and Illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is What is a Real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the Mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2. is this the Criterion of a Miracle That it is an Action or Event beyond all Natural Powers for we are ignorant of the Extent and Bounds of Nature's Sphere and Possibilities And if this were the character and essential Mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their Bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of Knowledge or Immodesty Besides though an Effect may transcend really all the Powers of meer Nature yet there is a world of Spirits that must be taken into our Account And as to them also I say 3. Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents Supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil Spirits can make wonderful Combinations of Natural Causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest Line of Nature but yet these are not therefore to be called Miracles for they are Saecred Wonders and suppose the Power to be Divine But how shall the Power be known to be so when we so little understand the Capacities and extent of the Abilities of Lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former Particulars viz. They are unaccountable beyond the Powers of meer Nature and done by Agents Supernatural And to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar Circumstances that speak them of a Divine Original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are always Persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or Natural Applications and yet surmount all the Activities of known Nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talkt of but to seal and confirm some Divine Doctrine or Commission in which the Good and Happiness of the World is concern'd I say by such Circumstances as these Wonderful Actions are known to be from a Divine Cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an Answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though Witches by their Confederate Spirit do those odd and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their Lives and the ridiculous Ceremonies of their Performances from their malice and mischievous Designs that the Power that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular Providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new Sacred Discoveries in Matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable Performances above the common Methods of Art or Nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATREX concerning whom it will not be impertinent to add the following account which I had in a Letter from Dr. G. R. Lord Bishop of D. in the Kingdom of Ireland a Person of singular Piery and Vertue and a great-Philosopher He is pleased thus to write THe great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every-where is about M.G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various Censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the Man is free from all Design of a very agreeable Conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand Persons and really there is something in it more than ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased them out of the Body Dimness cleared and Deafness cured by his Touch twenty Persons at several times in Fits of the Falling-Sickness were in two or three minutes brought to themselves so as to tell where their pain was and then he hath pursued it till he hath driven it out at some extream part Running Sores of the Kings-Evil dried up and Kernels brought to a Suppuration by his hand grievous Sores of many months date in few dayes healed Obstructions and Stoppings removed Cancerous Knots in the Breast dissolved c. But yet I have many Reasons to perswade me that nothing of all this is Miraculous He pretends not to give Testimony to any Doctrine the manner of his Operation speaks it to be natural the Cure seldom succeeds without reiterated Touches his Patients often relapse he fails frequently he can do nothing where there is any decay in Nature and many Distempers are not at all obedient to his Touch. So that I confess I refer all his Vertue to his particular Temper and Complexion and I take his Spirits to be a kind of Elixir and Vniversal Ferment and that he cures as Dr. M. expresseth it by a Sanative Contagion This Sir was the first Account of the Healer I had from that Reverend Person which with me signifies more than the Attestations of multitudes of ordinary Reporters and no doubt but it will do so likewise with all that know that excellent Bishop's singular Integrity and Judgment But besides this upon my inquiry into some other Particulars about this Matter I received these further Informations from the same Learned Hand As for M.G. what Opinion he hath of his own Gift and how he came to know it I Answer He hath a different apprehension of it from yours and mine and certainly believing it to be an immediate Gift from Heaven and 't is no wonder for he is no Philosopher And you will wonder less when you hear how he came to know it as I have often received it from his own Mouth About three or four years ago he had a strong impulse upon his Spirit that continually pursued him from what-ever he was about at his Business or Devotion alone or in company that spake to him by this inward Suggestion I have given thee the Gift of Curing the Evil. This Suggestion was so importunate that he
whence they were emitted This account I confess hath something ingenious in it But it is no solution of the Doubt For how those heterogenous Atoms should hit into their proper places in the midst of such various and tumultuary Motions will still remain a question Let the aptness of their Figures be granted we shall be yet to seek for something to guide their Motions And let their natural Motion be what it will gravity or levity direct or oblique we cannot conceive how that should carry them into every particular place where they are to lie especially considering they must needs be sometimes diverted from their course by the occursion of many other Particles And as for the Regular Figures of many inaminate Bodies that consideration doth but multiply the doubt 2. The union of the parts of Matter is a thing as difficult as any of the former There is no account that I know hath yet appear'd worth considering but that of Des-Cartes viz. That they are united by juxta-position and rest And if this be all Why should not a bag of Dust be of as firm a Consistence as Marble or Adamant Why may not a Bar of Iron be as