see daily the Motion of Bodies and the Production of Living Creatures especially of Mankind First For the Motion of Bodies The principal Parts of the World are never idle In the Earth there are active Principles of Life and Vegetation which prepare the vital Juice that is in all Plants and Trees In Animals there is Concoction Digestion and a Motion or Fluor of the Chyle which serves for Nutrition In the Sea there is a Flux and Reflux and a Current in Rivers and Springs In the Air there are Vicissitudes and Turnings as Exhalations and Vapours steam out of the Earth and return to it again modified into various Forms And the constant circular Courses of those glorious Bodies in the Firmament shew likewise that in this visisible World there is no Rest Now all these Motions of material Substances must depend upon Causes for Matter alone is a liveless unactive stupid Thing which can no more move it self than Mountains and Rocks can walk and whatever those Causes be whether proximate or remote they must depend for their Operations upon the Energy of one supreme Cause that impower'd Nature and set the whole Frame of it on work and gave it as we may say the first Stroke for otherwise Motion which once was not in being would have been the Cause of it self which is utterly impossible The like may be said of the Production of Living Creatures and particularly of Mankind Once we were not therefore you and I and all of us had a beginning as we shall have an end and though we should run up our Generations so far as to date our Breed from an hundred thousand Years ago yet must we of necessity derive it at last from some Ancestors who were not begotten of others as we have been but were made after a different manner by an Omnipotent Cause which could give them a beginning for otherwise we must either run up on to Eternity or suppose our first Parents to have made themselves which is repugnant to the universal Truth I demonstrated before and would imply that those our first Parents had a Being and no Being at the same instant This Argument so strongly proves the necessary Existence of a first Cause or a Deity to form the whole Frame of Nature and to set it in order that some unreasonable Men find themselves constrained to tell us that the World ever was as it is now the same from all Eternity without any Rise Novity or Beginning and so without any dependence on a first Cause or need of it They were as good say plainly That they are resolved never to be convinced but will rid themselves of all belief of a Deity at any rate though they destroy the Principles of Common Reason and run into the most fulsome Absurdities and Contradictions For how can it consist with reason to take a boundless Progress from one Effect to another still onward up to Retroinfinity without stopping at any beginning This conceit being admitted these monstrous Absurdities must follow 1. First It implies the local Motion of Bodies to have produced it self without the efficiency of a first Mover which is impossible because Motion is neither essential to Matter for then no body could ever rest nor is it incident to Matter as such but by its being touched by some moving Principle that is distinct from it It is a Passion imprest upon Matter by an Agent by virtue whereof it changeth place and distance and therefore it presupposeth Action from something else otherwise it must be its own Creature and Maker too the Effect and Cause of it self at the same time and out of nothing which is a Contradicton So that though you go through the vastest Series of moving Bodies from the things below to the Heavens above you must come at last to a first Mover of all things or conclude against all Sense and Reason that there are innumerable Effects without any Original Essiciency Suppose when the World was made it had presently had some great Jog given it 't were hard to conceive that the Motion of its several Parts should not have spent it self in a little time without a conserving Power pervading through all But it confounds Humane Understanding to think how there could be Motion all along from all past Eternity and without any beginning no superior Power moving or acting upon Bodies because it is impossible for Matter to be self-active though you should suppose it to have been Eternal It could no more move than it could make it self for upon that principle Men must return to that great Absurdity and Contradiction touching a thing being its own Cause that is touching its being and not being at the same time 2. Secondly To suppose the whole World to have been Eternal would render the Generation of Mankind altogether impossible For every ones Formation and Birth is absolved in the space of so many Months and so it must of necessity include not only a Period but a Beginning too both which are inconsistent with the Notion of Eternity for if Humane Race was always begotten carry it as high as you please you must come to a moment when Generation did begin 3. If it be said Thirdly That Men were not from all Eternity generated as they are now but that some were created or made from everlasting and thence others were produced in the ordinary common way this contradicteth it self for it necessarily infers a Creator or Maker and by consequence it implies a first Man and a first Cause and a time when our first Ancestors began whereas there is neither first nor last in Successions which are Eternal so that were our Ancestors Eternal it must be said plainly we had no first Parents at all 4. And then Fourthly What can be more absurd than to conceive that every particular Man should have as we see every Man hath a Father and a Mother and yet that all Mankind should have none 5. Fifthly Or if every Man's Parents were infinite then it must be said That there are as many Infinites as there are and have been particular Men in the World which is such another great Absurdity as the former 6. Sixthly To conclude this Argumentation To affirm the World to have been Eternal is to destroy the Notion of Infinity and to entangle ones self in the greatest Nonsense For to give you the Words of a most Learned and Judicious Writer If the World be Eternal Bishop Stillingsleet ' s Orig. Sac. p. 376. there must have been past an infinite Succession of Ages an insinite number of Successions are already past and if past then at an end and so we find an Infinite which hath an end which is a consequence becoming one who avoids the belief of a Deity because Infinity is an unconceivable thing Besides if the number of Generations hath been Insinite these two consequences will unavoidably follow which the Reason of any one but an Atheist would startle at That one Infinite may be
