great footing in the World and that the Doctrine of the Divine Grace shou'd be redicul'd by them and esteemed little otherwise than as a sensless Notion the Opinions of these Men run so smooth to the sense of the Natural Understanding that so long as Men are careless and unwilling to look farther they are constrained to make their Reason the positive and adaequate Rule both of their Morality and Divinity But for my own part I shou'd not so much dispute with them this Mysterious Co-operation or Divine Concurrence provided they cou'd but show me any true Practical Christian one who is so in Deeds as well as Words who has espoused their Opinions I may be free to say I know nothing like one nor do I think it possible to meet with a sincerely devout Convert or Regenerate Person who is not ready to acknowlege that of himself he was able to do nothing as he ought and that the Renovation or happy Change of his Mind was purely owing to the Adeption of a new Principle or to a Union with the Divine Spirit of Jesus Christ. 'T is true amongst the Followers of Pelagius and Socinut there are those who understanding the Verity of their Opinions would be measur'd by their Practises have been more than ordinarily exemplary in their Conversation with the World and their Self-denial of some Temporal Enjoyments Men who have kept themselves to a constant attendance upon Religious Worship and set those about them an extraordinary Pattern for the practise of private Duties and all these we may readily grant the possibility of their attaining by the meer strength of their Natural Faculties or the Powers of their own Souls independent of the Divine Grace these however necessary were never lookt on by considerate Men for more than the Introduction or Outside of true Religion but altho' there are amongst them Persons so very circumspect in their Deportment or Behaviour yet the greatest part of them are such as wholly devote themselves to disputation in mixt Companies where they continually gain Proselytes among loose People such who as they never cou'd reconcile themselves to the practise of Religion are very glad to find the same resolv'd into Matter of Speculation by which means every Man may have an opportunity to raise a suitable Theory to his own Inclinationâ— Now I must confess that which has principally induc'd me to dissent from the Principles of these Men is a consciousness I have had that it is not only possible but certain that Men may have an Historical Faith and that they may believe or assent to the Truth of the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and yet at the same time to show themselves as if wholly unconcerned in their Lives and Practises whether the things deliver'd in that Gospel be true or not which I think is hardly reconcileable even to our own Reason nor can be otherwise ascribed than to the want of that Supernatural and Divine Aid I plead for Upon the other Extream as these we were just now speaking of many of them at least will not allow any such Doctrine as that of the Divine Grace so there have been those who have affirmed that a Person may by Philosophy and Contemplation attain such a Degree of Union with the Divine Being as to know and understand things by a Contactus or Conjunction of Substance with the Deity The Passages saith my Author which occur in Plotinus Porphirius Jamblicus and Proclus all great and famous Platonists of such a tendency are numerous and need not to be here transcribed This Imagination was espoused by the Arabian Philosophers and had it been entertained by the Contemplative Heathen only we might have taken the less notice of it but it was imbibed and that very timely by Origen himself and from him the Ferment or Leaven thereof was derived to the ancient Monks from all or some of these it spread amongst the Romish Monasticks such of them as are called Mystick Theologues nothing more frequent with that sort of Men than a Tattle of an intime Union with God whereby the Soul becomes Deify'd and from them the Weigelians and Familists borrowed their Magnificent Language of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ. The adventurous Determinations of the School-men concerning the beatifical Vision smell rank of the same blasphemous nonsensical Figment for by their contending that the Divince Essence is immediately united as an intelligible Species to the Intellect of the blessed and that this Species and the glorify'd Understanding do not remain distinct things but become identify'd they do in effect affirm the Soul to be transubstantiated into God and to be really deify'd and seeing it 's a Matter of easie Demonstration that the Knowledge which we shall enjoy of God in Heaven differeth only in degree from that which we possess here otherwise it is both altogether unintelligible and uncapable of Rational Explication it will follow by a short Harangue of Discourse either that Believers have no Knowledge of God at all in this Life or else that their Soul 's become Deify'd and Essentially united to God by knowing him I shall not name here the admired Nonsence and high-flown Cantings of some Modern Enthusiasts which carry a broad-fac'd Aspect this way 't is easie for us to instruct our selves from what Springs these with the like Visionaries have drawn the putrid Conceits which they propine to the World 'T is enough for us that we believe the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers to remain distinct after all the Union that intercedes between them Let us be thankful for the Influences of his Grace and for the In-dwellings of his Holy Spirit but let us detest those swelling Words of Pride and Ignorance of being Christed and Deify'd for whatsoever be