unspeakable satisfaction in his own mind As for Example If a man have behaved himself gallantly towards his Prince and Country if he have carried himself ingenously and gratefully towards his Friends his Patrons or Benefactors if he have been beneficent to any part of Mankind if he have demonstrated love to God or goodness and good men if he have restrained his own rage and passions if he have rescued an innocent from the hand of the oppressor or done any thing of like nature the heart of every man naturally in such a case feels such an inward delight as sweetens his spirits and cheers his very countenance On the contrary if he have been false treacherous and ingrateful if he have been cruel and oppressive or have said or done any base thing he is presently upbraided accused condemned and tormented by himself Now what is all this but Praejudicium a kind of anticipation of the Judgment to come But if any man shall pretend this thing called Conscience which we now speak of to be no natural endowment of Humanity but only the effect of Custom and Education such a person may easily undeceive himself if he will but consider that all this which I have spoken of Conscience both as to the matter and form of it or Synteresis and Syneidesis as Learned men are wont to distinguish is so universal to all Mankind at least that have not done violence to themselves that it can with no colour be imputed to Education but must be resolved into the very nature and sense of the Soul And moreover a different notion and apprehension of the fore-mentioned particulars is so deeply implanted in the minds of men that it is impossible any contrary Custom or Education should absolutely and totally efface it therefore it is the sense of Nature and consequently a presage of the Divine Judgment To all which add in the last place That the mind of man seems plainly to be above the body and independent of it for as much as we see that not only our Reason and the powers of our Souls are so far from decaying with the body that contrariwise they grow more strong and vigorous by those very causes which impair the body I mean by age exercise and experience Besides it is easily observable that our Souls do as often as they please act quite contrary to the interests and inclinations of our bodies and frequently controul the passions thereof as well as correct and over-rule the Verdict of our Senses Therefore it is not at all probable that they should perish with our bodies but survive to some further purposes especially if we take in what I intimated before namely the consideration of the shortness of the time of this life which is so very inconsiderable for so excellent a Being as the Soul to display it self in that it seems unworthy of all the aforesaid perfections and more unworthy of the contrivance of that Wisdom which made us to order it so unless it be that Mankind is placed here only in a state of probation and is to be tryed hereafter in order to a more lasting subsistence and duration Which in consideration of all the premisses he cannot but be thought capable of at least if there be a Judge as fit to judge him as he is fit to undergo a Judgment Which brings me to my second Branch Bioph. Hold a little I pray good Sebastian you have spoken many things well and worthily of the preeminence of humane Nature and some of them such as are not only sufficient to errect a mans spirits and provoke him to hope well of himself but also do render it in some sort probable that we are designed for some higher uses than we commonly apply our selves to Nevertheless you have not reached your point nor will all you have said attain the end you propounded unless you go farther and prove the Soul of man to be a Spirit or immaterial substance as the men of your way are wont to speak that so there may be a plain foundation for its existence out of the body Without which let it he as excellent a Being as it can and adorned with as many other perfections as you can imagine it cannot be capable of standing at a Tribunal and undergoing such a Judgment in another World as we are speaking of Sebast I could have wished you would have given me leave to lay all the parts of my Argument together before you that so you might have taken a view of it intire and all at once and then you might have objected as you should have seen cause But however I will comply with your Method and as to that which you have thought fit now to interpose I answer these two things First I say It is not necessary to the business in hand that the Soul be proved to be strictly immaterial and capable of existing and acting out of the body for as much as at the day of Judgment I suppose the body shall be raised again and then if it should be so that all the powers of the Soul were laid asleep by death until that time yet now upon a re-union with their proper Organs they would revive again So that I did not in my proof fall short of the mark I aimed at but you out-shoot the point in your demand For whether the Soul be a spiritual substance or no so long as those perfections which we have enumerated belong to it there is nothing wanting to make it capable of undergoing a Judgment But Secondly To speak my own mind plainly and to come home