deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe
every thing every thing but what is sober whatever is wild will be suck'd in like the Air but what is reasonable will be fled like Infection So that if a Man would recommend any Doctrine for his life to those Enemies of Reason it must be some odd non-sense in the clothing of Imagination and he that can be the Author of a new kind of Madness shall lead a Party Thus hath Religion by the disparagement of Reason been made a Medley of Phantastick Trash spiritualized into an heap of Vapours and formed into a Castle of Clouds and exposed to every Wind of Humour and Imagination 3. By the same way great advantage is given to the Church of Rome Which is well known by those that adhere unto it And therefore Perronius Gonterius Arnoldus Veronius and other Jesuites have loudly declaimed against Reason and the last mentioned Veronius presented the World with a Method to overthrow Hereticks meaning those of the Protestant Faith which promised more than ordinary And that was to deny and renounce all Principles of Reason in Affairs of Faith absolutely and roundly and not to vouchsafe an Answer to any Argument against Transubstantiation or the other Articles of their new Faith but point-blank to deny whatever Reason saith in such Matters And he affirms that even these Principles of Reason viz. Non entis non sunt Attributa omne quod est quando est necesse est esse and such like which are the Foundations of all Reasoning are dangerous to the Catholick Faith and therefore not to be heeded This Man speaks out and affirms directly and boldly what the other Enemies of Reason mean but will not own This is a Method to destroy Hereticks in earnest but the mischief is all Christians and all other Religions and all other Reasonings are cut off by the same Sword This Book and Method of Veronius was kindly received by the Pope priviledged by the King of Spain approved by Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and all the Gallick Clergy as solid and for the advantage of Souls and the Sorbone Doctors gave it their approbation and recommended it as the only way to confute us and all the other Adversaries of their corrupted Faith and Religion Did these know what they did And did they think we understand the Interest of the Roman Church If so we kindly serve their ends and promote their Designs in the way which they account best while we vilifie and disparage Reason If this be renounced in Matters of Religion with what face can we use it against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or any other Points of the Roman Creed Would it not be blameless and irreprovable for us to give up our Understandings implicitly to the Dictates and Declarations of that Church May we not follow blindly whatever the Infallible Man at Rome and his Councils say And would it not be vain self-contradiction to use Arguments against their Decrees though they are never so unreasonable Or to alledge Consequences from Scripture against any of their Articles though never so contrary to the Holy Oracles How easily may they rejoyn when we dispute against them You argue from Reason and by Consequences But Reason is dull and carnal and an enemy to the things of the Spirit and not to be heard in the high Matters of Religion And what can we say next if allow of the Accusation I say by this way we perfectly disable or grosly contradict our selves in most of our Disputes against the Romanists And we are very disingenuous in our dealings while we use Reason against them and deny it when 't is urged against our selves by another sort of Adversaries which implies that when we say Reason is not to be heard we mean 't is not to be heard against us But it must against the Church of Rome or any others we can oppugn by it So that our denying Reason in Religion is either very humoursom and partial or 't is a direct yielding up our Cause to our Enemies and doing that our selves which is the only thing they desire to undo us and to promote their own Interests upon our Ruines And thus I have represented some of the Mischiefs that arise from the disparagement of Reason we see they are great ones big of many others and such as are destructive to all Government and all the Interests of the sober part of Mankind This is properly Fanaticism and all that we call so grows upon it Here the Enemies of our Church and Government began upon this they insisted still and filled their Books and Pulpits and private Corners with these Cantings This was the Engine to overthrow all sober Principles and Establishments with this the People were infutuated and credit was reconciled to Gibberish and Folly Enthusiasms and vain Impulses This is the Food of Conventicles to this day the root of their Matter and the burden of their Preachments Let Reason be heard and tie them to Sense and most of their Holders-forth haue no more to say Their spirituality for which they are admired is besides Reason and against it rather than above it And while this Principle of the enmity between Reason and Religion stands the People will think them the more Spiritual Preachets because they are the less reasonable And while they are abused by such a belief 't will be impossible for sober Men to have any success in their endeavours to convince them AGAINST Modern Sadducism In the Matter of Witches and Apparitions Essay VI. Essay VI. AGAINST MODERN SADDUCISM In the Matter of Witches and Apparitions IF any thing were to be much admired in an Age of Wonders not only of Nature which is a constant Prodigy but of Men and Manners it would be to me matter of astonishment that Men otherwise witty and ingenious are fallen into the Conceit that there 's no such thing as a Witch or Apparition but that these are the Creatures of Melancholly and Superstition foster'd by Ignorance and Design which comparing the confidence of their disbelief with the evidence of the things denied and the weakness of their Grounds would almost suggest that themselves are an Argument of what they deny and that so confident an Opinion could not be held upon such inducements but by some kind of Witchcraft and Fascination in the Fancy And perhaps that evil Spirit whose Influences they will not allow in Actions ascribed to such Causes hath a greater hand and interest in their Proposition than they are aware of For that subtil Enemy of Mankind since Providence will not permit him to mischief us without our own concurrence attempts that by stratagem and artifice which he could never effect by open ways of acting and the success of all wiles depending upon their secrecy and concealment his influence is never more dangerous than when his agency is least suspected In order therefore to the carrying on the dark and hidden Designs he manageth against our Happiness and our Souls he cannot expect to advantage himself more
