stood in awe of their own imaginations The Philosophers privatly condemn'd what in a guilty compliance with the Laws of State they publickly own'd Nay even the lowest and dullest among the Gentiles generally acknowledged one Supreme God and Lord of all inferior Deities As Tertullian observes in their great distresses guided by the internal instructions of Nature they invok'd God not the Gods to their help 3. That the belief of one God is a pure emanation from the light of Nature is evident in that since the extinction of Idolatry not a spark remaining in many parts of the World 't is still preserv'd in its vigor and lustre in the breasts of Men. Since the plurality of Gods have been degraded of their Honour and their Worships chased out of many Countries and the ideas of various ancient superstitions are lost the only true God is served with more solemn veneration Time the wise discerner of Truth from Falshood abolishes the fictions of fancy but confirms the uncorrupted sentiments of Nature To conclude this Discourse what rational doubt can remain after so strong a witness of the Deity External from the Universe Internal from the frame of the humane Soul If we look through the whole compass of natural Beings there is not one separately taken but has some signature of wisdom upon it As a beam of light passing through a chink in Wall of what figure soever always forms a circle on the place where 't is reflected and by that describes the image of its original the Sun Thus God in every one of his Works represents himself tanquam Solis radio scriptum But the union of all the parts by such strong and sweet bands is a more pregnant proof of his omnipotent mind Is it a testimony of great military skill in a General to range an Army compos'd of divers Nations that have grat antipathies between them in that Order as renders it victorious in Battel And is it not a testimony of infinite Providence to dispose all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth so as they joyn successfully for the preservation of Nature 'T is astonishing that any should be of such a reprobate mind as not to be convinc'd by the sight of the World a visible Word that more gloriosly illustrates the perfections of the Creator than the sublimest Eloquence that conceals what it designs to represent When Sophocles was accused by his ungrateful Sons that his Understanding being declin'd with his Age he was unfit to manage the affairs of his Family he made no other defence before the Judges but recited part of a Tragedy newly compos'd by him and left it to their decision whether there was a failure in his Intellectuals upon which he was not only absolved but crown'd with Praises What foul ingratitude are those guilty of who deny the Divine Wisdom of which there are such clear and powerful demonstrations in the things that are seen Abhor'd impiety worthy of the most fiery indignation and not to be expiated with a single death None except base stupid spirits that are laps'd and sunk below the rational Nature as a noble Philosopher justly censures them are capable of such prodigious folly and perversness Yet these are the pretenders to free reason and strength of mind and with a contemptuous smile despise the sober World as fetterd with servil Principles and foolishly soften'd by impressions of an unknown uncertain being and value themselves as more knowing than all others because they contradict all Ridiculous vanity as if a blind Man in a crowd sometimes justling one sometimes another should with impatience cry out Do ye not see when he is under a double blindness both in his eyes and understanding not seeing himself and reproaching those that see for not seeing In short this great Truth shines with so bright an evidence that all the sons of darkness can never put out and can only be denied by obstinate Atheism and absurdity CHAP. VII The duties of understanding Creatures to the Maker of all things Admiration of his glorious perfections visible in them This is more particularly the duty of Man the World being made eminently for him The Causes why the Creatour is not honour'd in his Works are mens ignorance and inobservance Things new rather affect us than great An humble fear is a necessary respect from the Creature to the Divine Majesty and Power Love and Obedience in the highest degrees are due from men to God in the quality of Creator Trust and reliance on God is our duty and priviledg LEt us now briefly consider the indispensible Duties of rational Creatures with respect to the Maker of all things And those are 1. To acknowledg and admire the Deity and his perfections that are so visible in his Works For there must be a first Cause from whom that receives being that cannot proceed from it self In all the forms of things there are some Characters stampt of the Divine Wisdom that declare his Glory some footsteps imprest of his Power that discover him some lines drawn of his Goodness that demonstrate him And so much praise is justly due to the Artificer as there is excellence of Art and Perfection of workmanship appearing in the Work This Duty is especially incumbent on Man because the World was made with a more eminent respect for him than for Angels or Animals For if we consider the diversity of its parts the multitude and variety of sensitive Natures of which it consists and the Art whereby 't is fram'd according to the most noble Idea and design of highest Wisdom 't is evident it was principally made for Man there being an adequate correspondence between them with regard to the faculties and the objects 'T is true the Angels understand more perfectly than Man the union order and beauty of the World an incomparable proof of the Makers perfections but they are not capable of knowledg or pleasure by tasts smels sounds which are only proportion'd to make impressions on material Organs And is it agreeable to Wisdom that an Object purely sensible should be chiefly intended for a Power purely Spiritual Neither are the Beasts fit spectators of the Divine Works For the material part to which sense can only reach is the least notable in the frame of Nature and the oeconomy of the World They cannot discover the dependance between Causes and Effects the Means and End nor the Wisdom that ordered all These are only for the vision of the mind which they want The volume of the World to them is like a fair printed Book compos'd of sublime matter and style but opened to one that sees the beauty of the Characters without understanding the Language it speaks and the Wisdom it contains An Eagle by fixing its eyes on the Sun cannot measure its greatness nor understand the ends of its motion The World would be lost if only for them But the wise Creator united these two distinct natures in Man and plac'd him in this
unequal clearness Sweet things taste bitter to one in a Feaver but the mind knows that the bitterness is not in the things but in the viciated Palat. Moreover how many things are collected by Reason that transcend the power of fancy to conceive nay are repugnant to its conception What corporeal Image can represent the immensity of the Heavens as the Mind by convincing arguments apprehends it The Antipodes walk erect upon the Earth yet the Fancy cannot conceive them but with their Heads downward Now if the Mind were of the same nature with the corporeal Faculties their judgment would be uniform 5. The Senses suffer to a great degree by the excessive vehemence of their Objects Too bright a light blinds the Eye Too strong a sound deafs the Ear. But the Soul receives vigor and perfection from the excellence and sublimity of its object and when most intent in contemplation and concenter'd in its self becomes as it were all Mind so that the operations of it as sensitive are suspended feels the purest delights far above the perception of the lower faculties Now from whence is the distemper of the Senses in their exercise but from matter as well that of the Object as the Organ And from whence the not suffering of the Mind but from the impressing the forms of Objects separated from all matter and consequently in an immaterial faculty for there is of necessity a convenience and proportion as between a Being and the manner of its operations so between that and the subject wherein it works This strongly argues the Soul to be immaterial in that 't is impassible from matter even when it is most conversant