Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n
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A28600
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Some considerations on the principal objections and arguments which have been publish'd against Mr. Lock's Essay of humane understanding by Samuel Bold ...
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Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing B3494; ESTC R19250
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32,612
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64
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created Substance can have any thing more than God is pleased to give it It is not very intelligible to me that God should give to any thing that which its nature is not capable of especially if by Nature be here meant what I find some Persons do sometimes mean by that word viz. Substance for what Substance is capable of even after that solidity is added to it is more than any Man can know And if Omnipotency can add a power of Thinking to solid Substance â—itly disposed no Man can be certain that solid Thinking Substance is not of its own nature capable of Immortality but whether a created Being shall be Mortal or Immortal is not to be determined by our considering its nature but by understanding the pleasure of God concerning it The Humane Nature is the same now it was in the first Ages of the World but that Men do not now ordinarily live above a hundred Years is not to be resolved into this that the Humane Nature is not capable of being continued longer in Life than that space but into the pleasure of God that now Men shall not ordinarily live to a greater Age for Men did ordinarily in the first Ages of the World live many hundreds of Years and that they did so was purely to be attributed to the Divine Pleasure And had it been the pleasure of him who kept Men then so long in Life that Men should not die they would have been Immortal If the evidence of Immortality consists in Immateriality the Immateriality of the Soul must be demonstratively proved before Persons can perceive the evidence of the Souls Immortality For if any person takes it for granted that the Souls Immateriality may be demonstratively proved from or by certain Principles of Reason and from thence perswades himself that the Soul is Immortal and upon after-trial and examination he shall find that his Principles he depended on are uncertain and cannot afford him such proof as he was perswaded they would yield his discovering the uncertainty of his own Principles which he went upon in point of Reason will according to a Notion lately advanced weaken the Credibility of the Souls Immortality when considered purely as a Matter of Faith And if this be true great and speedy care should be taken to produce demonstrative proof that the Soul is an Immaterial Substance not only to make Men certain that their Souls are Immortal but to secure the Credibility of Divine Testimony But blessed be God we have a sure Foundation for our Faith to rest on for the Testimony of God will never fail but always remain firm and true how short soever the Principles of Reason may fall of bringing us to Certainty or Knowledge concerning several Articles of Faith or Propositions which come to us by Divine Revelation It may be proved to the highest degree of probability that the Soul is Immaterial but no demonstrative proof being yet produced in the way of Reason that the Soul is Immaterial I cannot understand why any person should pretend it must follow that the Soul must be Mortal if it be a Material Substance with a superadded power or faculty of Thinking and in that respect or on that account a Spiritual Substance tho' not Immaterial for Material and Mortal have no necessary connection And therefore we cannot be certain by contemplating the Ideas those words stand for that every Material Substance must be Mortal And he who shall affirm that every Material Substance must necessarily be Mortal will if he adhere to his Assertion find himself obliged to deny at least two Articles of the Christian Faith or two Propositions which come to us by Divine Revelation 1. That Man became Mortal by Sin or that the Wages of Sin is Death for it is past doubt that one part of Man when first created was Material And if every Material Substance must necessarily die Man must have died tho' he had never sinned 2. That after the Resurrection Men will be Immortal for after the Resurrection one part of Man will be Material § XIV Secondly It is pretended that this passage in Mr. Lock 's Essay which I have been discoursing of may from the Nature of Matter be proved to be false I will 1st Say something of this point in general and then 2dly Consider particularly what the last Author I have seen who finds fault with this passage doth say concerning it who I think takes in the whole strength of what others have proposed who have on this Account formed objections against it § XV. First I will say something concerning this point in general Substance I conceive will be acknowledged on all hands to be rightly divided into Material and Immaterial but how many various different Powers or Faculties these sorts of Substances are capable of receiving is what surpasses Man's Understanding Yet whatever Powers they are capable of receiving God can give or superadd unto them if he pleases whether he hath given to either sort all the Powers it is capable of is more than we can be certain of by the bare Exercise of our Reason He may for any thing we know to the contrary give to certain Material Systems fitly disposed some Powers which he also gives to Immaterial Substances Amongst these we may reckon the power of Thinking which neither Material nor Immaterial Substances can have whether God will or no. And whether it hath been his pleasure to superadd this power only to the Idea we express by Immaterial Substance or also to the Idea we express by Material Substance is a point we cannot be fully assured of but by Divine Revelation The power of Thinking added to a Substance whether Material or Immaterial makes that Substance Spirit Material Substance Immaterial Substance and Spirit are terms which stand for three distinct Ideas And tho' Spirit or Spiritual Substance doth not imply Matter or Material Substance in its Idea yet the power of Thinking being superadded to Matter will make it Spirit or Spiritual Substance Just as Spirit doth not imply Immaterial Substance in its Idea yet the power of Thinking being superadded to Immaterial Substance makes it Spirit or Spiritual Substance which it could not be without a power of Thinking added to it To ask therefore peremptorily whether Matter can think or not is to propose an obscure Question which wants explaining If by the Question be meant Can God add a power of Thinking to Matter or no The Answer will be We have no demonstrative proof for either part of the Question and therefore cannot be certain concerning the Matter But if by the Question be meant Can Matter Think without having a power of Thinking superadded to it The Answer is plainly No. But the way of Arguing that then the Substance which Thinks must be Immaterial is not very clear for Immaterial Substance can no more Think than Matter can without a power of Thinking added to it And whether it be Material or Immaterial Substance to which the