the nature and kind of the Union between Christ and Christians that the same shou'd by Hypostatical cannot without Blasphemy be imagined And thus my Friend I hope I have with no unpardonable Prolixity gone over these very weighty Subjects I pray God we may all of us have right Notions of them fixed on our Hearts and that they may be attended with the Fruits of a sincere Repentance and Amendment of our Lives I shall endeavour to conclude all with the most suitable Advice I can and in order to the same wou'd wish and desire you to think often and seriously upon the certainty of your Death for whatever you may think of an Immortality hereafter 't is manifest you can obtain none here consider what Thoughts will be most likely to intrude upon you what Business you will principally be employ'd about shou'd you have time allotted you for such a purpose the Conflicts and Consternation you must encounter the Confusion of your last Minutes the Agony of your Soul in the moment of its flight For let me tell you however you may please your self in this time of Health and Vigour that an approach of a privation of your
characterise the Rational Soul of Man it is by no means to be allowed Whether the Master of its Composition retain'd the same Sentiments at his Death concerning the Reasoning Principle within him I have not inform'd my self but it is easie enough to conceive the Thought more readily indulged that the looser Scheme of Religion might serve turn and that the Sensitive Appetite might not admit of any Restraint by the fears of a Post Mortem aliquid How the Learned S m came in among this Gang is somewhat strange That he was acquainted with them we are given to understand by a Letter of Mr. B t s in which was enclosed an Epitome of Deism I must confess I have been inform'd that excellent Physician was tainted with these Principles but yet I could never understand but that he dy'd far from an irreconcileable Enemy to Christianity and firmly perswaded of a future Retribution I shall not mention such of them as are now living although they seem to pride themselves in having been the Parents of those Monstrous Births which they have boldly set their Names to and deliver'd to the giddy World for the Standards of Truth and Reason it may please Almighty God to enlighten their Understandings and to bring about so happy a Reformation that they may be satisfy'd in the certainty of those Divine Truths which will shine still with the greater Lustre the more powerfully they are assaulted and flourish under the Scandal and Contempt of their malicious Adversaries I must confess I had a great desire to see the Arguments of these Men and when I had procur'd them I look'd them over without any such anticipated Prejudice as could sway me to a Partiality Pro or Contra I rather premise this as believing it no easie matter for any Man who would be thought to have a Respect or Veneration either for God or true Religion to peruse such Treatises without so great an Abhorrence and Detestation of the Authors as will hinder him from giving either a due attention to what they write or to consider throughly the proper weight of their Expressions Now upon a mature and deliberate consideration of what I find they have deliver'd I have ventur'd to pass this Censure that the Authors have plainly discover'd themselves to be Men very far short of sound or right Reasoning of very little Piety and Men of no certain or steddy Principles And this Sentence I have adventur'd to pass upon them on these Accounts that whereas in one place I find them highly pleading for a Natural Religion ridiculing Revelation and mustering up all the Arguments that themselves and their Friends the Libertines can furnish out in another they change their Aspect and submissively condescend that the Scriptures should have some little Authority they speak modestly of the two Testaments calling them Sacred Records and ingeniously confess that since Humane Reason is like a Pitcher with two Ears which may be taken on either side in our Travels to the other World we should choose the Common Road as the safest for tho' Deism may serve to manure our Consciences yet certainly if sowed with Christianity it will produce the most plentiful Crop There is nothing says the same Person in another place where he had been just before using Arguments to the discredit of our Immortality more unaccountable and contradictory than to suppose a hum drum Deity chewing his own Nature a Droaning God sit hugging of himself and hoarding up his Providence from his Creatures This is an Atheism no less irrational than to deny the very Essence of a Divine Being It is the same also to believe the Soul to be Mortal as to believe an Immortality without Rewards and Punishments Thus it is very common with this sort of Men to dogmatize even in the most important Points of Religion strenuously affirming for Truth what their Reason dictates and presently after when they have said all they can they are forced to grant that what they have said is only such twilight Conjecture as Humane Reason of which we yet so vainly boast can furnish them withal 't is now an Aliquid Divinum which does all things and our Capacities being unable to discern the same make us fasten either upon the Elementary Qualities of Hippocrates or Galen or the Cartesian Rule of Geometrical Proportions The Conclusion of all is this that since we are not qualify'd to understand the real Essence or intime Nature of things we can know nothing certainly all our Philosophy excepting Scepticism is little more than Dotage These are their own words which I think may give us a very justifiable occasion to look upon these Men very improper Standards for our