a divine Art how much more of every Animal whose Parts for infinite Variety delicate Smalness exquisite Shape Position and Temper do as far excell the other as the Offices for which they are designed For tho the plastick Soul that forms the Animal hath not the least Ray of Art or Reason of its own yet in the Formation of it it proceeds with as much curious and incomparable Art as if it were endowed with the most perfect Reason For first it Spins out the thicker Parts of the seminal Matter into little Threds or Fibres part of which it hollows into Pipes and part into Spunges some whereof are more thin and some more solid all which with wondrous Art it cuts and prunes in divers places fitting their Ends to one another and in divers Manners knitting them together into a well-proportioned Structure of Bones and Members then of the thinner Parts of the seminal Matter it forms the Intrails viz. the Liver and Heart and Brains drawing out from each certain Fibres to be framed into Veins and Arteries and Nerves for which End it bores and hollows them through extends and stretches them out at length and divides them into innumerable Branches which it spreads through all the Intrails and thereby maintains a mutual Communication between them and derives the Nourishment and animal and vital Spirits through all the Body and having thus spun the several Parts out of the seminal Matter and curiously woven them together it concocts the remainder of the Matter which is still supplied with new Nourishment into the Substance of those several Parts and this in such precise and regular Proportions as to form every one of them tho infinitely various from one another into its own proper Figure and Measure and Proportion so that within seven days after the Conception the whole Body is entirely framed and distinguished into all its proper Parts and Members which though they are so vastly great in their Number so strangely different in their Size and Figure so infinitely various in their Motions and Tendencies do all contribute one way or other to the Beauty and Benefit of the Whole some to propagate the Kind others to preserve the Individual others to distinguish what is necessary convenient and pleasant from what is dangerous offensive or destructive to its Nature some to pursue what is good others to shun what is evil others to enjoy those goods and others to defend it against those evils that threaten or invade it so that of all these infinitely numerous and diverse Parts not one can be wanting or defective without some considerable Damage to the Whole How then is it conceivable that such an infinite number of different Animals which are all so perfect in their Kind so amazingly curious in their Composition as that we with all our Reason can discern nothing in them that is either superfluous or defective nothing in their Figure that is irregular nothing in their Position that is misplaced nothing in their Motion that is exorbitant should all of them be framed by their several Plastick Souls which are utterly blind and irrational without the Conduct and Direction of an all-wise and all-powerful Providence Should you behold a confused Heap of Earth and Stone and Iron and Timber without any visible Artificer near it fall a pollishing its own Parts fitting them to one another and disposing them into Order according to the Rules of Architecture and at length frame them all together into the Form of a most beautiful Palace would you not conclude that some skilfull Mind were invisibly present there and did work upon this senseless Heap and dispose its Parts into this comely Order And yet in the Composure of any one Animal there is infinitely more Art than in the most beautiful structure in the World How then can we imagine that the blind artless Matter of which it is composed could ever have framed it self into this admirable Form and Contexture had not some great Mind been invisibly present at the Composition of it or at least imprinted on its artless Mattter some powerful Signature of its own wise Art to direct and order and contrive it I might from hence have proceeded to the formation of Man the Masterpiece of all this lower Creation in whose Frame and structure there are such Miracles of Art as do outreach both the Imitation and Wonder of the most raised and comprehensive Minds For who can sufficiently admire the skilful Contexture of his Corporeal Parts which though almost infinite in Number and Variety do not only compose a Body of a most amiable Symmetry and Proportion but are also as exactly framed and tempered and adapted to perform the Offices of Life and Motion and Sense and Reason as Art or Wit can fancy or imagine them But then how much more admirable is the Soul which inhabits and animates this Body for of whatsoever Substance this thing we call our Soul is it is evidently framed for great and noble Operations to disclose the Mysteries of Nature and to dive into its deep Philosophy to penetrate into the Causes of things and with its nimble and