Mental Discourse As for Example Though we discern not our own Souls nor can behold them with our Eyes yet in regard that we think and meditate and reason in our selves we strongly conclude that they are Beings actually existing because it is most certain that what is not cannot operate In like manner though the Being of God be quite out of the Ken of our corporeal Senses yet considering what bright manifestations there are in the World of wonderful Goodness Power and Wisdom we rightly infer That it was framed by a Supreme Being of the most adorable and excellent Perfections And so it is in innumerable other Instances though there are ten thousand things in Nature whose Contextures are not subject to the Cognizance of our Senses yet by arguing either à priori from the manifest Cause to the Effect or à posteriori from the manifest Effect to the Cause we proceed to satisfactory Inferences because if this thing be granted then according to the common Principles of Reason that thing will follow This is to Reason and Argue and to Discourse in our Minds and it is a Faculty whereof the Souls of Irrational Creatures are not capable because sine and close reasoning is vastly above bare and naked Sensation It requires strong Meditation great rowling of Thoughts and a firm linking of Notions to Notions in a Chain so that Rational Premises may fairly and regularly draw on Rational Conclusions All which Brute Creatures can no more do than they can study Philosophy or understand Books of Metaphysicks and Logick 4. Fourthly We feel in our selves a power of directing us in all our Moral Actions and of reflecting upon our Actions after they are done and this we call Conscience meaning the Judgment of a Man as it relates to the practice of Vertue and Honesty There are some Actions which are unchangeably good and others which are immutably Evil Their Natures are so utterly opposite that it is as impossible to make Vice Vertue or Vertue Vice as it is to reconcile Light and Darkness The Notions of such things every one does carry in himself nor is any Soul of Man so void and destitute of them but that the most unpolisht and barbarous People understand in some measure what is Right and Just Accordingly we find something within us which before an Action is done tells us secretly what is necessary sit and proper for us to do And when our unreasonable Inclinations and Passions carry us on to do that which is contrary to those good Dictates we find something within us that doth reprehend and blame and fly upon us and many times doth wound us so that we are very sore and our Minds are full of great Anguish and Torment To which purpose are those Words of St. Paul Rom. 2. 14 15. where speaking of the Gentiles he faith That though they had not the Law written in two Tables as the Jews had yet they did by nature the things contain'd in the law and having not the law were a law unto themselves Which shew'd the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts among themselves either accusing or else exausing one another Now this Faculty of governing and regulating all our Moral Actions and of passing Sentence upon them is an excellence of the Rational Soul which cannot be pretended to be in any Animals which are purely Sensitive how sagacious soever they appear because Actions natural are the highest they can go to As for the Rules of Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness they are wholly destitute of them as destitute as a Stone is of Sense or as a Plant is of Reason And hence it is that their Souls are mortal Whether they be altogether material or so necestarily depending upon Matter that they cannot subsist without a Body I will not now dispute No question but they perish with their Bodies For having no Law of Morality to act by they cannot be accountable either for Obedience or Transgression and so cannot be supposed to survive because they are uncapable either of Reward or Punishment in another World as being without all Power of Reflecting and consequently of having any Joys or Remorse of Mind in this To conclude this Consideration Besides a Principle of Life a Power of Sensation and a Faculty of retaining Idea's which spring from things without us we find in our selves such high and exquisite Powers that supposing a Being Angelical and next to a Deity was to have been form'd on purpose that it should be invested with Humane Flesh there to display the great Glories of its Nature we cannot conceive how a Being could have been made more like to an Angel than the Rational Soul is A Being that is able to search into the Secrets of Nature and into the invisible things of God to entertain it self with lofty Contemplations to discover recondite mysterious Truths to open the Treasures of Philosophy to fill the World with Histories of things past and to foresee things to come things which naturally must or probably may happen to know all that a Finite Creature is well capable of knowing to set out the just Boundaries between Good and Evil to inform the World how far they may honourably and safely go and what they are at their Peril to avoid to employ Mankind in the most curious Arts to furnish them with the most delightful and useful Sciences to give measures to all States and Princes to prescribe to all Societies the