used by this Philosopher I see no mighty prejudice there is indeed this mistake very oft attending That whereas by Fate or Destiny are understood the unalterable Laws of God which are founded upon his Prescience Men are apt to overlook the Lawgiver himself and to represent this Law by him establisht as a certain powerful Agent or irresistible Deity which they say does blindly and accountably govern the World Give me leave to take notice That I look upon this Fate and Destiny of the Heathens in its vulgarly received Phrase very nearly to correspond with the Predestination of some Modern Christians they do both of them partake of the same tyrannical despotic power and both tend to the same end viz. the robbing Man of his Freedom and exposing him Brute-like to act by an irresistible Impulse The Eternal Decrees of the Divine Being which are made as it were conditional and founded on a fore-knowledge of the Good and Evil that Man shall act carry nothing along with them contradictory to his Truth and Justice but the Absolute Predestination which is suppos'd exclusive of Mâ—ns Actions as a free Agent is a Doctrine so very harsh and so pregnant with ill Consequences as is not to be countenanced Thus much for Fate and Destiny Chance and Fortune are words so insignificant that had not a foolish Custom rendred them familiar one might justly admire that ever they should be mention'd by considering Men. The true Notion of Fortune in the words of a Learned Man denoteth nothing more than the ignorance of an Event in some knowing Agent concern'd about it so that it owes its very Being to Humane Understanding and without relation to that would be a Non Ens or really Nothing 'T was Man that first made Fortune and not Fortune Man so likewise the adequate meaning of Chance as it is discinguisht from Fortune in that the latter is understood to befal only Rational Agents but Chance to be amongst inanimate Bodies is really a bare Negation that signifies no more than this That any Effect amongst such Bodies ascribed to Chance is verily produced by Physical Agents according to the establisht Laws of Motion but without their consciousness of concurring to the Production and without their Intention of such an Effect So that in this genuine acceptation of Chance here is nothing supposed that can supersede the known Laws of natural Motion and thus to attribute the formation of Mankind to Chance is equally as absurd as to ascribe the same to Nature or Mechanism Having given you these few hints touching the unreasonableness of our ascribing any Effect to that which is in truth no more than a Chimaera or Fiction of the Brain and our looking on them as Agents which are meer Non-Entities I shall take notice of those other Expressions which are so frequently made use of not only by the Ignorant but even by Physicians themselves and other Learned Men such I mean as the Archaeus the Plastic Power the formative Faculty and that petty kind of Deity called Nature For the better comprehending the significancy of these several Terms let us put our selves upon reflecting and a very little attention will discover the fallacy Suppose then for instance that any Man should tell me that such or such a Thing will exhilirate the Archaeus or enliven decay'd Nature that such a Monster owes its rise to a Defect or Error committed by the Plastic Power or formative Faculty is it not very reasonable that we desire to know what either of these are whether or no they are real Agents or intellectual Beings imploying themselves in the care of our Conservation or in a word what they do truly import in their genuine and proper meaning If we make I say this Enquity we may satisfie our selves that every one of these words with many of the like signification particularly such as go by the name of Faculties and Qualities were first of all taken up either as an Umbrage for Mens Ignorance of real Causes or invented in order to a more compendious way of speaking whereby the several Means made use of towards a particular Production are comprised under some single Appellation And thus it happens as Mr. Boyle speaks that a fit and actuating Power of the Teeth Tongue Spittle Fibres and Membranes of the Gullet and Stomach together with the Natural Heat the Ferment and Menstruum and some other Agents which co-operate to the Transmutation of our Aliment into Chile are all included in that frequent Expression of Concoctive Faculty a word as commonly made use of by those who know not what they mean when they speak it as by those that do But amongst all the pretended Causes of those Effects we see daily produc'd there is none more frequently made use of than the word Nature upon which consideration the most Judicious Boyle foreseeing the abuse of that unhappy word was as he expresses himself so paradoxical as to make a very serious doubt whether this same Nature so much discourst of was a Thing or a Name or whether it was any real existent Being or a Being purely notional For when any Man tells me saith he that Nature does this or that that 't is natural for one thing to do this and another that he does in no wise help me to understand or to explicate the manner of these Productions for 't is manifest enough that whatsoever is done in this World where the Rational Soul intervenes not is really effected by corporeal Agents acting in a World so fram'd as ours is according to the Laws of Motion settled by its omniscient Author 'T is true that many acknowledge this Nature to be a Thing established by the Almighty and subordinate to Him but tho' many confess it when they are askt whether they do or not yet besides that they seldom or never lift up their Eyes to any higher Cause he that takes notice of their way of ascribing Things to Nature may easily discern that whatever their words sometimes be the Agency of the God of Nature is very little taken notice of in their Thoughts Indeed if I thought my Opinion might sway with you so far as to put you upon reflecting in good earnest I should give you to understand that 't is my real belief That the improper use of this very word has been vastly injurious to the Glory of our Maker and in the words of the foresaid Author I doubt not but the looking upon meerly Corporeal and oftentimes Inanimate Things as if they were endow'd with Life Sence and Understanding and the ascribing to Nature and some other Beings whether Real or Imaginary Things that belong only to God have been some if not the chief of the grand Causes of Atheism amongst Nominal Christians and of Polytheism and Idolatry amongst the Gentiles The wretched Subterfuges of Atheism being thus manifestly discover'd insufficient Causes of any manner of Production the greatest part of them being purely Imaginary and like
are still maintain'd and without which these second Causes by too many only taken notice of wou'd be depriv'd of their Energy There is nothing Sir will hely you to evade this unless it be the sorry Refuge of the Worlds Eternity which in my former Letter was proved to be taken up with any shadow of Reason or Probability a most precarious Assertion which being deny'd can never be prov'd A Contradiction to the Universal Tradition of Mankind which hath always attested that the World had a Beginning It is an Assertion against the current Testimony of all History which traceth the Original of Nations and People the Invention of Arts and Sciences and which sheweth that all have hapned within the space of less than Six thousand years according to the most probable if not certain Calculation which cou'd not be if the World or Man had been Eternal 'T is therefore with much reason that your beloved Lucretius thus wittingly argues upon this Topic But grant the World Eternal grant it knew No Infancy and grant it never now Why then no Wars our Poets Songs employ Beyong the Siege of Thebes or that of Troy Why former Heroes fell without a Name Why not their Battles told by lasting Fame But 't is as I declare and thoughtful Man Not long ago and all the World began And therefore Arts that lay but rude before Are publisht now we now increase the store We perfect all the old and find out more Shipping's improv'd we add new Oars and Wings And Musick now is found and speaking Strings These Truths this Rise of Things we lately know But I have endeavour'd likewise to demonstrate that the Supposition of Eternal Matter is ogregiously absur'd and that Motion is by no means to be accounted of the Essence of Matter but extra-advenient thereunto yet supposing that hath Motion and Matter were Eternal without a powerful and wise Providence to direct the Particles of Matter and give Laws to Motion there could never have been any thing else than an Eternal Jumble nor so much as one regular Structure wou'd ever have been produc'd This I am perswaded is an Apodictical or Self-evident Truth altho' for its Illustration I will enlarge in Mr. B 's words There are indeed but few productions which are not Mechanical but the Powers of Mechanism as they are entirely depâ—â—â—â—â—â— on the Deity so they afford us a very solid Argument for the Reality of his Nature If we consider the Phaenomena of the Material World with a due and serious attention we shall plainly perceive that its present Frame and Constitution with its establisht Laws are constituted and preserved by gravitation alone that is the powerful Cement which holds together this magnificent Structure of the World without that the whole Universe if we suppose an undetermin'd Power of Motion infus'd into Matter wou'd have been a confused Chaos without Beauty or Order and never stable or permanent in any Condition Nevertheless this Gravity the great Basis of all Mechanism is not it self Mechanical but the immediate Fiat or Finger of God and the Execution of the Divine Law for there is no body that has this Power of tending towards a Center either from it self or from other Bodies so that tho' we do believe and allow that every Particle of Matter is endow'd with a Principle of Gravity whereby it wou'd descend to the Center if it were not repell'd upwards by heavier Bodies yet are we fully perswaded and certainly convinc'd that this Gravity must be deriv'd to it by nothing less than the Power of God If we consider the Heart which is supposed to be the first Principle of Motion and Life and mentally divide it into its constituent Parts its Arteries and Veins and Nerves and Tendons and Membranes and the innumerable little Fibres that these secondary Parts do consist of we shall find nothing here singular but what is in any other Muscle of the Body 't is only the Site and Posture of these several Parts and the Configuration of the whole that give it the Form and Functions of a Heart now why should the first single Fibres in the formation of the Heart be peculiarly drawn in spiral Lines when the Fibres of all other Muscles are made by a transverse Rectilinear Motion or what cou'd determine the fluid Matter into that odd and singular Figure when as yet no other Member is supposed to be formed that might design the Orbit of its Course Let Mechanism here make an Experiment of its Power and produce a spiral and turbinated Motion of the whole moved Body without an External Director 'T is true when the Organs are once framed by a Supernatural and Divine Principle we can willingly enough admit of Mechanism in many Functions of the Body but that the Organs themselves shou'd be mechanically form'd is as impossible as inexplicable I shall now flatter my self with hopes that what I have here