deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe
down the Rules of Life that are practicable and such as sort with the plain Precepts of the Gospel and the condition and possibilities of humane nature They spoke here as those that understood the passions appetites and ways of men and the course that was to be taken to set them in right order They did not talk by roat out of Books or Enthusiastick experiences They did not direct by Metaphors and Phrases and unpracticable fancies But laid down the true sober rational experimental method of action IV. Their way was earnest and affectionate They were not cold or trifling in matters of such vast consequence They did not invite with indifference or reprove with softness or direct with negligence and unconcernment But did all these with a zeal and warmth sutable to such weighty occasions But then They endeavour'd to excite mens affections not by their senses and imaginations only not as I said before by meer empty noise and Tones and Gestures and Phrases and passionate out-crys but by the weight of their sense and the reason of their perswasions endeavouring by the understandings to gain the affections and so to work on the will and resolutions Such was Their way of Preaching on which I might have much enlarg'd but I give you only the brief Heads Here I ask'd him what entertainment this their preaching met with in Bensalem He answer'd That for a long time it was but coldly receiv'd by the people whose imaginations and humours us'd to be fed upon Allusions and Phrases and Metaphors and Opinions And therefore they hated sound Doctrine and distasted the sincere Word Their pallates were so vitiated by the fantastical food to which they had been us'd that the substantial and wholesome dyet would not down with them So that those Divines were not at all popular at first but the People generally ran after the affected fanciful men who entertain'd their itching Ears with jingles and mysteries and new nothings And after that many of These Teachers had forsaken the publick places of Worship and in opposition to the Authority of the Church and Edicts of State betook themselves to holes and private corners The bewitch'd multitude followed them into those places Their zeal and admiration of their own Men being increased and heightned by the prohibition and restraint that was upon them For they doted on the fancies They taught and could not endure sound sense But the Judicious of all sorts entertain'd and relish'd the sober unaffected preaching of the Anti-fanaticks And at length also by time and their approbation and example most of the well-meaning mis-led people were recover'd back to the Church of Bensalem and brought to a relish and liking of the plain way of Instruction And now said He I have done with what concerns the Theological Genius and Principles of the men I undertook to describe 'T is too late for us at present to enter upon their way of Philosophy and Learning of this I have given some short hints but I intend you a larger account at our next meeting and if you are not tyred already with my discourse that shall be to morrow in the afternoon which I hope I shall have at liberty If you will come hither at that time you will find me ready to acquaiut you with what is further considerable in the Story of those Men. I thank'd him with a profound reverence for the satisfaction and pleasure he had afforded me already in his Relation and for that further entertainment he was pleas'd to design for me saying that I never counted time better spent than that which I had the honour to pass in his Instructive Conversation and on Subjects of such delight and importance And so I took my leave for that night and was conducted back by the same Messenger to my Lodgings I Went the next day at the appointed time and found the Governour in the same room After some Reflections on his past Relation and a few common matters of Discourse which I need not remember He told me He would acquaint me now with some things relating to the Opinion and Genius of the same Men in several sorts of Learning of this said He you heard somewhat in the beginning which will shorten this Account I answer'd that I did well remember what was told me of their universal way of study and converse with the best Authors both Antient and Modern I therefore shall omit further discourse of that said He and tell you their Opinion as far as I apprehend it of the several chief parts of Philosophy and Learning I begin with LOGICK As to this They oppos'd not the usual Systems of the Schools as they were Exercises and Institutions for Youth But They did not like the formal Syllogistical way among maturer Reasonerâ—… They many of them more approv'd of the Logick of Plato which teacheth first to explain the Terms of the Question and then to proceed by orderly Gradations from one proposition to another till we come to the thing we would prove A method of Reasoning more quick and close and much less subject to fallacies and wandrings than the way oâ—… Syllogism And to move the propositions from whence