easily broken as a pipe of Glass and the Aegyptians Pyramids blown away as soon as those inverst ones of smoke The only reason of difference pretended by some is that the Parts of solid Bodies are held together by natural Hooks and strong ones by such Hooks as are more tough and firm But how do the parts of these Hooks stick together Either we must suppose infinite of them holding each other or come at last to parts united by meer juxta-position and rest The former is very absurd for it will be necessary That there should be some upon which the Cohesion of all the rest should depend otherwise all will be an heap of Dust. But in favour of the Hypothesis of Des-Cartes it may be said That the closeness and compactness of the parts resting together makes the strength of the Vnion For as that Philosopher saith Every thing continues in the state wherein it is except something more powerful alter it and therefore the Parts that rest close together will so continue till they are parted by some other stronger Body Now the more parts are pent together the more able they will be for resistance and what hath best compactness and by consequence fewer parts will not be able to make any alteration in a Body that hath more According to this Doctrine what is most dense and least porous will be most coherent and least discerpible which yet is contrary to experience For we find the most porous spongy Bodies to be oft-times the most tough of Consistence We easily break a Tube of Glass or Chrystal when one of Elm or Ash will hardly be torn in pieces and yet as the parts of the former are more so are they more at rest since the liquid Juice diffused through the Wood is in continual agitation which in Des-Cartes his Philosophy is the cause of fluidity so that according to his Principles the dryest Bodies should be the most firm when on the contrary we find that a proportionate humidity contributes much to the strength of the Vnion Sir K. Digby makes it the Cement it self and the driness of many Bodies is the cause of their fragility as we see 't is in Wood and Glass and divers other Things 3. We are as much at a loss about the composition of Bodies whether it be out of Indivisibles or out of parts always divisible For though this question hath been attempted by the subtilest Wits of all Philosophick Ages yet after all their distinctions and shifts their new-invented words and modes their niceties and tricks of subtilty the Matter stands yet unresolv'd For do what they can Actual Infinite extension every where Equality of all Bodies Impossibility of Motion and a world more of the most palpable Absurdities will press the Assertors of Infinite Divisibility Nor on the other side can it be avoided but that all Motions would be equal in velocity That the Lines drawn from side to side in a Pyramid would have more Parts than the Basis That all Bodies would be swallowed up in a Point and many other Inconsistencies will follow the Opinion of Indivisibles But because I have confined my self to the Difficulties that are not so usually noted I shall not insist on these but refer the Reader that hath the humour and leisure to inquire into such Speculations to Oviedo Pontius Ariaga Carelton and other Jesuites whose management of this Controversie with equal force on either side is a considerable Argument of the unaccountableness of this Theory and of the weakness of our present Understandings I might now take into consideration the Mysteries of Motion Gravity Light Colours Vision Sounds and infinite such like things obvious yet unknown but I insist no further on Instances but descend to the second thing I propounded to treat of viz. II. The CAVSES of our Ignorance and Mistakes And in them we shall find further evidence of the imperfection of our Knowledg The Causes to be consider'd are either 1. The Difficulties and Depth of Science Or 2. The present temper of our Faculties Science is the Knowledg of things in their Causes and so 't is defined by the Pretenders to it Let us now enquire a little into the difficulties of attaining such Knowledg 1. We know no Causes by Simple Intuition but by Consequence and Deduction and there is nothing we so usually infer from as Concomitancy for instance We always feel heat when we come near the Fire and still perceive Light when we see the Sun and thence we conclude that these are the Causes respectively of Heat and Light and so in other things But now in this way of inference there lies great uncertainty For if we had never seen more Sun or Stars than we do in cloudy weather and if the Day had always broke with a Wind which had increast and abated with the Light we should have believed firmly that one of them had been the cause of the other and so Smoke had been undoubtedly thought the efficient of the Heat if nothing else had appeared with it But the Philosophy of Des-Cartes furnisheth us with a better Instance All the World takes the Sun to be the Cause of Day from this Principle of Concomitance But that Philosopher teacheth That Light is caused by the Conamen or endeavour of the Matter of the Vortex to recede from the Centre of its Motion so that were there none of that fluid Aether in the midst of our World that makes up the Sun yet the pressure of the Globuli as he calls those Particles upon our Eyes would not be considerably less and so according to this Hypothesis there would be Light though there were no Sun or Stars and Evening and Morning might naturally be before and without the Sun Now I say not that this Opinion is true and
cannot conceive a Spirit or any being without extension whereas others say They cannot conceive but that whatever is extended is impenetrable and consequently corporeal which diversity I think I have reason to ascribe to some difference in the natural temper of the mind 2. But another very fatal occasion of our mistakes is the great prejudice of Custom and Education which is so unhappily prevalent that though the Soul were never so truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher call'd it an unwritten table in it self yet this doth very often so scribble on it as to render it incapable of other impressions we judg all things by those Anticipations and condemn or applaud them as they differ or agree with our first Opinions 'T is on this account that almost every Country censures the Laws Customs and Doctrines of every other as absurd and unreasonable and are confirm'd in their own follies beyond possibility of conviction Our first Age is like the melted wax to the prepared Seal that receives any impression and we suck in the opinions of our Clime and