their impressions therefore the Fallacies and Deceits are imputed to their misinformations This I premise to prevent a Philosophical mistake but shall retain the common way of speaking and call those the errors of the Senses That these very frequently misreport things to us we are assured even from themselves a straight stick seems crooked in the Water and a square Towre round at a distance All things are Yellow to those that have the Jaundice and all Meats are bitter to the disaffected Palate To which vulgar Instances it will presently be answer'd that the Senses in those cases are not in their just circumstances but want the fit medium due distance and sound disposition which we know very well and learn there was somewhat amiss because our Senses represent those things otherwise at othertimes we see the stick is straight when it is out of the Water and the Tower is square when we are near it Objects have other Colours and Meats other tastes when the Body and its Senses are in their usual temper In such cases Sense rectifies its own mistakes and many times one the errors of another but if it did not do so we should have been alwayes deceived even in those Instances and there is no doubt but that there are many other like deceptions in which we have no contrary evidence from them to disabuse us not in the matters of common Life but in things of remoter speculation which this state seems not to be made for The Senses must have their due medium and distance and temper if any of these are amiss they represent their Objects otherwise to us than they are Now these we may suppose they generally have in the necessary matters of Life if not to report things to us as they are in themselves yet to give them us so as may be for our accommodation and advantage But how are we assur'd that they are thus rightly disposed in reference to things of Speculative Knowledg What medium what distance what temper is necessary to convey Objects to us just so as they are in the realities of Nature I observ'd before that our Senses are short imperfect and uncommensurate to the vastness and profundity of things and therefore cannot receive the just Images of them and yet we judg all things according to those confused and imperfect Idaeas which must needs lead us into infinite errors and mistakes If I would play the Sceptick here I might add That no one can be sure that any Objects appear in the same manner to the Senses of other men as they do to his Yea it may seem probable that they do not For though the Images Motions or whatever else is the cause of Sence may be alike as from them yet the representations may be much varied according to the nature and quality of the recipient we find things look otherwise to us through an Optick Tube then they do when we view them at a distance with our naked eyes the same Object appears red when we look at it through a Glass of that Colour but green when we behold it through one of such a Tincture Things seem otherwise when the Eye is distorted then they do when it is in its natural ordinary posture and some extraordinary alterations in the Brain double that to us which is but a single Object Colours are different according to different Lights and Positions as 't is in the necks of Doves and folds of Scarlet Thus difference in circumstances alters the sensation and why may we not suppose as much diversity in the Senses of several men as there is in those accidents in the perceptions of one There is difference in the Organs of Sense and more in the temper and configuration of the inward parts of the Brain by which motions are convey'd to the seat of Sense in the Nerves Humours and Spirits in respect of tenuity liquidity aptitude for motion and divers other circumstances of their nature from which it seems that great diversity doth arise in the manner of receiving the Images and consequently in the perceptions of their Objects So then though every man knows how things appear to himself yet what impressions they make upon the so different Senses of another he only knows certainly that is conscious to them And though all men agree to call the impression they feel from such or such an Object by the same name yet no one can assuredly tell but that the Sentiment may be different It may be one man hath the impression of Green from that which in another begets the Sense of Yellow and yet they both call it Green because from their infancy they were wont to join that word to that Sentiment which such an Object produc'd in their particular Sense though in several men it were a very divers one This I know some will think hard to be understood but I cannot help that Those that Consider will find it to be very plain and therefore I shall spend no more words about it The Sum is Our Senses are good Judges of Appearances as they concern us but how things are in themselves and how they are to others it should seem we cannot certainly learn from them And therefore when we determine that they are and must be according to the representations of our individual Senses we are very often grosly deceiv'd in such sentences to which yet we are exceeding prone and few but the most exercised minds can avoid them Of this I 'le give a great Instance or two 1. It is almost universally believ'd at least by the vulgar that the Earth rests on the Centre of the World and those ancient Philosophers have been extreamly hooted at and derided that have taught the contrary doctrine For my part I shall affirm nothing of the main question but this I say That the common inducement to believe it stands still viz the Testimony of Sense is no argument of it And whether the opinion of Pythagoras Copernicus Des-Cartes Galilaeo and almost all late Philosophers of the motion of the Earth be true or false the belief of its Rest as far as it ariseth from the presum'd evidence of Sence is an error That there is some common motion that makes the day and night and the varieties of seasons is very plain and sensible but whether the Earth or the Sun be the Body mov'd none of our Senses can determine To Sense the Sun stands still also and no Eye can perceive its Actual motion For though we find that in a little time it hath chang'd its Position and respect to us yet whether that change be caus'd by its translation from us or ours from it the Sense can never tell and yet from this and this only the greatest part of mankind believes its motion On the other side The standing still of the Earth is concluded the same way and yet though it did move it would appear fixt to us as now it doth since we are carried with it in a regular
immediate Author of it some that it was made by Angels and some by the Parents Whether it be Created or Traduced hath been the great Ball of contention to the latter Ages and after all the stir about it 't is still as much a question as ever and perhaps may so continue till the great Day that will put an end to all Differences and Disputes The Patrons of Traduction accuse their Adversaries of affronting the Attributes of God and the Assertors of Immediate Creation impeach them of violence to the nature of things And while each of the Opinions strongly opposeth the other and feebly defends it self some take occasion thence to say That both are right in their Oppositions but both mistaken in their Assertions I shall not stir in the Waters that have been troubled with so much contention The Famous St. Austin and others of the celebrated Antients have been content to sit down here in a profest Neutrality and I will not endeavour to urge Confessions in things that will be acknowledged but shall note some Difficulties that are not so usually observed which perhaps have more darkness in them than these so much controverted Doctrines 1. I begin with the Vnion of the Soul and Body In the Vnions that we understand there is still either some suitableness and likeness of Nature in the things united or some middle participating Being by which they are joyn'd but in this there is neither The natures of Soul and Body are at the most extream distance and their essential Attributes most opposite To be impenetrable discerpible and unactive is the nature of all Body and Matter as such And the properties of a Spirit are the direct contrary to be penetrable indiscerpible and self-motive Yea so different they are in all things that they seem to have nothing but Being and the Transcendental Attributes of that in common Nor is there any appearance of likeness between them For what hath Rarefaction Condensation Division and the other properties and modes of Matter to do with Apprehension Judgment and Discourse which are the proper acts of a Spiritual Being We cannot then perceive any congruity by which they are united Nor can there be any middle sort of Nature that partakes of each as 't is in some Unions their Attributes being such extreams or if there is any such Being or any such possible we know nothing of it and 't is utterly unconceivable So that what the Cement should be that unites Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness viz. Natures of so diverse a make and such disagreeing Attributes is beyond the reach of any of our Faculties We can as easily conceive how a thought should be united to a Statue or a Sun-beam to a piece of Clay how words should be frozen in the Air as some say they are in the remote North or how Light should be kept in a Box as we can apprehend the manner of this strange Vnion 2. And we can give no better account how the Soul moves the Body For whether we conceive it under the notion of a Pure Mind and Knowledg with Sir K. Digby or of a Thinking Substance with Des-Cartes or of a penetrable indiscerpible self-motive Being with the Platonists It will in all these ways be unconceivable how it gives motion to unactive matter For how that should move a Body whose nature it is to pass through all Bodies without the least jog or obstruction would require something more than we know to help us to conceive Nor will it