Notions of the usual Effects of Good and of Evil Spirits The Jews were very sensible that one Evil Spirit might by Collusion give place or at least seem to give place to another and thence maliciously concluded That our Saviour cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils But our Saviours Answer is sufficient Viz. If Satan be divided against himself how shall Mat. 4. his Kingdom stand because ye say that I cast out Devils by Belzebub i. e. If I who teach the true Worship of the true God cast out Devils by Satan then Satan is his own Enemy and Industriously destroys his own Idolatrous Kingdom which with so much pains he has planted in the World S. If there was so much force in Miracles p. 73. as you do pretend methinks the Miraculous Age of Moses should have been most Religious of all others but your own Bibles shew That the Israelites fell immediately into the Idolatrous Worship of the Golden Calf Notwithstanding the Number of Moses ' s pretended Miracles L. The Jews living in the midst of Idolatrous Nations and Newly Emancipated from Egyptian Slavery might be tempted to Act contrary to their reason in complyance to the corrupt customes of those who liv'd round about them But I do not think that thereby they thought to relinquish the Worship of the true God but rather to change the manner of it Or if they did yet they were quickly recalled by Moses to the true Worship of God And this must be granted by your Author to be very much for the honour of Reveal'd Religion That the Worship of one God was not the Legal Religion of any one Nation but that of the Jews only S. I still fear that the Scriptures by Gods doing a thing do mean no more than his permitting it to be done by the ordinary Course of Nature For Sam. 1. 9. Chap. 15. 16. verses God is said to tell Samuel in his Ear that he would send Saul unto him and yet it appears that Saul came to him as led by Natural Motives Viz. to seek his Fathers Asses In the 105 Ps 24th Verse It is said God turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate his People in the first of Exodus a Natural cause is render'd of that aversion p. 75. L. Suppose you should hear a poor man that has receiv'd an Alms of a stranger say to himself God has sent me relief Could you from hence conclude that this Poor Man believ'd That God never was the Author of a Miracle but always wrought by Natural causes S. I must confess I see no reason for such a conclusion L. No more ought your Author ridiculously to conclude that because the Scripture speaks of some Natural things as done by God therefore God never works in a Supernatural manner For tho Saul seems to be led to Samuel by Natural causes yet the prediction to Samuel that Saul should certainly come to him that he should be King of Israel must needs be ascribed to a Supernatural Power The Heart of the Egyptians was turned against the Children of Israel because they feared their Numbers But Exod. 1. what natural reason can be given of all those other Signs and Wonders which are reckoned up in the same Psalm S. I must confess ingenuously that if all things were done by Moses and our Saviour in that exact manner according to which they are related it is impossible to give a solution of them by Natural causes especially if Natural causes do always work in a fixt and unmoveable order But my Author very judiciously shews that there are many Circumstances in a Miracle which the Scriptures do omit especially when they are Sung in a Poetic Stile which if they were expressed would plainly shew that what we now admire as Supernatural was only an effect of Natural causes And not only so but many Circumstances of the Miracles recorded do shew that they required Natural causes to bring them to perfection See Exod. 9. v. 10. Moses could not bring boyls upon the Egyptians without first throwing up Ashes in the Air. And Exod. 14. 21. We read That the Red Sea was divided by a strong East Wind. Elisha lay upon the Child that was supposed to be Dead and so reviv'd him by the heat of his Body In short if any thing is reported in Scripture that is directly repugnant to the Laws of Nature or cannot follow from them my Authors opinion is that it is added by some Sacrilegious Persons who design'd to impose a Fable upon the World L. A tedious relation of impertinent Circumstances is avoided by all Judicious and Faithful Historians But to omit Circumstances that are material and the Knowledge of which alters the very Nature and Denomination of an Action is a Trick only of knaves and impostors If therefore Moses and the Evangelists in those Books which are plainly Historical did designedly omit those Circumstances of Action which would have convinced the world that those were only the Works of Nature which they would make the world believe were the very immediate Works of God whatever credit their Writings might have met with in After-Ages they could have found none in their own For the Jews that saw what was done by Moses would have known by the Circumstances of the Actions that were designedly omitted that whatever he might pretend there was nothing in them but what was effected by the sole Power of Nature And how then could he have perswaded the Jews of his own Age that he was sent from God Or how could he have made so many false Revelations publick in the sight of the whole Nation And why should they be such Fools as to erect a Government in Church and State upon a Foundation which they of that Age must needs have known to be too weak to support it With what Face could our Saviour tell the Jews of his Age that his works testify'd of him if there was nothing in them Miraculous but what was made so to appear by the partial and the unfaithful Relation of his own Friends and Disciples It is a false Insinuation of your Author that Miracles are for the most part Sung in a Poetick manner for they are historically related as motives to the credibility of reveal'd Religion and tho some of them are recited in the Psalms yet the very Poetick Stile of David does not render them more wonderful than the plain Historical Account of Moses But with what impudence if not affected ignorance does your Author Affirm that the Circumstances of some Actions recorded as Miracles in Scripture do shew that they were effected by Natural Causes When Moses brought a Boyl upon the Egyptians by throwing up Ashes into the Air the Action was as Miraculous as if without throwing up the Ashes he had only in the Name of God commanded the Boyl to seize upon the Bodies of the Egyptians Exod. 9. 10. v. Unless your Author can Philosophically prove that according to the