alledg'd will be lookt upon by you to be but little short of Demonstration not only that there is a God which was the Subject of my first but that He governs the World at least by keeping up his establisht Laws of Motion or by the general Concourse of his Providence which is manifestly conspicuous in his maintaining this mighty System of the World and in the Efficacy deriv'd from Him unto Secondary Agents or those which are more frequently term'd Natural Causes What remains of this Argument which is by much the more intricate and difficult part relates to the special Providence upon which is founded as I conceive our Belief of these two Propositions 1. That God Almighty or the First and Supream Being in his Government of the World has not so indispensably confin'd Himself to those general Laws of Motion He at first setled in the World but that He has reserved to Himself a power of Dispensing with the same and does deviate from these Rules by Suspending the Laws of Motion or by a particular Intervention and Interposition of his Power so often as it pleaseth Him to act miraculously or to bring to pass a Supernatural Effect 2. That all the several Changes Revolutions or whatever else befals us from the Womb even to our Graves are by the special Providence of God allotted for us As to what respects the first of these viz. God Almighty's deflecting or at some times deviating from his usual and general Laws it is impossible we shou'd ever Convince any obstinate Infidel of any such Matter of Fact unless he were an Eye-witness when the Business was transacted and so as it were compell'd to acknowledge the Effect to be Supernatural or surmounting the Power of Secondary Agents We have indeed a sort of Men in the World so wonderfully conceited of their own Acquirements and so strangely opinion'd of the Extension of their own Minds as to imagine there can be no such thing as an inexplicable Event but that all may be fairly and intelligibly resolved without that pusillanimous
and servile Refuge as they express themselves of recurring to a Miracle the Founders say they of which have always been some subtil Impostors who to promote an Interest or to serve their own turn have found it no very difficult Matter to impose upon the Mole-ey'd Multitude And at this rate not only the Supernatural Actions of the Apostles but the Surprising and Stupendious ones of their Master Jesus Christ must either by these Men be utterly deny'd or resolv'd if it were possible by the generally establisht Laws or in their own words by the Powers of Nature so that we must either believe the History of our Saviour to be pure Forgery a Romantic Legend fob'd upon us by designing Men or else we must have recourse to the Men of this piercing Apprehension and consult them as our Oracles for an Explanation of those Accounts which we poor silly Creatures believe to have been miraculous It is in vain I know to send you to that Sacred History where so many of these Stupendious and Divine Operations are faithfully recorded whilst you continue so Sceptical as to doubt concerning the Credit of the Historian or so much an Infidel as to deny the History to be an Authentic Record If you can believe there was ever such a Person as Jesus Christ or such Men as his Apostles which I think in reason you are as much obâ—ig'd as to believe that there were any Contemporary Prince or People at that time upon Earth nay setting aside the remoteness of Place and Time as that there ever was such a Person as King Charles the First in England or Lowis the Thirteenth in France If I say you can concede this I would then beg you to consider which way or by what means you can conceive it possible that the surprising and supernatural Acts of those we are now speaking of such as the turning Water into Wine satisfying the hungry Appetites of many hundreds with no more then naturally sufficâ—d for some few single Persons Walking upon the Surface of the Water restoring the Sick by a word speaking and commanding the Dead to arise from the Grave with many others which were performed not clandestinely or in private but in the midst of very great Assemblies or a large Concourse of People and those for the most part implacable Enemies and consequently very curious in sifting out the Truth I say I would fain know which way you can conjecture a Possibility that a Design of this Import and Universal Tendency cou'd be fraudulently carried on inperceptibly to that great Number of Auditors and Spectators who were not wholly made up of the giddy Rabble or inconsiderate Mob but had some even of the Priests and Elders of the Jewish Church Men doubtless too well acquainted with the Powers of Matter and Motion to be impos'd on to attest the Truth of many of these Operations We may easily believe that those who lookt upon the Gospel Promulgation as an insupportable Burthen and Incroachment and accounted it no other than a kind of Heretical Innovation upon their more anciently establisht Law would make it their Business to pry into and enquire with their utmost Caution into the truth of those Facts which finding themselves obliged to acknowledge Supernatural or Surmounting the Laws of Nature or the force of Second Causes yet rather than confess any such Matter as a Divine Energy they would have them to be transacted by a Diabolical Assistance I might make I think a farther very rational Query Whether you can believe the Accounts we have given us in Ecclesiastick History of the Martyrdoms or painful Sufferings of some of these Apostles If you do believe any of these Accounts as I think you may those at least which are recorded by some Friends even of the Tyrants themselves who were concern'd in the Patriarchal Tragedies it will be worth while to enquire into the Motives which induced them to hazard their Lives by taking on them their several Embassses If instead of Honour you find they had Disgrace instead of Riches and Grandeur Poverty and Contempt if instead of Courtesie Civility and Respect they met with nothing but Reproach and Railery Lastly if for all their hardship instead of Temporal Promotion and Preferment they willingly submitted to an accursed ignominious and painful Death you then must either think there never were any such Men and thus by the same liberty you may disbelieve any such Places as the Countries where 't is reported they suffer'd Death or if you think there were you must believe them either distracted or finally that in following the Direction of their great Patron they acted like Men truly reasonable and discreet and in that they preferr'd a Life of Misery Anguish Disquiet and Tribulation it is plain they had an Assurance as well as Expectation of their Reward elsewhere and that they question'd not to find a sufficient Recompence bestow'd upon them for all their Sufferings in those Sacred Mansions not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens But of this I shall discourse more hereafter when I come to give you my Opinion of Reveal'd Religion In the mean time if none of those unaccountable Phaenomena which latter Ages have produc'd some of which have been transacted within the compass of our own Memory and many more within a Century last past such as Voices Specters Apparitions Stupendious Recoveries of the Sick and Lame together with the Satanical Powers of Fascination and Diabolical Possessions if these I say however sufficiently attested will not be sufficient to induce you to believe that there ever was such a Thing as a Supernatural Production but that all Things are burried on by an establisht Law or in your own more pleasing words by an irresistible Fate or Destiny and that all Effects are the pure Result of Matter under its several Modifications whose Powers were never superseded by any higher Principle and farther that there are no such extraordinary Prints of a Divinity or Marks of Wisdom conspicuous in the Creation I would then desire you with as much attention as you can considerately to examine the Structure of your own Body And if you begin with a Survey even of an inconsiderable part thereof such as your Fingers in each of these as is well remarkt by Mr. B you will find Bones and Cartilages Ligaments and Membranes Muscles and Tendons Nerves and Arteries Veins and Skin and Cuticle and Nail together with the Medulla the Fat and Blood and other nutritious Juices and all these solid parts of a determinate size and figure texture and scituation and each of them made up of myriads of little Fibres and Filaments not discoverable to the naked Eye I say when you consider how innumerable Parts must constitute so small a Member surely you cannot look upon it or the whole Body wherein appear so much fitness use and subserviency to infinite Functions any otherwise than as the Effect of Skill and Contrivance If this will not extort a
voluntary Motions which are produced in us only by the free Thoughts of our own Minds and are not nor can be the Effects of the impulse or determination of the Motion of blind Matter in or upon our Bodies for then it could not be in our power or choice to alter it For example My right hand writes whilst my left hand is still what causes Rest in one and Motion in the other nothing but my Will a Thought of my Mind my Thought only changing the right hand rests and the left hand moves this is matter of fact which cannot be deny'd Explain this and make it intelligible and then the next step will be to understand Creation For the giving a new determination to the Motion of the Animal Spirits which some make use of to explain voluntary Motion clears not the difficulty one jotâ— to alter the determination of Motion being in this Case no easier nor less than to give Motion it self since the new determination given to the Animal Spirits must be either immediately by Thought or by some other Body put in their way by Thought which was not in their way before and so must own its Motion to Thought either of which leaves voluntary Motion as unintelligible as it was before In the mean time it is an over-valuing our selves to reduce all to the narrow measure of our Capacities and to conclude all things impossible to be done whose manner of doing exceeds our Comprehension this is to make our Comprehension infinite or God finite when what He can do is limited to what we conceive of it If you do not understand the operations of your own finite Mind that thinking Thing within you do not deem it strange that you cannot comprehend the operations of that Eternal infinite Mind who made and governs all things and whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain I hope my Friend you will more readily excuse the foregoing Prolixity on the account that first Principles especially those of so great moment as these before us ought to be as clearly and satisfactorily prov'd as it is possible which if upon your most serious Reflection you find establisht beyond opposition I expect that from this moment you date the downfal of your Atheism and that you presently commence Deist in order to turn Christian. I know of no better way of arguing with the meer natural Man or with such who value themselves so highly upon the strength of their own Judgment or Humane Reason than to endeavour their Conviction by the most rational Deductions from as rational Propositions whether or no these are such which I have transferr'd hither from the Writings of these two famous Men I must leave you to consider I confess there is little hopes of reclaiming such fool-hardy Libertines who argue