them nor whatsoever may be the Opinion of some is it that which they are united to The way and manner how the Spirit assists us in the Spiritual Understanding of Things is either through its immediate indwelling if I may so speak or through the communication of new Principles a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ablation of every thing extraneous a dissipation of those fuliginous Vapours that both obnubilate the Mind and do imbuere objectum colore suo by the Purification of the Heart the Understanding is clarified By the Spirit of Life in the new Birth the Subject is elevated and adapted to the Object the Divine Grace renders the Mind idoneous for and consimilar to the Truth And farther there is a suggesting of Media for elucidating the Truth there is also frequently an irradiation of the Word it self an attiring and cloathing it with a Garment of Light and upon the whole the Soul both feels and is transform'd into what it knows its apprehensions are no longer dull and languid but vigorous and affective This Mystical Union of the Soul of the true Believer with Jesus Christ however difficult it may appear and hard to be reconciled to the Natural Understanding ought not to be debated or distrusted by us upon the account of our Ignorance in the manner of it We do assent to the Continuity and Adhesion of one part of Matter to another notwithstanding the Difficulties that encounter us about its Mode and tho' there be not yet any Philosophic Hypothesis that can resolve us how it comes to pass that one part more indiscerptibly cleaves to another than if they were fastened together by Adamantine Chains and therefore there is no Reason why the incomprehensibleness of the Manner of our Union with Christ shou'd any ways obstruct or weaken our belief of it having all the assurance that Divine Revelation can give us concerning our being united to Him as we assent to an evident Object of Sense or to that which is plainly demonstrated by Reason tho' there occur many things in the manner of their Existence which are unconceivable so the Quod sit and Reality of our Union with Christ being attested by him who cannot lye it becomes us to embrace it with all steddiness of Belief tho' we cannot conceive the Quo modo or manner how it is we have reason to think that through our Maker's leaving us pos'd and nonplust about the most ordinary and certain Natural Phaeâ—omena he intended to train us up to a mancipation of our Understandings to Articles of Faith when we were once assur'd that He had declar'd them tho' the Difficulties relating to them were to us unaccountable Nor is the manner of the coherence of the Parts of Matter the only Difficulty in Nature relating to Union that perplexes and baffles our Reason but the Mode of the Mystical Incorporation of the Rational Soul with the Humane Body doth every way as much entangle and leave us desperate as the former That Man is a kind of Amphibious Creature allied in his constituent Parts both to the Intellectual and Material Worlds and that the several Species of Beings in the Macrocosm are combined in Him as in a System Reason as well as Scripture instructs us That we have a Body we are fully assur'd by its Density Extension Impenetrability and all the Adjuncts and Affections of Matter and that we have an Immaterial Spirit we are demonstratively convinc'd by its re-acting on it self its consciousness of its own Being and Operations not to mention other Mediums whereof we have spoken elsewhere and that those two are united together to make up the Composition of Man is as plain from the influence that the Body hath upon the Soul in many of its Perceptions and which the Soul hath upon the Body in the Motions of the Spirits and Blood with all that ensues and depends thereupon Nor could the Affections and Adjuncts of the Material Nature nor the Attributes and Properties of the Immaterial be indiffâ—rently predicated of Man were not the Soul and Body united together in the Unity of Man's Person But now how this can be is a knot too hard for Humane Reason to untye How a pure Spirit should be cemented to an earthly Clod or an immaterial Substance coalesce with Bulk is a Riddle that no Hypothesis of Philosophy can resolve us about 1. The Aristotelick substantial Uniter will not do for besides its repugnancy to Reason that there should be any Substantial Ingredient in the Constitution of Man save his Soul and Body the unâ—â—ion of it self with the Soul supposing it to be Material or with the Body admitting it to be Incorporeal will remain unintelligible and to affirm it to be of a middle Nature partaking of the Affections and Adjuncts of both is that which our reaâ—onable Faculties will never allow us to subscribe to the Idea's which we have of Body and Spirit having no Alliance the one with the other and to style it a Substantial Mode is to wrap up Repugnancies in its very Notion for tho' all Modes be the Modification of Substances yet they are predicamental Accidents and how essential soever this or that Modification may be to a Body of such a Species yet it is wholly extrinsecal and accidental to Matter it self In brief the voluminous Discourses of the Aristotelian's both about Union in general and the Union of the Rational Soul to the Organical Humane Body in particular resolve themselves either into idle tattle and insignificant words or obtrude upon us Contradictions and Nonsence 2. To preclude all Union betwixt the Soul and Body on Supposition that they are distinct constituent parts of Man is plainly to despair of solving the Difficulty for not to dispute whether the Soul and Body may in Philosophic rigour be called Parts or whether Man in reference to them may be stiled a Compositum 't is enough that the one is not the other but that they are different Principles and that neither of them consider'd seperately is the Man Tho' the Soul and Body be perfect Substances in themselves and tho' the Soul can operate in its disjunct State and in its Separation will be no less a Person than Soul and Body now together are yet there are many Operations belonging to the Soul in this Conjunct State of which it is incapable in the Separate and there are many things predicable of the Soul and Body together which cannot be affirmed of them â—sunder How close and intimate soever the Union betwixt the Soul and Body be and how great soever in their mutual Dependancies in most of their Operations upon one another yet not only the Intellectual Spirit and the duly organized Matter remain even in their Consociation classically different their Essences Affections and Operations admitting a diversity as well as a distinction but there are some Operations belong to each of them upon which the other hath no influence For as the Mind is Author of many Cogitations
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
