must needs be some other Substance beside Body p. 845. It is one good step towards the cure of a Disease rightly to understand the Nature of it the Causes whence it sprang and the Fuel with which 't is fed but after that a particular Skill is necessary to work the Cure The learned Doctor in his Preface where he gives an account of his Book affirms that it is as certain to him as any thing in all Geometry that Cogitation and Understanding can never possibly result out of Magnitudes Figures Sights and local Motions I am as much perswaded as he that Cogitation and Understanding cannot result from these Principles but I wish he had pointed his Finger to the place where he has made this as certain as any thing in all Geometry But yet I will not say that a Geometrical Certainty of this Truth is not to be had what one Man has not demonstrated another may Mr. Abbadie among a great deal of Lumber Abbadie of the Truth of Christian Religion has some excellent Materials I will select what I judg most conclusive and not scruple to alter what I hope to dispose to better advantage Matter acquires not Thought by Motion because in Motion there are but three things which can be consider'd the Thing mov'd the Place from whence 't is mov'd the Place to which it comes Now Thought is none of all this If it be said that Thought is the effect of some particular Motion then it will follow that that Effect is nobler than its Cause and not only so but likewise that it is an Effect quite of another nature than its Cause Bare Motion does not produce Thought because all Matter does not think Different kinds of Motion do not produce Thought because that which makes Motion different is only slowness or swiftness directness and obliquity with which Thought has no more affinity than with Motion consider'd abstractly It is not barely Matter which acts when we think because the parts of Matter may act and be reflected on upon another but 't is impossible that any of them should act or be reflected on themselves whereas that thinking Principle which is in us reflects on it self on its own Actions Thoughts and on the manner of its actings and thinking Matter and Motion act only on Objects present and contiguous but Thought flies over the wide Ocean pervades the Earth and reaches the Stars reviews past things and makes useful Conjectures at Futurities reflects provides against Accidents that may or may not happen By Diseases Men sometimes have their Heads so disorder'd that their Imaginations are confus'd and things appear to them otherwise than they really are while their Understandings remain clear and they argue justly upon those false appearances being very sensible that their Diseases occasion those false appearances of things thence it seems natural to conclude that their Reasoning Principle which is not so easily hindred in its Office by Diseases is something distinct from Matter These are the most considerable Philosophic Arguments which I remember to have read against the Hylozoics I hope I have not spoil'd them in my recital but the Reader may consult the French Author translated by Lussan I have nor Health nor Time nor yet Learning enough to make the most of a philosophic Argument drawn from the acknowledg'd Principles Laws and Powers of Matter against these Hylozoics but I beg leave to offer one or two Thoughts such as they are against these bold and precarious Philosophers The first shall be Argument ad hominem If I should assert that the Table on which I now write does understand and think the Hylozoics could no more demonstrate the contrary than I can demonstrate that Matter however mov'd is incapable of thinking But 2. This seems to me Demonstration If Thought be nothing but Matter mov'd it is impossible for us to conceive a thought of a thing which is not Matter Again if Matter of itself does not think but as 't is mov'd then 't is Motion not Matter which is Thought or the Cause of Thought but how extravagant and contradictious is it to affirm that an Accident which relates to Matter is a real thing or the cause of a real Effect which is of another nature and more noble than Matter 3. There can be no such thing as Free Will in Man if there be nothing but Matter in the World For the Laws of Matter are constant one and the same without variation and if there be no such thing as Free Will in Man then there 's no such thing as Virtue or Vice Now I am of the Mind that he who without prejudice seriously considers this Argument will be abundantly satisfied that Matter however mov'd is incapable of thinking tho he has not a Geometrical Certainty or intuitive Knowledg of the same If I had a good Benefice instead of a lean Vicarage I could be content with a Parliamentary Right to the Tithes of my Parish and let the Jure Divino Right go So I think an honest good Man may be satisfied safely satisfied that Matter however mov'd cannot think because if there be no free Mind able to alter the natural and necessary motions of Matter then there 's no such thing as right and wrong and to talk of regular and irregular Passions and Affections is a Jest But I leave the prosecution of this Subject to the abler Pen of a worthy Friend whose Meditations I long to see But I hope the Reader will allow me to have sufficiently prov'd what I