for their Infidelity by the same powers in their Souls which to the more considerate are convincing proofs That the Soul which is invested with such mighty Power must undoubtedly be a Substance independant of Corporiety and consequently incapable of suffering an extinction with the Lamp of Life but of the Nature of the Rational Soul of Man and its different Existence from the Soul of Brutes I shall discourse elsewhere having here confin'd my self more particularly to enquire after the Author of our own Being and all others which surround us There have been many Methods used in handling of this Subject and indeed were our Opponents so full of Reason as they pretend one might wonder that any of them should prove insufficient I shall not here stay to examine the Certainty of that Cartesian Notion That 't is impossible we could have had any Idea of that infinite Eternal all-wise Being we call God if such a Being did not really exist or were not in rerum Natura But of this we may be satisfy'd that unless we do believe there is such an immense Being has created us with a design not to deceive us we must be pure Scepticks for it is impossible without this Belief we should be fully assur'd of any Truth whatsoever and therefore I think 't is not without Cause that the Philosopher lays this down as a necessary Introduction to Science Nihil intelligitur nisi Deus prius intelligatur Having proved the Necessity of some Eternal cogitative Being by a train of Arguments which are founded upon right Reason neither supported by Tradition or Authority either Sacred or Profane I shall next inquire how it comes to pass that this first and if I may so say greatest Truth the Foundation of all true Happiness is so wonderfully obscur'd effac'd and even obliterated out of the Hearts of a great part of Mankind Whosoever will take the trouble to inform himself after what manner most People account for the Productions they see daily brought to pass may easily understand that where one Man speaks either reasonably or becomingly of the great Author of the Universe and acknowledges any such Being as superintends the agency of second Causes there are abundantly more who look no farther than the empty Sounds of Fate Fortune Chance Destiny and in their Enquiries into the Structure of Humane Bodies or the Discords of the Animal Oeconomy you rarely find any thing more particularly taken notice of than the Archaeus by some by others the Plastick Power and indeed by all most commonly a certain Nature which tho' continually in their Expressions they know not what to make of Excuse me Sir if I think it worth my while to examine which of these can supply the place of an Almighty or of any real efficient Cause or with what reason we can ascribe unto either of these nominal Agents the Operations imputed to them Fate or Destiny saith SENECA is an immutable and invincible Law imposed upon Things and Actions You will say perhaps that this thing shall happen or not happen if it must come to pass altho ' you vow and make your request yet shall it take effect If it shall not come to pass vow and pray as much as you list yet it shall not fall out Now the Consequence saith he of this Argument is false because you have forgot the Exception that I have put between them both that is to say This shall happen provided a Man makes Vows and Prayers it must necessarily happen that to vow or not to vow are comprehended in and are parts of the same Destiny Again It is destinated or it is such a Man's fate to be an eloquent Man but under this Condition it is likewise destinated that he be instructed in good Letters It is destinated for another Man to he rich but here 't is included in the same Destiny that be make use of the means for their procurement So likewise may it be said it was such a Man's destiny to be hang'd but here that he render himself guilty of some capital Offence for which he is convicted by the Law is part of the same Destiny In the sence wherein these words are
more reputable Name of Deist has been taken up by our Modern Vitioso's the initial Letter of your Character must be now expanged and unless you acknowledge Theism the Men of Letters however debaucht will laugh at and contemn you I have often wondred what those Men think of the Divine Being or what God is who are so very familiar with his Name that they scarce repeat a Sentence without it altho ' it be by way of imprecating his Judgments or wishing him to damn them That the Name is more than a useless Sound most of them will acknowledge and those who boldly plead for the Custom of Swearing do grant that tho' God is yet doth He not take notice of what they say neither are they capable if not punisht here of suffering hereafter It must certainly be this Conceit that embolden'd a lewd Fellow when he was askt whether he was in earnest when he cry'd G d D â— Him to reply That for his part Jest or Earnest he thought were equal since tho' he wisht Damnation he believ'd there was nothing in his Composition which was capable of it and therefore there was no danger Custom had rendred the practise of it familiar and he used it instead of other words to imbellish his Discourse If profane Sweating be at all allowable it must be to such as these but for any Man to pray that G d wou'd D m his Soul and at the same time to believe its Immortality or at least to fear any such thing is a Matter unaccountable and no ways to be resolved but by the Degeneracy of our Reason the Abolition of our Sense and a total Depravation of our Understandings and yet this is the Practise I do not say of your self of many who tell us they are perswaded of the Being of a God and that they are far from any Certainty that their Souls may not survive their Bodies There are many Men saith a Modern Philosopher and Physician â—â—tho take a wonderful delight in Swearing each word must have a S'w ds by G d or a G d D m them for its attendance otherwise the Language would seem to be imperfect or at least to want its natural Eloquence This Interjection of Speech is so much practis'd that some Masters of Languages in France make it the third Lesson to their Scholars A German continues he newly arriv'd at Paris and applying his Mind to the study of that Language shew'd me his third Lesson which his Master had recommended to him to get by heart This Pius of Doctrine did contain no less than Thirty or Five and Thirty Oaths some of which he said were of the last years Invention which his Master had particularly marked I asked the Gentleman how he would come to know their proper Places and Insertions He answered me that that was the first Question he asked his Master who resolv'd him that a little Converse with the French wou'd soon make him perfect in that Business Well might this Ingenious Man cry out upon these Reflections O Tempora O Mores and surely it must strike every more than ordinary thoughtful Man with the most profound Admiration to consider the Practises of those Men who are continually acting that which they themselves have all imaginable assurance they shall sooner or later repent of and be concern'd for 'T is very common as I have before taken notice of for Men to live as if there were no God and we may meet with some so extravagantly audacious as to tell us they are both certain of the truth of their Opinions and certain that come what will they shall never alter them But yet I very much question whether one Instance can be given of a clearly reasoning Atheist unconcern'd in his last Minutes I had a very slight Acquaintance with a Gentleman of some acquired Parts who had frequently beasted amongst his intimate Friends that he question'd not but he shou'd show at his Death the same disregard to the Belief of a Divine Being and the Immortality as he had done all along and this he spoke with a more than usual Seriousness Some few years after as I was told by one of his Friends this Gentleman being on the Thâ—â—es the Boat was overset by some Accident and turn'd the bottom upwards The Spark had been just before Swearing and Damming himself in his wonted â—â—ife and yet nevertheless upon his first sinking he was heard very dolefully to cast out â—â— God be mercif By the endeavour of the Watermen and some other Assistance they were all saved some of them almost expiring their last Breath 'T was several days before this Person was able to go abroad and upon his first visit to one of his Fellows he was upbraided with Cowardise for betraying the Cause of Irreligion and falsifying his Promise to dye an Infidel The Sense of his late Disorder had made too great an Impression to be so soon obliterated and calling to Mind his Deportment when he thought himself a dead Man he fairly confest that he cou'd not help what he did tho' at the same time if his Soul prov'd independent he thought himself plunging into Eternal Misery At this time saith he my fears are pretty well worn off I find my self as much a Libertine as ever though I must tell you that you shall never catch me making Resolutions what to do when I am dying Thus do these miserable Wretches at one time or other in spight of their most firm Resolves to the contrary betray the Weakness of their Cause and by their apparent fears that they are in the wrong together with their many private and publick Recantations they by some means or other satisfie us that there is no secure Dependance upon the strongest of their Arguments or weightiest of their Notions I might illustrate this Subject by a Transcript of those clear Thoughts and Apprehensions of the Deity which are conspicuous in the Writings even of the Heathen Philosophers but having already transgrest the Bounds of an Epistle I shall shut up all in the words of an unknown Author to this purpose It would be too tedious to consider all the little Cavils and Objections of Atheists against a Deity The most material are reducible to those that have been proposed and may be refuted by the Answers we now have given for they proceed either from wrong Apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God or from Ignorance of the Nature and Relation of other things or from an obstinate Resistance of what is de facto evident and all of them demonstrate their Unreasonableness and Absurdity which doth further appear by the unreasonable Consequences of not acknowledging a Deity which is a second way of proving it For if there be no God then it necessarily follos that either every Thing made it self or that all things came from nothing and that there are Effects which have no Cause for there is Life Sense and Reason without any Being capable to produce
