our Ideas and what we are the best acquainted with and so far as we perceive them distinct from one another Seperately existing or necessarily connected our Reasonings about them are the surest of any we have so that if we are mistaken in these I cannot see how we have or are capable of having any Knowledge at all Solidity Extension and Figure I do not only perceive to be constantly united but necessarily and inseparably to co-exist together in the same Subject which I call Matter or Body so that wherever any one of these is found I certainly conclude from thence that there are the other two also but it does not follow that where ever these three co-exist together there is Motion Perception or Will there being no necessary Connexion between any of these Ideas and the other Ideas of Matter before mentioned as is plain not only from the Natures of the Ideas themselves but from their separate Existence actually perceived by us How then does Matter which we suppose to exist without any Motion Perception or Will come to have Motion added to it All the Motion we perceive in Bodies without us is made by Successive Impulses from from one Body to another where every portion of Matter owes its Motion to some other but this cannot help us to conceive how Motion should begin where every thing is at rest the only Idea we receive from Body in Motion is that of a Capacity of being moved when it is at rest and not of a power of moving its self this we have from what passes within us when without any external Impulse upon us by a bare Thought or Determination of our selves we begin a Motion in our own Bodies and by that means communicate it to others which were before at rest which power of beginning Motion we call Will but Matter is supposed to exist without Perception and Will and consequently without this power of beginning Motion in its self and there being nothing else to communicate it to it it must eternally continue in the same state of Union Indistinction and Rest There needs no more for the overthrowing this Hypothesis no stress being ever laid upon it In the next place then if we imagine all the parts of this Material World loose from one another and all in motion 't will be quite as irrational to think that so it must have been eternally and necessarily till at some certain time the scattered moving Atoms met together or were disposed after such a manner as produced the present Structure and Constitution of things Many are the Absurdities and Inconsistencies this Opinion is chargeable with but I shall at present instance but in two The first is the supposing an eternal motion of different Particles of Matter before the Production of the World which implies an infinite succession of Effects without any Cause to produce them For Motion being something distinct from Matter and separable from it does not necessarily exist because Matter exists for then it would always exist in every Particle of Matter nor does it exist of it self by a necessity independent of the necessity of Matter 's Existence because it cannot exist without it and Matter could not produce it in its self from all Eternity because it cannot produce it at all and therefore there can be no such thing as eternal Motion or succession of Motion in different parts of Matter because every Motion is a meer Effect and Passion and there is no active power any where assignable or conceivable that could produce or cause such an Effect so that to suppose an eternal Motion without an eternal Power of moving is one very great Absurdity those are guilty of that set up the Hypothesis of Atoms The other is the ascribing such new Effects to Matter and Motion together in the production of the World as for a whole Eternity before never proceeded from them and could not possibly at any time be produced by them For Matter and Motion not implying Perception and Will several Bodies in motion being now actually perceived to exist without them and the whole System of moving Atoms being in the present Hypothesis supposed so to exist before the Beginning of the World we shall never be able from hence to account for the Existence of Beings endued with Perception and Will which are Qualifications in their own Natures as utterly distinct from those of Extention Figure and Motion as Figure and Motion are from one another or from any other Ideas we perceive That these last may be where the other are not is plain How then do those other come to be added to them If Matter at rest whatever degree of Extention or kind of Figure it is imagin'd to have can never make us conceive any possibility of Motion in it without the help of something else besides Extention and Figure neither can Matter and Motion together what-ever variety of Bulk Texture or Motion we represent to our selves give us any Idea of perception and Will or a power of producing them But Matter in motion must eternally move on or rest and move by turns if you please without advancing to any new Perfections which is too plain to need any proof if it had not been very learnedly and fully made out already by others and therefore I shall not enlarge in the Disparagement of matter nor expose this ridiculous Scheme of things by shewing all the peculiar Inconsistencies in it but leave the farther Disproof of it to those general Arguments which equally conclude against all the false Hypotheses concerning the being of the World which I reserve till I have done with them in particular And the next of them to be considered is that in which it is supposed that the World has eternally existed under the same Form that we now behold it as to the principal parts of its Structure with a constant Succession of several of the chief Species or sorts of things in it This Opinion of the Eternity of the World has been the most exploded of any tho' most of the Favourers of it have at the same time asserted the eternal Existence of a God too and the Reason of this is because the greatest part of the most ancient Philosophers and learned Men thought they perceived such visible Marks and Tokens of the Newness of the World in the Rise Propagation and Increase of Societies and Governments Languages and Laws Arts and Sciences and the Tradition of the Original and Beginning of Things was in their time so fresh and so generally received in all Countries that few of them were able to reconcile all this with the eternal Duration of the World And this Tradition having all along continued and the Truth of those ancient Observations having been more and more confirm'd by many new Inventions of things since and some of them of such general Use that 't is impossible to imagine they should not have been invented before if the World had been of a very long
continuance or have been lost again after they were once invented the same Objections have constantly lain against the Eternity of the World and these have been strengthen'd by several other Arguments drawn from the many Absurdities and Inconsistencies that seem to be implied in the Notion of eternal Succession All which and whatever else can be said against the Eternity of the World when asserted together with the eternal Existence of a God do more strongly conclude against this Supposition when the Being of a God is not taken into it under which respect I now consider it and thus consider'd it is moreover besides what has been already alledg'd attended with the same Difficulties and chargeable with the same Objections as the former Hypothesis was For Matter and Motion were no more capable of eternally producing such a Succession of various Objects as we perceive in the World than they were of producing them and the World together in time and yet if we suppose an eternal Succession of new Objects without a God they must all be produced by the Power of Matter and Motion For every particular new Object being produced in time must owe its Being to that which was eternal and nothing in this Supposition being eternal but Matter and Motion which under all Changes continue the same every new Generation of Beings must have their Original from these the precedent Generation having no other Powers nor Differences from the succeeding but what arise from the various Disposition of Matter and Motion This is plain as to all such Beings as want the Faculties of Perception and Will and upon Examination the Case will be found to be the same with respect to such as are endued with these Qualifications For even these also in the present Hypothesis must be allowed to derive their whole Being from Matter and Motion because they are temporary Beings which began to be and there is nothing else eternal but Matter and Motion and consequently there is no other Cause assignable for their Production Which need not be proved to those who hold the Eternity of the World without a God because there are none I believe of this Opinion but do ascribe the Original of Perception and Will to Matter and Motion making the former only different Modisications of the latter in which they act very consistently with themselves in making an absurd Scheme all of a piece not blending Truth with Falshood but taking in all the Absurdities that do any way depend upon one another and belong to the main building However that I may leave no room for Exception from any side I think my self obliged to shew that if Perception and Will are not the Issue and Effects of Matter and Motion as has already been shewn they are not the Existence of intelligent Beings without a God is inconceivable and impossible because no other Cause of their Production can be assigned For suppose it should be enquired how such a purticular man came to exist how he came to begin to be a conscious Being he did not put himself together in such a manner as we now perceive him to exist he did not give himself those Capacities and Powers he is conscious of together with his Consciousness of them this is a flat Contradiction and granted to be so on all hands Whence then did he derive this mighty Difference of Being we perceive in him by which he is distinguish'd from all other that fall under our Cognizance