to your satisfaction I must tell you that as for my part I do not doubt but that the Soul of man is properly and strictly of a spiritual Nature so I am confident that those things which we have ascribed to it do sufficiently prove it to be so seeing it is impossible to salve those Phaenomena or to give any tolerable account of those great accomplishments and performances of the Soul before specified from meer matter let it be modified or circumstantiated how it can Simple perception of objects is of the lowest rank of humane perfections and indeed is not proper to humane Nature but common to Brutes yet this seems impossible to be performed by meer matter For the eye though it be a very admirable and exquisite Organ can by no means be said to perceive the objects of sight but only to transmit or present them to some perceptive power It doth I say only as a glass represent the Species or image of the thing which even a dead eye or an hole will in some measure perform but it makes no judgment of the object at all as appears by this that all objects are transmitted reversed or with the heels upward through the eye and so left till some higher power sets them right and on their legs and judges of their distance and other circumstances Now if it be so that matter thus advantageously disposed
the great Creator of the World but yet I know not how it comes to pass that this remedy is seldomest made use of by those to whom it was peculiarly prescribed I mean the melancholy and dejected have ordinarily the least share of it but it is very commonly taken by the prosperous the sanguine and debonair and such as have least need of it and these frequently take it in such large proportions that it makes them not only forget their sorrows if they had any but themselves and their business too So that upon the whole matter I see no tolerable account can be given of the way of drinking now in fashion for it appears to have been taken up upon no necessity it is recommended by no real advantage either to the body or mind and therefore must owe its rise to no better causes than dulness or idleness a silly obsequiousness to other mens humours or epicurism and wantonness of our own inclination And for the habit of it it is no better than a lewd artifice to avoid thinking a way for a man to get shut of himself and of all sober considerations It fills men with more spirits than it leaves them able to govern from whence they become great talkers proud boasters capricious insolent and quarrelsome For it so much dilates and rarifies the Spirits that they cannot bear up a weighty thought and while such as those are sunk and drowned nothing but the mere froth and folly of mens hearts bubbles up in their conversation And this insensibly growing upon men by degrees introduces an habitual vanity and impertinence below the gravity and dignity of humane nature and by means of which such men become fit only for toys and trifles for apish tricks and buffoonly discourse which in conclusion do so far degrade a man below his quality that he becomes not only a shame to himself and his family but the contempt of his very servants and dependants And touching this last have you not sometime observed what dry bobs and sarcastical jeers the most underling fellows will now and then bestow upon their betters when they have found them faultering in this kind Was not Master such a one cruelly cut last night says one how like a drowned Rat was Master such a one says another how wisely our Master looks when he hath got his dose saith a third Shall I need after all this to represent the sin committed against God Almighty by this vain custome in the breach of his Laws deforming his Image and quenching his Spirit or the injury it doth to humane Society in the riotous and profuse expence of so comfortable a Cordial and support of humane life or shall I but reckon up the mischiefs a man here by incurs to his own person the danger of his health the damage to his fortunes the Phil. O no more no more good Sebastian I am yours you have silenced you have vanquished me I am not able to resist the evidence of truth in your Discourse you have quite marr'd a Good-fellow and spoil'd my Drinking But how then shall I treat you Come you are for serious things what say you to a Game at Tables Methinks that is both a grave and a pleasant entertainment of the time Sebast Truly Sir I am so unskilful at that and most other Games that I should rather give you trouble than diversion at it But what need you be sollicitous for my Entertainment It is your Company only which I desire And methinks it looks as if Friends were weary one of the other when they fall to Gaming Phil. But I should think a man of your temper might have a phancy for this Game as upon other respects so especially because it seems to be a pretty Emblem of the World Sebast As how I pray you Sir Phil. Why in the first place the casual agitation of the Dice in the Box which unaccountably produceth such or such a Lott seems to me to represent the Disposal of that Invisible Hand which orders the Fortunes of Men. And then the dexterous management of that Lott or cast by the Gamester plainly resembles the use and efficacy of humane prudence and industry in the