them and there are artificial Contrivances regular Proceedings and wise Adaptations of Things to ends and purposes far above the Power and Capacity of any Thing which is Existent These and many such Things as these follow the Denial of a God which are not only great Difficulties but such gross and sensless Absurdities as no thinking Person can swallow or digest As therefore Deformity sheweth Shape and Proportion beautiful so the Belief of a Deity appears more reasonable by the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of Atheism which contradicts common Sense overturns the agreed Principles of Knowledge and Reason confounds Chance and Contrivance Accident and Design and which has its recourse to wild Romantic and most precarious Hypotheses for they cannot shun the owning an Infinity and the Existence of something from Eternity and they are forced to acknowledge that things are framed according to the Rules of Art and Proportion Now as it not more reasonable to ascribe the constant observance of these Rules to an Intelligent Being than to Chance or no Cause for there is no middle Thing betwixt them to be fixed on either the one or the other must take place Nature which they talk so much of is an obscure word for concealing their Thoughts and Sentimens if by this they mean something distinct from Matter which moves and directs it their Nature is God in disguise and if they must flee to this for a rational account of the Production of Things why do they quarrel at the word GOD which carries a clear Idea and in the sence of which all the World is agreed Tho' this Nature of theirs be equivalent yet it is more mysterious and therefore it smells of some designed Perversness as if by the use of this word and the disuse of the other they would turn Peoples thoughts from God and God from the Honour of being the Creator of all things But if by Nature they only understand certain Laws and I know not what Ordinances by which things must move is this sufficient to explain the first Productions of Things For though it should be true that Matter cannot move but according to those Laws and that moving by them in process of time the Work could have been produced as it is at present after that Romantic manner of Cartesius yet there was no cecessity that Matter should move at all nor could it move of it self wherefore whether they will or not they must own the Existence of something prior to Matter it self or the Motion of it which Cartes was sensible of and therefore he could not build his aiery and fanciful System without supposing the Existence of a Deity So that in a word as God is the first Cause and Author of all things this Belief is the foundation of all solid Reason what is not built on this is Nonsence and Absurdity I know the Atheists arrogate to themselves Wit and Judgment and Knowledge above others and do think that it is the Ignorance and Credulity of the Bulk of Mankind at one lately words it which make them to be of another Belief but why I pray must they carry away Sense and Understanding from others because they are so vain as to think it Do not those in Bedlam think themselves wiser than others all the rest of the World are Fools in their eyes and those who keep them there not only such but Oppressors and most unjust Yet Atheism is a more extravagant and pernicious Madness which it is the highest Interest of Mankind to keep from spreading But alas it has been suffer'd to take root it is cherisht and encourag'd Men walk the Streets and publickly act this Madness in every Corner they throw their Scoffs and Droll against the Almighty Author of their Being They meet in Companies to concert how they may most wittily expose Him and what is the readiest way to render Him ridiculous in the eyes of others a Clinch a Jest or puny Witticism is receiv'd and entertain'd and carried about with all diligence Tho' there be no reason why the Atheist should be a Zealot there being no obligation on him to propagate his opinions and because the less they are entertain'd by others he himself is the more secure Yet no Sect is become more zealous of late than Atheists and their Fraternity who maintain their Cause by an affroâ—ting Impudence by the Exercise of a frothy Wit instead of Reason and by jesting and drolling instead of serious Arguments but let any Man judge if this be a reasonable or commendable way of handling a Matter so serious and important Should Impudence run down Evidence Should a Jest or a foolish Witticism be of more weight than the Dictates of common Sense and sound Reason If these Men were capable of Counsel I would ask them whether they are absolutely sure that they are in the right Are they able to demonstrate that there is no God This is more than any ever yet pretended to and if they cannot pretend to this ought they not to walk very cautiously if there be a God as there may for any assurance they have to the contrary what then have they to expect for their bold Insults and Oppositions to Him Our Notion of a God is no vain Hypothesis or imaginary Supposition 't is a Truth loudly proclaim'd and strongly confirm'd not only by Reason but every part of the World So that whatever the Atheist may arrogate to himself and whatever esteem may be paid to him in a corrupt Age yet iâ— he so far from being wiser than others that by the Universal Voice of Nature as well as that of Divine Revelation he will be declared a Fool who saith there is no God May the Supreme Power direct us all to a Knowledge of Himself such a Knowledge as will be attended here with a solid Peace and Satisfaction and hereafter with Eternal Happiness I have nothing more to add unless this that I am in all Sincerity Your real Friend to serve you LETTER II. Concerning Providence To Mr. c. My esteemed Friend IN my former you had the Thoughts of several Learned Men together with my own Conjectures concerning that unhappily controverted Truth the Basis of all others the Existence of a God In this I shall communicate my own Sentiments amongst those of some more prudent Persons concerning Providence a Matter by almost all Men frequently debated altho ' by very few of them very rationally explicated This is indeed a Theme so difficult so intricate and obscure so amasingly stupendious and withal a Subject that requires so very much Caution in its Explanation on the account of its general Moment and Concern that I profess to you I scarce know where or in what manner to begin or how to deliver my Conceptions freely on this weighty Argument I will however venture some few of my own Thoughts rude and indigested as they have occur'd upon a short Reflection if the Philosopher shou'd happen to get the Ascendant of the Christian
the Laws of Motion that there is nothing less than a Miracle could prevent it and indeed supposing the Particles of Matter from whatever Cause posited in the manner we are now speaking it would be much more monstrous if they should convene into any other Shape which we account more regular handsom or compleat But then when we survey this unusual Figure as the Workmanship of the Deity especially where we suppose the same was design'd a Mansion for the Rational Soul we expect that the Supreme Architect should have interpos'd and either alterd the Laws of Motion or have given a new Modification to the Particles of Matter whereby they might be disposed to have better answer'd his Design and to be rendred more pliable to what Philosophers pronounce the Plastic Power Our Reflections of this Nature upon the particular Providence or God's Government of the World do put us very often upon the most impious Conclusions and almost perswade us to question if we are not very cautious and sensible that it is impossible for us to fathom his Designs whether there be any Divine Intelligence at all or other Superintendent Being who sits at the Helm and takes notice of us Mortals all this being in our Opinions more easily resolvable into Time and Chance Matter and Motion These if I mistak not are the unhappy Doubts of the Inconsiderate and altho' they appear not so bare fac'd in the modester sort of Infidels yet are they so far as we are able to apprehend the genuine Thoughts of every irreligious or profane Person We are too apt to set up our own perverted shallow and corrupt Reason for the Universal Standard to which Test must be brought not only each others Actions but those of God himself and which is somewhat strange notwithstanding scarce any one of our Lives is regulated by this Exemplar yet if we cannot immediately reconcile the unsearchable and inscrutable Designs of the Supreme Power to our own finite Understandings if we discover not the most secret Mysteries or Arcana Deitatis and are unable to account for each several Dispensation we blaspemously cry out with Epicurus Aut Deâ—â— vult toltere Mala non potest aut potest non vult aut utque vult neque potest aut vult potest Si vult non potest imbecillis est idioque non Deus Si potest non vult invidâ—â— est quod aeque alienum à Deo Si neque vult neque potest invidâ—â— imbecillis est idebque utque Deus Si vult potest quod solum Deo convenit unde ergo Mala aut cur illa non tollit Believe me Sir I have been often apt to think that we need not seek much farther for the Causes of Irreligion than our mistaken Notions concerning Providence nor indeed can I perswade my self of a greater stumbling Block or more considerable Difficulty to be encountred in the Christian Warfare It is this which hath sometimes stagger'd the Faith of some of the wisest Men and made others pure Sceptics in Matters of Religion It was this which put the Divine Psalmist if I may use his words upon crying out But as for me my Feet were almost goâ—e my stepâ— had well â—igh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked for they are not in trouble as other Men neither are they â—lâ—gâ—ed like other Men. Their Eyes stand out with fatness they â—â—â—e more then heart could wish They are corrupt and speak wickedly They set their Mouth against the Heavens and they say how doth God knâ—w Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the World Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in Innocence for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every Morning When I thought to know this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end We have surely the less Reason to admire that the regardless and foolish Libertine shou'd be startled at the seemingly unequal distribution of the Divine Favours when we find the devout Psalmist himself almost confounded and openly confessing that these things were too painful for his knowledge till he went into the Sanctuary and there inform'd himself To the same purpose says one of the ancient Fathers Videbat Epicurus Bonis adversa semper accidere Paupertatem Labores Curae Amissiones Malos contrà Beatos esse augeri Potentia Honoribus affici Videbat Innocentiam minus tutam Scelera impune committi Videbat sine delectu Morum sine ordine discrimine annorum saevire Mortem sed alios ad Senectutem pervenire alios Infantes rapi alios jam robustos interire alios in primo adolescentiae flore immaturis funeribus extingui In Belliâ— potius meliores vinci perire maxime autem commovebat Homines imprimis religiosos malis affici iis autem qui aut Deos omnino negligerent aut minus pie colerent vel minora incommodâ— evenire vel nulla It was the like Consideration which extorted that Confession of Ovid Cum rapiant Mala Fata Bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitâ—r nullâ—s esse putare Deos. It was the seeming Felicity of the Impious and Unjust with the smart Afflictions of the Pious and Devout that amazed the sober Claudian as he is called by Dr. Ch and more than inclined him to Apostatize from Religion and declare himself on the side of Epicurus in these words Sepe mihi dubiam traxit Sententia Mentem Curarent Superi Terras au nullus inesset Rector incerto fluerent Mortalia Casu Sed cum Res Hominum taâ—ta Caligine volvi Adspicerem laetósque diu florere Nocentes Vexariquâ— Pios rursuâ— labefacta Cadebat Religio causaeque viam non sponte sequebar Alterius vacuo quae currere semina motu Adfirmat magnúmque novas per Inane figuras Fortuna non Arte regi quae Numina Sensu Ambiguo vel nulla putat vel nescia nostri Men look into the World and perceive a showre of Good and Evil over their Heads which falls down as they imagine without Choice or Direction They acknowledge indeed an establisht Law of Motion but by what Power they heed not nor will they be perswaded of the Author's Justice since the same Event at sometimes happens to all and if the Wicked have not the Precedence they are at least equally happy in this Life with the Good and Pious These Men saith that great Master of Antiquity the Learned B of W have found out an expurgatory Index for those Impressions of a Deity which are in the hearts of Men and use their utmost Art to obscure since they cannot extinguish those lively Characters of his Power which are every where to be seen in the large Volume of the Creation Religion is no more to them but an unaccountable Fear and the very Notion of a Spiritual Substance even