avail to say that it moves the Body by its vehicle of corporeal Spirits for still the difficulty will be the same viz. How it moves them 3. We know as little How the Soul so regularly directs the Animal Spirits and Instruments of Motion which are in the Body as to stir any we have a will to move For the passages through which the Sâ—…rits are convey'd being so numerous and there being so many others that cross and branch from each of them 't is wonderful they should not lose their way in such a Wilderness and I think the wit of Man cannot yet tell how they are directed That they are conducted by some knowing Guide is evident from the steadiness and regularity of their motion But what that should be and how it doth it we are yet to seek That all the motions within us are not directed by the meer mechanick frame of our Bodies is clear from experience by which we are assured that those we call Spâ—…taneous ones aâ—…e under the Government of the Will at least the determination of the Spirits into such or such passages is from the Soul whatever we hold of the conâ—…eyances after and these I think all the Philosophy in the World cannot make out to be purely mechanical But though this be gain'd that the Soul is the principle of Direction yet the difficulty is no less than it was before For unless we allow it a kind of inward sight of every Vein Muscle Artery and other Passage of its own Body of the exact site and position of them with their several Windings and secret Chanels it will still be as unconceivable how it should direct such intricate Motions as that one that was born blind should manage a Game at Chess or marshal an Army And if the Soul have any such knowledg we are not aware of it nor do our minds attend it Yea we are so far from this That many times we observe not any method in the outward performance even in the greatest variety of interchangable motions in which a steady Direction is difficult and a Miscarriage easie As we see an Artist will play on an Instrument of Musick without minding it and the Tongue will nimbly run divisions in a Tune without missing when the Thoughts are engaged elsewhere which effects are to be ascribed to some secret Art of the Soul if that direct to which we are altogether strangers 4. But besides the Difficulties that lie more deep we are at a loss even in the knowledg of our Senses that seem the most plain and obvious of our Faculties Our eyes that see other things see not themselves and the Instruments of Knowledg are unknown That the Soul is the percipient which alone hath animadversion and sense properly so call'd and that the Body is only the receiver and conveyer of corporeal Motions is as certain as Philosophy can make it Aristotle himself teacheth it in that Maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Plato affirms That the Soul hath life and sence but that the Body in strictness of speaking hath neither the one nor other Upon which position all the Philosophy of Des-Cartes stands And it is so clear and so acknowledg'd a Truth among all considering Men that I need not stay to prove it But yet what are the Instruments of sensitive Perception and particular convers of outward Motions to the seat of Sense is difficult to find and how the pure Mind can receive information from things
Religion upon it self But that better use may be made of it and by some is will appear by considering particularly how acquaintance with Nature assists RELIGION against its greatest Enemies which are Atheism Sadducism Superstition Enthusiasm and the Humour of Disputing FOr the First Atheism I reckon thus The deeper insight any Man hath into the Affairs of Nature the more he discovers of the accurateness and Art that is in the contexture of things For the Works of God are not like the compositions of Fancy or the Tricks of Juglers that will not bear a clear light or strict scrutiny but their exactness receives advantage from the severest inspection and he admires most that knows most since the insides and remotest recesses of things have the clearest stamps of inimitable Wisdom on them and the Artifice is more in the Wheel-work than in the Case For if we look upon any of the Works of Nature through a Magnifying Glass that makes deep Discoveries we find still more beauty and more uniformity of contrivance whereas if we survey the most curious piece of humane ingenuity by that Glass it will discover to us numerous Flaws Deformities and Imperfections in our most Elegant Mechanicks Hence I gather That the study of God's Works shewing us more of the riches of Nature opens thereby a fairer Prospect of those Treasures of Wisdom that are lodged within it and so furnisheth us with deeper Senses and more Arguments and clearer Convictions of the existence of an infinitely intelligent Being that contrived it in so harmonious and astonishing an order So that if any are so brutish as not to acknowledge him upon the view of the meer external frame of the Universe they must yet fall down before the evidence when Philosophy hath opened the Cabinet and led them into the Jewel-bouse and shewn them the surprizing variety that is there Thus though the obvious Firmament and the motions of the Sun and Stars the ordinary vicissitudes of Seasons and productions of things the visible beauty of the great World and the appearing variety and fitness of those Parts that make up the little one in Man could scarce secure Galen from the danger of being an Atheist Yet when he pryed further by Anatomical Enquiries and saw the wonderful diversity aptness and order of the minutest Strings Pipes and Passages that are in the inward Fabrick He could not abstain from the devoutness of an Anthem of Acknowledgment And that the real knowledge of Nature leads us by the hand to the confession of its Author is taught us by the Holy Pen-man who suggests that the visible things of the Creation declare him The Plebeian and obvious World no doubt doth but the Philosophical much more So that whosoever saith that inquiry into Nature and God's Works leads to any degree of Atheism gives great ground of suspicion that himself is an Atheist or that he is that other thing that the Royal Psalmist calls him that saith in his heart there is no God For either he acknowledgeth the Art and exactness of the Works of Nature or he doth not if not he disparageth the Divine Architect and disables the chief Argument of his existence If he doth and yet affirms that the knowledge of it leads to Atheism he saith he knows not what and in effect this That the sight of the order and method of a regular and beautiful contrivance tends to perswade that Chance and Fortune was the Author But I remember I have discours'd of this elsewhere and what I have said for Philosophy in general from its tendency to devout Acknowledgments is not so true of any as of the Experimental and Mechanick For the Physiology of the modern Peripatetick Schools creates Notions and turns Nature into words of second Intention but discovers little of its real beauty and harmonious contrivance so that God hath no glory from it nor Men any Argument of his Wisdom or Existence And for the Metaphysical Proofs they are for the most part deep and nice subject to Evasions and turns of Wit and not so generally perswasive as those drawn from the plain and sensible Topicks which the Experimental Philosophy inlargeth and illustrates This then gives the greatest and fullest assurance of the Being of God and acquaintance with this kind of Learning furnisheth us with the best Weapons to defend it For the modern Atheists are pretenders to the Mechanick Principles viz. those of meer Matter and Motion and their pretensions cannot be shamed or defeated by any so well as by those who throughly understand that wild Systeme of Opinions These indeed perceive that there is only Nature in some things that are taken to be supernatural and miraculous and the shallow Naturalist sees no further and therefore rests in Nature But the true Philosopher shews the vanity and unreasonableness of taking up so short and discovers infinite Wisdom at the end of the Chain of Causes I say If we know no further than occult Qualities Elements Heavenly Influences and Forms we shall never be able to disprove a Mechanick Atheist but the more we understand of the Laws of Matter and Motion the more shall we discern the necessity of a wise mind to order the blind and insensible Matter and to direct the original Motions without the conduct of which the Vniverse could have been nothing but a mighty Chaos and mishapen Mass of everlasting Confusions and Disorders This of the FIRST viz. That the knowledge of Nature serves Religion against Atheism and that it doth also II. AGainst Sadducism 'T is well known that the Sadduces denyed the existence of Spirits and Immortality of Souls And the Heresie is sadly reviv'd in our days 1. What a Spirit is and whether there be Spirits or not are questions that appertain to the disquisition of Philosophy The Holy Scripture that condescends to the plain capacities of Men useth the word Spirit commonly for the more subtile and invisible Bodies and 't will be difficult from thence to fetch a demonstrative proof of Spirits in the strict Notion That there are Angels and Souls which are purer than these gross Bodies may no doubt be concluded from thence But whether these are only a finer sort of Matter or a different kind of Beings cannot I think be determin'd by any thing deliver'd in the Divine Oracles The Inquiry therefore belongs to Philosophy which from divers Operations in our own Souls concludes That there is a sort of Beings which are not Matter or Body viz. Beings self-motive penetrable and indivisible Attributes directly contrary to those of Matter which is impenetrable divisible and void of self-Self-motion By these Properties respectively the distinct nature of Spirit and Body is known and by the same that there are Spirits in the strictest sence as well as corporeal Beings Now by stating the Nature and proving the Existence of Spirits a very considerable service is done to Religion For hereby our Notion of the adorable Deity is freed from all material grosness
