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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	nature_n	power_n	3,155	5	5.1866	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28945	The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Reflections upon a theological distinction.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity.	1690 (1690)	Wing B3931; ESTC R19536	74,134	240

acquaint us with many Surprizing Particulars that we should never otherwise have Discover'd or perchance so much as Dream'd of And peradventure it may be no Hyperbole to say that the Informations of a Plummet which reaches not to Some Depths and brings but a very slender account of Soils that lye in Any are not more short of those of a Diver than the Informations Philosophy gives us of some Divine things are of those compleater Ones that may be had from the Holy Scriptures And when I remember how many Opinions about the Submarine Parts that I among many other Men thought Probable I found cause to Change upon the Conversation I had with a famous Diver that sometimes by the help of an Engine stay'd several hours at the bottom of the Sea I find the less Reluctancy to suffer Opinions about Divine Matters that before seem'd probable to me to be Rectifi'd by the fuller Discoveries made of those things by the Preachers of the Gospel You may find some things applyable to the Confirmation of what has been newly deliver'd in an Essay which you may see when you please that considers the Bounds and Use of Experience in Natural Philosophy Wherefore remembring that before this late Excursion I was speaking of Miracles I shall now resume the Subject and proceed to tell you that I have the more insisted upon the Miracles that may be pleaded to recommend the Christian Religion because I thought that an Argument grounded on Them is little less than Absolutely Necessary to Evince that any Religion that Men believe to be Supernaturally Reveal'd and consequently that the Christian does really proceed from God For tho' the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine and other concurrent Motives may justly persuade me that 't is worthy and likely to be given by God yet that de facto this Doctrine comes from Him by way of Supernatural Revelation I can scarce be sufficiently Ascertained but by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Disciples to Evince that the Doctrine they Preach'd as Commission'd by God to do so was indeed His being as such own'd by Him But these Miracles having been wrought when 't was most fit and needful they should be wrought in the first Ages of the Church We that live at so great a distance from them can have no knowledge of them by our Own Senses or Immediate Observation but must Believe them upon the account of the formerly mention'd Historical or Vicarious Experience which is afforded us by the duly transmitted Testimony of those that were themselves to speak once more in an Evangelist's phrase Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the things they relate And since we scruple not to believe such strange Prodigies as Celestial Comets Vanishing and Reappearing Stars Islands founded by Subterraneal Fires in the Sea Darkenings of the Sun for many months together Earthquakes reaching above a thousand miles in length and the like amazing Anomalies of Nature upon the credit of Human Histories I see not why that Vicarious Experience should not more be trusted which has divers peculiar and concurrent Circumstances to confirm it and particularly the Death that most of the first Promulgators chearfully Suffer'd to Attest the Truth of it and the Success and Spreading of the Doctrine authoriz'd by those Miracles and receiv'd chiefly upon their account To which things some perhaps would add that 't is less incredible that the Author of Nature should for most weighty purposes make stupendous Alterations of the course of Nature than that Nature her self for no such end should by such Prodigies as are newly mention'd as it were throw her self out of her own Course Miracles being so necessary to the establishment of Reveal'd Religion in general it may be look'd upon as a farther Disposition in our Virtuoso to receive the Christian Religion that the Philosophy he cultivates does much conduce to enable him to judge aright of those strange things that are by many Propos'd as Miracles and Believ'd to be so For first the knowledge he has of the Various and sometimes very Wonderful Operations of some Natural things especially when they are skilfully improv'd and dexterously apply'd by Art particularly Mathematicks Mechanicks and Chymistry will qualify him to distinguish between things that are only strange and surprizing and those that are truly miraculous So that he will not mistake the Effects of Natural Magick for those of a Divine Power And by this well-instructed Wariness he will be able to discover the Subtil Cheats and Collusions of Impostors by which not only Multitudes of all Religions especially Heathen but even Learned Men of most Religions for want of an insight into real Philosophy have formerly been or are at this day deluded and drawn into Idolatrous Superstitious or otherwise Erroneous Tenents or Practices And on the other side the knowledge our Virtuoso may have of what cannot be justly expected or pretended from the Mechanical Powers of Matter will enable him to discern that divers things are not produceable by Them without the intervention of an Intelligent Superior Power on which score he will frankly acknowledge and