therefore sent for you to audite them before-hand that so by your assistance I may either know my errours and repair whatsoever is amiss â—â—ilst yet I have a little time left me to do it in or if I have stated my matters rightly may appear with the better assurance at that Tribunal I have always found you faithful in your Doctrine and I do not doubt but you will be impartial in this application At this point I offered to go out and leave them private which he perceiving took me by one hand and the Minister by the other and then continued his discourse I will give you said he to the Minister the History of my life at least I will not conceal from you any main passage of it be it for me or against me that so you may pass a judgment upon my spiritual state and I desire you my dear Friend Sebastian to be present who have been privy to the most critical moments of it to the intent that you may witness against me before this Man of God if I falsifie in any thing This said he laid open the course of his life and amongst several other things which either I do not now so well remember or think not fit to repeat he delivered the substance of that whereof I have given you a large account before and then he conjured him in the Name of God to deal freely and plainly with him upon the whole matter The holy Man like a Jury in a manifest case without long deliberation quickly brought in a Verdict of comfort to him Which when Eulabes perceived with his eyes fixed upon him and a countenance somewhat cheared Well said he God be thanked if it be so as I hope it is for I rest assured Almighty Goodness despises not the meanest sincerity But I humbly and earnestly befeech you Sir give me also the Absolution of the Church that I may go out of the World under the comfort of so publick and authentick a Testimony Which when the Minister had solemnly performed he intreated him further to administer to him the Sacrament of the Lords Supper that so said he seeing as it were my Saviour crucified before my eyes and pouring out his Blood for sinners I may the more firmly believe the pardon of my own sins and upon the wings of Faith and affection raise my self towards Heaven This after the interposition of Prayers and Mediation and holy discourse was administred to him but Lord what an ecstasie of devotion was the good Man now in What tokens of humility affection thankfulness and intention of mind were then to be read in his countenance and deportment Most certainly Christ Jesus was present really though not carnally and his Soul fed it self most savourily upon him These things being done he dismissed the Minister for that time not without real expressions of his thankfulness to him for his pains and assistance nor without a liberal alms to be disposed at his discretion amongst the Poor earnestly intreating him to remember him constantly in the Prayers of the Church that thereby he might be holpen on his journey towards Heaven where he hoped shortly to arrive Some time after this when by some repose he had recovered a little strength his Family was called together to his Beds side with some others of his Friends and Relations all whom he most earnestly cautioned against loosness of life and profaneness of spirit assuring them in the words of a dying man of the great reality and infinite importance of Religion he charged them as they would answer it at that great Day which was certainly coming that they should not suffer themselves either to be debauched into carelesness and lukewarmness nor abused and cheated into phantastry and opinionativeness in Religion but persist in the good old way reverence their Minister keep to the Church and make the serving of God the greatest care and business of their lives Then he discoursed admirably to them of the vanity of the World the uncertainty of life the comforts of Religion and the joys of Heaven till his spirits began to be spent and his speech a little to falter At other times he retreated into himself and entertained converse with God by Prayers and holy Meditations in which what were the elevations of his Faith what the holy raptures of his Love what humble abjections of himself at the feet of Christ what resignations of himself to the will of God what pleading of the promises of the Gospel and recumbency upon the Intercession of his Saviour we could not be privy to further than as we saw his hands and eyes earnestly lift up to Heaven sometimes a stream of tears falling from his eyes and other times interchangeably a chearful smile sitting upon his countenance in which posture bodily strength being now exhausted he with a gentle sigh resigned up his Soul to God Thus I have given you the last passages of this good Man now no doubt in Heaven if I have not tired you with the relation though I confess I am not very apt to suspect that both because I have done it in compliance with your desire and besides I judge of other men by my self and because I am never weary of thinking or speaking of him therefore imagine other men may be of the same mind Phil. Ah! Sir so far from being weary of such kind of discourse that I could willingly have forgot all other things for it and been glad this Evening-Conference had continued till to morrow morning but I consider Devotion must not too much intrench upon Civility therefore I return