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so
they manag'd their Rebukes of these self-condemn'd men with much judgment and wit without any thing of fierceness or scurrility They shew'd them the Immorality of their spirit and it's contradictions and antipathy to the genius and temper of the Gospel and urged That though they hated debauchery and some gross Carnal sins as the Pharisees did the Publicans Yet they were given up to many other sorts of wickedness to spiritual Pride Malice Envy Avarice Stubbornness Disingenuity and Disobedience That they harbour'd and kept warm these under their pretences of Christs Righteousness and their specious forms of Godliness That though they were always confessing sin in the general with much seeming remorce and trouble of spirit yet they seldom or never made acknowledgements of these That though they lov'd to hear the sins of Drunkenness and Prophaneness vehemently declaim'd against Yet they could not endure to have these throughly detected and reprov'd That even their own Teachers durst not touch here and that when others did it though without naming parties or pointing out persons they call'd it Railing and Persecution and made no other use of those just rebukes That though they shew'd great seeming tenderness of Conscience in other smaller matters of Mint Annise and Cummin Yet they seldom appear'd sensible or troubl'd at their transgressions in those greater matters of the Law ANd because these people were always making complaints and sad moâ—…ns of their sins without endeavouring to amend Those Divines represented to them that such complaints were but forms and a fashion that they followed That sad looks and whinings were but a shew of Humility and Repentance That if they were sensible of their sins indeed they would use the Grace of God to overcome them till at last they arriv'd at victory and not still continue in a state of whimpering and complaining That these men cousened themselves into a false opinion of their penitence and were perswaded that this was enough without conquest and true reformation of heart and life that their remaining sins were but infirmities and the spots of Gods children which were covered with Christs Righteousness and not seen in the Elect By which they deluded themselves into dangerous presumption and security These our Divines endeavour'd to destroy and to pluck away the fig-leaves of all their false and imperfect marks of Godliness and shew'd that their usual complaints were but like the noise of Parrots without an inward sence That when men were only sensible and sorry they were yet but under the Law and a state of bondage That the Gospel aims at Liberty and Victory and that we are but just entred and are yet very imperfect till we have attain'd some considerable measure of that That the great mark of sincerity is to be proceeding and going forwards and towards the conquest of sinful habits and inclinations That we are not to look on these as failings and infirmities and so sit down contented with some tears and customary confessions under the power of them That Infirmities are but single acts and such too as have not the will in them That God hath afforded us sufficiency of means and helps enough to subdue all the evils of our natures and that if we neglect to use those aids and live at rest under any sinful appetites and passions we are Hypocrites and our boasted Faith and spiritualities will signify nothing to us HEre the Governour made a little stop and then said I have run over these things as they offer'd themselves to my mind I might have set them in a better order and have added many other particulars but as to method there is no great need of curiosity in it in such a relation By the things I have told you you may gather what was the Genius of those Divines in many others which for brevity I omit I said that though one might collect the opinion of many matters more by what he had been pleas'd to represent to me yet there were two things which I had a desire to be informed in further viz. Their Notion of Free Grace and Justification by Faith Their Doctrines about these answer'd He might in great part be gather'd from some of those principles I have mention'd but however I shall gratify you with a short account of them For Free Grace it was ever in the mouths of the Ataxites and they seem'd to be transported and ravish'd in the admiration of it But their notion was very perverse and false For they made it an arbitrary kindness bestow'd upon some very few persons for no reason in the world Not for the sake of any vertue or divine qualifications but only for meer uncountable will and pleasure And said That God from this Free Grace as they call'd it chang'd the hearts of the Elect by an immediate irresistible power and created Faith and other Graces in them in the same way of omnipotent operation Against these dangerous conceits they taught That God loves Vertue and Holiness and is no fond Respecter of Persons That those are the proper objects of his special kindness That there was a general Grace which had appear'd unto all men in the light of Reason the Laws written upon our hearts and common aids of the Spirit That it's freedom consisted in it's universal diffusion through the world without let or impediment and in the spontaneity of it This said he may seem somewhat a hard word but I have no plainer to express the fulness of my sense by and I never use a difficult term when the thing can be spoke as well in one that is more easie and familiar I answer'd that I understood it very well and that he meant that Gods Grace was willing and unforc'd flowing from the benignity of his nature still communicating it self to all Subjects that were capable You apprehend me right continued the Governour and thus he hath imparted himself to all Mankind But then added He There is a Grace more special that concerns Christians only without us the declaration of the Gospel and within us those divine vertues that are wrought by them and therefore call'd Graces He said The Gospel perswadeth without force and God works upon us by it in a way proper and sutable to reasonable Creatures by our Reasons and our Interests by our Hopes and our Fears assisting all good desires and endeavours by the operation of his holy Spirit This said he acts as a General Cause according to the dissposition of the Subject our endeavours would be weak and fruitless without it And yet It never works alone by meer omnipotence without our endeavours They operate in conjunction as the Sun and moysture of the earth and seminal principles do in the production of Plants and Flowers each cause doing what is proper to it The Dictates of the Spirit are contain'd in the Gospel and the Spirit enlightneth and teacheth by that And so he came to the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith Here he call'd to my mind
