Deluge as that described by Moses was altogether incredible and that there never was nor could be any such thing Nothing was talk'd of among them under Mathematical Demonstrations of the falshood of it which they vented with all imaginable Triumph and would needs have it that they had here sprung a fresh and unanswerable Argument against the Authentickness of the Mosaick Writings which is indeed what they drive at and a Point they very fain would gain For if the Pen-man of the first book in the Bible be found tripping then the Credit of all the rest falls to the ground we may justly question their Fidelity yea deny whatever they say And so the Bible falls and with it all our Religion and with that necessarily a Deity which is the thing ultimately aimed at I do not say by the first Hand from whence these Notions came for I charitably hope better things of so Learned a Person especially since he hath shew'd himself not unwilling to retract them but by those ill-minded men who make their Markets of these Opinions All that I will add here is this that if according to a Learned Doctor of the Sorbon it be a very dangerous Paradox to presume to deny that the Pentateuch was composed by Moses and accordingly Hobbes and Spinosa are condemn'd by him for using Arguments to that purpose then surely it must be much more dangerous and pernicious to hold that any part of Moses's Writings is mere Forgery and Fiction i. e. was designed only to comply with the Ignorant Iews at that time and doth not contain matter of fact I have said something of this nature in another place and on another account but I never had occasion before to represent it as an unhappy Handle which Atheistically disposed Persons may lay hold upon Wherefore let those who are Philosophically disposed take warning hence and forbear to prefer their own precarious Hypotheses before the plain Account which this Inspired Historian gives of those first things in the World Let none presume to represent the Writings of this First Author as false in order to make their own true and thereby to gratifie the worst sort of men I need not say more here because I have already antidoted against the Infection of these two last Heads viz. in those Discourses wherein I have treated of the Authority and Perfection of the Scriptures In the next place Learned Enquirers are apt to give Encouragement to Atheism by an obstinate endeavouring to solve all the Phoenomena in the world by mere Natural and Corporeal Causes and by their averseness to admit of the aid and concurrence of a Supernatural or Immaterial Principle for the production of them The Mechanick Philosophy hath done a great deal of mischief on this account not but that so far as it ought to be made use of it is generally the most excellent because the most plain and sensible way of displaying the Operations of Natural Bodies and it cannot be denied that since This hath been revived and entertain'd there hath been that Improvement in Natural Philosophy which never was thought of before and which could never have been attain'd by the Aristotelian way yet this is to be said with truth and reason that the Great Reviver and Manager of it hath carried it on too far by undertaking to give an account of All Effects and Events in the production of Vegetables and Animals and in the very Formation and Organization of the Body of Man himself by mere Mechanick Principles thereby in a manner ascribing Divinity to Matter and Motion This Great Philosophick Wit over-shot himself here and though it is true he hath otherways viz. by asserting the Notion of Souls or Spirits and by demonstrating the essential and real Difference from Bodies made some part of amends for this yet there are many at this day who make very ill use of this Doctrine Some take occasion thence to believe that Men as well as Brutes are no other than Engines and Machines mere Neurospasts and Senseless Puppets Others build upon this Notion the Conceit of Thinking Matter for if Pores and Particles do all things in the Bodies of Brutes it is probable they serve instead of Souls to those of Humane Race and so a Spiritual and Immaterial Principle is excluded This Philosophy is Vain Deceit and too many are spoil'd by it But they should consider that the Noble French Philosopher himself did not believe all that he wrote Malebranch who was a great Admirer and Defender of him tells us that he never pretended that things were made in that manner that he describes them Yea we have Des Cartes's own word for it I require not any one saith he to believe that Bodies which compose this visible World were ever produced in that way which I have represented them It seems by his own Confession that he was not in good earnest in all the parts of his Philosophy and therefore we may gather that in some of the Particulars aforemention'd he only propounded his Conjectures We might carry this Thought yet farther and observe that the generality of the Modern Philosophers not only