upon others nor do I care to endeavour the change of their Minds though I judge them mistaken as long as Vertue the Interests of Religion the Peace of the World and their own are not prejudiced by their Errors By this modest indifference I secure Charity for all the diversities of Belief and equally offer my Frienship and Converses to the several Sects and Perswasions that stick to the plain Principles of the Gospel and a Vertuous Life overlooking their particular fondnesses and follies This is the temper of my Genius and this some warm People who have more Heat than Light are apt to call Scepticism and cold Neutrality But that it deserves better Names I have made appear in some other Papers True it is That the Men of the meer Epicurean sort have left God and Providence out of their Accounts But other Philosophers have shewn what Fools they are for doing so and how absurd their pretended Philosophy is in supposing things to have been made and ordered by the casual hits of Atoms in a mighty Void And though their general Doctrine of Matter and Motion be exceeding ancient and very accountable when we suppose Matter was at first created by Almighty Power and its Motions ordered and directed by Omniscient Wisdom Yet the supposal that they are independent and eternal is very precarious and unreasonable And that all the regular Motions in Nature should be from blind tumultuous jumblings intermixtures is the most unphilosophical Fansie and ridiculous Dotage in the World So that there is no reason to accuse Philosophy of a Fault which Philosophy sufficiently shames and reproves and yet I doubt too many have entertain'd great prejudice against it upon this score and 't is a particular brand upon some of the modern Men that they have revived the Philosophy of Epicurus which they think to be in its whole extent Atheistical and Irreligious To which I say that the Opinion of the World 's being made by a fortuitous concurrence of Atoms is impious and vile And this those of Epicurus his Elder School taught Whereas the late Restorers of the Corpuscularian Hypothesis hate and despise the wicked and absurd Doctrine But thus far they think the Atomical Philosophy reasonable viz. as it teacheth That the Operations of Nature are performed by subtile streams of minute Bodies and not by I know not what imaginary Qualities and Forms They think That the various Motions and Figures of the parts of Matter are enough for all the Phaenomena and all the varieties which with relation to our Senses we call such and such Qualities But then they suppose and teach That God created Matter and is the supreme Orderer of its Motions by which all those Diversities are made And hereby Piety and the Faith of Providence is secured This as far as we know any thing of elder Times was the ancient Philosophy of the World and it doth not in the least interfere with any Principle of Religion Thus far I dare say I may undertake for most of the Corpuscularian Philosophers of our times excepting those of M. Hobbes his way And therefore I cannot but wonder at a late Reverend Author who seems to conclude those Modern Philosophers under the name and notion of such Somatists as are for meer Matter and Motion and exclude immaterial Beings whereas those Learned Men though they own Matter and Motion as the material and formal causes of the Phenomena They do yet acknowledge God's Efficiency and Government of all Things with as much seriousness and contend for it with as much zeal as any Philosophers or Divines whatsoever And 't is very hard that any number of Men should be exposed to the suspicion of being Atheists for denying the Peripatetick Qualities and Forms and there is nothing else overthrown by the Corpuscularian Doctrines as they are managed by those Philosophers So that methinks that Reverend Person hath not dealt so fairly with the great Names of Des-Cartes and Gassendus where he mentions them promiscuously with the meer Epicurean and Hobbian Somatists without any note to distinguish them from those Sadduces For both those celebrated Men have laboured much in asserting the Grand Articles of Religion against the Infidel and Atheist But 2. 't is alledg'd by some Philosophy disposeth Men to despise the Scriptures or at least to neglect the study of them and therefore is to be flighted and exploded among Christians To this I say That Philosophy is the knowledge of God's Works and there is nothing in God's Works that is contrary to his Word How then should the study of the one incline Men to despise the other Certainly had there been any such impious tendency in searching into God's Works to the lessening of our value of the Scriptures The Scripture it self would never have recommended it so much unto us Yea this is so far from being true that on the contrary the knowledge of God's Works tends in its proper nature to dispose Men to love and veneration of the Scriptures For by familiarity with Nature we are made sensible of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God fresh Instances of which we shall find in all things And 't is one great design of the Scripture to promote the Glory of these Attributes How then can he that is much affected with them chuse but love and esteem those Holy Records which so gloriously illustrate the Perfections he admires Besides by inquiry into God's Works we discover continually how little we can comprehend of his Ways and Menagements and he that is sensible of this will find himself more inclined to reverence the declarations of his Word though they are beyond his reach and though he cannot fathom those Mysteries he is required to believe Such a disposition is necessary for the securing our Reverence to the Divine Oracles and Philosophy promotes it much So that though 't is like enough there may be those that pretend to Philosophy who have less veneration and respect for the Scripture than they ought yet that impious disesteem of those sacred Writings is no effect of their Philosophy but of their corrupt and evil Inclinations And to remove the scandal brought upon Natural Wisdom by those Pretenders it may be observed that none are more earnest or more frequent in the proof and recommendation of the Authority of Scripture than those of Philosophical Inclination and Genius who by 〈◊〉 â—…mblick Capacity and Profession have the best opportunities to give testimony to the Honour of that Divine Book But to justifie the imputation of the disservice Philosophy doth Religion and the Scriptures it may by some be pleaded That Philosophy viz. that which is called the new teacheth Doctrines that are coutrary to the Word of God or at least such as we have no ground from Scripture to believe For instance That the Earth moves and That the Moon is of a Terrestrial Nature and capable of Inhabitants which Opinions are presumed to be impious and Antiscriptural In return to this
and most even course in which case motion is not perceivâ—…d as we find sometimes in sailing in a Ship when the Shores feem to move and not that Littus Campique recedunt But I give another Instance of a like deception It is 2. The translation of our own passions to things without us as we judg Light and Heat and Cold to be formally in the Sun Fire and Air when as indeed they are but our own perceptions As they are in those external Subjects they are nothing but such or such configurations and motions in matter but when they work on us they produce different sentiments which we call Heat and Light c. This will appear to be true to any one that can freely and attentively consider it and yet it will be thought so strange and absurd by the generality of men that they will assoon believe with Anaxagoras that Snow is black as him that affirms that the Fire is not formally hot that is that the very thing we feel and call Heat in our selves is not so in that body when as there it is but a violent agitation of the subtile and divided parts of matter that in it self is nothing like what we perceive from it and call Heat That we are hot our selves we feel but that the Fire hath any such formal quality as is in our Sense no Sense can inform us and yet from its supposed evidence men generally so conclude Which is an other considerable Instance of the false judgments we make on the occasion of our Senses And now It is not only common understandings that are abused and deceiv'd by their Senses but even the most advanc'd Reasons are many times missed by them And since we live the Life of Beasts before we grow up to Men and our minds are Passive to the impressions of Sense it cannot be that our first knowledg should be other than heaps of Errour and misconception which might be rectified by our after-judgments but that 't is another unhappiness of our natures that those early impressions stick by us and we are exeedingly apt pertinaciously to adhere to them And though our improving understandings do in part undeceive us and destroy some grosser errours yet others are so fastned that they are never after remov'd or dissetled So that we are not quite weaned from our Child-hood till we return to our second Infancy and even our Grey-Heads out-grow not those errors which we learnt before the Alphabet And therefore since we contracted so many prejudices in our tender years and those Errors have as plausible an appearance as the most genuine truths the best way to attain true Knowledg is to suspend the giving our confirm'd assent to those Receptions till we have looked them over by an impartial inquiry To reckon of them all as false or uncertain till we have examin'd them by a free and unpossest Reason and to admit nothing but what we clearly and distinctly perceive This is the great Rule in the excellent Method of Des-Cartes but the practise of it requires such a clear sedate and intent mind as is to be found