truest Methods for their Preservation and Welfare to shew them what noble Ends they are to pursue and what are the wisest and best means of bringing those Ends to pass to fit Men for the greatest and most generous Undertakings and to make them Men of Renown to inspire them with laudable Ambition and upon animating Hopes to found glorious Atchievements and to erect the Fortunes of Kingdoms to make us aspire towards the highest and most excellent Enjoyments In short to help us to do all the great things that can be done by mortal Creatures here and in the midst of our Labours under the Sun to shew us a Glimpse of another World and to sit us for a Blessed and Eternal State in it 2. These are the noble Powers of the Rational Soul and hence I argue in the Second place that this Excellence of it is a manifestation of the Existence of a God because these high Endowments and Faculties could not be derived from the casual Modifications of Dead and Senseless Matter but from the Agency of an intelligent Cause that is eminently and absolutely Perfect For it is a certain Principle of Reason That there cannot be more in the Effect than there is in the Cause If there could be more it would follow that Something can come of it self out of Nothing which is impossible Defect of Power in an Agent is a Non-Entity a want of Being a Privation an incapacity an utter Nothing Nor is it conceivable how any
Excellence without the least mixture of Defect or Imperfection Such Defects and Imperfections there are in all Creatures In all Bodies there is Substance but such as is wrapt up in Matter which is a great imperfection in comparison of Spirituality In all Vegetables there is Life but such as is subject to decay which in them is imperfection In all Animals there is Sense or Perception but such as is attended with Fear Grief Anger and other disquieting Passions which are so many Imperfections in their Nature In Men there is Reason but such as is blemisht with Ignorance and Errors and the knowledge they have is acquired by the great labours of the Mind by Contemplation and Study by close arguing from one thing to another and by a long train of thoughts which follow each other successively and are gradually spun out of the Soul by the painful operations of the Rational Faculties all which shews the Defects and Imperfections that are in Humane Nature also And as for those Blessed Spirits above which we call Angels though there be in them a perfection of Understanding without dulness pain or laborious activity and though there be too rectitude in their Wills regularity in their Affections and all moral Perfections which make them happy yet is their Knowledge limited and for their whole Being they depend upon the Will and Pleasure of a Superior Power that at first created and still preserves them which argues imperfection in them likewise although they be the noblest part of the Universe Go through every Classis and sort of Individuals in the World and you will find in all of them some Deficiencies which are annext to their Principal and Best Part so that though they be all perfect in their kind and sit for the Ends for which they were formed yet they fall vastly short of Eminent and Absolute Perfection For such Perfection is to have all kinds of Excellence and all degrees of Excellence clear and free from all manner of Defect indigence or Incapacity Now the Notion of God includes this Absolute Perfection For that word GOD speaks a Being that is most Excellent So that supposing a Deity to be and to be the Cause of all Inferior things which the Notion of God implies too you must necessarily conceive of him as the Being in whom all those Perfections are united as in a Center which are divided every-where in the World and that they are all in Him in a most eminent and excellent Degree For no Being can give those Perfections which some way or other it hath not either formally or actually or virtually and eminently in it self because then it would communicate more than it hath that is more than what is in its power to impart which to suppose would be a contradiction All Causes that work by a necessity of Nature though they operate to the utmost power and extent of their Faculties yet 't is as impossible for them to yield what they have not as it is for Water to bring forth a Rational Soul or for Fire to produce an Angel out of a few Sticks And though Voluntary Agents work as they please and may give their Effects much less than themselves have yet 't is as impossible for the Freest and Powerful Agent to give more as it is for an Artificer to form a World out of nothing The thing it self cannot admit of such Omnipotence And so we may be sure that neither could God bestow Perfections which he himself was not possest of and therefore those Excellencies which we find in Nature and which are the Perfections of Nature must be concluded to come from the Author of Nature and consequently to be in him as in their true Original for otherwise there would be more Excellencies in the Effects than there are in the Cause which is as absurd to suppose as it is to imagine that there is more Water in a Rivulet than in the Ocean Again As all Perfection must be conceiv'd to be in that Supreme most Excellent and most Glorious Nature which we call GOD so it must be