Plutarch describing the Deity hath these remarkable words God is Mind a separated Form perfectly unmixed with Matter and without any thing that is passible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in another place he asserts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 't is impossible Matter alone can be the sole Principle of all things Plato every where distinguisheth between corporeal and incorporeal Substances calling the former by the Names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sensible and the latter always either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immaterial or intelligible and he saith That certain intelligible and incorporeal Forms are the true and first Substance and that incorporeal Things which are the greatest and most excellent of all others are discoverable by reason only and nothing else And in another place he saith That they were instructed by their forefathers that Mind and a certain wonderful Wisdom did at first frame and doth now govern all things His words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Phileb p. 28. Which sufficiently shews the Antiquity of the Notion of an Incorporeal Deity and the way also how they came by it Of the same Opinion also was Socrates as we are told by Plutarch and others Lib. de Placit Philos. 1. c. 3. Zeno and the Stoicks defined the Deity to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Intellectual and Rational Nature or as Plutarch recites their Opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Intelligent Spirit devoid of all Bodily shape Ibid. And Sextus Empericus tells us of Aristotle that he constantly asserted God to be Incorporeal and the Utmost Bounds of the Universe And Aristotle concludes his Book of Physicks with affirming that 't is impossible the first Mover or God can have any Magnitude but he must needs be devoid of Parts and Indivisible And Plutarch gives us this as the received and common Opinion of the Stoicks that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit that was extended or did penetrate throughout the whole World De Placitis Philosoph lib. 1. c. 3. p. 882. Now by these Passages and many others that might easily be produced it appears very plain that the most Ancient Writers had a good clear Notion of God and that they speak of him as of a Mind perfectly distinct from Matter or as an immaterial or incorporeal Being Many of them also deliver themselves very expresly as to the Soul of Man which as Plutarch tells us they generally asserted to be Incorporeal and that it was naturally a Self-moving and Intelligible Substance But of this more in another place And that the Ancients did believe God to be a Spirit or a most Powerful Intelligent and Perfect Immaterial Substance will yet farther appear if we consider what Notion they had of and how they defined Matter or Body Plato describes it by the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which thrusts against other Bodies and resists their Touch or Impulse Others call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which so fills up a place as at that time to exclude from it any other Body Sometimes they called it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in contradistinction to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is they distinguished it to be of a pure passive Nature and which was acted and determined only by Impulse from without it or distinct from it they knew very well that there was also besides it some Active Thing something that was the Cause of Motion and Action in the Universe For as Plutarch well observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is impossible Matter alone can produce any thing unless there be besides it some Active Cause Sextus Empiricus also gives this Definition of Matter or Body That it is that which resists other things which are brought against it for Resistance saith he or Impenetrability is the true Property of Body By these Accounts that they have given us of Matter or Body 't is very easie to understand their Notion or Idea of it which indeed was the Just and True one They thought Matter or Body to be a purely Passive Thing incapable of moving or acting by it self but wholly determined either by some Internal and Self-moving Mind or by the Motions and Impulses of other Bodies without it That it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as we now adays speak Impenetrably extended and did so fill up space or place as to exclude any other Body from being in the same Place with it at the same Time If to this you add what Aristotle and some others said of it that it was also capable of all Forms Figures and Modifications you have then the whole that ever they thought Matter could do or be Now from hence 't is exceeding clear that they could not as indeed we find actually they did not think Matter or Body the only Substance in the World and that the Deity was Material or Corporeal For they always described the Divine Nature by Attributes and Properties that were the very Reverses of what they appropriated to Matter or Body God they have told us is an Intelligent Mind pervading and encompassing all things an Active Energetical Principle the Cause of all Motion and Operation whatever Intangible indivisible invisible and no ways the Object of our Bodily Senses But yet whose Essence is plainly discoverable by our reasoning and Understanding Faculty This was as we have seen the Notion or Idea that many of the Ancient Philosophers had of the Deity and this plainly shews us that they look'd upon him to be what St. John here defines him an Incorporeal Being or a Spirit There were indeed some even