in it For it refines it from corporeal accidents to a kind of spirituality proportioned to its nature And from hence proceeds the unbounded capacity of the Soul in its conceptions partly because the forms of things inconsistent in their natures are so purified by the Mind as they have an objective existence without enmity or contrariety partly because in the workings of the Mind one act does not require a different manner from another but the same reaches to all that is intelligible in the same order 6. The Senses are subject to languishing and decay and begin to die before Death But the Soul many times in the weakness of Age is most lively and vigorously productive The intellectual Off-spring carries no marks of the decays of the Body In the approaches of Death when the corporeal faculties are relaxt and very faintly perform their functions the workings of the Soul are often rais'd above the usual pitch of its activity And this is a pregnant probability that 't is of a spiritual Nature and that when the Body which is here its Prison rather than Mansion falls to the Earth 't is not opprest by its ruines but set free and injoys the truest liberty This made Heraclitus say that the Soul goes out of the Body as Lightning from a Cloud because it 's never more clear in its conceptions than when freed from matter And what Lucretius excellently expresses in his Verses is true in another sense than he intended Cedit item retro de Terra quod fuit ante In Terram sed quod missum est ex Aetheris oris Id rursus Coeli fulgentia Templa receptant What sprung from Earth falls to its native place What Heav'n inspir'd releast from the weak tye Of flesh ascends above the shining Sky Before I proceed I will briefly consider the Objections of some who secretly favour the part of impiety 1. 'T is objected That the Soul in its intellectual operations depends on the Phantasms and those are drawn from the representations of things conveyed through the senses But it will appear this does not enervate the force of the Arguments for its spiritual nature For this dependence is only objective not instrumental of the Souls perception The first images of things are introduc'd by the mediation of the senses and by their presence for nothing else is requisit the mind is excited and draws a Picture resembling or if it please not resembling them and so operates alone and compleats its own work Of this we have a clear experiment in the conceptions which the mind forms of things so different from the first notices of them by the Senses The first apprehensions of the Deity are from the visible effects of his Power but the Idea in which the understanding contemplates him is fram'd by removing all imperfections that are in the Creatures and consequently that he is not corporeal For whatsoever is so is liable to corruption that is absolutely repugnant to the perfection of his nature Now the common Sense and Fancy only powerful to work in Matter cannot truely express an immaterial Being Indeed as Painters by their Colours represent invisible things as Darkness the Winds the Internal affections of the heart so that by the representations the thoughts are awakn'd of such objects so the fancy may with the like Art shadow forth Spiritual Beings by the most resembling forms taken from sensible things Thus it imagins the Angels under the likeness of young Men with Wings to express their vigor and velocity But the Mind by its internal light conceives them in another manner by a Spiritual form that exceeds the utmost efficacy of the corporeal Organs so that 't is evident the Soul as intellectual in its singular and most proper operations is not assisted by the ministry of the Senses 2. 'T is objected that the Soul in its superiour operations depends on the convenient temper of the Body The thoughts are clear and orderly when the Brain is compos'd On the contrary when the predominancy of any humour distempers it the Mind feels its infirmities And from hence it seems to be of a corporeal nature depending on the Body in its being as in its working But this if duly consider'd will raise no just prejudice against its Spiritual Immortal Nature For 1. The sympathy of things is no convincing Argument that they are of the same Nature There may be so strict a union of Beings of different natures that they must necessarily be subject to impressions from one another Can any Reasons demonstrate that a Spiritual substance endowed with the powers of understanding and will cannot be united in a vital composition to a Body as the Vegetative Soul is in Plants and the Sensitive in Beasts There is no implicite repugnance in this that proves it impossible Now if such a complex Being were in Nature how would that spiritual Soul act in that Body that in its first union with it excepting some universal Principles is a rasa tabula as a white Paper without the notices of things written in it Certainly in no other imaginable manner than as Man's Soul does now Indeed if Man as compounded of Soul and Body were a sensitive Animal and only rational as partaking of the Universal Intellect bent to individuals for a time and retiring at Death to
of that Fancy that the World is in a perpetual Circulation from Infancy to Youth and to full Age and a decrepit state and back again so that Arts are lost and recovered in that change The consent of Nations a clear Argument that there is a God The impressions of Nature are infallible That the most Men are practical Atheists that some doubt and deny God in words is of no force to disprove his Existence There are no absolute Atheists Nature in extremities has an irresistible force and compels the most obdurate to acknowledg the Deity Chap. 6. Page 22. The belief of the Deity no Politick Invention The asserting that 't is necessary to preserve States in order is a strong proof of its truth No History intimates when this belief was introduc'd into the World The continuance of it argues that its rise was not from a Civil Decree Princes themselves are under the fears of the Deity The multitude of false Gods does not prejudice the natural notion of one true God Idolatry was not universal The Worship of the only true God is preserved where Idolatry is abolished Chap. 7. pag. 105. The duties of understanding Creatures to the Maker of all things Admiration of his glorious Perfections visible in them This is more particularly the duty of Man the World being made eminently for him The Causes why the Creator is not honour'd in his Works are Mens ignorance and inobservance Things new rather affect us than great An humble fear is a necessary respect from the Creature to the Divine Majesty and Power Love and Obedience in the highest degrees are due from men to God in the quality of Creator Trust and Reliance on God is our duty and priviledge Chap. 8. pag. 146. The Immortality of the Soul depends on the conservative influence of God Natural and Moral Arguments to prove that God will continue it for ever The Soul is incapable of perishing from any corruptible principles or separable parts It s spiritual nature is evident by the acts of its principal faculties The Understanding conceives spiritual objects is not confin'd to singular and present things Reflects upon it self Corrects the errors of the sense Does not suffer from the excellency of the object Is vigorous in its operations when the Body is decayed which proves it to be an immaterial faculty An Answer to Objections against the Souls spiritual nature That the first notices of things are conveyed through the senses does not argue it to be a material faculty That it depends on the temper of the Body in its superior operations is no prejudice to its spiritual nature Chap. 9. pag. 170. The Acts of the Will considered It s choice of things distastful to Sense and sometimes destructive to the Body argue it to be a spiritual principle The difference between Man and Brutes amplified The spiritual operations of the Soul may be performed by it self in a separate state This is a strong proof God will continue it The Platonick Argument that Man unites the two orders of Natures intelligent and sensible immortal and perishing Chap. 10. pag. 181. The moral Arguments for the Souls Immortality The restless desire of the Soul to an intellectual eternal happiness argues it survives the Body The lower order of Creatures obtain their perfection here It reflects upon Nature if