but in a very few rare tempers and even in them prejudices will creep in and spoil the perfection of their Knowledg I might discourse next of those Errors that do arise from the fallacies of our Imaginations whose unwarrantable compositions and applications do very frequently abuse us and indeed the Reason of the greatest part of mankind is nothing else but various Imagination Yea 't is a hard matter for the best and freest minds to deliver themselves from the Prejudices of Phancy which besides the numerous lesser Errors they betray us into are great occasions particularly of those many mistakes we are guilty of in speculating Immaterial Natures inquiring into the Attributes of God and we are much entangled and puzled by them in all things we think or say about Infinity Eternity and Immensity and most other of the sublime Theories both of Philosophy or Theology But these all arise either from the false Images of Sense and the undue compositions and wrong inferences that we raise from them and therefore I shall not need make this a distinct head from the other of which I have just treated I come now II. To consider the evil Influence our Affections have over our Understandings by which they are great Reasons of our Ignorance and Mistakes Periit Judicium ubi res transiit in affectum That Jupiter himself cannot be Wise and in Love was a saying of the Ancients and may be understood in a larger Sense then They meant That understanding only is capable of passing a just Sentence that is as Aristotle saith of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but where the Will and Passions have the casting voice the cause of Truth is desperate Now this is the present unhappy state of Man our lower powers are gotten uppermost and we see like Men on their Heads as Plato observ'd of old That on the right hand which indeed is on the left The Woman in us still prosecutes a deceipt like that begun in the Garden and we are wedded to an Eve as fatal as the Mother of ous Miseries The Deceiver soon found this soft place in Adam and Innocency it self did not secure him from this way of seduction We now scarce see any thing but through our passions that are wholly blind and incapable So that the Monsters that story relates to have their Eyes in their Breasts are pictures of us in our invisible selves And now all things being double-handed and having appearances both of Truth and Falshood the ingaged affection magnifieth the shews of Truth and makes the belov'd opinion appear as certain while the considerations on the otherside being lessened and neglected seem as nothing though they are never so weighty and considerable But I shall be more particular in the account of these Deceptions Our Affections ingage us by our love to our selves or others the former in the Instance of 1. Natural disposition 2. Custom and Education and 3. Interest the latter in our over-fond Reverence to 4. Antiquity and Authority 1. There is a certain congruity of some opinions to the particular tempers of some men For there is a complexion and temperament in the mind as well as in the body And the doctrines that are suited to the genius and special disposition of the understanding find easy welcom and entertainment whereas those that are opposite to it are rejected with an invincible contempt and hatred On this account we find men taking in some particular Opinions with strange pleasure and satisfaction upon their first proposals when they are incurably barred up against others that have the advantage of more reason to recommend them And I have observ'd often that even some Theories in Philosophy will not lie in some minds that are otherwise very capable and ingenious of which I take this to be a considerable Instance That divers learned men profess They
can subsist without it self and real separability cannot consist with Identity and Indistinction 3. The Sacred and Mosaical Philosophy supposeth the Soul to be a Substance that can come and be join'd to another For it tells us That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils the Breath of Life by which generally is understood his infusing a Soul into him And all the Arguments that are alledg'd from Scripture to prove its immediate Creation do strongly conclude it to be a distinct Substance from the Body And 4. The same Doctrine is more than once affirm'd by Aristotle himself for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remains that the Mind or â—…oul comes from without and is only a Divine Thing Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is separate c. a thing apart from the Body For elsewhere he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Operations of the Body do not communicate with its the Soul's Operations He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Substance or Subsistence for supposing which I am reprehended by our Philosopher And affirms further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is a Divine and Impassible Thing It appears then from the Testimonies and I could alledg more if there were occasion that Aristotle taught the real Distinction which I suppose and so according to our Author is one of them that understands not the opposition of one and many Yea 5. Our Philosopher's learned Friend and Admirer Sir Kenelm Digby is another for that ingenious Gentleman affirms in his Immortality That the Soul is a Substance and a Substance besides the Body and almost all that Discourse depends on that supposal 6. This Author himself affirms as much in his Peripatetical Institutions as ever I suppos'd For he saith 'T is most evident that the Mind is something of another kind from Quantity and Matter That 't is a substantial Principle of Man and no mode or determination of divisibility and that there is nothing common to Body and Spirit Besides which in the fifth Book of the same Institutions he discourseth of the Soul's separation from the Body and asserts it to be evident that it perisheth not with it because it hath Actions that belong not to a Body but hath of it self the Nature of a Being and its power of Existence is not taken away when the Body fails the Soul being apart from and besides it and that matter is not necessary to the Soul's Existence Many other Expressions there are in that Discourse to like purpose which speak the Soul 's Real Distinction from the Body in as great variety of Phrase as Diversity and Distinction can be spoken But all this is forgotten and now 't is a most important Error in Philosophy to suppose the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another and of this none can doubt that understand the Opposition of one and many I think now by all this 't is pretty clear that my supposition of the Soul 's being a distinct Substance from the Body is not peccant except all the wiser World both Ancient and Modern have been mistaken and our Author himself But besides all 2. It seems to me evident even from the nature of the things abstracting from Authority And I think it appears 1. From all the common Arguments that prove the Soul Immaterial For Perception Perception of Spirituals Vniversals Mathematical Liues Points Superficies Congenit Notions Logical Metaphysical and Moral Self-reflection Freedom Indifferency and Vniversality of Action These are all Propertiâ—…â—…t all agreeing with Body or Matter though of never so pure and simple a Nature Nor is it conceivable how any of these should arise from Modifications of Quantity being of a divers kind from all the Effects and Phaenomena of Motion 2. If the Soul be not a distinct Substance from the Body 't is then a certain Disposition and Modification of it which this Author in the tenth Lesson of his Intitutions seems to intimate saying That since the Soul is a certain Affection which is introduced and expell'd by corporeal Action Hence he infeâ—…rs something that is not for our purpose to relate And if so since all diversities in Matter arise from Motion and Position of Parts every different Perception will require a distinct order and position of the Parts of the Matter perceiving which must be obtain'd by Motion I demand then when we pass from one Conception to another is the Motion the cause of this Diversity merely casual or directed by some Act of Knowledg The former I suppose no Man in his wits will affirm since then all our Conceptions will be non-sense and confusion Chance being the Cause of nothing that is orderly and regular But if there be a knowledg in us of that directs the Motions that make every distinct Conception I demand concerning that Knowledg whether it be in like manner directed by some other or is it the Effect of mere Casual Motion If the former we must run up in infinitum in our inquiry and the latter admits the alledg'd Absurdities There is no way then of defending the Assertion of the Souls being Matter or any modification of it but by affirming with Mr. Hobbs a certain connection between all our Thoughts and a necessary fate in all things which whoever affirms will find Difficulties enough in his Assertion to bring him to mine that there is a Vanity in Dogmatizing and Confidence is unreasonable I have insisted the longer on this because the distinction of the Soul from the Body is a very material Subject the proof of which is very seasonable for the present Age and by it I have disabled our Author's pretended Solution of the three Difficulties I mention viz. of the Origine of the Soul its Vnion with the Body and its moving of it Concerning whiâ—…â—…st he adds P. 33. That true it is one animated Meâ—…â—…oves another but not that any Substance that is a pure Soul moves immediately any Member in which the Soul is not Which last I know no Body that saith I cannot affirm the Soul moves any Member immediately but 't is like it doth it by the Spirits its Instruments Much less did I ever say That the Soul moves any Member in which it is not But the seat-of-Seat-of-Sense and Original of Animal Motion is in the Brain or Heart or some other main part of which in particular I determine nothing Thence the Soul sends its Influences to govern the Motions of the Body through all which it is diffused 'T is true one animate Member moves another but the Motion must somewhere begin In Actions purely Mechanical it begins in material Agents that work upon the Body and its Parts but in those that are immediately under our Wills the Motion hath its beginning from the Soul moving first something corporeal in us by which other parts are mov'd But our Author appeals to other Animals in which he saith There 's frankly denyed a Soul independent on the