you my hearty thanks for my good Entertainment and take my leave for this time Bioph. I thank you both for your good Company and your charitable offices towards my satisfaction and I do already assure you of this fruit of it that by your Conversation I have learnt that all Religion is not acting a part and playing the Hypocrite which I was apt to suspect heretofore for I see you are so really hearty and in earnest in it and yet men of greater sagacity than my self that I tell you truly I begin to think it becomes me seriously to consider of it Good night to you good Sebastian THE END The tioling humour of the age exposed Of good nature and complaisance Apologies for tipling baffled The real causes of tipling intimated and the mischiefs of it exaggerated Of Gaming and particularly of Chance-Games Want of business the occasion of Drinking and Gaming A Gentleman's Life as busie as other mens An estimate or account of the time and business of mans Life A Practical Demonstration of the littleness of our spare time Innocent and pleasant employments of Time Of Prayer and reading the Scriptures Of Study and Meditation the advantages and the difficulties of it Of friendly Conserence and the great benefits of it Drinking and Gaming are Levelling Practices The Pleasures of Discourse Discoursing an healthful Exercise Just occasions of Taciturnity or Reservedness sometimes in Conversation Of the use and abuse of Books and Reading Conversation improves a man more than Books and Study Discourse about religious matters recommended The importance of Religion Religion rests not in the mind only Religions Discourse as necessary in times of prosperity as of persecution Of Hypocritical Canting Common Discourse lawful Col. 4. 6. Of Disputes in Religion the vanity and mischiefs of them Religion the noblest Subject of Discourse Pleasantness of religious Conference Religious Discourse the most prudent Religious Communication Gentile About Prophane Discourse Of Drollery More Arguments for religious Conference Godly Discourse not Phanatical nor the Badge of any Sect. Godly Conference an effectual way to supplant Phanaticism what makes prophane men so bold in their assaults upon Religion Means to raise our Spirits to a fit temper for religious Communication Prudential advices about religious Conserence Of improvement of time A touch of Epicurean Doctrine Of the different prospects different men have of the other World Heroes that can despise Death Of News and News-mongers exposed Sebastian's strange News of a new-found-land An Allegoricai Description of the new Country Sebastian relates the grounds of the credibility of his Story Preparations for the Journey to Urania Philander transported with the contemplation of Heaven Christian Resolution The advantages of good company in the way to Heaven Scepticism displaying its humor and checkt by sober reason The Epicurean Creed The great consequence and general influence of the belief of a Judgment Scripture proof of a day of Judgment justified by reason It is just prudence to prepare for a day of Judgment thought the evidence were less than it is What kind of proof and what measure of evidence is to be expected in the Principles of Religion In order to the satisfaction of a mans judgment he must first come to indifferency It is greatly a mans interest that Religion should be true The moral demonstration of a judgment to come Mankind is of such a nature and endued with such powers as make it reasonable for him to expect Judgment The Soul of man proved to be immaterial The natural notions men have of God render it reasonable to expect that he will judge the World God not a necessary Agent There is an actual Providence in this World therefore there will be a Judgment in the next Prophecy a certain Argument of a Providence in the World Miracles necessarily argue a Providence More ordinary instances of Providence in the World A Vindication of Divine Providence in the obscarity of some of its Dispensations in this life A visible Providence over the Jews How it comes to pass that there is no greater difference in the last act of mens lives The wonderful comfort and advantages of being secured against a day of Judgment The different representations of Religion a great temptation to Seepticism A sure Religion Scrupulous and phantastical rules of preparation for the day of Judgment reproved Eulabes's History of his own Life and preparations for Judgment Eulabes his more special preparations for death towards the approaches of it
these sort of persons seeming to themselves to have a great deal of time before them are easily drawn to spend it the more lavishly as out of an unmeasurable Store But what is all this to men that are entred into real business and have concerns under their hand and the luxuriancy of whose Spirits is taken off by cares and experience and especially who cannot without unpardonable stupidity but be sensible how daily the time and Age of Man wears away Now I say why time should be so burthensom to such as these or what should betray them to such infrugal expences of it I profess for my part I can give no account without making severe reflections on their discretion Phil. Assign what causes of it you can or make what reflections upon it you please however the matter of fact is certainly true in the