whence they were emitted This account I confess hath something ingenious in it But it is no solution of the Doubt For how those heterogenous Atoms should hit into their proper places in the midst of such various and tumultuary Motions will still remain a question Let the aptness of their Figures be granted we shall be yet to seek for something to guide their Motions And let their natural Motion be what it will gravity or levity direct or oblique we cannot conceive how that should carry them into every particular place where they are to lie especially considering they must needs be sometimes diverted from their course by the occursion of many other Particles And as for the Regular Figures of many inaminate Bodies that consideration doth but multiply the doubt 2. The union of the parts of Matter is a thing as difficult as any of the former There is no account that I know hath yet appear'd worth considering but that of Des-Cartes viz. That they are united by juxta-position and rest And if this be all Why should not a bag of Dust be of as firm a Consistence as Marble or Adamant Why may not a Bar of Iron be as easily broken as a pipe of Glass and the Aegyptians Pyramids blown away as soon as those inverst ones of smoke The only reason of difference pretended by some is that the Parts of solid Bodies are held together by natural Hooks and strong ones by such Hooks as are more tough and firm But how do the parts of these Hooks stick together Either we must suppose infinite of them holding each other or come at last to parts united by meer juxta-position and rest The former is very absurd for it will be necessary That there should be some upon which the Cohesion of all the rest should depend otherwise all will be an heap of Dust. But in favour of the Hypothesis of Des-Cartes it may be said That the closeness and compactness of the parts resting together makes the strength of the Vnion For as that Philosopher saith Every thing continues in the state wherein it is except something more powerful alter it and therefore the Parts that rest close together will so continue till they are parted by some other stronger Body Now the more parts are pent together the more able they will be for resistance and what hath best compactness and by consequence fewer parts will not be able to make any alteration in a Body that hath more According to this Doctrine what is most dense and least porous will be most coherent and least discerpible which yet is contrary to experience For we find the most porous spongy Bodies to be oft-times the most tough of Consistence We easily break a Tube of Glass or Chrystal when one of Elm or Ash will hardly be torn in pieces and yet as the parts of the former are more so are they more at rest since the liquid Juice diffused through the Wood is in continual agitation which in Des-Cartes his Philosophy is the cause of fluidity so that according to his Principles the dryest Bodies should be the most firm when on the contrary we find that a proportionate humidity contributes much to the strength of the Vnion Sir K. Digby makes it the Cement it self and the driness of many Bodies is the cause of their fragility as we see 't is in Wood and Glass and divers other Things 3. We are as much at a loss about the composition of Bodies whether it be out of Indivisibles or out of parts always divisible For though this question hath been attempted by the subtilest Wits of all Philosophick Ages yet after all their distinctions and shifts their new-invented words and modes their niceties and tricks of subtilty the Matter stands yet unresolv'd For do what they can Actual Infinite extension every where Equality of all Bodies Impossibility of Motion and a world more of the most palpable Absurdities will press the Assertors of Infinite Divisibility Nor on the other side can it be avoided but that all Motions would be equal in velocity That the Lines drawn from side to side in a Pyramid would have more Parts than the Basis That all Bodies would be swallowed up in a Point and many other Inconsistencies will follow the Opinion of Indivisibles But because I have confined my self to the Difficulties that are not so usually noted I shall not insist on these but refer the Reader that hath the humour and leisure to inquire into such Speculations to Oviedo Pontius Ariaga Carelton and other Jesuites whose management of this Controversie with equal force on either side is a considerable Argument of the unaccountableness of this Theory and of the weakness of our present Understandings I might now take into consideration the Mysteries of Motion Gravity Light Colours Vision Sounds and infinite such like things obvious yet unknown but I insist no further on Instances but descend to the second thing I propounded to treat of viz. II. The CAVSES of our Ignorance and Mistakes And in them we shall find further evidence of the imperfection of our Knowledg The Causes to be consider'd are either 1. The Difficulties and Depth of Science Or 2. The present temper of our Faculties Science is the Knowledg of things in their Causes and so 't is defined by the Pretenders to it Let us now enquire a little into the difficulties of attaining such Knowledg 1. We know no Causes by Simple Intuition but by Consequence and Deduction and there is nothing we so usually infer from as Concomitancy for instance We always feel heat when we come near the Fire and still perceive Light when we see the Sun and thence we conclude that these are the Causes respectively of Heat and Light and so in other things But now in this way of inference there lies great uncertainty For if we had never seen more Sun or Stars than we do in cloudy weather and if the Day had always broke with a Wind which had increast and abated with the Light we should have believed firmly that one of them had been the cause of the other and so Smoke had been undoubtedly thought the efficient of the Heat if nothing else had appeared with it But the Philosophy of Des-Cartes furnisheth us with a better Instance All the World takes the Sun to be the Cause of Day from this Principle of Concomitance But that Philosopher teacheth That Light is caused by the Conamen or endeavour of the Matter of the Vortex to recede from the Centre of its Motion so that were there none of that fluid Aether in the midst of our World that makes up the Sun yet the pressure of the Globuli as he calls those Particles upon our Eyes would not be considerably less and so according to this Hypothesis there would be Light though there were no Sun or Stars and Evening and Morning might naturally be before and without the Sun Now I say not that this Opinion is true and