Country as we do the common Air without thought or choice and which is worse we usually sit down under those Prejudices of Education and Custom all our Lives after For either we are loth to trouble our selves to examine the Doctrines we have long taken for granted or we are scar'd from inquiring into the things that Custom and common Belief have made Venerable and Sacred We are taught to think with the Hermit that the Sun shines no were but in our Cells and that Truth and Certainty are confin'd within that Belief in which we were first instructed From whence we contract an obstinate adherence to the conceits in which we were bred and a resolv'd contempt of all other Doctrines So that what Astrologers say of our Fortunes and the events of common life may as well be said of the opinions of the most that they are written in their Stars having as little freedom in them as the effects of Destiny And since the Infusions of Education have such interest in us are so often appeal'd to as the dictates of Truth and impartial Reason 't is no wonder we are so frequently deceiv'd and are so imperfect in our Knowledg Another cause of which is 3. The power that Interest hath over our Affections and by them over our Judgments When men are ingag'd by this they can find Truth any where and what is thought convenient to be true will at last be believed to be so Facilè credimus quod volumus So that I do not think that the learned Assertors of vain and false Religions and Opinions do always profess against their Consciences rather their Interest brings their Consciences to their Profession for this doth not only corrupt Mens Practise but very often pervert their Minds also and insensibly mislead them into Errours 4. But our Affections misguide us by the respect we have to others as well as by that we bear to our selves I mentioned The Instances of Antiquity and Authority We look with a superstitious Reverence upon the accounts of past Ages and with a supercilious Severity on the more deserving products of our own a vanity that hath possest all times as well as ours and the golden Age was never present For as an inconsiderable Weight by vertue of it's distance from the Centre of the Ballance will out-weigh much heavier bodies that are nearer to it so the most light and vain things that are far off from the present Age have more Esteem and Veneration then the most considerable and substantial that bear a modern date and we account that nothing worth that is not fetcht from a far off in which we very often deceive our selves as that Mariner did that brought home his Ship Fraught with common Pebbles from the Indies We adhere to the Determinations of our Fathers as if their Opinions were entail'd on us and our Conceptions were ex-Traduce And thus while every Age is but an other shew of the former 't is no wonder that humane science is no more advanced above it's ancient Stature For while we look on some admired Authors as the Oracles of all Knowledg and spend that time and those pains in the Study and Defence of their Doctrines which should have been imploy'd in the search of Truth and Nature we must needs stint our own Improvements and hinder the Advancement of Science Since while we are Slaves to the Opinions of those before us Our Discoveries like water will not rise higher then their Fountains and while we think it such Presumption to endeavour beyond the Ancients we fall short of Genuine Antiquity Truth unless we suppose them to have reach't perfection of Knowledg in spight of their own acknowledgments of Ignorance And now whereas it is observ'd that the Mathematicks and Mechanick Arts have considerably advanc'd and got the start of other Sciences this may be considered as a chief cause of it That their Progress hath not been retarded by this reverential awe of former Discoveries 'T was never an Heresie to out-limn Apelles or to out-work the Obelisks Galilaeuâ—… without a Crime out-saw all Antiquity and was not afraid to believe his Eyes in reverence to Aristotle and Ptolomy 'T is no disparagement to those famous Optick Glasses that the Ancients never us'd them nor are we shy of their Informations because they were hid from Ages We believe the polar vertue of the Loadstone without a Certificate from the dayes of old and do not confine our selves to the sole conduct of the Stars for fear of being wiser than our Fathers Had Authority prevail'd here the fourth part of the Earth had been yet unknown and Hercules Pillars had still been the Worlds Ne ultra Senecd's Prophesie had been an unfulfil'd Prediction and one Moity of our Globes an empty Hemisphere 'T is true we owe much reverence to the Ancients and many thanks to them for their Helps and Discoveries but implicitly and servilely to submit our Judgments to all Opinions is inconsistent with that respect that we may and ought to have to the freedom of our our own Minds and the dignity of Humane Nature And indeed as the great Lord Bacon hath observ'd we have a wrong apprehension of Antiquity which in the common acception is but the nonage of the World Antiquitas seculi est juventus Mâ—…di So that in those Appeals we fetch our Knowledg from the Cradle and the comparative infancy of days Upon a true account the present Age is the greatest Antiquity and if that must govern and sway our Judgments let multitude of days speak If we would reverence the Ancients as we ought we should dâ—… it by imitating their Example which was not supiâ—…ly and superstitionsly to sit down in fond admiration of the Learning of those that were before them but to examine their Writings to avoid their Mistakes and to use their Discoveries in order to the further improvement of Knowledg