greater than another and that the part is equal to the whole For let him six where he please in the Course of Generations I demand whether in the great Grand-father's time the Succession of Generations was Finite or Infinite If Finite then it had a beginning and so the World not Eternal If Infinite then I ask Whether there were not a longer Succession of Generations in the time of his great Grand-children and so there must be a number greater than that which was Infinite for the former Succession was Infinite and this hath more Generations in it than that had but if it be said That they were equal because both Insinite Then the Succession of Generations to the Grandfather being but a part of that which extends to his Grand-children and Posterity the part is equal to the whole This surely is enough to shew That according to common Reason the World once was not but that it must have had a beginning and consequently that there was a first Cause of it nay that the Existence of an higher Being was necessary to make it because whatever once was not could not be self-originated all that now Moves or Lives in the World could not produce or make it self but was brought into being by a most perfect Nature that was before it and superior to it that is by a Deity and by nothing less than a Deity for these five Reasons 1. First It was impossible for all Beings to be made for that would suppose that once there was nothing at all and then 't is confest on all hands that nothing could have been produced Therefore as it was necessary for the first Cause to be independent on any other for else it could not have been the first so it was necessary for that Cause to be unproduced by reason of the absolute Perfection and intrinsick plenitude of its own Essence so that it needed no hand from without to give it any thing 2. Secondly The first Cause having its being by necessity of Nature it was impossible for it to have any beginning For had it had a beginning like other things it must have taken it from some other Principle because whatever once wanted Origination could not give it to it self and consequently the Existence of the first Cause must have been contingent and precarious which would have destroyed the great Prerogative of its independence 3. Thirdly Considering that the several parts of the World were to take their Original out of a State of Non-existence it was impossible for the first Cause to have a Power limited and restrained by any thing without it For as nothing could hinder it from being by reason of its own necessary Existence so nothing could hinder it from acting by reason of its absolute Independence and consequently the First Cause had necessarily a Power of creating things out of nothing because if any preexistent Matter had been requisite for it to work on it must have depended upon Matter and been beholding to Matter for permitting it to act 4. Fourthly The Power of creating things being so necessarily great it was impossible for the First Cause to be made up of Matter For all Matter as such is an unactive stupid dead thing utterly uncapable of producing either it self or any other Being much less could it act with that wonderful Faecundity Counsel Wisdom and Benignity of Mind which the whole frame of Nature argues to be in the First Cause as shall be show'd in its due place 5. Fifthly It was impossible also for the First Cause of all things to be locally extended or to be circumscribed limited determined and confined to Place as Matter or Body is For being to raise up a vast Universe it was necessary for that most powerful Nature to be undividedly present to every part of the world which it acted upon and for the Management and Conservation of the Universe to contain it all within the Immensity of its own Essence Which Essence was necessarily boundless and unlimited because it was not possible to be produced by any other Being that could restrain define or bound its Immensity For as an excellent Writer Dr. Scot ' s Christian Life part 2. vol. 1. p. 193. well observes and argues that which limits Beings is only the Will or Power of their Causes which either would not or could not bestow any further Being or Perfection upon them and therefore only such things as have a Cause are limited because they being produced out of nothing are only so far and no farther brought into Being as their Cause was willing or able to bring them That therefore which exists of its self without any Cause of its Being must also exist of it self without any Limits of its Being by reason that it was neither limited by it self nor by any other Cause and that which hath nothing to limit it must necessarily be immense and boundless God therefore being this self-existent Being must necessarily be of an unlimited Essence an Essence which no possible Space can either circumscribe or define but must necessarily be diffused all through circumfused all about and present with all things The Existence then of such a perfect transcendent Being as hath been described was absolutely necessary in order to the production and formation of the world And hence we