to perswade Men to worship Him if we are neither beholding to Him for our Being nor under His Laws and if He no more respect our Adorations than if we did reproach and blaspheme Him If it were thus we shou'd undoubtedly have cause to think our selves by much the most miserable part of the Creation But on the other hand That there is a natural Belief in us both of God and of his Providence the greatest of our Adversaries the most irreligious and profane the learned and profound Atheist as well as the illiterate nay all Mankind have been as it were forc'd to grant and acknowledge I am sure it is a prodigiously rare Case to find any so unconcern'd an Infidel let his Life have been never so remarkable for Immorality or one continued Act of Impiety and Irreligion notwithstanding the force of contracted evil habits may have throughly immerst him in all kinds of Sensuality yet when some grievous Calamity hath befall'n him or the disorder of his Body put him upon a Retirement he begins to think first that there may be such a Thing as Divine Providence as well as that there may not and when a farther Reflection convinces him that it is more probable there is than that there is not if Death approach him in the midst of his Meditations there is scarce an Atheistical Desparado can forbear giving his Testimony to this great Truth but either silently or loudly breaths out his Soul with an O God be merciful Now if these Men the mighty Sticklers against the Divine Providence all their Lives had that assurance in their last Minutes that God Almighty is neither wise enough to know their Circumstances nor powerful enough to punish them I wou'd gladly know from whence proceeds these lamentable Expirations You will say perhaps from those bugbare Fears of invisible Powers with which Tales they are so perpetually plagued from Pulpit Harangues and promiscuous Converse with Men devoted to a Religious Superstition that it is hardly possible for any Man so throughly to shake off these Childish Fears and Apprehensions but that at some time or other they will intrude upon him and in spight of all his Opposition imbitter his Delights and Natural Satisfactions The World you say is so pester'd with the Levitical Tribe that there is scarce a Corner of the Earth to be found where a Man might live secure from this disturbing Noise of a Being who sees all our Actions and will retribute to every Man after he is dead and buried you know not how nor where according to his Deserts either of Reward or Punishment Thus the Prejudice and Prepossession of Education in some of Conversation in others are the great Bias that sways the whole Bulk of Mankind and keeps them under those servile Fears which necessarily arise from a Supposition of a God and of other Separate Beings That I may make a short tho' I hope sufficient Reply to this Objection I must confess that the Allegation of an early imbib'd or preconceiv'd Prejudice may be prevalent enough to startle those who either through a careless Negligence or Incapacity have never dived into the bottom of this weighty Affair but that it shou'd have force enough to master and over-power the great and potent Masters of Humane Reason and subjugate their seemingly impregnable and strenuous Fortresses or strong Holds of Atheistical Argumentation is in my Opinion plainly giving up their Cause and a silent Acknowledgment that the Proleptic Evidence or Light of their own Consciences notwithstanding their vain Endeavours to suppress and extinguish it will however it may be sometimes smother'd and kept under break out at length to their sorrowful assurance That those Noble Faculties of their Souls are more than a meer Sound or Echo from the clashing of sensless Atoms and must indubitably proceed from a Spiritual Substance of a Heavenly and Divine Extraction and that those admirable Fabrics of their Bodies ought no longer to be ascrib'd to the fatal Motions of blind unthinking Matter but to the Wisdom and Contrivance of a Power Omnipotent The Recollections of this Nature and Recantations of former Principles together with the strange Horror and Consternation those we are speaking of lye under at particular times is decypher'd by Juvenal in these Lines Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgura Pallent Cum tonat Exanimes primo quoque murmure Coeli There is no occasion to search Antiquity for these Examples Modern Story will abundantly furnish us we have lately had a R r that may serve for all A Man who as perhaps his Profanity wants a Parallel so likewise his incredible Acuteness of Judgment and Apprehension together with his great Learning had qualify'd him for diving as far into the Mystery of Atheism as any of those that went before or may happen to follow after him I suppose you are no Stranger to the last Conferences which he held with the present B of S nor of those Rational and Penetential Expressions that usher'd in his last Minutes upon which account I shall ease my self of the Trouble of their Transcription But since that happy tho' unexpected Alteration in the opinion of his Lordship is by his once beloved Libertines imputed to a Decay of his Rational Faculties and a want of his former Strength and Vivacity of Judgment induced by a long and painful Sickness together with his frequent Commerce with the infectious Priests tho' this I say be all too weak to blacken and obscure the Testimony of that late yet unfeigned noble Convert or to render his Religious Deportment but an inconsiderable Reflection upon the strength and goodness of their Cause yet if I thought it might contribute to your farther Satisfaction I could give you a signal Instance of some Affinity with the former relating to a short Intercourse between my self and a deceased Friend the former will indeed have this Advantage that it wants not your knowledge of the Person at least his Character together with the Circumstances of Time and Place as also the very forcible Attestation of several worthy Gentlemen whereas this with which I am about to acquaint you must for its credibility depend wholly upon your good Opinion of its Relator since not only the Name and Place of Residence but whatever else may tend to his Discovery are to be buried in oblivion Be the Event as it will with relation to your Conjectures It is no long time ago that I paid a sorrowful Farewel to a dying Friend a Man whom I never adventur'd to think more than a Deist and that but nominal I knew him to be both a Gentleman and a Scholar that his Studies had been mostly Mathematical and indeed he had made as good proficiency in Physicks or Natural Philosophy as perhaps almost any Person of his years Having the good fortune to find him without Company the freedom I had formerly taken with him excus'd a farther Ceremony and I immediately desir'd to know
some things tainted with the Cartesian Principles he thus rightly argues That if all our Cognition doth proceed originally from our Senses as is affirm'd by Aristotle in his Maxim of Nihil in intellectu c. and that Intellection is made by Analogy by Composition Division Ampliation Extenuation and the like ways of managing the Species or Images of things immitted into the common Sensory by the External Senses then certainly we can have no knowledge of any thing whereof we have no Image and consequently without Imagination there is no Intellection so that in fine to imagine and understand a Thing will be all one whereas to answer this we may affirm that no Corporeal Image or Species is ever receiv'd into the Mind and that pure Intellection as well of a Corporeal as Incorporeal thing is made without any material Image or Species at all As for Imagination to that indeed is requir'd the presence of some Corporeal Image to which the Mind might apply it self because there can be no Imagination but of Corporeal things and yet nevertheless that Corporeal Image doth not enter into the Mind The truth is the Intellect also makes use of Images conceiv'd by the Phancy and therefore called Phantasms yet only as certain means or degrees that progressing through them it may at length attain the knowledge of some things which it afterwards perceives as sequester'd and in a manner sublimed from those Phantasms but this is that which doth sufficiently argue its being Immaterial because it carrieth it self beyond all Images material and comes to the Science of some things of which it hath no Phantasms All the particular Knowledges that Man hath or can have concerning finite and compleat Entities except only the Notion of Being are only certain comparisons or respects between particular things but of respect there can be no Image or Representation at all in the Phancy and therefore our Knowledge is without Images All the particular Notions we have except of Being do belong to some one of the ten Praedicaments all which are so manifestly respective that no Man doubteth them to be so In particular Substance hath a respect to Being Quantity doth consist in a respect unto Parts Quality hath a respect unto that Subject which is denominated from it Action and Passion result from the Union of Quality and Substance Relation denoteth the respect betwixt the Relatum and Correlatum Ubi and Quando arise from Substance consider'd with the Circumstances of Place and Time Situation is from the respect of parts to the whole Habit is a respect to the Substance wherein it is as being the Propriety by which it is well or ill conveniently or inconveniently affected in regard of its own Nature If you question the verity of the foregoing Assertion exercise your Mind in seriously reviewing all these things that have been derived from the Senses and see if you can find among them any such thing as we call a respect it hath neither Figure nor Colour nor Sound nor Odor nor Taste and so cannot possibly be represented to the Sense or Imagination hence I think there is no need to doubt that the Notions of things in the Intellect or pure Understanding are extreamly different from whatsoever is immitted into the Mind by the mediation of the Senses and so that the Intellect hath a knowledge of some things independent of Corporeal Images or Idea's For in simple Imagination the Mind doth always apply it self to the thing speculated or the Image rather of that thing but in pure Intellection in quitteth the Image and converteth it self upon it self the former Act being still accompany'd with some labour and contention of Mind the latter free easie and instantaneous Now in the Phancy of Beasts there is always a Conjunction of the Image of that particular good or harm they have formerly received from such or such things with the Images of the things themselves which is all that can be said to render the subtilest of them Conscious and is indeed the Cause of all those so much admir'd Effects called Sympathys