by the Extatick Priests of the Heathen Oracles and the Mad-men of all Religions by Sybils Lunaticks Poets Dreamers and transported Persons of all sorts And it may be observ'd daily to what degrees of elevation excess of drinking will heighten the Brain making some witty nimble and eloquent much beyond the ordinary proportion of their Parts and Ingenuity and inclining others to be hugely devour who usually have no great sense of Religion As I knew one who would pray rapturously when he was drunk but at other times was a moping Sot and could scarce speak sense Thus also some kinds of Madness Diseases Accidents Peculiarities of Temper and other natural things that heat the Brain fill Men with high surprizing Conceits about Religion and furnish them with fervid Devotion great readiness of Expression and unexpected applications of Scripture to their crasy Conceits I say the Experimental Philosophy of our Natures informs us that all this is common in alienations and singularities of Mind and Complexion And they were remarkable in the Prophets of the Heathen and the Priest whom Saint Austin knew that would whine himself into an Extasie In the wonderful Discourses of the American Bishop that said he was the Holy Ghost and the canting fluency of the German Enthusiasts some of whose Imaginations were as wild and extravagant of such Instances I might make up a much larger Catalogue if I should descend to our Domestick Lunaticks but their temper is well known and therefore I only add this more That I have often met with a poor Woman in the North whose habitual conceit it was That she was Mother of God and of all things living I was wont to personate a kind of complyance with her Fancy and a modest desire to be further informed about it which gentleness drew from her so many odd fetches of Discourse such applications of Scripture and such wonderful references to Things in which she was never instructed that look'd like gleanings out of Hobbs and Epicurus that I have been much amazed at her talk And yet when I diverted her to any thing else of ordinary Matters she spoke usually with as much sobriety and cold discretion as could well be expected from a Person of her Condition nor did she use to be extravagant in any thing but about that particular Imagination which Instance among many others I might produce very much confirms me in the truth of that Observation of those Philosophers who have given us the best light into the Enthusiastick Temper viz. That there is a sort of madness which takes Men in some particular things when they are sound in others which one Proposition will afford a good account of many of the Phaenomena of Enthusiasm and shews that the Extravagants among us may be really distracted in the Affairs of Religion though their Brains are untouc'd in other Matters Thus a Philosophical use of observation and the knowledge of Humane Nature by it helps us to distinguish between the Effects of the adorable Spirit and those of an hot distemper'd Fancy which is no small advantage for the securing the Purity Honour and all the interests of Religion But 2. there is another mischief of the Enthusiastick Spirit behind and that is its bringing Reason into disgrace and denying the use thereof in the Affairs of Faith and Religion This is an evil that is the cause of many more for it hath brought into the World all kinds of Phantastry and Folly and exposed Religion to Contempt and Derision by making Madness and Diseases Sacred It leads Mens Minds into a maze of confused Imaginations and betrays them into Bogs and Precipices deprives them of their Light and their Guide and lays them open to all the Delusions of Satan and their own distemper'd Brains It takes Religion off from its Foundations and leaves the Interest of Eternity in Mens Souls to Chance and the Hits of Imagination teaching those that are deluded to lay the stress of all upon Raptures Heats and Mysterious Notions while they forgetâ—… and scorn the plain Christianity which is an imitation of Christ in Charity Humility Justice and Purity in the exercise of all Vertue and command of our selves It renders Men obnoxious to all the Temptations of Atheism and the blackest Infidelity and makes it impossible to convince an Infidel to settle one that doubts or to recover one that is fallen off from the Faith These Evils I am content only to name in this place having represented them more fully in another Discourse and the experience of our own Age may convince us with a little consideration upon it That all those fatal Mischiefs have been tâ—… Effects of the Contempt and Disparagement of Reason But yet though I affirm this I am not so rash or so unjust as to believe or say That this Spirit hath produced all those sâ—…d things in every one that speaks hotly and inconsiderately against Reason I am far from the wildness of such a censure because I know how much imprudent Zeal customary Talk high Pretensions and superstitious Fears may work even upon honest Minds who many times hold bad things in the Principle which they deny in the Practice and so are upright in their Wills while they are very much confused and mistaken in their Vnderstandings This I account to be the case of multitudes of pious People in reference to Reason They have heard hot-headed indiscreet Men declaim against it and many of them whose Opinions will not bear the Light have an interest to do so Their Pretensions were plausible and their Zeal great their Talk loud and their Affirmations bold and the honest well-meaning Folks are caught in their Affections and these lead bad Principles into their Minds which are neither disposed nor able to examine So they believe and speak after their Teachers and say That Reason is a low dull thing ignorant of the Spirit and an Enemy to Faith and Religion while in this they have no clear thoughts nor yet any evil meaning But let these Fancies swim a-top in their Imaginations and upon occasions they run out at the Tongues end though they are not always improved to those deadly Practices For Charity and Caution I have said this but yet nothing hinders but that all the forecited Evils are justly said to be the Tendencies and in too many Instances have been and are the Effects of this Spirit And now I doubt not but 't will be granted readily by all considering Men that whatever assists Religion against this destructive Enemy doth it most important service and this the Free and Real Philosophy doth in a very eminent degree In order to the proof of this we may consider what I intimated just now viz. That Men are led into and kept in this Fancy of the Enmity of Reason to Religion chiefly by two things 1. By an implicit assent to the Systemes and Distates of those who first instructed them And 2. By defect in clearness of Thoughts and the ability to