conduct of a Man 's own Fortunes Sebast I perceive Philander that you play like a Philosopher as well as a Gamester but in my opinion you have forgotten the main resemblance of all which is That the Clatter and Noise in tossing and tumbling the Dice and Table-men up and down backward and forward lively describes the hurry and tumult of this World where one Man goes up and another tumbles down one is dignified and preferred another is degraded that man reigns and triumphs this man frets and vexes the one laughs the other repines and all the rest tug and scuffle to make their advantage of one another Let this if you please be added to the Moral of your Game But when all is done I must tell you for my part I am not so much taken with the Original as to be fond of the Type or Effigies I mean I am not so in love with the World as to take any great delight in seeing it brought upon the Stage and acted over again But had much rather retreat from it when I can and give my self the contentment of repose and quiet thoughts Phil. However I hope you are not offended at my mention of that Game You do not think it unlawful to use such diversion Sebast No Dear Phil. I am not of that austere humour to forbid delightful Exercises for I am sensible that whilst Men dwell in Bodies it is fit they not only keep them up in necessary reparation by Meat and Drink but also make them as lightsom and cheerful as they can otherwise the Mind will have but an uncomfortble Tenancy The Animal Life I say must be considered as well as the Intellectual and our Spirits have need to be relaxed sometimes lest the keeping them continually intent weaken and infeeble them so that they cannot serve us in greater purposes I would therefore as soon universally forbid all Physick as all kind of Exercise and Diversion and indeed rather of the two for I think the latter may in a great measure save the trouble of the former but that will do little or no good without this Neither do I think even those Games of Chance absolutely unlawful I have sometimes made use of this in particular which you mention or the like to it upon some occasions As for instance when I took Physick and could neither be allowed to walk abroad nor to be serious and thoughtful within Doors I have supplyed both for that time with a Game at Tables Or it may be when I have happened to be engaged in some kind of Company I have play'd not so much to divert my self with the Game as to divert the Company from something that was worse But to deal freely with you Though I do not altogether condemn yet I cannot
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
and improved as in the admirable structure of the eye cannot perform that one act of simple perception what shall become of all those nobler actions of the Soul and into what shall they be resolved Such as self-motion the strange celerity of thought memory of that which is past prudence and forecast for that which is to come and a thousand other strange operations Is it imaginable that meer matter should understand argue dispute consider and confer the relation of one thing to another and thence infer consequences and make conclusions Is it likely that meer body and quantity should be sensible of shame and honour nay be conscientious too and accuse condemn and torture it self or which is most wonderful of all check controul deny limit and mortifie it self He that will undertake to shew how all these things may be performed by Atoms and motion only is a subtil Mechanist indeed and I do not doubt but at the same rate such a man may be able to make a new World when he pleases with the same Atoms as Materials For it is evident there is more intricacy in this little world of Man than in the whole fabrick of Heaven and Earth besides Wherefore if matter or body cannot perform the aforesaid operations then the Soul of man which doth perform them must be acknowledged to be a spiritual substance Bioph. In troth you talk very shrewdly but for my life I cannot understand what you mean by this thing which you call Spirit and therefore I reject the notion as gibberish and non-sense Sebast Softly good Biophilus what reason is there for that hasty conclusion Must we needs deny every such thing to be as is hard to understand Must we like dull Boys tear out the Lesson that is difficult to learn Is nothing true but what is easie nor possible but what is facile But besides let me tell you upon second thoughts there is not more difficulty in understanding the Nature of Spirits than there is in conceiving how all the aforesaid operations should be performed witout them no nor half so much neither so that nothing is gotten by the objection for it is a very vain thing to object difficulty when at the same time you are forced to acknowledge the thing to be necessary But why I pray you what is the cause that spiritual substance is not as intelligible as corporeal Bioph. O Sir there is a vast difference in the case I can see and feel the latter but so I cannot the former Sebast Nay believe me there you are out you see and feel only the accidents of a bodily substance but not the substance it self no more than you can see or feel a Spirit Bioph. Pardon me at least I see and feel the bodily