rationally assirm That before ever the Earth and the Heavens were made there was an Intellectual Nature that was to be the Cause of the whole World and that this Nature or First Being was and is Self-originated Eternal Omnipotent Incorporeal and Infinite In using which expressions we speak like men as we are able according to our Capacities and as the narrowness of our Faculties compared with the transcendency of the Object will allow us Our meaning more at large is this Considering that all the parts of the world were made by an Essicient Cause and that nothing could bring it self out of Non-existence into Being by reason that nothing could be before it self we must necessarily acknowledge That there is a First Cause of all things and that this First Cause was not made or produc'd by any other Which First Cause being altogether Independent existed by the absolute Necessity of its Nature by its own Perfection Permanency and Fulness and consequently was Eternal or of Infinite Duration because being unproduced it could not but be without any beginning And this Self-Existence includes Self-Activity suitable to the Perfections of an Eternal Nature that is a Power of producing and effecting whatever is possible in the Nature of the thing and doth not imply a Contradiction For all Impotence or Inability to operate is utterly inconsistent with the Perfections of a First Cause from which is derived all the Power that is in Second Causes Whence it follows That the First Cause could not be Matter a thing which of it self cannot live or move but a Spirit void of all Corporeal Substance an Eternal Mind able perfectly to exert and display its Power
as it becometh an Intellectual Wise and Voluntary Agent And lastly This Incorporeity renders the First Cause uncapable of beind divisible or determinable to Place after the manner of Bodies which consist of Magnitude and Dimensions And therefore how incomprehensible soever the Notion of Infinity may seem to us whose outward Senses are used only to things corporeal Reason will oblige us to think that every Being must be extended or unextended limited or unlimited circumscrib'd or diffused according as its Essence and Nature is and that the first Cause being incorporeal and having once an Immense World to make and ever since an Immense World to act upon and in cannot be confined to place but must be every where and undividedly in a manner agreeable to the Plenitude of its Nature Now this Account of the necessary Existence and Condition of a first Cause is so far a plain description of the Deity or of God And it is for the greatest reasons that we maintain that in order to the Production and Framing of this huge Universe the Existence of God was necessary that is the Existence of an Independent Self-existent Eternal All-powerful Immaterial and Infinite Being These are not bare Epithets of Honour bestowed as some strange Men conceive upon an imaginary something which the fancies and fears of People have without reason represented to their Minds but real solid severe and demonstrable Truths so that admiting the common and most rational Principle touching the necessity of a First Cause those glorious Perfections I have now mentioned must necessarily belong to it and because those Perfections are essential and peculiar to that Glorious Being we call God therefore God and God alone must be acknowledged the First Cause of all things and by natural consequence the Existence of God must necessarily be believed CHAP. III. HAVING proved the Truth and Reality of God's being from the necessary Existence of a first Independent Cause I proceed now to the second General Head of this Discourse touching the Consent of all Mankind for if it can be made appear That the belief of a Deity hath been universally received in the World 't is reasonable to conclude that that belief resulted from a common Principle of Nature which could not deceive the Minds of all Mankind Here then these two things are to be shew'd 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God 2. Secondly That this universal Agreement is a very strong Argument of God's Existence 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God That noble Orator and Philosopher Cicero doth in several places acknowledge That all manner of People were naturally posfest with some Anticipations or Preconceptions De Nit-Deor lib. 1. Tuse Qu. lib. 1. de Leg. lib. 1. of a Deity so that no Nation was ever so wild and undisciplin'd but that they had a fear of God and owned his Being however they were mistaken as to the quality of his Nature To the same purpose Seneca tells That the belief Ep. 117. of a God is planted in every ones mind And Maximus Tyrius is positive Diss 1. That how great soever the Contentions of Men were about other Points they all agreed in this that there is one Supreme God over all Nay Epicurus Cic. de Nat. deor lib. 1. himself of whom this Character is given that in words he owned the Existence of God but in fact denied it was contented the belief of it should pass abroad because it was a kind of innate Principle not only among Philosophers but among the Unlearned too who all had some Pri-notion of a Deity So true is this That not only the real Existence but even the Singularity and Unity of a Supreme God hath been generally believed by Heathens themselves especially by the wiser fort of them which I think very material for me to take notice of here for the further Illustration and Confirmation of the Matter in hand Indeed the Heathens have been wont to worship a Plurality of Deities But withal it is very observable that they look'd upon those many Deities as a fort of middle Beings between Mon and the Supreme Deity and accordingly in their Devotions they addressed themselves to them as Agents and Officers under the Great God as his Ministers of State and as Mediators between them and the most high Sovereign Numen