Not from some intelligent Being of infinitely greater Perfections of the like kind with those he perceives in himself not from any mechanical Powers of Matter and Motion both these Causes are set aside in the present Enquiry Nothing then remains but that the Man which now exists and sometime ago began to be must have received his Existence and all those Qualifications which distinguish him from Matter from some other man of the like nature with himself who existed before him but this is absurd and irrational not only upon the account of the infinite Subordination of Causes and Effects which follows from this Supposition which by every body is rejected as a shocking repugnant Notion but because it is hereby affirm'd that one Being may solely by its own power produce another Being of the same Nature and Perfections with its self which I take to be the next Impossibility to a Being's making it self For supposing the Existence of a God and that that may be allowed we have seen before 't is impossible that God should have another God of all the like Perfections with himself but of a distinct Existence proceeding from him in like manner we conceive it utterly impossible that any kind of Matter should produce the least new Particle of Matter nay one part of Matter never imparts any Motion to another without losing its self what the other receives and in all other material Productions there is only a new disposition of the parts of Matter and not any new Being of a distinct Nature from it which new Disposition is not received entirely from some other Being of the same kind or texture with its self but from material Particles and Motions conveyed from several distant parts of Nature and yet such different dispositions of Matter as are observ'd in the World cannot be conceived to be the product of Matter and Motion alone without the Assistance and Regulation of some other Being of higher Perfections as has been shewn before How then is it possible that one Mind or conscious Being should produce another entire distinct Mind or Being of equal Perfections with its self without losing any thing from it self or borrowing any Assistance from any other kind of Being existing in the World and what is as strange do all this without being conscious of this its chief Perfection as well as it is of all its other This I say cannot possibly be and therefore if the World be eternal without a God all the continual Changes and new Productions that have ever been in it must be ascribed to matter and Motion but Matter and Motion not being able to produce such Effects from hence I conclude that the Eternity of the World considered as it now is without the eternal Existence of a God is impossible And thus I have consider'd all the several Hypotheses which pretend to give any account of the present Constitution of things called the World with exclusion to the Being of a God I shall now take a short Review of each of them in conjunction with the Existence of a God and then pass to more general Reflexions to shew the Incompetency and Falshood of any other account whatsoever that can be given of the Original and Existence of things besides that of their proceeding in some manner from God But before I enter upon the Consideration of these Hypotheses which do all tho' in different manners establish an eternal Co-existence of Matter and Mind I think it necessary to premise something concerning the
aim at this End since the only way of attaining this End is by our Actions and we are assured by Experience that all our Actions do not lead to this End but Misery as well as Happiness may be the Effect and Consequence of our Actions it follows from hence that there must be one particular way of acting which if steadily pursued will certainly procure us greater Happiness than we can possibly attain by any other And farther if we are designed for Happiness and this Happiness be attainable only by one particular way of acting 't is certain that the same God who designed us for such an End must design also that we should act such a particular way as would conduct us thither In Conformity to which Designs we cannot but believe that as he has given us a certain Knowledge of and necessary Determinations toward our End he must have given us also sufficient Tokens and Indications of the Means that lead to it and upon Examination we are satisfied that he has so by framing our Minds after such a manner that we are necessarily determined to approve some Actions and to condemn others and to judge our selves obliged to do what we approve and to avoid what we condemn by giving us such natural Propensions and Aversions agreeable to the Judgments of our Reason as by a sudden and unperceivable Influence dispose us to and assist us in the Performance of the same Actions which Reason prescribes and by putting us into such a state or condition of Life with respect to one another where the different kinds of Government and Subjection and the Notions and Actions resulting from thence unavoidably lead us to the Acknowledgment of God's Superiority Power and Right of obliging and the Necessity of our Obedience to him in all the several Instances of Duty in which we conceive our selves bound to any governing Relation among Men but in a higher and more exalted manner as becomes the mighty Inequality between God and Man From whence we are farther led to conclude that all other Duties and Obligations we apprehend our selves under with respect to our selves or others are the Effect of our Obligation to God the Supreme Governour of the World whose Power and Right are over all things original and independent and all other Powers and Rights are derived from and dependent upon him the Sense of which Obligation makes all our Actions that are duely influenced by it termed Religious tho' God is not the immediate Object of them And these are sufficient Marks and Evidences to assure us that God does require us to act such a particular way and consequently that we are actually obliged to frame our Lives according to those Rules and Measures which come under the Name of Religion unless it can be shewn from more certain Discoveries of the Nature of Man and the Design of God that notwithstanding all these fair Appearances Religion is not the Way to Happiness But as 't is manifest from what we have already observed of the Nature of God and our own Frame and Constitution that no higher Assurances can be given us of the Truth of any thing than we have had in this matter from a Concurrence of our Reason natural Inclinations and external Condition and that we cannot be deceived in assenting to such Testimony so upon farther Experiences and Obserxations taken from our selves and the State of Mankind with relation to Religion we shall find that Religion is in its own Nature so suted and suited to the Nature of Man so propertion'd to the original Dispositions and Desires of the Soul as by a proper Tendency aad Esicacy to promote his Happiness This appears first by what we feel in our selves What just and impartial Reason approves we find a Pleasure in approving Inclination superadded to Judgment heightens the pleasing Sentiment acting what Nature inclines to and Reason warrants is accompanied with a new and higher Satisfaction all which we repeat and enjoy over again upon Reflexion And if any Pain or Uneasiness mixes with the Pleasure or attends it that does not arise from the same Thoughts or Actions that this does but from a contrary Application of Mind in our selves or others which opposes and obstructs us in the Practice of Religion or from some other extrinsical Caeuse that has no Dependance upon or Connexion with Religion so that the due Performance of any Religious Action is never properly the Cause of any Pain or Trouble to him that performs it however in some Instances it may seem to be the Occasion of it But in order to be farther satisfied of the natural Connexion betwixt Religion and Happiness and that we may more clearly perceive that the latter is the true and genuine Effect of the former we should take off our Thoughts from the present State of Mankind and represent to our selves another Generation of Men. living together in a constant regular Observance of all the Duties and Obligations of Religion for there we should behold such a glorious Scene of Happiness rising before us that considering the necessary Circumstances of our mortal Condition we could not possibly imagine or form an Idea of any thing in this Life beyond it This would be a State of universal Peace Safety Tranquility and Love where there would be no Injuries nor Tears no Envy nor Distrust where every Man would find all the Pleasures of Friendship in the Company of every Man and feel his own agreeable Thoughts towards others redoubled by knowing that they had all the same Sentiments for him In such a State as this all the natural Appetites and Desires of the Soul would be satisfied without a painful Eagerness in the Pursuit or Satiety in the Enjoyment and there would be no irregular imaginary Desires to create the Uneasiness of Disappointment then every Man would be pleased with all he did and have his Satisfaction heightned by a full and entire Assurance that his Actions were approved by the World and acceptable to God Was true Religion so universally and exactly practised among Men they would engage the Power and Wisdom of the supreme Governour in their Favour by the Honour Respect and Obedience they paid him they would be sure of all the Benefits and Advantages of humane Strength and Skill by a mutual Performance of all the Duties of Society and by an equal regular Conduct and Management of their own particular Capacities and Powers they would preserve themselves in the fittest and properest Condition of enjoying those agreeable Satisfactions God had put within their Reach and prolong the Enjoyment of them by continuing their Lives to the utmost Term they could by any Endeavours of their own carry them to Whoever takes a full and distinct View of Religion in all its Power and Extent must acknowledge that these are the true and necessary Effects of it where its Influence is freely dispensed without Check or Opposition from contrary Causes And what greater Happiness than this can we