first undertook viz. That the prospect of future Advantage does not take off from the praise of Virtue also that he who believes there is no God or who calls the immense Body of universal Matter God that he who denies the Immortality of the Soul and expects no future State does thereby disown the most powerful Obligations to Virtue makes himself unfit to be lov'd intirely or trusted confidently for Men of common Sense will ever choose to love and trust him who looks upon himself under the highest Obligations and most forcible Motives to be grateful and faithful and be apt to neglect him whatever Virtue he professes or is by Nature and Education inclin'd to who owns no Obligations nor Motives to Virtue besides present usefulness which in some Cases it has not and no restraint of pleasing Vice but human Laws which reach not a world of Cases POSTSCRIPT to a Friend who dissuaded the printing of the foregoing Sheets SIR YOU are pleas'd to allow the Strength of my Argument thro this whole Discourse but you would not have me publish my Papers because you can see little in them beside what you met with some years since in a judicious and solid small Tract intitled A Letter to the Deists This is very friendly and I own the Obligation but I were unworthy of your Friendship if I should subscribe to your Judgment because you are my Friend and I were still unworthy if denying to
A Friend of mine inclin'd to the Sentiments which I labour to refute is wont to insist much on the glorious saying That a good Man loves Virtue for its own sake When I press him to explain clearly what he means he is wont to enlarge elegantly and well upon the agreableness and fitness of Virtue for instance of Justice Charity and Mercy and thus far he is very right Justice Charity and Mercy are the most agreable and fit things in the World for a rational Man to practise But now let me ask What is it which makes these Virtues so agreable to human Nature and so fit to be practis'd by rational Man or I am strangely mistaken or all that can be assign'd is the natural Tendency which they have to benefit Mankind and to establish the Foundations of Society firm and sure If so then I must observe that every good Man who loves Virtue for its own sake i. e. for its agreableness to human Nature i. e. for its tendency to benefit Mankind and establish the Foundations of Society he loves Virtue mercenarily for he himself is a Member of the Society and his private Benefit is included in that of the publick But my Friend tells me and I believe him that in Acts of Justice which he always in Acts of Charity and Mercy which he frequently performs he has no regard to any advantage upon those accounts likely to accrue to him either in this present or a future State I answer that to a Man in easy Circumstances the practice of these Virtues yields an immediate and a very great Pleasure and they may be practis'd by an habitual good Man such as I reckon my Friend without any regard had to the future Advantage and farther Pleasure which may accompany them An habitual good Man may be so taken up with the present Satisfaction of virtuous Deeds as that he shall be frequent in the practice of them without giving himself time to consider whether he may not reasonably hope for a future Compensation But then it ought to be taken notice of that a great part perhaps much the greatest part of Virtue consists in doing good at the price of suffering Evil and few very few in my poor opinion would practise Virtue under severe present Discouragements if they had no Hope beyond this Life I am not surpriz'd to read in antient Story that Men of the fairest Fame as soon as advanc'd under some Princes have chang'd their Manners and lost their Reputation For when there 's no keeping an honest Reputation and a gainful Post of Honour both it must be Hope in a future State or nothing that can perswade them to take care of the former and let the latter go I confess it is easy for a Man to be good in easy Circumstances to be just when he is not very poor to be charitable when he has more than a Competence to be merciful when he is likely to gain Friends and Fame by it but he that is content that Virtue should never be practis'd but in such Cases is content that the World should be much more wicked than it is and every good Man more uneasy and more unable to do the Good to which he is inclin'd In this place I think it proper to transcribe some Lines from Bishop Taylor in his Ductor Dub. not that I hope to gain my Point by his Authority tho I can't but be pleas'd to find so wise a Man in my Sentiments yet let the Reader only weigh what is said It is impossible a Man should do great things or suffer nobly without consideration of a Reward and since much of Virtue consists in suffering evil things Virtue it self is not a Happiness but the way to one He does a thing like a Fool that does it for no end and if he does not choose a good one he is worse and Virtue it self would in many Instances be unreasonable if for no material Consideration we should undertake her Drudgery I omit his Quotation from St. Austin and give his next words with some little addition Sensual Pleasures those sensual Pleasures which trespass on the Rights of others are while they can be made to consist with the