Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A37289
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Free thoughts in defence of a future state, as discoverable by natural reason, and stript of all superstitious appendages ... with occasional remarks on a book intituled, An inquiry concerning virtue, and a refutation of the reviv'd Hylozoicism of Democritus and Leucippus.
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Day, Robert.
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1700
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Wing D471; ESTC R3160
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68,142
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116
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FREE THOUGHTS In Defence of a Future State As discoverable by Natural Reason and stript of all Superstitious Appendages Demonstrating against the Nominal Deists that the Consideration of Future Advantages is a just Motive to Virtue of Future Loss and Misery a powerful and becoming Restraint of Vice With Occasional Remarks on a Book intituled An Inquiry concerning Virtue And a Refutation of the reviv'd Hylozoicism of Democritus and Leucippus LONDON Printed for Dan. Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar and Andr. Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhil M. DCC ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER THE Author of the following Sheets being engag'd to no Sect nor Party of Men nor biass'd by any particular System of Philosophy has had no other aim than to serve the Interests of Virtue and Truth but because there are so very few that labour the same thing with so unprejudic'd a Mind he forgoes all the pleasing hopes of having his Essay generally well accepted and requests me to publish a short word to save him from the Calumnies of some angry Brethren of his who engage their Faith to any thing rather than plain dry Reason and being blinded by a jealous Zeal know not what is said for or against them Let the Reader take notice then that our Author has not disputed from Scripture whence it is obvious to prove more than he has here asserted not out of any contempt of that Authority which he reverences as he ought but only because the Persons with whom he disputes dare to call that Authority in question the Vindication of which the World now expects from the ablest Hands ERRATA PAg. 9. line 5. put a comma after purpose P. 16. l. 27. put a full stop after Immoralities l. 28. dele the semicolon P. 71. l. 29. r. Galaxy P. 76. l. 21. dele not P. 79. l. 22. r. Roscius P. 91. l. 14. after they insert to P. 96. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Free Thoughts In defence of a Future State Honoured Friend I Remember some parts of the Discourse which we had last Tuesday Night at Mr. N's and the next Night at your house I am now minded to reconsider the same I will speak to Passages as they occur to my Memory without regard to Order or Method for I always suspect my Abilities and fear that what I can offer will not be thought by any other Person worth the while for me to labour to digest it regularly besides I have not time to digest my Thoughts so as to please my self Among other things which the Ingenious and Learned Mr. J. A. was pleas'd to assert the Import of one was this That no Action could be properly call'd virtuous which was done in prospect of advantage to be had in a future State In answer to this strange Assertion I aim'd to speak to this sense He that takes an honest Care of the Interests of his own Person Family Friends and Country in this Life according to his best Judgment of the Course in which things are likely to run must be acknowledg'd to act rationally and wisely So he that takes a diligent Care of his own Interests and the Interests of others in a future State according to his Sense of that matter after serious Deliberation must be acknowledg'd to act rationally and wisely and to act rationally and wisely is to act virtuously The Prospect of worldly Advantage to be gain'd by this or that honest Action is so far from taking from that Action the praise of Wisdom that it rather is the chief Reason for which the Action may be denominated wise Wherefore why should the prospect of Advantage in a future State acquirable by wise i. e. virtuous Actions take from those Actions the praise of Wisdom and Virtue Some that are much in Mr. J. A's Sentiments are wont with Railery and as they think Argument mix'd together to plead That to do those Actions which are accounted Virtues in prospect of Advantage to be gain'd by them is mercenary and base Let us examine this Objection which has an air of Wit and see whether there is any solid Reason underneath Mercenary is an English Word made from a Latin signifying Wages or Hire payable for Labour or Work to be done Militari mercede is to fight for Pay and whosoever fights for Pay in a good Cause works or labours for Hire Wages in an honest way deserves his Wages Hire Pay nay farther ought rather to be commended than reproach'd for doing his Duty Mr. J. A. and some others seem to think that because a mercenary Souldier happens to be commonly esteem'd a term of Reproach that therefore Moral Virtue must be utterly disgrac'd by the Epithet Mercenary But we beg leave to examine this matter thorowly The Reason why a Mercenary Souldier happens to be commonly esteem'd a term of Reproach I take to be this The Mercenary Souldier is commonly hir'd by an ambitious Prince to raise the Power of the Prince that hires him above Law and oppress a free People Whereas a Prince that is contented to be just what the Choice of the People and the Rule of the Law makes him knows that his People are best govern'd and most safely defended by the Militia of the Country In the Case stated the Militia-man is honourable and the Mercenary Souldier base Nay in this Case the more strenuously the Mercenary Souldier fights the worse Man he is but when the Mercenary is engag'd where Honour and Conscience justifies him which sometimes tho but rarely happens his Valour is true Virtue his Pay a reasonable Encouragement of his Valour and it would not be Valour but Rashness for a martial Man whether of the Mercenary or the Militia Order to offer himself to Dangers where he had no Advantage to make nor Interest to defend The Militia-Souldier if he does not fight for pay yet he does to defend the Country whereof he is a Citizen and in which he has a private Interest The Security of his private Interest in the defence of his Country is the Merces the Pay the Hire the Wages for which he fights and in the truth and reality of the thing such a Person is as much a Mercenary as any Swiss who with his Masters Consent is hir'd abroad in a just War or any poor Stroler at home who having nothing else to fight for fights for Bread The short of this is He is a base Mercenary that does an ill thing for Gain He is a worthy Mercenary that does a justifiable thing for Gain The prospect of Advantage in one kind or other is the Motive of all the deliberate Actions of a rational Man and he that has no such thing in his eye is an unthinking Person and therefore the prospect of advantage whether in this or a future State cannot take from a moral Action the praise of Virtue