in which way those must conceive him that acknowledge nothing but Body in the World which certainly is a very great dis-interest to his Glory and suggests very unbecoming thoughts of him And by the due setling the Notion of a Spirit the conceit of the Soul 's Traduction is overthrown which either ariseth from direct Sadducism or a defect in Philosophy Hereby our Immortality is undermined and dangerously exposed But due Philosophical Disquisition will set us right in the Theory For the former of the Errors mention'd viz. the Aâ—…hropomorphite Doctrines that make God himself a corporeal Substance Those cannot be disproved but by the Use and Application of the Principles of Philosophy Since let us bring what Arguments we can from the Scriptures which speak of the Perfection Infinity Immensity Wisdom and other Attributes of God These no doubt will be granted but the Query will be Whether all may not belong to a material Being a question which Philosophy resolves and there is no other way to search deep into this Matter but by those Aids So likewise as to the Traduction of the Soul The Arguments from Scripture against it are very general yea many expressions we find there seem at first sight to look that way And therefore this other help Philosophy must be used here also and by the distinct representation which it gives of the Nature of Sprit and Matter and of the Operations that appertain to each this Error is effectually confuted which it cannot be by any other proceeding Thus Philosophy befriends us against Sadducism in the first Branch of it as it explodes the being of Spirits 2. The other is the denyal of the Immortality of our Souls The establishment of this likewise the Students of Philosophy and God's Works have attempted in all Ages and they have prov'd it by the Philosophical considerations of the nature of Sense the quickness of Imagination the spirituality of the Vnderstanding the freedom of the Will from these they infer that the Soul is immaterial and from thence that it is immortal which Arguments are some of the most demonstrative and cogent that the meer reasons of Men can use but cannot be manag'd nor understood but by those that are instructed in Philosophy and Nature I confess there are other Demonstrations of our Immortality for the plain Understandings that cannot reach those Heights The Scripture gives clear evidence and that of the Resurrection of the Holy Jesus is palpable But yet the Philosophical Proofs are of great use and serve for the conviction of the Infidel to whom the other inducements are nothing and the deeper knowledge of things is necessary to defend this great Article of Religion against such Men since they alledge a sort of Arguments to prove the Soul to be mortal that cannot be consuted but by a reason instructed in the Observations of Nature For the Modern Sadduce pretends that all things we do are performed by meer Matter and Motion and consequently that there is no such thing as an immaterial Being so that when our Bodies are dissolv'd the whole Man is destroyed and lost for ever which dismal conclusion is true and certain if there be nothing in us but Matter and the results of Motion and those that converse but little with Nature understand little what may be done by these and so cannot be so well assured that the Elevations Mixtures and Combinations of them cannot be at last improv'd so far as to make a sensible reasoning Being nor are they well able to disprove one that affirms that they are actually advanc'd to that height whereas he that hath much inquired into the Works of God and Nature gains a clear sight of what Matter can perform and gets more and stronger Arguments to convince him that its Modifications and Changes cannot amount to perception and sense since in all its Varieties and highest Exaltations he finds no Specimens of such Powers And though I confess that all Mechanick Inquirers make not this use of their Inquisitions and Discoveries yet that is not the fault of the Method but of the Men and those that have gone furthest in that way have receded most from the Sadducean Doctrines Among such I suppose I may be allowed to reckon the Noble Renatus Des-Cartes And his Metaphysicks and Notions of Immaterial Beings are removed to the greatest distance from all Corporeal Affections which I mention not to declare or signifie my adherence to those Principles but for an Instance to shew that acquaintance with Matter and the knowledge of its Operations removes the Mind far off from the belief of those high Effects which some ascribe to Corporeal Motions and from all suppositions of the Soul 's being bodily and material Thus Philosophy is an excellent Antidote against Sadducism in both the Main Branches of it But then I must confess also that the Philosophy of the late Peripatetick Writers doth rather assist than overthrow this dangerous Infidelity I mean in what it teacheth concerning Substantial Forms which I fear tends to the disabling all Philosophical Evidence of the Immortality of Humane Souls For these Peripateticks make their Forms a kind of medium between Body and Spirit viz. Beings that are educed as they speak out of Matter and are so dependent on it that they perish utterly or return into the bosom of the Matter as some cant when they cease to inform it But yet they allow not that those Forms are material in their essential Constitution and Nature This is the Peripatetick account of substantial Forms and such they assign to all Bodies and teach That the noblest sort of them are sensitive and perceptive which are the Souls of Brutes If this be so that Beings which are not Spirits but corruptible dependants upon Matter may be endowed with Animadversion and Sense what Arguments have we then to shew that they may not have Reason also which is but an Improvement and higher degree of simple Perception 'T is as hard to be apprehended how any of the results of Matter should perceive as how they should join their Perceptions into Reasonings and the same Propositions that prove the possibility of one prove both so that those who affirm that Beasts also have their degrees of true Reason speak very consonantly to those Principles And if such material corruptible Forms as the Peripateticks describe are sufficient for all the Actions and Perceptions of Beasts I know not which way to go about to demonstrate that a more elevated sort of them may not suffice for the reasonings of Men. To urge the Topicks of Proof I mention'd from Notions Compositions Deductions and the like which are alledged to prove our Souls Immaterial I say to plead these will signifie nothing but this That Humane Souls are no portions of Matter nor corporeal in their formal Essence But how will they evince that they are not educed from it that they depend not on Matter and shall not perish when their respective Bodies are dissolved Certainly
and timorous World hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful Presages and the mischievous Consequences that arise from those superstitious Abodings For whatever the casual Coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful Events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes are observ'd when they bit not when they miss I say notwithstanding these the Real Experimental Philosophy makes it appear that they are Heavenly Bodies far above all the Regions of Vapours in which we are not concerned and so they are neither the Signs nor the Causes of our Mischiefs And for the other little things which afford Matter for the Tales about Prodigies and other ominous Appearings the knowledge of Nature by exciting worthy and magnificent conceptions of the God of Nature cures that blasphemous abuse of the adorable Majesty whereby foolish Men attribute every trivial event that may serve their turns against those they hate to his immediate extraordinary interposal For 't is ignorance of God and his Works that disposeth Men to absurd ridiculous Surmises uncharitable Censures seditious Machinations and so to Thoughts that are prejudicial to the Glory of God the Interests of Religion and the security of Government to that Justice and Charity we owe to others and to the happiness that we seek our selves To which I add That this kind of Superstition is a relique of Pagan Ignorance which made Men look on Thunder Eclipses Earthquakes and all the more terrifying Phaenomena of Nature as the immediate Effects of Powers Supernatural and to judge Events by flights of Birds and garbages of Cattel by the accidental occursions of this Creature and the other and almost every casual occurrence But these Particulars have been most ingeniously represented and reproved in a late very elegant Discourse about Prodigies And though I do not acquiesce in the Design of that excellently penn'd Book which is to discredit and take away all kinds of Presages Yet I think it hath done rarely well so far as it discovers the folly and mischiefs of that ignorant and superstitious Spirit that makes every thing a Prodigy With such apprehensions as these the knowledge of Nature fills those Minds that are instructed in it And there is no doubt but that the Antipathy the Real Philosophy bears to all the kinds of Superstition is one cause why zealous Ignorance brands those Researches with the mark of Atheism and Irreligion For superstitious Folly adopts those groundless Trifles which