Cartesians but others have contributed much to Atheism by referring All things not only in Organiz'd Bodies but in every part of the World and all the Phoenomena that we take notice of in it to a Corporeal Principle and to the Efficiency and Power of this alone Whereas it is certain that there are many things which happen in the World that cannot be solv'd any other way than by the Superintendence of a Spiritual Being There are several wonderful Occurrences which no man can give an account of but by supposing an Almighty Immaterial Agent which is no other than God Thus we must be constrained to repair to an Incorporeal Principle to solve the Cause of the Seas constant Ebbing and Flowing and the Attraction of the Loadstone and the Hanging of the Clouds and many other Phoenomena in Nature for the Accounts that are given are imperfect and inconsistent and do no ways satisfie any Serious Enquirer A man that is not willing to be put off with slight and insufficient Suggestions cannot rest in them as true Causes of those things Only Philosophical men will be assigning some Reasons of things whether they can or no and this is an Inclination which is incident to the best and wisest Naturalists in all Ages But they may as reasonably undertake to shew whence it is that the Sun hath its continual Motion from East to West or as they would rather express it why the Earth wheels about upon its Axis from West to East which yet I do not see attempted by any Philosopher whatsoever and yet there is as much reason for the one as the other So for Gravity that known affection of Bodies whereby they are inclined towards the same Common Center it seems not to be solved by any Principles of Mechanism that have hitherto been propounded whether it
their Affairs to think of a God but in others of a higher Rank and Quality for by Ignorance I mean a wilful and sottish stifling of natural Notions and Impressions And this sometimes prevails in Men of great Parts and Knowledge Think it not strange that I reckon such Persons in the number of the Ignorant for to speak impartially they are so and this was the Sense of the wisest Pagans long since For to have no Knowledge and to stifle it is the same thing which is the Case of these Men they make it their business to choak the innate Principles of their Minds and to disregard those Notices which their Natures suggest to them Thus these Persons are stubbornly and obstinately Ignorant Whatever their Pretences and Boastings be their Atheism proceeds from want of Learning and Wit For 't is not the part of a Learned and Ingenious Man to destroy the Notions of Mankind and pull down what hath been built by the universal Suffrage of the World and in its place to erect a Conceit of his own Some may take such for Brainish and Scholar-like sort of Men but then these are so without Thinking for it is the want of this that makes them what they are Or to say the best of this kind of Men and Atheist is but a half-witted Person He hath perhaps made some Attempts in Science but to little purpose He hath attain'd to some slight and trivial Notions but hath not penetrated into the heart of Things and thence it comes to pass that he is full of Doubts and Cavils which he is able to raise but he hath not Skill and Ability enough to answer them Wherefore it was excellently said of my Lord Bacon A little Philosophy inclines mens minds to Atheism but depth in Philosophy brings mens minds about to Religion and a Deity Thus though this mis-shapen Monster would be thought to be the genuine issue of True Wisdom and Sound Knowledge yet it is really the daughter of an Affected Ignorance Wherefore to secure your selves against Atheism be careful that you blind not your minds willingly receive the rays of light into your souls cherish all sound notions and conceptions and by all proper methods bring your selves to a right understanding and steady embracing of all the Fundamental Principles of your Religion II. There is great Disingenuity and unhandsome Dealing in the case else we should not have so much Atheism Here I will prove that they do not act fairly but that they are Ungenteel which perhaps will affect these Persons more than any thing that I can say What they are willing and forward to grant in other matters and on other occasions they refuse to grant here yea they utterly deny it though there be the same reason for one as the other This plainly appears by their Objections As first they tell us they have no Sensible Notices of a God and therefore they can't admit of it for all the knowledge say they which we have of things is deriv'd to us from Sense But here we see that these Men are Partial and Disingenuous for they will not deny that there are many things which they judge not of by Sense they grant that the swiftness of Motion oftentimes out-runs the nimblest Sense and the Observation of the quickest eye yet they do not deny the Motion it self The Element of Air in which the daily converse is not seen nor