desired either not to know at all or not in comparison with the plain Doctrines of the Gospel Or if any should take the words in the largest sense then all sorts of Humane Learning and all Arts and Trades are set at nought by the Apostle And if so the meaning can be no more than this That he preferred the Knowledge of Christ before these For 't is ridiculous to think that he absolutely slighted all other Science The Knowledge of Christ is indeed the chiefest and most valuable Wisdom but the Knowledge of the Works of God hath its place also and ought not quite to be excluded and despised Or if Philosophy be to be slighted by this Text all other Knowledge whatsoever must be condemn'd by it But it will be urged 2. That there is a particular Caution given by the Apostle against Philosophy Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any one spoil you through Philosophy To this I have said elsewhere That the Apostle there means either the pretended Knowledge of the Gnosticks the Genealogies of the Jews or the disputing Learning of the Greeks and perhaps he might have a respect to all those sorts of Science falsly so call'd That the Disputing Philosophy of the Greeks is concerned in the Caution will appear very probable if we consider That much of it was built on meer Notion that occasioned division into manifold Sects which managed their Matters by Sophistry and Disputations full of nicity and mazes of Wit and aimed at little but the pride of mysterious talk of things that were not really understood Such a Philosophy the Apostle might justly condemn and all Wise Men do the same because 't is very injurious to Religion Real Knowledge and the Peace of Men. But what is this to that which modestly inquires into the Creatures of God as they are That collects the History of his Works raising Observations from them for the Discovery of Causes and Invention of Arts and Helps for the benefit of Mankind What vanity what prejudice to Religion can be supposed in this Is this think we that Philosophy that Wisdom of this World which the great Apostle censures and condemns He is bold that saith it speaks a thing he knows not and might if he pleased know the contrary Since the Method of Philosophy I vindicate which proceeds by Observation and Experiment to Works and uses of Life was not if at all the way of those Times in which the Apostles liv'd nor did it begin to shew it self in many Ages after and therefore cannot be concerned in St. Paul's Caution to his Colossians nor in his smartness against worldly Wisdom elsewhere for by that we are to understand the Fetches of Policy the Nicities of Wit and Strains of Rhetorick that were then engaged against the progress of the Gospel But what is all this to the Philosophy of God's Works which illustrates the Divine Glory and comments upon his Perfections and promotes the great Design of Christianity which is doing good and in its proper Nature tends to the disposing of Mens Minds to Vertue and Religion But 3. If Philosophy be so excellent an Instrument to Religion it may be askt and the Question will have the force of an Objection why the Disciples and first Preachers of the Gospel were not instructed in it They were plain illiterate Men altogether unacquainted with those Sublimities God chose the foolish things of this World to confound the wise So that it seems he did not shew this kind of Wisdom that respect which according to our Discourse is due unto it I answer That this choice the Divine Wisdom made of the Publishers of the Glad Tydings of Salvation is no more prejudice or discredit to Philosophy than it is to other sorts of Learning and indeed 't is none at all to any For the special Reasons of God's making this Election seem such as these viz. That his Power might more evidently appear in the wonderful propagation of the Religion of Christ Jesus by such seemingly unqualified Instruments That the World might not suspect it to be the contrivance of Wit Subtilty and Art when there was so much plainness and simplicity in its first Promoters And perhaps too it was done in contempt of the vain and pretended knowledge of the Jews and Greeks over which the plainness of the Gospel was made gloriously to triumph To which I add this It might be to shew That God values Simplicity and Integrity above all Natural Perfectious how excellent soever So that there being such special Reasons for the chusing plain Men to set this grand Affair on foot in the World it can be no disparagement to the Knowledge of Nature that it was not begun by Philosophers And to counter-argue this Topick we may consider That The Patriarchs and Holy Men of Ancient Times that were most in the Divine Favour were well instructed in the Knowledge of God's Works and contributed to the good of Men by their useful Discoveries and Inventions Adam was acquainted with the Nature of the Creatures Noah a Planter of Vineyards Abraham as Grotius collects from Ancient History a great Mystes in the Knowledge of the Stars Isaac prosperous in Georgicks Jacob blessed in his Philosophical Stratagem of the speckled Rods. Moses a great Man in all kinds of Natural Knowledge Bezaleel and Aholiab inspired in Architecture Solomon a deep Naturalist and a Composer of a voluminous History of Plants Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariab skilled in all Learning and Wisdom Ten times better saith the Text than the Magicians and Astrologers in Nebuchadnezzar's Realm And to accumulate no more Instances the Philosophers of the East made the first Addresses to the Infant Saviour CONCLUSION WE see upon the whole That there is no shadow of Reason why we should discourage or oppose modest Inquiries into the Works of Nature and whatsoever ignorant Zeal may prompt the common sort to me-thinks those of generous Education should not be of so perverse a frame Especially it becomes not any that minister at the Altar to do so great a disservice to Religion as to promote so unjust a Conceit as that of Philosophy's being an Enemy unto it The Philosophers were the Priests among the Egyptians and several other Nations in Ancient Times and there was never more need that the Priests should be Philosophers than in ours For we are liable every day to be called out to make good our Foundations against the Atheist the Sadduce and Enthusiast And 't is the Knowledge of God in his Works that must furnish us with some of the most proper Weapons of Defence Hard Names and damning Sentences the Arrows of bitter words and raging passions will not defeat those Sons of Anak these are not fit Weapons for our Warfare No they must be met by a Reason instructed in the knowledge of Things and fought in their own Quarters and their Arms must be turned upon themselves This may be done and the advantage is all ours We have Steel and
