starve with Meat before them if it be not put into their Mouths whereas those whose Kind breed on the Ground can never be taught to gape for their Food but so soon as batch't betake themselves to seek out and pick up their food These I say with a thousand Instances of the like nature are evident Marks of a Providential Wisdom because they are Rational Actions many of them at least perform'd not accidentally but constantly by Irrational Agents Understanding being got by a Series of Experiments Observations or Information therefore it is some old Arts are improv'd some quite lost some new ones found out but all meer Animals act the same yesterday and to day thus far they always went and no farther which fully proves they were originally compell d and limitted to act according to their Kind and had nothing to do with Will or Reason It may be objected That several sorts of Animals are very dâ—cible Creatures and learn several things by the Discipline of Mankind which wou'd make one ready to think that those Creatures have some degrees of Reason To which I say thus far is prov'd that those Creatures do act artificially and for ends without Deliberation and Knowledge and those being the chief ends for which they were made we cannot reasonably suppose that they shou'd blindly act that part and yet have the use of Reason in things of lesser moment It must therefore be concluded that the utmost extent of their Ability is to do and not to know and therefore tho' by the Impressions made upon the Senses they may be forced to do what their Nature is capable of doing yet this is all from the Senses and Reason but begins where the Senses end To do and to know why we do proceed from different Principles 't is true the most docible Creatures may mimick several things they see Men do yet can they give us no Indication that they know why or to what end they do them for that their Souls being Corporeal it follows necessarily that all their Motions must be made either by an External or Internal Force or Impulse whereas Will and Reason can be no other than the Powers of a self-moving Principle which is a spiritual immaterial Essence Sense and Imagination can conceive nothing but what is Corporeal and the highest Conceptions which depend on Sense amount no higher than Imagination which likewise is unable to receive any other than Corporeal Idea's Nor can it reflect or make any Conclusions about what it perceives So that Brutes may very well be thus far endow'd without any such thing as a Rational Exertion For a farther Explanation hereof I shall give you the Descriptton of a Learned Man of the Mechanic Process by which Brute Animals come by all their Habits and that acquir'd seeming Knowledge which tho' in some degrees it surpasses their Natural Instincts is however most strictly ty'd to Sense and Imagination When the Brain saith he in the more perfect Brutes grows clear and the Constitution of the Animal Spirits becomes sufficiently lucid and defaecated the Exteror Objects being brought to the Organs of the Senses make Impressions which being from thence transmitted for the continuing the Series or Order of the Animal Spirits inwards towards the streaked Bodies affect the common Sensory and when as a sensible impulse of the same like a waving of waters is conveyed farther into the callous Body and thence into the Cortex or shelly substance of the Brain a Perception is brought in concerning the Species of the thing admitted by the Sense to which presently succeeds the Imagination and Marks or Prints of its Type being left constitute the Memory but in the mean time whilst the sensible Imprâ—ssion being brought to the common Sensory â—ffects there the Perception of the thing felt as some direct Species of it tending farther creates the Imagination and Memory so other reflected Species of the same Object as they appear either Congruous or Incongruous produce the Appetite and local Motions its Executors that is the Animal Spirits looking inwards for the Act of Sension being struck back leap towards the streaked Bodies and when as these Spirits presently possessing the beginnings of the Nerves irritate others they make a Desire of flying from the thing felt and a Motion of this or that Member or Part to be stirred up then because this or that kind of Motion succeeds once or twice to this or that Sension afterwards for the most part this Motion follows that Sension as the Effect follows the Cause and according to this manner by the admitting the Idea's of sensible things both the knowledge of several things and the habits of things to be done or of local Motions are by little and little produced For indeed from the beginning almost every Motion of the animated Body is stirred up by the Contact of the outward Object viz. the Animal Spirits residing within the Organ are driven inward being stricken by the Object and so as we have said constitute Sension or Feeling then like as a stood sliding along the banks of the shoar is at last beaten back so because this waving or inward turning down of the Animal Spirits being partly reflected from the common Sensory is at last directed outwards and is partly stretched forth even into the inmost part of the Brain presently local Motion succeeds the Sension and at the same time a Character being affixed on the Brain by the sense of the thing perceiv'd it impresses there Marks or Vestigia of the same for the Phantasie and the Memory then affected and afterwards to be affected but when as the Prints or Marks of very many Acts of this kind of Sensation and Imagination as so many Tracts or Ways are ingraven in the Brain the