or the Epicurean Casual Concourse of Atoms cou'd bring meer Matter into so orderly and well contriv'd a Fabrick as this World and therefore I think that the wise Author of Things did not only put Matter into Motion but when he resolved to make the World did so regulate and guide the Motions of the small parts of the Universal Matter as to reduce the greater Systems of them into the order in which they were to 〈◊〉 and did more particularly contrive some of the Portions of that Matter into Sâ—minal Rudiments or Principles lodg'd in convenient Râ—ceptacles and as it were Wombs and others into the Bodies of Plants and Animals one main part of whose Contrivance did as I apprehend consist in this That some of their Organs were so framed that supposing the Fabric of the geater Bodies of the Universe and the Laws he had establisht some juicy and spirituous parts of these living Creatures must be fit to be turned into prolific Seeds whereby they may have a power by generating their like to propagate their Species So that according to my apprehension it was at the beginning necessary that an intelligent and wise Agent should contrive the Universal Matter into the World and especially some Portions of it into Seminal Organs and Principles and settle the Laws according to which the Motions and Actions of its Parts upon one another should be regulated without which Interposition of the Worlds Architect however moving Matter with some probability for I see not in the Notion any Certainty be conceiv'd to be able after numberless occursions of its insensible Parts to cast it self into such grand Conventions and Convolutions as the Cartesians call Vortices and as I remember Epicurus speaks of under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I think it utterly improbable that brute and unguided Matter altho' moving shou'd ever convene into such admirable Structures as the Bodies of perfect Animals But the World being once fram'd and the Course of Nature establisht the Naturalist excepting those Cases where God and Incorporeal Agents interpose has recourse to the first Cause but for its general and ordinary Support and Influence whereby it preserves Matter and Motion from annihilation or desition and in explicating particular Phaenomena considers only the Size Shape Motion or want of it Texture and the resulting Qualities and Attributes of the small Particles of Matter and thus in this great Automaton the World as in a Watch or Clock the Materials it consists of being left to themselves cou'd never at the first convene into so curious an Engine yet when the skilful Artist has once made and set it a going the Phaenomena it exhibits are to be accounted for by the Number Bigness Proportion Shape Motion or endeavour Rest Coaptation and other Mechanical Affections of the Spring Wheels Pillars and other Parts it is made up of and those Effects of such an Engine that cannot this way be explicated must for ought I yet know he confest not to be sufficiently understood You may hereby inform your self of the Sentiments of this great Philosopher with respect to the unavoidable necessity that we meet with of referring our selves to some powerful intelligent Being for the disposing the Mundane Bodies into that wonderful and mighty Fabric we call the World So that to sum up all whatever Opinion you may as yet harbour with relation to the Nature of your own Mind and how great soever the Difficulties and seeming Absurdities may be which tend to impeach the Divine Providence and rob the Deity of his Government of the World thus far I hope we are got at least that whether or no we are willing we must acknowledge his Divine Fiat in the Business of Creation and there is no Man will e're be lookt on as a Rabbi if I may so speak in Atheism till he becomes not only acquainted with real Essences the Mechanical Affections and all the Powers of Matter but can intelligibly resolve us how second Causes act in their several Productions and which is the main point of all can prove to us that there was no need of Intelligence Power or Wisdom to preside in their Primitive Constitution 'T is now high time to look about you and if you look as becomes a Creature endow'd with Reason there is nothing can presâ—nt it self which is not able to discover its Almighty Author or in Helmont's Phrase the Wisdom of the Protoplast The Existence of a God says another of great Learning were there no such thing as Supernatural Revelation is plainly evidenced as well by what is without us as what 's within Hence it is that altho' God has wrought many Miracles to convince Infidels and Misbelievers yet He never wrought any to Convince an Atheist nor do the Pen-men of Sacred Writ attempt to prove it but take it for granted as being evidently manifest both by sensible and rational Demonstration As for innate Idea's of God continues He I see no occasion to believe any such thing at all for I know of none that are formally innate what we commonly call so are the Result of the Exercise of our Reason The Notion of God is no otherways inbred than that the Soul is furnisht with such a natural Sagacity that upon the Exercise of her Rational Powers she is infallibly led to the Acknowledgment of a Deity and thus by looking inwardly upon our selves we perceive that the Faculty resident in us is not furnish'd with all Perfections and therefore not Self-existent nor indebted to it self for those it hath otherwise it wou'd have cloathed it self with the utmost Perfections it can imagine and by consequence finding its own Exility and Imperfection it naturally and with case arrives at a Perswasion of deriving its Original from some first Supreme and free Agent who hath made it what it is and this can be nothing but God 2. We perceive that we have such a Faculty as apprehendeth judgeth reasoneth but what it is whence it is and how it performeth these things we know not and therefore there must be some Supreme Being who hath given us this Faculty and understands both the Nature of it and how it knoweth which we our selves do not 3. Our Natures are such that as soon as we come to have the use of our Intellectual Faculties we are forced to acknowledge some things good and others evil There is an unalterable Congruity betwixt some Acts and our reasonable Souls and an unchangeable incongruity betwixt them and others Now this plainly sways to the Belief of a God for all distinctions of Good and Evil relate to a Law under the Sanction of which we are and all Law supposeth a Superior who hath right to command us and there can be no Universal indâ—pendent Supreme but God 4. We find our selves possest of a Faculty necessarily reflecting on its own Acts and passing a Judgment upon it self in all it does which is a farther Conviction of the Existence of a God
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
actuating the nervous System after their wonted manner by the same Series produce local Motions by which the hungry Horse is carry'd from place to place till he has found out the imagin'd Pasture and indeed enjoys that good the Image whereof was painted in his Brain After this manner the sensible Species being intromitted by the benefit of the Exterior Organs in the more perfect Brutes for that they affix their Characters on the Brain and there leave them they constitute the Faculties of Phancy and Memory as it were Store-houses full of Notions farther stirring up the Appetite into local Motions agreeable to the Sensions frequently they produce an habit of acting so that some Beasts being taught or instructed for a long time by the assiduous Incursions of the Objects are able to know and remember many things and learn manifold Works i. e. to perform them by a complicated and continued Series and Succession of very many Actions Moreover this kind of acquir'd knowledge of the Brutes and the practick Habits introduced by the Acts of the Senses are sometimes promoted by other means to a greater degree of Perfection Living Brutes are taught by Example by the Imitation and Institution of others of the same or of a divers kind to perform certain more excellent Actions Hence it is that the Ape so