then as I have before shewed who being wholly immersed in Matter themselves did assert that there was nothing else but Body in the World Such were Leucippus and Democritus and afterwards Epicurus and his Sect who perverted the Ancient Atomical and true Philosophy to an Atheistical Sense and made use of it for the banishing the Notion and Belief of a God out of their own and others Minds as indeed some others long before them had attempted to do But in this 't is very plain as an Excellent Person of our Nation hath observed that these Men did not understand the Philosophy they pretended to For it doth most clearly follow from the Principles of the True Atomical or Corpuscular Philosophy that there must be some other Substance distinct from and more Noble than Matter and which is of an Immaterial Incorporeal or Spiritual Nature And this I hope it will not be judged impertinent briefly to prove at this Time because some who seem not so throughly to understand it have of late reckoned the Mechanical Philosophy among the Causes of the growth of Atheism and Infidelity It is very much to the Purpose that the Ancient Atomists before Democritus and Leucippus did plainly assert and maintain the Doctrine of
of Success give them thanks making the Creatures of their own fancy Gods This is the Natural Seed of Religion which Men taking notice of have formed into Laws c. And he tells us in another place That Fear of Power invisible feigned by the Mind or imagined from Tales publickly allowed is Religion not allowed is Superstition So that according to Mr. Hobbs Religion and Superstition differ only in this that the latter is a Lye and a Cheat standing only on the Authority of Private Men whereas the former is supported by the Power of the Government In these Four Things saith he elsewhere consists the Natural Seed of Religion viz. Ignorance of Second Causes Opinion of Ghosts Devotion toward what Men Fear and taking things casual for Prognosticks These are the Accounts which our Modern Atheistical Writers give of the Origin of Religion and the Notion of a God among Men. And this they with great assurance put off as their own new Invention without being so just as to mention any of the Ancients from whom they have borrowed every Article of it That trite Passage every Body knows Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor and Lucretius mentions Fear and the Ignorance of Second Causes as that which gave the first rise to the Notion of a God For saith he When Men with fearful Minds behold the things in the Earth and Heavens they become abject and depressed under the fear of the Gods whose Empire Ignorance of Causes sets up in the World for when Men cannot see any natural Reason for any Effect they strait fansie 't is the Product of some Divine Power The very same thing he saith also in another place where he attributes likewise the Notion of Ghosts and consequently of the Gods interfering with the Affairs of the World to Mens not being able to distinguish Dreams from Real Appearances Tully tells us That there were some in his time and no doubt long before who attributed the Opinion and Belief of the Gods to have been feigned by Wise Men for the good of the Commonwealth And Plato acquaints us That the ancient Atheists did affirm that the Gods were not by Nature but by Art and Laws only and so were different in different places according as the different humour of the Law givers chanced to determine the Matter Sextus Empiricus saith That there were at first some Intelligent and Prudent Men who consider'd what would be beneficial to Humane Life and these first feigned the fabulous Notion of Gods and caused that Suspicion that there is in Mens Minds about them Afterwards he saith That heretofore Men lived wild and savage and preyed upon one another like wild Beasts till some Men being willing to prevent and repress Injuries and Rapine invented Laws to punish those that did amiss And then they feigned that there were Gods also who took cognizance of all Mens Actions whether good or bad that so no one might dare to commit any secret Wickedness when he was by this means persuaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Gods tho' unseen by Men did yet inspect into all Humane Actions and take notice who did well and who the contrary Sextus also attributes the Rise of Mens Belief of a God to their ignorance of Second Causes as I shewed you before that Lucretius doth for he makes Democritus speak thus When Men of old saw strange and frightful things in the Air or Heavens such as Thunder Lightning Thunderbolts Eclipses of the Sun and Moon c. not knowing the Natural Causes of them but being terrified by them they strait imagined the Gods to be the Authors of them This therefore being proved to be the true sence of the Ancient Atheistical Writers and from them copied by the Moderns viz. That Fear Ignorance and Cunning were the first Originals or Causes of the Notion and Belief of a God Let us now fairly examine the Case and see what ground there is for such an Assertion and whether this can account for that Universal Notion of a Divine and Omnipotent Being which we find every where in the World And 1. I say That the Notion of a GOD could not come from Fear for if it did either this Fear must be universally inherent in all Mankind or else peculiar only to some Dastardly and Low-spirited Mortals If the former be asserted 't is a very convincing Argument that there is a just ground for such a Fear and that it hath something that is Real for its Object that can thus affect all Men after the same manner And if it be so that all Men are naturally subject to this Fear of a Deity how could any one ever