Animal Spirits oftentimes of their own accord without any other forewarning and without the presence of an Exterior Object being stirr'd up into Motion forasmuch as the fall into the footsteps before made represent the Image of the former thing with which when the Appetite is affected it desiring the thing objected to the Imagination causes spontaneous Actions and as it were drawn forth from an inward Principle As for Example sake The Stomack of an Horse feeding in a barren Ground or Fallow-land being incited by Hunger stirs up and variously Agitates the Animal Spirits flowing within the Brain the Spirits being thus moved by accident because they run into the footsteps formerly made they call to mind the former more plentiful Pasture fed on by the Horse and the Meadows at a great distance then the imagination of this desirable thing which at that time is cast before it by no outward Sense but only by the Memory stops at the Appetite that is the Spirits implanted in the streaked Bodies are affected by that Motion of the Spirits flowing within the middle part or marrow of the Brain who from thence presently after their formerly accustom'd manner enter the Origines of the Nerves and
our Souls may operate and be capable of Pleasure and Pain when separated from Body For if the Soul were no more than a Crasis of the Body it wou'd be capable of no other Distemper than what arises from the Compression or Dilatation of Matter or from the Obstruction and Turgescency of Humors Since therefore we find it subject to Maladies which spring meerly from Moral Causes and which are no more curable by the Prescripts of Physicians than the Stone or Gout are to be remov'd by a Lecture in Philosophy we have sufficient Cause to believe it of an Incorporeal Nature Farther The Essences of Things are best known by their Operations and the best guess we can make of the Nature and Condition of Beings is from the Quality of their Actions while therefore by contemplating our selves we find that we do elicite Actions which do exceed the Power of Matter and the most subtil Motion of Corporeal Particles we have all imaginable ground to think that we are possessed of a Principle Immaterial as well as Intellectual He who considers that there is not one perfect Organ in the Humane Body but the Parallel of it is to be met with in the noblest sort of brute Animals and yet that there are divers Operations performed by Men that no Beast whatever is capable of doing the like must need apprehend that the Rational Soul is not a Corporeal Faculty nor a Contexture of Material Parts To prove this we have already instanc'd in the Acts of Intellection viz. 1. The Acts of simple Apprehension 2. Acts of Judgment 3. Acts of Ratiocination 4. Acts of Reflection 5. Acts of Correcting the Errours and Mistakes of the Imagination And lastly Acts of Volition or those whereby we choose and refuse by a Self-determinating Power according as things are estimated remaining exempt from all Coaction and Necessitation by the Influence of any Principle foreign to it All these are impossible to Matter because that acts always according to the swing of Irresistible Motion nor can it be courted or solicited to Rest when under the forcible Impulse of a stronger Movent So that whatever insensibility you may fancy of a Soul divested of Corporeal Organs you will experience that as the Body is unconcern'd in any thing but Sensation there will remain a Power of Exerting those Superiour Acts and Faculties which have no relation thereunto and consequently a Capacity to suffer Pain or Pleasure the Rewards and Punishments of a well or ill spent Life for it is not Sense but Reflection that wounds the Conscience Sense it 's true may divert the Pain but can never make it and when Death puts an end to sensible Diversions the never-dying Worm may lash without controul In fine if bad Men were sure to undergo no other Pains or Horrors and if the good were sure to receive no more Joys or Pleasures till the Resurrection than proceed out of the Heaven or Hell they carry with them and from the certain and constant Expectations of another that might be sufficient if well consider'd to deter Men from Vice and to encourage them to Righteousness but the Scriptures intimate more and plainly inform us that the Souls of bad Men are immediately upon Death translated to a place of Torment and the Souls of the Good to a place of Joy and Happiness whether those Places are what we generally understand by Heaven and Hell or whether or no the Completion of our Happiness or Misery shall precede the ultimate Judgment will not certainly be determined till we make the Experiment Thus Sir having given you my own together with the more weighty Opinions of other Men as to the Business of Religion I hope the Light set up in your Understanding will put you upon Embracing what upon a serious attention to the same you find unquestionable I am far from insinuating the Necessity of an implicite Faith or perswading you to shut your Eyes and leave the rest to your Guide God Almighty has made you a reasonable Creature and if you make a right use of that Divine Prerogative you need not fear a secure Passage into the Harbour of solid Happiness What pains soever some may take absolutely to exclude Reason from having any thing to do in Divinity or however lightly they may esteem it this will be found certain that we have no surer Pilot when we first set out to keep us from the Rocks of Atheism on the one side and from Superstition Polytheism and Idolatry on the other or indeed any other Director to secure us from making Shipwrack of our Faith than the pure