because they thought it irreligious Confidence to apply themselves to him immediately and directly such a venerable and august Opinion they had of the God over all Though in the Poetical Fabulous Ages of the World ignorant People were taught to worship a multitude of gods as the Souls of dead Men whom they believed to be Deified the Sun Moon and Stars which were suppos'd to be animated with Deities besides a great number of Daemons or incorporeal Substances or Spirits which they thought were generated and had the Administration and Government of the World committed to them yet they owned One Sovereign Numen One Incomprehensible Self-existent Being the Prince and Father of all Nay the more intelligent sort of Pagans anciently thought that the Plurality of Deities which the Vulgar worshipped were only so many several Names of one and the same Supreme God according to the several Manifestations of his Power In the Heavens saith St. Austin they called De Civit. 1. 4. c. 11. him Jupiter in the Air Juno in the Sea Neptune in the Earth Pluto and very many more Appellations there were which though the sottish Rabble believed to have been proper Names for distinct Deities yet the Philosophers thought they did all belong to one Supreme Numen variously acting and displaying his Virtue And with this agrees that of De Benef. l. 4. c. 7. Seneca What else is Nature saith he but God or Divine Wisdom and Power displaying it self in the whole world and in all the parts of it You may when you please give several Titles to the Author of all things And you may call him Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Tonans and Stator not from stopping the Roman Army in their flight but because all things do stand or consist by him You may well apply to him what Names you will that signify his Heavenly Power and Efficacy There may be as many Appellations as there are Gifts or Effects of God Besides Jupiter Tonans and Stator we call him Liber Pater Hercules and Mercurius Liber Pater because he hath produced all things Hercules because his Power is invincible and Mercury by reason of his Wisdom Turn you which way you please God meets you for nothing is without him He filleth all his Works so that his various Names were according to the various Manifestations of him Should you receive a kindness from Seneca and say you owed it to Annaeus or Lucius you would not change the Person but his Name for what Name soever you call him by you mean still the same man And so you may
absurd and monstrous but it has been disputed for at least may be disputed for by men of parts and doth it hence follow that the contrary Principles are not true One Philosoper maintain'd that there is no such thing as Motion another would have persuaded people that Snow is black and some stood in it that the same thing may be and may not be at the same time and in the same respect that is that both parts of a Contradiction can be true and shall such odd Whimseys prevail against the common Sense and Reason of Mankind Some never saw the light in all their lives and doth this argue that there is no real Sun or that That is no Sun which the whole World beholds Why a man of unprejudiced and impartial Reason may with his mind as easily see God in his Works as I can see the day with my eyes But should I so affect singularity as to shut my eyes and then pretend that all the World is a dismal dark confused Chaos could it be concluded hence that there is not one Star in the Firmament why 't is as senseless to conclude that there is no God and that Mankind have been all along mistaken in their belief of God because two or three Impious Philosophers have shut the eyes of their Understanding against him This indeed is an argument against themselves a proof of their own folly stupidity and wickedness But 't is no argument against all other men who have no mind to be so stupid and irreligious as they were 'T is far from being a proof that there is no Existing Deity as the generality of men have been in all times and places unanimously and throughly persuaded 2. Nay that I may proceed to the Second thing I proposed under this Head from Matter of Fact to Evidence of Reason this Universal Consent is a strong Argument of God's Existence For whence could this common belief proceed but from a common natural Principle wherewith the Souls of all men were endued by the Common Creator to bear witness of his Being as a Signature made by his own Finger I do not mean that the Notions we have of God are connatural to the Sou that is inbred innate and engraven as it were in our minds upon our Conception in the Womb so that every man in his Senses doth of himself by common instinct understand that there is a God Methinks we need not go so far It is enough that there is in us an inclination towards God a disposition and propension to Religion and an aptness to receive the knowledge of God upon Instruction Education and the use of common Reason This we may well call a Natural Principle and so the Notions we have of God are Natural Notions because they do naturally result from the free exercise of our Natural Faculties Now this plainly infers the Existence of God because none but God could put the Souls of all Mankind into this frame None but the Author of Nature could be the Author of those Principles in our Nature whereby every man is able to discover and find out God as all men have done and do who use their Reason All have consented in this that there is a Deity Of this One Universal Uniform Principle there must be One Universal Uniform Cause nor can any other Cause be reasonably assigned but that Soveraign Being who is the Cause of all things and who ordered our common Nature thus Had not God made our Faculties so that the belief of his Existence springs forth in every one's mind with his Reason and grows up with his Reason we might argue with Lucilius in Cicero De Nat. Deor. lib. 