discover that there was no real ground for this in the nature of the thing how came he himself exempted from this poorness of Spirit And if he were not exempted from this terrible Passion how came he to discover that the Object of this Fear is all a Cheat and nothing but a meer Mormo and Bugbear 'T was very lucky for him that the rambling Atoms of his Constitution jumpt by chance into such a couragious and noble Frame and Temper But pray who was this mighty Man when and where did he live what Ancient History gives us any Account of this happy Person that laughed at that which all the World besides were afraid of Let the Atheists give us but any Relation of him that is Authentick and it shall be allowed as the greatest thing they have ever yet advanced But I suppose they will not say that this Fear is Universal but that it only possesseth mean and abject Spirits and never invades the Great and Brave Soul Let us see whether this will do them any service Now by Brave and Great Souls who do they mean Do they intend by them such as have Power Command and Empire over others Nothing is more certain than that Kings and Princes have been equally subject to these Fears of a God and of Divine Punishment with the meanest and most contemptible of their Subjects And this Lucretius himself owns as also that this Fear of a Deity is Universal and we have Examples of it in the Histories of all Ages and Parts of the World But they will say 't is like that by Brave and Great Souls they don't mean Kings and Princes but the Wise Knowing and Learned part of Mankind These were they that first discovered this Cheat and who finding its Advantage to Mankind have ever since continued it and carried it on for the Publick Good These Cunning Men finding the Vulgar generally subject to dismal Apprehensions and Fears of they knew not what kind of Invisible Powers took advantage from thence to tell them of a God and to form the product of their Fears into the Notion of a Deity Now to this I say That if these cunning Politicians found that there was a Fear Dread and Apprehension of some
towards producing of Cogitation Wisdom and Vnderstanding or to the production of Life Self Activity or Spontaneous Power And yet These are the most Great and Noble Things in the World these are the highest Perfections of the Divine Nature and in these we place the Essence of the Deity Now here Matter and Motion is more than ever at a loss and I think it demonstratively certain that it cannot account for these things Aristotle did very truly find fault with the Corporealists of his Time that they did not as ours cannot now assign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Cause of well and fit any Origin of or Reason for that Wisdom and Regularity that harmonious Relation and Aptitude of one part of the Creation to another which is so very conspicuous in all things supposing that there is nothing in Nature but Matter and Motion And it is most certainly true that the Idea which we have of Body doth not necessarily include Cogitation in it nor our Notion of Cogitation include Body but they are two as distinct Idea's as any we have So far are they from being the same thing that we cannot possibly conceive Cogitation with Extension No Man ever conceived a Thought to be so many Inches or Yards long to be deep thick or broad to be divisible into two or more Parts or to have any Kind of Figure or determinate Position or Extension whereas if whatsoever be unextended or not Body be absolutely Nothing as these Gentlemen assert Cogitation Wisdom Understanding and Spontaneous Power must be nothing or else they must be figurate Bodies than which nothing can be more absurd And if we farther examine our own Mind and consult our own Reason we shall find that we cannot possibly conceive how thinking Wisdom Consciousness and Spontaneous Power can possibly be the result of Bare Motion of the Parts of Matter Was there ever any one that seriously believed a Particle of Matter was any Wiser or had any more Understanding for being moved than it was before when it lay still for let it be never so briskly agitated is it not still Body there is no other Idea ariseth from hence but only that it changeth its place and is united successively to several parts of space that it will move such other Particles of Matter as 't is capable of and be retarded in its Motion by hitting or striking against them these and such like are all the Ideas that we can have of a Body in Motion but what is this to Thought and Consciousness Did ever any one but a stupid Corporealist imagine that a Particle of Matter by being moved was made Intelligent and that its travelling from place to place made it understand all things in its way and did any one ever think that the Knowledge of such a rambling Atom encreased in Proportion to the velocity of its Motion Yes doubtless and thus a Bullet discharged from the Mouth of a Cannon ought to be look'd upon as one of the most Ingenious Beings in Nature And hence it will follow that the more hast any one makes to tumble over Books or to ramble over Countries and the more precipitantly he makes a judgment of Notions or Opinions the Better Account he can give of Authors and Places and the more solid and substantial will be his Learning This indeed is the best Account that can be given of the fineness and quickness of Thought that some Men so much pretend to for this way they may come by a vast share of Penetration and be volatilized far above the dull studious and considerate Vulgar and the Event shews that they frequently make use of the Experiment But again As we cannot possibly conceive that the Motion of one Particle of Matter alone