Acts of our unprejudiced Understandings which I call right Reason A Superficial Knowledge may raise some unhappy Doubts and a light smattering especially in some kinds of Philosophy may draw us into the danger of Infidelity with respect to our Immortality but all this we may be freed from by the Exercise of a true Judgment and a solid Enquiry in Physicks or after the Nature and true Causes of Things will with no other difficulty more than serious attention and application help us to dispel those Errors of our Intellects It is not enough what some Men think that a Man is able to account for some of the Appearances in Nature by the Aristotelian Doctrine of Qualities and Forms or the Cartesian of Geometrick Principles and then in a foolish Exultation to cry out Inveni or boast that there is nothing so abstruse but will admit of a Mechanic Explanation To give an Instance 'T is not sufficient that out of a Lecture upon the Opticks we explicate the manner of Vision by saying that the Figure and Colour of a visible Object make the Base of an imaginary Cone which is composed of a multitude of visual Rays and instantly convey'd through a lucid Medium to the Superficies of the Beholders Eye where a Section of the Apex of that Cone is refracted by the several Waters and Tunics and the Figure of the said Object being inverted by the Crystalline Humour is in the same posture lodged in the Retina from whence it is convey'd into the common Sensory Again It suffices not that in hearing we judge that different Percussions do beget infinite Spheric Figures of Aerial Motions which every where spread themselves till they meet with some harder Body that makes resistance which suppose to be the Ear in the Cavity of which the foresaid Figures of Aerial Motions suffer several reverberations and then make a percussion upon the Tympanum or Drum a nervous and pellucid Membrance of exquisite Sense and from thence are convey'd into the Brain However consentaneous these Conjectures may be to the Truth they are all I say too short of Satisfactory or Compleat Accounts there are yet insuperable Difficulties behind and we must expect perpetual Disputes about the Matter and Modification both of the visible and audible Species But admitting these also were fairly decided that Light Colours and Images are the same
of the Humane Soul and whatever else belongs to the Science of Metaphysics which teacheth us to abstract from all Matter and Quantity Nay I presume it will not be accounted Paradoxical in me to affirm that Immaterial Objects are most genuine and natural to the Understanding especially since Cartes hath irrefutably demonstrated that the knowledge we have of the Existence of the Supream Being and of our own Souls is more certain clear and distinct than the knowledge of any Corporeal Nature whatever according to that Canon of Aquinas Nulla res qualiscunque est c. The Moral Considerations usually brought in defence of the Soul 's Incorruptibility are principally three 1. The Universal Consent of Mankind 2. Man's inseparable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing evil Men after Death Now as Cicero judiciously observes Omni in re consentio omnium Gentium Lex naturae putanda est and thus the Notion of the Soul's Immortality is so implanted in the Nature and Mind of Man that whoso denies it doth impugn his own Natural Principles As for that common Objection the Alteration observable in Infancy and old Age we may answer with the great Master of Nature at least one so esteem'd by some Innasci autem Intellectus videtur substantia quaedam esse nec corrumpi nam si corrumperetur quidem id maxime fieret ab habitatione illa quae in Senectute contingit nunc autem res perinde fit ac in ipsismet sensuum instrumentis si enim Senex Occulum Juvenilem reciperet non secus ac ipse Juvenis videret unde Senectus non ex eo est quod quidquam passa Anima sit fed quod simile aliquid ac in Ebrietate morbisque eveniat ipsaque intelligendi contemplandi functio propter aliquid aliud interius corruptum marcescit cum ipsum interim cujus est passionis expers maneat Which words consider'd we have good reason to affirm that all that Change which the Epicurean would have to be in the Rational Soul or Mind during the growth of the Body in Youth and decay of it in old Age doth not proceed from any Mutation in the Soul it self but some other Interiour thing distinct from it as the Imagination or Organ of the common Sense the Brain which being well or ill affected the Soul it self suffereth not at all but only the Functions of it flourish or decay accordingly for as the Philosopher remarks if it were possible to give an old Man a young Eye and a young Imagination his Soul would soon declare by exquisite vision and quick reasoning that it was not she that had grown old but her Organs and that she is capable of no more Change from the impairment of the Body than is usually observed to arise pro tempore from a fit of Drunkenness or some Disease of the Brain so that it is evident from hence that whatever Change Men have thought to be in the Soul by reason of that great decay generally attending old Age to not really in the Soul but only in the Imagination and the Organs thereof which are not so well dispos'd as in the Vigour of Life In like manner are we to understand that the Soul when the Members grow cold and mortify'd doth then indeed instantly cease to be in them yet is not cut off by piece-meal or diminisht and gradually dissipated but the whole of it remains in so much of the Body as yet continues warm and perfused by the Vital Heat until ceasing longer to animate the principle Seat