a man would infer his conclusion in the modest Socratical way of Question In my judgment is a very good and advantageous method For in this the occasions of passion which are ministred by positive assertions are taken away and the Arguer is ingaged no further then he thinks fit He may break off when he pleaseth without prejudice to his credit which he hath not ingag'd by undertaking Dogmatical proof of any thing And so disputes may be brought to a short and fair issue and extravagant heats may be avoided for the Arguer may keep himself uningaged and so see more clearly how to apply his force and restrain the discourse within the bounds of the subject whereas in the positive way of disputing by Syllogism there are these contrary disadvantages Our Reasons are led a great way about Mens minds are concern'd for the credit of their assertions which they positively undertake to prove Ambiguous and Aequivocal Terms steal-in and insensibly mislead the Reasoners or distinctions are applyed which mislead them more The Disputer takes up one end and runs away hastily in an opposition of it perhaps without clearly understanding what it means and without observing how this new pursuit works him off from the main business He goes on still and is still turn'd out of his way more and more by him that he opposeth For if he seek occasion to evade the force of the Argument he may do it well and salve his credit to and the deceit shall not easily be perceiv'd In like manner the opponent for his part may by Syllogism draw his answerer though a wary person almost whether he pleaseth and impose upon him by Terms and fallacious Contexture of words although he be one that understands consequence well in plain reasoning And so in this way men may
appear to rest as now it doth as I have discours'd elsewhere But when the Senses are exercised about their right Objects and have the other Circumstances that are requisite we then assent without doubting And this fullness of assent is all the certainty we have or can pretend to for after all 't is possible our Senses may be so contrived that things may not appear to us as they are But we fear not this and the bare possibility doth not move us 3. There are Certainties arising from the Testimony of others This in ordinary cases is very doubtful and fallacious but again in some it is indubitable As when the Testimony is general both as to time and place uninteressed full plain and constant in matters of Sense and of easie Knowledg In such circumstances as these the evidence of Testimony is no more doubted than the first Principles of Reason or Sense Thus we believe without the least scruple about it That there are such places as Rome and Constantinople and such Countries of Italy and Greece though we never saw them and many other Historical Matters which our selves never knew The Foundation of which assurance is this Principle That Mankind cannot be supposed to combine to deceive in things wherein they can have no design or interest to do it Though the thing have a remote possibility yet no Man in his Wits can believe it ever was or will be so and therefore we assent to such Testimonies with the same firmness that we would to the clearest Demonstrations in the World The second sence of Certainty is that which I call'd Certainty Infallible when we are assured that 't is impossible things should be otherwise than we conceive and affirm of them This is a sort of Certainty that humanely we cannot attain unto for it may not be absolutely impossible but that our Faculties may be so contrived as always to deceive us in the things which we judg most certain and assured This indeed we do not suspect and we have no reason to do it which shews that we are certain in the former Sense But we may not say 't is utterly impossible and consequently we cannot have the certainty of this latter sort which perhaps is proper only to Him who made all things what they are and discerns their true natures by an infallible and most perfect knowledg The sum of which is that though we are certain of many things yet that Certainty is no absolute Infallibility there still remains the possibility of our being mistaken in all matters of humane Belief and Inquiry But this bare possibility as I said moves us not nor doth it in the least weaken our assent to those things that we clearly and distinctly perceive but we believe with as much firmness of assurance the Matters that our Faculties do so report to us as if there were no such possibility and of greater Certainty than this there is no need It is enough for us that we have such Principles lodged in our minds that we cannot but assent to and we find nothing to give us occasion to doubt of the truth of them This is Humane Certainty and let vain and affected Scepticks talk what they will they cannot in earnest doubt of those first Principles which I have mention'd They are universal and believ'd by all Mankind every one knows every one useth them For though they do not lie in the minds of all Men in the formality of such Propositions yet they are implicitly