2. That it would have been impossible for that Belief to have continued every where constant or to have been confirmed by a long tract of time and to have become inveterate together with mens Ages For vain fictitious Opinions wear out by Diuturnity Time discovers and destroys the falshood of Imagination but confirms the solid dictates and determinations of Nature Which shews that this common lasting Notion of the Existence of God is natural and owes its original to a Power above whose workmanship we all are To defond themselves against the strength of this Argument those that say in their hearts there is no God pretend that this so universal a belief of the Existence of a Deity may be impured to one or other of these four Causes if not to all of them Tradition Fear State-policy and common Compact the vanity of which Pretence I am now to shew that I may not pass by any thing material which lies in my way upon this necessary useful and seasonable Subject â— As to the pretence of Tradition though we suppose it to have been one Cause of that Universal Consent I have spoken of yet these two things must be said First That Tradition argues the Truth of the Belief and therefore is alledg'd to no purpose Secondly That Tradition of it self alone and without the dictates of Nature could not have been a sufficient cause of this Universal Consent First Tradition argues the Truth of that Belief which hath prevailed amongst all Mankind By Tradition is meant if men will speak Sense and Reason an Opinion handed down from some First Authors Nor can any other Authors of this Tradition be assigned but those from whose Loins all Mankind descended for how was it possible for a common Principle to spring but from a common Root our First Parents Now this leads us back to the Times which Moses speaks of when the First Parents of Mankind were formed And the Faith of God's Existence being derived originally from them cannot but be unquestionably true because they could not but know their own beginning They could not but know that God had made them after a preternatural manner that God had formed them by his immediate Power and that they came out of the hands of God Nor is it conceivable that they should have taught their Children the knowledge of God had not they themselves been sure there was One That they should wilfully and designedly impose a Fiction upon all their Posterity and such a Fiction too as would keep their minds in continual bondage under the most frightful apprehensions this is an Imagination which confounds the Understanding of any reasonable man and is altogether unaccountable Besides Had not the Tradition been certain how could it have held so every where in the World and all along for several Thousand years to this day Fables are apt to be soon lost what Hand soever sends them abroad to pass about in the World The falshood of them is somewhere or other discover'd in time especially when Inquisitive and Wise men begin to search into them and to examine what substance there is in them and what credit they are of And how was it possible for this Tradition had it been fabulous to have gone through the world without interruption or stop notwithstanding all the
and Professions that in fact they are a reproach to them especially since they have been done in prejudice to that Grave and Holy Religion which the Lord Jesus confirmed and were so manifestly intended for the promoting and encouragement of Superstition Vice and downright Idolatry I have now ended this Point concerning Miracles having discoursed the more largely upon it that at the same time I might demonstrate the Existence of God and likewise serve the interest of Christianity the truth whereof undeniably appears from this single argument That Jesus Christ confirmed all his Laws and Doctrines by True Miracles For this being once granted it must necessarily follow not only that there is a God but moreover that Jesus Christ came from God and that the Testimony which his Works gave of him was Divine and Infallible and consequently That we are bound at our utmost peril to Believe and Obey him Which Consideration being of such vast moment I thought my self obliged to bestow the more time and pains in clearing matter of Fact CHAP. V. THE next extraordinary Occurrence I mentioned as a demonstration of God's Existence is Prophecy that is the Foretelling of some Future Events which depended on such secret and remote Causes as none but an Omniscient Being could possibly discern afar off That you may understand this matter distinctly and clearly 1. I do not here by Events mean such things as have come to pass by the necessary and natural Operation of second Causes For where a thing depends upon necessary Causalities any man that can discover the order and series and application of the Causes may easily foresee and predict the consequent as a skilful Astronomer can foretel Eclipses of the Moon and Sun For those glorious Creatures are under a constant Law and their motions are Regular so that a man who knows their Courses and by the Uniformity of them perceives when an Opake Body will fall between one of those Luminaries and our Eyes can discover long before-hand when the Light will be intercepted and fail in our Hemisphere But by future Events are understood contingencies or those issues the Causes whereof are not yet in being or at least are so occult remote and uncertain that they are not discernible by any limited Understanding in regard that they depend upon the casual concurrence of Second Causes or upon the Arbitrarious Power of Mens Wills or upon the uaccountable hits of Fortune or upon such strange results as look like so many secret over ruling determinations of Destiny As What Great Men will arise Two or Three Ages hence if the world shall continue so long What Revolutions there will be then in States and Empires What the Conditions of the Church will be