sagacious Thoughts to survey this ample Theatre of Beings to recollect things past and to foretel things to come to invent the most useful Arts and comprehensive Sciences to dictate good Laws and project wise Policies for the Government of Humane Societies and in a word to understand the right Reasons of things and to regulate its Will and Affections by them And is it possible we should imagine a Being thus exquisitely framed to be the Product of a blind and artless Matter to be nothing but a lucky Jumble of senseless and irrational Atoms For suppose it were nothing but elaborated Matter yet certainly it requires infinite Art and Skill to contrive and fashion it into all those curious Springs and Wheels and Mechanick Knacks that are necessary to render it not only a living and feeling but also a wise and rational Matter For how is it conceivable that a little Drop of Water without the Assistance of any Mind or Providence should form it self not only into all the Parts and Lineaments of a Humane Body but also into a Humane Mind a Mind of vast Desires and infinite Capacities of Knowledg that can form Ideas within it self of every thing that is round about it and from them can frame innumerable Propositions and deduce them into Arts and Sciences and in a word that can move it self and the Body it lives in by its own internal Springs and form it self into so many various and contrary Affections by the mysterious Force and Energy of its own Reason and Discourse If you beheld a dead Pencil move without any visible Hand and dip it self into various Colours and draw but an exact Picture of a Man you would doubtless conclude either that some invisible Limbner had infused into it the Art of Limbning or did immediately manage and direct it But should you find this
that hath any Reverence for the Humane Nature within him would ever suffer himself to be bribed for an Opinion that doth not only undervalue but deride and Ridicule it Should you hear your self branded with a contemptible Character or ranked among Apes or any such ridiculous Animals you would doubtless be so far from courting the Author of it that you would resent it as a great Affront and think your selves obliged in honour to return the Provocation and yet for the sake of a few base Lusts which are the Shame and Scandal of your Natures you espouse the Cause of Atheism tho it derides and affronts you to your Face and stains the Glory of your Natures with the most contemptible and ridiculous Character in the World II. THE Atheist concludes against the very Being and Well-being of Humane Society For the Soul that penetrates through all Humane Society and compacts and unites it in a regular Body is Religion or the Sense and Acknowledgment of a Divine Power without which all the Parts of the Corporation of Mankind like the Members of a dead Body must necessarily disband and flye abroad into Atoms For a form'd Society which is an united Multitude consists in the Harmony and Consent of its Members mutually united by Laws and Agreements and disposed into a Regular Subordination to one another neither of which can any Humane Society long continue without the Belief and Acknowledgment of a God FOR without this in the first place 't is impossible that the Parts of any Society should continue united by Laws and Agreements For 't is from the Belief of a God that all the Obligations of Conscience are derived so that take that away and these must dissolve and when the Obligations of Conscience are dissolved there is nothing but Mens temporal Interests can oblige them to conform to those Laws and mutual Agreements by which they are united to one another And if it be their Interest only that obliges them to be just and faithful to their mutual Agreements they will be equally obliged to be unjust and unfaithful when ever it is their Interest to be so So that this Principle which only obliges them to be honest while it is for their Advantage will as effectually oblige them to be Knaves when ever the Case is altered and things being reduced to this Issue there remains no Foundation of Trust and mutual Confidence among Men. For what can any Mans Promise signifie if he be under no Obligation but Interest To be sure if it be for his Interest he will do what he says without any Promise but if it be not what Promise can oblige him You will say it is his Interest to keep his Word because otherwise he will forfeit his Reputation for the future But pray what Reputation can a Man have to forfeit that owns no other Law or Obligation but his Interest or who will ever presume upon that Mans Word and Engagement whose avowed Principle it is to be honest no longer than he can gain by it Thus Atheism you see resolves all our Obligations into our worldly Interest which is so fickle and mutable a Principle so dependent upon Chance and the Inconstancies of Fortune that there is no hold to be taken of those that are governed by it For that which is their Interest to Day may be their Disadvantage to Morrow and if it should so