heartily believe divers Effects to be truly Miraculous that may be plausibly enough ascrib'd to other Causes in the Vulgar Philosophy where Men are taught and wont to attribute Stupendous unaccountable Effects to Sympathy Antipathy Fuga vacui Substantial Forms and especially to a certain Being presum'd to be almost Infinitely Potent and Wise which they call Nature For This is represented as a king of Goddess whose Power may be little less than boundless as I remember Galen himself compares it to that of God and saith that He could not do such a thing because Nature cannot and Censures Moses for speaking as if he were of another Mind The whole Passage is so weighty that I thought fit to direct you to it in the Margent tho' to comply with my hast I forbear to transcribe and descant upon so prolix a One and add to it divers other Passages that I have met with in famous Authors who for want of knowing the true Extent of the Powers of Matter and Motion left to themselves in the Ordinary Course of things Ascribe to Natural Causes as they call them such Effects as are beyond their reach unless they be Elevated by Agents of a Superior Order I know it may be objected that the hitherto-mention'd Dispositions that Experimental Knowledge may give a Man to Admit the Histories of the Miracles recorded in the Gospel and likewise to Expect that God will be able to perform the Promises and Menaces that are in his name deliver'd there may be countervail'd by this That those who are so much acquainted with the Mysteries of Nature and her various and strange ways of Working as a Virtuoso may well be may by that Knowledge be strongly tempted to think that those surprizing things that other Men call Miracles are but Effects of Her Power the Extent of which is not easily discern'd by ordinary Men

nor safely defin'd by Philosophers themselves But this Objection being plausible enough to make me think it deserv'd to be seriously consider'd I took an occasion that was once offer'd me to examine the validity of it in a Paper by it self And this being at your command I shall refer you to it And I hope that in the mean time it may suffice to say That to make it reasonable to judge this or that particular Performance a Supernatural One it is not at all necessary that it surpass the whole Power of Nature that is of Physical Agents provided it surpass the power of that Cause or that complex of Causes from which the Effect must in reason if it be purely Natural or Physical be suppos'd to have proceeded As for instance That a Fisherman or two should speak other Languages than their own does not at all exceed the power of Nature if they employ'd a competent time in learning them But that a great number of Fishermen and other Illiterate Persons should all on a sudden become Linguists and in an hour's time be able to speak intelligibly to a great number and variety of Nations in their respective Languages as the New Testament relates that the Apostles and their Companions did on the day of Pentecost That gift of Tongues I say was an Ability which in those circumstances of Place Time and Persons wherein 't was exercis'd may justly be concluded to have been Supernatural or Miraculous I fear you will think I have dwelt too long upon the Argument for Christianity drawn from that sort of matters of Fact we call Miracles tho' the uncommon way that my Design led me to represent them in would not permit me to make it out in few words Wherefore I shall now pass on to another Argument in favour of the same Religion that is afforded by Experience being drawn from the strangely successful Propagation and the happy Effects of Christianity in the World But having formerly had occasion to display this Argument in a separate Paper which you may command a Sight of if I shall not have time to annex a Transcript of it to the later Sheets of this First Part of the present Essay I will refer you for more ample Proof to That Writing and content my self in this place briefly to touch some of the Heads and subjoyn a Reflection or two that you will not meet with in that Paper 'T is a notorious Matter of Fact that in less than half an Age the Christian Religion was spread over a great part of the then known World insomuch that in a few Years after it began to be preach'd the Apostle of the Gentiles could tell the Romans with Joy that their Faith i. e. profession of the Gospel was spoken of throughout the whole World And in the Second Century Tertullian and other famous Writers shew that the Gospel had already numerous Proselytes in a great number of different Kingdoms and Provinces But I forbear to mention what he and others have magnificently said of the Success of the Gospel because I had rather refer you to the plain Narratives made of it by Eusebius Socrates Scholasticus and other grave Authors being of opinion that mere Historians may give to a Philosophical Reader a more Advantageous Idea of the Efficacy of that excellent Doctrine than eloquent Orators as such can do This wonderful quick progress of this Religion being ascertain'd to our Virtuoso by a Thing he is so much sway'd by as Experience it does not a little dispose him to Believe the Truth of so prevalent a Religion For If he considers the Persons that first promulgated it They were but half a score of Illiterate Fishermen and a few Tent-makers other Tradesmen If he considers the Means that were employ'd to Propagate this Doctrine he finds that they had neither Arms nor External Power to Compel Men to receive it nor Riches Honours or Preferments to