certain but 't is possible and I know no absurdity in it and consequently our concluding a Causality from Concomitancy here and in other Instances may deceive us 2. Our best natural Knowledg is imperfect in that after all our confidence Things still are possible to be otherwise Our Demonstrations are raised upon Principles of our own not of Vniversal Nature And as my Lord Bacon notes we judg from the analogy of our selves not the Vniverse Now many things are certain according to the Principles of one Man that are absurd in the apprehensions of many others and some appear impossible to the vulgar that are easie to Men of more improved Understandings That is extravagant in one Philosophy which is a plain truth in another and perhaps what is most impossible in the apprehensions of Men may be otherwise in the Metaphysicks and Physiology of Angels The sum is We conclude this to be certain and that to be impossible from our own narrow Principles and little Scheams of Opinion And the best Principles of natural Knowledg in the World are but Hypotheses which may be and may be otherwise So that though we may conclude many things upon such and such Suppositions yet still our Knowledg will be but fair and hopeful Conjecture And therefore we may affirm that things are this way or that according to the Philosophy that we have espoused but we strangely forget our selves when we plead a necessity of their being so in Nature and an impossibility of their being otherwise The ways of God in Nature as in Providence are not as ours are Nor are the Models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness and profundity of his Works which have a depth in them greater than the Well of Democritus 3. We cannot properly and perfectly know any thing in Nature without the knowledg of its first Causes and the Springs of Natural Motions And who hath any pretence to this Who can say he hath seen Nature in its beginnings We know nothing but Effects nor can we judg at their immediate Causes but by proportion to the things that do appear which no doubt are very unlike the Rudiments of Nature We see there is no resemblance between the Seed and the Herb and the Flowre between the Sperm and the Animal The Egg and the Bird that is hatcht of it And since there is so much dissimilitude between Cause and Effect in these apparent things we cannot think there is less between them and their first and invisible Efficients Now had not our Senses assured us of it we should never have suspected that Plants or Animals did proceed from such unlikely Originals never have imagined that such Effects should have come from such Causes and we can conceive as little now of the nature and quality of the Causes that are beyond the prospect of our Senses We may frame Fancies and Conjectures of them but to say that the Principles of Nature are just as our Philosophy makes them is to set bounds to Omnipotence and to circumscribe infinite Power and Wisdom by our narrow Thoughts and Opinions 4. Every thing in Nature hath relation to divers others so that no one Being can be perfectly known without the knowledg of many more Yea every thing almost hath relation to all things and therefore he that talks of strict Science pretends to a kind of Omniscience All things are linkt together and every Motion depends upon many prerequired Motors so that no one can be perfectly known singly We cannot for instance comprehend the cause of any Motion in a Watch unless we are acquainted with other dependent Motions and have insight into the whole mechanical contexture of it and we know not the most contemptible Plant that grows in any perfection and exactness until we understand those other things that have relation to it that is almost every thing in Nature So that each Science borrows from all the rest and we attain not any single one without comprehending the whole Circle of Knowledg I might say much more on this Subject but I may have further occasion of speaking to it under the second General viz. The Consideration II. Of the Imperfection of our present Faculties and the malign Influence our Senses and Affections have upon our Minds I begin with the SENSES and shall take notice 1. Of their Dulness and 2. of their liableness to Errour and Mistake 1. Our Senses are very scant and limited and the Operations of Nature subtil and various They are only its grosser Instruments and ways of working that are sensible the finer Threads and immediate Actions are out of reach Yea it 's greatest works are perform'd by invisible insensible Agents Now most of our Conceptions are taken from the Senses and we can scarce judg of any thing but by the help of material Images that are thence convey'd to us The Senses are the Fountain of natural Knowledg and the surest and best Philosophy is to be raised from the Phoenomena as they present them to us when we leave these and retire to the abstracted notions of our minds we build Castles in the Air and form Chymerical Worlds that have nothing real in them And yet when we take our accounts from those best Informers we can learn but very little from their Discoveries For we see but the shadows and outsides of things like the men in Plato's Den who saw but the Images of external Objects and but so many as came in through the narrow entrance of their Cave The World of God no doubt is an other thing than the World of Sense is and we can judg but little of its amplitude and glory by the imperfect Idea we have of it From this narrowness of our Senses it is that we have been so long ignorant of a World of Animals that are with us and about us which now at last the Glasses that in part cure this imperfection have discover'd and no doubt there is yet a great variety of living Creatures that our best Instruments are too gross to disclose There is Prodigious fineness and subtilty in the works of Nature which are too thin for our Senses with all the advantages Art can lend them And many the greatest and the best of its Objects are so remote that our Senses reach them not by any Natural or Artificial helps So that we cannot have other than short and confufed apprehensions of those works of Nature And I sometimes fear that we scarce yet see any thing as it is But this belongs to an other consideration viz. 2. Our Senses extremely deceive us in their reports and informations I mean they give occasion to our minds to deceive themselves They indeed represent things truely as they appear to them and in that there is no deception but then we judge the exterior Realities to be according to those appearances and here is the Error and Mistake But because the Senses afford the ground and occasion and we naturally judg according to