of Religion about them which their Reason and Education will not give them leave wholly to cast off But if the Ignorance of the one and Prejudices of the other were removed as if Atheism spread and came into a general Reputation they soon would be then should we feel the dismal Effects and Consequences of these Principles far greater and dreadfuller than we can imagine or describe For there 's a great deal of Difference between an ignorant or half-persuaded Atheist and one that is positively and fully so upon Judgment and Reflexion Should a Nation of People be duly taught and instructed in the Doctrines of Irreligion they would be much more astonishingly wicked than those that had never heard of God or retain'd some loose imperfect Notions of him And if God should suffer this to be the Result of the bold Talk and Arguing of the present Atheists of this Nation they would then repent that they did not keep their Atheism to themselves and make their Advantage of other Peoples Credulity For if all the People or any considerable Number of them were of their Opinions they would soon overturn Government and bring all things to an Equality and then farewel to all the Pleasures Enjoyments and Conveniencies of Living when every Man must labour to maintain his own Life and be in continual Fear of having it taken away by others What I have said of Atheism is with very little Difference applicable to all manner of Deism which is such an acknowledgment of a God as does not include any Religion in it For if the Deist be of the Epicurean Sect and makes his God an unconcern'd Spectator of Human Actions he must as to what concerns his own Conduct judge and act altogether the same way that the Atheist does For if God require nothing of him is not pleased or offended with any thing he does nor has annex'd any Rewards or Punishments to this or that sort of Life he has full Liberty to chuse for himself and prosecute his own Happiness in what way or manner he shall think fit which is exactly the Case of the Atheist 'T is the same thing in effect with those that make God a necessary Cause and Men necessary Agents For according to this Opinion all Actions are alike as being equally necessary and all Men must obey their own Determinations and there can be no general Rules or Principles for Men to act by there is no such thing as Obligation Reward or Punishment nor have any of those Notions or Distinctions taken away by Atheism any place or foundation under this Hypothesis As to the Persuasion of those who believe a God acknowledge some sort of Providence and think they ow some regard to the sovereign Author and Governour of the World but deny a future State There seems indeed to be a considerable Difference betwixt this and the other extravagant Suppositions and so indeed there is as to the Credibility of the Opinion but the Influence it has upon Practice is very near the same especially with respect to those of these latter days to whom the Certainty of a future State hath been more fully discovered For if we consider the present Posture and Constitution of Human Affairs and believe that things have always gone on in the same Course from the beginning without any sensible extraordinary Interposition of Providence as they that deny all Revelation must believe If I say we are of this Opinion and observe how things are managed in the World how Wickedness oftentimes thrives and flourishes and that not only for a season but strengthens and fixes itself upon as lasting Foundations as our Happiness stands upon and how on the contrary the Calamitics and Sufferings of the Righteous are commensurate to their Lives and a great many of them meerly owing to that Character what Force or Power can some slight Sentiments of Religion have upon us when the present Happiness of this Life may be promoted by acting contrary to it and we have nothing to lose or fear after Death I shall not examine how far we are oblig'd to act in such a case upon the account of the certain irresistible Power of God which he may exert if he will tho it should be granted that he has not hitherto done it or upon the account of the Benefits we have received from him but we shall find this true in fact that those who are firmly persuaded that God will exert his Power no otherwise than he has done already will not by those promiscuous Punishments they see light upon all sorts of Men at different Times and in different Circumstances be deter'd from prosecuting the Designs they have conceiv'd for the Attainment or Establishment of their own Happiness by any means they shall think likely to succeed Thus have I endeavor'd to give a true account and Representation of all kind of Irreligion and to shew the necessary Effects of it with respect to the Happiness of Mankind And now upon a fair and just comparison of Religion and Irreligion together according to the different Notions and Consequences of them Religion must needs appear not only more agreeable to the Reason and true Interest of Men in general more suitable and proportionate to the Capacities and Exigencies of Human Nature but more conducive to the Happiness of particular Men in the present Constitution and State of human Societies in the World so that upon a due Balance of all the usual Accidents of Life 't is very probable a Religious Man should enjoy more Happiness while he lives here than a Person of another Character as might be fully and particularly made out if there was occasion but this requiring a set Discourse on purpose and not falling directly within my present Design I think it sufficient to mention some few general Considerations only which shew the Advantages a Religious Man has above another that acts by contrary Principles Such as are these following He that acts upon a true thorough Sense of Religion has with respect to all the external Enjoyments of the World more contracted Desires and fewer Wants than another and consequently his Happiness does much seldomer interfere with any other Man's and is less obnoxious to the Assaults of Envy Ambition or Covetousness than the prosperous Condition of the Wicked He is not eager in the pursuit of the necessary Supports and lesser Conveniencies of Life and takes care to avoid all manner of Injury and Offence of others and therefore must be freer from the Effects of Anger Malice and Revenge than such as advance their own Ease or Fortune by disquieting and robbing others He professes to help and assist in promoting the Happiness of other Men without any Worldly Advantage to himself and therefore there will be a great many who will find it their Interest to defend and secure him and perform several Offices of Kindness to him to engage his future Endeavours for them when there shall be occasion whereas
nothing at all or they mean the same thing as we do by a God or else they are altogether irrational and contradictory What are Fate Necessity Chance and universal Soul but meer Covers for Ignorance of the same kind as occult Causes the true Result of all which Principles is a new sort of Creation where all things are made by nothing or nothing is set up as the efficient Cause of all things But if those that use any of these Names mean by the Maker or Cause of all things a Being distinct from the things made such a Being cannot be conceived without all those glorious Attributes which make up our Idea of God For if we will allow the original Author of the World the highest Perfections imaginable by us as his Work certainly required if the first great Cause of all things had the noblest Qualities we can conceive as the Effects produced by it sufficiently declare we must grant this Author or Cause to be an intelligent Being endued with Knowledge and Will For 't is impossible for Man to frame a Notion of any Powers Faculties or Qualities greater or nobler than these and 't is easier to believe that some Man of more refined Intellectuals made the World than that any other Cause which wanted these Perfections could be the Author of it I shall not here enter into a more particular Disquisition of any Scheme or Hypothesis that excludes the Being of a God having consider'd them all before in the former part of this Discourse and shew'd them to be in those Points where they mean any thing distinct from the common Notions we have undertook to defend very absurd and inconsistent And indeed the Falshâ—â—â— and Absurdity of all these Schemes and Hypotheses which pretend to give an account of the Frame and State of things without a God or independently of him are so manifest and notorious that I am fully persuaded a Man may make good the Charge against a great Disproportion of Parts and Learning but this is not my business at present nor is there any occasion for such an Undertaking now For should we allow the Atheist's Scheme of things to be possible and consistent which is the most that is pretended yet we are assured by the common Reason of Mankind that the Philosophy of a God is most rational without the Help of Revelation and universal Tradition which confirm the Truth of it and therefore the Possibility of another Hypothesis cannot justify the Defenders of it unless they can also make it appear more reasonable and fit to be believed than that which obtains but the Atheist will never be able to give an easier juster and more satisfactory account of all the Phoenomena in the Universe than he who owns a God if he should offer at such a thing which is more than any one has ventured at yet And the same may be applied to others who acknowledge a God and pretend to shew there is no such thing as Religion and a Future State For they cannot say that God who made the World and all things in it cannot oversee and govern the Works of his hands that He who gave Man his Being and all his Faculties and Capacities cannot require him to act after such a manner while he lives or is not able to renew him again after Death and continue his Life to him