general That a Gentlemans time is his burden whether he be young or old and the want of Employment for it his great temptation to several extravagances Sebast I must believe it to be as you say because you know the World better than I do and I am confident you will not misreport it But really Phil it is very strange it should be so and I am sure cannot be verified without very ingrateful returns to the Divine bounty which hath made so liberal and ample provisions for the delight and contentment of such persons far above the rate of others It is true they have less bodily labour and no drudgery to exhaust their time and spirits upon and that methinks should be no grievance but then the prudent management of a plentiful Fortune if things be rightly considered doth not take up much less time than the poor mans labour for necessities of Life For what with securing the Patrimony and husbanding the Revenue what with letting and setting his Lands and building and repairing his Houses what with planting Walks and beautifying his Gardens what with accommodating himself according to his Quality and hospitably treating his Friends and Neighbours according to theirs and to say no more what with keeping Accounts of all this and governing a numerous and well-fed Family I am of opinion that all this taken together the Gentleman hath indeed the more pleasant but a no less busie Employment of his time than other men insomuch that I cannot but suspect that he must be deficient in some principal Branch of good Husbandry and defrauds his business that surfeits on leisure Moreover as Divine Bounty hath exempted such men as we speak of from the common sweat and anxiety of Life by those large Patrimonies his Providence and the care of Parents hath provided to their hands so the same Divine Majesty hath thereby obliged them and it is accordingly expected from them by the World that they be more publickly serviceable to their Prince and Country in Magistracy in making Peace and several ways assisting Government and promoting the ends of humane Society upon which account as it is very unjust that others should envy and malign them for their enjoyments so it is apparent also that they are so far from having less to do than their Inferiors that on the contrary the Gentlemans Life seems to be far the busier of the two Besides all this Gentlemen having usually more ingenuous Education and consequently are presumed to have more exercised and improved minds may therefore be able to employ themselves if all other business ceased and fill up the vacant spaces of their time with such delightful and profitable entertainments as others are incapable of Phil. That Sir that last Point is the thing I would fain learn namely how to fill up the vacant spaces of Life as you call it so as to leave no room for temptation to debauchery Sebast I am heartily glad to see you of that mind but I assure my self there is nothing I can say to it but what your own discretion will prevent me in However if it be your desire that I should enlighten your thoughts by opening of my own we will then if you please examine this matter between us and by that time we have compared the Period of our Lives with the variety of business that occurs in it I am out of all doubt that you will be then throughly satisfied that we have neither so much time as to be a burden to us nor if it was more than it is should we be at a loss for the bestowing of it And this without resorting to any of the extravagances afore-mentioned Let us then in the first place suppose that the Lives of Men at this Age of the World and particularly in this Climate and Country amount commonly to seventy years for though it is possible here and there one out-lives that term yet it is pretty evident by the most probable Calculations that there is not above one man in thirty or thereabouts that arrives at that Age However I say let us at present suppose that to be the common Standard Now to discover what an inconsiderable duration this is let us but ask the opinion of those that have arrived at it and they will assuredly tell us that all that whole term when it is past seems to be a very short stage and quickly run over or if we had rather trust to our own experience let us look back upon twenty or thirty years of our own lives which though it bear a very great proportion towards the Lease of our whole Lives yet when it is over seems to be but a little while to us and that Time as it is usually pictured fled upon Wings Phil. I pray pardon me if I a little interrupt the thred of your Discourse you may easily continue it again and for failing I will remember where you left off That which I would say by the way is this I can verifie the truth of what you were supposing by my own experience and have often wondered what should be the reason of it that men have quite different apprehensions of time past and time to come When we look back as you well observe upon twenty or thirty years which are gone they seem but a trice to us but if we look forward and forethink of so many years to come we are apt to phansie we have an Ocean before us and such a vast prospect that we can see no end of it Now I ask your opinion what it is that puts such a fallacy upon us for other it cannot be forasmuch as the same term of years whether it be reckoned forward or backward past or to come must needs really be of the same length and duration Sebast It is verily so as you say and the Observation is very ingenious and pertinent to the business in hand But to give you an account of the reason of that different estimate I can say but these two things viz. Either as it is in the nature of hope to flatter us so all things seem bigger at a distance and