and most even course in which case motion is not perceivâ—…d as we find sometimes in sailing in a Ship when the Shores feem to move and not that Littus Campique recedunt But I give another Instance of a like deception It is 2. The translation of our own passions to things without us as we judg Light and Heat and Cold to be formally in the Sun Fire and Air when as indeed they are but our own perceptions As they are in those external Subjects they are nothing but such or such configurations and motions in matter but when they work on us they produce different sentiments which we call Heat and Light c. This will appear to be true to any one that can freely and attentively consider it and yet it will be thought so strange and absurd by the generality of men that they will assoon believe with Anaxagoras that Snow is black as him that affirms that the Fire is not formally hot that is that the very thing we feel and call Heat in our selves is not so in that body when as there it is but a violent agitation of the subtile and divided parts of matter that in it self is nothing like what we perceive from it and call Heat That we are hot our selves we feel but that the Fire hath any such formal quality as is in our Sense no Sense can inform us and yet from its supposed evidence men generally so conclude Which is an other considerable Instance of the false judgments we make on the occasion of our Senses And now It is not only common understandings that are abused and deceiv'd by their Senses but even the most advanc'd Reasons are many times missed by them And since we live the Life of Beasts before we grow up to Men and our minds are Passive to the impressions of Sense it cannot be that our first knowledg should be other than heaps of Errour and misconception which might be rectified by our after-judgments but that 't is another unhappiness of our natures that those early impressions stick by us and we are exeedingly apt pertinaciously to adhere to them And though our improving understandings do in part undeceive us and destroy some grosser errours yet others are so fastned that they are never after remov'd or dissetled So that we are not quite weaned from our Child-hood till we return to our second Infancy and even our Grey-Heads out-grow not those errors which we learnt before the Alphabet And therefore since we contracted so many prejudices in our tender years and those Errors have as plausible an appearance as the most genuine truths the best way to attain true Knowledg is to suspend the giving our confirm'd assent to those Receptions till we have looked them over by an impartial inquiry To reckon of them all as false or uncertain till we have examin'd them by a free and unpossest Reason and to admit nothing but what we clearly and distinctly perceive This is the great Rule in the excellent Method of Des-Cartes but the practise of it requires such a clear sedate and intent mind as is to be found but in a very few rare tempers and even in them prejudices will creep in and spoil the perfection of their Knowledg I might discourse next of those Errors that do arise from the fallacies of our Imaginations whose unwarrantable compositions and applications do very frequently abuse us and indeed the Reason of the greatest part of mankind is nothing else but various Imagination Yea 't is a hard matter for the best and freest minds to deliver themselves from the Prejudices of Phancy which besides the numerous lesser Errors they betray us into are great occasions particularly of those many mistakes we are guilty of in speculating Immaterial Natures inquiring into the Attributes of God and we are much entangled and puzled by them in all things we think or say about Infinity Eternity and Immensity and most other of the sublime Theories both of Philosophy or Theology But these all arise either from the false Images of Sense and the undue compositions and wrong inferences that we raise from them and therefore I shall not need make this a distinct head from the other of which I have just treated I come now II. To consider the evil Influence our Affections have over our Understandings by which they are great Reasons of our Ignorance and Mistakes Periit Judicium ubi res transiit in affectum That Jupiter himself cannot be Wise and in Love was a saying of the Ancients and may be understood in a larger Sense then They meant That understanding only is capable of passing a just Sentence that is as Aristotle saith of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but where the Will and Passions have the casting voice the cause of Truth is desperate Now this is the present unhappy state of Man our lower powers are gotten uppermost and we see like Men on their Heads as Plato observ'd of old That on the right hand which indeed is on the left The Woman in us still prosecutes a deceipt like that begun in the Garden and we are wedded to an Eve as fatal as the Mother of ous Miseries The Deceiver soon found this soft place in Adam and Innocency it self did not secure him from this way of seduction We now scarce see any thing but through our passions that are wholly blind and incapable So that the Monsters that story relates to have their Eyes in their Breasts are pictures of us in our invisible selves And now all things being double-handed and having appearances both of Truth and Falshood the ingaged affection magnifieth the shews of Truth and makes the belov'd opinion appear as certain while the considerations on the otherside being lessened and neglected seem as nothing though they are never so weighty and considerable But I shall be more particular in the account of these Deceptions Our Affections ingage us by our love to our selves or others the former in the Instance of 1. Natural disposition 2. Custom and Education and 3. Interest the latter in our over-fond Reverence to 4. Antiquity and Authority 1. There is a certain congruity of some opinions to the particular tempers of some men For there is a complexion and temperament in the mind as well as in the body And the doctrines that are suited to the genius and special disposition of the understanding find easy welcom and entertainment whereas those that are opposite to it are rejected with an invincible contempt and hatred On this account we find men taking in some particular Opinions with strange pleasure and satisfaction upon their first proposals when they are incurably barred up against others that have the advantage of more reason to recommend them And I have observ'd often that even some Theories in Philosophy will not lie in some minds that are otherwise very capable and ingenious of which I take this to be a considerable Instance That divers learned men profess They