What Wars will happen What will become of our Posterity and of the Fortunes we transmit to them In short How the world will go These things and the like are altogether Accidental and therefore must needs be Uncertain nor can they come within the reach of finite Beings any more than the close of the world or the Day of Judgment can be known or predicted by us 2. Secondly By Foretelling future Events is meant true and infallible Prediction in contradistinction to Conjecture or probable Fore-knowledge There is in all Intellectual Beings a Presaging Power and the Perception before-hand must be according to the condition and quality of the Cause from which that Perception springs and is gathered If the Cause be Necessary and Natural the Foreknowledge is Certain but if it be only Casual and Fortuitous it can amount to no more but a probable Opinion No Creature how Intelligent soever it be can of it self infallibly foresee what Chances and Accidents will fall out hereafter by reason that the immediate Causes are suppos'd as yet not to be Existent or at least to be a great way off in the dark Therefore when a contingent Event is clearly Foreseen and infallibly Predicted at a distance so that after a long tract of time the thing how Casual soever it was exactly answers the Prediction we must conclude That the Being which Foresaw and Foretold it is of a more Perfect Understanding than any Creature can pretend to If then it be made appear That many contingent things have long before they happened been certainly Foreknown truly Predicted and at last in Fact have come to pass accordingly this must be a Demonstration of the Existence of a most Perfect Being that is a Deity For all Human Presaging of accidental Events at a great distance from us is at best but Guessing which commonly ends in vast mistakes so short-sighted are our Understandings and our capacities so very narrow And as for those Intellectual Creatures which Inhabit the other world and traverse up and down in this though by reason of the innate Quickness and Sagacity of their Faculties the long Experience they have had of Human Affairs the great Insight they have thereby into all things here below the Agility of their Nature which enables them to be privy every where to Mens Counsels and Actions and the continual Observations they cannot but make from the Disappointments or Successes of Mens Designs though I say by means of these singular advantages they are qualified to give beyond expression far better Judgment of future Events especially near at hand than the Wisest and most Reaching Men on Earth yet is their Knowledge limited notwithstanding So that without the Assistance of Divine Revelation their Foresight of Contingencies especially of such as are remote and do depend upon a series of distant Causes can be but only Conjectural Hence it was that those ancient Southsayers and Augurs among the Heathens who used the help of Demons in their manifold Superstitious ways of Prognosticating were often mistaken even in very probable cases and when Events were hard by And 't is commonly observed of those old Oracles who were so much consulted by the Idolatrous Pagans upon any emergencies which seemed difficult that though those officious deluding Spirits were wont till Christ's time to give People Answers out of Holes and Caves yet to save Apollo's Credit they were wont to wrap up those Responses in equivocating and doubtful Terms that were capable of various Constructions as the thing consulted about succeeded or fail'd Indeed Good Angels have not deceived Men and therefore their foresight must be acknowledged to have been better grounded and of a further and clearer reach But yet by reason of those finite and comparatively scanty measures of Knowledge which are connatural to all Created Beings though Exalted and Glorious to make all their Predictions certain and infallible they have always by the necessity of their Nature stood in need of special Revelation and Commission from a Superior Being whose Prescience touches all intermediate and proximate Causes and all contingent probable possible Events though never so far removed from created Understandings Therefore if in this case matter of fact be true that any Creatures Men or Angels have
extort this Confession from all Men That there is a Being incomprehensibly Excellent which formed so excellent a Creature as our humane Nature is In Discoursing then upon this Subject I shall endeavour to shew these Two things 1. First Wherein the Excellence of humane Nature does consist 2. Secondly That this Excellence was derived not from the casual Modification of stupid Matter but from the Agency of an intelligent Cause that is eminently and absolutely Perfect 1. First Touching the Excellence of our humane Nature By our humane Nature is understood strictly the intellectual thinking and rational Thing within us which we call the Soul And when I spake of its Excellence I mean its essential Perfection before Vice comes to deprave and hurt it And I spake too of a comparative Perfection not meaning that it is Excellent in such a sublime Degree as a Deity is supposed to be but Excellent in its Kind and in comparison of the other Parts of this visible World Now that every rational Soul is thus Excellent will appear both from its Nature and Faculties In its Nature it is 1. First Immaterial For it is a distinct thing from Matter and the Properties of it are quite different from the Properties of Matter It is of the Nature of Matter to be locally extended as a Wall is part by part and one part by another in a palpable Series of Contiguity to move as a Stone does as it is moved forcibly by some other Agent and to communicate its Motion to a corporeal Substance by strokes imprest upon it to be wholly passive to external Violence to be in an utter state of Rest when Force is not offered to be as Senseless as a Stone and as