Bribe or Allure them to it nor were they Men of Philosophical Subtilty to intrap or entangle the Minds of their Auditors Nor did they make use of the pompous Ornaments of Rhetorick and fetches of Oratory to inveagle or entice Men but treated of the most Sublime and abstruse Matters in a most Plain and unaffected Style as became Lovers and Teachers of Truth If he considers the nature of the Doctrine that in little time obtain'd so many Proselytes he will find that instead of being suited to the Natural Apprehensions or the Receiv'd Opinions of Men and instead of gratifying their corrupt Affections or complying with so much as their Innocentest Interests it prescrib'd such Mortifications and such great strictness of Life and high degrees of Virtue as no Legislator had ever dar'd to impose upon his Subjects nay nor any Philosopher on his Disciples And this Doctrine was propos'd in such a way and was accompany'd with Predictions of such Hardships and Persecutions that should in those times be the portion of its sincere Professors as if the Law-giver had design'd rather to Fright Men from his Doctrine than Allure them to it since they could not believe what he said and foretold to be true without believing that they should be made great Sufferers by that Belief If our Virtuoso considers the Opposition made to the Progress of the Gospel he will find cause to wonder that it could ever be surmounted For the Heathens which made by far the greatest part of the World were deeply engag'd in Polytheism Idolatry Magical Rites and Superstitions and almost all kind of Crimes and some of these were shameless Debaucheries which oftentimes made a part of their Worship And the Jews were by the corrupt Leaven of the Pharisees and the impious Errors of the Sadduces and the General Mistakes of the Nation about the Person Office and Kingdom of the Messias and by their dotage upon their vain Traditions and numerous Superstitions grounded upon them The Gentiles I say and the Jews who were those that were to be Converted were on these and other accounts highly Indispos'd to be made Proselytes Especially when they could not own themselves to be such without exposing their Persons to be hated and despised their Possessions to be confiscated their Bodies to be imprison'd and tormented and oftentimes their Lives to be in as Ignominious as Cruel ways destroy'd And whilst the Secular Magistrates made them suffer all these Mischiefs the Venerated Priests the Subtil Philosophers and the Eloquent Orators persuaded the World that they Deserv'd yet more than they Endur'd and employ'd all their Learning and Wit to make the Religion Odious and Ridiculous as well as the Embracers of it Miserable Accusing the Martyrs and other Christians of no less than Atheism Incest and the inhuman shedding and drinking the innocent Blood of Infants These and the like Matters of Fact when our Virtuoso reflects on and considers by what unpromising Means as far as they were but Secular such seemingly insurmountable Difficulties were conquer'd He

modern Virtuosi and which by some is call'd the New by others the Corpuscularian by others the Real by others tho' not so properly the Atomical and by others again the Cartesian or the Mechanical Philosophy is built upon two foundations Reason and Experience But it may not be impertinent to observe to you that although the Peripatetick and some other Philosophies do also pretend to be grounded upon Reason and Experience yet there is a great difference betwixt the use that is made of these two Principles by the School-Philosophers and by the Virtuosi For those in the framing of their System make but little use of Experience contenting themselves for the most part to employ but few and obvious Experiments and vulgar Traditions usually Uncertain and oftentimes False and superstructing almost their whole Physicks upon Abstracted Reason by which I mean The rational Faculty endowed but with its own Congenit or Common Notions and Idea's and with Popular Notices that is such as are common among men especially those that are any thing Learned But now the Virtuosi I speak of and by whom in this whole Discourse I mean those that Understand and Cultivate Experimental Philosophy make a much greater and better use of Experience in their Philosophical Researches For they consult Experience both frequently and heedfully and not content with the Phaenomena that Nature spontaneously affords them they are solicitous when they find it needful to enlarge their Experience by Tryals purposely devis'd and ever and anon Reflecting upon it they are careful to Conform their Opinions to it or if there be just cause Reform their Opinions by it So that our Virtuosi have a peculiar Right to the distinguishing Title that is often given them of Experimental Philosophers I can scarce doubt but your Friends have more than once oblig'd you to take notice of the Prophane Discourses and Licentious Lives of some Virt●…osi that boast much of the Principles of the New Philosophy And I deny not but that if the knowledge of Nature falls into the hands of a Resolved Atheist or a Sensual Libertine he may misemploy it to Oppugn the Grounds or Discredit the Practice of Religion But it will fare much otherwise if a deep insight into Nature be acquir'd by a man of Probity and Ingenuity or at least free from Prejudices and Vices that may indispose him to entertain and improve those Truths of Philosophy that would naturally lead him to Sentiments of Religion For if a Person thus qualify'd in his Morals and thereby