in such a State as he pleases to make agreeable or disagreeable to him and as long as he pleases This is to bring Weakness out of Strength to set Bounds to God within the acknowledg'd Sphere of his Power to say he cannot do things which are less than those he can do Nor can they prove 't is more agreeable to the Nature of God and all those Notions we have concerning Him and our selves that he should not exercise his Power after this manner than that he should The utmost all the Proof they bring can amount to is to shew that 't is possible God may not do all this that we conceive of him as will plainly appear if we consider the chief Arguments made use of upon this occasion which are taken from the supposed Materiality and Mortality of the Soul Here lies the Principal Strength of Irreligion these are the fundamental Principles the whole Fabrick stands upon and great Endeavours have been used to confirm the Truth of them Now 't is plain to any Man that duly considers these Notions without that Confusion and Ambiguity of Terms they are commonly delivered in that 't is impossible to prove that what we call the Soul is not something perfectly distinct from Matter and Motion and all the Modifications of them and that it cannot subsist and act after the Dissolution of the Body nor are there any Arguments producible to persuade us 't is more probable that the Soul should be something material and dissolved with the Body than that it should be a distinct Principle and survive it All that can be said is that we cannot from the Knowledge we have of the Qualities and Operations we attribute to each certainly demonstrate what we term Soul and Body to be two distinct Substances tho at the same time it must be confess'd that Men have been generally more disposed to believe this than the contrary Opinion and 't is as demonstrable that what we attribute to the Soul is not any Mode Composition or Result of the Qualities we ascribe to Body as it is that any Idea we have in our Minds is not any other Allowing then that 't is possible that every thing we ascribe to Body and Soul separately may be united in one common Subject which is the most that can be supposed and that this common Subject at the time we call Death loses those Capacities and Powers we attribute to the Soul in the same manner as it is divested of Motion from hence it follows that it is possible also that the same common Subject may never subsist in the same manner it did before with all those different Qualities united in it in like manner as 't is possible what is now at rest may never be in motion again But then it is as possible also that it may God may if he pleases put us together again after death in such a manner that we shall feel our selves to be the same we were before we died and be conscious of all our former Life and that he will do so we have a great deal of reason to think had we not any assurance of it from Revelation as has before been proved And therefore the Arguments for the Materiality and Mortality of the Soul let them have all the Weight and Certainty they are imagined to have are wholly trifling and insignificant with respect to what they are brought to prove For no new Discoveries are hereby made of the Will and Design of God and consequently the Proof that has been given of Religion and a Future State will have the same Force and Evidence still tho
of him Or is really a necessary part of the Divine nature and helps to make up the Idea of God Or did eternally proceed from him because he had eternally an effectual will to produce it But the first of these Suppositions cannot be true for neither Matter it self nor Matter and Motion nor the present Constitution of things can be eternal independently of God because as has been fully proved already neither of them can be supposed to have existed eternally without a God From which proof it sufficiently appears that neither of them have the essential Properties of an eternal Being viz. necessary Existence and all possible Perfection nor the Consequence of them viz. the actual production of all temporary Beings For which soever of them is supposed there are suppos'd also wanting those Perfections we ascribe to God which are certainly the chief if not the only ones imaginable by us And there can be no necessity of Existence where these are wanting because then we may suppose a necessary eternal Being with them which will be of greater Perfections than another necessary eternal Being without them but we cannot suppose two necessary and independent eternal Beings of unequal Perfections therefore what wants any of these Qualifications we ascribe to God cannot exist necessarily and of it self And further what we suppose destitute of Knowledge and Will can have no sufficient power of producing Temporary Beings was it in its self allowed to be eternal as is manifest from what has been said upon the several Hypotheses that exclude the Being of a God And therefore what ever is supposed eternal which does not enter into the Idea we have given of God must be taken into it as necessarily belonging to the Divine Nature or be look'd upon as the free eternal effect of his eternal Will Thus some have affrm'd that the World and every thing we see or know is God Others that all things flowed from God by which if they mean necessary Emanation they must be referred to his Being and Essence if production to his Will So that however we express our selves upon these Matters every thing that we can imagine or frame any Notion of must be either God or some way proceed from him be reckoned to his Nature or his Works The Inference from all which is this That 't is most rational to think that no more belongs to the Idea of God than what we have before ascribed to him and that he did in time of his own free will produce every thing not contained in that Idea even original Matter and Motion as well as the frame and Structure of the World and the Variety of particular Beings in it But if any Man asserts the Eternity of any of these together with God in the full extent of the Idea we have given of him however his Opinion may be true or false it can make no change in our Thoughts with regard to Religion the Idea of God being so far the same here as we have establisht it the same Consequences will every where flow from it and the Assertors of any such Opinion will bear the same Relation to God and be under the same Obligations with us that differ from them in some other things relating to God which however held have no other Influence upon us than as we are obliged not to Entertain any false Notions of God willingly when we may have better Information or if we cannot yet other Opinions may appear more suitable to our Reason and more for the Honour of God which I take to be the present Case and therefore shall wave any further Enquiry into these Matters as having no prospect of a Possibility of knowing any thing more about them Thus have I with as much Brevity and Dispatch as the Subject would allow examined all the Accounts that are or can be given of the present Existence of things And from particular Observations upon each of them not all that might be made but such as I judg'd sufficient for my purpose I think I have made it very evident that there must be a God or Being of such a nature as I before described who was the true and only Cause or Author of every thing we see or know or has over been beside him and without the Supposition of such a Being the World could not possibly have ever existed any other way I shall now add some general Reflexions to strengthen the common Hypothesis concerning the Original of the World and so conclude the Proof of a God That the World is as we now perceive must be ascribed to Chance Necessity or Wisdom but Chance is nothing Necessity without a God unintelligible and therefore Wisdom or what is meant by it God who is a wise Being made the World and all things in it in the form and manner we now behold and admire The World 's being made by chance is being we know not how being made without any Cause and to speak thus is to use Words without any Meaning under them There 's no Man that has made any Enquiries into the Nature of Things but knows that nothing can be that before was not without owing its Original to some real positive Being of antecedent Existence Inadequate and insufficient Causes are often assigned for the Production of things because being next to and immediately preceding the Effects they are solely taken notice of without any regard had to their Subordination to or Direction by others and oftentimes something is thought to be the next and immediate Cause of a thing which is no ways concern'd in it but in both these Cases 't is by reason of some real Efficiency observed that these Judgments are made which must all proceed from some real Being tho' there may be a Mistake in attributing it to a wrong one or to one that had only a share in the Effect and therefore there must be something real assign'd which was as much and as properly the immediate Cause of the meeting of the Parts of Matter in order to make a World as the parts of Matter so met were the Cause of the Production of the World which can be nothing else but such and such particular Determinations of Figure and Motion in the several parts of Matter but these must be either eternal or the Effect of certain eternal sixt Rules resulting from the Natures of Matter and Motion or be made by a divine Power in all which there can be nothing casual but every thing necessary or providential For supposing the whole System of Matter so and so figured and moved we cannot consider it as indifferent to several Effects but necessarily determined to one which must inevitably follow such a supposed Disposition unless something extrinsical to Matter should restrain or change the Determination If any thing extrinsical to Matter or besides Matter and Motion be allowed it must be God if there be nothing else existing but Matter and Motion then are all the Effects