there and in the force and power of them every Man reasons and acts also These are the Seed of Reason and all the Conclusions at never so great a distance that are truly deduc'd from those first Certainties are as true and certain as they are and both together make up what we call Reason So that this is not so various and giddy a thing as some vain inconsiderate Men talk but 't is one steady Certainty and the same all the World over Fancies Opinions and Humors that mistaken Men call Reason are infinitely divers and fallacious But those Principles and Conclusions that are clearly and distinctly perceiv'd by our minds those that are immdiately lodg'd in them and the consequences that truly arise from those and the right informations of Sence they are one and certain without variety or deceit Now all Men partake of Reason in some degree of the prime Principles at least and the Faculty of deducing one thing from another But the most use that little perversly and to their own deception arguing from prejudices of Sense Imagination and customary Tenents and so filling up their minds with false and deceitful Images instead of Truth and Reason 'T is the office and business of Philosophy to teach Men the right use of their Faculties in order to the extending and inlarging of their Reasons and one principal Rule it gives is To be wary and diffident not to be hasty in our Conclusions or over-confident of Opinions but to be sparing of our assent and not to afford it but to things clearly and distinctly perceiv'd And this was the aim and design of that Discourse which this Learned Man accuseth as such a piece of Scepticism and discouragement of Science I have now said what I intended concerning the first thing on which my Assailant insists The charge of Scepticism and I suppose I have sufficiently shewn the injustice of it I proceed to the second main Business of his Book which is to give an account of those difficulties which I have mention'd as yet unresolv'd Concerning those I affirm not that they are impossible to be unridled but that they have not been explain'd by any yet extant Hypothesis a sad Argument of intellectual deficience that after so much talk of Science and endeavour after Knowledg we should be yet to seek and that in those Matters which we have the greatest advantages to understand But this learned Man thinks he can resolve them and I have so great a kindness for any ingenious attempts of this sort and so great a desire to be satisfied about those Theories that I am ready to entertain any good probability that shall be offer'd even by a prosest Antagonist for Truth is welcome to me from any hand that brings it I have therefore candidly and impartially consider'd this Gentleman's Solutions but cannot satisfie my self with them The Reasons of my Dissatisfactions I shall now give in an examination of his Accounts He takes occasion from my waving the difficulties of Magnetism and the flux and reflux of the Sea to give his solution of them But I am not concern'd here they are none of the things on which I insist yea I professedly decline them and intimate that these are better known than less-acknowledg'd Mysteries Des-Cartes his Hypothesâ—…is are fair and probable but I think this Philosopher's Accounts very obnoxious especially there where he makes so constant and regular an effect as is the flux and reflux of the Sea to be caus'd
made And the Royal Psalmist speaks to the like purpose Psal. 19. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-Works And again Psal. 148. 3. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him ye Stars and Light which intimates that these Works of his afford Matter to our Reasons for Religious Acknowledgments And Reason proves the Existence of God srom the beauty and order and ends and usefulness of the Creatures for these are demonstrative Arguments of the Being of a wise and omnipotent Mind that hath framed all things so regularly and exactly and that Mind is God This Article then Reason proves which was the first Branch of the Particular and I add that it is Reason only that can do it which was the other For there are but three things from whence the Existence of any Being can be concluded viz. Sense Revelation or Reason Sense hath no more to do here but to present Matter for our Reasons to work on and Revelation supposeth the Being of a God and cannot prove it for we can have no security that the Revelation is true till we are assured it is from God or from some commissioned by him The knowledge of his Being therefore must precede our Faith in Revelation and so cannot be deduced from it So that only Reason is left to assure us here And thus Reason lays the very Corner Stone of Religion The next to this is the other Principle mentioned viz. 2. The Divine Authority of Scripture This also is to be proved by Reason and only by it The great Argument for the truth of Scripture is the Testimony of the Spirit in the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles Our Saviour himself useth this Argument to gain credit to his Doctrines Believe me for the Work 's sake The Works that I do bear testimony of me and if I had not done among them the Works that no other Man did they had had no sin John 15. 