plainly imitates Man that by some it is thought a more imperfect Species of him for this Animal being extreamly mimical as it is endow'd with a most caepactous and hot Brain it imitates to an hair almost all the Gestures that it happens to see presently with a ready and expeditious composing of its Members and is furnisht with a notable Memory and retains all its Tricks which it hath once acted very firmly afterwards being wont to repeat them at its pleasure Yet notwithstanding t is very clear and apparent that Brutes are directed to all things which belong to the Defence and Conservation of the Individuum and that are to be done for the Propagation of their Kinds by a natural Instinct as it were a Law or Rule fixed in their Hearts when as therefore we behold for these ends ordained by Divine Providence Brutes to order their Matters wisely and as it were by Counsel no Man esteems this the Work of Reason or any Liberal Faculty for they are led into these Enterprises by a certain Predestination rather than by any proper Vertue or Intention Having given you this Account of the Soul of Brutes prov'd the same a Corporeal Divisible Substance whose peculiar residence is in the Blood and Spirits and evinced their knowledge not to exceed the powers of Sensation and Imagination it is time that we return to discourse of the Rational Soul of Man and if it can be discover'd that there is a Principle of Action in him which proceeds from a different way of Operation than Sensation doth and that there are such Operations of this Soul which are not Imaginations it will be then as clear that there is a Principle in Man higher than Matter and Motion and impossible without a spiritual immaterial Being to solve those Appearances in him which thus transcend the Power of Imagination The renowned Philosopher Gassendus has given sufficient proof That the Sensitive Soul in Man is exactly the same with that of Brutes Corporeal Extended Native and Corruptible but that the Rational is a Substance purely Incorporeal and Immortal Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon Thessalonians v. 23. says Man consists of three Parts First the Body which denotes the Flesh and Members Secondly the Vital Soul which Animal and Sensitive Soul is common to Man and Brute Thirdly Spirit which is the Rational Soul This Division he confirms by the Testimony of Heathen Authors and ancient Fathers So that those who disregard the Scriptures may in these admirable Authors be furnisht with other Authorities but those who do may consider what the Apostle saith in the foremention'd Text viz. I pray God your whole Body Soul and Spirit be preserved to which we may add what he says in another place The Word is sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow The meaning whereof is Let things be never so closely united God can separate them but then they must be in their nature separable or else it implys a Contradiction So that if the Soul and Spirit are separable we have gain'd our Point if they are not the Apostle has told us that can be which cannot be But further This Truth that there is two distinct Souls in Man is by the Apostle demonstrated from the dictates of Internal Sense I find saith he a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members So then with my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin Now what can be more expressive of two several perceptive Souls in Man whose Natures and whose Laws are contrary to each other But perhaps you 'l say These contrary Laws do indeed arise because Man is a Compound of contrary Natures yet there is but one perceptive Nature in him but that Nature having the several Faculties of Reason and Sensation and being united to Flesh whereby the Sensitive Faculty may be gratify'd hence arises the War between Sense and Reason To which I answer Thus far then we are agreed that Sense is the Source of all Carnal Delights Pains and Aversions therefore Sense is no Faculty of the Spirit or all Carnal Delights Lusts and Passions spring from the Spirit and what excellent sence would this make the Apostle speak I find a Law in my Mind warring against the Law of my Mind so then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Mind the Law of Sin for if Sense be a Faculty of the Mind the Laws of Sense are are as much the Laws of the Mind as the Laws of Reason The Soul and Spirit by reason of their close unaccountable Union have also unaccountable mutual Influences upon each other but for all that their contrary Natures are very discernable and to make Sense and Reason Faculties of the Spirit is to make the Spirit as the Man a Compound of contrary Natures for that Sense and Reason are of contrary Natures is discernable from the natural and constant strugglings and contentions between them Secondly From the natural Fruit they bring forth which is certainly contrary if Good and Evil are so wherefore we may with all imaginable certainty affirm the Souls of all meer Animals and the Sensitive Soul of Man to be Corporeal but the Rational Soul of Man to be truly a Spiritual Immaterial Substance if there were not such a Substance in
him distinct from the Sensitive Soul of Brutes and a Power Superiour to Sensation we might reasonably interrogate with the Judicious Willis Cur non Quadrupedes aeque ac Homo Intellectu Ratiocineo polleant immo Scientias Artes discant quandoquidem in utriusque preter Animas pariter Immateriales eadem prorsus fit Conformatio Organorum Animalium à quibus sane Animam rationalem dum in Corpore est quoad Actus habitus suos pondere constat quoniam laesis aut impeditis Organis horum privatio aut Eclipsis succedit Quamobrem quod Bruti Anima iisdem ac Homo Organis utens nihil praeclare scire nec supra Actus Objecta materialia assurgere potest plane sequitur illum ab Anima rationali diversam insuter longe inferiorem materialem esse But to proceed Those who hold no difference between the Soul of Man and Brutes with respect to Essence and at the same time will allow Sacred Authority wou'd do well to consider whether it be reasonable to think the latter were endow'd with that Divine Spiraculum which the former was honour'd with in his Creation if they think it reasonable they strike at the Mosaic Relation if they do not let them tell me what that Spiraculum was if not the Rational Spirit And indeed if this alone were well consider'd we shou'd hear no more of the Rationality of Brutes from those who acknowledge the Truth of Revelation But farther That this Reasonable Soul is a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance we have this to alledge for that it is Rational and has a freedom of Choice neither of which can possibly belong to Matter for all the Motions of Matter are necessarily made no Choice but Force must make its Motion and that Force must be immediate for Matter moves no longer than the Impulse lasts but to deliberate and judge of a Train of Consequences is no immediate impulsion of Matter for those Consequences are not yet in Being but only such as will be upon our acting thus or thus nay perhaps only such things as may but never will be but to choose to act as such power we have and every Man feels it within himself purely in regard to those Consequences is many times to act in opposition to all the immediate and strong Impresses of Matter and hence it is apparent that neither Will nor Reason do belong to Matter but to something vastly different Again The Animal Spirits make no other Impression on the Brain than as things appear