Reason or Religion to be directed by and as unfit Oracles for us to consult As for their Divinity if a parcel of fine words will satisfie we may think very devoutly of them but indeed I cannot for my own part perswade my self when I consider the tendency of their common Discourse and their Converse in the World but that their Religion may be fairly resolv'd into 〈◊〉 Deâ—sâ—â— or the single Belief of a first Cause and that our Immortality was tack't to it that the Bait might be swallowed with the less suspition and the extravagant Absurdity of their Novel Opinions less strictly examin'd or inquir'd into For when we find Men devoted to the study of â—â—religion to frame and invent Arguments to disturb and perplex our Faith we have surely but little Reason to think well of their Persons or to regard their Speeches And that this has been the design of those I am speaking of even the whole bent of their Minds in manifest enough in the manner of their paraphrasing the Mosaick History in their endeavours to establish the Sufficiency of Natural Religion to future Happiness and opposing the same to the Revelation of Christ Jesus in their collecting Arguments out of Ethnic Authors for the Mortality of the Soul and the Eternity of the World in their inâ—â—â—â—â—ting a Possibility for a free and reasoning Principle to be compatible to Matter and all this with the same Assurance as if they had receiv'd Intelligence from the Court of Heaven I am inform'd one of their late Treatises which contains the Heads of their Opinions will be e're long taken to pieces and judiciously examined however difficult the Task may appear I see nothing in them to discourage any ingenious Man in the Undertaking for if we deprive them of their Varnish and set them in a clear Light we shall find but little in them more than empty Sound and insignificant Harangue They have been either feignedly or really ignorant of Antiquity which is clear from their gross mis-representation of some Passages and their falsifying downright in others They have rack't their Brains for their beloved Cause of Natural Religion but have not offer'd which they ought first of all to have done one Syllable to disprove the Founder of the Christian Religion or the
I hope it will be excus'd by those who consider the Person unto whom I write You have given me I must acknowledge a liberty to open the Pandects of Nature and to furnish my self from thence with any thing that seems useful but will have nothing to be thought valid which is transferr'd from the more Sacred Records of Revelation A God ergo a Providence has been by almost all but especially Christian Philosophers thought a necessary Conclusion but since we are to concede nothing by way of an implicite Faith or as founded upon the bare Testimony of other Men I shall not spend my time in considering the Analogy or reflecting whether or no these terms are Synonimous but will endeavour impartially to take notice not only of some few particulars which may countenance but of some others which seem to thwart and to be repugnant to this Notion as it seems generally establisht In order to my proceeding I expect you should take notice that with some others who have written upon this Subject I distinguish Providence as bipartite or under a double signification viz. General and Particular the former which by Philosophers is term'd the general Concourse or Co-operating Influence I conceive to be so reasonable and intelligible a Notion that I presume when once you have consented to the acknowledgment of a first Cause of all Things you will find your self as it were necessitated to own that the same Power who created the Universal Matter out of Nothing and disposed its several Parts into so many curious and elaborate Engines must unavoidably be concern'd at least in the preservation of the same from Annihilation or extend a Power of Conservation to its continuance and support for however possible it may be to conceive that God Almighty in directing the Particles of Matter into their several Shapes Forms or Configurations did establish certain Catholick Laws of Motion yet surely if hereupon we suppose the Deity to retire within himself no farther to be concern'd with his Divine Workmanship nor so much as ever after to think of or regard it it is utterly unconceivable that Matter and Motion and the several Textures arising from their Combination can be kept on foot or secured from their Primitive Non-existence In this Doctrine of God's ordinary Concurrence I must confess I can find nothing but what is easie and as it were self-evident but when we survey some very unaccountable Phâ—nomena and those various Anomali's which run retrograde to our Sense and Opinions of the Divine Attributes when we reflect upon what some call the Prosperity of wicked Men and the Adversity of the good when we see Justice and Innocence trampled under foot and all that 's good and vertuous degraded and contemned whilst Vice in the mean while reigns as it were triumphant when we see that neither the Profession nor Practise of the Sacred Rites of Religion can secure us from Rapine Cruelty and Oppression lastly when we consider as the Atheist says That Time and Chance hapneth to all these I say notwithstanding they may be fairly solv'd by those Primitive Laws of Motion bestow'd on Matter and still maintain'd by the Divine Being yet when we view them as under his immediate Concern and Government or resulting from his especial Providence they then appear with a somewhat differing Aspect and leave our Reason in a thick Darkness and Obscurity To this purpose you may object that however great and wise that Power may be who made the World you can discover not