and Antipathys amongst Animals of different kinds Another sort of Actions evincing the Soul's Immateriality are those whereby we do not only form to our selves Universals or Universal Notions but also understand the reason of Universality it self for it being evidently impossible that any Corporeal thing should be exempted from all material Conditions and Differences of Singularity as Magnitude Figure Colour Time Place c. and undeniably certain that the Understanding hath a power to divest them of all and every one of those Conditions and Circumstances and to speculate them in that abstracted state devoy'd of all Particularities it follows necessarily that the Soul which hath this power so to abstract them must it self be exempt from all Matter and of a Condition more eminent than to be confin'd to material Conditions To these few Reasons of the Immateriality of the Humane Soul defumed from the Excellency of her Operations I might here add a multitude of others of the same Extraction and equivalent Force as in particular that of the Existence of Corporeal Natures in the Soul by the power of Apprehension that of her drawing from Multitude to Unity her apprehension of Negations and Privations her containing of Contraries without Opposition her Capacity to move without being moved her self the Incompossibility of opposite Propositions in the Understanding and sundry others the least whereof is of Evidence and Vigour sufficient to carry the Cause against all those Enemies to her Immortality who wou'd degrade her from the Divine Dignity of her Nature to an equality with the Souls of Brutes that are but certain Dispositions of Matter and obnoxious to Dissolution upon change of the same by contrary Agents But farther There is no Corporeal Faculty but what is confin'd to the Perception of only some one certain Genus of things as in particular the Sight to Visibles the Hearing to Sounds c. and tho' the Imagination seems to be extended to very many kinds yet all those are contain'd under the Classis of Sensibles and thence it comes that all Animals endow'd only with Phantasie are addicted only to Sensibles no one affecting the knowledge of any thing which falleth not under the Sense but the Intellect alone is that which hath for its Object Omne verum and as the Schoolmen speak Ens ut Ens every Being in the Universe and therefore hath no mixture of Matter but is wholly free from it and Incorporeal a Truth so clearly revealed by the Light of Nature that Anaxogoras and Aristotle both subscribed Esse intellectum necessario 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immistum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoniam intelligit Universa That Incorporeals are within the Orb of the Intellects Activity and do not escape the apprehension of this unbounded and universal Capacity needs no other proof besides that of our own sublime Speculations concerning the Nature of God of Intelligencies of Angels
of the Humane Soul and whatever else belongs to the Science of Metaphysics which teacheth us to abstract from all Matter and Quantity Nay I presume it will not be accounted Paradoxical in me to affirm that Immaterial Objects are most genuine and natural to the Understanding especially since Cartes hath irrefutably demonstrated that the knowledge we have of the Existence of the Supream Being and of our own Souls is more certain clear and distinct than the knowledge of any Corporeal Nature whatever according to that Canon of Aquinas Nulla res qualiscunque est c. The Moral Considerations usually brought in defence of the Soul 's Incorruptibility are principally three 1. The Universal Consent of Mankind 2. Man's inseparable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing evil Men after Death Now as Cicero judiciously observes Omni in re consentio omnium Gentium Lex naturae putanda est and thus the Notion of the Soul's Immortality is so implanted in the Nature and Mind of Man that whoso denies it doth impugn his own Natural Principles As for that common Objection the Alteration observable in Infancy and old Age we may answer with the great Master of Nature at least one so esteem'd by some Innasci autem Intellectus videtur substantia quaedam esse nec corrumpi nam si corrumperetur quidem id maxime fieret ab habitatione illa quae in Senectute contingit nunc autem res perinde fit ac in ipsismet sensuum instrumentis si enim Senex Occulum Juvenilem reciperet non secus ac ipse Juvenis videret unde Senectus non ex eo est quod quidquam passa Anima sit fed quod simile aliquid ac in Ebrietate morbisque eveniat ipsaque intelligendi contemplandi functio propter aliquid aliud interius corruptum marcescit cum ipsum interim cujus est passionis expers maneat Which words consider'd we have good reason to affirm that all that Change which the Epicurean would have to be in the Rational Soul or Mind during the growth of the Body in Youth and decay of it in old Age doth not proceed from any Mutation in the Soul it self but some other Interiour thing distinct from it as the Imagination or Organ of the common Sense the Brain which being well or ill affected the Soul it self suffereth not at all but only the Functions of it flourish or decay accordingly for as the Philosopher remarks if it were possible to give an old Man a young Eye and a young Imagination his Soul would soon declare by exquisite vision and quick reasoning that it was not she that had grown old but her Organs and that she is capable of no more Change from the impairment of the Body than is usually observed to arise pro tempore from a fit of Drunkenness or some Disease of the Brain so that it is evident from hence that whatever Change Men have thought to be in the Soul by reason of that great decay generally attending old Age to not really in the Soul but only in the Imagination and the Organs thereof which are not so well dispos'd as in the Vigour of Life In like manner are we to understand that the Soul when the Members grow cold and mortify'd doth then indeed instantly cease to be in them yet is not cut off by piece-meal or diminisht and gradually dissipated but the whole of it remains in so much of the Body as yet continues warm and perfused by the Vital Heat until ceasing longer to animate the principle Seat of its Residence whether the Brain or Heart it at length bids adieu to the whole and withdraweth it self entire and perfect so that Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and not of the Soul which as Solomon calls it is the brightness of the Everlasting Light the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God and the Image of his Goodness and being but one she can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new The like may be said with relation to those failings observable in swooning fits which fall not upon the Soul but on the Vital Organs at those times render'd unfit for the uses and actions to which they were framed and accommodated and if the Causes of such failings shou'd happen to be so violent as to bring on a sudden Death then the Soul must indeed depart yet not by reason of any dissolution in its Substance or imbecility in it self but for want of those dispositions in the Organs of Life by which she was enabled to enliven the Body Now if saith this Author in such a Thesis or Proposition which is not capable of being evinced by Geometrical Demonstration there can yet be expected such substantial and satisfactory Reasons Physical or Moral as may suffice to the full establishment of its Truth in the Mind of a reasonable Man If this be granted I thence argue that the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature To be convinc'd of our Immortality and satisfactorily perswaded whether or no there is any thing in us which shall not perish with the Life we are shortly to lay down is of so great and so important Consequence that I can readily expect your forgiveness if I trespass upon your Patience and inlarge a little farther upon this weighty Argument That there is somewhat in us essentially differing from distinct and superior to other Animals or that the Rational Soul of Man bears no Analogy with the Souls of other Creatures is farther elegantly toucht upon in these words of Dr. Willis The Eminency of the Rational Soul above the Brutal or Corporeal shines clearly by comparing either both as to the Objects and to the chief Acts or Modes of Knowing As to the former whenâ—â— every Corporeal Faculty is limited to sensible Things the Object of the Humane Mind is every Ens whether above or sublâ—mary material or immaterial true or fictitious real or intentional The Acts or Degrees of Knowledge common to either Soul are vulgarly accounted these three to wit Simple Apprehension Enunciation and Discourse How much the power of the Rational excels the other which is Corporeal we shall consider 1. The knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul is Phantasie or Imagination which being planted in the middle part of the Brain receives the sensible Species first only impressed on the Organs of Sense and from thence by a most quick irradiation of the Spirits deliver'd inwards and so apprehends all the several Corporeal Things according to their Exterior Appearances which notwithstanding as they are perceived only by the Sense which is often deceived they are admitted under an appearing and not always under a true Image or Species for so we imagine the Sun no bigger than a Bushel the Horizon of the Heaven and the Sea to meet
Substance that the Rays which cause the visible Species are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body repercussed in their going forth and reflected variously here and there according to Gassendus or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air and as it were by inkindling them render them luminous and these at length others and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation which is the more probable Opinion if we may credit Dr. Willis Farther Admitting in the Case of Hearing that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies after the manner described or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound in a word admitting the rest of the Senses the Touch the Smell and Taste and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body might after some such manmer be explor'd by the Corpuscular Philosophy yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers and judges so exquisitely of each of these Sensations must it self be independent both of Matter and Mechanism How then is it possible for any Man without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding when he has made this Enquiry and satisfy'd himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions how is it I say that this shou'd incline a Man to Atheism unless contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience he were resolv'd that way or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all or one no better viz. Chance or Fortune So that to deal freely I can do no less than believe with a Modern Philosopher That whoever does profess Philosophy and thinks not rightly of God may be judg'd not only to have shaken hands with Religion but with his Reason also and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity The sum of this Argument lyes here That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious On the other hand to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable So that to put the Cause upon this Issue