of its Residence whether the Brain or Heart it at length bids adieu to the whole and withdraweth it self entire and perfect so that Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and not of the Soul which as Solomon calls it is the brightness of the Everlasting Light the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God and the Image of his Goodness and being but one she can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new The like may be said with relation to those failings observable in swooning fits which fall not upon the Soul but on the Vital Organs at those times render'd unfit for the uses and actions to which they were framed and accommodated and if the Causes of such failings shou'd happen to be so violent as to bring on a sudden Death then the Soul must indeed depart yet not by reason of any dissolution in its Substance or imbecility in it self but for want of those dispositions in the Organs of Life by which she was enabled to enliven the Body Now if saith this Author in such a Thesis or Proposition which is not capable of being evinced by Geometrical Demonstration there can yet be expected such substantial and satisfactory Reasons Physical or Moral as may suffice to the full establishment of its Truth in the Mind of a reasonable Man If this be granted I thence argue that the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature To be convinc'd of our Immortality and satisfactorily perswaded whether or no there is any thing in us which shall not perish with the Life we are shortly to lay down is of so great and so important Consequence that I can readily expect your forgiveness if I trespass upon your Patience and inlarge a little farther upon this weighty Argument That there is somewhat in us essentially differing from distinct and superior to other Animals or that the Rational Soul of Man bears no Analogy with the Souls of other Creatures is farther elegantly toucht upon in these words of Dr. Willis The Eminency of the Rational Soul above the Brutal or Corporeal shines clearly by comparing either both as to the Objects and to the chief Acts or Modes of Knowing As to the former whenâ—â— every Corporeal Faculty is limited to sensible Things the Object of the Humane Mind is every Ens whether above or sublâ—mary material or immaterial true or fictitious real or intentional The Acts or Degrees of Knowledge common to either Soul are vulgarly accounted these three to wit Simple Apprehension Enunciation and Discourse How much the power of the Rational excels the other which is Corporeal we shall consider 1. The knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul is Phantasie or Imagination which being planted in the middle part of the Brain receives the sensible Species first only impressed on the Organs of Sense and from thence by a most quick irradiation of the Spirits deliver'd inwards and so apprehends all the several Corporeal Things according to their Exterior Appearances which notwithstanding as they are perceived only by the Sense which is often deceived they are admitted under an appearing and not always under a true Image or Species for so we imagine the Sun no bigger than a Bushel the Horizon of the Heaven and the Sea to meet
cum dividi quod si non pâ—ssit non pâ—ssit interire There is a very remarkable Account I have somewhere read of one whom we might reasonably believe if he had ever heard of such a thing as Priestcraft was above the reach of its Infection and too well acquainted with the Knowledge of Material Powers at least in his own Conceit to admit or suffer an Imposition upon his Reason not to keep you in suspense 't is Aristotle I mean of whom Averroes one of his Commentators gives this Encomium Complevit Artes Scientias nullus corum qui secuti sunt cum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille quingentorum Annorum quidquam addidit nec invenies in ejus verbis Errorem alicujus quantitatis talem esse vertutem in Individio uno Miraculosum Extraneum existit haec Dispositio cum in uno Homine reperitur dignus est esse divinus magis quam humanus In another place he speaks thus Landemus Deum qui seperavit hunc Virum ab aliis in perfectione appropriavitque ei ultimam dignitatem humanam quam non omnis Homo potest in quacunque aetate attingere Again saith he Aristotelis Doctrina est summa veritas quoniam ejus Intellectus fuit finis humani Intellectus quare bene dicitur de eo quod ipse fuit creatus datus nobis ut non ignoremus possibilia sciri Yet this wonderful Philosopher if we may credit this Character who has set so many Learned Men contesting about his Principles and diving into his Opinion of the great Soul of Man notwithstanding he had thought of all the subtil Subterfuges his Wit could devise to evade acknowledging its distinct Subsistence and amongst others had invented for he owns himself its first Broacher that impossible Notion of the Worlds Eternity yet is it reported of him that he was so fully convinc'd of the separate Being of his own Soul that immediately before his Exit he is said earnestly to have cry'd out to this purpose En dubitans vixi moriensque Animae quid accidet sum ignotus Tu ergo Domine Essentiarum 〈◊〉 Miserere mei I hope now the preceding Passages will in some measure convince you of this great Truth That it has been not only the Opinion of particular Men but a kind of Universal Belief in Mankind that their Soul's wou'd survive their Bodies and that the very Ethnicks themselves who were capable of an abstracted Speculation and thoroughly acquainted with the Powers of their own Minds have by Evidence from Natural Light subscrib'd this Confession