à minori ad majus from the less to the greater in the arguings of our Saviour Thus Mat. 7. 11. If ye being evil know how to give good Gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good Things to those that ask him The ground of the Consequence is this Principle of Reason That God is more benign and gracious than the tenderest and most affectionate of our earthly Parents So Luke 12. 24. He argues that God will provide for Vs because he doth for the Ravens since we are better than they How much more are ye better than the Fowls Which arguing supposeth this Principle of Reason that that Wisdom Goodness which are indulgent to the viler Creatures will not neglect the more excellent He proceeds further in the same Argument by the consideration of God's clothing the Lillies and makes the like inference from it Vers. 28. If God so clothe the Grass how much more will be clothe you And Mat. 12. He reasons that it was lawful for him to heal on the Sabbith-day from the consideration of the general Mercy that is due even to brute Creatures What Man shall there be among you that shall have one Sheep and if it fall into a Pit on the Sabbath day will he not lay hold of it to lift it out How much more then is a Man better than a Sheep Vers. 12. Thus our Saviour used Arguments of Reason And 3. the Apostles did so very frequently S. Paul disproves Idolatry this way Acts 17. 29. Forasmuch then as we are the Off-spring of God we ought not to think that the God head is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art And the same Apostle proves the Resurrection of the Dead by the mention of seven gross Absurdities that would follow the denyal of it 1 Cor. 1. 15. viz. If the Dead rise not Then 1. Christ is not risen And then 2. our Preaching is vain and we false Apostles And if so 3. your Faith is vain And then 4. you are not justified but are in your sins And hence it will follow 5. That those that are departed in the same Faith are perished And then 6. Faith in Christ prosits only in this Life And if so 7. we are of all Men the most miserable Because we suffer all things for this Faith From ver 14. to ver 19. And the whole Chapter contains Philosophical Reasoning either to prove or illustrate the Resurrection or to shew the difference of glorified Bodies from these And S. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. shews that sinful Men must expect to be punished because God spared not the Angels that fell Instances of this would be endless these may suffice And thus of the Second thing also which I proposed to make good viz. That Religion is friendly to Reason and that appears in that God himself our Saviour and his Apostles own it and use Arguments from it even in Affairs of Faith and Religion BUt divers Objections are urged against the use of Reason in Religion from Scripture and other Considerations The chief of them I shall consider briefly From Scripture 't is alledged 1. That God will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise 1 Cor. 1. 19. And the World by Wisdom knew not God vers 21. And not many wise Men after the flesh are called vers 26. And God chose the foolish things of this World to confound the wise vers 27. By which expressions of wisdom and wise 't is presumed that Humane Reason and Rational Men are meant But these Interpreters mistake the Matter much and as they are wont to do put mere Arbitrary Interpretations upon Scripture For by Wisdom here there is no cause to understand the Reason of Men but rather the Traditions of the Jews the Philosophy of the Disputing Greeks and the worldly Policy of the Romans who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rulers of that World That the Jewish Learning in their Law is meant the Apostle intimates when he asks in a way of Challenge vers 20. Where is the Scribe And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one that was skill'd in their Laws and Customs And that the Philosophy of the Greeks is to be understood likewise we have ground to believe from the other Question in the same Verse Where is the Disputer of this World Which though some refer to the Doctors among the Jews also yet I humbly think it may more properly he understood of the Philosophers among the Grecians For the Apostle writes to Greeks and their Philosophy was notoriously contentious And lastly That the worldly Policies of the Romans are included in this Wisdom of this World which the Apostle vilifies there is cause to think from the sixth Verse of the second Chapter where he saith He spake not in the Wisdom of the Princes of this World And 't is well known that Policy was their most valued Wisdom Tu regere imperio To govern the Nations and promote the grandeur of their Empire was the great design and study of those Princes of this World Now all these the Apostle sets at nought in the beginning of this Epistle Because they were very opposite to the simplicity and holiness self-denial and meekness of the Gospel But that is this to the disadvantage of Reason to which those sorts of Wisdom are as contrary as they are to Religion And by this I am enabled 2. To meet another Objection urged from 1 〈◊〉 2â—… 14. But the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned Hence the Enthusiast argues the Universal Inability of Reason in things of Religion and its Antipathy to them Whereas I can apprehend no more to be meant by the words than this viz. That such kind of natural Men as those Scribes and Disputers and Politioians having their Minds depraved and prepossessed with their own Wisdom were indisposed to receive this that was so contrary unto it And they could not know those things of God because they were Spiritual and so would require a Mind that was of a pure and spiritual frame viz. free from that earthly Wisdom of all sorts which counts those things foolishness and which by God is counted so it self 1 Cor. 3. 19. which place 3. Is used as another Scripture against Reason The Wisdom of this World is foolishness with God But it can signifie nothing to that purpose to one that understands and considers the Apostle's meaning What is meant by the Wisdom of this World here I have declared already And by the former part of my Discourse it appears that whatever is to be understood by it our Reason cannot since that either proves or defends all the Articles of Religion 4. And when the same Apostle elsewhere viz. 2 Cor. 1. 12. saith That they had not their Conversation in fleshly Wisdom we cannot think he meant
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so