is it heard or felt unless when 't is extraordinarily moved and disturbed which is but seldom nor will they say they taste it and 't is as certain that they cannot smell it for this is only the Vehicle of Smells but is not it self the object of that sense and yet these nice Gentlemen do not deny the Existence of the Air. They can by none of their Senses discern the Motion of the Sun Moon and Stars or as perhaps they think it most proper to say the Earth and yet there is not a man of them that denies that they move It can't be determin'd by Sense whether the Sun be bigger than it appears to be and therefore Epicurus who was a great Man for Sense held it was of no greater dimension than it seems to the Eye to be yea of no greater heat in it self than it seems to the Feeling to be here on Earth And the Atheistical Poet who borrow'd his Notions from him was of the same mind Nec nimio solis major rota nec minor ardor Esse potest nostris quà m sensibus esse videtur Lucret. lib. 5. This is certain that the things that are least discernible act most The Animal Spirits which do all the great things in our bodies are themselves Imperceptible They are the Insensible and Invisible Parts as Spirits Wind Subtile matter Exhalations which being agitated do the chiefest Exploits in Nature There are Fine Particles and Atoms diffused through all bodies whatsoever and these are the cause of Sense and Motion in Animals by help of these Minerals Plants and all Vegetables are brought to perfection These Invisible Agents effect strange things and act most wonderfully in the World The Nutritious Iuyce in the Nerves if we may credit the famous Glisson is of mighty use and influence yet as he confesses himself there are no Cavities to be seen to convey it and none of this Succus is ever discern'd in the dissecting of Animals Notwithstanding this some Physicians of the most piercing Judgment have granted whatever they do now the real being of it And in other Instances it might be shewed that Sense is not always made a Judge even in sensible Objects but we gather the being and operation of them from Reason and Discourse This the persons whom we are now dealing with do not deny but even practise it themselves and are willing to allow of it Why therefore are they so void of Ingenuity and fair-dealing as not to admit of the same in the case that is before us Why do they most irrationally deny a God because they do not apprehend him by Bodily sense whenas they judge not of some other things by Sense nay though they be proper objects of it This is a plain proof of these mens wilful Prejudice and Partiality especially if I add that God is infinitely farther removed from our most exalted Apprehensions than the Sun of which we spoke before is from this Earth This Glorious Sun dwelleth in that light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath see or can see Secondly they tell us that there are Great Difficulties in conceiving a God and they are loth to swallow these down and more especially the notion of a Spirit i. e. a Being that is void of Matter and Body is too hard to be conceiv'd by them and therefore seeing we hold God to be a Spirit they can form no conception of him I will reply to both the parts of this Objection distinctly and first as to the General Cavil That this notion is
Property and is the very Life and Soul of the explicatory part of the Doctrine of the Deity is peremptorily pronounced by them to be a Contradiction It is well known Socinus and Crellius and others of this Party deny God's Immensity i. e. his being present every where as to his Essence and Nature All of them agree that he hath not a Knowledge and Foresight of every thing that happens in the World for future Contingencies are hid from him Particularly Socinus largely argues against this Praescience and tells us that he is to be laugh'd at that asserts the contrary Nay it is farther observable that this great Patriarch of the present Cause disowns the Immaterial or Spiritual Nature of God as may be undeniably gather'd from his Exposition of Iohn 4. 24. and other Passages in his Writings And he is followed by Crellius as is manifest from that Account which this latter gives of a Spirit when he speaks of the Nature of God He doth not make it to be any thing above a refined body a substance void of all gross matter such as the Air or Aether is So that when these men call God a Spirit their meaning is that he is a Fine and Tenuious sort of Matter not that he is wholly Incorporeal and altogether free from Matter This is the same with Mr. Hobbs's Corporeal God Thus four of the Chief Attributes of the Deity viz. Self-Existence Omnipresence Omniscience and Spirituality are either in whole or in part rejected Whereupon I ask this Question Whether these things do not discover a Tendency to say no more in the Anti-Trinitarians to that which I am charging them with For to assert a God and yet to deny some of his Choicest Properties whereby we know him to