sense and life are onely known by vital and sentient faculties As the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it have some resemblance of the Sun in it self no more can any man understand the things of God in a due manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless he be made to partake of the Divine Image Mr. Smith's select Discourses p. 2. All things of sense and life are best known by sentient and vital faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing is best known by that which bears a just resemblance and analogy with it And as the eye cannot behold the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be Sun-like and hath the form and resemblance of the Sun drawn in it so neither can the Soul of man behold God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be God-like hath God formed in it and be made partaker of the Divine Nature Where by the change of one little word he has spoiled all for it is true as Mr. Smith says that things of life and sense are best known by sentient and vital faculties but it is false to say as Mr. Ferguson does that they are onely known this way for there is a Philosophical Knowledge of Sounds and Colours as well as a Sensitive Knowledge of them And Mr. Ferguson acknowledges that a bad man may have a true knowledge of the meaning of Scripture though he have not a vital sense of Religion So easily may an ignorant Scribler spoil the best Sayings of Wise men Thus Sir it is pleasant to observe how Mr. Ferguson has borrowed all his Arguments that are worth any thing against Des-Cartes his Philosophy from Dr. More with a little variation that I have reason to think that he never read ten lines in Des-Cartes M. F. The Anonymous Author of Philosophia Scripturae interpres after all his operose and impertinent wrangling Only instead of Reason we have Philosophy advanced to a Dictatorship over the Word of God and Des-Cartes made Master of the Chair 158. Dr. More 's divine Dialogues 1 part in the Preface The learned Author of Philosophia Scripturae Interpres after an operose subtile and copious endeavour of evincing that Philosophy is the best interpreter of Scripture as if all that pains had been intended in the behalf of Des-Cartes to set him in the infallible Chair M. F. p. 249. Nor will I press his Des-Cartes discharging all spirits from place though that seems consequentially to discharge them from being See Dr. More 's first Dialogue p. 136. c. M. F. Nor will I dwell upon his disbanding all Final Causes out of the precincts of Natural Philosophy Dr. More ibid. Preface A third property of his Philosophy is a seeming modesty in declining all search into the final causes of the Phaenomena of the World M. F. ibid. p. 250. His attempting to prove that all the Phaenomena of the Universe might arise out of matter by meer mechanical motion and that matter alone supposing such a degree of motion communicated to it could have produced the Sun Moon Stars Planets Animals and the Bodies of Men in such Organization Order Beauty and Harmony as now they are Dr. More ibid. It is a confessed principle with him that matter alone with such a degree of motion as is supposed now in the Universe will produce all the Phaenomena of the World Sun Moon and Stars Air Water Earth Planets Animals and the Bodies of men in such order and orginazation as they are found M. F. ibid Neither will I dwell upon his notion of the Conflict between the Flesh and the Spirit which the Scripture so emphatically mentions namely that it is nothing but the repugnancy of those motions which the Body by its Spirits and the Soul by her Will endeavour to excite at the same time in the glandula pinealis or little Kernel where he supposeth the Soul to be harboured and seated as if the whole conflict which the Holy Ghost so solemnly describes under the notion of a war betwixt the law of our members c. were nothing else but that the Kernel in the midst of the Brain being driven on one side by the Soul and on the other by the animal Spirits when the corporeal Spirits by their rude joggings of the glandulous button endeavour to excite in the Soul a desire of any thing and the Soul repels it by the Will she hath to avoid the same thing this constitutes the war c. Dr. More ibid. The Combat betwixt the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul the Flesh and the Spirit as they are termed in Scripture and Divinity is at last resolved into the ridiculous noddings and joggings of a small glandulous button in the midst of the Brain encountred by the animal Spirits rudely flurting against it This little sprunt Champion called the Conarion within which the Soul is entirely cooped up acts the part of the Spirit and the animal Spirits of the Flesh and thus by the Soul thus ingarrisoned in this Pine-kernel and bearing her self against the arietations and jurrings of the Spirits in the Ventricles of the Brain must that solemn Combat be performed which the Holy Ghost calls the war c. Sometimes Sir our Author pretends to ancient Learning and to give an account of the original of Heresies from the Pagan Philosophy and for this he is beholden to Mr. Gale in his Preface to the Court of the Gentiles part 2. which I shall