substance by the accidents that is I am assured of its presence and existence and I can affirm such things of it upon that testimony of my senses Sebast And you may affirm as much of a Soul if you please though you can neither see nor feel it forasmuch as you plainly perceive the properties and operations of it Bioph. That is close and to the purpose I confess but still I cannot tell what to make of this thing called Spirit for I can frame no image of it in my imagination as I can do of other things Sebast Why there is it now I perceive now Biophilus you have a desire to see with your mouth and hear with your eyes For as reasonably every jot may you expect to do either of those as to frame a sensible imagination of a Spirit That which we call Imagination you know is nothing else but the impress of the colour bigness or some other accidents of a thing that hath been presented to our senses retained in and it may be a little diversified by our phancy But now if a Spirit have no colour nor bulk nor such other accidents to be represented to our phancy through our outward senses how is it possible you should have an image of it there No no spiritual Beings are only capable of affording us an intellectual Idea namely our higher faculty of Reason from observation of their effects and operations concludes their Essence and takes an estimate of their Nature and indeed it is a flat contradiction to require any other evidence of that kind of Beings Bioph. This kind of discourse is very subtil and I cannot tell what to object farther to it go on therefore to your second Branch perhaps there I may better cope with you Sebast The second step which I take towards the proof of a Judgment to come is that as on the one side Mankind appears to be fit and capable of being judged hereafter so on the other hand it is agreeable to the Nature and Attributes of God and to those notions we have of a Deity that he should call the World to such an account and this appears briefly thus The most common and most natural notion which men have of the Divine Majesty is that he is a Being absolutely perfect that is amongst other accomplishments that he is a most powerful wise just and good Being there is hardly any body that thinks of a God but considers him under these Attributes and Perfections and he that divests him of any of these Perfections renders him neither an object of fear nor of love and consequently not a God insomuch that were it not for politick ends namely to avoid infamy or other punishment amongst men doubtless those that deny to him any of these Attributes had as good flatly deny him to have any Being at all Now if these things be included in the natural notion of God they not only capacitate him to be a Judge of the World if he pleases but give great assurance that he will do it for if he be a wise Being he cannot but see how things go and particularly how his Creatures carry themselves here below if he be powerful he hath it in his hand to rectifie those disorders he observes amongst them and both to punish the evil and to reward the good And if he be good and just it cannot but be expected from him that he will set things to rights one time or other when his Wisdom shall think fit but it is evident this is not done exactly and answerably to those Attributes of his in this World therefore there is no reason to doubt but he will assuredly do it in another World and therefore the Scripture tells us He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness c. Bioph. Not too fast good Sebastian I know not certainly what apprehensions other men may have but for my part though I do acknowledge a God and that not only politically as you suspect but upon the Principles of Reason yet I must profess to you I do not think the natural notion of God includes those Attributes you speak of Why may there not be a God and he only a necessary
and contrariwise evil men are very happy and prosperous therefore it may seem that those instances which you collect in favour of your opinion may happen by chance rather than by the dispensation of a Providence and then if there be no Providence in this World by your own Argument there can be no Judgment hereafter Sebast If that be all or the main of what you have to object I am in hope to see some good issue of this Conference for in the first place you know that which is impeached by this Objection is but one single instance out of many which I have brought for the assertion of a Providence and consequently if this should fail or if I should yield you all that the objection pretends to yet so long as the other are unshaken by it that great Doctrine may stand firm notwithstanding for it is but as if you should peck one single stone out of an huge building or as I said before find a flaw in some one thred of a great Cable neither of which can weaken or endanger the one or the other But then besides you cannot be ignorant that this which you now mention is an old thred-bare exception worn out of all fashion by the old Atheists and Epicureans and which hath been can vassed and bassted over and over by men of all Ages and of several Perswasions by Job by David by Solomon nay by Tully Seneca Plutarch and several others that it is a great