happen they must steer a contrary Course or else act contrary to their leading Principle So that for Men to trust each other upon this fickle Principle is all one as to relie upon the Constancy of a Weather-cock which every contrary Wind turns to a contrary Position And things being once reduced to this Issue that Men can place no Trust or Confidence in one another their Society will soon become their greatest Plague and Vexation For every Man will be forced to stand upon his Guard against every Man and keep himself reserved and retired within himself till at last out of mutual Distrust and Jealousie of one another they are forced to withdraw their Society and to live apart in separate Dens for fear of being intrapt and devoured by each other AND as Atheism cuts in sunder those Ligaments of mutual Trust and Agreement by which the Parts of Humane Society are united so it also dissolves that Regular Subordination that is between them Plutarch observes in his Treatise against Colot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It seems to me more possible for a City to stand without Ground than for a Commonwealth to subsist and continue without the Belief of a God which is 〈◊〉 only firm Foundation whereupâ—◠〈…〉 and Society depends For if there be no God what should oblige any to own any Superiour or pay any Submission And if his Interest be his only Obligation to his Superiours when ever he can mend his Fortune by Rebelling against them that very same Interest which at present restrains him from it will with equal force invite him to it nor will it signifie any thing that we are obliged to the contrary by Oaths of Fidelity and Allegiance for if it be our Interest to be faithful to the Government our own Prudence and Discretion will oblige us to it without such Oaths as well as with them but if it be not our Interest and this be the only Principle that obliges us no Oath or Engagement can hold us So that in this State of things all the Security that Governors can have of their Subjects is that they will not Rebel when they are not able but as soon as they think it safe to be sure they will think it lawful which being once admitted will undermine the very Foundations of Government and utterly dissolve that regular Subordination by which Humane Society is supported Whereas admitting that the Laws of our Prince are bound upon us by the Authority of a Sovereign Lord who can render us eternally happy or miserable we are obliged to obey him by all that we can hope or fear and have all the Engagements to Loyalty that the Reflections on a happy or miserable Eternity can lay upon us What a prodigious piece of Folly is it therefore for Men to embrace Atheism as their Interest which doth thus directly tend to deprive us of all the Comforts of Society by involving us in eternal Confusions and Disorders For if once we take away mutual Trust and Government from the World both which have a necessary Dependence on the Belief of a God we break all the Harmony of Humane Society and convert it into a Commonwealth of Canibals And what Man in his Wits would ever be found of an Opinion that proclaims open War with Mankind and is pregnant with Consequents so fatal and destructive to the World Can we think it more advantageous to us that Atheism should be true than that Humane Society should be upheld and perpetuated or are the Pleasures we reap from the Lusts which incline us to Atheism comparably
that which we most converse with and with whose Consent and Agreement in any matters we are best acquainted is that of Men and therefore if among Men we can discover such an Universal Agreement concerning the Goodness of these Rules as will warrant us to conclude all other Rational Beings to be consenting with them this will be a sufficient Demonstration of the Truth of the Proposition These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make out 1. That the Reason of Men is Vniversally consenting in this matter viz. That there is an immutable Goodness in these Rules of Morality 2. That this Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other reasonable Beings are consenting with them First THEREFORE there is nothing more evident than that Men are Universally agreed in this matter that to Worship God to Honour their Parents and Superiours to be temperate in their Passions and Appetites and just and charitable towards one another are things in their own nature immutably good that this is not an Opinion peculiar to such an Age or to such a Nation or to such a Sect of Religion but the Vniversal Judgment of all Mankind of whatsoever Age Nation or Religion For 't is upon this judgment that all that Conscience is founded which approves of or condemns mens actions which Conscience is nothing else but a Sense or Feeling of Moral Good and Evil and is every whit as natural to Mens minds as the Sense of pleasant or painful touches to their Bodies Since therefore general Effects must spring from general Causes it necessarily follows that the Pain and Pleasure