must needs be some other Substance beside Body p. 845. It is one good step towards the cure of a Disease rightly to understand the Nature of it the Causes whence it sprang and the Fuel with which 't is fed but after that a particular Skill is necessary to work the Cure The learned Doctor in his Preface where he gives an account of his Book affirms that it is as certain to him as any thing in all Geometry that Cogitation and Understanding can never possibly result out of Magnitudes Figures Sights and local Motions I am as much perswaded as he that Cogitation and Understanding cannot result from these Principles but I wish he had pointed his Finger to the place where he has made this as certain as any thing in all Geometry But yet I will not say that a Geometrical Certainty of this Truth is not to be had what one Man has not demonstrated another may Mr. Abbadie among a great deal of Lumber Abbadie of the Truth of Christian Religion has some excellent Materials I will select what I judg most conclusive and not scruple to alter what I hope to dispose to better advantage Matter acquires not Thought by Motion because in Motion there are but three things which can be consider'd the Thing mov'd the Place from whence 't is mov'd the Place to which it comes Now Thought is none of all this If it be said that Thought is the effect of some particular Motion then it will follow that that Effect is nobler than its Cause and not only so but likewise that it is an Effect quite of another nature than its Cause Bare Motion does not produce Thought because all Matter does not think Different kinds of Motion do not produce Thought because that which makes Motion different is only slowness or swiftness directness and obliquity with which Thought has no more affinity than with Motion consider'd abstractly It is not barely Matter which acts when we think because the parts of Matter may act and be reflected on upon another but 't is impossible that any of them should act or be reflected on themselves whereas that thinking Principle which is in us reflects on it self on its own Actions Thoughts and on the manner of its actings and thinking Matter and Motion act only on Objects present and contiguous but Thought flies over the wide Ocean pervades the Earth and reaches the Stars reviews past things and makes useful Conjectures at Futurities reflects provides against Accidents that may or may not happen By Diseases Men sometimes have their Heads so disorder'd that their Imaginations are confus'd and things appear to them otherwise than they really are while their Understandings remain clear and they argue justly upon those false appearances being very sensible that their Diseases occasion those false appearances of things thence it seems natural to conclude that their Reasoning Principle which is not so easily hindred in its Office by Diseases is something distinct from Matter These are the most considerable Philosophic Arguments which I remember to have read against the Hylozoics I hope I have not spoil'd them in my recital but the Reader may consult the French Author translated by Lussan I have nor Health nor Time nor yet Learning enough to make the most of a philosophic Argument drawn from the acknowledg'd Principles Laws and Powers of Matter against these Hylozoics but I beg leave to offer one or two Thoughts such as they are against these bold and precarious Philosophers The first shall be Argument ad hominem If I should assert that the Table on which I now write does understand and think the Hylozoics could no more demonstrate the contrary than I can demonstrate that Matter however mov'd is incapable of thinking But 2. This seems to me Demonstration If Thought be nothing but Matter mov'd it is impossible for us to conceive a thought of a thing which is not Matter Again if Matter of itself does not think but as 't is mov'd then 't is Motion not Matter which is Thought or the Cause of Thought but how extravagant and contradictious is it to affirm that an Accident which relates to Matter is a real thing or the cause of a real Effect which is of another nature and more noble than Matter 3. There can be no such thing as Free Will in Man if there be nothing but Matter in the World For the Laws of Matter are constant one and the same without variation and if there be no such thing as Free Will in Man then there 's no such thing as Virtue or Vice Now I am of the Mind that he who without prejudice seriously considers this Argument will be abundantly satisfied that Matter however mov'd is incapable of thinking tho he has not a Geometrical Certainty or intuitive Knowledg of the same If I had a good Benefice instead of a lean Vicarage I could be content with a Parliamentary Right to the Tithes of my Parish and let the Jure Divino Right go So I think an honest good Man may be satisfied safely satisfied that Matter however mov'd cannot think because if there be no free Mind able to alter the natural and necessary motions of Matter then there 's no such thing as right and wrong and to talk of regular and irregular Passions and Affections is a Jest But I leave the prosecution of this Subject to the abler Pen of a worthy Friend whose Meditations I long to see But I hope the Reader will allow me to have sufficiently prov'd what I first undertook viz. That the prospect of future Advantage does not take off from the praise of Virtue also that he who believes there is no God or who calls the immense Body of universal Matter God that he who denies the Immortality of the Soul and expects no future State does thereby disown the most powerful Obligations to Virtue makes himself unfit to be lov'd intirely or trusted confidently for Men of common Sense will ever choose to love and trust him who looks upon himself under the highest Obligations and most forcible Motives to be grateful and faithful and be apt to neglect him whatever Virtue he professes or is by Nature and Education inclin'd to who owns no Obligations nor Motives to Virtue besides present usefulness which in some Cases it has not and no restraint of pleasing Vice but human Laws which reach not a world of Cases POSTSCRIPT to a Friend who dissuaded the printing of the foregoing Sheets SIR YOU are pleas'd to allow the Strength of my Argument thro this whole Discourse but you would not have me publish my Papers because you can see little in them beside what you met with some years since in a judicious and solid small Tract intitled A Letter to the Deists This is very friendly and I own the Obligation but I were unworthy of your Friendship if I should subscribe to your Judgment because you are my Friend and I were still unworthy if denying to