the more noble fails of its end That wicked men would choose annihilation rather than eternal torments is no proof against Mans natural desire of Immortality The necessity of a future state of Recompences for moral actions proves the Soul to be immortal The Wisdom of God as Governour of the World requires there be Rewards and Punishments annext to his Laws Eternal Rewards are only powerful to make men obedient to them in this corrupt state Humane Laws are no sufficient security of Vertue and restraint from Vice Chap. 11. Page 198. The Justice of God an infallible Argument of future recompences The natural notion of God includes Justice in Perfection In this World sometimes Vertue and Vice are equally miserable Sometimes Vice is prosperous Sometimes good Men are in the worst condition The dreadful consequences of denying a future state Gods absolute Dominion over the Reasonable Creature is regulated by his Wisdom and limited by his Will The essential beauty of Holiness with the pleasure that naturally results from good actions and the native turpitude of Sin with the disturbance of the mind reflecting on it are not the compleat recompences that attend the Good and the Wicked Chap. 12. Page 223. Two Arguments more to prove future recompenses 'T is not possible for civil Justice to despense rewards and punishments according to the good and evil actions of Men. All Nations agree in the acknowledgment of a future state The innocent Conscience is supported under an unjust Sentence by looking to the superior Tribunal The courage of Socrates in dying with the cause of it The guilty Conscience terrifies with the apprehension of Judgment to come Tiberius his complaint to the Senate of his inward tortures An Answer to the Objection that we have not sensible evidence of what is enjoyed and what is suffered in the next life Why Sin a transient act is punished with Eternal Death Chap. 13. Page 257. What influence the Doctrine of the future state should have upon our practice It must regulate our esteem of present things And reconcile our affections to any condition here so far as it may be an advantage to prepare us for the better World The chiefest care is due to the Immortal part The just value of Time and how it should be improved 'T is the best Wisdom to govern our whole course of Life here with regard to Eternity that expects us FINIS There is lately Reprinted a Book entitled The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed Work By W. Bates D. D. Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil * Epicuri de Grege Porcum Hor. Chap. I. * Vitruv. praef lib. 6. Boet. * Obliquitatem ejus intellexisse est rerum fores aperuisse Plin. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Chap. II. * Ne sylvae quidem honidiorque naturae facies Medicinis caret sacra il a parente rerum omnium nusquam non remedia disponente homini ut Medicina fieret ipsa solitudo Plin. ‖ Est igitur id quo illa conficiuntur homine melius Id autem quid potius dixerimquam Deum Tull. de nat deor * His muniendo aculeis telisque armando remediis ut tuta salva sint Ita hoc quoque quod in iis odimus hominum causa excogitatum est Plin. l. 22. ‖ Quid est in his in quo non naturae ratio intelligentis appareat Tull. †Quis non
is necessary they move now from whence is the principle of their motion from an internal form or an external Agent If they will be ingenuous and speak true they must answer thus from whence soever they have it they have it for if they did not move their Opinion cannot proceed a step further But supposing their motion to be natural what powerful Cause made them rest how are they so firmly united have they Hooks that fasten or Birdlime or Pitch or any glutinous matter that by touching they cleave so fast together They must grant something like this otherwise they cannot unite and compound and then the Epicurean Opinion is presently dissipated Supposing them triangular circular square or of any other regular or irregular figure yet they can make no other compound then a mass of Sand in which the several grains touch without firm union So that 't is very evident whether we suppose motion or rest to be originally in the nature of matter there must be a powerful Efficient to cause the contrary Besides by what art did so many meet and no more and of such a figure and no other and in that just order as to form the World a work so exact that by the most exquisite skill it cannot be made better Add further how could these minute Bodies without sense by motion produce it this is to assert that a Cause may act above the degree of its power Can we then rationally conceive that a confused rout of Atoms of divers natures and some so distant from others should meet in such a fortunate manner as to form an intire World so vast in the bigness so distinct in the order so united in the great diversities of natures so regular in the variety of changes so beautiful in the whole composure though it were granted that one of their possible conjunctions in some part of Eternity were that we see at present Could such a strict confederacy of the parts of the Universe result from an accidental agreement of contrary principles 'T is so evident by the universal experience of Men that regular Effects are caused by the skill of a designing Agent that works for an end that upon the sight of any such effects there is not the least shadow of a suspicion in the mind that it proceeded from blinde and counselless Chance If we should hear one make a plea for a Cause with such reasons as are most proper to convince and perswade his Judges to decide for him can we doubt whether he understands what he speaks or casually moves the organs of speech And yet if he did move them by Chance one of the casual motions equally possible with any other would be that he perform'd at present If a thousand brass Wheels were thrown on a heap would six or eight meet so fitly as by their conjunction to organize a Clock that should distinguish the hours or is a skilful hand requisite to joyn them and direct their motion And did the Planets those vast bodies by Chance ascend to the upper part of the World and joyn in that order as to measure the time exactly for so many past Ages Who ever saw a dead Statue form'd in the veins of Marble or a well proportion'd Palace with all Rooms of convenience and state arise out of a Quarry of Stones without a Sculptor to fashion the one and an Architect to frame the other Yet Marble and Stones are more dispos'd to make a Statue or a Building that are the materials of them and only require skill and workmanship to give them form than Atoms mixt together are to make the World Indeed Pliny faintly tells a story of a fabulous Ring of Pyrrhus in which an Agat was set distinctly representing not by Art but pure hazard Apollo with his Harp in the midst of the nine Muses The first Reporter was defective that he did not oblige us to believe that the sound of his Harp was heard in consort with the Muses It would have been a fine Miracle and the belief as easie that a Stone might be a Musitian as a Painter Now if the effects of Art are not without an Artificer can the immense Fabrick of the World be other than the work of a most perfect Understanding Who fixt the foundations of the Earth who laid the beautiful Pavement we tread on who divided and adorn'd the Chambers of the Spheres who open'd the Windows to the light in the East who encompass'd it with the immense vault of the starry Heaven hanging in the Air and supporting it self Could artless Chance build it No man unless totally deserted of Reason can possibly have such a fancy Let Reason judg how could the World be otherwise then 't is supposing it fram'd by a designing Cause all things are dispos'd divinely that is by perfect Wisdom as publick necessity and ornament require What the Psalmist observes concerning the Heavens is equally true of all the other parts of Nature Their line is gone out to signifie the exactness of their proportion If this be the effect of Chance what is the product of Design Can Reason distinguish between things artificial wherein the felicity of Invention appears and things rude not done by rules in the works of the Hands and can it not discover the manifest prints of Wisdom in the order of the Universe How much more Skill is evident in the frame of the World than in all the effects of humane Art so much the less folly