resulting from them necessary because whatever Disposition or Motion of Matter we suppose and whensoever in the whole extent of Eternity we suppose it every following Effect must have been what it is and there could have been no other produced in the room of it The Reason why certain Portions of Matter so and so figured and moved do not always necessarily produce the same Effects is because their particular Determinations are restrained or over-ruled by the necessary Impulses of other extrinsical Matter or the greater Power of the Divine Will which being unperceiv'd by us make us look upon several of these particular Effects as casual which can only and that very improperly too with respect to our Comprehension be stiled so whereas in reality with respect to the universal Nature and Efficiency of things they must be either necessary or voluntary But if we consider the whole Frame and Collection of things together we cannot form any sort of Idea of Chance either in the World as it now is or in its original Formation unless we will be so ridiculous as to say every thing that is is casual that every thing that has been from all Eternity happen'd by chance and that it was by chance that Matter and Motion were eternal or that any thing existed at all Chance having the same Title to all these Effects as to any one of them I need not consider the other Occasion we take of forming this Notion of Chance from the Indifference we are oftentimes conscious of in our selves with regard to several contrary Actions which makes the following of one Action rather than another where the Cause seems equally disposed to both be look'd upon as a casual Result rather than a proper Effect This may be accounted for otherwise by the Preponderancy of some motive determining us to act this way rather than another and the seeming Indifference be shewed to be the effect of our Ignorance of the whole Nature and all the Consequences of the thing in question and the several Reasons and ways of acting but there is no occasion for such a Proof because those that say the World was made by chance cannot be supposed to use the Word in this Sense forasmuch as they do not acknowledge that God or any intelligent Being was concern'd in the Production of it or if they did would they be so absurd and entertain such low Notions of him as to think that some chance Thought or Action of his produced it 'T is plain then that Chance is nothing else but an insignificant Word and an ignorant Pretence which has no Sense nor Reason under it and therefore can give us no manner of light in our Enquiries into the Nature and Original of things Neither will Necessity which is the next thing to be consider'd give us much better Satisfaction For if we examine this Notion well 't will evidently appear that there can be no Necessity for the present Existence of the World in the manner we behold The Question is not whether 't was necessary that God should make such a World as this supposing there is a God tho' this may easily be proved that 't was not but whether 't was absolutely necessary there should be such a World as this without a God and I think it may be certainly demonstrated that it was not For nothing can be said to be absolutely necessary but what 't is altogether impossible should be otherwise but 't is not impossible that the World should never have existed or should ever be destroyed now it does exist For if this be absolutely impossible then is it absolutely impossible that there should be any thing of greater Perfection and Power than the World for if there was that Being of greater Perfection and Power than the World could have hindred the World from existing or could now destroy it but 't is not impossible there should be such a Being because it is not impossible to conceive such a Being for what may be conceived to exist may exist But if any Man shall say he cannot conceive such a Being as could hinder Matter from existing or destroy it now it does exist because he cannot conceive a Power of making something out of nothing or of reducing something to nothing the last of which is here supposed and no Account can be given of the present Existence of things without allowing the first if such a Being as this in question is supposed and the Necessity of the World's Existence is taken away If any Man I say should object this I answer that it seems to me conceivable enough from the Idea I have of God that what is here ascribed to him may fall within the compass of his Power which reaching to all things possible that is to all things which do not imply a Contradiction may extend to the Acts of Creation and Annihilation which tho' the manner of the Performance be incomprehensible cannot be proved to carry any Contradiction in them However if there be those that pretend they cannot comprehend the Possibility of these Actions yet this is very conceivable by any Man that there may be some Being of that Perfection and Power that tho' he could not hinder Matter from existing or reduce it to nothing afterwards yet he might have hinder'd it from being put into any Motion Form or Order and continued it in that State or could reduce it now to a confused unmoving Chaos or scatter it into innumerable incoherent Particles There 's no manner of Difficulty for a Man to frame a Notion of these things who has seen frequent Instances of the same kind of Power in a lesser degree exercised by Men. And this is sufficient to overthrow the Necessity of the present Frame and Constitution of things which was the thing design'd If therefore the World and all things in it in the Condition we now behold do not subsist by a necessity of Being nor are the result of Chance it immediately follows that they are the Effect and Product of Wisdom the Workmanship and Contrivance of a wise Agent This is certainly the most rational Hypothesis that can be devised or imagined for we that maintain this Opinion have clear and distinct Ideas of Power and Wisdom by which we explain the Original of Things but those who ascribe the Existence and Structure of the World to any thing else have no manner of Ideas of what they ascribe them to No Man has any Idea of Chance or Necessity except he annexes the Idea of Power to them and he can have no Idea of Power without Knowledge all Power proceeding originally from Mind which by Consciousness we are Sensible of and we can frame no Notion of any other Seat or Spring of Power and therefore we make some Mind or intelligent Being the Author of every thing as being the only conceivable Fountain of all Power Our Notions of Wisdom Contrivance Design are as clear as that of Power and known the same way And if
they are ever plainly perceivable in their Works and Effects they are so in the Frame and Constitution of the World and the several parts of it If we have any reason to conclude that Towns and Cities were built and Kingdoms and Commonwealths were modell'd by the Thought and Contrivance of intelligent Beings we have much more Cause to believe that the Universe was made fashion'd and disposed by the Counsel and Wisdom of some more perfect and capacious Mind the Marks and Prints of Wisdom being plainer and more legible in the Oeconomy of the World than any of the most admired Works of Man And therefore if we allow our selves to have any Ideas of Power and Knowledge we must confess that Power is inseparable from Knowledge and that there is no Power but there is some Knowledge commensurate to it it being utterly inconceivable that any thing should be or be made which there is no Being that knows And this I think is of it self Ground enough to believe there is a God who was the Author of the World and every thing in it without carrying the Proof any higher but for those that will not be satisfied with this I have given a farther Demonstration of the Being of God not with any Hopes of convincing them but to make it impossible for them to urge any thing to the contrary Thus have I finished the Proof of a God and as I think made it very evident that there really is such a Being and that what we call God is a Being of such a nature as I before described invested with all these Characters and Properties I there attributed to him Which Considerations together with those plain and easy Reflexions before suggested upon our selves and our own Nature if carefully attended to will certainly convince us of the Reality of all those Relations I have supposed between God and Man and furnish us with many direct and undeniable Arguments of the Truth and Necessity of Religion which is the third Thing I proposed and the principal part of the Design I am pursuing in this Discourse III. From the Knowledge I have shewn we have or are capable of having concerning the Humane and Divine Natures I shall deduce a positive and direct Proof of Religion Religion in short is whatever we are obliged to by God In order therefore to prove there is such a thing as Religion we must shew that Man is capable of being obliged to act after such a particular manner that God has a Power of obliging him so to act and that Man is actually under such an Obligation or God does actually will and require something of him Now 't is plain by the Account we have before given of the Nature of Man and every one that consults himself may find it to be so that he has in several cases a Power of determining himself to act or not to act and a Power of acting or not acting according to such Determination that he is influenced to act several ways by different Motives and Prospects and that he oftentimes suffers himself to be influenced by certain Considerations which he might and ought not to have acted by as he plainly perceives and knows by condemning himself afterwards for what he has done and that he often neglects or refuses to obey such Motives and Incitements to Action which he ought to have followed as his own Approbation of them before and after the Neglect or Refusal convinces him of From whence it evidently follows that a Man may be obliged to act one particular way rather than another that is there may be such Reasons and Motives for his acting this way that upon a just Ballance of all the several Inducements