there too Absolutely or without the least mixture of Defect All defect must be in the Creature and that not so much by immediate Causality from God as by the necessary Condition of its own Nature because it is a thing made and of Temporary production and therefore of a Finite Nature and of Limited Faculties that is it must be essentially imperfect especially in comparison of its Creator it being utterly impossible for a Narrow Scanty New-form'd thing to be commensurate in all its Perfections to the Maker who is supposed to be Independent Infinite and All-sufficient in himself The Nature of the thing made cannot allow this and by consequence it is naturally and necessarily defective Upon which account though we must conclude that God is a Perfect Being because all Perfections in other things are derived from Him yet we may not conceive that he hath any mixture of Desiciency because the things he hath made are all of them defective in some respect or other For those Defects are so natural that the things themselves could not possibly have been made otherwise or without them Therefore as we must affirm That the Perfections which are in the World are limited and partial blended and alloy'd with something that is a blemish to them so we must conceive that those Originals of them which are in God are Boundless and Full Eminent and Absolute For to think otherwise is to degrade the Author of all Perfections and in truth to make the Notion of a Deity inconsistent with it self I have been the more desirous to clear this matter That the general Notion of God doth and must signify a Being which is Eminently and Absolutely Perfect because it is a very Rational Principle which may be fairly understood and must needs be assented to by all that will but hearken to Right Reason And because it is a very useful Principle also that will soon inable us to draw out of it by direct consequence a more 2. Particular Description of the Deity which is the Second thing I am to come to that I may shew what kind of Being we are to apprehend God to be before I go about to prove that this suppos'd most Perfect Being doth really and actually Exist For from this great and General Notion of God this Particular Account will follow 1. First We must conceive of God that he is an Independent Being not beholding to any Antecedent Distinct and Foreign Cause for the production of his Nature For could we without a contradiction suppose a Cause Antecedent to that which is thought to be the Chief and First Cause of all things such a Supposition would argue Imperfection in the Deity Because it would make him a Precarious Being depending upon the Activity and Pleasure of Another Superior to him in greatness of Power and before him in Time and in Existence of Nature 2. God having all Perfection
to say That the greatest part of the World have been all along so many stark Fools a Character which we think more peculiarly belongs to those who say in their hearts There is no God Considering what a difficult and hazardous Office the first Preachers of Christianity had to discharge How think ye was it possible for them to undertake it with such readiness to perform it with such vigour and to go through it with such constancy and chearfulness notwithstanding so much opposition had they not been abundantly convinced of the truth of their Religion by Miracles which they saw with their own eyes And considering what vast importance the Christian Religion is declared to be of and how directly opposite it is to the natural Inclinations of corrupt Mankind and how it was discountenanc'd and hated by Jews and Heathens in the beginning How can we think it possible for it to have been received so generally and unexpectedly in the World had not inquisitive Men who had the fairest advantages of knowing matters of Fact been fully satisfied That the mighty Miracles reported to have been done by Jesus were true Men cannot think these things possible but either they must believe that people in those days had lost all their Senses or make us now believe that they themselves have utterly lost their own The design of all this is to shew That there is as convincing and strong Evidence that True Divine Miracles have been wrought as can rationally be expected of any thing which hath been done in former times because no matter of Fact whatsoever can possibly be capable of stronger proof In cases of this nature the utmost that can be expected is Moral Certainty when the Evidence is so fair that no reasonable man can have just cause to doubt of the truth of the matter and that Evidence must be from Testimony because it is impossible for us to know any thing which is gone and past but by information from others and when that Information is so full that to unprejudiced Understandings the thing seems unquestionable it is as much as any reasonable man can desire Since therefore it appears by indubitable Testimony that those persons who are said to have done Miracles were once actually living in the World since it appears that the History of those Miracles is sufficiently credible and is confirmed by the collateral Testimony of those who were both capable of knowing and deeply concern'd to know the Truth of that Account And lastly since such publick Settlements and Constitutions followed