would it be to attribute the most curious works of Art than the production of the World to Chance Add further The establisht order of the parts of the World is an argument that excludes all doubt that 't is govern'd and was at first fram'd by unerring Wisdom For if they were united by Chance would they continue in the same manner one day Is it not most likely that one of the innumerable possible combinations should succeed different from the same tenor of things that is but one especially if we consider that the parts of the World are never at rest The Heavens the Elements mixt bodies are in perpetual motion If Chance rul'd is it within the confines of probability that the Sun that runs ten or twelve thousand Leagues every day should be now in the same part of the Heavens where it was in former years in such a day when there are so many other places wherein by Chance it might wander Would the Stars keep a perpetual course regularly in such appearing irregularities Nec quicquam est tanta magis mirabilemole Quam ratio certis quòd legibus omnia parent Nusquam turba nocet nihil illis partibus errat Manil. lib. 1. Astrom Or would the sowing of Seed in the Earth certainly produce such a determinate sort of Grain for the other possible mixtures are so vastly numerous that it would be ten thousand to one but some other thing should spring up than what does According to this Hypothesis
in Surgery But he desirous first to cure his Brain and then his Shoulder told him that his Art was needless in that case for according to your own opinion this Bone in the dislocation either was where it was or where it was not and to assert either makes the displacing of it equally impossible Therefore 't was in vain to reduce it to the place from whence it was never parted And thus he kept him roaring out with pain and rage till he declar'd himself convinc'd of the vanity of his irrefutable Argument Now if according to the vanity of Atheists there is no God why do they invoke him in their adversities If there be why do they deny him in their prosperity there can no other Reason be assign'd but this that in the state of health their minds are disperst and clouded with blind folly in sickness they are serious and recover the judgment of Nature As 't is ordinary with distracted persons that in the approaches of Death their Reason returns because the Brain distemper'd by an excess of heat when the Spirits are wasted at the last is reduced to a convenient temper CHAP. VI. The Belief of the Deity no Politick Invention The asserting that 't is necessary to preserve States in order is a strong proof of its truth No History intimates when this belief was introduc'd into the World The continuance of it argues that its rise was not from a Civil Decree Princes themselves are under the fears of the Deity The multitude of false Gods does not prejudice the natural notion of one true God Idolatry was not universal The Worship of the only true God is preserved where Idolatry is abolish'd II. 'T Is objected that the belief of the Deity was at first introduc'd by the special invention of some in power to preserve the civil Sate and that Religion is onely a politick curb to restrain the wild exorbitance and disorders of the multitude This admits of an easie refutation 1. Those corrupted minds that from pride or sensuality presum'd to exempt Men from the Tribunal of Heaven yet affirm'd that a City might rather be preserved without Fire and Water the most necessary Elements than without the religious belief of a God Egregious lovers of mankind and therefore worthy of esteem and credit since they divulge that Doctrine that if believed the World must fall into dreadful confusion by their own acknowledgment But such is the Divine force of Truth that its enemies are constrain'd to give Testimony to it For is it conceiveable that an error not in a light question but in the Supreme Object of the Mind should be the root of all the Vertues that support the Civil State and Truth if discovered should have a fatal consequence on Government subvert all Societies and expose them to the greatest dangers How can they reconcile this with their declared principle that the natural end of Man is the knowledge of Truth It were less strange that the constant feeding on deadly Poyson should be requisit to preserve the natural life in health and vigour and that the most proper food should be pernicious to it So that the objection if rightly consider'd will confirm the Religious belief of a Deity Indeed 't is evident that all Civil Powers suppose the notion of a God to be an inseparable property of humane nature and thereby make their authority sacred in the esteem of the People as derived from the Universal Monarch 2. They can give no account of what they so boldly assert What Historian ever recorded that in such an age such a Prince introduc'd the belief of a Deity to make obedience to his Law 's to be a point of Religion 'T is true Politicians have sometimes used artifice and deceit to accomplish their ends Lycurgus pretended the direction of Apollo and Numa of the Nymph Egeria to recommend their Laws to the People Scipio and Sertorious made some other God to be of their Council of Warr to encourage their Souldiers in dangerous interprises But this mask only deceived the ignorant The more intelligent discern'd the finess of their politick contrivance 3. Is it conceiveable that the belief of the Deity if its original were from a civil decree should remain in force so long in the World False opinions in Philosophy adorn'd with great eloquence by the inventors and zealously defended for a time by their followers though opposit to no Mans profit or pleasure yet have lost their credit by further inquiries And if the notion of a God were sophisticate Gold though authorized with the Royal stamp could it have endured the Touchstone and the Fire for so many ages without discovery could it have past the test of so many searching Wits that never had a share in Government can we rationally suppose that in such a succession of time no discontented person when the yoke of Government was uneasie should disclose the arts of affrightment and release the People from imaginary terrours that with courage they might resume their liberty 'T is a true observation no single person can deceive all nor be deceived by all Now if there be no God one person has deceived all by introducing the general belief of a God into the World and every one is deceived by all believing so from the Universal Authority of Mankind 4. The greatest Princes are under the awful impressions of the Deity Those rais'd to the highest Thrones are not free from inward anxieties when the guilty Conscience cites them before his dreadful Tribunal Of this we have their unfeigned Declarations in the times of their distress Now 't is unconceivable they would voluntarily preplex themselves with a fancy of their own creating and dread that as a real Being which they know to be feigned This pretence therefore cannot without an open defiance of Reason be alledged 3. 'T is objected that the consent of mankind in the acknowledgment of a God is no full conviction of his existence because then we must believe the false Gods that were adored in the World 1. The multitude of Idols created by superstitious fancies is a strong presumption that there is a true God For all Falshood is supported by some Truth Deceit is made credible by resemblance The Heathen Worship though directed amiss yet proves that a religious inclination is sound in its original and has a real object to which it tends otherwise Idolatry the corruption of it had not found such a facility and disposition in Men to receive it 2. Idolatry hath not been universal in all Ages and Nations The first causes of it and motives that preserved it are evident The Nation of the Jews was freed from this general Contagion for we may as rationally argue from their own Histories concerning their belief and practice as from the Histories of other Nations And when a veil of darkness was cast over the Heathen World some were inlight'ned by true Reason to see the folly of the superstitious vulgar that