let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us whether it be to do Good or Evil Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion or that in any manner inclines us to Vice we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation but if on the contrary it appear that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Vertue and that any Pretence either to the one or to the other not built on Rational Principles may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisie thâ—n certainly 't is our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures 't is this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion and when by our Reason we are perswaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired which as is intimated before we have abundant Reason to believe we must then let our Faith take place and not only assent unto those things which we can account for but even of those also which tho' not contrary to are above our Reason and must be acknowledg'd to surmount our Apprehension The Belief of a God of his Providence and of future Rewards and Punishments is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion but the Foundation of that Faith lyes in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind All the Certainty saith the pious Father Malebranch which we can have in Matters of Faith depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason I may answer with a very Ingenious Man That by Reason is to be understood that steddy uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled so far I mean as they are able to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions and thereupon to pronounce them true or false There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men occasion'd by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves and the different Representation of Things from without but the Light by which all things are discerned is universally one and the same The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights it wou'd be impossible for one Man by any Representation whatsoever to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may injoy it can only be of authority and useful to themselves or at most it can be only so far useful and of authority to others as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it All Matters of Religion even as all other Affairs of Humane Life are to be handled by Men in reference to one another in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him of our Selves and of the Relation we stand in to Him and to our fellow Creatures The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things whatsoever that Cause be I call it God and the Idea that we have of this powerful â—â—cing arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that
Infirmities Poverty Loss of Parents Husbands Children and Friends She must maintain Charity and Humility in the Rich and Wise command Visits to the Sick Assistance to the Prisoner Fatherless and Widows but in the State of Innocence there were no Objects for the Exercise of these and many more Vertues nor no Provocations to the contrary Vices all these are the Natural Consequences of Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return and of that Curse which was the Consequence of Man's Transgression It is here that we see the Reason why the first Covenant was peremptory The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye because Man was blessed with an ability to keep his Covenant with God but through the greatness of Mercy in the Second we are promis'd the assistance of the Holy Spirit and when we fall as the best of us must with our utmost care God is pleased to accept of our Repentance knowing it impossible for Man under his present Circumstances and the manner of his Multiplication to keep himself free from Sin To be short in the State of Innocence Constitutions were regular and therefore Reason was strong and uninterrupted in her Operations and her Work was short and easie but by the Apostacy they became irregular the strength of Reason was impaired her Operations interrupted and variety of hard Works which were not in the primitive State are now become our Reasonable Service I must confess my self better pleas'd with this account than many others I have met with and chiefly for its placing the Corruption of our Nature in the sensitive or inferiour Soul for notwithstanding Cartes and his Followers have disallow'd the Division and will by no means comply that there should be any more than one and the same Soul and that those Intestine Conflicts between the Flesh and Spirit which we do all at sometimes experience do arise only from a determination of the Spirits by the Will one way and from another determination of them by the Corporeal Appetite yet the Explanation elsewhere given as it is more consistent with holy Writ so it is likewise with the Belief of the greater number of Learned Men who have solidly establisht this Doctrine of a Duality of Souls in every individual Man But leaving this we must all grant him to be a Creature endow'd with Reason and supposing him to be such it will be now worth the Enquiry how it comes to pass that he shou'd be so very incident to Failings and to act even against the clearest and most demonstrative Reason There have been several Attempts made to explain this Matter by several Men some of which will have the Cause to proceed from certain Errors or Mistakes in Judgment for say they since it is impossible that Man as he is endow'd with Reason shou'd appetere Malum qua Malum whatever he makes choice of tho' in it self never so great an Evil must be offer'd to his Appetite under the Disguise of some certain good of which he believes himself to stand in need and thus through the want of due Consideration or Errors of our Understanding the Bonum apparens takes place of the Bonum reale and thus likewise it happens that the Bonum vicinum puts in before the Bonum remotum The Understanding Mr. Lock on the other side is of opinion that it is neither an appearing Good nor yet the greatest positive Good but always some pressing and prevaâ—â—â—ng Uneasiness that Influences our Actionâ— It seems saith he so stablisht and setled a Maxim by the general Consent of Mankind that Good or the greater Good determines our Wills that I do not at all wonder that when I first publisht my Thoughts upon this Subject I took it for granted and I imagine that by a great many I shall be thought more excusable for having then done so than that now I have ventur'd to recede from so receiv'd an Opinion but yet upon a stricter Enquiry I am forced to conclude that Good even the greatest Good tho' apprehended and acknowledg'd to be so does not determine the Will until our desire proportionally raised to it makes us uneasie in the want of it Convince a Man never so much that Plenty has its Advantages above Poverty make him see and own that the handsome Conveniencies of Life are better than nasty Penury yet as long as he is content with the latter and finds no uneasiness in it he moves not his Will is never determined to any Action that shall bring him out of it Let a Man be never so well perswaded of the Advantages of Vertue that it is as necessary to him who has any great aims in this World or Hopes in the next as Food to Life yet till he hungers and thirsts after Righteousness till he feels an uneasiness in the want of it his Will is not determin'd to any Action in pursuit of this confessed greater Good but any other uneasiness he feels in himself shall take place and carry his Will to other Actions Let the Drunkard see that his Health decays his Estate wasts Discredit and Diseases and the want of all things even of his beloved Drink attends him in the Course he follows yet the Returns of Uneasiness to miss his Companions the habitual thirst after his Cups at the usual time drives him to the Tavern tho' he hath in his view the loss of Health and Plenty and perhaps of the Joys of another Life the least of which is no inconsiderable Good but such as he confesses is far greater than the tickling his Palate with a Glass of Wine or the idle Chat of a soaking Club. 'T is not for want of viewing the greater Good for he sees and acknowledges it and in the Intervals of his drinking Hours will take Resolutions to pursue the greater Good but when the Uneasiness to miss his accustomed Delight returns the greater acknowledg'd Good loseth its hold and the present Uneasiness determines the Will to the accustom'd Action which thereby gets stronger footing to prevail again the next occasion tho' he at the same time make secret Promises to himself that he will do so no more this is the last time he will act against the attainment of these greater Goods And thus be it from time to time in the state of that unhappy Complainer Video Meliora proboque Deteriora sequor which Sentence allowed true and made good by constant Experience may this and possibly no other way be made easily intelligible If we enquire now into the Reason of what Experience makes so evident in fact and examine why 't is Uneasiness alone operates on the Will and determines it in its Choice we shall find that we being capable but of one determination of the Will to one action at once the present uneasiness that we are under does naturally determine the Will in order to that Happiness we all aim at in all our actions forasmuch as whilst we are under any Uneasiness we cannot apprehend
even by their own Weapons of Humane Reason I speak not this to shew my own good liking of such for the most part vain and unprofitable Argumentations but yet I think it no disserviceable Office to Religion neither yet to the Cause of our great Creator that some Men have left both the Atheist and his Friend the Deist without Excuse and that they may see their Condemnation heighten'd by their obstinate disbelief of the Christian Religion contrary to the natural unprejudic'd Light of Reason as well as the Extraordinary of Divine Faith Your Character of Mr. B l I think no whit too large nor do I dislike your Thought of his being design'd by Providence as a demonstrative and clear Evidence to satisfie the doubting World that the larger portion of right Reason or solid Knowledge a Man is endow'd with the clearer prospect he enjoys of the Truth and Certainty of Divine Revelation and that it is not only unlikely but impossible to philosophise as becomes reasonable Men without thinking venerably of Almighty God and his Son Christ Jesus The true Christian Vertuoso is indeed not often met with and whether the Character of a practically Religious Man and at the same time a very great Philosopher suits any Man so well as it did the deceased B l may very well be made a Question For my own part I the less value the Attempts or Endeavours of Men philosophising about Religion being perswaded that there are not many sincerely pious Converts made thereby Religion wants not the Rhetorical Flourish of fine Language Aiery Notions and School Distinctions render her but confus'd and are really Blemishes to her Purity and Simplicity Her Paths are plain and easie in her Natural Dress she is all over amiable and wants not the imbellishment of Philosophic Lustre There are Arguments enough already from the Store-house of Humane Reason to silence the Complaints of Atheism it is not Reason that will satisfie the unreasonable Infidel and I am perswaded were there no Mortification or Self-denial in the Case no Restraint to be laid upon the brutish Appetite the Truths we plead for