24. And the Apostles continually urge that great Miracle the Resurrection of Christ from the dead for the conviction both of the Jews and Gentiles That he was the Son of God and his Doctrines true Now Miracles are an Argument to our Reasons and we reason from them thus Miracles are God's Seal and they are wrought by his Power and he is true and good and would not lend these to Impostors to cheat and abuse Mankind Therefore whoever works real Miracles for the confirmation of any Doctrine it is to be believed that he is taught of God and commissioned to teach us And that Christ and his Apostles did those things which are recorded of them is Matter of Testimony and Reason clears the validity of this by the aggregation of multitudes of Circumstances which shew That the first Relators could not be deceived themselves and would not deceive us nor indeed could in the main Matters if they had designed it And the certainty of the conveyance of those things to us is evinced also by numerous convictive Reasons So that the matter of Fact is secure and that such Doctrines were taught as are ascribed to those Divine Persons and those Persons inspired that penned them are proved the same way And so it follows from the whole that the Gospel is the Word of God and the Old Testament is confirmed by that Thus Reason proves the Divine Authority of Scripture and those other Arguments that use to be produced for it from its Stile and its influence upon the Souls of Men from the excellency of its Design and the Providence of God in preserving it are of the same sort though not of the same strength Reason then proves the Scriptures and this only for that they are from God is not known immediately by Sense and there is no distinct Revelation that is certain and infallible to assure us of it and so Reason only remains to demonstrate the Article These two great Truths The Existence of God and Authority of Scripture are the first in our Religion and they are Conclusions of Reason as well as Foundations of Faith And thus briefly of those Principles of Religion that are presupposed unto it we have seen how Reason serves for the Demonstration of them II. I COME now to the other sort of Principles viz. those that are formally so They are of two sorts â—…t and pure The mixt are those that are discovered by Reason and declared by Revelation also and so are Principles both of Reason and Faith Of this kind are the Attributes of God Moral good and evil and the immortality of Humane Souls The Principles of pure Faith are such as are known only by Divine Testimony as the Miraculous Conception the Incarnation and the Trinity The first sort Reason proves as well as Scripture this I shew briefly in the Instances mention'd 1. That the Divine Attributes are revealed in the Holy Oracles is very clear and as plain it is that they are deduced from Reason For 't is a general Principle through the World That God is a Being absolutely perfect And hence Reason concludes all the particular Attributes of his Nature since Wisdom Goodness Power and the rest are Perfections and imply nothing of imperfection or defect and therefore ought to be ascribed to the infinitely perfect Being 2. That there is moral Good and Evil is discoverable by Reason as well as Scripture For these are Reason's Maxims That every Thing is made for an end and every Thing is directed to its end by certain Rules These Rules in Creatures of understanding and choice are Laws and the transgressing these is Vice and Sin 3. The Immortality of our Souls is plain in Scripture and Reason proves it by shewing the spirituality of our Natures and that it doth from the nature of Sense and our perception of Spiritual Beings of Vniversals and of Logical Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions From our compounding Propositions and drawing Conclusions from them From the vastness and quickness of our Imaginations and liberty of our Wills all which are beyond the Powers of Matter and therefore argue a Being that is Spiritual and consequently immortal which Inference the Philosophy of Spirits proves Also the Moral Arguments of Reason from the goodness of God and his Justice in distributing Rewards and Punishments the nature of Vertue and tendencies of Religious Appetites conclude I think very hopefully That there is a Life after this Thus in short of the Principles I called mixt which Reason demonstrates BUT for the others viz. 2. Those of pure Revelation Reason cannot prove them immediately nor is it to be expected that it should For they are Matters of Testimony and we are no more to look for immediate proof from Reason of those things than we are to expect that abstracted Reason should demonstrate That there is such a place as China or that there was such a Man as Julius Caesar All that it can do here is to assert and make good the credibility and truth of the Testimonies