its first Being as Averroes fancied there would be no cause of such a Sympathy but the Soul as intellectual is an informing not assisting form And it is an evident proof of the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator by this strict and sensible union to make the Soul vigilant and active to provide for the convenience and comfort of the Body in the present state and that notwithstanding such a discord in Nature there should be such a concord in inclinations 2. Though the mental operations of the Soul are hindred by the ill habit of the Body yet the mind suffers no hurt but still retains its intellectual power without impairing A skilful Musitian does not lose his Art that plays on an harp when the strings are false though the Musick is not so harmonious as when 't is justly tuned The visive faculty is not weakned when the Air by a collection of gross vapours is so thick that the eye cannot distinctly perceive distant objects When by the heats of Wine or a Disease the Spirits are inflam'd and made fierce and unruly and the Images in the Fancy are put into confusion the mind cannot regularly govern and use them When the fumes are evaporated the Brain is restor'd to its temper and fitness for intellectual operations but the mind is not cur'd that was not hurt by those Distempers Briefly the Deniers of the Souls Immortality resemble in their arguings some who oppos'd the Divinity of our Saviour For as Apollinaris and Eunomius from Christ's sleeping so profoundly in a storm instead of concluding that he was a real Man falsly inferr'd that he was not God Because sleep is not the satisfaction of a Divine appetite the Deity is incapable of it But they consider'd not his more than humane Power in rebuking the Winds and the Sea with that Empire that was felt and obeyed by those insensible creatures so those whose interest inclines them to believe that Man is entirely mortal alledg that he acts as a sensitive Creature for he is so but consider not that he has also more noble faculties to understand objects purely spiritual and God himself the most perfect in that order which no material principle though of the most subtile and finest contexture can reach unto Besides the more 't is disengaged from Matter and retir'd from the senses the more capable it is to perform its most exalted operations and consequently by an absolute separation 't is so far from perishing that it ascends to its perfection For the manner how it acts in the separate state 't is to no purpose to search being most secret and 't will be to no purpose to find as being of no influence to excite us to the constant and diligent performance of our duty 'T is therefore a fruitless curiosity to inquire after it But to imagine that because the Soul in the present state cannot understand clearly without the convenient disposition of the Body therefore it cannot act at all without it is as absur'd as to fancy because a man confin'd to a Chamber cannot see the objects without but through the Windows therefore he cannot see at all but through such a Medium and that when he is out of the Chamber he has totally lost his sight CHAP. IX The acts of the Will consider'd It s choice of things distastful to Sense and sometimes destructive to the Body argue it to be a spiritual principle The difference between Man and Brutes amplified The Spiritual operations of the Soul may be perform'd by it self in a separate state This is a strong proof God will continue it The Platonick argumeut that man unites the two orders of Natures intelligent and sensible Immortal and perishing 2. THe acts of the Will that imperial faculty prove it to be of a higher order of substance than the sensitive Soul The Brutes are acted by pure necessity their powers are moved and determined by the external application of objects 'T is visible that all kinds of sensitive Creatures in all times are carried in the same manner by the potent sway of Nature towards things sutable to their corporeal faculties But the rational Will is a principle of free election that controuls the lower appetite by restraining from the most pleasant and powerful allurements and choosing sometimes the most distastful things to sense Now from whence arises this contention If the rational Will be not of a higher nature than the sensual appetite why does it not consent with its inclinations How comes the Soul to mortifie the most vehement desires of the body a part so near in Nature so dear by Affection and so apt to resent an injury And since 't is most evident that sensitive Creatures always with the utmost of their force defend their Beings from whence is it that the rational Soul in some cases against the strongest recoile and reluctance of Nature exposes the body to Death If it depended on the body for subsistence it would use all means to preserve it Upon the sight of contrary motions in an engine we conclude they are caused by diverse springs and can such opposite desires in Man proceed from the same principle If the rational Soul be not of a sublimer order than the sensitive it follows that Men are Beasts and Beasts are Men. Now 't is as impossible to be what they are not as not to be what they are But do the Beasts reverence a Divine Power and at stated times perform acts of solemn Worship Is Conscience the immediate rule of their Actions will Lectures of temperance chastity justice arrest them in the eager pursute of sensual satisfactions Do they feel remorse in doing ill and pleasure in doing well Do they exercise the Mind in the search of Truth have they desires of a sublime intellectual good that the low sensual part cannot partake of have they a capacity of such an immense Blessedness that no finite Object in its qualities and duration can satisfy Ask the Beasts and they will tell you Their actions declare the contrary But the humane Soul has awful apprehensions of the Deity distinguishes of things by their agreement or disconformity to his Laws It s best and quickest Pleasures and most piercing wounding Troubles are from Moral Causes What colour what taste has Vertue yet the purified Soul is inflam'd by the views of its most amiable thô not sensible beauty and delighted in its sweetness How often is it so ravish'd in contemplation of God the great Object of the rational Powers as to lose the desire and memory of all carnal things What stronger Argument and clearer Proof can there be of its affinity with God than that Divine things are most sutable to it for if the rational Soul were of the same order with the sensitive as it could not possibly conceive any being more excellent than what is corporeal so it could only relish gross things wherein Sense is conversant The Sum of what has been discourst of
is this that by considering the different operations of Man and of Brutes we may clearly discern the different powers of acting wherewith the rational Soul is endowed in the one and the sensitive in the other The Soul in Beasts performs no operations independent on the Body that serves it either as an instrument or matter of their production such are the use of the Senses Nutrition Generation all the internal work and the preparing the Phantasms without which they would be far less serviceable to Man 'T is not strange therefore that it perishes with the Body there being no reason for its duration in a separate state since 't is fit only to act by the ministry of the Body But the Soul of Man besides the operations that proceed from it as the form of the body it animates such are all common to man with Plants and Animals understands discourses reflects on it self that are acts proper to its nature and included in its true conception whereby 't is distinguished from that of Brutes Indeed the exercise of sensitive operations depends so absolutely on its union with the body that they cannot be perform'd nor conceived as possible without its presence and the use of corporeal organs But the more excellent operations that proceed from the higher faculties wherewith 't is indowed not as the form of a material Being but as a spiritual substance such as subsist for ever without any communion with Bodies so entirely belong to it by the condition of Nature that for their production 't is sufficient of it self The Understanding and Will are Angelical Powers and to know and will and to be variously moved with pleasure or greif according to the qualities of objects sutable or disagreeing are proper to those Natures that have no alliance with Bodies It follows therefore the Soul in its separate state may contemplate and delightfully injoy intellectual objects or torment it self with reflection on things