not always as they are which Error is corrected yes you 'l say but 't is corrected by the Senses themselves But what puts the Senses in the way and method to correct themselves If the Senses are their own directing Power then all Creatures that are alike sensible wou'd be alike knowing and meer Animals wou'd be daily finding out new Arts and Inventions as well as Man It is impossible to give the least shadow of a Reason why it should be otherwise unless we allow a Principle in Man which Brutes have not we see except Man all Creatures of the same kind run in one constant and setled Method whilst he is not only learning from every thing he sees but invents how to learn and try the Truth or Falshood of this or that Invention by Experiments and sometimes he finds himself in the right sometimes in the wrong Now tho' in these Cases the Truth or Falshood of this or that Invention is proved by the Senses yet the Invention preceded the Proof and therefore could not be from the Information of the Senses Besides 't is yet more evident those Inventions are not from the Senses but from another Principle because the same are sometime false and will not hold but when we come to prove them our Senses will bring in no such Appearances For altho' we know nothing but a posteriori from the Operations and Effects of Things yet from visible Operations and Effects we can consider and reason about the Nature of the Invisible Operator as from the Beauty and Order of the Universe we reason that there must be a mighty Wise and Invisible Power that framed and continues the same Now the Impressions of Matter upon Sense go no farther than so these Appearances are and here of necessity we should ever rest had we no other Principle but Matter and cou'd never enquire how or why things come to be so but when we advance to the Notion of an Invisible Operator then certainly we outfly our Senses unless our Eyes are so good as to see an Invisible Object But suppose there is no such Invisible Object but that all our Notions concerning such a Being are but meer Chimaera's let us for Argument sake suppose all that however whether the Notion of an invisible Incorporeal Operator be true or false so much is true that there is such a Notion amongst Men and that it is a full Evidence that there is an incorporeal Principle in Man because Matter cannot possibly impress or be imprest with any other but material Idea's therefore were Man's whole Compositum pure Matter he cou'd not possibly stir beyond material Idea's and the World had never heard of Immaterial Substance To confirm this I shall here add the Opinion of one whose Sentiments upon other Matters I have elsewhere made bold with The Considerations saith he which may be alledg'd in favour of the Soul's Immortality are either Physical or Moral The former are such as arise from the Nature of the Soul her self and do all of them seem to refer to this one Capital Argument The Reasonable Soul of Man is Immaterial and therefore Immortal The reason whereof is what wants Matter wants likewise Parts into which it might be distracted or dissolved and what is incapable of being dissolved must of necessity always continue to be what it is for whatever is of a Nature free from the Conditions of Matter or Body doth neither carry the Principles of Dissolution in it self nor fear them from External Agents There are but two ways comprehensible by the Understanding how any thing that hath Existence in Nature can perish the one is by the Exolution and Dissipation of the Parts of which it was composed the other by an absolute Adnibilation of its Entity as the Schoolmen phrase it The former way of destruction is peculiar to Corporeals and the latter may be competent to Incorporeals But to argue à possi ad esse that God doth or will adnihilate any thing because it as in his power is much below any good Logician to infer nor are we to suppose any Innovation in the general state of things but that the Course of the Universe doth constantly and invariably proceed in the same manner or tumour of method which was at first instituted by the Wisdom of the Creator Now to prove that there is a power in us above the sensitive Soul or independent of Matter notwithstanding this great Man was in
that we are subject to partly through Supineness Sloth and Inadvertency we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from Self-evident and Universal Maxims and thereupon establish erroneous and mistaken Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason But then this is the fault of Philosophers not of Philosophy or of Philosophy in the Concrete as existing in this or that Person not in the Abstract as involving such a Mischief in its Nature and Idea Our Intellectual Faculties being vitiated and tinctur'd with Lust inthralled by Prejudices darkened by Passions ingaged by vain and corrupt Interests distorted by Pride and Self-love and fastened to Earthly Images do often impose upon us and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axioms for undoubted and incontestable Principles of Reason It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this adulterate Reason which is both unfriendly and dangerous to Religion it is to this that most of the malignant Heresies which have infected the Church do owe its rise and whoever will trace the Errors which have invaded Divinity to their Source may resolve them into false Reasonings or absurd Maxims of Philosophy which have been by their Founders superscribed with the venerable Name of Principles of Reason Indeed whatever can be made appear to lye in a Contradiction to right Reason we may profess our selves ready to abandon and disclaim but we are satisfy'd and do fully believe that a great deal which only crosses some false and lubricous Principles that Dogmatists have given that name to falls under the Imputation of Disagreement with Reason the Repugnancy of Reason fasten'd upon some Tenets is rather the Result of Ignorance Prepossession and sometimes Lust than their contrariety to Universal Reason or any genuine Maxims of it Farther It must be granted and hath always been judged that the Incomprehensibleness of a Doctrine through the Sublimity and Extension of its Object is no just bar to the Truth of it And indeed it is to be wonder'd that any who have studied the Weakness of their discursive Capacity the Feebleness of Intellectual Light how soon it is dazled with too bright a Splendour the Confinement and Boundaries our Understandings are subject to together with the Majesty of the Gospel Truth the Immensity of the Objects of the Christian Faith shou'd think the arduousness of framing distinct and adaequate Conceptions of them a sufficient ground for their being renounced and disclaimed Yet this is the Standard by which some Men regulate their Belief As to the Bible ' tho every thing in it be not alike necessary yet every thing in it is alike true and our Concernment lyes more or less in it There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in Matters of Religion besides this and therefore the import and meaning of its Terms can be no other ways decided but by their habitude to their Measure For this end did the Almighty give forth the Scripture that it might be the Foundation and Standard of Religion and thence it is we are to learn its Laws and Constitutions The instructing Mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness was our Makers design in vouchsafing to us a supernatural Revelation and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an end the Respect and Veneration which we pay to his Sapience and Goodness oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportioned the Means thereunto Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts 1. Such as besides their being made known by Revelation and believed on the account of Divine Testimony have also a Foundation in the Light of Nature and there are Natural Mediums by which they may be proved Of this kind are the Being of or Attributes of God the Immortality of the Soul the Certainty of Providence the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil. 2. Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature by which they cou'd have been found out or known but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the discovery of them their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them and these also are of two sorts 1. There are some Doctrines which tho' our Understandings by Natural Mediums cou'd never have discover'd yet being onâ—e â—evealed our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason facilitate the Apprehension of them and confirm it self in their Belief Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to Penitent Sinners There are others which as Reason cou'd never have discover'd so when reveald it can neither comprehend them nor produce any Medium in Nature by which either the Existence of their Objects can be demonstrated or their Truth illustrated Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God of these our Reason is not able to give us any adaequate Conceptions and yet these are by a clear and necessary connexâ—on united with other Doctrines of Faith which Reason enlighten'd by Revelation can give a Rational account of For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Work of Redemption by the Incarnation of an Infinite Person hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice in order to the dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders And the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the end aforesaid hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind and this Corruption is both fully confessed and easily demonstrated by Reason Thus tho' all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with those of Reason yet these very Doctrines of Faith which lye remoâ—est from the Territories of Reason and seem to have least affinity with its Light are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith which when once discover'd Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm it self in I need not add that the most mysterious Doctrines of Religion are necessarily connected with a Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God and that is a Truth which right Reason is so far from rejecting that it is able to demonstrate the same Now if in Explaining the Phaenomena of Nature which is the proper Province of Reason the most that a discreet Philosopher will pretend to is to declare the possible ways by which a Phoenomenon may be accounted for without presuming to say that it is only performed in this way and that there is no other in which it may be explain'd much more doth it become us in the great Mysteries of Revelation to abstain from defining the Manner how they are and to content our selves with what God hath been pleased to tell us for in such Doctrines these things appertain to Reason 1. To shew that it is not
a profane Witticism or an impious Scoff The folly of such Derision that I may give you the Sentiments of a Reverend and Devout Person is very conspicuous in considering to whom the Injury redounds by Mens making themselves so pleasant with their Sins Do they think by their rude Attempts to dethrone the Majesty of Heaven or by standing at the greatest Defiance to make Him willing to come to Terms of Composition with them Do they hope to slip beyond the Bounds of his Power by falling into Nothing when they dye or to sue out Prohibitions in the Court of Heaven to hinder the Effects of Justice there Do they design to out-wit infinite Wisdom or to find such Flaws in God's Government of the World that he shall be content to let them go unpunish'd All which Imaginations are alike vain and foolish and only shew how easily Mens Wickedness baffles their Reason and makes them rather hope and wish for the most impossible things than believe they shall ever be punisht for their Impieties It is well says the same Judicious Man in the Age we live that we have the Judgment of former Ages to appeal to and of those Persons in them whose Reputation for Wisdom is yet unquestionable otherwise we might be born down by that Spiteful Enemy to all Vertue and Goodness the Impudence of such who it is hard to say whether they shew it more in committing Sin or in defending it Men whose Manners are so bad that scarce any thing can be imagined worse unless it be the Wit with which they use to excuse them Such who take the Measure of Man's Perfections downwards and the nearer they approach to Beasts the more they think themselves to act like Men. No wonder that among such as these the Differences of Good and Evil be laughed at and no Sin thought so unpardonable as thinking there is any at all the utmost these Men will allow in the Description of Sin is That it is a thing that some live by declaiming against and others cannot live without the practise of But is the Chair of Scorners at last prov'd the only Chair of Infallibility Must those be the Standard of Mankind who seem to have little lest of Humane Nature but laughter and the shape of Men Do they think that we are all become such Fools to take Scoffs for Arguments and Railery for Demonstration He knows nothing at all of Goodness that knows not that it is much easier to laugh at than to practise it and it were worth the while to make a mock at Sin if the doing so wou'd make nothing of it but the Nature of things does not vary with the Humours of Men Sin becomes not at all the less dangerous because some Men have so little Wit to think it so nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the World because the greatest Enemies of that are so much to themselves too that they have learnt to despise it but altho' that scorns to be defended by such Weapons whereby her Enemies assault her nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion than to make it self cheap by making others laugh yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves as to attend with patience to what is serious there may be yet a possibility of perswading them that no Fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into Misery and none so certainly do so as those who make a mock at Sin It may be not unlikely thought by some the Interest of Mankind that there shou'd be no Heaven at all because the Labour to acquire it is more worth than the Purchase God Almighty if there be one having much over-valued the Blessings of his Presence so that upon a fair Estimation 't is a greater Advantage to take ones Swinge in Sensuality and have a glut of Voluptuousness in this Life freely resigning all Pretences to Future Happiness which when a Man is once extinguished by Death he cannot be supposed either to want or desire than to be ty'd up by Commandments and Rules so thwart and contrary to Flesh and Blood and refuse the Satisfaction of Natural Desires This indeed is the true Language of Atheism and the Cause of it too were not this at the bottom no Man in his Wits cou'd contemn and