we are Children and most examine little when they are Men but settle in their first Impressions without giving themselves the trouble to-consider and review them And these prejudices by custom and long acquaintance with our Souls get a mighty interest and shut them up against every thing that is different from those Images of Education This is a general fault and infirmity of humane Nature and from hence it comes to pass that the tutour'd Youth slides easily into the belief of the first Principles of Philosophy which they are taught and are confirm'd in them by their Exercises and Disputes and Books and Converses By these their Vnderstandings which before were White-Paper are dyed and deeply tinctured by the colour they have imbibed And these infusions insensibly pass as 't were into the very substance of the Mind and are appeal'd to on all occasions as unsophisticated Truths So that having spent some time in learning and trimming those Notions the most divert to Business or other Studies without troubling themselves with any more Philosophical Pursuits but being satisfied with those Notices which their first Education lodg'd in their Minds they seek no further nor do care to be wiser in those Matters than they were in the disputing Infancy of their Knowledge All this while no other hurt is done but that Men thus are injurious to themselves and hinder their own Improvements but 't is much worse when they fondly fix these as the Pillars of Science and would have no body else go further than their laziness or their cares will permit them to travel but rail spitefully at all Endeavours for the advancement of Philosophick Wisdom and will be angry with every one that hath outgrown his Cherry-stones and Rattles speak evil at a venture of things they know not and like Mastives are fiercer for being kept dark These are the great Enemies of the useful experimental Methods of Philosophy They take it ill that any thing should be accounted valuable in which they are uninstructed being loth to learn in an Age wherein they expect to Dictate and the Satyrist hath told them another reason Turpe putant parere minoribus quae Imberbes didicere senes perdenda fateri This is much the case of many of the Peripatetick Disputers They imployed their Younger Studies upon the Philosophy of Disputation and it may be gain'd an ability to out-talk many of their Contemporaries in that way They confirm'd themselves in these Notions by instructing others in them and upon these Foundations have built the Reputation of being great Scholars and mighty Disputants among their Admirers So that we are not to wonder if they are vehemently displeas'd with the ROYAL SOCIETY and Experimental Philosophers since their Designs take away the honour of their Craft and in this way They are upon the same level with those that are but beginning the thought of which must needs be distasteful to self-absur'd and imperious Minds And yet that it may not be thought I speak any of this out of envy to their Fame I shall do them all the right I can by acknowledging That I take them for Persons that understand the Quiddities and Haecceities the Praecisiones formales and the Objectivae the Homogeneities and Heterogeneities the Catagorematice's and the Syncatagorematice's the Simpliciter's and the secundum Quid's They know no doubt that First Matter that is neither Quid nor Quale nor Quantum and that wonderful Gremium materiae out of which Forms were educ'd that were never there They can tell you fine things of the fiery Element under the Moon and the Epicycles of the Stars Can resolve all Questions by the compendious way of Formalitèr Materialitèr Fundamentalitèr and Eminentèr Tell the difference between Quodam modo and Modo quodam and shew the causes of all things in Sympathy Antipathy Combination of the Elements and Influences of the Heavens They see clearly by their Spectactes That the Milkie-way is but a Meteor and Comets only kindled Vapours in spite of the contrary information of the deceitful Telescopes They can no doubt dispute roundly about the composition of Entia rationis and Vniversals the Praedications of Genus and Species and the manner of their conservation in Individuals of the number of the Praedicaments and what Being is in this and what in another of the inherence and propagation of Accidents the real essence of Relations the nature of Vbi and Quande and a thousand other Logical tricks about shuffling and ordering Propositions and Forms of Syllogism They can discourse of the nakedness of First Matter the Education of Forms out of its Bosom shew that the want of a Being is a Principle of it how forms of Elements are refracted in mix'd Bodies Dispute subtilly about the Primum incipiens in Motion the instantaneousness of Generation the Maximum quod sic and the Minimum quod non and infinite more of such wonderful useful significant Speculations And in the Metaphysicks I acknowledge them in the words of the incomparable Droll They know what 's what and that 's as high As Metaphysick Wit can fly These and other such Profundities are some of the main things of that Philosophy for which Peripatetick Disputers are so zealous But for the Mechanick that attempts material and intelligible Accounts of things and is in its grounds much ancienter than that of Aristotle which they admire for the Experimental Methods and late Improvements of useful Knowledge Many of these Men have a suspicion if not a contempt of them Nor do they pretend any acquaintance with those Studies For concluding that nothing more is to be known than They learnt in the Circle of Disputations they sit down in the Opinion of the perfection of their Knowledge without caring to be inform'd what the Inquisitive World is doing in this Age of Enquiry And on this occasion I observe the incompetency of their Judgments who are Enemies to the Real Experimental