superadd to it another Subâ—stance with a faculty of Thinking since we know not wherein Thinking consists nor to what sort oâ— Substances the Almighty has been pleased to give thaâ— power which cannot be in any created Being buâ— meerly by the good pleasure and bounty of the Creator c. Essay of Humane Understanding B. 4. c. 3. § 6. Against this passage two things are offered First It is suggested that it is not consistent with the Souls Immoâ—tality or at least takes off very much from the evidence of its Immortality Secondly It is pretended that from the Nature of Matter it may be proved to be false § X. First It is suggested that what Mr. Lock hath here said is not consistent with the Souls Immortality or at least takes off very much from the evidence of its Immortality for if what Mr. Lock doth say be true it cannot be Demonstratively proved that the Soul is not Material And if the Soul be nothing but a Material Substance it must be made up as others are of the cohesion of solid and separable parts how minute and invisible soever they be and must be dissolved when Life is ended And it takes off very much from the evidence of Immortality if it depend wholly upon God's giving that which of its own nature it is not capable of Answ. 1. The Immortality of the Soul doth not depend on our knowing or perceiving by demonstrative proof in the way of Reason that it is Immaterial nor doth our having a Rational Perswasion that the Soul is Immortal depend on our knowing that it is Immaterial § XI Mr. Lock doth not say that the Soul is Material He owns that we have the highest degree of probability that it is Immaterial but that we cannot attain to demonstrative Certainty or Knowledge by comparing the Ideas of Matter and Thinking that the Soul is an Immaterial Substance tho' we may this way know that it is a Spiritual Substance What Mr. Lock saith is this We cannot by the contemplation of our own Ideas without Revelation discover whether Omnipotency has not given to some Systems of Matter fitly disposed a power to perceive and think or that we cannot demonstrativelâ— prove by meer Principles of Reason or Philosophy either the Materiality or Immateriality of the Soul but that the point is above our Reason and what we cannot be fully assured of but by Divine Revelation For this his Assertion he hath produced some Reasons which havâ— not been proved to be invalid or weak by any of those Authors I have seen who have declared their dislike of this Assertion And if the Reasons he hath given for his Assertion cannot be refuted but are solid and unanswerable it will not be easie to prove that his Assertion may justly be blamed To prove Mr. Lock 's Proposition false either the Materiality or Immateriality of the Soul should be demonstratively proved for he denies that either of them can be demonstratively proved The surest way to prove the falseness of a Proposition which denies that a thing can be demonstrated is to demonstrate that thing I know an Attempt hath been made by one who condemns the way of Ideas as no way at all to Certainty to demonstrate that Matter cannot Think or that God cannot superadd to any System of Matter a Power of Thinking which demonstration is manag'd in the way of Ideas But tho' what is offer'd there for demonstration would sufficiently prove that Solidity is not a Power of Thinking if that needed proof yet I think it doth not afford any sort of evidence that Omnipotency cannot superadd both Solidity and a power of Thinking to one and the same Substance which was the point to be demonstrated Besides the way of Ideas being condemned as no way at all to Certainty those who are of that mind cannot with any reason pretend that what hath been offered for a demonstration of this point is â—eally a demonstration of it For if they can think it to be a Demonstration of the point they cannot avoid being obliged to renounce their other thought and think the quite contrary whether they may judge it proper and convenient to acknowledge the same openly or no. If what hath been offered for a Demonstration of this point be really a Demonstration of it the way of Ideas is undoubtedly a way to Certainty yea and a way to Certainty about a point which I am inclined to think cannot be demonstrated any other way § XII 3. If the Soul were nothing but a material Substance what follows those words in the objection might perhaps pass with some for a plain Truth but for my part I cannot comprehend how any thing that hath life should be nothing but a material Substance for Life is no part of nor hath any necessary connection with the Idea signified by these words Material Substance Nor do I perceive any necessity that a Material Substance endued with Life must lose its Life because by some Accident or within a certain period the gross and sensible parts of it must fall off from those more fine and insensible parts which God hath ordered to be the Seat of Life And those who think they can prove demonstratively that the Soul is a created Immaterial Substance must take heed of affirming that the Soul is nothing but a created Immaterial Substance lest that Assertion prove of dangerous consequence to and inconsistent with the Articles of the Châ—istian Faiâ—h for if the Soul be nothing but a created Immaterial Substance it is not a Spiritual or Thinking Substance for the power of Thinking is a power which God superadds to our Idea whether of Material or created Immaterial Substance and which neither the one nor the other can have but meerly by the good pleasure and bounty of the Creator as Mr. Lock most Judiciously and Piously observes But Mr. Lock doth not any where say That the Soul is nothing but a Material Substance or that we cannot know by contemplating our Ideas that the Soul is nothing but a Material Substance Indeed Mr. Lock hath these words We have the Ideas of Matter and Thinking but possibly shall never be able to know whether any Material Being thinks or no. From these words Any meer Material Being some may perhaps in their haste have taken occasion to think that Mr. Lock 's Notion was that for ought we could know the Soul might be nothing but a Material Substance To rectifie which mistake I think it may be sufficient to note that meer Material in Mr. Lock 's Sense is not oppos'd to a power of Thinking which we cannot know but God may supperadd to our Idea of Matter but to an Immaterial Substance considered as joyned to a Material Being § XIII 4. It is not very easie to comprehend what is meant by these words It takes off very much from the evidence of Immortality if it depend wholly upon God's giving that which of its own nature it is not capable of For no