argument of the poverty of your Cause to be seen in it now a-days and may justly excuse my labour in confuting it However because you think fit to give it countenance I will briefly say these three things in the case viz. First That some measure of intricacy or obscurity in the dispensation of Divine Providence is no argument against it but for it Secondly That there are very great reasons assignable why it may please the Divine Majesty to proceed sometimes indiscriminately and keep no constant visible method in the distributions of good and evil in this present life Thirdly Yet however this be sometimes obscure there are at other times sufficient and legible instances of a distinguishing Providence 1. Some measure of intricacy in the dispensations of Divine Providence is so far from being an argument against it that it is a great argument for it For if we do not make God a meer necessary Agent which I hope I have satisfied you in we must allow something to his Prerogative and Soveraignty and consequently grant that he may do some things because he will do so and whereof he doth not make us acquainted with the reasons and we may very well allow to his Wisdom to have a reach beyond us and to have other measures to govern the World by than we could have made for him What shall we call God to an account of his Management Shall he not govern the World at all unless he order it just as we would have him This is apparently so far from being reasonable that it would be much more so to conclude on the contrary namely that if there were no depths in the Divine Counsel which we could not fathom no Meanders in the way of Providence which we could not trace it would be very suspicious whether there were any thing of Divinity in the whole business For if things were constantly managed one way without any variation we should be apt to think all was under the rigid Laws of a fatal Necessity If on the other side there were no rule to be observed no footsteps of any method then we should be tempted to think Chance ruled the World but when we observe an intermixture of these two viz. that there is a rule though there be some exceptions from it then we have reason to conclude that all is under a powerful and a free Agent who if he be also infinitely wise cannot but see reason for several things which we cannot comprehend 2. There are very great and weighty reasons assignable why in this particular instance of Providence namely in the distribution of good and evil in this World the Divine Majesty should not be obliged to gratifie our curiosity with a plain account of his proceedings but make some exceptions to his general rule amongst which these following are considerable First Because such a constant and visible exercise of distributive Justice as your objection seems to require would be such an irrefragable and palpable evidence of a Providence as would leave no room for the discovery of ingenuity or a virtuous disposition it would deprive men of the liberty of their choice whether they would be Atheistical or devout and religious and consequently there would be no excellency in Piety and Vertue For as I have said before in a like case it could be no argument of love to God or goodness that a man took care to serve and please God if he constantly stood over us in a visible and undeniable Providence so as that every offender were taken in the very fact and presently led to execution and on the other side if every virtuous action were forthwith rewarded and crowned In short it is not agreeable to the Mind of God to over-run the freedom of our choice since he hath endowed us with it nor to supersede that distinctive faculty of our Nature for should he do so he should act contrary to himself and to his own Glory as well as to the nature and condition of Mankind Again Secondly A checkered and diversified method of Divine Providence wherein there is an intertexture of prosperity and adversity in the fortunes of virtuous men tends more to their improvement than a more regular and constant Providence would do For as a continued course of prosperity is too apt to tempt men to be wanton and careless so a perpetual series of adversity would be as apt to sink and depress their spirits but a middle way of interchange in their condition balarces them on both sides and maintains them in a more even temper and conversation And for this reason it pleases the Divine Wisdom to make such false steps as you are apt to imagine them to be To which add in the third place That herein lies the very secret of Divine Wisdom and by this very way he doth most effectually assure us of the point in question namely a Judgment to come in that there is such apparent necessity of it For if the Divine Majesty should let the present World run at random and interpose himself in no case to check the hurry or punish the disorder there would seem no reason to expect justice from him hereafter who gave no token of it all this while and then on the other side if he interposed so frequently and constantly as to leave no irregularity unpunished nor any brave action unrewarded there would be no business left nor no need of a day of Judgment Whereas by affording us some plain instances of his discrimination