Philosophy contemns and reproves into the Family of Religion and therefore reproacheth the Despisers of them as Enemies to the Faith and Power of Godliness So it fared with some of the bravest Spirits of ancient times who have had black Characters fixt upon their great and worthy Names only for their Oppositions of the foolish Rites and Idolatries of the vulgar Heathen We know the case of Socrates And as to the interest of their Names that of Anaxagoras Theodorus Protagoras and Epicurus was much worse the causless infamy coming down the Stream as far as the last Ages Since then we know who was an Heretick for saying there were Antipodes and a Pope was taken for a Conjurer for being a Mathematician yea those noble Sciences were counted Diabolical and even the Sacred Language could scarce escape the suspicion In later times Galilaeo fell into the Inquisition for the Discoveries of his Telescopes and Campanella could not endeavour to assert and vindicate the freedom of his Mind without losing that of his Person I might come nearer to our own days and knowledge Gothick barharity and the Spirit of the Iuquisition is not quite worn out of the Reformation Though indeed it ordinarily remains but among the scum and dregs of Men And no one is either less Religious or less Wise for being accounted an Atheist by the common Rabble But where-ever the knowledge of Nature and God's Works hath in any degree obtain'd those vile Superstitions have been despised and put to an infamous flight But to take another step IV. THe Real Philosophy and knowledge of God's Works serves Religion against Enthusiasm another dreadful Enemy Now Enthusiasm is a false conceit of Inspiration and all the bold and mistaken Pretensions to the Spirit in our days are of this sort What particularly Religion hath suffer'd from it would be too long to reckon upon this occasion It will be enough to say in an Age that hath so much and such sad experience of it That Enthusiasm hath introduced much phantastry into Religion and made way for all imaginable Follies and even Atheism it self which it hath done two ways 1. By crying up the Excesses and Diseases of Imagination for the greatest height of Godliness And 2. By the disparagrment of sober Reason as an Enemy to the Principles of Faith And Philosophy assists Religion against both these FOR the first in order The real knowledge of Nature detects the dangerous imposture by shewing what strange things may be effected by no diviner a cause than a strong Fancy impregnated by Heated Melancholy For this sometimes warms the Brain to a degree that makes it very active and imaginative full of odd Thoughts and unexpected Suggestions so that if the Temper determine the Imagination to Religion it flies at high things at interpretations of dark and Prophetick Scriptures at Predictions of future Events and mysterious Discoveries which the Man expresseth fluently and boldly with a peculiar and pathetick Eloquence which pregnances being not ordinary but much beyond the usual tone and temper of the Enthusiast and he having heard great things of the Spirits immediate Motions and Inspirations cannot well fail of believing himself inspired and of intitling all the excursious of his Fancy to the immediate Actings of the Holy Ghost and those thoughts by the help of natural pride and self-love will work also exceedingly upon the heightned Affections and they upon the Body so far as to cast it sometimes into Raptures Extasies and Deliquiums of Sense in which every Dream is taken for a Prophesie every Image of the Fancy for a Vision and all the glarings of the Imagination for new Lights and Revelations Thus have our Modern Prophets been inspired by Temper and Imagination and not by Design only For we may not think they are all Hypocrites and knowing Impostors No they generally believe themselves and the strength of their highly invigorated Fancies shuts out the sober Light of Reason that should disabuse them as sleep doth that of our External Senses in our Dreams And the silly People that understand not Nature but are apt to take every thing that is vebement to be sacred are easily deceived into the belief of those Pretensions and thus Diseases have been worship'd for Religion This account the Philosophy of Humane Nature gives of that by which the World hath been so miserably abused And when we cast our eyes abroad we may plainly see that those glorious things are no more than what hath been done
that relate such Matters and that it doth in the present case proving the Authority of Scripture and thereby in a remoter way it demonstrates all the Mysteries of Faith which the Divine Oracles immediately discover And it is no more disparagement to our Reasons that they cannot evince those Sacred Articles by their own unaided force than it is a disgrace unto them that they cannot know that there are such things as Colours without the help of our Eyes or that there are Sounds without the faculty of Hearing And if Reason must be called blind upon this account because it cannot know of it self such things as belong to Testimony to discover the best Eyes in the World may be so accounted because they cannot see Sounds and the best Palate dull and dead because it cannot taste the Sun-Beams But though I have said That Reason cannot of it self immediately prove the Truths of pure Revelation Yet 1. it demonstrates the Divine Authority of the Testimony that declares them and that way proves even these Articles If this be not enough I add thesecond Assertion 2. That Reason defends all the Mysteries of Faith and Religion And for this I must desire it be noted That there are two ways whereby any thing may be defended viz. Either 1. by shewing the manner how the thing is Or if that cannot be done by shewing 2. That it ought to be believed though the manner of it be not known For instance if any one denies That all sorts of Creatures were in the Ark under pretence that it is impossible they should be contained within such a space He that can shew how this might be by a distinct enumeration of the kinds of Animals with due allowance for the unknown Species and a computation of the particular capacity of the Ark he defends the Sacred History the first way But if another denies the conversion of Aaron's Rod into a Serpent upon the same account of the unconceivableness of the manner how it was done this cannot indeed be defended the former way But then it may by representing that the Power of God is infinite and can easily do what we cannot comprehend and that we ought to believe upon the credit of the Testimony that being well proved to us though the manner of this miraculous performance and such others as it relates be unknown And as it is in this last case so it is in all the Mysteries of Faith and Religion Reason cannot defend them indeed the first way But it doth the second by shewing That the Divine Nature is infinite and our Conceptions very shallow and finite that 't is therefore very unreasonable in us to indeavour to pry into the Secrets of his Being and Actions and to think that we can measure and comprehend them That we know not the Essence and Ways of acting of the most ordinary and obvious Things of Nature and therefore must not expect throughly to understand the deeper Things of God That God hath revealed those Holy Mysteries unto us and that 't is the highest reason in the World to believe That what be saith is true though we do not know how these things are These are all Considerations of Reason and by the proposal of them it sufficiently defends all the Mysteries that can be proved to be contained in the Sacred Volume and shews that they ought to be received by us though they cannot be comprehended Thus if any one should ask me How the Divine Nature is united to the Humane and declare himself unwilling to believe the Article till he could be satisfied how My answer would be in short That I cannot tell and yet I believe it is so and he ought to believe the same upon the credit of the Testimony though we are both ignorant of the Manner In order to which I would suggest that we believe innumerable things upon the evidence of our Senses whose Nature and Properties we do not know How the parts of Matter cohere and how the Soul is united to the Body are Questions we cannot answer and yet that such things are we do not doubt And why saith Reason should we not believe God's Revelation of things we cannot comprehend as well as we do our Senses about Matters as little understood by us 'T is no doubt reasonable that we should and by proving it is so Reason defends all the Propositions of Faith and Religion And when some of these are said to be above Reason no more is meant Than that Reason cannot conceive how those things are and in that sense many of the Affairs of Nature are above it too Thus I have shewn how serviceable Reason is to Religion I am next to prove That II. Religion befriends it And here I offer some Testimonies from the Holy Oracles to make that good and in them we shall see how God himself and Christ and his Apostles do own and acknowledge Reason I consider 1. that God Isa. 1. 18. calls the rebellious Israelites to reason with him Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord and by Reason he convinceth the People of the vanity of Idols Isa. 44.9 And he expostulates with their Reasons Ezek. 18. 31. Why will ye die O ye House of Israel And Mich. 6. 3. O my People what have I done unto thee And wherein have I wearied thee Testifie against me He appeals unto their Reasons to judge of his proceedings Isa. 5. 3. And now O inhabitants of Jerusalem and Men of Judah judge I pray you between me and my vineyard are not my ways equal and are not your ways unequal In this he intimates the competency of their Reasons to judge of the equity of his Ways and the iniquity of their own And 2. our Saviour commands the Disciples of the Pharisees to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's implying the ability of their Reasons to distinguish between the things that belonged to God and those that appertained to Caesar. And he in divers places argues from the Principles and Topicks of Reason From that which we call à majori ad minus from the greater to the less John 13. 14. He shews it to be the duty of his Disciples to serve their Brethren in the meanest Offices and to wash one another's feet because he had washed theirs Vers. 14. inforcing it by this consideration of Reason For the Servant is not greater than his Lord Vers. 26. and useth the same John 15. 20. to shew that they must expect Persecution because He their Lord was persecuted And Luke 12. 23. He endeavours to take them off from carking care and sollicitude about Meat and Raiment by this consideration from Reason That the Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment intimating that God having given them the greater there was no doubt but he would bestow the less which was necessary for the preservation of it To these Instances I add some few from the Topick