much of either in its Government You can own indeed that all Effects must have sufficient Causes but then of which you make so mighty an advantage you daily find these Causes take place in the production of all Effects promiscuously and that they are seldom or never prevented by a Divine Suspension even when they seem to impeach the Power and Wisdom of an especial Providence That I may give an Instance suitable to your own Thoughts You see that Mankind from whatsoever Cause they had their Origine are now continued by the mutual Embrace or Carnal Knowledge of the Two Sexes and therefore you don't admire that when they come together in the state of Wedlock or under the Nuptial Institution with the Generative Organs rightly dispos'd that they should propagate their Species but when on the other hand you consider many incestuous Embraces and that a Conception is the Result of a Venereal Act in Fornication or Adultery provided the faeminine Ova are prolific or capable of Impregnation by the Seminal Aura of the Male Here you see abundant Reason to cry out of Providence and expect the Supreme Power should either immediately pursue the Transgressors with Divine Vengeance or suspend his Laws of Motion in the Act in order to prevent a spurious Illegitimate Issue Again by the same Catholic Law of Motion or rather by a Specific Gravity or Principle of Gravitation which is the Property of every Particle of Matter you come to understand that if a ponderous Body be suspended by too slender a Line or a weighty Structure raised upon an infirm Basis insufficient for its Support or Fulcrum Here I say by a very little knowledge in Mechanicks you easily foresee that if the suspended Body preponderate the force intended to hold it up the Line must necessarily break and the weight as necessarily fall so likewise the Building in time grown ruinous or decay'd by other Accidents the Foundation failing most certainly tumbles but if a sober or reputed pious Man passing by should chance to make a Perpendicular to the suspended Body at the time of the Lines breaking and by the fall of the said weight receive some extraordinary hurt or if by the sinking of an infirm Building a supposedly righteous Family should be crusht to Death here the Atheist thinks he has a strong and powerful Reason to inveigh against or triumph over the Providence of God and will hardly be perswaded but that if the Divine Being did inspect or concern himself with the Affairs of Mankind he would upon all such Emergencies miraculously interpose and either by a Revelation or some other Supernatural Illumination discover to us the impending danger or for our Security stop the Laws of Motion which he at first establisht or deprive those Bodies of their Specific Gravitation which would otherwise injure us Farther According to this general and prime establisht Law 't is easie to conceive that the minute Particles of Matter each of them having their own proper size shape or texture as it happens that they are posited in reference to the Horizon as erected inclining or level when they come to convene into one Body from their primary Affections Disposition and Contrivance as to Posture and Order there must necessarily result that which by one comprehensive Name we call the Figure Shape or Texture of that Body and what we call a Monster after this manner produced is so far from being an Error or Trespass upon
some things tainted with the Cartesian Principles he thus rightly argues That if all our Cognition doth proceed originally from our Senses as is affirm'd by Aristotle in his Maxim of Nihil in intellectu c. and that Intellection is made by Analogy by Composition Division Ampliation Extenuation and the like ways of managing the Species or Images of things immitted into the common Sensory by the External Senses then certainly we can have no knowledge of any thing whereof we have no Image and consequently without Imagination there is no Intellection so that in fine to imagine and understand a Thing will be all one whereas to answer this we may affirm that no Corporeal Image or Species is ever receiv'd into the Mind and that pure Intellection as well of a Corporeal as Incorporeal thing is made without any material Image or Species at all As for Imagination to that indeed is requir'd the presence of some Corporeal Image to which the Mind might apply it self because there can be no Imagination but of Corporeal things and yet nevertheless that Corporeal Image doth not enter into the Mind The truth is the Intellect also makes use of Images conceiv'd by the Phancy and therefore called Phantasms yet only as certain means or degrees that progressing through them it may at length attain the knowledge of some things which it afterwards perceives as sequester'd and in a manner sublimed from those Phantasms but this is that which doth sufficiently argue its being Immaterial because it carrieth it self beyond all Images material and comes to the Science of some things of which it hath no Phantasms All the particular Knowledges that Man hath or can have concerning finite and compleat Entities except only the Notion of Being are only certain comparisons or respects between particular things but of respect there can be no Image or Representation at all in the Phancy and therefore our Knowledge is without Images All the particular Notions we have except of Being do belong to some one of the ten Praedicaments all which are so manifestly respective that no Man doubteth them to be so In particular Substance hath a respect to Being Quantity doth consist in a respect unto Parts Quality hath a respect unto that Subject which is denominated from it Action and Passion result from the Union of Quality