void of Cogitation and when it is stirred and agitated to be destitute of all Apprehension which way or in what manner or to what end it moves These and the like dull Properties essentially and necessarily belong to Matter There is as much difference between them and the Attributes of the rational Soul as between Death and Life Because this is a busie Thing prone and ready to enquire into the qualities of Objects to discover their Natures to apprehend Ideas to commit Notions to Memory for a long time to discern and distinstuish between Truth and Falshood and between Right and Wrong to infer Conclusions from Premises to spin Opinions out of a train of Thoughts to judge what is to be Received and what is to be Rejected to exert an Appetite towards that which is Good and to rest with Complacency and Delight in the Enjoyment of it Nay besides all this to be also in its operations Self-active and Self-determining is Essential to it For the Soul of Man is not pulled or forced dragged or drawn or thrust on like a Machine No the Principle of its Actions is within its self nor can any thing move it but by its own consent and voluntary compliance Indeed outward Objects make Impressions upon it and such as do affect it and incline it to act according as things appear to be either desirable or hurtful But this is not done by any violent necessitating Impulse like the Force imprest upon a common Engine but in a Moral way by perswasion and allurement and by the intervening use of Reason which judgeth of the Object whether it may be chosen or refused and accordingly dictates and directs So that when the Soul resolves upon Actions and comes to exert its Power it determines it self being sollicited thereunto by Temptations and Arguments from the inviting Appearance of an Object but not driven to it by irresistible Violence For in many Cases we do resist Offers though they be very Tempting because the Motives for our compliance are not so strong as the Reasons which are against it And when the Reasons on each hand seem equally fair the Soul is unresolved and in suspence hanging in doubt in aequilibrio like Scales that are exactly even till some Grains be added some more Arguments offered on the one side which outweigh all on the contrary and so turn and cast the Scale and bring the Soul to a Determination Of these things every Man hath daily Experience in his own Breast We all feel in our selves this our native Liberty and determining Power And hence it follows That after all the Disputes about the Substance of the rational Soul what it is we may certainly conclude what it is not It cannot be any material corporeal Substance though you suppose it to be never so fine and thin because its Operations are quite different from the Motions of the most subtile Body They proceed not from any necessitating Cause nor are they carried on after a necessitating Manner nor are they brought to any necessary Result as the Motions of Matter are these are still imprest upon it by some necessitating thing which is without and foreign to it But the Soul of Man hath a Principle of Freedom and voluntary Activity within it self and in its Nature whereby it is apt to begin and order and govern and perfect its own Actions as its own Reason directeth and as it self judgeth to be most convenient and best 2. And because it is immaterial it must follow that its own Nature it is immortal also which is the Second Argument of its Excellence if compar'd with all the other parts of this visible World That this thing may be rightly understood we must consider that there is a two fold Life in Man 1. The Life of the Compositum as they call it or the Life of the whole Man that Life which results from the Vital Union between Soul and Body This cannot be thought immortal because we see it every Day destroy'd by the separation of those two Substances Soul and Body from each other 2. There is the Original Life of the Soul it self consider'd singly and separately as a distinct thing from the Body This Life is I conceive a state of Vigour and Activity and a state which is peculiar and proper to the Soul Now this is immortal that is though the Body turns to Dust and Ashes yet the Soul continues a living Being still or subsisteth on in a state of Vigour so that the Nature of it is not subject to Mortality For by Mortality is meant a proneness or tendency in a Being to a Dissolution of it upon the failing of that Principle of Activity within it which we call Life And three things are requisite to render a thing Mortal as we see by every Day 's Experience in all Creatures which naturally consume away and die 1. There must be a Mixture of contrary Qualities as Heat and Cold and the like 2. There is a corruptibility of Humours upon the Prevalence and Predominancy of one Quality over the others 3. And Thirdly a Divisibility of the Parts upon and after the over-powering the Faculties and Temperament of Nature So that 't is Matter that is liable to Death nor can Death be incident
to any thing but Matter nay to corruptible Matter nor can any corporeal Substance be Immortal till this Corruptible hath put on Incorruption If then a Being be immaterial or destitute of Bodily Parts it must be in its own Nature immortal too A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones and Blood as every Humane Body hath and consequently it cannot be liable to those jarring Elements whereof our Bodies do consist nor can it of it self be capable of Corruption or Dissolution of Parts as our Mortal Bodies are seeing it is supposed to have no Parts at all to be divided Therefore since the Rational Soul is a Spirit or such a Being as is incorporeal and immaterial as I have now shew'd it is it must follow that it is not naturally subject to Mortality as the Body is because it is utterly void of all Natural Principles of Mortality and is incorruptible in its Essence and therefore it