safety of our Persons and the health of our Bodies highly eligible and all difficult Virtue to be avoided if in this Life only we have hope The Author I have quoted assigns two Causes of Amability and says there are no more viz. Perfection and Usefulness I think there is but one Cause of Amability and that is Usefulness for Perfections which do not relate to me I may admire but nothing can attract my Love and prompt my Desires but that which I know to be useful to me at present or hope to find so hereafter The Reason why a thinking Person loves and desires to practise Virtue is because he tastes Pleasure now or expects it hereafter Perhaps the present Pleasure may effectually recommend some easier Instances of Virtue in happy and blessed times to the practice of well-dispos'd Men but in most Cases and to the Many Virtue will ever need to be recommended by the reasonable Hopes of a better Portion in a future State Let me put a Case which I fancy does sometimes tho but rarely happen A married Man loves his Wife first for the sake of her Friends or her Fortune or her agreable Features or his own solemn Vow but afterwards he loves her for her own sake finding her to be good-natur'd and fruitful obedient and wise Now meaning no more than that he admires these great Perfections that is not in strict speaking loving them or the Wife because she possesses them then only the Husband may be properly said to love these amiable Perfections and his Wife who is Mistress of them when he considers that he is delighted and pleased with the Perfections of his Wife and made happy by her In short let us speak strictly and properly and then we must affirm that Love is Relative I may admire what I am never like to be the better for but what I love I love because I find great Satisfaction in it at present or hope to do so hereafter The present Pleasures of Virtue are not sufficient to recommend it so much as but a tolerable Condition of the World does necessarily require and if we endeavour to disprove the reasonableness of future Hopes we open a Flood-gate to a world of Iniquity more than abounds at present and trouble our own Enjoyments and Ease as well as the Welfare of the Publick I would be glad to be taught how Men may be perswaded to difficult Virtue for instance to do their Country Service to preserve it or deliver it from Slavery when they are like to ruin themselves and their Families by it Indeed I read of one Codrus who by his own death purchas'd a happy Victory to his People But the Historian says Athens never had another King after him because they never expected another Codrus
in this Figure Apophasis which promises not to mention those things which are most industriously mention'd and offer'd to the Hearers consideration In the latter of these Passages he says that he would not dispute against them who pretended to have discover'd that Death was the end of all things and yet in the very next words he does dispute against them and that sufficiently to the declaration of his own Opinion upon the Question if not to the conviction of his Adversaries N. 49. Nec tamen mihi sane quicquam occurrit cur non Pythagorae sit Platonis vera sententia And yet I know no reason but that the opinion of Pythagoras and Plato may be true which was for the Immortality of the Soul And a little after Neque aliud est quidquam cur incredibilis his animorum videatur aeternitas nisi quod nequeunt qualis animus sit vacans corpore intelligere cogitatione comprehendere Nor is there any thing else in the case why they his Adversaries could not believe the Immortality of the Soul but because they can't conceive how the Soul can subsist without the Body and think and by thinking understand and yet they understand nothing of the nature of the Soul in the Body Much more to the same purpose follows 2 dly As to that Reflection which Tully makes after the account which he had given of Socrates viz. That his Discourse was like a floating Vessel toss'd to and fro in the wide Sea I answer That notwithstanding this Comparison suppos'd to savour so much of the old academic Uncertainty he continues his Discourse perswading to the practice of Virtue and to the contempt of Death because of the Advantages which good Men should find thereby hereafter And 3 dly What is still more He always brings in Atticus the other Person in the Dialogue as convinc'd by what he offers and fully satisfied concerning the Truth of the Immortality of the Soul by which the Orator enforces what he says concerning the Contempt of Death and the Practice of Virtue 4 ly To put this matter out of controversy and make it incontestably manifest that Tully was not such a Sceptic in the Question concerning the Immortality of the Soul as one or two of my Acquaintance contend at the latter end of a set Speech which Plato puts into the Mouth of dying Socrates N. 99. Sed tempus est jam hinc abire me vos ut vitam agatis Vtrum autem sit melius Dii immortales sciunt hominem quidem scire arbitror neminem But 't is now time that I go hence and die do you my Friends live on but which of the two is best that only the Gods know I am of the mind that no Man living does Upon these words the Orator has this Reflection Etsi quod praeter Deos negat scire quenquam id scit ipse utrum melius nam