would be clear enough to the Unbeliever The depth of their Philosophy lyes here they will not believe in God because he has not made them irrational or brute Creatures which since they came not such out of the hands of their Maker they resolve to make themselves so and then foolishly please themselves with the Childish Expectation of escaping Divine Judgment because they have so long suffer'd themselves to be acted by what they call the irresistible impulse of their sensitive Appetites and wilfully indulged Passions What every good Man glories in viz. that he is endow'd with Reason and a Capacity to shun the Evil and to choose the Good is the greatest Misery of these Men who finding themselves able to dishonour their Creator to turn their backs upon Religion and to do despite unto the Spirit of Grace since there is a possibility for them left to blaspheme their God to trample upon all things Sacred and that they are not hereupon immediately destroy'd by the Divine Anger and Indignation they grow harden'd in their Vices their continued Habits are at length woven into their Constitutions and they act indeed but little differently from Irrational Agents Right Reason or Philosophy will do but little good with such the Reformation if at all is owing to the hand of God it is beyond the skill of Man to inlighten our Understandings in such a manner as to give us a taste of the Divine Goodness We may frame to our selves some speculative Notions we may confess with our Mouths as finding our selves unable to resist or to hold out any longer but it is the Grace of Jesus Christ that must compleat our Conviction and cooperate with our Souls in a perseverance to the end This is a Truth so clear to me that I am firmly perswaded you will find no sincerely pious or true practical Christian of a differing Opinion the worldly wise Man may despise and contemn us the Libertine may scoff at us and impute all to our want of Knowledge to Phansie or Prepossession let them mock on and mark the end it is sufficient for us and will recompence to us these Indignities if we are happy in the Grace of our Lord Jesus I commit you to his protection and remain Your faithful Friend to serve you A. H. POSTSCRIPT I Can by no means think well of those you have taken notice of neither do I think it becomes any Man to dogmatize concerning the Creation or to ridicule the Mosaic History if we can't content our selves with what is there deliver'd it is true we may please our selves with new Theories of our own erecting but must not expect to find out any such as Mankind will comply with or perhaps such as will please our selves much better than that of the Historian in Sacred Writ which we find fault with because in some things disagreeable to Modern Discoveries In these things every Man may think as he pleases provided he think not to the dishonour of Almighty God but let no Man publish to the World for truth the uncertain even very uncertain Conjectures of his own Mind I had not been long acquainted with this Reverend Divine before his fatal Distemper depriv'd me with many others of the advantage of his Conversation and it is the least respect I can pay his Memory in publick to acknowledge my own belief that he was a Man of undissembled Piety strictly holy and devout in his Life and Converse laborious and painful in his Ministry of very easie access and ready to succour all Men to the utmost of his Capacity He was a Man universally respected by Persons of different Perswasions and I have reason to surmise that he died as generally lamented He always exprest himself with a more than common earnestness and had something in his Air and Mein so soberly grave and modest yet withal so pleasant that I never met with in any other Person He had nothing of Affectation of a precise or reserved Temper and so little regarded a Courtly Demeanour or Ceremonial Deportment that I have heard it objected as the greatest of his Faults that he was ungenteel and too negligent in his manner of Address but least this should be taken for his full Character which makes so small and even so inconsiderable a part thereof I shall for the present leave it whilst I pursue my Argument of the Nature and Necessity of the Divine Assistance to the Completion of Man's Eternal Happiness something more particularly relating to which Theam I find so pertinently handled by the Author of Reasons Interest in Religion that I care not to pass it by without taking notice and considering upon the same As nothing saith this Author but charming Lusts false Delusions carnal Interests foolish Prejudices indulging the Appetites of the Animal Life and attending to the titillations of the
to let the Hair alone and to stay till the Juices of the Body have resolv'd or consum'd it or some other favourable Accident have remov'd it than like a passionate and transported thing oppose it like a Fury with such a blind violence as instead of ejecting the Hair expels the Life of him who was troubled with it How the care and wisdom of Nature will be reconciled to so improper and disorderly a proceeding I leave her Admirers to consider but it will appear very reconcileable to Providence if we reflect upon the lately given Advertisement for in regard of the use and necessity of deglutition and in many cases of coughing and vomiting 't was in the general most convenient that the part ministring to those Motions shou'd be irritated by the sudden sense of things that are unusual tho' perhaps they wou'd not be otherwise dangerous or offensive because as we formerly noted 't was fit that the Providence of God shou'd in making provision for the welfare of Animals have more regard to that which usually and regularly befalls them then to extraordinary Cases or unfrequent Accidents 2. Now the difficulty we find to conceive how so great a Fabrick as the World can be preserved in order and kept from running again to a Chaos seems to arise from hence That Men do not sufficiently consider the unsearchable Wisdom of the Divine Architect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Scripture stiles Him of the World whose piercing Eyes were able to look at once quite through the Universe and to take into his prospect both the beginning and the end of time so that perfectly foreknowing what wou'd be the consequence of all the possible Conjectures of Circumstances into which Matter divided and moved according to such Laws cou'd in an Automaton so constituted as the present World is happen to be put there can nothing fall out unless when a Miracle is wrought that shall be able to alter the course of things or prejudice the Constitution of them any farther than He did from the Beginning foresee and think fit to allow And truly it more sets off the Wisdom of God in the Fabric of the Universe that He can make so vast a Machine as the Macrocosm perform all those many things which he design'd it shou'd by the meer contrivance of brute Matter manag'd by certain Laws of local Motion and upheld by his ordinary and general concourse than if He imploy'd from time to time an intelligent Overseer such as Nature is fancy'd to be to regulate assist and controul the Motion of its parts For as Aristotle by introducing the Opinion of the Worlds Eternity did at least in almost all Mens Opinions openly deny God the Production of the World so by ascribing those admirable Works of God to what he calls Nature he tacitly denys him the Government of the World Now those things continues he which the School Philosophers ascribe to the Agency of Nature interposing according to Emergencies I ascribe to the Wisdom of God in the Fabric of the Universe which He so admirably contriv'd that if He but continue his ordinary and general Concourse there will be no necessity of extraordinary Ineterpositions which may reduce Him to seem as it were to play after-games all those Exegencies upon whose account Philosophers and Physicians have devised what they call Nature being foreseen and provided for in the first Fabric of the World So that meer Matter thus order'd shall in such and such Conjunctures of Circumstances do all that Philosophers ascribe on such occasions to their almost Omniscient Nature without any knowledge what it does or acting otherwise than according to the Catholick Laws of Motion For when it pleaseth God to over-rule or controul the establisht Course of Things in the World by his own Omnipotent Hand what is thus perform'd may be much easier discern'd and acknowledg'd to be miraculous by them that admit in the ordinary Course of Corporeal things nothing but Matter and Motion whose powers Men may well judge of than by those who think there is besides a certain Semi-Deity which they call Nature whose skill and power they acknowledge to be exceeding great and yet have no sure way of estimating how great they are and how far they may extend And give me leave to to take notice to you on this occasion that I observe the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles pleaded by Christians on behalf of their Religion to have been very differently look't upon by Epicurean and other Corpuscularian Infidels and by those other Unbelievers who admit of a Soul of the World or Spirits in the Stars or in a word think the Universe to be govern'd by Intellectual Beings distinct from the Supreme Being we call GOD For this latter sort of Infidels have often admitted those Matters of Fact which we Christians call Miracles and yet have endeavour'd to solve them by Astral Operations and other ways whereas the Epicurean Enemies of Christianity have thought themselves obliged resolutely to deny the Matters of Fact themselves as well discerning that the Things said to be perform'd exceeded the Mechanical Powers of Matter and Motion as they were managed by those who wrought the Miracles and consequently must either be deny'd to have been done or be confest to have been truly miraculous Thus far Mr. Boyle I must confess my self extreamly taken with the Thoughts of this great Man which are every where so weighty and withal so modest that I know of no Author I have as yet consulted who hath so pertinently handled in a few words this noble Theme or afforded me so much Content and Satisfaction I have been formerly like your self very familiar with Fate and Fortune Time and Chance with Destiny and other empty Notions and which was the farthest of my Flight when I knew how to talk of Real Qualities and Substantial Forms when I conceiv'd the Archaeus or Plastic Power as a kind of Agent or Intelligent Being disposing and ordering the Seminal Principles choosing or selecting fit Materials designing and drawing out as it were the first Rudiments of Life and delivering to each Part a Capacity to discarge its Office or proper Function Lastly When I could resolve all with much ease into the ambiguous term of Nature I thought my self arriv'd at a Ne plus ultra till the Result of a more serious Consideration which I was put upon by a Converse with the Writings of this Divine Philosopher obliged me to conclude thus and to take for granted That however all the Phaenomena or each several Event we have or ever shall see come to pass may be accounted the immediate Off-spring of Matter as variously modify'd by local Motion Yet notwithstanding this Concession we must mediately recur to the Divine Providence not only for some Author of this Motion who did in the beginning establish its Laws or prescribe those general Rules 't is govern'd by but also for a Power by whose Co-operating Influence the same