than by insinuating a belief That there is no such thing as Himself but that Fear and Fancy make Devils now as they did Gods of old Nor can he ever draw the assent of Men to so dangerous an Assertion while the standing sensible Evidences of his Existence in his practices by and upon his Instruments are not discredited and removed 'T is doubtless therefore the interest of this Agent of Darkness to have the World believe that the Notion they have of Him is but a Phantôme and Conceit and in order thereunto That the stories of Witches Apparitions and indeed every thing that brings tidings of another World are but melancholick Dreams and pious Romances And when Men are arriv'd thus far to think there are no Diabolical Contracts or Apparitions their belief that there are such Spirits rests only upon their Faith and reverence to the Divine Oracles which we have little reason to apprehend so great in such Assertors as to command much from their assent especially in such things in which they have corrupt Interests against their evidence So that he that thinks there is no Witch believes a Devil gratis or at least upon Inducements which he is like to find himself disposed to deny when he pleaseth And when Men are arrived to this degree of Disfidence and Infidelity we are beholden to them if they believe either Angel or Spirit Resurrection of the Body or Immortality of Souls These things hang together in a Chain of Connexion at least in these Mens Hypothesis and 't is but an happy chance if he that hath lost one Link holds another So that the Vitals of Religion being so much interessed in this Subject it will not be unnecessary imployment particularly to discourse it And in order to the proof that there have been and are unlawful Confederacies with evil Spirits by vertue of which the hellish Accomplices perform things above their natural Powers I must premise that this being matter of Fact is only capable of the evidence of Authority and Sense And by both these the being of Witches and Diabolical Contracts is most abundantly confirm'd All Histories are full of the Exploits of those Instruments of Darkness and the Testimony of all Ages not only of the rude and barbarous but of the most civiliz'd and polish'd World brings tidings of their strange performances We have the Attestation of thousands of Eye and Ear-witnesses and those not of the easily deceivable Vulgar only but of wise and grave Discerners and that when no Interest could oblige them to agree together in a common Lye I say we have the light of all these Circumstances to confirm us in the belief of things done by Persons of despicable Power and Knowledge beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature Standing publick Records have been kept of these well-attested Relations and Epocha's made of those unwonted Events Laws in many Nations have been enacted against those vile practices Those among the Jews and our own are notorious such Cases have been often determined near us by Wise and Reverend Judges upon clear and convictive Evidence and multitudes in our Nation have suffered death for their vile Compacts with Apostate Spirits All these I might largely prove in their particular Instances but that 't is not needful since those that deny the being of Witches do it not out of ignorance of these Heads of Argument of which probably they have heard a thousand times But from an apprehension that such a belief is absurd and the things impossible And upon these presumptions they contemn all Demonstrations of this nature and are haâ—…dned against Conviction And I think those that can believe all Histories are Romances that all the wiser World have agreed together to juggle Mankind into a common belief of ungrounded Fables that the sound Senfes of multitudes together may deceive them and Laws are built upon Chymera's that the gravest and wisest Judges have been Murderers and the sagest Persons Fools or designing Impostors I say those that can believe this heap of Absurdities are either more credulous than those whose credulity they reprehend or else have some extraordinary evidence of their Perswasion viz. That 't is absurd and impossible there should be a Witch or Apparition And I am consident were those little appearances remov'd which Men have form'd in their Fancies against the belief of such things their own Evidence would make the way to Mens assent without any more Arguments than what they know already to enforce it There is nothing then necessary to be done in order to the establishing the belief I would reconcile to Mens minds but to endeavour the removal of those Prejudices they have received against it the chief of which I shall particularly deal with And I begin with that bold Assertion That I. I. THe NOTION of a Spirit is impossible and contradictious and consequently so is that of Witches the belief of which is founded on that Doctrine To which Objection I Answer 1. If the Notion of a Spirit be absurd as is pretended that of a GOD and a SOUL distinct from Matter and Immortal are likewise Absurdities And then That the World was jumbled into this elegant and orderly Fabrick by