all those Arguments that are brought for our Immortality are in this way clearly disabled For all that we can say will prove but this That the Soul is no Body or part of Matter but this will amount to no evidence if there are a middle kind of Essences that are not corporeal and yet mortal So that when I say Philosophy serves Religion against Sadducism I would not be understood to mean the Peripatetick Hypotheseis but that Philosophy which is grounded upon acquaintance with real Nature This by leaving this whole unintelligible sort of Beings out of its Accounts as things for which there is no shadow of ground from Reason or Nature but good evidence of their non-existence from both disappoints the Sadduce of the advantage he hath from this needless and precarious Principle And by distributing Substance into Body and Spirit without the admission of middle Natures the Real Philosophy gives demonstrative force to those Arguments for our Immortality that prove our Souls are not Bodies and so Sadducism is ruined by it These things I have thought fit to advertise not out of design to censure any particular way of Philosophy but for the security of my Discourse And though I have made a little bold with the Peripateticks here yet the great Name of Aristotle to which they pretend is not concerned for I am convinc'd that he taught no such Doctrine of substantial Forms as his later Sectators and Interpreters have imputed to Him who indeed have depraved and corrupted his sense almost in the whole Body of his Principles and have presented the World with their own Fancies instead of the genuine Opinions of that Philosopher But I proceed III. THe Real Philosophy that inquires into God's Works assists Religion against Superstition another of its fatal Enemies That I may prove this it must be premised That Superstition consists either in bestowing Religious Valuation and Esteem on things in which there is no good or fearing those in which there is no hurt So that this Folly expresseth it self one while in doting upon Opinions as Fundamentals of Faith and Idoliziug the little Models of Fancy for Divine Institutions And then it runs away afraid of harmless indifferent Appointments and looks pale upon the appearance of any usual Effect of Nature It tells ominous Stories of every Meteor of the Night and makes sad Interpretations of each unwonted Accident All which are the Products of Ignorance and a narrow Mind which defeat the Design of Religion that would make us of a free manly and generous Spirit and indeed represent Christianity as if it were a fond sneaking weak and peevish thing that emasculates Mens Understandings making them amorous of toys and keeping them under the servility of childish fears so that hereby it is exposed to the distrust of larger Minds and to the scorn of Atheists These and many more are the mischiefs of Superstition as we have sadly seen and felt Now against this evil Spirit and its Influences the Real Experimental Philosophy is one of the best Securities in the World For by a generous and open Inquiry in the great Field of Nature Mens minds are enlarged and taken off from all fond adherences to their private Sentiments They are taught by it That Certainty is not in many things and that the most valuable Knowledge is the practical By which means they will find themselves disposed to more indifferency towards those petty Notions in which they were before apt to place a great deal of Religion and to reckon that all that will signifie lies in the few certain operative Principles of the Gospel and a Life suitable to such a Faith not in doting upon Questions and Speculations that engender strife and thus the Modern Experimental Philosophy of God's Works is a Remedy against the notional Superstition as I may call it which hath been and is so fatal to Religion and the peace of Mankind Besides which by making the Soul great this Knowledge delivers it from fondness on small Circumstances and imaginary Models and from little scrupulosities about things indifferent which usually work disquiet in narrow and contracted Spirits And I have known divers whom Philosophy and not Disputes hath cured of this Malady This we may observe that those Remedies are the best and most effectual that alter the temper and disposition of the Mind For 't is suitableness to that which makes the way to Mens Judgments and settles them in their Perswasions There are few that hold their Opinions by Arguments and dry Reasonings but by congruity to the Understanding and consequently by relish in the Affections So that seldom any thing cures our intellectual Diseases throughly but what changes these And I dare affirm that the Free Experimental Philosophy will do this to purpose by giving the Mind another Tincture and introducing a sounder Habit which by degrees will repel and cast out all Malignities and settle it in a strong and manly Temperament that will master and put to flight all idle Dotages and effeminate Fears The Truth is This World is a very Bedlam and he that would cure Madmen must not attempt it by Reasoning or indeavour to shew the absurdity of their Conceits but such a course must be taken as may restore the Mind to a right Crasis and that when it is effected will reduce and rectifie the extravagances of the distemper'd Brain which Disputes and Oppositions will but inflame and make worse Thus for instance when frantick Persons are fond of Feathers and mightily taken with the employment of picking Straws 't would signifie very little to represent to them the vanity of the Objects of their Delights and when the Melancholist was afraid to sit down for fear of being broken supposing himself of Glass it had been to little purpose to have declared to him the ridiculousness of his Fears the disposition of the Head was to be alter'd before the particular Phrensie could be cured 'T is too evident how just this is in the application to the present Age Superstitious fondness and fears are a real degree of madness And though I cannot say that Philosophy must be the only Catholick way of Cure for of this the far greatest part of Men is incapable yet this I do affirm that 't is a Remedy for those that are strong enough to take it and the rest must be helped by that which changeth the Genius and this cannot ordinarily be done by any thing that opposeth the particular Fancy However I must say 2. That the sort of Superstition which is yet behind in my account and consists in the causless fear of some Extraordinaries in Accident or Nature is directly cured by that Philosophy which gives fair likely-hoods of their Causes and shews that there is nothing in them supernatural the light of the day drives away Apparitions and vain Images that fancy forms in obscure shades and darkness Thus particularly the Modern Doctrine of Comets which have been always great Bugbears to the guilty