upon the Credit of those Miracles as plainly argued a firm and general Belief or rather Knowledge of them and could never have been brought about without them Since I say all these grounds of Credibility do appear to give evidence to the truth of Miracles formerly done it seems unconceivable how stronger or clearer evidence can be given of any matter of Fact or of any History that is now in the World 2. Let us consider next the second Evasion That supposing some wonderful things to have been done in former Ages yet this is no more an Argument of the truth of a God's Existence than it is of the truth of Idolatry because Idolaters themselves have pretended to Miracles to vouch for their Religion And considering how inconsistent and impossible it would be for a Deity to act for and against it self too therefore Men of Atheistical minds conclude That those wonderful Works which have gone under the name of Divine Miracles have been really nothing but Art and Imposture Now for the solving of this seeming difficulty I shall consider two Things 1. First Matter of Fact 2. Secondly The Weakness of these Mens reasoning from it 1. First then that I may carry a fair and impartial Hand it is granted that many strange and extraordinary things are said to have been done by Men of a false Religion For Moses himself tells us what the Magicians did in Egypt beâ—ore his own face Jesus Christ told his Disciples that many false Teachers would come in a little time with Signs and Wonders to deceive if it had been possible the very Elect. To verify that Prediction divers Ecclesiastical Writers tell us of the Wonders done by Simon Magus and his Followers soon after the Lord ' s Ascension into Heaven Others tell us of the Blind and the Lame being cured by the Heathen Emperor Vespasian and of a Whetstone being divided into two by a Razor at the Command of Accius Navius and of several Prodigious things done by Apollmius Tyanaeus whom the Pagans matched with Jesus Christ for doing Miracles And every body knows what Accounts of Miracles have been given by the Church of Rome in deâ—ence of that part of their Religion wherein they have most scandalously departed from True Primitive Christianity Considering therefore what an heap of Stories there is whereof some are related by Sacred Writers and some others by Men of Probity and Temper though abundance of Fictions hath been vended among them it must be allowed that many Wonderful Works have been done by Idolaters But then Secondly This can be no Plea for the truth of Idolatry because how wonderful soever those Works have seemed they were not in themselves Divine Miracles We must distinguish between Miracles in Appearance and Miracles in Reality By Miracles in Appearance which should rather be called Wonders and Signs I understand not mere Impostures or Delusions of mens outwards Senses but such Real Effects as may seem to be done by the extraordinary and immediate Power of God when indeed they are not That such things are possible to be done is clear from Deut. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. where God himself gave the Jews this Caution If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereeof he spake to thee saving Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul Ye shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him and that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death We cannot conceive that when God hath any where established his true Worship he will lift up his own hand to draw People away from it to Idolatry and therefore when Signs or Wonders are shewed to that end we may be sure they are not Divine Miracles or Effects that are altogether Supernatural And yet 't is manifest that such things may be done as are counterfeitings of God's hand and seem to carry the signatures of his Power for otherwise there would have been no reason for that charge given to the Jews that
thing can be drawn into Existence out of it but by a superiour uncontroulable Power over it For should we suppose it to produce any thing of it self we should suppose it to produce that which it hath not power to bring forth and to give it a Being which it hath not at all it self that is to bring it out of an Incapacity or out of Nothing Which no Humane Reason can think how a thing can do by any Casuality of its own because there is a defect of such Casuality If then there be something more and higher in a Rational Soul than what is in Matter it must be inconsistent with Reason to imagine that Matter caused it for then it would necessarily follow that it caused it without a Power or by its Incapacity Inability and Defect that is out of Nothing When we observe this admirable frame of Nature the Universe can we think that its Order was effectively caused by Confusion It s Harmony by Discord It s Beauty by Disproportions the Usefulness of its parts by Errour It s wise and regular Fabrication by Nonsense This were to make one Contrary the cause of another and with parity of Reason it might be said that Water produceth Fire and Darkness made the Sun and that Death is the efficient Cause of Life Sense and Motion In like manner when we consider the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Soul and compare the whole frame of it with the Substance and Properties of