either openly in words or secretly by their apparent Doubts and Fears of a Life to come To conclude Let me request you when your Soul is the least ruffled with Anxiety or Perturbation and your rational Faculties with Sensual Delights and Satisfactions when your Mind is most serene most Calm and Lucid to divest your self but for some few Moments of all gross Ideas and material Images and perhaps by the free and considerate Exercise of some Reflex Act that Intuitive Knowledge may so inlighten your Understanding as I hope to convince you that the Rational and Thinking Part of you which enjoys this great Prerogative must be infinitely above the Powers of Matter under whatever Modification and that your Capacity to know things by this kind of Reflection which have no manner of Relation to Material Idea's neither yet are represented in the Brain by any Corporeal Image is perfect Demonstration that there are Beings of a Spiritual Incorporeal Nature that your Superiour or Rational Soul is of this Class infuâ—â—â—â—â— thereinto by the Almighty Author of all Things I remain my very good Friend most affectionately Yours London Jan. 30. 1691 POSTSCRIPT THat the preceding Discourse may be the more entertaining I have here taken an opportunity of presenting you with an Epitomy of the Sentiments of two famous Men. The Hypotheses are both new or at least were never as I have heard deliver'd to us before in such Regular Systems the First is that of Monsieur Malebranch where discoursing of our Sensations he endeavours to establish the following Notion That they are neither such as we have all along accounted them nor do they at all reside in those Parts we have supposed or to speak more intelligibly That our Sense whether of Heat Colours Tasts Sounds c. is nothing real in the Object nor yet in the Part which is believ'd the Sentient To instance in one of these that upon the approach of your Hand to the Fire the Heat you apprehend is neither in the Fire nor in your Hand but a pure Modification of your Soul it self which is thus variously modefy'd by the Supream Being at the presentment of the several Objects In his Explaining this he takes notice to us that in this approach of the Hand to the Fire there is nothing but an invisible Motion in the Fire or Hand in the former by the continual Expulsion of igneous Particles against the Fibres of the Hand and in the Hand a Motion or Division of the same Fibres by the intrusion of the fiery Particles And thus saith he that we may not neglect the Care and Preservation of the several Parts of our Bodies it hath pleased the Almighty Maker of them to new modifie our Souls after so wonderful a manner that when any Danger approaches which wou'd prejudice their make or structure we shou'd apprehend our Pains and Disorders and feel them as it were in those places where the Danger lyes without conceiving at the same time the Modification of our Souls and this will hold in every of our Sensations which are nothing real any where unless in the Soul it self This may now inform us that we should be very cautious in giving Credit to the Testimony of our Senses which do for the most part involve us in most of our Mistakes for these are not given us to inform us of the Truth of Things but only as they stand related to the Preservation of our Bodies That this Argument may be enforced with a farther Perspicuity here is another signal Instance of the general Errors into which amongst the other Senses our Sight betrays us in reference to Light and Colours When we have lookt upon the Sun for some time this is what passes in our Eyes and in our Souls and these are the Errors we fall into Those who know the first Elements of Dioptricks and any thing of the admirable Structure of our Eyes are not ignorant that the Rays of the Sun are refracted in the Crystaline and other Humours and that they meet afterwards upon the Retâ—â—â— or Expansion of the Optic Nerve which as it were furnishes with Hangings all the bottom of the Eyes even as the Rays of the Sun which pass through a Convex Glass meet together in the Focus at two three or four Fingers breadth distant in proportion to its convexity Now Experience shows that if one
Substance that the Rays which cause the visible Species are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body repercussed in their going forth and reflected variously here and there according to Gassendus or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air and as it were by inkindling them render them luminous and these at length others and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation which is the more probable Opinion if we may credit Dr. Willis Farther Admitting in the Case of Hearing that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies after the manner described or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound in a word admitting the rest of the Senses the Touch the Smell and Taste and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body might after some such manmer be explor'd by the Corpuscular Philosophy yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers and judges so exquisitely of each of these Sensations must it self be independent both of Matter and Mechanism How then is it possible for any Man without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding when he has made this Enquiry and satisfy'd himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions how is it I say that this shou'd incline a Man to Atheism unless contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience he were resolv'd that way or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all