very much commend these kind of Sports for indeed I scarce think them Sports they are rather a counterfeit kind of business and weary ones head as much as real study and business of importance So that in the use of them a man only puts a cheat upon himself and tickles himself to death for by applying himself for delight to these busie and thoughtful Games he becomes like a Candle lighted at both ends and must needs be quickly wasted away between Jest and Earnest whenas both his Cares and his Delights prey upon him Besides I observe that Diversions of this nature having so much of Chance and surprize in them do generally too much raise the passions of men which it were fitter by all Arts and endeavours to charm down and suppress For to say nothing of the usual accidents of common Gaming-Houses which as I have heard from those that knew too well are the most lively Pictures of Hell upon Earth and where it is ordinary for men to rave swear curse and blaspheme as if the Devil was indeed amongst them or the men were transformed into Infernal Spirits I have seen sad Examples of Extravagance in the more modest and private but over eager pursuits of these recreations Insomuch that sometimes a well-tempered person hath quite lost all command of himself at them So that you might see his Eyes fiery his Colour inflamed his Hands to tremble his Breath to be short his Accents of Speech fierce and violent by all which and abundance more ill-favoured symptoms you might conclude his heart to be hot and his thoughts sollicitous and indeed the whole man Body and Soul to be in an Agony Now will you call this a recreation or a rack and torture rather A rack certainly which makes a man betray those follies which every Wise-man seeks to conceal and heightens those passions which every good man endeavours to subdue And which is yet worse as I was saying this course looks like the accustoming of the Beast to be rampant and to run without the Rein. For by indulging our passions in jest we get an habit of them in earnest and accordingly shall find our selves to be enclined to be wrathful peevish and clamorous when we apply our selves to business or more grave conversation To all which add That Gaming and especially at such Games as we are speaking of doth insensibly steal away too much of our time from better business and tempts us to be Prodigals and Bankrupts of that which no Good Fortune can ever redeem or repair And this is so notoriously true that there is hardly any man who sets himself down to these Pastimes as they are called that can break off and recal himself when he designed so to do Forasmuch as either by the too great intention of his mind he forgets himself or the anger stirred up by his misfortunes and the indignation to go off baffled suffers him not to think of any thing but revenge and reparation of his losses or the hopes he is fed withal trolls him on or some witchery or other transports him so besides his first resolutions that business health family friends and even the worship of God it self are all superseded and neglected for the sake of this paltry Game All which considered I am really afraid there is more of the Devil in it than we are ordinarily aware of and that it is a temptation of his to engage us in that where he that wins most is sure to lose that which is infinitely of more value Therefore upon the whole matter I think it much safer to keep out of the lists than to engage where besides the greatness of the stake a man cannot bring himself off again without so great difficulty Pardon me Dear Philander if my zeal or indignation or what you will call it hath transported me in this Particular sure I am I have no intention to reproach your practice nor to affront you for your motioning this sport to me but speak out of hearty good will and to give you caution Phil. O. Sebastian I love you dearly and thank you heartily for the freedom you have used with me We good natur'd men as the World flatters us and we love to be stiled considering little or nothing our selves and having seldom the happiness of discreet and faithful Friends that will have so much concern for us as to admonish us of our imprudences and our dangers as if we were mere Machines move just as other men move and prompt us and so drink play and do a thousand follies for Company sake and under the countenance of one anothers example God forgive me I have too often been an instance of that which you now intimated I therefore again and again thank you for your advice and hope I shall remember as long as I live what you have said on this occasion But that you may work a perfect Cure upon me I will be so true to my self as to acquaint you faithfully with what I apprehend to be the Cause of this Epidemical Distemper I find the common and most irresistible temptation both to Drinking and Gaming is the unskilfulness of such men as my self to employ our time without such kind