dull lifeless and incogitative Matter can we think that Corporiety was the cause of a thing that is immaterial that Divisibility was the cause of a Being immortal that Reason was the work of Stupidity that Atoms taught us to Philosophize that Wisdom sprang from the motion of little Bodies void of all Art Skill and Knowledge and that the Powers we find within us to act with Freedom and Choice to direct our Actions by the Logick of Truth and by the Laws of Vertue to desire and intend our Good in all things to pursue it with Eagerness Understanding and Delight and to rejoyce in the Fruition of it can we think I say that all these things came from the Chance-Operations of Matter which hath nothing of Sense or Thought in it It may as well be said that the tumbling of Stones and Timber together will produce Sensation Intellection Reasoning Memory Prudence Conscience together with those Passions and Affections which we feel within us In short It may be as well said that a Rational Soul can be educed and drawn out of an Heap of Rubbish As an Effect cannot naturally proceed from a contrary Cause so neither can an Effect transcend the Perfection and Vertue of its natural Cause It may fall short of it or it may come up to a degree of equality with it but it can no more go beyond or above it than Waters can naturally run higher than the Fountain-Head stands So that were there nothing in the World besides dead and senseless Matter modified into various Forms at a venture by undesigning and unintending Motion it were impossible for a Rational Soul to spring out of it for the Effect would be much nobler than the Cause and consequently would emerge out of nothing For I ask Were the Perfections of a Rational Soul in Matter before the Soul was made or were they not If you suppose they were then this ridiculous Conceit will follow that Atoms have in them Knowledge Wisdom Morality Liberty of Will and such other Perfections which belong unto the Soul If they were not antecedently there then this ridiculous Conceit will follow That Perfections were caused by Incapacity or that Matter gave a perfect Being an Existence which it self had not to give Which would be a plain Contradiction and would moreover ascribe a creative Power to Matter though it be a thing altogether Passive when the Men I now dispute against will not allow a Deity it self that Power because they think it an impossibility Dr. Cudworth Int. Syst p. 862 Hence a Learned Author concludes positively that neither can Matter which is a meeâ— Passive thing efficiently produce a Soul nor a Soul Matter no finite imperfect Substance being able to produce another Substance out of nothing much less can such a Substance as hath a lower degree of Entity and Perfection in it create that which hath an higher There is a Scale or Ladder of Perfections in the Universe one above another and the Production of things cannot possibly be in way of Ascent from lower to higher but must of necessity be in way of Descent from higher to lower Now to produce any one higher Rank of Being from the lower as Cogitation from Magnitude and Body is plainly to invert this Order in the Scale of the Universe from downwards to upwards and by the same reason that one higher Rank or Degree in this Scale is thus unnaturally produced from a lower may all the rest be produced also The Consequence of all this is That Matter being so utterly uncapable of making an immaterial immortal intelligent Soul there must be a most perfect Mind that gave it its Faculties and its Nature Either it must be supposed to have no Cause at all which would be most absurd to imagine or it must have a competent Cause or a higher and most perfect Being to derive its Existence from A spiritual Substance cannot come but from a Spirit nor can any thing be the cause of Mind but Mind or of Understanding but Understanding or of Reason but Reason nor of Self-activity and Liberty but that which is a self-active voluntary and free Agent Since the rational Soul is so excellent a Creature there must be a most excellent Being that created it a Being that contains all manner of Perfection a Being of unlimited Power that could make it of Nothing by the force and fecundity of his own Divine Will and a Being of the most exalted and glorious Nature that could give Existence to such an admirable Being as every humane Soul is void of Matter and Corruption uncapable Naturally of dying in every respect like unto a Deity Spiritual Intelligent Active Wise Powerful Benign Kind and Good But those unreasonable Men who deny the Existence of God finding themselves prest with the invincible force of this Argument would shift it off by pretending that what we suppose touching the spiritual Nature and Faculties of Mens Souls is not to be granted They say that there is nothing real in the World but Matter and Motion That our very Souls themselves are Matter consisting of a smoother and siner sort of Atoms or indiscernible Motes by the various Motions and Modifications whereof the Soul Thinks Understands Exerts the Will and Acteth They will have mind to be nothing but the local Motion of some more active Particles of Matter They will have Knowledge to be nothing but a Passion caused by the intromitting of Images into the Brain from sensible Objects without They will