contrary to its will Nay it understands more clearly and is affected more strongly than before For these operations during its conjunction are not common to the Body but produc'd by it in the quality of a mind and are then most vigorous and expedite most noble and worthy of it when the Soul withdraws from all sensible things into it self and is most rais'd above the manner of working that is proper and proportion'd to the body And from hence 't is reasonable to conclude that it survives the Body not losing with it the most noble faculty the mind that is peculiar to it nor the necessary instrument of using it For as the universal Providence of God supports the lower rank of Creatures in their natural Life so long as their faculties are qualified for actions proper to that life we may strongly argue that his conservative Influence will not be withdrawn from the humane Soul that is apt and capable in its own nature to exist and act in a separate state In short the understanding and elective powers declare its descent from the Father of Spirits whose image is ingraven in its nature not as in brittle glass but an incorruptible Diamond I shall add to the natural arguments an observation of the Platonists that of all other Philosophers approach nearest the truth in their discourses of God and the Soul of the Majesty of the one and the excellence of the other They observe that the unity of the World is so closely combin'd in all its parts the several beings that compose it that between the superiour and inferiour species there are middle Natures wherein they meet that no vacuum may interpose in the series of things This is evident by considering that between inanimate bodies and living insensible and sensible there are some beings that partake of the extremes and link them together that the order of things not being interrupted the mind by continual easie degrees may ascend from the lowest to the highest in perfection And from this just and harmonious proportion that is proper to essences the intelligible beauty and musick of the World arises that is so pleasing to the considering mind Now what band is there to joyn the two ranks of Beings intelligent and sensible but Man that partakes of Sense common with the Beasts and Understanding to the Angels For this reason they give him the mysterious name of Horizon the ending and union of the two Hemispheres the superiour and inferiour the two orders of Natures immortal and that shall perish CHAP. X. The moral Arguments for the Souls Immortality The restless desire of the Soul to an intellectual eternal happiness argues it survives the Body The lower order of Creatures obtain their perfection here It reflects upon Nature if the more noble fails of its end That wicked Men would choose annihilation is no proof against Mans natural desires of Immortality The necessity of a future state of recompences for moral actions proves the Soul to be immortal The wisdom of God as Governor of the World requires there be Rewards and Punishments annext to his Laws Eternal Rewards are only powerful to make men obedient to them in this corrupt state Humane Laws are no sufficient security of Vertue and restraint from Vice 2. I Will now consider the moral Inducements to confirm our belief that God will preserve the Soul in its being and activity hereafter And of this we have sufficient evidence by internal light the natural notions of the Deity and by many visible testimonies in his Government of the World 1. The restless desire of the Soul to an intellectual and eternal Felicity not attainable here is a strong argument that 't is reserv'd to a future state The Understanding is inclin'd to the knowledge of Truth the Will to the fruition of Goodness and in what degrees soever we discover the one and enjoy the other in our present condition we are not content As one that is burnt up with such a Thirst that onely an Ocean can quench and has but a little stream to refresh him God is the only satisfying Object of the rational faculties and here our conceptions of him are so imperfect that we approach nearer the Truth by denying what is inconsistent with his Nature than in affirming the proper Perfections of it And the communications of his Love to us inflames the Soul with new desires of fuller enjoyment This desire of Happiness is essential to Man as Man Now 't is universally acknowledged that Nature is not a vain Principle it produces no superfluous inclinations in any sort of Creatures much less in Man and in that which is most proper to him and in order to the raising him to his Perfection The natural motion of a Stone has a center where to rest Plants arrive to their full growth and beauty the Beasts have present satisfaction and are happy Animals But Man in whom the two lower lives and the Intellectual are united is here only in his way to happiness his best endeavours are but
imperfect essays towards it Now if the Soul does not survive the Body and in a separate state obtain its desires it will reflect upon Nature for imprudence or malignity in dealing worse with the most noble order of visible Beings The Beasts excel Man in the quickness and vivacity of the powers of Sense being their perfection and in him subordinate faculties and are more capable of pleasure from sensible things and Reason his eminent Prerogative makes him more liable to misery For Man ardently aspiring to a Spiritual Happiness that here he cannot enjoy much less hereafter if the Soul perish is under a remediless infelicity His Mind is deceived and stain'd with Errors his Will tormented with fruitless longings after an impossible Object But if we unveil the face of Nature God appears who is the Author of our being and of this desire so proper to it and we cannot suspect without the highest Impiety that he would make all Men in vain and deceive them by a false appearance But he gives us in it a faithful presage of things future and indiscernable to sense to be injoyed in immortality This Argument will be the more forcible if we consider that holy Souls who excel in Knowledge and Vertue do most inflamedly long for the enjoyment of this pure felicity And is it possible that the Creatour should not only endow Man with rational powers but with vertues that exalt and inlarge their capacity to render him more miserable to imagine that he cannot or will not fully and eternally satisfie them is equally injurious to his perfections It therefore necessarily follows that the Soul lives after Death and fully enjoys the happiness it earnestly desir'd whiles in the darkness of this earthly Taberâ—â—cle Add further that Man alone of all Creatures in the lower World understands and desires Immortality The conception of it is peculiar to his Mind and the desire of it as intrinsick to his Nature as the desire of Blessedness For that Blessedness that ends is no perfect Blessedness nor that which every one desires Man alone feels and knows that his Nature is capable of excellent perfections and joys Now if he shall cease to be for ever why is this knowledge and desire but to render him more unhappy by grief for the present shortness of life and by despair of a future Immortality In this respect also the condition of the Beasts would be better than of Men. For though they are for ever deprived of Life yet they are uncapable of regret because they cannot by reflection know that they possess it and are without the least imagination or desire of immortality They are alive to the present but dead to the future By a favourable ignorance they pass into a state of not being with as much indifference as from watching to sleep or from labour to repose But to Man that understands and values Life and Immortality how dark and hideous are the thoughts of annihilation let him enjoy all possible delights to sense or desireable to the powers of the Soul How will the sweetness of all be lost in the bitterness of that thought that he shall be deprived of them for ever How frightful is the continual apprehension of an everlasting period to his being and all enjoyments sutable to it After that a prospect of Eternity has been shown to him how tormenting is the thought that he must die as the stupid Ox or the vilest Vermine of the Earth and with him the fallacious instinct of Nature that inclin'd him to the most durable happiness If it were thus O living Image of the Immortal God thy condition is very miserable