of diversions especially at this Season of the Year when the dark and long Evenings foul Ways and sharp Weather drive us into Clubs and Combinations If therefore you will deal freely and friendly with me herein and by your prudence help me over this difficulty you will exceedingly oblige me and do an act worthy of your self and of that kindness which brought you hither Sebast There is nothing Dear Phil within my power which you may not command me in Nor is there any thing wherein I had rather serve you if I could than in a business of this nature But all I can do and as I think all that is needful in this Case is to desire you to consider on it again and then I hope you will find the difficulty not so insuperable as you imagine It is very true Idleness is more painful than hard labour and nothing is more wearisome than having nothing to do besides as a rich Soil will be sure to bring forth Weeds if it be not sowed with more profitable Seed so the active Spirits in Man will be sure to prompt him to evil if they be not employed in doing good For the Mind can no more bear a perfect cessation and intermission than the World a Vacuum But this difficulty which you represent generally presses young men only These indeed having more Sail than Balast I mean having a mighty vigour and abundance of Spirits but not their minds furnished with a sufficient stock of knowledge and experience to govern and employ those active Spirits upon no wonder if such persons rather than do just nothing and in defect of real business do greedily catch at those shadows and resemblances of it as I remember you ingeniously called Drinking and Gaming Besides
of our education and the imperious dictates of others what by the authority of unaccountable Tradition and publick Fame and what by the designs of Politicians it is an hard matter to know what else to believe Phil. Indeed Biophilus I am both sorry and ashamed to hear you talk at this rate And I do not wonder now that you were so desirous to decline this kind of discourse when we fell upon it I hope you take me for your Friend as well as your Neighbour and Sebastian here for a discreet and worthy Gentleman suffer your self to be perswaded by us to think and speak more soberly and becoming your self in these great matters or if you will not think like a Christian yet talk like a man for let me tell you you seem not only to reject Christianity but all Religion in general and upon those terms you will be as little fit for this world as for that which is to come For what a sad creature is a man of no Religion at all What State or Civil Government will be able to endure him whom no Oaths can oblige or fasten upon How can there be any Civil Society with him that hath no Faith that can neither trust nor be trusted What security can such a man give that he shall not disturb the State violate the person of his Prince falsifie his trust betray his friend cut his Neighbours throat if he be under the awe of no God the expectation of no rewards nor punishments in another world What security can there be I say in dealing with such a man what sincerity in his friendship what safety in his neighbourhood For all these depend upon the reverence of Religion which he that is wholly destitute of must needs become devotum caput a wolfes head the pest and vermine of humane society Do not therefore dear Biophilus at once both stifle your own Conscience and affront the common sense and reason of mankind Do not under the pretence of being more witty and sagacious than other men reason your self into brutality and whilst you grow over-wise in your own eyes be the most fatally mistaken and lost for ever Why should you abandon your self to desperation and leave your self without any refuge in adversity we are well and chearful here at present God be thanked but the time will come when God will stand us in stead when we shall have need of the retreats and comforts of Religion Above all things in the world leave not your self without hope in your latter end do as becometh a man of your parts and discretion suspect your own suspicions and let not the opinion you have that other men are under prejudices prejudice you against the arguments for believing Come deal ingenuously and open your breast propound the grounds of your suspicions the objections you have against Religion and though I cannot promise you that I will answer them all to your satisfaction yet I doubt not but here is one that will Bioph. Look you Gentlemen you put me into a great strait for if upon this invitation of yours I do not disclose my mind to you I shall seem disingenuous and you will think worse of me than perhaps I deserve and on the other side if I do discover my sentiments it is probable that my Creed will fall so many Articles short of yours that we shall break out into some heats and endanger the continuance of our neighbourly conversation However since it seems to be your desire I will be plain with you in confidence that as you are Gentlemen you will deal ingenuously with me and if you can do me no good you will do me no hurt my meaning is that if it should happen you do not convince my reason I hope you will not defame my person nor expose me to the insolencies of the Rabble who believe in gross and by whole Sale and throw dirt upon all that chew what they