ridicule the Expectation of Immortality and yet I may be bold to say it is a plain Instance of the Foily of those Men who whilst they repudiate all Title to the Kingdom of Heaven meerly for the present pleasure of Body and their boasted Tranquility of Mind besides the extream Madness in running such a desperate hazard after Death they unwittingly deprive themselves here of that very Pleasure and Tranquility they seek for there being nothing more certain than this that Religion it self gives us the greatest Delights and Advantages even in this Life also tho' there shou'd prove in the Event to be no Resurrection to another Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace But the truth of our future Existence has had the Attestation of the Learned and Judicious in all Parts of the World I have elsewhere taken notice of it and must again inculcate to you That Religion is somewhat more than a childish unaccountable Fear of any pretended invisible Power and that the Terrors it strikes us with are vastly different from those Tales about Specters which do at some times frighten pusillanimous Minds those that do arise from our knowledge of having offended the Divine Being or from the just fear of his Anger and Indignation are such as do not only disturb some small Pretenders and puny Novices but do approach even the profoundest Rabbi's or Masters of Atheism it being well known both from Ancient and Modern Experience that the very boldest of them out of their Debauches and Company when they chance to be surprized with Solitude or Sickness are the most suspicious timerous and despondent Wretches in the World and the boasted happy Atheist in the indolence of the Body and an undisturbed Calm and Serenity of Mind is altogether as rare a Creature as the Vir Sapiens was amongst the Stoicks whom they often met with in Idea and Description in Harangues and in Books but freely own'd that he never had or was likely to Exist actually in Nature Believe me my good Friend here is more in this than Prepossession of Phancy or Disease of Imagination and if you object that had we not been told of these things by designing Men we shou'd never have thought on them our selves the Answer is ready who told these designing Men if they thought of these things without being told why may not others do so too It is manifest enough to every Man that his Soul whilst in the Body is capable to retire it self from Corporeal Images and to be busie with Idea's of another Nature which no Corporeal Impression cou'd possibly make and hence also it is as clear that
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
and Conceptions to which the Body gave no occasion so the Body is the Spring and Fountain of several Functions over which the Soul hath no Dominion nor any direct influence they remain as much distinct nothwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done shou'd we suppose them to have had an Existence previous to their Confederations or as they shall be after the dissolution of the Lâ—â—gue between them From all which it may be Scientifically concluded That they are distinct and different Principles in Man's Constitutâ—on but whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum or they to be stiled Parts will be resolv'd into a meer Longomachy or Chat about Words tho' to speak my own Mind I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the Appellation of Compositum and the Soul and Body be allow'd for Constituent Parts Nor thirdly doth the Cartesian Hypothesis tho' the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon fully satisfie an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us their Hypothesis is briefly this That God in his infinite Wisdom chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Beings 1. Some purely Material which through difference of the Figure Size Number Texture and Modification of their Parts come to multiply into many different Species 2. Some purely Immaterial among whom whether there be any Specifical Difference is Pro and Con disputed 3. Man a Compositum of both having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joyned to an Organical Body Now say they God having in his Soveraign Pleasure thought good to form Man such a Creature he hath not only by an uncontroulable Law confined the Soul to an intimate Presence with and constant Residence in the Body while it remains a fit Receptacle or till he give it a discharge but withal hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their Operations and in this mutual dependence of one upon the other with respect to many of their Operations they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist for through the Impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sence there result in the Soul certain Perceptions and on the other hand through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits and thus say they by the Action of each upon the other and their Passion from one another they are formally united But all this instead of loosing the Knot serves only to tye it faster For 1. this Mutual Dependancy as to Operation of one upon the other cannot be apprehended but in Posteriority of Nature to Union and consequently the formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it 2. There are Cases wherein neither the Impressions of outward Objects upon the Sensory Nerves beget or excite any Perceptions in the Soul which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind or intense Contemplation alike answers my drift and also Cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind make not any sensible Impressions upon the Body as in Extasies and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved which argues that it imports more than either an intimous Presence or a Dependance between them in point of Operation 3. 'T is altogether unintelligible how either a Body can act upon a Spirit or a Spirit upon a Body I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so but the manner of doing it or indeed how it can be done is not intelligible That a Tremour begot in the Nerves by the jogging of Particles of Matter upon the Sensory Organs shou'd excite Cogitations in the Soul or that the Soul by a meer Thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits and determine through what Meatus's they are to steer their Course is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly non-plust How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jogg to or receiving a shove from it shou'd either impress a Motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable so that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal Action upon and Passion by and from one another is to fix it in that which supposeth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be Now if common Unions of whose Reality and Existence we are so well assur'd be nevertheless with respect to their Nature not only so unknown but unconceivable we may lawfully presume if their lye nothing else against the immediate Union of Believers with Christ save that it cannot be comprehended that this is no Argument why we should immediately renounce the Belief of it If we can but once justifie that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith if we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason as to the reality of other Unions whose Modes are as little understood I see no cause why the Veracity of God provided we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony shou'd not satisfie us as to the Reality of the Union tho' the manner how it is were a question we cou'd not answer and indeed if Men will not be huff't and talk'd out of the perswasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reason ascertain them tho' they cannot answer all the Difficulties they are accosted with in their Enquiries about them much less ought Christians to be hector'd out of the Belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the Conception of them 't is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God tho' it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are the highest Assurance of the Reality of any thing is God's affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent unto its Truth tho' we can frame no adaequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our own Conceptions Our Saviour himself hath adjourned the perfect knowledge of this Mystery till the glorified state in these words At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Thus far you have had the Thoughts of the before-mention'd Author which I shall leave you to consider seriously at your leisure the Subject is indeed noble how despicably soever it may be treated by the Libertine whose Belief is stagger'd because he himself is not possest of what he has slighted and contemned and for that he finds himself at liberty to live as he listeth I must own indeed that it is scarce possible for one Man to infuse such Idea's into another as may be able to perswade that other that he himself is a Partaker of such a Spiritual Refreshment and Divine Consolation as nothing less than the Divine Gaace can communicate to his Soul and on this account I have the less admir'd that both Paelagius Socinus and their Adherents have gain'd so
Illumination as may appear from their contending against Predestination and for Universal Grace but tho' they do not make it a special Priviledge as to the possibility yet they do as to the act making none but those of their own way to be actually inlighten'd by it whereas according to my Principles this is no special Priviledge but the common and universal Benefit of all Men yea of all the Intelligent Creation who all see and understand in this Light of God without which there would be neither Truth nor Understanding V. Again By their Light within they understand some determinate form'd Dictate or Proposition expresly and positively directing and instructing them to do so or so Now according to my Notion this Divine Light is only the Essential Truth of God which indeed is always present to my Understanding as being intimately united with it but does not formally enlighten or instruct me unless when I attend to it and read what is written in those Divine Ideal Characters VI. And lastly they offer not any Rational or Intelligible account of the Light within neither as to the thing nor as to the mode of it but cant only in some loose general Expressions about the Light which they confirm with the Authority of St. John's Gospel tho' they understand neither one nor t'other Whereas I have offer'd a Natural Distinct and Philosophical way of Explaining both namely by the Omniformity of the Ideal World or the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who has in himself the Essences and Ideas of all things and in whom the same are perceived by us and by all Creatures I shall not detain you with my own Comments hereupon any otherwise than by informing you that so far as I am able to apprehend the same may be a solid Truth I mean Mr. Norris's Explanation of the Divine Light Futurity will make us all wiser and open a Door to those recluse Arcana or hidden Mysteries which in this Life are likely to be veiled from our Eyes Adieu LETTER IV. Of Religion To Mr. c. The certainty of Revelation in Time past The Fallacy of Modern Inspiration and the Danger of Enthusiasm My good Friend IT is with no small concern that I have left my former Argument of the Soul and yet methinks I am not perfectly without hopes that you will find something therein to evidence its Immortality for altho' the one half of what may be alledg'd in its Vindication cannot be reduc'd to the narrow limits of an Epistle yet if I mistake not there are some few of the Physical Arguments do manifestly evince that without supposing it to be a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance whatever Jargon this may seem to the absolute Corporealist there are many of its Phaenomena will be eternally incapable of any tolerable or allowable Explanation I shall therefore earnestly request you that you live not in a contempt of it for notwithstanding the Powers of Sense and Imagination may so obscure and darken the pure Acts of the Mind as to perswade you that Will and Reason arise from the same Principle assure your self that an immediate prospect of another Life will change the Scene the intercepting Curtain will open and represent the Anti-chamber of Death where you will find your self in the midst of such Confusion Horrour Consternation and Perplexity as nothing will be able to mitigate but a sincere Penitence or fervent Contrition a devout and humble Prosternation of your Soul to the Power offended and if the dread of this being insufficient still highten your disturbance you may tast perhaps that Hell you so very lately had ridicul'd by way of Anticipation before your fatal Leap from the dismal and horrid Praecipice of Life 1. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A dismal and mysterious Change When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and Thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live Thou know'st not how 2. Amasing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in Clouds as if to Thee Our very Knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad Retinue find Sickness and Pain before and Darkness all behind 3. Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be You warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty 4. When Life 's close knot by Writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or Age untye When after some delays some dying strife The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity 5. So when the spacious Globe was delug'd o're And lower Holds could save no more On th' utmost Bough the astonisht Sinners stood And view'd the Advances of th' encroaching Flood O'retopt at length by th' Elements increase With Horror they resign'd to the untry'd Abyss Thus has the ingenious Mr. Norris most livelily represented the frightful Exit of the departing Soul but to avoid any farther Interruption I shall hasten to my intended Discourse with this Expectation if not Assurance that on whatsoever side you find right Reason you will make no Opposition or where the Light of your Understanding shines clearly forth that you by no means stifle or study to obscure the same Whoever then has once admitted and does unfeignedly believe the Truth of these Three Propositions viz. That there is a most powerful and wise Being the first Cause of all things That the same Being does inspect or take notice of the Actions of Mankind and will retribute to every one according to those Actions in a Life to come whoso I say has granted these will find himself at no great loss to conceive that it highly behoves him to have a regard both to his Thoughts and Actions to do nought indeliberately but to regulate the Conduct of his whole Life by some such certain just and immutable Rule as he foresees is most likely to tend to his Security and Well-being Now it having pleased this All-wise Being to endow his darling Favourite Man above the other Creatures with a Principle of Reason and to be himself a Light unto his Soul wherein he may Contemplate those other Beings which surround him we need not dispute but that by a devout consulting this Intestine Director or Dictator we may come to understand what Measures are to be taken for our Information If by the alone assistance of this Natural Light in the Understanding we find it neither practicable nor possible to invent any such Laws or Rules as would be agreed unto by the Body of Mankind or such as wou'd never need any Alteration but be comply'd with and understood and all this while contain every thing necessary to the discharging of