Philosophy in that they do not as I intimated at all or very little understand what they condemn This I have some reason to say since in the whole compass of my Acquaintance which is not very narrow I profess I know not one who opposeth the Modern way that is not almost totally unacquainted with it And on the other side upon the most careful turn of my thoughts among my Philosophical Friends I cannot light on one of all those that are for the Free and Experimental Procedure but who have been very well instructed in the Peripatetick Doctrines which they have deserted and most of them much better than those who are yet zealous Contenders for them And for my own part I must confess That while I was a Youth in the University I was much delighted with those subtilties that exercise the Brain in the Nicities of Notion and Distinctions and afford a great deal of idle Imployment for the Tongue in the Combates of Disputation In which I acknowledge I was none of the most backward but being
say if such a One as this should prove a Diabolical Impostor and Providence should permit him to be so credited and acknowledged What possibility were there then for us to be assured that we are not always deceived yea that our very Faculties were not given us only to delude and abuse us And if so the next Conclusion is That there is no God that judgeth in the Earth and the best and most likely Hypothesis will be That the World is given up to the Government of the Devil But if there be a Providence that superviseth us as nothing is more certain doubtless it will never suffer poor helpless Creatures to be inevitably deceived by the craft and subtilty of their mischievous Enemy to their undoing but will without question take such care that the Works wrought by Divine Power for the confirmation of Divine Truth shall have such visible Marks and Signatures if not in their Nature yet in their Circumstances Ends and Designs as shall discover whence they are and sufficiently distinguish them from all Impostures and Delusions And though wicked Spirits may perform some strange things that may excite wonder for a while yet He hath and will so provide that they shall be basfled and discredited as we know it was in the Case of Moses and the Aegyptian Magicians These things I count sufficient to be said to this last and shrewdest Objection Though some I understand except that I have made it stronger than the Answer I have applyed That I have urged the Argument of Unbelievers home and represented it in its full strength I suppose can be no matter of just reproof For to triumph over the weakness of a Cause and to over-look its strength is the trick of shallow and interessed Disputers and the worst way to defend a Good Cause or confute a Bad One. I have therefore all along urged the most cogent Things I could think of for the Interest of the Objectors because I would not impose upon my Reader or my self and the stronger I make their Premises the more shall I weaken their Conclusion if I answer them which whether I have done or not I refer my self to the Judgments of the Ingenious and Considerate from whom I should be very glad to be informed in what particular Points my Discourse is defective General Charges are no Proofs nor are they easily capable of an Answer Yet to the mention'd Exception I say That the strength of the Objection is not my fault for the Reasons alledg'd and for the supposed incompetency of my return I propose that if the Circumstances of the Persons Ends and Issues be the best Notes of Distinction between true Miracles and Forgeries Divine and Diabolical Ones I have then said enough to secure the Miracles of our Saviour and the Holy Men of Ancient Times But if these Objectors think they can give us any better or more infallible Criteria I desire them to weigh what I have offer'd about Miracles in some of the following Leaves before they enter that Thought among their Certainties And if their other Marks of Difference will hold notwithstanding those Allegations I suppose the inquisitive believing World would be glad to know them and I shall have particular Obligations to the Discoverer for the strength with which he will thereby assist my Answer But till I see that I can say nothing stronger or if I saw it which I shall not in haste expect I should not be convinced but that the Circumstances of Difference which I have noted are abundantly sufficient to disarm the Objection and to shew that though Apparitions Witchcraft and Diabolical Wonders are admitted yet none of these can fasten any Sluâ—… or ground of dangerous Doubt upon the miraculous performances of the H. Jesus and his Apostles If the dissatisfied can shew it I shall yeeld my self an humble Proselite to their Reasons but till I know them the General Suggestion will not convince me Now besides what I have directly said to the Main Objection I have this to add to the Objectors That I could wish they would take care of such Suggestions which if they overthrow not the Opinion they oppose will dangerously affront the Religion they would seem to acknowledge For he that saith That if there are Witches there is no way to prove that Christ Jesus was not a Magician and Diabolical Impostor puts a deadly Weapon into the hands of the Infidel and is himself next door to the Sin against the Holy Ghost of which in order to the perswading greater tenderness and caution in such Matters I give this short account THe Sin against the Holy Ghost is said to be Unpardonable by which sad Attribute and the Discourse of our Saviour Mat. 12. from the 22 to the 33 Verse we may understand its Nature In order to which we consider That since the Mercies of God and the Merits of his Son are infinite there is nothing can make a Sin unpardonable but what makes it incurable and there is no Sin but what is curable by a strong Faith and a vigorous Endeavour For all things are possible to him that believeth So that That which makes a Sin incurable must be somewhat that makes Faith impossible and obstructs all means of Conviction In order to the finding which we must consider the Ways and Methods the Divine Goodness hath taken for the begetting Faith and cure of Infidelity which it attempted first by the Prophets and Holy Men of Ancient Times who by the excellency of their Doctrine the greatness of their Miracles and the holiness of their Lives endeavoured the Conviction and Reformation of a stubborn and unbelieving World But though few believed their report and Men would not be prevail'd on by what they did or what they said yet their Infidelity was not hitherto incurable because further