swallow Now in the first place that you may not think me a perfect Sceptick I declare to you that I acknowledge the Being of a God and that not only because the generality of mankind and even Epicurus himself owned so much but because it is not conceivable how the world should be without one for no wit or reason of man can evince to me how any thing should begin to be without some necessary and eternal Existent to begin the motion and to bring it into Being or which is the same thing in effect there can be no second Cause if there be no first But then beyond this you must pardon me for to deal sincerely with you I do not think that this God minds or troubles himself about the world after he hath made it Much less do I see any sufficient ground for that which Philander hath been talking so warmly about namely a world to come And for eternal life which men speak such great things of I profess I look upon it as a flat impossibility for as much as I see men die but see no foundation for a belief that there is any life or existence out of a body There are some other points of affinity with these that I withold my assent from but because you have challenged me to a rational debate therefore to give fair play and to put the business between us to an issue I will insist but upon one point and that shall be the same which we fell into by chance at our first coming together namely whether there be such a thing as a publick Tribunal or general Judgment where mens actions shall be reviewed and censured after this life Prove me but this one point sufficiently and plainly and I will grant you all the rest Sebast Now you shew your self a man and a shrewd one too though not a Christian For I must acknowledg that you have with great judgment pitcht upon the very Cardinal point of Religion and which if it be proved as I do not doubt but it shall be will infer all the rest but if it miscarry all falls with it The perswasion of a Judgment to come is the great awe upon mens Consciences the principal motive of virtue and piety the restraint and check upon vice and wickedness and indeed the sinew of Civil Government and bond of humane Society This both supposes the Being of a God which you grant and of a Providence also which you deny for if there were not a God it is evident there could be no Providence in this World nor Judgment in another and this if it be granted or proved necessarily draws after it rewards and punishments in the life to come for otherwise a Judgment would be but a matter of curiosity and a trouble to no purpose You have therefore in making choice of this for the critical or decisive point given great proof of your own sagacity and put the matter upon a right issue Bioph. Well prove it then Sebast What proof do you require of
Agent and then there is no danger of an after-reckoning with him Sebast Ah Biophilus I am heartily sorry to find so unworthy a notion of God still to find any room in your thoughts though it were but in suspicion only It is very certain indeed that if he be only a necessary Agent then all fear of a Judgment is discharged and as certain that all Religion can then be nothing else but a groundless Superstition at the best For then God must needs be a very tame Deity which men may play withal and abuse at pleasure as the Frogs did by their wooden King in the Fable But then in the Name of Goodness what need is there of any God at all if a necessary Agent will serve the turn Why can we not as well suppose the World to be eternal as make such a contemptible Being as a necessary Agent is to be eternal only to give beginning to the World Or rather why if we attribute one Perfection i e. Eternity to him why not all the rest which seem to be inseparable from it For as much as it is not imaginable how the first Cause should be the meanest of all and he that gave those other perfections to other things should be destitute of them himself Or how can we believe that such a fettered impotent unthinking and unwise Being should make a World in that beauty and perfection which this World consists of Or at least how is it possible that a natural or necessary Agent which is like a Gally-slave chained down to his Bench and confined to his Task and Subject should make a World with such curiosity and diversity of things yet with that exquisite order and harmony which we observe in Nature Do you think that the frame of things could not possibly have been any otherwise than they are Can you phansie that nothing could have been better nor worse than it is now If you see any footsteps of wisdom or choice any possibility that any thing should have been otherwise than it is you forgo your necessary Agent Do you not see great and manifest instances of design and contrivance in the order of things viz. one thing fitted to another and one subordinate to another and all together conspiring to some publick end and use Now sure a necessary Agent could not guide things so because it hath no ends or designs of its own Again if God be a necessary Agent I would fain be resolved how it comes to pass that we are not so too I think you granted me even now that we chuse our own way propound ends to our selves and voluntarily pursue them when we could if we pleased as freely chuse and act contrary and this we justly glory in as the perfection of our Nature