must by the ordinary Necessity of its own Nature as well as by the Will and Pleasure of a Superiour Being survive the Body to receive Rewards or Punishments in another World according to the Quality of its Actions in this 2. Having thus briefly consider'd the Nature of every Humane Soul let us Secondly take some Account of its Excellence in respect of its Faculties and Powers in order to prove the Existence of a God as the only Cause that could give this Soul a Being There are some Faculties in a Man which are common to Brute Creatures also As 1. Sense or the power of perceiving Idea's imprest from outward Objects upon the Organs of Sensation the Eye Ear c. 2. Phansie or a power of apprehending the seeming Suitableness or Unsuitableness of an Object to its Nature 3. Memory or the power of retaining for some time the Idea's and Shapes of things sensible 4. Appetite or a power of moving according as an Object appears either agreeable or hurtful being allur'd by the one or frighted and dampt by the other But these several Powers are nothing in comparison of those noble faculties peculiarly belonging to the Rational Soul as any Man may perceive that will but search into himself and observe what he finds and feels there For 1. First We find that we have a Power to Think and Consider I mean to examine those Objects which are presented to our outward Sense to employ our Minds conversantly about them to take notice of their Proportions Forms and Qualities to compare one thing with another to discover the Causes and Effects of them so that we may penetrate into the inside of them and dive into their Natures Now this no Brute Creature doth or can do The ox indeed knoweth his owner and the ass his masters crib that is they come to both being invited and moved thereunto by the appearance of things which are wont to gratifie the Eye and Palate But in this there is no such thing as Consideration nothing that can properly be call'd Thought because such Creatures are not capable of enquiring in themselves Who or what their Feeders are or What the Substance of their Fodder is or What produced it or How it was provided or To what End it serves and For what Reason it is proper and good to be used Acts of this kind are too high for Animals which are meerly Sensitive Their Phancies go no further than the Crib They are well satisfy'd with the bare enjoyment of that which is before them The Considering part belongs to Man To observe the natural difference between Things and Things to examine their distinct Causes Properties Dispositions and Uses and so to look into their intrinsick Essences and Natures this is the peculiar work and business of a Soul that is Rational 2. We find in our selves that we have a power to understand also that is a Faculty and Ability to comprehend the Reason and Condition and Philosophy of Matters nay to know many things which are not directly obvious to our outward Senses That Perception which is in Animals Irrational is an Idea in the Phancy deriv'd from those Efsluvium's Rays and Images of external Objects which are imprest upon the Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting or Feeling-Faculty and so convey'd through the Nerves into the Brain These are sensible Phantasms and the possessing of an Animal with them is properly called Sensation because the Creature is affected with a sensible Object meerly by the use of its Senses But Sensation is one thing and Intellection or Understanding is another This properly is when a Man's Mind is so possest and enlightned with Intelligible Notions or with such Idea's as are not subject to corporeal Sense and therefore such as cannot be stampt upon the Mind by Motion or Pressure from Bodies without us but such Idea's as spring out of the Mind it self by an active exerting Power that is native to it There are many kinds of such intelligible Notions as do not fall under external Sense and yet are very clear and evident to us As several Certainties in Mathematicks which appear from Demonstration divers Truths in Natural Philosophy which we are convinced of by pure Reason several Moral Verities which we are assured of from the immutable Natures of Vice and Virture several Doctrines in Theology which our Minds yield us from the Contemplation of the Divine Attributes and Perfections Besides divers such common Notions as these wherein all Mankind are agreed of themselves That what hath not any Being cannot act That things which agree in one Third agree among themselves That the Cause is in order of Nature before the Effect That Equals added unto Equals do make Equals That Nothing can produce it self out of Nothing and the like These are eternal Truths which depend not upon Sense but upon natural certain Reason for they would be Truths though there were not any Sensitive Creatures in the World Now this is a noble Power in the Soul which sets it infinitely above the Souls of Irrational Creatures in that it can act within it self abstractedly from Matter and without using the Bodily Senses can speculate and understand those leading Truths and necessary Notions which are in order to the greatest Undertakings and inable the Mind of Man to search into all the Secrets of Nature to open the Mysteries of the Creation to invent Arts to improve Sciences to prescribe the most commendable Rules of Life and in short to govern the World All which I shall shew is an Argument of the Existence of an absolutely perfect Mind or a God that formed the Rational Soul with Divine Faculties and Powers to act under him 3. Thirdly We find in our selves a Power to deduce one thing out of another by way of Inference and by comparing Notions with Notions and by sifting them narrowly to gather and conclude in the End that this is True and that False this is Right and that Wrong and so to go on still drawing of Consequents out of Antecedents which is usually call'd Ratiocination or