is a foolish thing to limit the power of Nature and to say her Laws extend to some things only and not to all L. Your Author speaks herein as little like a good Philosopher as a good Jew or a good Christian If the Laws of Nature are fix'd and immovable they may be observ'd and the Observation of them we call the study of Natural Philosophy To say therefore with your Author That the Course of Nature is fixed and immutable and yet that her power extends to all things Potentiam Naturae infinitam esse omnino credendum est is a contradiction in the very Terms for if she could do all things she could alter her setled Course and move in an Order quite contrary to what now she steers Nor does he mend the matter by asserting in the same page That the fixed Laws of Nature extend to all things that are comprehended in the Divine Vnderstanding For the Divine Understanding must needs comprehend as well what is impossible as what is possible to be done and the Mutability as well as the Fixation of the Rules of Motion in material Bodies into such notorious Absurdities does your Author run whilst he endeavours to destroy the credibility of Miracles by jumbling together the Names of God and Nature S. If there be a fixed Course of Nature how can there be a Miracle which is neither more nor less than an interruption of it L. Because it is fixed by a Superior Intelligent Being who can unfix the same when it is for his own Glory or the General Benefit of Mankind If Nature did not keep for the most part a setled Course we could have no distinct Notion of a Miracle but she is so steady that she gives us time to view her and from that view to frame such Axioms of Possibility and Impossibility as are as evident to our Reason as any of those principles which some tho I fear not truly do stile Innate Notions S. I am still of my Author's mind That we call those works Miracles whose natural Causes we do not understand L. No We rather call that work a Miracle which we know is done not by a Natural but by the immediate Energy of some Supernatural Power For the Course of Nature being steady nothing is more easie than to observe when her Course is broken i. e. when something is done that we are sure is repugnant to those fixed Rules which she is bound to observe in all other cases S. Prithee what are those Rules How do you know that they have ever been broken L. The first Rule Ex nihilo nihil fit Out of nothing there can come nothing is as clear by its own light as any One Proposition we can easily frame unto our selves Either therefore Matter made it self that is it was a Cause before it did exist which is a Wild Absurdity or it was made by a Superior Being and its very Production the beginning of Miracles We all know that mutations of bodies may be made by the regular Laws of motion but that Matter should make it self or be produced out of nothing by her own Laws of motion is repugnant to the common sense of mankind If Matter therefore was made there was a time when it did not exist and therefore its motion from non existence to existence could not be according to any fixed Rule of Nature which had then no being and consequently God did not always work by fixed and unalterable Rules to which the very Notion of Creation is directly repugnant S. You ramble too wide from our present purpose Can you prove that any thing yet was ever done since the Creation that was certainly repugnant to any One fixed Law of Nature which may be a sufficient Testimonial to a man that he is sent from God L. It is a Maxim in Reason That one body acts upon another by Contaction or Protrusion only If two bodies were placed never so near and no contiguous body between they might remain to all Eternity in that posture without affecting each other or producing any alteration in them If therefore any man can produce an alteration in bodies by the sole word of his mouth all men will conclude this man does act by virtue of a Supernatural Power When therefore the Children of Israel saw Moses turning water into blood or bringing Lice and Frogs c. upon the Land of Egypt by the lifting up his Rod or our Saviour curing diseases by the word of his mouth or raising men from the dead c. they must conclude that this was done by a spiritual and not by a material power which can cause no alteration on another body but by Contraction or Emission of minute Particles the secret Operations of which do constitute the whole body of Natural Magick Now if the moving of the Wand or speaking a few words did produce the wondrous Effects but now mentioned in the production or alteration of bodies by the sole force of Nature they would do it always when utter'd or apply'd after the same manner because the Laws of Nature are fixed and immovable But since we see they have done it but cannot do the same thing again we very rationally conclude that these alterations were made in Bodies by a Spiritual and a Superior Power Your Author