chance and that our Souls are only parts of Matter that came together we know not whence nor how and shall again shortly be dissolv'd into those loose Atoms that compound them That all our Conceptions are but the thrusting of one part of Matter against another and the Idea's of our Minds meer blind and casual Motions These and a thousand more the grossest Impossibilities and Absurdities consequents of this Proposition That the Notion of a Spirit is absurd will be sad Certainties and Demonstrations And with such Assertors I would cease to discourse about Witches and Apparitions and address my self to obtain their assent to Truths infinitely more Sacred And yet 2. though it should be granted them that a Substance immaterial is as much a contradiction as they can fancy yet why should they not believe that the Air and all the Regions above us may have their invisible intellectual Agents of Nature like unto our Souls be that what it will and some of them at least as much degenerate as the vilest and most mischievous among Men. This Hypothesis will be enough to secure the possibility of Witches and Apparitions And that all the upper Stories of the Universe are furnish'd with Inhabitants 't is infinitely reasonable to conclude from the Analogy of Nature Since we see there is nothing so contemptible and vile in the World we reside in but hath its living Creatures that dwell upon it the Earth the Water the inferiour Air the Bodies of Animals the Flesh the Skin the Entrails the Leaves the Roots the Stalks of Vegetables yea and all kind of Minerals in the Subterrancous Regions I say all these have their proper Inhabitants yea I suppose this Rule may hold in all distinct kinds of Bodies in the World That they have
complained to his Wife That he thought he was haunted She apprehending it as an extravagancy of Fancy but he told her he believed there was more in it and was resolved to try He did not long want opportunity There was a Neighbour of his grievously afflicted with the Kings-Evil He stroked her and the Effect fucceeded And for about a twelve-month together he pretended to cure no other Distemper But then the Ague being very rife in the Neighbourhood the same Impulse after the same manner spoke within him I have given thee the Gift of curing the Ague and meeting with Persons in their Fits and taking them by the Hand or laying his Hand upon their Breasts the Ague left them About half a year after the accustomed Impulfe became more general and suggested to him I have given thee the Gift of Healing and then he attempted all Diseases indifferently And though he saw strange Effects yet he doubted whether the Cause were any Vertue that came from him or the Peoples fancy To convince him of his incredulity as he lay one night in Bed one of his Hands was struck dead and the usual Impulse suggested to him to make tryal of his Vertue upon himself which he did stroking it with his other hand and then it immediately returned to its former liveliness This was repeated two or three Nights or Mornings together This is his Relation and I believe there is so much sincerity in the Person that he tells no more than what he believes to be true To say that this Impulse too was but a result of his temper and that it is but like Dreams that are usually according to Mens Constitutions doth not seem a probable account of the Phaenomenon Perhaps some may think it more likely that some Genius who understood the Sanative Vertue of his Complexion and the readiness of his Mind and ability of his Body to put it in execution might give him notice of that which otherwise might have been for ever unknown to him and so the Gift of God had been to no purpose This is my Learned and Reverend Friend's Relation I shall say no more about it but this That many of those Matters of Fact have been since critically inspected and examined by several sagacious and wary Persons of the Royal Society and other Very Learned and Judicious Men whom we may suppose as unlikely to be deceived by a contrived Imposture as any others whatsoever I Have now done with my Considerations on this Subject which I could wish were less seasonable and necessary than I have reason to believe they are But alas we live in an Age wherein Atheism is begun in Sadducism And those that dare not bluntly say There is no God content themselves for a fair step and Introduction to deny there are Spirits or Witches Which sort of Insidels though they are not so ordinary among the meer Vulgar yet are they numerous in a little higher rank of Understandings And those that know any thing of the World know That most of the small Pretenders to Wit are generally deriders of the belief of Witches and Apparitions Which were it only a slight or meer speculative Mistake I should not trouble my self or them about it But I fear this Error hath a Core in it worse than Heresie And therefore how little soever I care what Men believe or teach in Matters of Opinion I think I have reason to be concern'd in an Affair that toucheth so near upon the greatest Interests of Religion And really I am