or one no better viz. Chance or Fortune So that to deal freely I can do no less than believe with a Modern Philosopher That whoever does profess Philosophy and thinks not rightly of God may be judg'd not only to have shaken hands with Religion but with his Reason also and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity The sum of this Argument lyes here That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious On the other hand to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable So that to put the Cause upon this Issue let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us whether it be to do Good or Evil Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion or that in any manner inclines us to Vice we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation but if on the contrary it appear that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Vertue and that any Pretence either to the one or to the other not built on Rational Principles may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisie thâ—n certainly 't is our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures 't is this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion and when by our Reason we are perswaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired which as is intimated before we have abundant Reason to believe we must then let our Faith take place and not only assent unto those things which we can account for but even of those also which tho' not contrary to are above our Reason and must be acknowledg'd to surmount our Apprehension The Belief of a God of his Providence and of future Rewards and Punishments is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion but the Foundation of that Faith lyes in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind All the Certainty saith the pious Father Malebranch which we can have in Matters of Faith depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason I may answer with a very Ingenious Man That by Reason is to be understood that steddy uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled so far I mean as they are able to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions and thereupon to pronounce them true or false There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men occasion'd by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves and the different Representation of Things from without but the Light by which all things are discerned is universally one and the same The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights it wou'd be impossible for one Man by any Representation whatsoever to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may injoy it can only be of authority and useful to themselves or at most it can be only so far useful and of authority to others as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it All Matters of Religion even as all other Affairs of Humane Life are to be handled by Men in reference to one another in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him of our Selves and of the Relation we stand in to Him and to our fellow Creatures The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things whatsoever that Cause be I call it God and the Idea that we have of this powerful â—â—cing arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that
we discern in the Things that are for he that gave those Perfections unto these Things must needs have an inexhaustable Fountain of Perfection in Himself By the Being then of God I mean the first Principle of all Things He that made all Things what they are and endow'd them with all their different Powers and Vertues from whence I conclude him to be a Being absolutely perfect My own Existence is a Self-evident Principle No Reflection can give unto a Philosopher any greater Assurance of his own Existence than the intimate Perswasion that every Plowman has of his without Study or Meditation Now the Idea that Men have of themselves is twofold Material and Immaterial The Material part of Man is his Body which is evidently subject to the general Laws of Matter and liable to all the Mutations that are incident to other Material Beings The Immaterial part is his Mind which discovers it self in his Capacity of Thinking and Reasoning for Thought exceeds the power of Matter that therefore which thinks viz. the Mind or Soul of Man is not material and by consequence not subject to the Laws of Matter nor lyable to the Mutations that are incident to Matter but capable of a Subsistence notwithstanding any Alteration or Dissolution that shall happen to the parts of his Body This Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul has been understood and believed by the generality of Heathen Philosophers in consequence of their own Reflections and Ratiocinations long before the Evidence that has been since given of it unto Mankind by the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And therefore the Belief that the ancient Philosophers had of the Soul's Immortality is an undeniable proof that it is a Notion discoverable by the Light of Nature because they who had no other Light cou'd not otherways have discover'd it The Relation that Men stand in towards one another is chiefly observable in the mutual Necessity that all Men have of one anothers Assistance and Succour it being hardly possible for any Man to subsist at all but absolutely impossible to subsist comfortably without borrowing Help from others These are the Circumstances in which Mankind is born into the World and we are placed in these Circumstances by God Almighty the