therefore must not think to sham us off with a Wild Pretence That what we call Miracles were some strange works of Nature so called with respect to the ignorance of the Vulgar For we are willing the Miracles upon which our Religion is grounded should be tryed by the most known Axioms of Natural Philosophy and challenge the whole Race of Epicurean Atomists to shew how they could be done according to any Hypothesis that ever yet was framed of the Mechanical Laws of Motion S. Does not my Author clearly demonstrate That the Sun 's stopping his course of which we read in the Book of Joshua was nothing else but a refraction of Light the Sky being then full of Hail And the like may be said of the Dial of Ahaz L. Your Author boldly says much but he proves nothing The standing still of the Sun or the prolongation of Light by any other means whether Natural or Miracu lous would have been equally beneficial to the Israelites in affording them time to slay their Enemies But because it would be greater Encouragements to the Israelites to see God himself assisting them in a miraculous manner and the Scriptures do relate this as a Miracle and since no sufficient Reason can be given why the Sun should stop his Course or the Earth stand still which in the Effects is the same thing unless by the immediate Power of God we have more Reason to believe the Scripture-Narrative than the improbable Conjecture of your daring Author For why must we needs conclude That because it was possible the Children of Israel might be deceived that therefore they certainly were so Or how is it probable that the Air
without the help of those Mediums the signification of Words why may it not also after the same or any other manner communicate the certain knowledge of Things which is all we contend for A. I wonder you will mention the Spirit of God which our Author shews is a Word of Various and consequently dubious signification The Scripture-Phrase That the Spirit of God is in the Prophets That Men are filled with the Spirit of God and the like does signifie no more than that the Prophets were good Men and that they perceiv'd the Will of God as all Men tho perhaps in a less degree must needs do by the Light of Nature But all this is but the Imagination of the Prophet considered with relation to the Apprehensions of the Vulgar And pray Sir what certainty is there in bare Imagination T. If by Imagination you understand the Power of the Mind to receive retain or frame the Images of External Objects it may be considered with relation to things present past or to come External Objects when present impress such Vivid Images upon the Brain as will not suffer the Mind to doubt of their real Existence The same Certainty tho something short of Infallibility is left upon the Mind by Objects represented to the Senses when the Objects themselves are past and gone He that sees an Horse or Elephant present by the Images impressed on the Brain knows that they are present and by reflecting on the same Images the next day he knows that they were present And thus far Imagination is a certain Repository of Knowledge though not altogether infallible because through defect of the Organs as in Mad Men the Images framed by the Mind it self are apprehended as existing without it but those who are in their Wits are never impos'd upon by their Imaginations after that manner as to think they hear Voices when they hear none or see Images of things that are not near them Men thus deluded by Imagination always shew signs of the Distemper in inconsistency of Thought and wild Rovings of Expression which I defie any man to observe in the Writings of Moses and the Prophets tho some things therein are hard to be understood and may seem uncouth to us by reason of long distance of Times Ignorance of the Customs Histories and Language of those Times and many other Reasons which I forbear to mention as obvious enough without it In short either God did send Messages to his Servants the Prophets by the visible appearance of Angels and spake to them in Voices or their Imaginations fram'd all these Appearances to it self from the shatter'd Images of other External Objects If the first of these is true your Author very impertinently concludes the Uncertainty of Prophecy from the Uncertainty of Imagination for that Faculty does faithfully enough receive and preserve the Images of things really presented to it and herein the Certainty of Imagination differs not from the Certainty of our Senses If he means the latter the Prophets then were no better than Pious Mad Men and all the Sacred Writings are mere Fictions of the Mind which owe all the little Truth that is in them to meer Chance which I perceive however disguised is the genuine meaning of your admired Author But if Moses and the other Prophets were distemper'd by a less Imagination how comes it to pass that they are all so constant in the Doctrine of Piety For I am sure our Modern Mad Men who are never consistent with themselves or one another are very much different from his description of the Ancients Or how come their Predictions to be verified by the Event Or how come the whole Nation of the Jews to be such Fools as to follow Mad Men Or how did such a Mad Man as Moses attain the power of working Miracles and of leading the Children of Israel through the Wilderness and governing them with Prudence and Moderation But if God himself made these Revelations to them it is nonsense to infer any uncertainty for the Mediums God uses for the Work For it is in his Power to create Certainty of Divine Revelation without the help of Mediums as in the case of Inspiration or by whatsoever means he pleases as those of Words of Figures A. You know very well that the Mind can compound various Images and thence