is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other from the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can no more aim or guess at their Projects and Designments than the gazing Beast can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general But I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise That the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same Person that makes all the Compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of Darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable Design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the Circle of their own Nature and Government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated Nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get Vassals to pay him homage and to be employed like Slaves in the services of his Lusts and Appetites to gratifie which desire 't is like it may be allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked Spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular Servants and Attendants whom he can catch in such Compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are ours by the allowance of our Laws and those Slaves that a Man hath purchas'd are his peculiar Goods and the Vassals of his Will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing Fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and flattering Promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilely employed there in the Works of their Profit and Advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Ship-board and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate those he deals with in this kind till Death hath lanâ—…h'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the Matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which destroys the Pretence That the Design is inconceivable X. BVt X. we are still liable to be question'd how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practice in this kind upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and every-where be driving on the Project which the vileness of Men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their Lusts. To which among other things that might be suggested I return 1. That we are never liable to be so betrayed and abused till by our vile Dispositions and Tendencies we have forfeited the care and oversight of the better Spirits who though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of Evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by Malice Envy and desire of Revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and sollicitations of those Wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very sutable And if there be particular Guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no Man is obnoxious to those Projects and Attempts but only such whose vile and mischievous Natures have driven from them their protecting Genius Against this dereliction to the power of Evil Spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist directs that Prayer Psal. 71. 9 10. Cast me not off in the time of old Age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latin Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him 2. 'T is very probable that the stare wherein they are will not easily permit palpable Intercourses between the bad Genii and Mankind since 't is probable that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this World Or it may with as great likelyhood be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious Bodies into a visible consistence and such Shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this Action their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot well be without a painful sense And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why Appearing Spirits are commonly in such hast to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender Vehicles which I confess holds more in the Apparitions of Good than of Evil Spirits most Relations of this kind describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the Wicked Ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the Bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more feculent and gross and so nearer allied to palpable Consistencies and more easily reduceable to Appearance and Visibility At this turn I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis That Spirits are embodied upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded And therefore I hold my self obliged to a short account of that supposal It seems then to me very probable from the Nature of Sense and Analogy of Nature For 1. we perceive in our selves that all Sense is caus'd and excited by Motion made in Matter and when those Motions which convey sensible Impressions to the Brain the Seat of Sense are intercepted Sense is lost So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoin'd from all Matter 't is not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing For how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt without Vital Union with Matter 't is not possible to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem sutable to the
the plain things they are taught without busie intermedling in Speculative Opinions and things beyond their reach Such a Liberty of Judgment as this they taught and such was necessary for the Age in which the Minds of Men were inthrall'd by the Masters of Sects and the Opinions then stil'd Orthodox from which it was accounted Heresie and Damnatiou to recede So that nothing could be done to set them at large from those vain Fancies and Ways till they were perswaded to examine them with freedom and indifference and to conclude according to the Report of their Faculties They knew That Truth would have the advantage could it but procure an impartial Tryal That the False Doctrines and Fanatical Practices of the Times would be detected and sham'd were it not for the superstitious straightness that supprest all Enquiry and that those Old Truths that were exploded with so much abhorrence would in all likelyhood gain upon the Judgments and Assents of all that were free and durst to be inquisitive On such accounts they prest the Liberty of Judgment and in a time when it was very seasonable and no hurt could directly arise from it Since 2. They taught and urged much modesty together with it and allow'd not Dogmatical Affirmations but in things that were most fundamental and certain They consider'd That our Understandings at best are very weak and that the search of Truth is difficult that we are very liable to be imposed on by our Complexions Imaginations Interests and Affections That whole Ages and great Kingdoms and Christian Churches and Learned Counsels have joyn'd in Common Errors and obtruded false and absurd Conceits upon the World with great severity and flaming Zeal That much Folly and great Non-sense have many times generally obtain'd and been held for certain and Sacred That all Mankind are puzled and bafled in the disquisition of the seeming plainest and most obvious things In the Objects of Sense and Motions of our own Souls That in earnest we cannot tell How we speak a Word or move a Finger How the Soul is united to the Body or the Parts of Bodies to one another how our own were framed at first or how afterwards they are nourish'd That these nearest things and a thousand more are hid from our deepest Enquiries Thus they consider'd often and fill'd their Thoughts with a great sense of the narrowness of humane Capacity and the Imperfections of our largest Knowledge which they used not to any purposes of unwarrantable Scepticism or absolute neutrality of Judgement but to ingage their Minds to a greater wariness in Enquiry and more shiness of Assent to things not very clear and evident to more reservedness in their Affirmations and more modesty in their Arguings After this manner they practised themselves and thus they discours'd to others and nothing could be more proper for those times in which everyone almost was immoderately confident of his own way and thereby rendred insolent in his Dictates and incurable in his Errors scornful to opposite Judgments and ready to quarrel all Dissenters So that the World was hereby fill'd with Animosity and Clamours whereas modesty in Opinions would have prevented those Mischiefs and it was taught by those Men as the likelyest way of Cure For there is no hopes either of Truth or Peace while every one of the divided thinks himself infallible But when they come to grant a possibility of their being out in their Beloved Tenents there is something then to work upon towards their better Information But 3. there was still less danger in the Liberty they promoted for as much as they practised and perswaded much prudence to be us'd in the publishing of their Tenents They allowed not any declaration of private Sentiments when such a Declaration might tend to the disgrace or dissettlement