astonisht sometimes to think into what a kind of Age we are fallen in which some of the greatest Impieties are accounted but Buggs and terrible Names Invisible Tittles Piccadillo's or Chimera's The sad and greatest Instances are Secriledge â—…ellton and â—…hcrast For the two former there are a sort of Men that are far from being profest Enemies to Religion who I do not know whether they own any such Vices We find no mention of them in their most particular Confessions nâ—…r have I observed them in those Sermons that have contained the largest Catalogues of the Sins of our Age and Nation 'T were dangerous to speak of them as Sins for fean who should be found guilty But my Business at present is not with these but the other Witchcraft which I am sure was a Sin of Elder Times and how comes it about that our Age which so much out-does them in all other kinds of Wickedness should be wholly innocent in this That there may be Witches and Apparitions in our days notwithstanding the Objections of the Modern Sadduce I believe I have made appear in the foregoing Considerations in which I did not primarily intend direct Proof but Defence Against which if it should be Objected That I have for the most part used only Supposals and conjectural Things in the vindication of the Common Belief and speak with no point-blank assurance in my particular Answers as I do in the General Conclusion I need only say That the Proposition I defend is Matter of Fact which the Disbelievers impugne by alledging That it cannot be or it is not likely In return to which if I shew how those things may be and probable notwithstanding their Allegations though I say not down-right that they are in the particular way I offer yet 't is enough for the Design of Defence though not for that of Proof for when one saith a thing cannot be and I tell him how possibly it may though I hit not the just manner of it I yet defeat the Objection against it and make way for the evidence of the thing de Facto But after all this I must confess there is one Argument against me which is not to be dealt with viz. A mighty Confidence grounded upon nothing that swaggers and Huffs and swears there are no Witches For such Philosophers as these let them enjoy the Opinion of their own Superlative Judgments and enter me in the first rank of Fools for crediting my Senses and those of all the World before their sworn Dictates If they will believe in Scott Habbs and Osborne and think them more infallible than the Sacred Oracles the History of all Ages and the full experience of our own who can help it They must not be contradicted and they are resolved not to be perswaded For this sort of Men I never go about to convince them of any thing If I can avoid it I throw nothing before them lest they should turn again and rend me Their Opinions came into their Heads by chance when their little Reasons had no notice of their entrance and they must be let alone to go out again of themselves the fame way they entred Therefore not to make much noise to disturb these infallible Huffers and they cannot hear a little for their own I softly step along leaving them to believe what they think I have only this further to add That I appear thus much concerned for the justification of the belief of
Religion different from that of other Catholick Christians but were faithful adherers to the old acknowledg'd Christianity as it was taught by the Church of Bensalem To this Church they conform'd heartily though they were distinguishable from some others of her Sons by the application of their Genius and Endeavours I have told you They grew up among the Sects They were Born and Bred in that Age which they could not help But as they order'd the Matter it was no hurt to the Church or them that they were educated in bad times They had the occasion thence of understanding the Genius Humour and Principles of the Parties which those that stood always at distance from them could not so thorowly and inwardly know By that means they had great advantage for providing and applying the Remedies and Confutations that were proper and effectual And by daily Converse and near Observation they setled in their Minds a dislike of those ways that was greater and juster than the Antipathy of some others who saw only their out-sides that in many things were specious and plausible They studied in the Places where some of the chief of the Sects govern'd and those that were ripe for the Service preach'd publickly as other Academical Divines did This they scrupled not because they were young and had been under no explicit ingagements to those Laws that were then unhappily over-ruled But in those and in their other Vniversity-Exercises they much serv'd the Interest of the Church of Bensalem by undermining the Ataxites so the Sectaries are here call'd and propagating the Anti-fanatical Doctrines which they had entertain'd and improved So that I cannot look upon that Spirit otherwise than as an Antidote that Providence then seasonably provided against the deadly Infection of those days On which account they were by some