Universal Cause and Principle of all Things so that whatsoever we are led unto by the Necessity of these Circumstances is in effect a Duty imposed on us by the Eternal and Unalterable Law of God towards whom we stand first related as to a Benefactor from whom we have received our Being together with our present Enjoyments and our Capacity of any farther Enjoyment whatsoever Next as to a Lawgiver or Governour by whom we are obliged to the observance of certain Rules or Ordinances unto which he has subjected us If we consider singly the Idea that we have of our own Being the Rule that Results from thence for our Conduct is That we must not degenerate from the Dignity of our Nature but must therefore bridle and govern all the Appetites and Passions that arise from our Corporeal Constitutions according to the genuine Dictates of those nobler Faculties of Ratiocination and Judgment wherewith our Maker has endow'd our Minds If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards one another the Law of God obliges us indespensably to Truth Equity Charity Benevolence and to every thing which tends to the Settlement of Societies or to the general Welfare of Mankind for every particular Man's greatest Interest being involved in the Interest of the whole the Observance of such Things as tend to the general Good is every particular Man's Duty and is not to be transgrest for the sake of any lesser or private Advantage If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards God his Law requires our Acknowledgment Gratitude Love Dependance Submission or in one word our humblest Adoration of his Infinite Perfections The Observance of these Rules is a Duty Incumbent upon Mankind by the said Law of God the breach of any of them is a breach of God's Law an Offence against the Law-maker or a Sin Laws are of no vigour unless inforced by Rewards and Punishments which are therefore to be proportion'd to the Nature and Degree of the Observance and Transgression of the Laws The Observance and Transgression of God's Laws by Mâ—n whose Bodily Actions depend upon the inward Motions of his Mind consist not in any Machinal Acts of the Body but in the voluntary Motions and Intentions of the Mind and therefore the Rewards or Punishments of such Observance and Transgression are chiefly to be conferr'd or inflicted upon the Mind or Soul of Man and that after the full Course of his Actions either good or bad is accomplisht which is to say in the future state of the Soul after its Separation from the Body In the Belief and Sense of these general Truths and in the Practise of the Duties that result from them according to their full Extent and Tendency consists all true Religion Whatsoever else is introduced into any Religion either National or Practical I say whatever does not necessarily flow from some of these Branches or tend to enforce the Observance of them is no essential part of true Religion but rather the product of Design and Folly Every Man then is answerable unto God the Supream Lawgiver for his own particular Conduct in every Branch of these Duties as they relate either to God to his Neighbour or to himself This I take to be the pure Language of Impartial Reason unassisted by Revelation and they seem indeed to be the most Natural Inferences which can be drawn from truly Rational Propositions whatever false Deductions or Conclusions some Mens false Judgments have invented for the support of their wretched Cause the Fallacy is soon detected and a stricter Inquisition will soon lay open the grand Absurdities of their mischievous Opinions But truly 't is plain enough tho' some Men may be reputed a sort of Reasoning Atheists yet the much greater part of them are Infidels by Imitation and so far from being able to oppose the Truth of the Divine Being the Certainty of Reveal'd Religion or their own Immortality that they scarce ever gave themselves time to consider seriously the meaning of the Words These have no quarrel with Religion on the Account of its Truths not being firmly enough establisht but their Pique proceeds from hence that they fear it will lay them under a Necessity of putting a Check to their Exorbitant Desires and hinder them in the Pursuit of their Vitious Inclinations To Conclude If after all that can be said however Rational or true you will notwithstanding go about to perswade your self that all is but a meer Dream or Imposture that there is no such Excellent Being as is supposed to have Created and to Preserve us but that all about us is dark sensless Matter driven on by the blind Impulse of Fatality that Men at first sprung up out
and Conceptions to which the Body gave no occasion so the Body is the Spring and Fountain of several Functions over which the Soul hath no Dominion nor any direct influence they remain as much distinct nothwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done shou'd we suppose them to have had an Existence previous to their Confederations or as they shall be after the dissolution of the Lâ—â—gue between them From all which it may be Scientifically concluded That they are distinct and different Principles in Man's Constitutâ—on but whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum or they to be stiled Parts will be resolv'd into a meer Longomachy or Chat about Words tho' to speak my own Mind I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the Appellation of Compositum and the Soul and Body be allow'd for Constituent Parts Nor thirdly doth the Cartesian Hypothesis tho' the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon fully satisfie an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us