that could be offered to him for any other he must acknowledge ought to determine him so that should he act the way he must necessarily approve himself and should he act any other he must necessarily condemn himself That Being which has a Power of offering such Reasons and Motives to any Man as these may properly be said to have a Power of obliging him to act such or such a way And that God has this Power is very manifest if we consider what it is that influences and determines us to act which being nothing else but some kind of Pain or Pleasure in present or in prospect God who can do all things possible and consequently who can put us into and continue us to all Eternity in a state of Pain or Pleasure the greatest our Natures are capable of can by annexing these to different ways of acting offer such Motives to us as we shall be forced to acknowledge ought to determine us to act one particular way and therefore God can if he please oblige us so to act The only Question then is Whether we are actually under such Obligation whether God has prescribed such Actions and annexed such Consequences to different kinds of Action as make it necessary to our Happiness to act that particular way he has prescribed But before I enter upon the particular Resolution of this Question I think it requisite to give a fuller Account of the Nature and Ground of what we call Obligation or Duty together with the Right and Power of obliging Now 't is plain from what has been already said That an Obligation with respect to Man is nothing else but such a Reason or Motive as when duly offered to him necessarily determines him to chuse or prefer one way of acting before another and this Reason or Motive can be nothing else but a greater degree of Misery or Happiness to be avoided or obtained by thus acting than all things considered can be avoided or obrained by acting any other way Such a Reason or Motive as this does in the strictest and properest Sense of the Word oblige us to act according to it or which is all one we ought or it is our Duty so to do that is we find our selves under a necessity of Judging thus There is no other Notion or Ground of Obligation imaginable or if there be any other pretended upon Examination it will be found to be ultimately resolvable into this What is meant by the Right and Power of obliging in what respects they are the same or at least only distinct Conceptions of the same thing and in what respects they are different will plainly appear if we consider the several Instances to which these Notions are applied All the Beings capable of obliging or being obliged are those we call intelligent Beings which as far as our Knowledge in these Matters reaches are only God Angels and Men. Whether there are any Angels or middle Natures betwixt God and Men and how they Act with regard to other intelligent Beings natural Reason does not certainly inform us but in general with respect to all the intelligent Beings we can frame any Notions of it may be affirmed that no one has a Right or Power of obliging another to act such a particular way
without a larger Date of present Life or a prospect of another conceive our selves capable of or at least is attainable by any other Actions besides those of Religion But this I confess is all but an imaginary Scene a bare Idea or Pattern drawn by the Mind which never was and perhaps never will be exemplified in the reality of things and therefore it does not necessarily follow from hence that when the Generality of Men act contrary to Religion as now they do those few that are mixt with them and live exactly according to the Rules and I recepts of it shall enjoy more Happiness than any of the rest much less such whose Practice is inconstant and defective which is certainly the Case of the best and most careful Observers of those measures of acting which Religion prescribes However thus much I think may justly be inferr'd That Religion is in its own Nature productive of Happiness and nothing else and consequently was design'd and ordain'd by God that it should obtain this Effect From whence I conclude that if Man was made for Happiness and directed and disposed to seek it by the means of Religion and these means are found to be in their own Nature sufficient but are some way or other without the Fault of the Person that uses them render'd ineffectual for the present from hence I say we may certainly conclude that God who in his great Wisdom has order'd all these things did not order them in vain or with an Intention of deceiving but has contrived it so that some time or other the End to which they all point shall be obtained and therefore if a full and exact Observance of all the Duties of Religion be not attended with a suitable Happiness in this Life 't is a strong Proof that there will be a future State in which there will be Rewards answerable to the highest Performances and Expectations We have Reason also from the Goodness and Wisdom of God to hope that the sincere Endeavours of those whose Course is sometimes interrupted with voluntary Transgressions of the Rules prescribed them will notwithstanding by some Favour or Grace procure them a State of Happiness But this we may be sure of that God will put a mighty Distinction betwixt such as do but sometimes deviate from those religious measures they have proposed to themselves and those who constantly act by different Principles 4. The Proof of this Conclusion is the fourth thing I proposed in order to the Establishment of the Truth and Necessity of Religion Here then I am to shew that the Defect of a general and regular Practice of Religion and the Consequences of this Defect do necessarily lead us to the Acknowledgment of such a future State as is sufficient to determine us to prefer one particular way of Life before another upon such Reasons and Motives that is such degrees of Happiness and Misery as we are sure greater and more powerful cannot be offered to us 'T is very plain that Religion is not universally practised in the World nor do the generality of any Nation or Society of Men make their Duty to God the governing Principle of their Actions 'T is manifest likewise that those few who are sensible of their Obligations and endeavour to discharge them do in many Instances neglect them or act contrary to them upon which Accounts it happens that as there is a great deal more Misery in the World than our mortal Condition would otherwise subject us to so it oftentimes falls to the religious Man's Lot to have the greatest share of it Nor is all the Trouble and Uneasiness he suffers the Effect of vicious Habits and Impressions mixing with and obstructing the Performance of his Duty or carrying him to contrary Actions tho' very much is owing to this Cause but a great many Afflictions and Calamities are laid upon him by the Malice and Hatred of wicked Men purely for his being religious so that did he perfectly and compleatly fulfil all his Duty to God there 's Reason to believe his Misery would be proportionably encreased as far as it was in their Power to do it From whence it plainly follows that God has provided some other state of Happiness for such as live exactly according to his Purpose and Intention here which will be so full and sufficient a Recompence for all the Misery they have suffered in this Life as to justify their Obedience to God upon such Terms For if God design'd Man for Happiness as 't is certain he did and appointed Religion to be the means to it as manifestly appears from his annexing Pleasure to the purest and most unmixt practice of it as well as from several other Indications 't is impossible to suppose that God should suffer his Ends to be defeated after a due and proper Use of the means by the derived dependent Power and Contrivance of other Beings and order it so that those who were most diligent and exact in observing the truest measures of acting should for that very reason meet with the least Success Should we therefore suppose a few perfectly religious afflicted and tormented by wicked Men barely upon that account as there can be no other if they are what we suppose them to be we must then conclude that God has mighty Blessings in store for them in comparison of which their present Sufferings are as nothing From hence also we may infer that those whose sincere Resolutions and Endeavours are not attended with exact and universal Performance and yet who are rendred more miserable by the Actions of wicked men than they otherwise would have been for the sake of those degrees of Religion they come up to 't is reasonable I say to conclude that those will some time or other receive more Happiness or less Misery than others proportionably to the difference of their Obedience and Affliction now For according as they have pursued the Means so will their Attainments of the End be or if no Reward be due but to a full Discharge of all Obligations it cannot be imagin'd that those who have Perform'd some part of what they were obliged to and endeavoured at general Obedience should be punished as high as those who have been guilty of a greater or of a total Neglect Contempt or Volation of their Duty However therefore it be as to the manner of it 't is very agreeable to the Wisdom and Designs of God according to all the Indications he has given to Mankind of them to make the Condition of those who act by the Principles of Religion preferable to that of others who act by contrary Measures which it would not always be was there no other State of Life after this is ended From all which it plainly follows that there must be a Future State in which Men will be distinguish'd from one another by different degrees of Happiness and Misery according to the different regard they had to Religion in this Life The Certainty