our Duty to our God and to each other If Humane Reason or the Light of Nature is insufficient to direct us to such a uniform and steddy Rule or System of Laws or if it cou'd since the greater part of Men wou'd think themselves unconcern'd or under no necessity to observe them on the account of a Deficiency in Authority or a want of a Divine Sanction or Manumission it is reasonable as well as natural for us to wish and expect upon these accounts that our Maker wou'd in some manner reveal Himself unto us that He wou'd prescribe our Laws and stamp the same with some Divine Impression whereby we might be enabled to discover their Authority and read in them the Characters of a more than Humane Contrivance or Composition Whether or no this Almighty Being has made any such Discovery of his Will to the World or revealed to them such Laws or Rules of Worship as will be most acceptable to Him is the Business of our present Enquiry for let me tell you whatever Noise our Deists have made in the World about the Sufficiency of Natural Religion we have very little reason to think them in good earnest If their Natural Religion does oblige them to believe in God and to confess the Truth of the Souls Immortality how comes it to pass that the Result of such a Faith is so little conspicuous in their Lives and Conversations and why I pray is it that the Precepts of Christianity which aim at nothing more than the Happiness of Mankind and contain the compleatest System both of Moral and Divine Laws to direct us in our Duty shou'd be no more regarded 'T is plain enough to every sober and judicious Man that there is nothing in reveal'd Religion that can seem harsh even to a real Deist He that is a Deist in good earnest will find it his highest Interest and Concern to do every thing which Christianity has enjoyn'd upon which score since we find it otherwise we have abundant cause to think with a Learned Man That Revelation in it self is not the stumbling Block it is not the Fundamentals of the Christian Doctrine nor yet the Articles of her Creed it is the Duty to God and our Neighbour that is such an inconsistent incredible Legend He who is more than a Nominal Deist must heartily subscribe this following Confession which that you may be the better opinion'd of I shall give you in their own words We do believe that there is an infinitely powerful wise and good God who superintends the Actions of Mankind in order to retribute to every one according to their Deserts Neither are we to boggle at this Creed for if we do not stick to it we ruine the Foundation of all Humane Happiness and are in effect no better than meer Atheists Whatsoever is adorable saith another of them aimiable and imitable by Mankind is in one supream infinite and perfect Being which we call God who is to be worshipped by an inviolable adherence in our Lives to all the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an imitation of all his infinite Perfections especially his Goodness and believing magnificently of it Again in their new Scheme of Natural Religion I find acknowledg'd the following Particulars 1. That there is one Infinite Eternal God Creator of all things 2. That he governs the World by Providence 3. That 't is our Duty to worship and obey Him as our Creator and Governour 4. That our worship consists in Prayer to Him and Praise of Him 5. That our Obedience consists in the Rules of Right Reason the Practice whereof is Moral Vertue 6. That we are to expect Rewards and Punishments hereafter according to our Actions in this Life 7. And lastly When we err from the Rules of our Duty that we repent us and trust in God's Mercy for our Pardon Now show me the Man who acts according to this Faith and let him be never so well opinion'd of Natural Religion I make it no question but he will readily acknowledge as the most considerate and judicious of them have always done that Christianity however mysterious is indisputably the best method of cultivating Mens Minds and manuring their Consciences I must confess with Mr. Norris were we to consult the perverse Glosses and Comments of some Christian Rabbins and to take our Measures of this Religion from those ill-favour'd Draughts of it we may sometimes meet with we shou'd be induc'd to think that as some Christians are the worst of Men so will their Religion appear to be the worst of Religions an Institution unworthy the Contrivance even of a wise Politician much less of Him who is the Father of Wisdom And indeed whatever Declamations are made against Judaism and Paganism the worst Enemies of the Christian Religion are some of those who profess and teach it for if it be in reality as some of those who call themselves Orthodox describe it we may boldly say that it is neither for the Reputation of God to be the Author of such a Religion nor for the Interest of Men to be guided by it Those of whom this Author more particularly takes notice as the Misrepresenters of Christianity are first of all the Antinomians who are impudent and ignorant enough in express terms to assert that the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ does wholly excuse us from all manner of Duty and Obedience Secondly the Solifidians who under pretence of Advancing the Merits of the Cross and â—he Freeness of the Divine Grace require nothing of a Christian in order to his Justification and Acceptance before God but firmly to rely on the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ and without any more to do to apply all to himself And thirdly Those who have a share in the foremention'd Charge are such who make Christianity a Matter of bare Speculation rending and dividing themselves from one another by those unhappy and dangerous Disputations which instead of making Proselytes to the Truth of Christianity have drawn Men first of all to Deism afterwards to Scepticism and thence by a very easie step to Infidelity and Atheism These are they who think all Religion absolved in Orthodoxy of Opinion that care not how men live but only how they teach and are so over-intent upon the Creed that they neglect the Commandments little considering that Opinion is purely in order to Practise and that Orthodoxy of Judgment is necessary only in such Matters where a Mistake wou'd be of dangerous influence to our Actions that is in Fundamentals so that the necessity of thinking rightly is derived from the necessity of doing rightly and consequently the latter is the most necessary of the two Having touched on some few of those particular Opinions which have brought a Scandal upon Revealed Religion and very much obscur'd its glorious Lustre it behoves me to say something to Revelation it self which I shall do in the words of a late Author As