their Hypothesis is briefly this That God in his infinite Wisdom chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Beings 1. Some purely Material which through difference of the Figure Size Number Texture and Modification of their Parts come to multiply into many different Species 2. Some purely Immaterial among whom whether there be any Specifical Difference is Pro and Con disputed 3. Man a Compositum of both having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joyned to an Organical Body Now say they God having in his Soveraign Pleasure thought good to form Man such a Creature he hath not only by an uncontroulable Law confined the Soul to an intimate Presence with and constant Residence in the Body while it remains a fit Receptacle or till he give it a discharge but withal hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their Operations and in this mutual dependence of one upon the other with respect to many of their Operations they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist for through the Impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sence there result in the Soul certain Perceptions and on the other hand through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits and thus say they by the Action of each upon the other and their Passion from one another they are formally united But all this instead of loosing the Knot serves only to tye it faster For 1. this Mutual Dependancy as to Operation of one upon the other cannot be apprehended but in Posteriority of Nature to Union and consequently the formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it 2. There are Cases wherein neither the Impressions of outward Objects upon the Sensory Nerves beget or excite any Perceptions in the Soul which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind or intense Contemplation alike answers my drift and also Cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind make not any sensible Impressions upon the Body as in Extasies and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved which argues that it imports more than either an intimous Presence or a Dependance between them in point of Operation 3. 'T is altogether unintelligible how either a Body can act upon a Spirit or a Spirit upon a Body I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so but the manner of doing it or indeed how it can be done is not intelligible That a Tremour begot in the Nerves by the jogging of Particles of Matter upon the Sensory Organs shou'd excite Cogitations in the Soul or that the Soul by a meer Thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits and determine through what Meatus's they are to steer their Course is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly non-plust How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jogg to or receiving a shove from it shou'd either impress a Motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable so that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal Action upon and Passion by and from one another is to fix it in that which supposeth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be Now if common Unions of whose Reality and Existence we are so well assur'd be nevertheless with respect to their Nature not only so unknown but unconceivable we may lawfully presume if their lye nothing else against the immediate Union of Believers with Christ save that it cannot be comprehended that this is no Argument why we should immediately renounce the Belief of it If we can but once justifie that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith if we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason as to the reality of other Unions whose Modes are as little understood I see no cause why the Veracity of God provided we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony shou'd not satisfie us as to the Reality of the Union tho' the manner how it is were a question we cou'd not answer and indeed if Men will not be huff't and talk'd out of the perswasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reason ascertain them tho' they cannot answer all the Difficulties they are accosted with in their Enquiries about them much less ought Christians to be hector'd out of the Belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the Conception of them 't is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God tho' it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are the highest Assurance of the Reality of any thing is God's affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent unto its Truth tho' we can frame no adaequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our own Conceptions Our Saviour himself hath adjourned the perfect knowledge of this Mystery till the glorified state in these words At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Thus far you have had the Thoughts of the before-mention'd Author which I shall leave you to consider seriously at your leisure the Subject is indeed noble how despicably soever it may be treated by the Libertine whose Belief is stagger'd because he himself is not possest of what he has slighted and contemned and for that he finds himself at liberty to live as he listeth I must own indeed that it is scarce possible for one Man to infuse such Idea's into another as may be able to perswade that other that he himself is a Partaker of such a Spiritual Refreshment and Divine Consolation as nothing less than the Divine Gaace can communicate to his Soul and on this account I have the less admir'd that both Paelagius Socinus and their Adherents have gain'd so