can give it Knowledge and Understanding so neither can we suppose that a Body composed of many of them can acquire any such thing barely on the Account of the Motion or Agitation of its Parts for Motion only will do no more to the whole than it did to each one singly and 't is not conceivable that Three or Three Millions of Bullets will be any wiser for being discharged together than if they were all shot singly in pursuit of Understanding Nor can any happy Combination or Constitution of Parts avail any thing in this Case any more than Motion nor can that be effectual to super-induce Wisdom and Understanding into Matter The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be no more a God than Jupiter's Log was among the Frogs nor than the most dense and gross body in Nature For after all the various Positions Configurations and Combinations of Matter is it not Matter still will rarefying or subtilizing of Matter change its Nature and Essential Properties A Rare Body is nothing but a contexture of fine and subtile Particles which being separated farther asunder than is usual are also perhaps more briskly agitated and moved And pray what is here new what will this do towards Divinity will bare Figure and Position of Parts change the Nature of those Parts and give them Cogitation and Knowledge when they had no such thing singly and before will adding subtracting multiplying or dividing of Numbers make them any thing else more Noble than what they were before will not the Summs Remainders Products or Quotients be still Figures and Numbers like the first Digits out of which these do by Combination or various Positions arise and is it not just so with Matter will a Particle of it be made any more Wise and Intelligent for being render'd smaller than it was before and hath a little Particle more Sense than a larger will Three or Four or Four Millions of these be more ingenious than a Body or Lump that is as big as them all and will moving a few Atoms a good distance from each other Separate them into Knowledge and Disjoin them into an Understanding Power which none of them had before If Men can swallow such things as these and think at this Extravagant and Unaccountable Rate I fear all good Arguments and sound Reason will be lost upon them and they ought to be neglected as downright Stupid or Distracted And yet these and such like Absurdities must be the Natural Consequences of supposing Matter and Motion alone capable of thinking that Matter can be rarified into a Deity and that Divine and Almighty Wisdom Knowledge Goodness and Power are the result of Body luckily disposed and moved which yet was the Opinion of Hobbs and is still of many of his Admirers and Followers For notwithstanding those Excellent Demonstrations that many Learned Men amongst us have established that Matter and Motion cannot possibly produce Cogitation Consciousness Understanding and Liberty of Will There is lately an Ignorant Corporealist who asserts That the Inflamed and glowing Particles of the Blood called Spirits tho' they are not in themselves Sentient and Intelligent are yet the active Principle of Life and Motion of Sense and Understanding in
thing We cannot indeed perfectly comprehend the Nature of God because we have shallow limited finite and imperfect Capacities and Faculties and the Deity contains in himself all possible Perfection Every one must grant that 't is impossible the lesser should contain and comprehend the greater especially too when the Extent and Fulness of one Infinitely exceeds the Capacity of the other From hence therefore to inferr that we can have no Idea nor Knowledge at all of God is very absurd and incongruous 'T is a strange Method of Arguing that I can know nothing at all of a thing because I can't know every particular that belongs to it and he would deservedly be esteemed a Madman that should deny that there is any such thing as the Sun because he cannot tell how many Miles he is in Diameter how far he is from us and which way he comes by a supply of Matter to continue his enlivening Fire and Heat When some great and advantageous Revolution is brought about in any Nation when the Publick Good is secured the Laws and Liberties preserved and Confusion Bloodshed and Misery of all Kinds prevented by the wise and deep Council and Conduct of Him or Those that are at the Helm of Affairs Would it not be gross Stupidity for a Man to assert That all this came about by Chance and that there was no Wisdom nor Conduct that so opportunely managed all things only because he cannot penetrate into all the secret Steps and Methods of it and see all the hidden Springs by which it was moved regularly on to its intended Perfection There are many things whose Existence 't would be ridiculous to doubt of whose Nature and Qualities we are very far from being able perfectly to Comprehend and Explain And amongst the rest there is nothing but our own Existence that we can be more assured of than that there is a God For as to all Objects of Sense we may as Monsieur Des Cartes shews have some reason to doubt of their actual Existence without us till we are first satisfied that our Senses do not deceive us Till we know this for any thing we can demonstratively prove to the contrary all sensible Objects may be meer Phantasms and Delusions and nothing but the internal Configurations of our own Brains and the result of Imagination and Fancy But when once we are assured that there is a God who is perfectly Knowing Wise and Good we shall discover that He can be no Deceiver we shall find that 't is not suitable to the Idea we have of Him that He should delude and cheat us with false Appearances and