means were provided in the Ministry of John the Baptist whose Life was more severe whose Doctrines were more plain pressing and particular and therefore 't was possible that He might have succeeded Yea and where He failed and could not open Mens Hearts and Eyes the Effect was still in possibility and it might be expected from Him that came after to whom the Prophets and John were but the Twilight and the Dawn And though His miraculous Birth the Song of Angels the Journey of the Wise Men of the East and the correspondence of Prophesies with the Circumstances of the first appearance of the Wonderful Infant I say though these had not been taken notice of yet was there a further provision made for the cure of Infidelity in his astonishing Wisdom and most excellent Doctrines For He spake as never Man did And when these were despised and neglected yet there were other Means towards Conviction and Cure of Unbelief in those mighty Works that bore Testimony of Him and wore the evident Marks of Divine Power in their Foreheads But when after all These clear and unquestionable Miracles which were wrought by the Spirit of
and Illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is What is a Real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the Mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2. is this the Criterion of a Miracle That it is an Action or Event beyond all Natural Powers for we are ignorant of the Extent and Bounds of Nature's Sphere and Possibilities And if this were the character and essential Mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their Bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of Knowledge or Immodesty Besides though an Effect may transcend really all the Powers of meer Nature yet there is a world of Spirits that must be taken into our Account And as to them also I say 3. Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents Supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil Spirits can make wonderful Combinations of Natural Causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest Line of Nature but yet these are not therefore to be called Miracles for they are Saecred Wonders and suppose the Power to be Divine But how shall the Power be known to be so when we so little understand the Capacities and extent of the Abilities of Lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former Particulars viz. They are unaccountable beyond the Powers of meer Nature and done by Agents Supernatural And to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar Circumstances that speak them of a Divine Original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are always Persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or Natural Applications and yet surmount all the Activities of known Nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talkt of but to seal and confirm some Divine Doctrine or Commission in which the Good and Happiness of the World is concern'd I say by such Circumstances as these Wonderful Actions are known to be from a Divine Cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an Answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though Witches by their Confederate Spirit do those odd and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their Lives and the ridiculous Ceremonies of their Performances from their malice and mischievous Designs that the Power that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular Providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new Sacred Discoveries in Matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable Performances above the common Methods of Art or Nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATREX concerning whom it will not be impertinent to add the following account which I had in a Letter from Dr. G. R. Lord Bishop of D. in the Kingdom of Ireland a Person of singular Piery and Vertue and a great-Philosopher He is pleased thus to write THe great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every-where is about M.G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various Censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the Man is free from all Design of a very agreeable Conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand Persons and really there is something in it more than ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased them out of the Body Dimness cleared and Deafness cured by his Touch twenty Persons at several times in Fits of the Falling-Sickness were in two or three minutes brought to themselves so as to tell where their pain was and then he hath pursued it till he hath driven it out at some extream part Running Sores of the Kings-Evil dried up and Kernels brought to a Suppuration by his hand grievous Sores of many months date in few dayes healed Obstructions and Stoppings removed Cancerous Knots in the Breast dissolved c. But yet I have many Reasons to perswade me that nothing of all this is Miraculous He pretends not to give Testimony to any Doctrine the manner of his Operation speaks it to be natural the Cure seldom succeeds without reiterated Touches his Patients often relapse he fails frequently he can do nothing where there is any decay in Nature and many Distempers are not at all obedient to his Touch. So that I confess I refer all his Vertue to his particular Temper and Complexion and I take his Spirits to be a kind of Elixir and Vniversal Ferment and that he cures as Dr. M. expresseth it by a Sanative Contagion This Sir was the first Account of the Healer I had from that Reverend Person which with me signifies more than the Attestations of multitudes of ordinary Reporters and no doubt but it will do so likewise with all that know that excellent Bishop's singular Integrity and Judgment But besides this upon my inquiry into some other Particulars about this Matter I received these further Informations from the same Learned Hand As for M.G. what Opinion he hath of his own Gift and how he came to know it I Answer He hath a different apprehension of it from yours and mine and certainly believing it to be an immediate Gift from Heaven and 't is no wonder for he is no Philosopher And you will wonder less when you hear how he came to know it as I have often received it from his own Mouth About three or four years ago he had a strong impulse upon his Spirit that continually pursued him from what-ever he was about at his Business or Devotion alone or in company that spake to him by this inward Suggestion I have given thee the Gift of Curing the Evil. This Suggestion was so importunate that he