conclude more Propositions than can be known by deductions from the sole Light of Reason and thence it is the Prophets teach more of Religion than can be known by Nature only T. The true Reason is this God knows more than Man what is necessary to make him happy and therefore those who are taught by God can declare more concerning the means of Salvation than those who are guided by the sole Light of Nature A. Well still I have some Reason to think that Prophecy was the pure Work of the Imagination 1. The Prophets perceived and uttered all things by Parables and Riddles expressing Spiritual things after a Corporal manner 2. It was as Imagination always is very inconstant not adhering to the Prophet but coming by fits and starts according to the unsteddy leaps of Fancy T. But I have better Reasons to perswade me that your Author is in a most egregious error for futurities i. e. things which neither are nor have been cannot make impression upon the Fancy according to the Laws of Nature which may produce any tolerable degree of Certainty and therefore when Futurities are foretold which depend not upon any necessary connexion of natural causes it must be asserted by the supernatural Power of God The Mind may indeed be impos'd upon by help of the Imagination several ways in respect to things to come as when from the remembrance of what is past it concludes that the same will happen again tho there be no necessary connexion between the Cause and the Effect Or 2. When from its vast Magazine of Images it chuses out and joyns those together which ought not to be joyned and concludes their future Existence from an ill conceived Notion of their bare possibility of Being And herein the Mind frequently imposes upon its self by its own Passions and Desires concluding such things will be which it most desires should come to pass hereafter But such possible and impossible compositions of the Fancy or conclusion of the deluded Reason of Mankind are of so vast a number that it is impossible all or any great number of them should prove true without the Predictions were made by God himself How could Imagination out of thousands of possible Circumstances of our Saviour's Birth pick out all those by the Prophets which would certainly come to pass as we can easily prove from the holy Scriptures or how could it avoid predicting something that was false if it had only probability to work upon which is the only Object of Fancy in regard to future Events which never made any impression upon it We therefore conclude the certainty of Prophecy not
then Isaiah and Ezekiel were perfectly mad men and their writings no more worthy to be preserv'd than the rambling discourses of the Inhabitants of Bedlam Nay admitting this they must be presum'd to have been the greatest Fools of all the Jewish Nation For how could men instructed in the Mosaick Law which forbids all corporal Representations of God because they saw no similitude of him in the Mount frame such gross conceptions of God as of a King sitting upon a Throne or a flaming fire Or if they used to fancy God after that manner how does it come to pass their writings are not tarnished by such gross conceptions but that in them we find clear Notions of his spiritual and incomprehensible Nature S. Ay but the Revelations to the Prophets did vary not only in the manner but in the perspicuity of the Revelation its self Those made to Zachariah were so obscure that without an Explication they could not be understood by that very Prophet And Daniel could not understand his when they were explained by an Angel to him Why therefore should we trouble our Heads with the Writings of those Men who scarce knew what they wrote themselves L. He is a Prophet that certainly knows that God speaks to him in a supernatural manner of this Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel nor any of those doubted whom the Jewish Church receiv'd as Prophets As for the Subject-matter of their Prophecy it was not necessary p 20. that the Prophet should understand all that was inclosed in that much less that he should perceive it by the first View of the Hieroglyphical Representations till inform'd of the matter by an Angel sent from God For he being only a Messenger from God it is necessary he should be certain that it is God that sends him but 't is not equally necessary that he should always understand the whole Subject-matter of his Message For even Temporal Monarchs send inclos'd Instructions by their Ambassadors and since the Message it self did not so much concern the Prophet as some part or Age of the Catholick Church and therefore it was enough for him to deliver the Message faithfully as he receiv'd it without Explaining all that is hard to be understood therein And yet after all the Scripture only says That the Angel explained the Hieroglyphicks to Daniel and that Daniel fainted and was sick Dan. 7. 28. and 8. 27. and his thoughts much troubled him perhaps by contemplation of those many Evils that were to befall his people S. O you mistake the matter for we read ch 11. 