consequently we may well conclude that he hath appointed our Senses to be proper Judges of their own Objects and that those Things are actually existing without us whose Idea's we so plainly perceive in our selves and which we truly judge to be so And if we will impartially consult our own Thoughts and reason clearly from those Idea's that we have within us I think we may most demonstratively be assured of the Existence of a God and that He is such a most Perfect or Infinite Being as the Sacred Scriptures and Divines describe Him to be I will allow that the greatest Certainty that we can have of the Existence of any thing is of our own Being of which as I have already said no one can possibly doubt for whatsoever can Think reason doubt will and determine must needs be Something and have a true and real Being And because we find by this means that there is certainly something actually existing it will plainly follow that something or other must always have been so for if ever there was a time when there was Nothing there never could have been any thing at all for absolute Nothing could never have done or produced any thing Something therefore 't is plain must have been always or eternally existing and which never could have had any beginning For if it ever had any beginning tho' never so many Thousands of Millions of Ages ago it must have then began from meer Nothing which 't is impossible for any Man to conceive Now if we consider our selves or any things else that are round about us in the world we shall plainly find that neither we nor they can be this thing that always was existent and which we have discovered must have been without beginning for we know well enough that it was but a little while ago when we began to be and that 't is but a short space before we shall die and cease to be in this World any more Besides we find in our selves and discover in things without us such Defects Limitations and Imperfections as sufficiently must convince us that neither we nor they can be Independent Beings nor indeed the Cause of one another's Existence We must therefore in our Thoughts have recourse to some first Cause or Origin from whence all things do proceed And that there must be some first Cause or some Being which produced both our selves and the things that are round about us in the World we cannot but be assured of for we know nothing can cause or make it self to be and we see that we cannot make or produce each other and we perceive that none of our Forms or Modes of Existence are Indestructible and Eternal but that all things are continually slitting and changing some improving and increasing while others are decreasing and dying The common Matter indeed of all Bodies will remain and we do not find it to be perishable as their forms are But then this we may easily know cannot be the first Cause of all other Things since we have no Idea of its being an Active Intelligent Wise and Powerful Being as that must be but the Notion we have of it is that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purely Passive and obsequiously Capable of all variety of Forms and Motions as I shall hereafter more largely shew If we farther carefully consider of this Being that we have thus found must have eternally been or existed we shall find also that it must for ever continue to be for the time to come for we cannot imagine how a Being that hath Eternally existed for the time past should ever terminate or cease to be for the time to come since there is nothing in its self or in any thing without it that can possibly be the Cause of its Destruction Such a Being therefore will be properly Eternal and necessarily Self-existent without Beginning or End or any Possibility of Dying or Ceasing to be Such a Being also must on this Account be the Creator Author and Cause of all things because nothing can be the Cause of it self and therefore they must either be Eternal and Necessarily Self existent as we are assured they are not or else derived from and produced by this Eternal and Infinite Being And as the Beings themselves are derived from and produced by this Eternal and Self existent Being so
in the World And if these can fully be made to appear I hope the Doctrine involved with them will also appear false and precarious and that the contrary Opinion of the Real Existence of Incorporeal Beings will find an easie admittance into our Faith But here I must premise as taken for granted That we are all agreed on the Definition of or know what we mean by Matter or Body viz. That it is Substance Impenetrably extended whereby we distinguish it from Spirit which is a Thinking Substance without Corporeal Extension or without having Partes extra Partes For if this be not the Notion which our Adversaries have of it as well as we 'T is in vain to dispute about it at all If therefore they have any other Idea of it that is different from this let them produce it and make it as clear and Intelligible as this is for without doing so they do nothing to the purpose And if they have not a clear and distinct Idea of Matter or Body how come they so boldly to say that Matter and Substance are all one how can they distinguish the Idea's of Body and Spirit so plainly as to be sure there can be no such thing as an Incorporeal Substance but that it implies a Contradiction Unless they fully know what Matter or Body is there may be Millions of Varieties and Degrees of Immaterial Substances or there may be no such thing as Body at all for any thing they can prove to the contrary The Atheist must then do one of these two things he must either establish a new Notion of Matter that shall be so intelligible and plain that all