and Substance Relation denoteth the respect betwixt the Relatum and Correlatum Ubi and Quando arise from Substance consider'd with the Circumstances of Place and Time Situation is from the respect of parts to the whole Habit is a respect to the Substance wherein it is as being the Propriety by which it is well or ill conveniently or inconveniently affected in regard of its own Nature If you question the verity of the foregoing Assertion exercise your Mind in seriously reviewing all these things that have been derived from the Senses and see if you can find among them any such thing as we call a respect it hath neither Figure nor Colour nor Sound nor Odor nor Taste and so cannot possibly be represented to the Sense or Imagination hence I think there is no need to doubt that the Notions of things in the Intellect or pure Understanding are extreamly different from whatsoever is immitted into the Mind by the mediation of the Senses and so that the Intellect hath a knowledge of some things independent of Corporeal Images or Idea's For in simple Imagination the Mind doth always apply it self to the thing speculated or the Image rather of that thing but in pure Intellection in quitteth the Image and converteth it self upon it self the former Act being still accompany'd with some labour and contention of Mind the latter free easie and instantaneous Now in the Phancy of Beasts there is always a Conjunction of the Image of that particular good or harm they have formerly received from such or such things with the Images of the things themselves which is all that can be said to render the subtilest of them Conscious and is indeed the Cause of all those so much admir'd Effects called Sympathys and Antipathys amongst Animals of different kinds Another sort of Actions evincing the Soul's Immateriality are those whereby we do not only form to our selves Universals or Universal Notions but also understand the reason of Universality it self for it being evidently impossible that any Corporeal thing should be exempted from all material Conditions and Differences of Singularity as Magnitude Figure Colour Time Place c. and undeniably certain that the Understanding hath a power to divest them of all and every one of those Conditions and Circumstances and to speculate them in that abstracted state devoy'd of all Particularities it follows necessarily that the Soul which hath this power so to abstract them must it self be exempt from all Matter and of a Condition more eminent than to be confin'd to material Conditions To these few Reasons of the Immateriality of the Humane Soul defumed from the Excellency of her Operations I might here add a multitude of others of the same Extraction and equivalent Force as in particular that of the Existence of Corporeal Natures in the Soul by the power of Apprehension that of her drawing from Multitude to Unity her apprehension of Negations and Privations her containing of Contraries without Opposition her Capacity to move without being moved her self the Incompossibility of opposite Propositions in the Understanding and sundry others the least whereof is of Evidence and Vigour sufficient to carry the Cause against all those Enemies to her Immortality who wou'd degrade her from the Divine Dignity of her Nature to an equality with the Souls of Brutes that are but certain Dispositions of Matter and obnoxious to Dissolution upon change of the same by contrary Agents But farther There is no Corporeal Faculty but what is confin'd to the Perception of only some one certain Genus of things as in particular the Sight to Visibles the Hearing to Sounds c. and tho' the Imagination seems to be extended to very many kinds yet all those are contain'd under the Classis of Sensibles and thence it comes that all Animals endow'd only with Phantasie are addicted only to Sensibles no one affecting the knowledge of any thing which falleth not under the Sense but the Intellect alone is that which hath for its Object Omne verum and as the Schoolmen speak Ens ut Ens every Being in the Universe and therefore hath no mixture of Matter but is wholly free from it and Incorporeal a Truth so clearly revealed by the Light of Nature that Anaxogoras and Aristotle both subscribed Esse intellectum necessario 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immistum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoniam intelligit Universa That Incorporeals are within the Orb of the Intellects Activity and do not escape the apprehension of this unbounded and universal Capacity needs no other proof besides that of our own sublime Speculations concerning the Nature of God of Intelligencies of Angels
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
is rejected 't is a sign there is no truth in the Thing pretended but farther 't is very suspicious when Men exalt their own private Revelations to the same Authority with the Revelations of holy Writ and seek to justifie the one by the other when they esteem the way of Religion as described in Scripture to be mean in comparison of this that they are in and prefer this way of Contemplation and Inspiration above the plain Precepts of Christianity when it is a condescention in them to joyn in External Worship A state indeed of Perfection that is above what the Gospel hath described and is another Gospel than what we have in Scripture received and which there needs an uncontroulable Evidence for the want of which increaseth the suspicion 'T is certain that there is no Evidence for all this beyond their own simple Affirmation and who is there that without good Evidence can believe that those Rapturous Ladies such as Santa Teresa and Donna Marina d'Escobar did in Molinos ' s