Now how to conceive that I should be a free Agent and that he who made me so should be a necessary one that is that the effect should be more excellent than the cause neither I nor as I suspect any body else can understand But I need not in this place industriously set my self to confute this odd conceit of Gods being only a necessary Agent because in my third Branch I shall fundamentally undermine it and as I think leave neither colour nor pretence for it and therefore with your leave I now hasten to that Bioph. Go on then in Gods Name Sebast My third and last Point for the proof of a Judgment to come is this God doth actually exercise such a Providence in and over the World for the present as gives great assurance that he will judge it hereafter For these are as it were the two several ends of the same chain a Providence here and a Judgment hereafter They do naturally and mutually draw on each other If there be a Judgment to come there must be a provident Eye over the World for the present in order to it that is God must so mind the World that he perfectly understand how things go how men carry themselves what there is amiss amongst them what requires punishment and what deserves a reward otherwise he cannot be said to judge forasmuch as without this it might rather be said there is a day of Execution coming than a day of Judgment And on the other side if there be a Providence in this World and it be true that God observes how men carry themselves towards him it must speak his intention to reward and punish hereafter in proportion to such observation for otherwise that Providence would be fruitless and to no purpose it would be a meer matter of vain curiosity and a needless trouble to the Divine Majesty as the Epicureans objected But now that God doth exercise such a Providence in this World as from whence we may reasonably presage a Judgment to come I think will abundantly appear by these three things 1. There hath been such a thing as we call Prophecy or Prediction of things before they came to pass which cannot be without a Providence 2. There have been Miracles which could not be without the Divine interposition 3. There are frequent though not altogether miraculous instances in all Ages of a Divine presence in and influence upon the affairs of the World 1. First I ground the assertion of a Providence in this present World upon the Prophecies and Predictions of things before-hand which have been verified by real effects in their respective times and seasons It is evident that whosoever is able certainly to foretel things before they are must see through all the Series of Causes which produce such events especially if he define also the precise time and other circumstances of the accomplishment but above all whoseover shall declare before-hand not only what shall come to pass according to the course of natural and necessary Causes but also such things as are casual and contingent or subject to the choice and indifferency of free and voluntary Agents must have a mighty reach with him and make a very curious and accurate inspection into the Conjunctions and Conspiracy of all things as well as into their particular Natures Tendencies and Inclinations for as every Effect must have its Causes before it can be so the prediction of such effect must depend upon a certain knowledge of those respective causes which are pregnant of it therefore if there ever have been such a thing as Prophecy there is a Providence Now for the matter of fact or that there have been certain and punctual predictions of things long before they came to pass is the constant belief of all Nations and he that denies it must give the lye to the greatest and best part of Mankind You may remember that Tully pursues this Argument in his Books De Divinatione and he there gives too many and too remarkable instances of it to be denied or eluded but I shall chuse to set before you only two passages out of the holy Scripture to this purpose For though I perceive you
have not such a reverence for those Books as they deserve yet such palpable matters of fact as I shall instance in and which were of so publick a concern and general notice as whereupon the revolution of whole Nations depended can afford no ground for calling in question the historical truth of them And let me tell you I make choice of these instances out of those Writings for no other cause but for the notoriety of the fact and the easiness of confutation if it had been otherwise than true The former of the two passages is the prediction of the slavery of the Children of Israel in the Land of Egypt and their miraculous deliverance thence above four hundred years before it came to pass and the accomplishment when the time came answering the Prediction precisely to a very day so as to be observed by the whole body of the people and the remembrance of it perpetuated by an anniversary Solemnity ever after as you may see Exod. 12. 