14. That the Angel came on purpose to make Daniel understand what should befall his people in the latter days And the matter still remained obscure because none at Chap. 21. that time had strength enough to imagine such a wonderful business L. This seems to me to be one of the most absurdest assertions that ever dropt from the Pen of an Author pretending to Reason For 1. It sets bounds to the power of God as if he was willing but not able to declare his mind to Daniel nor to any of that are with plainness and perspicuity suitable to the Subject 2. It supposes strength of Imagination to hear a real voice which is a new stroke of Philosophy 3. It supposes Daniel able to hear some words of the Angel but not all that concern'd his people as if the Angel was so short-breath'd as not to be able to tell out all the story or Daniel so weak in his capacity that it was beyond the power of God himself to enable him to understand the matter S. I cannot conceive but that if the Prophets had been taught of God they must have known all things but we see the Author of Joshua's History Erroneously apprehended the Sun to turn round the Earth whereas all modern Virtuoso's agree that the Earth turns round the Sun Solomon understood not the true proportion between the Periphery and Diametre of the Circle Nay I can shew you from the testimonies of the very Scriptures That the Prophets had very vulgar and erroneous Apprehensions of God himself L. If you can make out that last thing I will acknowledge you speak much to the purpose S. Adam apprehended God as ignorant of what he had done and hid himself from him which shews he had no other Notion of him than his being the Creator of the World In the same manner was God revealed to Cain and Lamech as ignorant of Humane Affairs And it appears from Gen. 18. 4. Abraham knew not that God was an Omnipresent and Omniscient Being L. Did God tell Adam or Cain or Lamech that he was only the Maker of the World but ignorant of Humane Affairs S. No. L. How then can God be said to be revealed as thus ignorant unto them when it is Evident their ignorance preceeded the Divine Revelation and was not occasion'd by it We do not say that inspired Authors knew all things for Omniscience is an incommunicable Attribute of God much less that they knew all things before God was pleased to reveal his mind unto them but that they had an infallible certainty that God did speak to 'em and that whatsoever he said was true As for your Supposition That Adam knew God only as the Creator of the World it is almost as much as to say Adam knew God only as he knew all that is to be known of him For the visible things of the Creation make known an invisible power of Godhead We cannot suppose Adam could know that himself and the whole world was made by a superior Being and yet at the same time not know that this superiour Being was endued with Wisdom Goodness and Power Nay so far is it from Truth that Adam when he hid himself in the Garden only knew God as Maker of the World that he had received a Command from him as Lawgiuer at the very moment for ought we know of his Creation Gen. 2. 16 17. And the Lord commanded the man saying Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thoâ— shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die If therefore Adam apprehended not God as Omniscient and Omnipresent he needed not have hid himself from him for he was pretty sure that God did not with bodily Eyes behold him taking the Forbidden Fruit but his Fear Amazement and Confession without doubt arose from the Notion he had of his invisible Power and Godhead For Omniscience and Omnipresence are inseperably intervoven into the very Notion of a God as he is Creator of the World For the First Cause must be united to every Effect otherwise there would be an Effect without a Cause and this First Cause must know this Vnion otherwise it would act by chance from whence it unavoidably follows That if the first Cause know any thing it must know all things since all things have a like
contradiction to say that he did Eat of it L. Does not your Author in some places say That to know and to Love God is the Divine Law S. Yet I think he does L. Then according to his way of arguing all men even the Author himself do know and Love God and must do so whether they will or no to the End of the World And then there is no difference between Virtue and Vice for both are done according to God's Will according to your Authors sentiments for both are the Effects of an Eternal necessity of causes linkt together The Apostle says This is the Will of God even your Sanctification Therefore all men are actually sanctify'd God bid Abraham Sacrifice his Son therefore he was Sacrificed is not this a pretty way of arguing to make sport for Children and Fools S. Moral Propositions in themselves are nothing but Eternal Verities and it was the Prophets only who were led by fancy and the Vulgar who are guided by sense who apprehend them as Laws given by God The Law-giver whom they look upon as a just and merciful Prince setting upon a Throne and distributing rewards and punishments to all his Subjects L. Your Author must either grant that God is a wise and understanding Being and a free Agent or nothing else but the Mass of Dull and unthinking matter If he embrace the latter he should be Master of so much courage as to tell us and not to play always in the dark with his two ambiguous Terms of God and Nature If he will allow that God is a wise Being and a free Agent I cannot conceive any reason why he should deny him to be a Law-giver since Wisdom Power and Authority are inseparably interwoven into the very Notion of a God without any gross conceptions of his setting upon a Throne like an Earthly Monarch And if there is an Eternal reason why God should be Loved and Innocence Protected c. Which every Man is conscious to himself that he can do or let it alone and besides If God shews Man by Divine Revelation what he would have done and promises Rewards and Punishments why must these Dictates of God and Nature be denied to be Laws and I know not what Eternal Verities shuffled into their Room S. Because my Author shews that all Moral Propositions are so L. Your Author shews nothing but meer Leger-de-main It is an Eternal Verity that God is to be Worshipped but it is no Eternal Verity that he is so A Moral Proposition is a Divine Law and an Eternal Verity in respect to that Goodness which is Essential to it but not for any