Volumes of the Schoolmen are deplorable evidence of Peripatetical Depravations Van. Dogm p. 166. M. F. Their Scholastick Controversies are resolved into the Subtilties of his Aristotle's Philosophy ibid. J. G. These Scholastick Controversies are ultimately resolved into the Subtilties of his Aristotle's Philosophy V. D p. 167 M. F. Speaking of the Union of the Soul and Body saith How this can be is a Knot too hard for Human Reason to untie p. 490. J. G. Saith of the same It is a Knot too hard for our degraded Intellects to untie Van. Dog Ed. 2. p. 15. M. F. How a pure Spirit should be cemented to an earthly clod is a Riddle that no Hypothesis of Philosophy can resolve us about p. 490. J. G. How the purer Spirit is united to this Clod is a Riddle that must be left to the coming of Elias Van. Dog Ed. 2. ibid. M. F. To affirm it viz. the uniter of Soul and Body to be of a middle nature partaking of the affections and adjuncts of both is that which our reasonable Faculties will never allow us to subscribe to ibid. J. G. To suppose an uniter of middle constitution that should partake of some of the qualities of both is unwarranted by any of our faculties Van. Dogm p. 21. M. F. How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jog to or receiving any from it should either impress a motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable p. 496. J. G. How that which penetrates all Bodies without the least jog or obstruction should impress a motion on any is by his own confession alike unconceivable Van. Dogm Ed. 2. p. 17. M. F. treats of the incomprehensibility of the union of the parts of matter p. 483 484 c. the substance of all which is taken out of I. G. in his Scepsis Scientifica p. 37 38 39. and his Answer to White p. 41 42 c. M. F. endeavours to shew the unconceivableness of the union of the Soul and Body p. 489 490 491 c. and again p. 495 496. all out of I. G. in his Scepsis Scientifica p. 15 16. M. F. The reproach which Iulian slanderously fastned upon the Primitive Christians that they had no ground for their Faith but that their wisdom was only to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 62. J. G. The charge of Julian the Apostate against the Primitive Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That their wisdom was to believe as if they had no ground for their Faith Of Reason p. 218. M. F. He is worse than an Enthusiast who affirms that the way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute p. 20. J. G. Saith that in the Enthusiastick Divinity The way to be a Christian is first to be a Brute Of Reason p. 223. M. F. Men being misled by their senses affections interests and imaginations do many times mingle errors and false conceits with the genuine Dictates of their minds and then appeal to them as the principles of truth and reason when they are indeed nothing else but the vain images of our Fansies and the conclusions of ignorance and mistake p. 241. J. G. Liable to be mis-led by our senses and affections and interests and imaginations so that we many times mingle errors and false conceits with the genuine dictates of our minds and appeal to them as the principles of truth and reason when they are but the vain images of our Fansies or the false conclusions of ignorance and mistake Of Reason p. 196 197. M. F. Whatsoever is proved by reason we are firmly to believe it though there be many things in the theory of it that are wholly unconceivable p. 198. J. G. What is clearly proved by reason ought to be believed though there are many things in the theory and manner of it unconceivable Philosoph Pia p. 82. Thus Sir I have given you some Instances among many of the faithfulness of M. Ferguson's Memory or of his Phrase-Book There is no doubt but they have furnished him as well out of other Writers but I have neither the humor nor the leisure to make further search after stoln Goods Only I cannot but take notice to you that this is the Man that divers of his Party glory in as their elegant and rational Writer and urge him as a great proof of the partiality and injustice of those who will not allow Non-Conformists to write either good Sense or good Language If either of these be in his Book you may ghess by this Specimen how little Honour is reflected upon them from it And if others would claim their Feathers as I have called for some of mine I believe he would have scarce enough left to cover theirs or his own nakedness I remember such Discoveries were once made upon another Champion of the Cause M. Hickman who had also furnished his Pack with Lace and Ribband borrowed from his Neighbours Shops 'T is pity but these men had Judgments to choose for then they would put better Books into the hands of their Admirers But when they take this Liberty I would advise them not to fall foul upon the Owners while they have their Goods in their hands nor to pick their Pockets then when they are confidently pleading their own Truth and Honesty against them If this Gentleman had let me alone I had likely never known this quality of his but unluckily he hath detected himself as he did that warned his Chapman to whom he had sold a stoln Horse not to let him drink of such a Water which was in a Ground out of which he had taken him Upon the whole matter Sir I desire you to deal gently with this Adversary lest unawares you should smite some of your Friends and among the rest Your affectionate Friend and Servant Ios. Glanvill Mr. SHERLOCK HIS ANSWER TO Mr. GLANVILL HIS LETTER SIR I Have received your Letter and thank you very heartily for it I was much puzzled before to give an account of the inequality of M. Ferguson's Style and Reasoning for his Words are sometimes proper and elegant his Arguments strong and weighty at other times his Phrase is barbarous and pedantick and his Reasonings childish and I always observed that he writ best upon some trite and beaten Argument where he had no Adversary but take him out of the road of Common Places and phrase-Phrase-Books and he could neither write consistently with himself nor any thing to the purpose This gave me a great suspicion of the man that he was a mere Collector and that his Book was made just as the Epicuraeans fansie the World was by the accidental Concourse of Atoms and may serve for a Confutation of that wild Hypothesis it being a plain Demonstration how impossible it is to make a good Book out of the best Common-Places and Collections unless a wise man have the composing of it Upon the receipt of your Letter which made so pleasant a discovery of the man I had the Curiosity