41. The other instance is the Babylonish Captivity which was foretold above seventy years before it came to pass and that in a time of the greatest unlikelihood that any such calamity should befal namely it was prophesied of when the Jews were in the greatest peace and prosperity And then for the term of this Captivity that was foretold to last 70 years neither more nor less and both these periods as well as other circumstances were exactly and to admiration hit in the event of things Now in both these instances the things were prophesied of so long before-hand there were so many obstacles in the way of their accomplishment and so much of the will of man also interested in both the cases and yet notwithstanding such punctual exactness is to be seen in the Event that it is plainly impossible that humane wit should so much as guess probably at them therefore the Predictions must be grounded upon Divine intimation and then God is so far from being a necessary Agent that it is apparent he minds the World and looks narrowly into all the parts of it from one end to another and governs and manages inferiour Causes 2. My second proof of an actual Providence in this World is from Miracles By a Miracle I mean any thing coming to pass which is either for the matter or manner of it above the power of natural Causes or at least contrary to their establisht course and order whether it be effected by heightening them above their ordinary pitch or accelerating their motion or by suddenly bringing those causes together which lay at a distance or whether it be by depressing suspending or superseding any of them And I reason thus If any thing have ever been brought to pass above the capacity or out of the method of the natural and common Causes then there is an active Deity which exerts his power in that case Or if ever the course of Nature hath been interrupted it must be by the interposition of the supreme Cause For it is neither intelligible that Nature should go out of course of it self without its own decay and failure nor possible that being once so out of course it should ever be able to recover it self into its former order without the help of Omnipotency therefore if ever there have been a Miracle in the World there is proof of a Providence Now that such extraordinary things as we here suppose have happened cannot be doubted without great ignorance or denied without impudence I know there is a sort of witty men in their way who endeavour to put a slight upon Miracles and therefore are very captious and critical in such cases as this but if they can elude some occurrences that have been believed or pretended miraculous yet they will never be able to evade them all And if there have been but one acknowledged Miracle in all the time of this World it will be sufficient to prove a Providence They will perhaps impute some Cures that have been said to be done by Miracle to the efficacy of some Medicine although they can neither tell us what that specifick Remedy was nor much less tell us how the Symptoms should so suddenly cease upon the use of it It may be they will tell you in the general with confidence enough that the strange things done in Egypt and in the Wilderness were effected by the sudden application of Actives to Passives but cannot so much as pretend to satisfie any man how such remote Causes were brought together and exalted to such an extraordinary degree of efficacy as to produce such admirable effects on the sudden as those cases import Or if they could speak tolerable sense in some of those particulars yet what natural account can be given of the raising of the dead or of unlearned mens speaking all kind of Languages in an instant What natural Cause will they assign of the Suns standing still in Joshua's time Or of that preternatural Eclipse at our Saviour's Passion What could intercept the Suns light when the two Luminaries were in opposition Or what restored it to its motion again when it was interrupted as in the former instance Or to its light again when it intermitted as in the latter instance To endeavour to give natural accounts of these things will prove as absurd and ridiculous to reason as to deny the matter of fact is void of Faith and Religion But if any of these instances will not pass with such men because they were over long before our time or because the truth of them depends upon the Authority of Scripture there are other innumerable passages in all Ages not liable to that exception that cannot be resolved into any Cause less than a Supreme and Omnipotent Amongst which what will they say to this which happens almost every year Namely that after a long wet season it shall suddenly clear up and be fair weather again and contrariwise after a long dry season it shall unexpectedly be wet and rainy Whereas if they look only to natural Causes the quite contrary must happen Forasmuch as the more rain hath been at any time the more may be still because there are the more vapors from whence Clouds are raised and the longer a dry season hath lasted there is every day the less reason to expect rain because there want vapors out of which it should be raised Now to impute this sudden and admirable change only to the Winds is to beg the Question for it is well enough known that the Winds depend upon vapors as well as rain and to ascribe it to the Stars is to confess an humorsom resolution that right or wrong we will shut God out of the World But this leads me to my 3. Third proof of a present Providence viz. from the more frequent and ordinary instances of a Divine influence upon the affairs of the World The effects of which though they are not accounted miraculous because they are common yet they give