Active necessity that attends the fame For if the Will and Understanding be the same Thing in God Then God Wills all the Treasons Marthers and Adulteries which he understands have been committed in the World S. Since you despise my Author's Scheme of Morality Pray let us hear one of your own drawing up L. I will refer that to Dr. Cumberland's excellent Treatise of the Law of Nature where he proves by reason equivalent unto if not surpassing Mathematical Demonstration that the Law of God and the whole rational universe is the whole of the Law of Nature and attended with sufficient Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments that are by God inseparably interwoven into the Nature of things S. You do not hear me speak against the Natural Law L. But by embracing unsound Principles you utterly destroy the whole Force and Efficacy of it Your Piety terminates in the adoration of such a Piety as tamely suffers the World to be abused into a belief of Miracles and Prophesie and Inspiration without any rational possibility of a redress and Acts by the inflexible necessity of his own Nature so that all our Prayers can make no more an impression upon him than upon a Stone-Wall Your Justice has no Prospect of a future reward and so in private is left at liberty to Act what is most conducive to the preservation of life and limb And your Temperance has no other restraint nor so much neither than what Nature has given to those Beasts that Perish Thus your Deism begins with a fair pretence to Moral Philosophy but the End thereof is nothing else but a licentious Liberty and Corruption of Manners S. I must confess If there were rewards in Heaven and Punishments in Hell they would be great Encouragements to Virtue and Suitable determents from Vice But you ground your hopes upon inspired Authors and they pretend to prove their Divine Mission by Miracles whereas my Author proves that there never was nor can be such a thing as a true Miracle wrought in the Universe L. Then I will Discourse that point with you at our next Meeting for I am loth to tire you with too long a Discourse S. With all my Heart For if I was well satisfy'd in that point I should be better affected to the Christian Religion Conference IV. OF MIRACLES S. SIR you are well met I remember at our last Conference you often appealed to Miracles as the greatest Confirmations of reveal'd Religion But I have since that time carefully perused the Sixth Chapter of my very Ingenious Author wherein I find such Arguments against Miracles as make me very much doubt whether there ever was or can be such a thing as a Miracle done in the World L. I desire not to hear your Opinions but would gladly be a Partaker of your Reasons S. My Author very Judiciously observes p. 67. that it is and always was the Mob of mankind that are and were the great Miracle-Hunters and Miracle-Makers It is they who think nothing to be the Work of God that is done according to the usual Course of Nature but feign and believe Wonders on purpose that they may be thought the very Darlings of Heaven And that the Vniverse was made for the sake of Man one of the most inconsiderable Creatures in it L. Our belief of Miracles is grounded upon that reason which is common unto all Mankind not only the Unlearned Vulgar but also the most sublime Philosophers who must needs Acknowledge that if matter was at first Created by a Spiritual Being out of nothing and received from it those Determinations of rest or motion which we call its Laws it may be again produc'd or alter'd by the very self same Power which is all that is necessary to constitute a Miracle The possibility therefore of a Miracle is as evident to all Learned men who have not said in their Hearts that there is no God as any one proposition in Enclid and is as deducible from the true Idea of a God as any of the most Legitimate Conclusions that can be deduced from clear and undoubted premises Your Author therefore with as much Haughtiness as Falsehood pretends to throw the belief of Miracles upon the Vulgar only as if all the Jewish and Christian Kings and Emperors all the Greek and Roman Philosphers by Miracles converted to the
Christian Faith all the Bishops Priests and Deacons that were or ever shall be in the Church of God were no better than an ignorant and unlearned Mob in respect to himself and two or three upstart Philosophers who value themselves upon the opposition they endeavour to make against the most common Notions of all mankind S. You begin to be too warm Pray let us debate this matter with more Reason and less Passion My Author rerefers you to his Fourth Chapter of the Divine Law where he has largely prov'd That whatsoever God determines does involve p. 68. an Eternal necessity because the understanding of God is not really distinguished from his Will And since nothing is necessarily done but by Virtue of a Divine decree it clearly follows That the Vniversal Laws of Nature are the only Decrees of God If therefore any thing should happen in Nature that is repugnant to her Universal Laws the same thing would be repugnant to the Divine Nature decree and understanding L. Your Authors affected obscurity in this Paragraph is a sign of want of Judgment or else want of Courage to speak what he really thinks He that would destroy the possibility of Miracles must prove that there is no God who has the same liberty of will which we experience to be in our selves And then indeed it would clearly follow that if there was no God nor no free Invisible Agents there could be no such thing as a Miracle performed in the World But Pray how does your Author prove this Grand Assertion S. Oh Sir very Mathematically He See p. 49. does it by the properties of a Triangle For it is the same thing to say that God