of Legal Appointments or any Articles of the Establish'd Religion provided there were no Idolatry or direct Heresie in the things injoin'd But believ'd and taught That Men ought to content themselves with their own Satisfactions in the Supposed Truths they have discover'd without clamorous Disputes or Wranglings And though in the large compass of Enquiry they took and the Considerations they had of all sorts of Idaea's that enter into the various Minds of thinking Men it could not be but that they should have several Apprehensions different from vulgar Thoughts Yet they were very cautious in discovering their Conceptions among the illiterate and unqualified They had no delight in speaking strange things or in appearing to be singular and extraordinary They were not so fond of their own Opinions as to think them necessary for all others Nor were they infected with the Common Zeal to spread and propagate every Truth they thought they knew No they consider'd there were Truths which the World would not bear and that some of the greatest would be receiv'd here with the bitterest contempt and derision So that to publish would be but to expose them to popular scorn and themselves also Their main Design was to make Men good not notional and knowing and therefore though they conceal'd no practical Verities that were proper and seasonable yet they were sparing in their Speculations except where they tended to the necessary vindication of the Honour of God or the directing the Lives of Men They spoke of other Matters of Notion only among their known Friends and such as were well prepar'd able to examine and dispos'd to pardon or receive them Among these they discours'd the greatest freest Speculations with as much liberty in their Words as in their Thoughts and though they differ'd in many Notions yet those Differences did nothing but serve the pleasure of Conversation and exercise of Reasoning They begot no estrangements or distasts no noise or trouble abroad Such was the prudence that They practised and taught and this also was very proper for those Times when every Man vented his Conceits for Articles of Faith and told his Dreams for Revelations and then pretended he was extraordinarily enlightned and strove to make Proselites and quarrel'd with all that did not embrace his Fancies and separated from the Communion of the Church and endeavour'd to involve the World in Hurries and Distractions and all this for the sake of a few pittiful needless sensless Trifles In such a time this prudent Spirit and Practice was singularly seasonable and useful But though they were thus cauteous and wary about Theories more remote and not necessary yet they were not altogether indifferent to what Men believ'd and thought No They were concern'd and zealous against the Fanatick Conceits and Humours of the Age which were the occasions of so much Folly Irregularity and Disturbance And my next Business is to declare in some great Instances how they demeaned Themselves in opposing of them This was the second thing I undertook to relate namely Their particular endeavours in the Affairs of Religion But before I fall on it I must declare to you That They had not any
what he had related before concerning Faith and the false notions of it among the Fanites and then said Justification is either taken for the making us just or the dealing with us as if we were such And that Faith is taken as a single Grace viz. The belief of the Gospel or complexly as it comprehends all the rest viz. The whole body of Holiness Having premis'd which necessary distinctions He told me That Faith in the single acception of it was the great instrument of the Gospel to make us just and so justified in the proper Physical sense But that as it compriseth the other Graces it justifies in the forensick and less proper sense viz. That God deals with the Faithful namely those that are sincerely obedient to the Gospel as if they had been strictly and perfectly just and had fulfill'd his Laws By the help of which short and plain state of the controversie methought I saw clearly into the whole matter and was free'd from many perplexities and confusions in which I was wont to be involv'd And being thus inform'd of the principles of those Divines in those chief heads of Doctrine I had a curiosity to have an account of their mind concerning the Form of Ecclesiastical Government about which there had been so much stir in our European parts of Christendom and therefore intreated him to represent their opinion to me in this subject To which he answer'd me thus The Antient Form of Church Government in this Island ever since the plantation of Christianity in it hath been Episcopal But of later years it was very much hated and opposed by the Ataxites who set up new Modells every sect it 's own fancy as the only divine Government and Discipline of Christ So that the Scriptures were rack'd and every little word and point forc'd and many subtilties of interpretation suborn'd to declare for the beloved imagination and then the whimsie was voted to be of divine right and the only Scripture-Government and the advancing of it made no less then the Interest of Gods Glory and the promoting of Christs Kingdom On the other side the antient Government was decry'd as superstitious Church Tyranny Humane Invention a limb of Antichrist to be extirpated root and branch by a thorow Godly Reformation In which design as I told you they succeeded to the subversion both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical state But when they had destroy'd they knew not how to build for they could never agree upon the Platform to be erected in the room of that which they had subverted For every Sect was for setting up it 's own frame and every one had a different Model from every other and each was confident that it's Form was Christs Institution and so by no means to be receded from in the least point The effects of which were endless Animosities Hatreds and Struglings against each other and the greatest rage and violence of them altogether against the Church of Bensalem and all Episcopal constitutions Amidst these Bandyings some Antifanatick Divines taught That there was no reason to think that any particular Model was prescrib'd in Scripture so as to be unalterable and universal That it was necessary there should be a Government in the Church That the Apostles had appointed General Officers and General Rules such as God's Glory Edification Decency Order avoidance of Offence and the like but that it did not appear they had determined the particular Circumstances and Form That there was no express command of them and that the plea of Apostolical example could it be made out would not hold for an universal Law to the Church in all ages except where there was some intrinsick necessary goodness in the things practised or some annext Precept to inforce it That there was neither of these in the present case and therefore they urged That the Form and Circumstances of Government was to be left to the Ruling Powers in the Church to be order'd by them so as should seem best to suit with the General Rules and Ends of Government By the means of which Principles Foundation was lay'd for Peace and Obedience and that age was prepared for the reception of the old Legal establish'd Government when it should be restored Concerning This those Divines taught That it was of all the most venerable Form and greatly to be rever'd for its Antiquity Vniversality and the Authority it had from Apostolical Practice and our Fundamental Laws That on these and other accounts it was infinitely to be prefer'd and chosen before any new-fangled Model upon the score of which declarations and discourses in the Ataxites times great complaint was made by them among the foolish Zealots of their party that the Vniversities were over-run with a Prelatical spirit than which nothing was more odious in those days But the prudent men took no notice of their clamours but went on with the design of propagating such sober Principles as tended to the healing of the Nation When the publick Government of the Church was restor'd They most chearfully put themselves under it and submitted to its Orders heartily upon the belief of its being the most Primitive Catholick Prudent Legal Government in the world I Have now said the Governour past over the particulars in which you desir'd to be inform'd much more might have been said of them but I know your own thoughts will improve these suggestions which are enough to give light to the main Notions I returned him my humble acknowledgements for the care and pains he had taken to satisfy and inform me in these and the other heads of those Mens Doctrines To which he answer'd That it was a great pleasure and satisfaction to him if he had given me any content by his relation and then will'd me that if there were ought in the Theological part that I had any query about I would propose it freely For said he we have a little time more to spare in talking of this first General if you have any curiosity to be inform'd further of any thing belonging to it I answer'd that he added to his favours by the liberty of Questioning he was pleased to allow me and that I had one thing more to desire a few words of if he so pleas'd which was what Way of Preaching those Divines followed This said He I should have minded my self and am very glad you remember me of it You must know then continued He That there was not a greater diversity in any thing in Bensalem in the Age of which I now speak than in the Modes of Preaching of which amongst other evils this was one and not the least That the people distasted and contemn'd all the Doctrines and Instructions that were not deliver'd after their own fashion though otherwise never so seasonable and wholesome and inordinately admiring their own men who spoke in the Phrase and Mode that they fancied they vilified and despis'd those others that us'd another method though it were never so