Mankind shall as readily acquiesce in it as they do in the old and common one or else he must resolve to keep to That The former of these he hath not yet done nor I believe is very ready to do but when he doth it 't will be time enough to consider it In the mean while I will readily join Issue with him on the common and received Notion of Body And from thence undertake to maintain That nothing is more absurd and unaccountable than their Assertion That there is no other Substance but Matter or Body in the World For First Had there been nothing else but Matter in the World from Eternity and if there be nothing else now there never was any thing else I cannot possibly see how these Gentlemen can account for Motion or shew us how Matter came first to be moved And Matter without Motion sure could never be God never be the Cause of any thing nor could it ever produce act or do any thing whatever Before Motion began Matter could have been nothing but an heavy lifeless Lump of vast extended Bulk which must have lain also for ever in the same dead and unactive Position if nothing had been superinduced to put it into Motion and Action And no one sure can be so stupid as to call this a Deity This is as Mr. Blount rudely and irreverently expresseth himself worse than to suppose a Hum-Drum-Deity chewing of his own Nature a Droning God that sits hoarding up of his Providence from his Creatures And this even he can't but acknowledge is an Atheism no less Irrational than to deny the very Essence of a Divine Being I hope therefore they will grant that Matter without Motion cannot be suppos'd to be a Deity And if so then the Divine Nature whatever it be must be something distinct from and more Noble than Matter and more akin to Motion than to Matter or Body in general or to it quatenus Matter as the Schools speak And indeed Motion taken in this sense not for a translation of Body from one place to another but for the Active Cause of Motion may be very well said to be Incorporeal or the Deity it self But how came this Motion into Matter at first and which way did Matter attain this Divine Activity or God-like Energy Here they must assert one of these three things either 1. That Motion came into Matter from something without it and distinct from it Or 2. That Motion is Essential to Matter and Co-eternal with it Or 3. That it came into it afterwards by Chance or without any Cause at all The First of these they will not say I doubt because it 's Truth but however if they do our Controversie is at an end for we believe that 't was a Divine and powerful Mind perfectly distinct from and more Noble than Matter who first made it and moved it and doth still continue to modifie and dispose it according to his Infinite Wisdom and Providence And one would think no Man can be so senseless as to maintain the last viz. That Motion came into Matter without any Cause at all and that it was Chance only that first produced it for Chance here signifies nothing in reality And truly Men that will be so ridiculously absurd as to assert that a Body or Particle of Matter that is once at rest may move by Chance only or may Chance to move of it self though there be nothing to cause its Motion deserve no serious Refutation but ought to be treated only as we do Fools and Madmen with silent Pity and Compassion And yet so very fond are some Persons of any thing that opposes Truth that they will run into the greatest Absurdities to maintain it For a late Corporealist is pleas'd to say That Matter can move of it self and to shew his deep Skill in Philosophy he tells us that Wind Fire and very fine-sifted small Dust are Matter and yet Self movers And of Wind and Fire he profoundly asserts That they cannot lose their Motion or cease Moving so long as they continue to be Wind and Fire That is As long as Wind and Fire are in Motion they cannot cease to move This indeed is a very deep and important Discovery But yet 't is what hardly any Man would have publish'd in Print but one that concludes a Body must needs move of it self only because he can't see with his Eyes the Cause or Origin of its Motion And yet even this he may often see in the case of Fire if he will but vouchsafe to observe how 't is usually kindled A little Consideration would have satisfied him also that Winds may be produced in the Atmosphere by the Air 's being moved some way by Heat Compression or some other Accidental Cause as well as in an Eolipile or a Pair of Bellows And as for his fine Dust's rising up in a Cloud of it self had he understood that the Agitation of any Fluid will keep the small Particles of any heavier Matter mixed with it from descending to the bottom of it nay and raise them up from thence too and had he not forgotten that this was the case here the Air being so agitated by the Motion of Sifting he would not sure have been so silly as to have brought these as Instances of Spontaneous Motion