understands that the 3 Angles of a Triangle are equal to 2 Right ones as it is to say that he wills it should be so For the truth of that proposition depends not upon the Nature of a Triangle but the very Nature of God in whom will and understanding are the same things L. That a Triangle must needs have 3 Angles equal to two Right ones depends upon that Eternal truth in things which is antecedent even to the Divine volition Because it implies a contradiction in the very Terms to deny the same and it is no limitation of the Power or Will of God to say he cannot will or do these things which imply a Contradiction in the very Terms Gods understanding or will no more alters the essential Properties of a Triangle than the understanding of a man because they flow from the very Idea of it But is there the same necessity that matter should be always ty'd to the same Rules of Motion as there is that the 3 Angles of a Triangle should be equal to two Right ones Does it imply a contradiction in the very Terms that matter should be created by a Spiritual Being or receive its Laws of Motion from him or have those Laws controlled or suspended by the same Power that made them If Nature be nothing indeed but matter and motion and God be nothing else but Nature then there can be no Miracles not because the understanding or Will of God are the same but because according to this Hypothesis there can be no such thing as Will or Understanding in God Your Author in his Annotations tells us that by Nature he understands not only matter but alia infinita but Pray what alia infinita are these that are comprehended under the word Nature If a Spiritual and Intelligent Being let him shew reason why he cannot as well alter the course of the World as he could at first Create it S. Because it would argue mutability in God which all sound Philosophers do acknowledge to be an Imperfection that is unworthy of the Divine Nature L. This cannot be owned by those Philosophers who believe that the world was not ab aeterno but Created by God For there is more of Mutability in Creation of the whole Universe than in the additional Creation of some parts of it only which is all that we can understand by the word Miracle I grant indeed that the Universal Laws of Motion which God has given to the Universe are sufficient to preserve the World in that Beauty and Order wherein we now both see and enjoy it and that we may from thence Learn the great Wisdom of our Heavenly Father who could settle such a course and order of things by Chaining each effect to its most immediate cause as might be sufficient to support the World to all Ages without the frequent interposition of a Miraculous Power to alter or to amend as it were the work of his Hands For if this settled course and order of things did not give us a right Notion of the Wisdom Goodness Power and other Glorious Attributes of our great Creator the Love of God could not be any Branch of the Law of Nature which yet in words at least is more than once acknowledged by your own Author Miracles therefore as your Author well enough observes are not at all necessary to sustain or preserve the Universe since that may be and is done by the settled and ordinary course of Nature But yet there are other reasons which render Miracles highly necessary to mankind at some times and upon some signal occasions so that without them we should be the most miserable Creatures of the whole Universe S. I would gladly hear what those reasons are L. When Revelation is necessary to shew men the way to Happiness then Miracles are equally necessary to shew men that such Beneficial Revelations do come from God All men desire Happiness and are conscious to themselves that it is not in their own Power but in the Gift of God But they never can come to a certainty either what Degree of Happiness God will bestow nor upon what conditions nor what Attonement will be accepted for Sin without the Benefit of Divine Revelation and such Revelation cannot be made evident without the rational Demonstration of a Miraculous Power For either God must make this Revelation to all mankind which would disorder in a manner the whole Course of Nature by changing the Natural Faculties of the mind into Supernatural Endowments or he must bestow a Divine Power upon those few to whom he immediately reveals his Will whereby they may be known to be sent by God S. Will you pretend then that Gods readiness to confer Happiness and to forgive Sins are not known by the Light of Nature L. I grant that the Great Benignity of the Divine Nature is easily deducible from all the Works of his Hands by all the Rules of unerring Reason And if we were Conscious to our selves of no Sin we might be certain that we should receive no Evil from him But supposing our selves innocent which yet is a very wild supposition we cannot from the good things we enjoy by the Divine Bounty in this Life absolutely conclude what Good Things we shall enjoy in a futute State And