dispos'd to make use of the knowledge of the Creatures to confirm his Belief and encrease his Veneration of the Creator and such a Person I here again advertise you and desire you would not forget it I suppose the Virtuoso this Paper is concern'd in to be shall make a great progress in Real Philosophy I am perswaded that Nature will be found very Loyal to her Author and in stead of Alienating his Mind from making religious Acknowledgments will furnish him with weighty and uncommon Motives to conclude such Sentiments to be highly rational and just On which occasion I must not pretermit that judicious Observation of one of the first and greatest Experimental Philosophers of our Age Sir Francis Bacon That God never wrought a Miracle to convince Atheists because in his Visible Works he had plac'd enough to do it if they were not wanting to themselves The Reason he gives for which Remark I shall confirm by observing that 't is intimated in a passage of St. Paul asserting both that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World as Tokens and Effects as I remember the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek doth elsewhere signify and that his Divinity and Eternal Power may be so well understood by the things that are made that the Gentiles who had but the Light of Nature to lead them to the acknowledgment of the true God were Excuseless for not being brought by that Guide to that Acknowledgment And indeed the Experimental Philosophy giving us a more clear discovery than Strangers to it have of the divine Excellencies display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe and of the Creatures it consists of very much indisposeth the mind to ascribe such admirable Effects to so incompetent and pitiful a Cause as Blind Chance or the tumultuous Justlings of Atomical Portions of senseless Matter and leads it directly to the acknowledgment and adoration of a most Intelligent Powerful and Benign Author of things to whom alone such excellent Productions may with the greatest Congruity be ascrib'd And therefore if any of the Cultivaters of Real Philosophy pervert it to countenance Atheism 't is certainly the fault of the Persons not the Doctrine which is to be judg'd of by it's own natural Tendency not by the ill Use that some bad Men may make of it especially if the prevaricating Persons are but pretenders to the Philosophy they misemploy which Character will perhaps be found to belong to most if not all the Atheistical and Prophane Men the Objection means For most of these do as little understand the Mysteries of Nature as believe those of Christianity and of divers of them it may be truly said that their Sensuality and Lusts and Passions darken'd and seduc'd their Intellects Their Immorality was the Original Cause of their Infidelity nor were they led by Philosophy to Irreligion but got and perverted some smattering of Philosophy to countenance the Irreligious Principles they brought with them to the Study of it But all this notwithstanding I fear if not foresee that you will surmise that the study of Natural Philosophy how innocent soever it may be in it self will in this Libertine City engage me to converse with many who tho' they pass for Virtuosi are indeed Atheists whose contagious Company must Endanger if not Infect me This obliges me to tell you that tho' I have no reason to take it at all unkindly that you are jealous of me on the score of being Solicitous for my Safety yet I hope my Danger is not so great as you may apprehend it For First I must own to you that I do not think there are so many Speculative Atheists as Men are wont to imagin And tho' my Conversation has been pretty free and general among Naturalists yet I have met with so few true Atheists that I am very apt to think that Men's want of due Information or their uncharitable Zeal has made them mistake or misrepresent many for Denyers of God that are thought such chiefly because they take uncommon Methods in studying his Works and have other Sentiments of them than those of vulgar Philosophers And in the next place I must tell you that having through the goodness of God chosen my Religion not Inconsiderately but upon mature Deliberation I do not find those Virtuosi you call Atheists such formidable Adversaries as those that are afraid to hear them do

founded the denyal of God's Providence A Virtuoso that by manifold and curious Experiments searches deep into the Nature of things has great and peculiar Advantages to discover and observe the excellent Fabrick of the World as 't is an immense Aggregate of the several Creatures that compose it and to take notice in its particular Parts especially those that are Animated of such exquisite Contrivances and such admirable Coordinations and Subordinations in reference to each other as lie hid from those Beholders that are not both Attentive and Skilful When our Virtuoso contemplates the Vastness scarce conceivable Swiftness and yet constant Regularity of the various Motions of the Sun Moon and other Celestial Lights When he considers how the Magnetism of the Earth makes its Poles constantly look the same way notwithstanding the Motions of its fluid Vortex how by daily turning about its own Center in four and twenty hours it receives as much Light and benefit from the Sun and all the glorious Constellations of the Firmament as if they with all the vast heavenly Region they belong to mov'd about it in the same time how by its Situation among them it enjoys the regular Vicissitudes of Day and Night Summer and Winter c. how