or resistible to contradict the general Belief of the World without making any new Discoveries or Observations to lay aside a whole Scheme and System of things which has been proved and established in all the principal Branches and Connexions of it because we are not able to comprehend or account for some little remote Consequence and to venture eternal Misery upon a seeming Possibility of an Escape which very few perceive or allow These are all egregious Instances of the absurd Faith and foolish Conduct of the Enemies of Religion and consequently good Proofs of the Judgment and Wisdom of those who believe and act upon contrary Grounds and Measures There 's another thing also which the Atheist commonly discovers his Folly in and that is the publishing and propagating his Opinions For 't is more the Atheist's Interest that other People should have Religion than 't is the Religious Man's For his whole Happiness being in this Life the more other People are restrain'd and the better they are persuaded he acts by the same Rules they do the larger will his Liberty and Advantages be and the less he will suffer from their Designs and Pursuits whereas the Religious Man's Reversion is not endanger'd but confirm'd by what he loses or suffers here Other Proofs likewise of the Unreasonableness and Absurdity of Irreligion might be brought from the Inconsistency both of the Faith and Practice of such as are profess'd Favourers of it such as their Credulity and readiness of Belief in common indifferent Matters and sometimes embracing absurd Opinions exploded by all the World when at the same time they are distrustful of every thing upon the Subject of Religion their believing Matters that concern their present Happiness upon less Grounds their exposing themselves to greater Troubles and Inconveniences and running greater Hazards upon a fainter Prospect of future Happiness in this Life and sometimes on the contrary fearing and avoiding things upon a less Appearance or Likelyhood of Danger than what Religion affords and lastly their acting contrary to their own Principles and denying themselves what they esteem substantial Happiness out of a regard to imaginary Notions which have no Foundation but in the Opinion of Men. But these being Matters of common Observation and too long to be fully insisted upon here I shall think it sufficient to have hinted at them and so pass on to the VI. Sixth and last general Branch of my Discourse proposed in the beginning of it and that is To give some Account of the Causes of all Atheism and Irreligion or the Reasons that induce Men to take up such Opinions There 's nothing People are better satisfied of than the Power nnd Influence of Prejudices and false Motives of Judging every body being apt to resolve the Cause of another Mans differing in opinion from him into some particular Byass upon his Understanding But this we do commonly without examining whether the Person that differs from us has not better Reasons for his Dissent than we have for our Persuasion whether the Opinion he is of be not in the Reality of things true tho he believes upon false Grounds or whether we our selves are not disposed to judg as we do upon some of the like Motives we suppose him to be directed by By which means we are often not only guilty of the same Partiality we charge upon others but either confirm'd in our Errors or else prevented from making just Enquiries into the Truth of things so that if we are in the right it is by chance and more than we are able to prove to our selves or others Upon which account I think it a very preposterous and deceitful Method of proving a thing false to assign some peculiar Prejudices and wrong Motives of judging which may possibly induce Men to be of such an Opinion tho the Truth should be of the other side and which have often had the like Influence upon Men's Understandings in other Matters and from thence immediately without any further Proof to infer that such and such Persons have no other Reasons for their Belief of the point in question and consequently that they are in the wrong this I say is not a fair way of arguing But after plain and manifest Proofs of the Truth of an Opinion according to the standing Rules and Principles of Reasoning it is not only proper to enquire how any People came to be of a contrary Persuasion but the Strangeness and seeming Unaccountableness of the thing make it expected and in some respect necessary in order to a fuller Satisfaction of those who notwithstanding all the appearance of Evidence to themselves may be apt to have such favourable Notions of Mankind as not to imagine that Persons who have the same Faculties and all other Advantages of Knowledge as they have should deny what appears so plain to them without some rational Grounds for their Denial Having therefore as I persuade my self fully and evidently proved the Truth of Religion I think I may now be allow'd to say That all Atheism and Irreligion must be the sole Effect of Prejudice and Prepossession if any such Cause of it is assignable And if we search the Heart of Man and look into the hidden Mysteries of Iniquity lodg'd there if we consider all the false and corrupt Reasonings and the several Arts and Methods of Deceit which are used by Men to delude themselves we shall soon discover the secret Spring and Original of all Atheism and Unbelief Now the Causes from whence it proceeds are these two The Fear of an After-reckoning for a wicked Life and The Pride and Vanity of appearing greater or wiser than other Men. The first of which is the principal and most powerful Cause and is only assisted and strenghened afterwards by the Accession of the latter And what other Reason can be assigned It cannot be the Force and Evidence of Truth as plainly appears not only from the foregoing Proofs of Religion but from the Confession and Conduct of the Atheists themselves It is not because the Notions of God Immortality and a Future State shock the Understanding and contradict the plain Principles of Reason that they deny these Foundations of all Religion Was the Being of God consider'd only as an Hypothesis to solve the Difficulties of Nature by without those troublesome Consequences of Duty Sin and Punishment the Atheist would not scruple this Philosophy and Lucretius himself would easily grant the Soul to be immortal to be separated from the Body and reunited again would you allow him that Conclusion that neither separate nor reunited it hath any Sense or Remembrance of what was done before the Separation God should also enjoy the Fulness of Perfection he should be clothed with all the magnificent Attributes that Man could conceive so his whole Employment was the Comprehension of himself and the Contemplation of his own Glory and he was not unnecessarily troubled to take account of our Actions This is the dreadful
capable of greater Performances And to despise and contemn what the rest of Mankind stand in aw of seems to shew such a Superiority of Sense or Courage as easily tempts Men to affect this Character without considering whether they are able to support it Thus are Men confirm'd and established in Atheism by the Pride and Vanity of appearing greater or wiser than others and being thought Masters of finer and more extraordinary Talents either of Wit or Reflexion as is plain also from another Instance in which Men shew themselve to be very much influenced by these Motives in matters of Religion and that is a groundless unreasonable Diffidence and Jealousie of being put or imposed upon calling every thing Trick or Imposture that they do not understand or any body else gets an Advantage by For by this means they imagin they establish to themselves a Reputation of great Sagacity and Reach and seeing far into matters whereas in reality this overmuch Cunning of theirs only betrays the Weakness of their Judgments and shews them to be of the same size of Understanding with those foolish Politicians who find a thousand Mysteries in State-Affairs more than the Managers themselves ever knew of and think every the most natural and undesigning Action of a Prince to be the effect of some secret Counsel and Contrivance Now that these beforementioned are the true and proper Causes of Atheism and that the Belief and Patronage of the Doctrines of Irreligion is the sole Result of Prejudice and not deliberate Reason will further appear from the following Reflexions 1. Those who go under the Name of Atheists or Deists whether real pretended or reputed are generally Persons of no great Reach or Capacity Men of strong Lusts and irregular Imaginations without a due Ballast of Reason impatient of Thinking and Attention and consequently unable to examine any Variety of Pretences or to distinguish betwixt Colour and Argument Those of them who are furnish'd with a better stock of natural Sense have it wholly unimproved and uncultivated or if they have made any Advances in Knowledge by Study or Industry they have either begun late and so fell into the middle of Learning without the Assistance of the first grounds and Rudiments and applied themselves to such Books they light upon or which happened to be recommended to them without due Choice and Direction or else they have been chiefly conversant in such Studies as have by no means qualified them to be Judges out of their own Way For a Man may be very well vers'd in History Antiquities or Experimental Knowledge he may be a great Master of Language and Criticism and a nice Discerner of the true Meaning or Reading of an antient Author he may have a just Relish for Wit and Elegance of Expression and have Skill enough to discover the Beauties and Faults of the most celebrated Models of Writing and yet after all in matters of general and abstracted Reasoning not be able to understand a plain easie Consequence For 't is not difficult to observe how ridiculously oftentimes Men of known Abilities in some of these or the like respects argue and infer and how incapable they are of making or perceiving a just Deduction in points of moral or civil Knowledge and such in which the Conduct of Life and Happiness of Mankind is immediately concerned whereas on the contrary those who are acquainted with the general Rules and Laws of Reasoning and the different kinds and manners of Proof are capable of making true Judgments and Inferences in any Subject they have been ever so little conversant in