all things must be governed by absolute Fatality and be in every respect Physically necessary there can then be no such thing as Contingency or any Voluntary Actions and if we were sure of this 't is indeed the greatest Ignorance and Folly in the World to pretend to talk any thing about it But on the other hand if there be a Deity who is an Infinitely perfect Being distinct from Nature who Created all things by the Word of his Power and for whose sole Pleasure they are and were Created then none of those Consequences will follow but it will appear very reasonable to believe that God hath still a Care and Providence over that World which he made at first and that he delights to exercise loving Kindness Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth as the Prophet here speaks That he hath made some Creatures capable of Knowing and Vnderstanding this and who consequently have a free Power as in other things so of giving Praise and Glory to so Great and Wonderful a Being nay and of Glorying themselves in being capacitated to attain so Excellent a Knowledge And that Man hath such a Power or Freedom of Will in his Nature is what I shall now proceed in the last place plainly to prove 1. And the first Argument I shall make use of to demonstrate this shall be the Experience of all Mankind And this one would think should be of great Weight and turn the Scale against all the Atheistical Metaphysicks in the World and so no doubt it would were it not wicked Mens Interest to advance the contrary Notion Now that we have a free Power of deliberating in many Cases which way 't is best for us to proceed that we can act this way or that way according as we like best and that we can often forbear whether we will Act at all or not is a Truth so clear and manifest that we are I think almost as certain of it as we are of our own being and Existence and 't is an unimaginable thing how any Man can be perswaded that he hath no such Power Indeed one may by Sophistical words Metaphysical Terms and abstruse Unintelligible Banter be perhaps a little amused and confounded for the present But that any one should by such a Jargon be persuaded out of his Senses his Reason and his Experience and continue in that Opinion is what I do believe never yet befel any Rational and Thinking Man When Zeno brought his silly Sophisticals Argument to prove there was no such thing as Motion his Antagonist thought it to no purpose to return an Answer to what plainly was contradictory to the common Sense of Mankind and therefore convinc'd him only by getting up and Walking And the very same Return will baffle and expose all the Pretended Arguments for Necessity For 't is plain He had a Power first whether he would have walked or not he could have walked Five Turns or Fifty he could have gone across the Room or length-wise round it or from Angle to Angle And I dare say no Sophistry or Metaphysicks whatever would have convinced him that none of these were in his Power when he plainly found them all to be so any more than he was convinced a Body could not move out of its place when he had seen and tried a Thousand times that it would 'T is the same thing in reference to the Thoughts of our Minds as it is in the Motions of our Bodies We plainly find we have a Power in abundance of Cases to preferr one thought before another and to remove our Contemplation from one Notion or Idea to another We can in our Minds compare and revolve over the several Objects of our Choice and we can oftentimes choose whether we will do this or not and this Internal Freedom in Reference to our Thoughts and Idea's we do as plainly perceive and are as sure of as we are that we can voluntarily move our Body or any part of it from place to place And as I have plainly shewed you above our Adversaries do grant and allow this when it is for their Turn But they will say tho' we seem to be free and do think and perceive our selves to be so yet in reality we are not and it is only our Ignorance of Things and Causes which induces us to be of this mistaken Opinion and the Idea of Liberty which Men have is this that they know no Cause of their Actions for to say they depend on the Will is to talk about what they do not understand and to use words of which they have no Idea's at all To which I say that I cannot but be of the Opinion that it is a good Rational way enough of Proceeding to pronounce of things according as we do experience them to be and to declare them to be that which we have all the Reason in the World to think and believe that they really are And I think we may well enough own and be contented with the Charge of Ignorance here laid upon us For the Case is thus We think our selves free because we plainly find and experiment our selves to be so in a Thousand Instances and this also these Penetrating Gentlemen sometimes as I have shewed do kindly allow and we are indeed wholly Ignorant of any Causes that do absolutely determine us to Action or which do necessitate us in what we do previous to that free Power which we find in our selves so that plainly perceiving our selves to have this free Power and being Ignorant of any true Reason why we should believe we are mistaken in what we perceive and know we do indeed such is our Ignorance and Weakness embrace the Opinion that there is a Liberty of Action in Human Nature And this free Power or Liberty which we find in us we not being deep Metaphysicians call the Will by which we understand as I have shewed before not any Particular Act of Volition but the Power or Faculty of Willing And since we plainly perceive that in many cases we are not determined to Action by any thing without us but do choose or refuse act or not act according as we please and being withal grosly Ignorant of any Cause these Actions have but what we find and perceive them to have we call our free Will the Cause of these Actions and say they depend on it and yet after all do we not find out that we talk about what we do not understand and use words that we have no Idea of But our Adversaries it seems have a quite different rellish of things they soar in a higher and more subtle Region they will not condescend to speak common sense in this Matter Tho' they plainly understand as they tell us that they are really free as to many Actions and can deliberate whether they will do them or not purely because they have a free Power so to do tho' they are satisfied that they can act if they will