which Mens minds generally feel upon the Commission of bad and good Actions must be resolved into some general Cause and what else can that be but the general Consent of their Reason concerning the immutable Evil of the one and Good of the other I know 't is pretended by some of our Modern Navigators that there are a sort of People in the World who have not the least sense of Good and Evil and do own neither God nor Religion nor Morality But considering the short Converse and imperfect Intercourse which these our new Discoverers have had with those Barbarous Countries it is fairly supposeable that the Inhabitants may have Notions both Religious and Moral of which Strangers who understand not their Language and Customs and Manners can make little or no Discovery But suppose that what they report were true yet by their own confession these wretched Barbarians are in all other things so extreamly Brutish that they discover no other token of their Humanity but their Shape For they live altogether regardless of themselves of the Conveniences of their Lives and of the Dignity of their Natures without making any Reflections on their own minds or any Observations from their own experience Since therefore all Knowledge is acquired by Attention it is not at all impossible for Creatures so utterly supine and negligent to be ignorant of the most common Notions But for any man to question the truth of this general Rule because there are a few Exceptions from it is every whit as absurd as if he should question whether Men are generally two-legg'd Animals because there have been some Monsters with three And what if among men there are some Monsters in respect of their Minds as well as others in respect of their Bodies This is no more a prejudice to the standing Laws of Humane Nature than Prodigies are to the Regularity of the constant course of Vniversal Nature Specimen naturae cujuslibet saith Tully à natura optima sumendum est i. e. The true sample of every Nature is to be taken from the best Natures of the kind Since therefore the men of all Nations and Ages and Religions who have in any measure attended to the Nature of things and made but any tolerable use of their Reasons are and always have been universally agreed that there is an immutable Good in Vertue and Evil in Vice it is no Argument at all that this is not the general Sense of Mankind supposing it true which is very questionable that there are some few such inhumane Barbarians in the World as make no distinction at all between ' em But then Secondly THIS Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other Reasonable Beings are consenting with them For it shews that God himself is of this mind and if He be we may be sure that all other Reasonable Beings are For if we believe that God made us we must believe that he made us for some End and if he made us for any End he must esteem those Actions good which promote it and those evil which obstruct and hinder it And what other End can an infinitely happy and blessed Being have in making other Beings but only to do 'em good and according to their several Capacities to make them partakers of his own Happiness And if this be the end for which God made us to be sure those Actions must be good in his esteem that are beneficial and those evil that are hurtful and mischievous to our Nature And therefore since he hath implanted in us not only a natural Desire of Happiness but also a rational Faculty to discern what Actions make for our Happiness and what not we may be sure that whatsoever this Faculty doth Vniversally determine to be good or evil for us is good or evil in the Judgment of God 'T is true when the Reason that is in one man judges contrary to the Reason that is in another there must be a Disagreement on one side or the other from the Reason and Judgment of God but when all mens Reason is agreed that this is good and that evil it is plain that this is is the Judgment of the Rational Faculty which naturally makes such a Distinction of things For there is no man that uses his Reason can possibly think that Truth and Falshood Justice and Injustice Mercy and Cruelty are equally good in themselves his Rational Faculty being so framed as that at the first glance and reflection it naturally distinguishes 'em into Good and Evil. When therefore God hath created us with such a Faculty as naturally makes such a Judgment of Good and Evil that Judgment must be Gods as well as the Faculty which made it That therefore which is the unanimous Judgment of all Men must be the Natural Language of the Rational Faculty and that which is the natural Language of the Rational Faculty must be the Language of the God of Nature For he who created me with such a Faculty as naturally judges this Good and that Evil must either have the same Judgment himself or create in me a Contradiction to his own Judgment and that Judgment which he hath created in me he must be supposed to create in all other Beings that are capable of Judging otherwise he would be the author