Phrase hear and talk with God hand in hand when he reads the Interlocutory Matters that are said to have passed between them The desire of Revelations has so wonderful an Influence over the Souls especially of such Women that there is not an ordinary Dream but they will Christen with the Name of Vision and I must needs say the credulous World has been much imposed on this way The Pretence abovesaid of Maria Visitationis is an Instance beyond all Exception who impos'd upon her Confessor no less a Man than Lewis Granada the Inquisition and even the Pope himself and yet notwithstanding she pretended to somewhat more than Internal for her Converse with our Saviour c. was at last detected of notorious Imposture But most of the Visionaries we are speaking of pretended not to so much and therefore where there is no External Evidence attempted by them nor that we have the Gift of Intuition to see into their inward and Self-evidence we have no reason to think otherwise of such Illuminations Introversions and Interlocutions than at best the Effects of a distemper'd Brain and so much the rather are we to be careful of these Matters and not to be too easie of belief because it may be very dangerous in the Consequence of it for if instead of a Star it should prove an Igâ—is fatuus whether may not Persons be led under the Delusion of it and what will not be concluded to be lawful nay a duty which Revelation shall warrant and where will this end if once it be credited and that we commit our selves implicitly and blindly to such an uncertain Guide Now if a Person comes under pretence of a Revelation with a Message to others and requires them as they tender their Salvation to receive it and to submit to it without such Certificates as may give Authority to it it is like one that shall take on him the Stile and Character of an Ambassador without any Credentials to give him Authority and deserves no better Acceptance It is by means of Predictions and Miracles that a Prophet must be known to be a Prophet an Inspiration to be an Inspiration and by these Characters may we be able to judge of both as to the Authority of the Mission and the Truth of the Inspiration where the Evidence was nâ—câ—ssary there was never wanting one or both of these and tho' John did no Miracle yet he had the Spirit of Prophecy the People acknowledg'd for say they all things John spake of this Man Jesus were true There may 't is likely be Inspiration where there is neither of these or the like Evidences but there is no Obligation on others to believe it without the Evidence be sufficient for such as the Evidence is such is the Obligation now the Evidence is not sufficient which rests solely on Humane Authority and has nothing but the bare word or affirmation of the Pretender to prove it It is to this purpose that our Saviour speaks If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true the Works I do bear witness of me So that Inspiration is as to others no Inspiration till it be proved it may for ought appears to the contrary be no other than Delusion or Imposture Let therefore the Imagination be never so strong the Confidence never so great the Intent never so good the Question is whence is this what Evidence doth the Person bring of his Mission from God upon what doth it rest into what is it resolved what doth he produce more than what may be the fruit of Imagination it may all be a fit of Enthusiasm And if a Person will pretend to immediate Inspiration were it an Age for it much more if he pretends to it after Inspiration hâ—s ceased he must be able to fortifie it by such Evidence as can come from none but him from whom the Inspiration came if it be Divine The Case then is to be put upon this Issue and to be decided by the Measures here laid down and we may safely venture the whole Cause of Revelation upon it when there is nothing wanting that can reasonably be desir'd towards the Justification of its Veracity and that there is no manner of Pretence for applying the same Terms of Evidence and Sincerity to Imagination as to Inspiration or to Imposture whether Enthusiastic or Diabolical as is to Revelation For when was it known that Imagination or Nature vulgarly so called did ever impower Persons to speak all Languages and to discourse readily at once with the Parthians Medes and Elamites c. in their several Tongues when did Nature or Imagination enable Persons without any skill to cure Diseases naturally incurable and such as had no Humane Learning to talk like Philosophers of the sublimest Arguments and with as much freedom as they used the Speech of the Foreign Nations they instructed Farther What Imagination Nature or Art cou'd inspirit Moses with such a Supernatural Power as to turn his Rod into a Serpent and to devour those of the Magicians or by a stroke of it to fetch Water out of a Rock and to stop the mighty Current of the Sea What Imagination cou'd form such Idea's in the Minds of a Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar or inspire a Joseph or a Daniel to give such an Interpretation as justify'd it self to be true by the corresponding Event When did Imagination give Life to a Fly or do the least act out of it self when did that or Nature or Imposture really and truly raise the Dead with Elisha call for Fire from Heaven with Elijah or foretell what shall happen an hundred or a thousand years after or so much as what a Person shall think to morrow Here we may challenge all the Magicians all the Men of Art and Science all the Enthusiastâ— and Impostors in the World to talk as the Persons really inspired did talk to do as they did and to produce those Testimonies as they
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