upon a bare explication of the Terms and just relation of Facts belonging to the Matter to be judg'd of Now this is a piece of Knowledge that I may venture to say the Favourers of Irreligion have been always the greatest Strangers to and the less any of them have been acquainted with this kind of Learning the less they have employed and exercised their rational Faculties and still the less common natural Sense they have been born with the stronger more confident and more unscrupulous Atheists have they been 2. Secondly as we are satisfied from the Character and Capacities of the Atheists that they are wholly determined to their Opinions by Prejudices and false unequal Motives of Judging so are we further confirmed in this Persuasion by the Manner and Process of their Faith For they commonly believe first before they enter upon any Examination or Proof of their Principles What they understand of the matter all the Arguments or Objections they are furnish'd with are found out afterwards not to satisfie and convince themselves but to make a shew of Defence against the Charge of others they take up their Opinions hastily and of a suddain they do not proceed by Degrees by cautious and wary Steps weighing and ballancing the Arguments on both sides sometimes inclining to the one and sometimes to the other calling in the Advice and Reason of other Men to their assistance and all along shewing a Concern and Fear of being mistaken suitable to the Importance of the thing to be judged of Thus do Men commonly behave themselves in a Change from one Sect of Religion to another if they sincerely aim at Truth and are not governed by any other false Motive But who ever heard of a Man who took this method of turning Atheist Which of them all can say he consider'd and compared the Proofs of both Opinions before he left one and took up the other When was any body called in to plead in the behalf of Religion before it was cast off and to settle the first Mistrusts and Waverings of an Atheistical Conscience Afterwards perhaps upon some Checks and Reluctance of his Mind an Atheist may have had some faint Designs of examining into the Truth of Matters and may have discours'd with others about it but then a long custom of thinking and talking one way and the troublesome Consequences attending a Change of Faith may have indisposed him to entertain or relish the Arguments for Religion not to mention any thing of a judicial Blindness inflicted upon him from God for his long unreasonable Opposition to the Truth But if an Atheist will examine fairly into the first Rise and Original of his Faith he will find it was a hasty Effort occasioned by high Blood and a rais'd Imagination or some bold Strain of Wit that struck him when he was rightly disposed to be pleased with it And if we should examine into these things more particularly I believe it would appear that all irreligious Opinions are first taken up in Company and that no Man receives the first Impressions of Atheism alone from his own calm and sedate Reflexions And thus as Irreligion springs from Prejudice so is it nourished and fed the same way by a constant Application to such Books and Company as give it any countenance or colour of Defence with an industrious avoiding and ridiculing the contrary picking out such
things as minister most occasion for Raillery and magnifying every bold thing that is said by any Man without any regard to his other Opinions or the Consequences even of that that is liked 't is no matter whether it really proves any thing against Religion or no so it is thought by the Professors of Religion to bear hard either upon the fundamental Principles or any remote acccessional Doctrines owned by them From whence it comes to pass that the present Atheism is a promiscuous Miscellany of all the bold notions that have ever been vented by those they stile Free-thinkers where whatever seems to be levelled against any Point of Religion is embraced as the most sensible and rational account that can be given of the thing but those Parts of Religion which are established by the same Authors are slighted and past over as weakly done whereas I will be bound to prove that there is never an Article or Duty of Religion profess'd by us but is own'd and maintain'd by some or other of these bold Free-thinking Authors which are so highly approved and commended by the present Atheists And what a gross Partiality is this not to allow those whom they cry up for unprejudic'd Men to talk a Word of Sense or Reason but when what they say makes for their Purpose 3. But Thirdly we have a more convincing Proof that the Doctrines of Irreligion are the genuine Issue and Effects of the Causes before assigned from the open Confession of several Atheists themselves who upon just Convictions of Conscience having disclaimed their Atheism have freely and sincerely owned that they threw off Religion without ever examining or considering the Proofs of it that they were disposed and induced to entertain irreligious Notions by the Power and Influence of their Lusts or such vicious Habits and Customs of living as they thought irreconcilable with a contrary Belief that the Reasons why they endeavoured to persuade themselves of what their Course of Life inclined them to believe were to defend those Liberties of Practice they took against the Censures of others and to secure their own Minds in an easie undisturb'd Enjoyment of them that commonly the first and strongest Impressions of Unbelief were occasioned by some bold Hints and Insinuations or some witty Ridicule or Raillery upon the Subject of Religion that as these either in Books or Discourse coming from others gave them very great Pleasure and by that means Assurance in embracing these new Principles so were they further pleased and confirm'd together in their Belief of them by applauded Trials and Exercise of their own Wit the same way especially when the general Disposition of the Persons they convers'd with made this Entertainment very agreeable and very frequent All this have several Atheists upon their Repentance acknowledg'd And that which strengthens the Argument drawn from hence is that those who have renounced their Irreligious Principles and given this account of themselves have been some of them Men of the best natural Abilities and greatest acquired Improvements of any that ever took the Party of Atheism and their Repentance has been free and voluntary and not extorted by any frightful Representations or importunate Addresses in the seasons of Fear and Weakness it has begun from themselves and been wholly owing to the over-ruling Impressions of a Divine Power and not to Human Persuasion and their Blindness and Prejudices being by this means removed the Arguments for Religion have prevailed upon them by their own Strength as suggested to them by their own Reason without receiving any Advantage from the Management and Art of others And this I think sufficient to shew that Atheism proceeds from strong Prejudices and false disproportioned Motions of judging and is not the result of just Reasoning and impartial Reflexion I have now gone through the several Branches of my Discourse I proposed to my self in the beginning of it and sinished the Proof I undertook of general or as 't is commonly called natural Reliligion All that I have further to add upon this Subject at present is to give some account of the Notions of Atheism and Deism which Words I have been forced to use sometimes promiscuously and in a different Sense from the common acceptation for want of a fit and proper Word to express a Belief or Profession of any such Opinions which take away the practical Influence and Power of Religion For which reason I think it convenient in this place that I may remedy any Confusion or Mistake the Liberty I have taken in the use of these Terms may have occasioned to set down distinctly what I look upon to be the common Notions of Atheism and Deism and what Ideas I should chuse to affix these Words to By an Atheist is commonly meant such a one as will own no Being under the Name and Title of God And he who does acknowledge such a Being let his Conceptions of him be what they will is no Atheist And in this Sense of the Word it may well be made a question Whether there be any such thing as an Atheist in the World For 't is hard to find a Man who has not some Idea in his Mind which he will allow the Name of God to tho upon Examination perhaps it will be found to be nothing else but a confused Notion of some vast Power First Cause Original Mover or Immortal Being enjoying Eternal Rest and Quiet Now according to this Notion of Atheism he who professes to believe a God whatever Nature Characters and Attributes he ascribes to him and Denies his Providence or Government of Mankind is called a Deist But in such places where the Pretences of Revelation are acknowledged and defended he that is called a Deist is one that owns a God and believes some sort of Providence and natural Obligations but denies all manner of Revelation confines his Duty to matters of Civil Justice and Commerce makes these his chief Principles not to injure another and to keep his Word grounds his Practice upon the Reason and Interest of Societies and his own present Advantage not Obedience to God or a future Prospect believes no future Life or at least such a one as can have no great Influence upon a Mans Actions here This is the common general Use of these Words But by an Atheist I think may properly and justly be meant not only he that absolutely denies the Being of a God but whosoever says there is no God that governs the World and judgeth the Earth there is no God that has appointed Laws and Rules for Men to act by there is no God to whom Men are accountable for all their Actions and by whom they shall be rewarded or punished in a future State according to their Behaviour here and in general whoever holds such an Opinion which exempts him from all Obligation of Duty to a Superiour Being or cuts off the Expectation of Rewards and Punishments consequent thereupon For Atheism is to be considered