be God is in effect the same with denying a Deity If they distinguish between the English and Foreign Socinians as I perceive they do and tell us that the former do not assert the things before mention'd I answer the very English Prints avouch the first of those Particulars and as for the rest they being the Doctrine of the Chief Patrons of the Socinian Cause yea and of the Most of them the English Unitarians are involved in them because those Foreigners are the greatest and most substantial part of that Body of men call'd Socinians Thus the Trinitarian Scheme of Religion drawn up by some English Socinians of late is thought by them to touch all the Trinitarians else it could not be stiled the Trinitarian Scheme though every individual Trinitarian doth not hold all those things mentioned there Let them apply this and they will have nothing to object And further I would argue from their own avowed Principle which is that they are to admit of nothing but what is exactly adjusted to Nature's and Reason's Light nothing but what is entirely clear and evident for though it is true some Socinian Writers of late have laid aside this Notion and truly we may observe that they are shifting every day their Arguments and so we know not where to have them yet he that is acquainted with the Writings that make up the main Body of Socinianism knows full well that this is a Principle constantly asserted and maintain'd by the generality of them and upon all occasions insisted upon This hath been the Stanch Notion of the Great Dons of the Party and of the famous Socinus himself And Slicktingius though he seems indeed sometimes to be otherwise perswaded yet comes to this at last that the Trinity is a Doctrine that can't be borne because it can't be understood And why do Crellius and others argue from Reason and Logical Arguments against the Trinity if they do not refuse the Doctrine upon the account of Reason And it is certain they would not do this if they were not perswaded that these things in Religion must be adjusted to Natural Reason and that they are displeased with the Doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation c. because these are not exactly squared to their Natural Notions You see then what is the sentiment of the Greatest Rabbies of this way and therefore we must make our estimate of the Socinian or Antitrinitarian Doctrine from these and not from one or two Modern Writers This I think will be granted by all men of reason But what if it doth appear that even the very English and Modern Socinians though they seem to wave this Principle do yet retain it and govern themselves by it Else why do they complain that they have no conception of the Trinity as the Trinitarians represent it to them they cannot form an idea of it it is a notion that excites no idea's in their minds it is against Reason and Natural Light We are advised by the Modern Pen-men to consult our Reason about the thing in question and if we do so we shall find an absolute impossibility in the Trinitarian Doctrine our Reason will assure us that an Almighty Father and an Almighty Son are most certainly two Gods and that two Creators can be no other than two Gods Therefore we may and we must infer that the explication of the first Verses of St. John 's Gospel which advance such a Doctrine is certainly false Again the English Socinians tell us that the Doctrine of the Trinity clashing altogether with our natural idea's can be no matter of Revelation and therefore ought not to be believ'd And hear their Final and Resolute Determination which fully speaks their absolute adherence to this Principle We abide by this Argument here we fix our foot never to be removed that the inconsistence of the Trinity as well as the Incarnation with Reason and Natural Knowledge being undeniably evident therefore this Doctrine can have no real foundation in Divine Revelation that is to say in Holy Scripture And we find that our English Unitarians argue from Reason in this Point and they declare that they cannot believe it because Reason doth not teach it Thus we find that the bottom of all is the Trinity and such like Doctrines are above their Reason and Natural Idea's and therefore they are no matter of their Faith This is it which the Reverend Person before named charges these men with in a great part of his Sermon and certainly he would not have done it if there were no such persons in being It is too plain that there are such and I think I have proved it from their own mouths The sum of their Opinion and resolution if this that there is nothing difficult and abstruse in Religion and that they will not believe any thing in Christianity but what they can make out by Reason otherwise it must be discarded presently Now to apply this Principle of the Antitrinitarians we are assured that we cannot by searching find out God Job 11. 7. his Infinite Nature and Immense Essence are not commensurate to our Conceptions are not adjusted to our Idea's but are far