What the Romans wisht in great anguish for the loss of Augustus that he had not been born or had not died is more reasonable in this case it were better that the desire of eternal Life had not been born in Man or that it should be fulfilled If it be objected that many Men are not only without fear of annihilation but desire it therefore Immortality is not such a priviledg that thereasonable Creature naturally aspires to I answer the inference is very preposterous for the reason of their choice is because they are attentive to an object infinitely more sad and afflictive that is a state of everlasting torments which the guilty conscience presages to be the just recompence of their crimes So that enclosed between two evils an eternal state of not Being and an Eternity of misery 't is reasonable to venture on the least to escape the greater But supposing any hopes of future happiness they would desire immortality as an excellent benefit As one that has lost the pleasure and taste of Life by consuming sickness and sharp pains or some other great calamities may be willing to die but suppossing a freedom from those evils the desire of Life as the most precious and dear enjoyment would strongly return And that the desire of Immortality is natural I shall add one most visible testimony For whereas the lower sort of Creatures that finally perish in Death are without the least knowledg of a future estate and are therefore careless of leaving a memorial after them on the contrary Men are solicitous to secure their names from oblivion as conscious of their souls surviving in another World This ardent passion not directed by higher Principles excites them to use all means to obtain a kind of immortality from Mortals They reward Historians Poets Oratours to celebrate their actions They erect Monuments of durable Brass and Marble to represent the Effigies of their faces They endeavour by triumphal Arches Pyramids and other works of Magnificence to eternize their Fame to live in the eyes and mouths and memories of the living in all succeding times These indeed are vain shadows yet argue the desire of immortality to be natural As 't is evident there is a natural affection in Parents to preserve their Children because when they are depriv'd of their living presence they dearly value and preserve their dead Pictures though but a poor consolation 2. The necessity of a future state wherein a just retribution shall be made of rewards and punishments to Men according to their actions in this life includes the Souls Immortality For the proof of this I shall lay down such things as certainly establish it 1. The first Argument is drawn from the Wisdom of God in governing the reasonable World In the quality of Creator he has a supream title to Man and consequently is his rightful Governor and Man his natural subject Now Man being endowed with free faculties the powers of knowing and choosing is under a Law clearly imprest on his Nature by the Author of it that strictly forbids moral evil and commands moral good And to enforce the Authority of this Law the Wisdom of the Lawgiver and the temper of the Subject requires that willing obedience should be attended with certain rewards and voluntary disobedience with unavoidable punishments For Man
conspicuous marks of Gods Justice Nay by wicked means they are prosperous and happy 3. The best Men are often in the worst condition and merely upon the account of their Goodness They are opprest because they do not make resistance and loaden with sufferings because they endure them with patience They are for Gods sake made the spectacles of extreme misery whilst the insolent defiers of his Majesty and Laws enjoy all visible felicities Now in the judgment of Sense can Holiness be more afflicted if under the displeasure of Heaven or Wickedness more prosperous if favour'd by it But this is such a monstrous incongruity that unless we abolish the natural Notions of the Divine excellencies it cannot in the least degree be admitted If therefore we confine our thoughts to humane affairs in this life without taking a prospect into the next World where a new order of things presents it self what direful consequences will ensue This takes away the Sceptre of Providence from the hands of God and the reverence of God from the hearts of Men as if the present state were a game wherein Chance reigned and not under the inspection and disposure of a wise just and powerful Governour If there be no Life after Death then Natural Religion in some of its greatest Commands as to Self-denial even to the suffering the greatest evils rather than do an unjust unworthy action and to sacrifice Life it self when the Honour of God and the publick Good require it is irreconcilable to that natural Desire and Duty that binds and determines Man to seek his own felicity in conjunction with the Glory of his Maker But it is impossible that the Divine Law should foil it self that contrary obligations should be laid on Man by the wise and holy Lawgiver And what terrible confusion would it be in the minds of the best Men What coldness of affection to God as if they were not in the comfortable relation of his Children but wholly without his care What discouragements in his Service what dispair in suffering for him What danger of their murmuring against Providence and casting off Religion as a sowre unprofitable severity and saying Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency or exclaming with Brutus in a desperate manner when he was overcome in battel and defeated of his design to recover Rome from Tyranny O infoelix Virtus itane cum nihil nisi nomen esses Ego te tanquam rem aliquam exercui And the enemies to Holiness restrain'd by no respects to a superiour Power will obey their brutish Lusts as their supream Law And if such diseases or troubles happen that the pleasant operations of Life cease they may release themselves by a voluntary easy Death and fall into a sleep never to be disturb'd so that they would be esteem'd the only happy persons In short if we onely regard things as they pass in the sensible World we shall be in danger of being over-tempted to Atheism and to rob God of his Glory and Worship and that Faith Fear Love and Obedience that are due to him Of this I will produce only two Examples Diagoras saw a Servant of his stealing from him and upon his denial of the theft brought him before the Statue of Jupiter thundring and constrained him to adjure Jupiter for the honour of his Deity and of Justice and Fidelity to strike him dead at his feet with Thunder if he were guilty of the fact and after three times repeating the dreadful Oath he went away untouch'd without harm Upon the sight of this Diagoras cryed out as in the Poet Audis Jupiter haec nec labra moves cum mittere vocem Debueras vel marmoreus vel ahaeneus Dost hear This Jove not mov'st thy lips when fit it were Thy Brass or Marble spoke And whereas he should have been convinc'd that a Statue could not be a God he impiously concluded that God was nothing but a Statue and from that time was hardned in irreclamable Atheism So that other Atheist reports of some of the Romans that they successfully deceived by false Oaths even in their most sacred Temple in the presence of their supream Deity the reputed Avenger of Perjury And because Vengeance did not immediately over take Guilt he acknowledged no other God but the World and Nature unconcern'd in the governing humane affairs The disbelief of the future state strikes through the vital principles of Religion that there is a God the rewarder of Mens good or evil actions It may be objected That God's Dominion over the reasonable Creature is absolute For Man ows to him intirely his Being and all that his Faculties can produce so that without reflection on Justice God may after a course of obedience annihilate him To this I answer The Sovereign Dominion of God in its exercise towards Men is regulated by his Wisdom and limited by his Will that is Holy Just and Good Hence though the Creature can challenge nothing from God as due to its service yet there is a Justice of condecence that arises from the excellencies of his own Nature and is perfectly consistent with the liberty of his Essence to bestow the eminent Effects of his Favours on his faithful Servants His Holiness inclines him to love the image of it in the Creature and his Goodness to reward it His Government