being full of Hail should make a whole Nation believe that the day was longer than it ought to be S. Suppâ—se the Earth did stand still does it therefore follow it must be a Miracle Might there not be a Concourse of grosser Particles of Matter in the Liquid Ether that might stop its Course for a Season without the interposition of a miraculous Power L. Since we have no infallible Knowledg of all the possible motions that may happen in the Celestial matter we cannot conclude that New alterations therein are the immediate effects of a supernatural Power But since we are sure that one body works upon another by contaction only we are sure that Joshua's Prayer could by no force of Nature cause the continuance of the Sun upon the Horizon beyond the usual time But alas we do not seek for Miracles in the Heavens above nor in the Seas beneath most Fruitful of amazing Prodigies We appeal to the most approved Axioms of Natural Philosophy as the Tests of the truth of those Miracles upon which our Religion is grounded He that admits the Historical part of Revealed Religion to be true as your Author does more than once can never pretend to solve all that is therein recorded by Natural causes without running into absurdities of the grossest Nature In complyance to his own Hypothesis he must believe that the Course of Nature is settled and yet in complyance to the Historical Account of the Scriptures he must believe that words can cure Diseases and raise the Dead c. And yet that the same words spoken by another Person cannot do it i. e. That the Course of Nature is settled and that it is not settled but moves at random He must admit that one inanimate Body Acts upon another only by contaction And he must admit that words have made alteration in inanimate Bodys which yet can cause no other contaction than what arises from the modulation of the Air. He must believe it to be a Law of Nature That the Dead cannot be raised up to Life because that is known to be above her usual Course and he must believe that the Dead have been restored to Life by Virtue of a Divine Command In short your Authors endeavour to solve Miracles by Natural causes is ridiculous to the highest Degree for he attacks reveal'd Religion in that place which is of all others most impregnable if the Sparks of your Principles did believe that Moses and the Prophets and our Saviour did really do all those mighty things recorded of them by a due application of Natural causes why do not they attempt to do the same Or why do they laugh at all others who do attempt it as Fools and Madmen And how does it happen that no such things were ever well attested to have been done by other Persons who have made Experimental Philosophy their study with good success And how comes it to pass that they are repugnant and irreconcilable to all the Axioms of Philosophy that hitherto have been Written that the more any Learned Man considers them the more he finds of a Natural impossibility in them And why can't your Author find out as easy and probable a solution of all the Signs and Wonders wrought by our Saviour as of the standing still of the Sun or the Passage of the Children of Israel over the Red Sea S. My Author is a wiser Man than to believe all the strange Stories to be literally true which you read in your Bibles He tells you that whatsoever is there reported to be done which cannot possibly be ascribed to Natural causes is to be presumed as thrust in by malicious designing men And that in telling Wonders the Scriptures speak to the Fancy but not to the Reason of mankind L. Nothing speaks less to the fancy than the Christian Religion which in its Doctrines and Precepts too is altogether perfective of humane reason But if your Author denies his assent to the Historical part of the Bible and only in some places pretends to give it to please the States of Holland why does he give no reason for his dissent For one substantial reason would be sufficient in this case to overthrow the whole bulk of reveal'd Religion Why does he not shew that no man can have any certainty of any matter of Fact unless he see it done with his own Eyes Why does he not prove that Number and probity of Witnesses are no sufficient motives to assent VVhy does he not produce some Testimonies of Witnesses that may invalidate the credit of these who have recorded the Miracles of our B. S. or of his Apostles There is certainly no more obvious way of ruining reveal'd Religion than the disproving those relations of Miracles upon which its rational Evidence is most strongly grounded Either therefore your Author could find nothing to say on this topick or else through inadvertency he has omitted those Arguments which are most conducive to support so bad a cause S. It is enough that he demonstrated before that the Power of God and Nature being the same there can be no such thing as a Miracle L. An Historical Account is to be refuted in an Historical manner not by Foreign Arguments which have no force to refute a matter of Fact We urge the Testimony of a sufficient Number of highly creditable Witnesses that Miracles have been done your Author denys all because according to his reason it is impossible any such thing should be This is just as if a blind man should endeavour to confute all those who testify there is such a thing as light by giving his reasons that oblige him to think that there can be no such thing VVhen a thing is well attested to have been done it is a vain attempt to make men Renounce their senses in complyance to his reason S. You think you have gained a great point when you have brought a man to acknowledge the reality of your boasted Miracles But alas you fight for that which can do you no good when you have gain'd it For Miracles can never make us understand either the Essence or Existence or Providence of God L. According to my Notion of a Miracle it is a work that is done by the immediate Finger of God and that a work we know to be done by God alone should not so much as render us certain of the Existence of a God is to me an unaccountable Riddle Again a Miracle is a work that we know cannot be done according to the Mechanical Laws of matter and motion but is therefore ascribed to a free Spiritual and Powerful Agent and yet that all this should be no demonstration of the Spirituality Freedom and Power of the Divine Nature is to me the 2d part of the same Riddle Again a miracle is a work that is wrought to give some men a Testimonial that they are sent on some errand by God to his Creature man and yet that this should be no Argument of