call'd the Anti-fanites because of their peculiar opposition of the Fans or Fanites as the Ataxites were sometimes named And though some Persons thought fit to judge and spoke of Them as a new Sort of Divines Yet they were not to be so accounted in any sense of disparagement since the new Things they taught were but contradictions of the new Things that were introduced and new Errors and Pretences will occasion new ways of Opposition and Defence I have now I doubt said the Governor almost tired you with prefacing but these things were fit to be premised I exprest my self well-pleased both with the Matters he related and the order which he thought convenient to declare them in and so he proceeded to the second main Head Their particular Principles and Practices I MUST tell you then said He first That they took notice of the loud Out-cries and Declamations that were among all the Sects against Reason and observ'd how by that means all Vanities and Phanatick Devices were brought into Religion They saw There was no likelyhood any stop should be put to those Extravagancies of Fansie that were impudently obtruding themselves upon the World but by vindicating and asserting the use of Reason in Religion and therefore their private Discourses and publick Exercises ran much this way to maintain the sober use of our Faculties and to expose and shame all vain Enthusiasms And as Socrates of old first began the Reformation of his Age and reduced Men from the wildness of Fansie and Enthusiastick Fegaries with which they were overgrown by pleading for Reason and shewing the necessity and Religion that there is in hearkning to its Dictates So They in order to the cure of the madness of their Age were zealous to make Men sensible That Reason is a Branch and Beam of the Divine Wisdom That Light which he hath put into our Minds and that Law which he hath writ upon our Hearts That the Revelations of God in Scripture do not contradict what he hath engraven upon our Natures That Faith it self is an Act of Reason and is built upon these two Reasonable Principles That there is a God and That what he saith is true That our Erroneous Deductions are not to be call'd Reason but Sophistry Ignorance and Mistake That nothing can follow from Reason but Reason and that what so follows is as true and certain as Revelation That God never disparageth Reason in Scripture but that the vain Philosophy and Wisdom of this World there spoken against were Worldly Policies Jewish Genealogies Traditions and the Notional Philosophy of some Gentiles That Carnal Reason is the Reason of Appetite and Passion and not the Dictates of our Minds That Reason proves some Main and Fundamental Articles of Faith and defends all by proving the Authority of Holy Scripture That we have no cause to take any thing for an Article of Faith till we see Reason to believe that God said it and in the sense wherein we receive such a Doctrine That to decry and disgrace Reason is to strike up Religion by the Roots and to prepare the World for Atheism According to such Principles as these They managed their Discourses about this Subject They stated the Notions of Faith and Reason clearly and endeavour'd to deliver the Minds of Men from that confusedness in those Matters which blind Zeal had brought upon them that so they might not call Vain Sophistry by the name of Humane Reason and rail at this for the sake of Fallacy and the Impostures of Ignorance and Fancy Hereby they made some amends for the dangerous rashness of those inconsiderate Men who having heard others defame Reason as an Enemy to Faith set up the same Cry and fill'd their Oratories with the terrible noise of Carnal Reason Vain Philosophy and such other misapplyed words of reproach without having ever clearly or distinctly consider'd what they said or whereof they affirm'd And this they did too at a time when the World was posting a-pace into all kinds of madness as if they were afraid the half-distracted Religionists would not run fast enough out of their Wits without their Encouragement and Assistance And as if their Design had been to credit Phrensie and Enthusiasm and to disable all proof that could be brought against them This I believe many of those well-meaning Canters against Reason did not think of though what they did had a direct tendency that way And accordingly it succeeded For the conceited People hearing much of Incomes Illuminations Communions Lights Discoveries Sealings Manifestations and Impressions as the Heights of Religion and then being told that Reason is a low Carnal Thing and not to judge in these Spiritual Matters That it is a Stranger to them and at enmity with the Things of God I say the People that were so taught could not chuse but be taken with the wild Exstatical Enthusiasts who made the greatest boasts of these glorious Priviledges nor could they easily avoid looking upon the glarings of their own Imaginations and the warmths and impulses of their Melancholy as Divine Revelations and Illapses To this dangerous pass thousands were brought by such Preachments and had so