dixit ante sed suum illud nihil ut affirmet tenet ad extremum Tho that which he says none but the Gods know he himself knows well he knows which is better he had before declar'd which is better but that way of his that way afterwards call'd Academic of determining nothing he holds to the end Here Tully plainly reproves that foolish Philosophical Humour which obtain'd so much of talking off and on in matters of moment and declares it as his opinion that however Socrates in his last words did seem to play fast and loose yet he was in his own mind sufficiently convinc'd of the Immortality of the Soul and the future State on which account it was better for injur'd good Men to die than to live I hope this labour to prove that Tully did not disbelieve the Immortality of the Soul consequently nor a future State may not seem to the Reader tedious or impertinent for if it could be made out that the wisest of the Heathens rejected these Notions and never us'd them as Arguments to encourage Virtue and restrain Vice it would be a prejudice against my Discourse who have endeavour'd to gain some Credibility to these Notions from the Principles of natural Reason It would be a prejudice I say against not an utter subversion of my Discourse for my Adversaries must show where I have argued wrong and not tell me of great Authorities against me if they mean utterly to subvert it But if when they object great Authorities against me which I acknowledg to be a Prejudice for how can I hope to see farther than such a Man as Tully I give a fair Answer and make it appear that the Citations which are objected against me are by my Adversaries mistaken and misapplied and that the same if rightly consider'd are so far from contradicting that they favour the Doctrines which I defend by the acknowledg'd Principles of natural Reason then I think I have been all this while strengthning those Doctrines not spending my time in an impertinent Labour I have this to say further for my self I have not only answer'd the Objections which have been offer'd by my learned Acquaintances but I have also accounted for those Difficulties which I my self chanc'd to meet with while I read those Tracts of the great Orator whence their Objections were taken For I will never contend for any Opinion against which I know of an Objection which appears so considerable that it is the interest of the Opinion to have the Objection pass'd over without any notice taken of it If I could not have solv'd those Difficulties which I my self chanc'd to meet with I would have given up the Authority of Tully tho the Objections of my Adversaries were not of strength sufficient to oblige me to it In pleading a Cause at the Bar in our Courts of Judicature the Lawyer will answer what he can but to be sure start no Objection against his Client which is not easily answer'd and possibly sometimes he may win the day by taking no notice of some Circumstances which the Adversary oversees but in our Disputes concerning Philosophical Truths a Man must leave no Objection without Reply for these Causes are try'd over and over again every day and he that takes no notice of a considerable Objection will be found out by one or other and suppos'd to have silently pass'd it by as being conscious of the weakness of his Cause and unable to answer it Again in answering I have answer'd fairly I have not by a cheating Translation or otherwise misrepresented the Author to serve the ends of my Discourse which is a method but too frequent with them who dispute for Religious Opinions but thereby they do their Cause be it good or bad a great disservice for a bad Cause by dissembling Artifices is render'd more odious in the eyes of all prudent Men who search diligently into the nature of things and a good Cause by such poor methods is brought under deserv'd suspicion I will give one instance of this which shall not be an invidious one from
a Writer now living nor shall it be off from our purpose Mr. Stanley in his Life of Socrates represents that renowned Philosopher very truly in my opinion as a Man perswaded of the Immortality of the Soul and of a future State but he overdoes the thing by dissembling Artifice in a prevaricating Translation of a Passage from Plato as if the truth of the Immortality of the Soul and the future State were in danger of finding no acceptance among thinking Men unless Socrates spake up to these Notions with as full Assurance and in as plain and positive words as any Christian whatsoever The Passage in Plato is this Pla. Phaed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a Translation of this Paragraph Mr. Stanley was pleas'd to give his Readers these words Truly did I not believe I should go to just Gods and to Men better than any living I were inexcusable for contemning Death but I am sure to go to the Gods very good Masters and hope to meet with good Men and am of good Courage hoping that something of Man subsists after Death and that it is then much better with the good than the bad But this is not a fair rendring of this Passage which Plato ascribes to Socrates If there be nothing alter'd nor left out this Speech which Plato relates as the Speech of Socrates or makes for him agreable to the Sentiments he suppos'd Socrates to entertain in plain English