is paternal and sweetned by descending Love in many Favours and Rewards to his obedient Children There is a resemblance of our duty to God and his rewards to us in the order of Nature among Men. Parents may require of their Children entire obedience as being the second Causes of their natural Life And Children may expect from their Parents what is requisite for their welfare Now God who is the Father of Men will be true to his own Rules and deal with them accordingly but in a manner worthy of his infinite Greatness There is not the least obligation on him but his unchangeable Perfections are the strongest Assurances that none of his shall obey him to their final prejudice 'T is a direct contrariety to his Nature that Men for Conscience of their Duty should part with temporal Happiness in hopes of eternal and lose both 2. It may be objected That such is the essential beauty of Holiness that it should ravish our Affections without Ornament or Dowry that 't is its own Reward and produces such a sweet Agreement in the Rational Faculties as fully compensates the loss of all lower delights and sweetens the troubles that befal a vertuous man in the sincere practice of it And on the contrary that such is the native foul deformity of Sin as renders it most odious for it self that 't is its own punishment being attended with inward disquiets and perplexities much exceeding all its seeming pleasures Therefore we cannot certainly infer there will be future recompences But this receives a clearer Answer 1. 'T is true that Holiness is most amiable in it self
and in true comparison infinitely excells all the allurements of Sin 2. 'T is true that as natural actions that are necessary to preserve the Species or the Individuals are mixt with sensible pleasures as an attractive to the performance of them so there is joyn'd to actions of Vertue that are more excellent a present complacency of a superiour Order to all carnal pleasures But 't is a frigid conceit that this is the entire reward For first besides the inward satisfaction that naturally results from the practice of Vertue there is an excellent Good that is properly the reward of the supream Governor of the World We have an Example of this in humane Justice which is an image of the divine For those who have been eminently serviceable to the State besides the joyful sense arising from the performance of Heroick Actions for the Good of their Country are rewarded by the Prince with great Honours and Benefits 2. This inward Joy is not here felt by all Holy Persons In this militant state after vigorous resistance of carnal Lusts they may change their Enemies and be assaulted with violent Fears and instead of a sweet calm and serenity fall into darkness and confusion The Soul and Body in the present conjunction mutually sympathize As two things that are unisons if one be touch't and moves the other untouch't yet moves and trembles The ‖ cause is from the Vibrations the sound makes in the Air and impresses on solid Bodies moving them according to the harmonious proportion between them Thus the Soul and the Body are two strings temper'd to such a correspondence that if one be moved the other resents by an impression from it If the Body be Sanguin or Cholerick or Melancholy the Soul by a strange consent feels the motion of the humors and is altered with their alterations Now some of excellent vertue are opprest with Melancholy Others are under strong pains that disturb the free operations of the mind that it cannot without Supernatural strengih delightfully contemplate what is a just matter of content The Stoical Doctrine that a wise Man rejoyces as well in torments as in the midst of pleasures that 't is not in the power of any external evil to draw a sigh or tear from him that he is sufficient in himself for happiness is a Philosophical Romance of that severe sect an excess unpracticable without Cordials of a higher nature than are compounded by the faint thoughts of having done what is agreable to Reason All their Maxims are weak supports of such triumphant Language 'T is true in a Body disorder'd and broken with Diseases and Pains the mind may be erect and compos'd but 't is by vertue of Divine Comforts from the present sense of Gods favour and the joyful hopes of eternal felicity in his presence hereafter 3. Those who suffer the loss of all that is precious and dear in the World and with a chearful confidence submit to death that singly consider'd is very terrible to nature but attended with torments is doubly terrible and all to advance the Glory of God cannot enjoy the satisfaction of mind that proceeds from the review of worthy actions if their being is determined with their life Now that love to God exprest in the hardest and noblest service should finally destroy a Man is not conceivable To render this Argument more sensible let us consider the vast multitude of the Martyrs in the first times of Christianity more easie to be admir'd than numbred It would be a History to describe the instruments of their cruel sufferings invented by the fierce wit of their persecutors the various torturs to destroy Life with a slow death such as were never before inflicted on the guiltiest Malefactours All which they willingly endured with an invariable serenity of countenance the sign and effect of their inward peace Nay with triumphant expressions of Joy Now to what original shall we attribute this fortitude of Spirit were such numbers of all conditions ages sects induc'd by rash counsel by frenzy of passion by a desire of vain-glory or any like cause to part with all that is precious and amiable in the World for Swords and Fire and Crosses and Wheels and Racks to torment and destroy their Bodies No humane Reasons neither the Vertue nor Vice of Nature Generosity nor Obstinacy could possibly give such strength under such Torments This was so evident that many Heathen Spectators were convinc'd of the Divine Power miraculously supporting them and became Proselytes of Christianity and with admirable chearfulness offered themselves to the same punishments Now this is an extrinsick testimony incomparably more weighty than from a bare affirmation in words or a meer consent of judgment that there is an unseen state infinitely better and more durable than what is present the hopes of which made them esteem the parting with all sensible things measur'd by time not to have the shadow of a loss And this was not a meer naked view of a future blessedness but joyned with an impression of that sweetness and strength that consolation and force of Spirit that it was manifest Heaven descended to them before they ascended to Heaven From hence they were fearless of those who could only kill the Body but not touch the Soul As the breaking a Christal in pieces cannot injure the light that penetrated and filled it but releases it from that confinement So the most violent Death was in their esteem not hurtful to the Soul but the means to give it entrance into a happy immortality Now is it in any degree credible that when no other principle was sufficient to produce such courage in thousands so tender and fearful by nature that the Divine hand did not support them invisible in operation but most clearly discovered in the effects And can it be imagined that God would encourage them to lose the most valuable of all natural things life it self and to their great cost of pains and misery if there were not an estate wherein he would reward their heroick love of himself with a good that unspeakably transcends what ever is desirable here below 2. Though Vice in respect of its turpitude be the truest dishonour of Man and be attended with regret as contrary to his Reason yet there is a further punishment naturally due to it Malefactors besides the infamy that cleaves to their crimes and the secret twinges of Conscience feel the rigour of civil Justice And if no Physical evil be inflicted as the just consequent of Vice the viciously inclin'd would despise the moral evil that is essential to it as an imaginary punishment And when the remembrance of Sin disturbs their rest they would presently by pleasant diversions call off their thoughts from sad objects 2. Supposing no other punishment but what is the immediate effect of Sin the most vicious and guilty would many times suffer the least punishment For the secret Worm of Conscience is most sensible when vice is