the several Parts of the Sublunary World are mutually subservient to one another and most of them one way or other Serviceable to Man how excellently the Bodies of Animals are Contriv'd what various and congruous provision is made for differing Animals that they may subsist as long as they should according to the Institution of Nature by furnishing them according to their respective Natures some with Strength to take their Food by force others with Industry to procure it by Subtilty some with Arms as Horns Hoofs Scales Tusks Poysons Stings c. to Defend themselves and Offend their Enemies some with Wings or swiftness to fly from Dangers some with Foresight to prevent them some with Craft and perhaps strange Fetches of it to Elude them how being distinguish'd into two Sexes each of these is furnish'd with apposite Organs for the propagation of the Species and with skill and kindness to nourish and train up their young ones till they can shift for themselves how admirable and indeed astonishing a process is gone through in the formation of the Foetus especially of a Human one how divers Animals are endowed with strange Instincts whose Effects sometimes seem much to surpass those of Reason it self tho' they are superadded to the Mechanical Structure of the Animal and argue a respect to things very remote from it either in time place or both and perhaps also to the Grand Fabrick or System of the World and the general Oeconomy of Nature When as I was saying a Philosopher duly reflects on these things and many others of the like import he will think it highly rational to infer from them these three Conclusions First That a Machine so Immense so Beautiful so well contriv'd and in a word so Admirable as the World cannot have been the effect of mere Chance or the Tumultuous Justlings and Fortuitous Concourse of Atoms but must have been produc'd by a Cause exceedingly Powerful Wise and Beneficent Secondly That this most Potent Author and if I may so speak Opificer of the World hath not Abandon'd a Masterpiece so worthy of him but does still Maintain and Preserve it so regulating the stupendiously swift Motions of the great Globes and other vast Masses of the Mundane Matter that they do not by any notable Irregularity disorder the grand System of the Universe and reduce it to a kind of Chaos or confus'd State of shuffl'd and deprav'd things Thirdly That as it is not above the Ability of the Divine Author of things though a single Being to Preserve and Govern all his Visible Works how great and numerous soever so he thinks it not Below his Dignity and Majesty to extend his Care and Beneficence to particular Bodies and even to the meanest Creatures providing not only for the Nourishment but for the Propagation of Spiders and Ants themselves And indeed since the Truth of this Assertion That God governs the World he has made would appear if it did not by other Proofs by the Constancy and Regularity and astonishingly rapid Motions of the vast Coelestial Bodies and by the long Trains of as Admirable as Necessary Artifices that are employ'd to the Propagation of various sorts of Animals whether Viviparous or Oviparous I see not why it should be deny'd that God's Providence may reach to his particular Works here below especially to the noblest of them Man since most of those Learned Men that deny this as derogatory to God's Majesty and Happiness acknowledge that at the first Creation or if they dislike that term Formation of things the great Author of them must not only have extended his Care to the grand System of the Universe in general but allow'd it to descend so low as to contrive all the Minute and various Parts and even the most homely ones not only of Greater and reputedly more perfect Animals as Elephants Whales and Men but such Small and Abject Ones as Flies Ants Fleas c. Which being manifestly propagated by Eggs laid by the Female cannot reasonably be thought the off-spring of Putrefaction Whence I gather as from matter of fact that to be concern'd for the welfare even of particular Animals as it is agreeable to God's All-pervading Wisdom and exuberant Beneficence so whatever Men's Vanity may make them surmise it is not truly derogatory to his adorable Greatness and Majesty And on this occasion I shall add that since Man is the noblest of God's visible Works since very many of them seem made for his Use since even as an Animal he is as the Psalmist truly speaks wonderfully made and curiously or artificially wrought and since God has both given him a Rational Mind and endow'd it with an Intellect whereby he can Contemplate the Works of Nature and by them acquire a Conviction of the Existence and divers Attributes of their supremely perfect Author since God hath planted Notions and Principles in the Mind of Man fit to make him sensible that he ought to Adore God as the most Perfect of Beings the Supreme Lord and Governor of the World the Author of his own Nature and all his Enjoyments Since all this I say is so Natural Reason dictates to him that he ought to express the Sentiments he has for this Divine Being by Veneration of his Excellencies by Gratitude for his Benefits by Humiliation in view of his Greatness and Majesty by an Awe of his Justice by Reliance on his Power and Goodness when he duly endeavours to serve and please him and in short by those several Acts of Natural Religion that Reason shews to be Suitable and therefore Due to those several Divine Attributes of his which it has led us to the knowledge of And here I shall take leave to add that from the