sounds thus For did I not think to go O Simmias and Cebes first to other Gods wise and good in the next place to Men deceas'd better than those here among the living I should offend in being so willing to die But now well you know that I hope to go to good Men tho of this I have not all the Confidence imaginable but that I shall go to the Gods very good Masters of this you well know that I have as strong a confidence as of any such like thing so that for this cause I am not so much troubled to die but I have hope concerning the Dead and as it was said of old it shall go better with the good than the bad This is the Picture which Plato draws of Socrates the bolder strokes which Mr. Stanley gives to it may perhaps grace it but then they misrepresent it According to Plato Socrates did think the Soul was immortal Socrates was perswaded that there was a future State He hop'd it should go well with him after Death nay he had a Confidence of these things not indeed all the Confidence imaginable not such a Confidence as Men have of a mathematical demonstration but yet such a Confidence as was sufficient to make him content to dy rather than do a base or a mean thing to save his Life After all that I have now said and answer'd both to the Author of the Inquiry concerning Virtue and to the occasional Objections of others in justification of that grand Motive to Virtue the Hopes of future Advantage and in proof of the immortality of the Soul and the certainty of a future State I do freely confess that if any Person has thrown off a conscientious Sense of the necessary Obligation which lies upon all rational Men to be virtuous in private as well as publick in the most difficult as well as the most easy Circumstances then have I said nothing which can much affect him but then I please my self to think that if a Man does not look upon himself as freed from such Obligation if he does not own himself a dangerous Member of Society unworthy to be lov'd as a Friend unfit to be trusted in any matter of moment where he may be tempted to be false with probable hopes of concealing the Crime he will hardly be able to get rid of the moral Demonstrations which I have made out evincing the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of a future State and the Wisdom of living so in this World as Men that expect to receive hereafter endless advantage by their Virtue But what it may be said if a Man positively denies the Immortality of the Soul and esteems the future State as a Fable if he looks upon Virtue as obligatory only while it serves the Necessities and Comforts of this Life present have we no Arguments to evince the erroneousness of that mischievous Opinion Yes surely but in order to do it we must consider what particular System of universal Nature those Men frame to themselves against whom we dispute The very learned Dr. Cudworth in his Intellectual System for a fuller Confutation of Atheism pretends to examine and refute all the various forms thereof Now tho I would not subscribe to all which that most highly deserving Author urges against the several Forms of Atheism yet I am persuaded most of his Materials are proper and serviceable only I am inclin'd to think they are capable of still farther Improvement The Democritic and Epicurean Atomic Hypotheses also the Anaximandrian or Hylopathian and that wild fancy of corrupted Stoicism which supposes the World to be one huge Plant or Vegetable having a plastic Nature orderly disposing the whole without Mind or Understanding these the Doctor thinks are by sagacious Moderns laid aside as indefensible but the boldest and most dangerous Hypothesis which is now reviv'd is that of Strato Lampsacenus which he calls the Hylozoic Hypothesis that ascribes to Matter Life and Perception The Moderns who take up with this Scheme assert that the whole Mass of boundless Mattter hath existed from all Eternity mov'd as now from all Eternity and by its various natural and necessary Motions has produc'd and will produce all that ever has bin and that ever shall be produc'd that human Cogitation is nothing but local Motion yet all Motion not Cogitation but only Motion so circumstanc'd in Bodies so modified Against this bold and precarious Hypothesis the Doctor disputes in the close of his 3 d Chap. and partly in the 5 th But without wrong to him I may venture to affirm that he has not said all which may be said and one thing I wish unsaid viz. that the Hylozoic Philosophers are not fit to be disputed with any more than a Machine is p. 846. l. 5. For this has the face of an ingenious Reflection but then it is also liable to be suspected as an Artifice of a Disputant that is at a nonplus and has no convincing Argument to offer against his subtle Adversary Yet this may be pleaded for the learned Doctor that he did not turn the Hylozoics off so whatever he contemptuously and angrily replied when he was surpriz'd with the thoughts of their strange and precarious Assertion which makes Cogitation to be nothing but local Motion for in the above-cited place and elsewhere he disputes against this Assertion One thing he observes very well viz. That which inclines the Hylozoics to their Hylozoicism is Because they are sensible that if there were any other Action beside local Motion there