and timorous World hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful Presages and the mischievous Consequences that arise from those superstitious Abodings For whatever the casual Coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful Events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes are observ'd when they bit not when they miss I say notwithstanding these the Real Experimental Philosophy makes it appear that they are Heavenly Bodies far above all the Regions of Vapours in which we are not concerned and so they are neither the Signs nor the Causes of our Mischiefs And for the other little things which afford Matter for the Tales about Prodigies and other ominous Appearings the knowledge of Nature by exciting worthy and magnificent conceptions of the God of Nature cures that blasphemous abuse of the adorable Majesty whereby foolish Men attribute every trivial event that may serve their turns against those they hate to his immediate extraordinary interposal For 't is ignorance of God and his Works that disposeth Men to absurd ridiculous Surmises uncharitable Censures seditious Machinations and so to Thoughts that are prejudicial to the Glory of God the Interests of Religion and the security of Government to that Justice and Charity we owe to others and to the happiness that we seek our selves To which I add That this kind of Superstition is a relique of Pagan Ignorance which made Men look on Thunder Eclipses Earthquakes and all the more terrifying Phaenomena of Nature as the immediate Effects of Powers Supernatural and to judge Events by flights of Birds and garbages of Cattel by the accidental occursions of this Creature and the other and almost every casual occurrence But these Particulars have been most ingeniously represented and reproved in a late very elegant Discourse about Prodigies And though I do not acquiesce in the Design of that excellently penn'd Book which is to discredit and take away all kinds of Presages Yet I think it hath done rarely well so far as it discovers the folly and mischiefs of that ignorant and superstitious Spirit that makes every thing a Prodigy With such apprehensions as these the knowledge of Nature fills those Minds that are instructed in it And there is no doubt but that the Antipathy the Real Philosophy bears to all the kinds of Superstition is one cause why zealous Ignorance brands those Researches with the mark of Atheism and Irreligion For superstitious Folly adopts those groundless Trifles which Philosophy contemns and reproves into the Family of Religion and therefore reproacheth the Despisers of them as Enemies to the Faith and Power of Godliness So it fared with some of the bravest Spirits of ancient times who have had black Characters fixt upon their great and worthy Names only for their Oppositions of the foolish Rites and Idolatries of the vulgar Heathen We know the case of Socrates And as to the interest of their Names that of Anaxagoras Theodorus Protagoras and Epicurus was much worse the causless infamy coming down the Stream as far as the last Ages Since then we know who was an Heretick for saying there were Antipodes and a Pope was taken for a Conjurer for being a Mathematician yea those noble Sciences were counted Diabolical and even the Sacred Language could scarce escape the suspicion In later times Galilaeo fell into the Inquisition for the Discoveries of his Telescopes and Campanella could not endeavour to assert and vindicate the freedom of his Mind without losing that of his Person I might come nearer to our own days and knowledge Gothick barharity and the Spirit of the Iuquisition is not quite worn out of the Reformation Though indeed it ordinarily remains but among the scum and dregs of Men And no one is either less Religious or less Wise for being accounted an Atheist by the common Rabble But where-ever the knowledge of Nature and God's Works hath in any degree obtain'd those vile Superstitions have been despised and put to an infamous flight But to take another step IV. THe Real Philosophy and knowledge of God's Works serves Religion against Enthusiasm another dreadful Enemy Now Enthusiasm is a false conceit of Inspiration and all the bold and mistaken Pretensions to the Spirit in our days are of this sort What particularly Religion hath suffer'd from it would be too long to reckon upon this occasion It will be enough to say in an Age that hath so much and such sad experience of it That Enthusiasm hath introduced much phantastry into Religion and made way for all imaginable Follies and even Atheism it self which it hath done two ways 1. By crying up the Excesses and Diseases of Imagination for the greatest height of Godliness And 2. By the disparagrment of sober Reason as an Enemy to the Principles of Faith And Philosophy assists Religion against both these FOR the first in order The real knowledge of Nature detects the dangerous imposture by shewing what strange things may be effected by no diviner a cause than a strong Fancy impregnated by Heated Melancholy For this sometimes warms the Brain to a degree that makes it very active and imaginative full of odd Thoughts and unexpected Suggestions so that if the Temper determine the Imagination to Religion it flies at high things at interpretations of dark and Prophetick Scriptures at Predictions of future Events and mysterious Discoveries which the Man expresseth fluently and boldly with a peculiar and pathetick Eloquence which pregnances being not ordinary but much beyond the usual tone and temper of the Enthusiast and he having heard great things of the Spirits immediate Motions and Inspirations cannot well fail of believing himself inspired and of intitling all the excursious of his Fancy to the immediate Actings of the Holy Ghost and those thoughts by the help of natural pride and self-love will work also exceedingly upon the heightned Affections and they upon the Body so far as to cast it sometimes into Raptures Extasies and Deliquiums of Sense in which every Dream is taken for a Prophesie every Image of the Fancy for a Vision and all the glarings of the Imagination for new Lights and Revelations Thus have our Modern Prophets been inspired by Temper and Imagination and not by Design only For we may not think they are all Hypocrites and knowing Impostors No they generally believe themselves and the strength of their highly invigorated Fancies shuts out the sober Light of Reason that should disabuse them as sleep doth that of our External Senses in our Dreams And the silly People that understand not Nature but are apt to take every thing that is vebement to be sacred are easily deceived into the belief of those Pretensions and thus Diseases have been worship'd for Religion This account the Philosophy of Humane Nature gives of that by which the World hath been so miserably abused And when we cast our eyes abroad we may plainly see that those glorious things are no more than what hath been done