other And upon other Accounts it seems to have much the advantage of both of them As will appear to the unprejudiced in what is further to be discoursed of Finally therefore If the urgers of the Letter of Genesis of either side against this Hypothesis would but consider That the Souls that descend hither for their praevarication in another state lye in a long condition of silence and insensibility before they appear in terrestrial bodies each of them then might from the doctrine of Praeexistence thus stated gain all the advantages which he supposeth to have by his own opinion and avoid all those alsurdities which he seeth the other run upon If the Asserters of daily Creation think it clear from Scripture that God is the Father of Spirits and immediate maker of Souls they 'l find the same made good and assented to in this Hypothesis And if they are unwilling to hold any thing contrary to the Nature of the soul which is immortal and indiscerpible the Doctrine of Praeexistence amicably closeth with them in this also And if the Patrons of Traduction would have a way how sin and misery may be propagated from our first Parent without aspersing the divine Attributes or affirming any thing contrary to the phaenomena of Providence and Nature this Hypothesis will clear the business It giving us so fair an Account how we all dye in Adam without blotting the Wisdom Justice or Goodness of God or affirming any thing contrary to the Appearances of Nature I have been the longer on this Argument because 't is like to be one main objection And we see it is so far from prejudicing that it is no inconsiderable evidence of the truth of Praeexistence And now besides this that I have named I cannot think of any Arguments from Scripture against this Doctrine considerable enough to excuse a mention of them However if the candid Reader will pardon the impertinency I 'le present to view what I find most colourable Therefore 2 It may be some are so inadvertent as to urge against our souls having been of old that Sacred writ says We are but of Yesterday which expression of divine Scripture is questionless to be understood of our appearance on this stage of Earth And is no more an Argument against our Praeexistence than that other phrase of his Before I go hence and Be no more is against our future existence in an other state after the present life is ended Nor will it prove more the business it is brought for than the expression of Rachels weeping for her Children because they were not will inferr that they were absolutely nothing Nor can any thing more be made 3. Of that place in Ecclesiastes Yea better is he than both they meaning the dead and living which hath not yet been since besids that 't is a like scheme of speech with the former it seems more to favour than discountenance Praeexistence for what is absolutely nothing can neither be worse nor better Moreover we coming from a state of silence and inactivity when we drop into these bodies we were before as if we had not been and so there is better ground in this case for such a manner of speaking than in meer non-appearance which yet Scripture phraseth a Not being * And now I cannot think of any place in the Sacred volume more that could make a tolerable plea against this Hypothesis of our Souls having been before they came into these bodies except 4. Any will draw a negative Argument from the History of the Creation concluding that the Souls of men were not made of old because there is no mention there of any such matter To which I return briefly That the same Argument concludes against the being of Angels of whose Creation there is no more say'd in the first story than of this inferiour rank of Spirits Souls The reason of which silence is commonly taken to be because Moses had here to do with a rude and illiterate people who had few or no apprehensions of any thing beyond their senses and therefore he takes notice to them of nothing but what was sensible and of common observation This reason is given also why minerals were omitted 'T were an easy matter to shew how the outward cortex the Letter of this History is adapted to mean and vulgar apprehensions whose narrowness renders them incapable of sublimer speculations But that being more than needs for our present purpose I shall forbear to speak further of it I might 2 further add that great and learned Interpreters tell us that all sorts of Spirits Angels and Souls are symbollically meant by the creation of heaven and light And if it were directly in the way of our present business it might be made appear to be no improbable conjecture But I referr him that is curious in this particular to the great Restorer of the antient Cabbala the Learned Dr. H. More in his conjectura Cabbalistica And now from the consideration of the silence of the first History we descend to the last and most likely to be urged scruple which is to this purpose 5. We are not to step beyond the divine Revalations and since God hath made known no such Doctrine as this of the Souls Praeexistence any where in his word we may reasonably deny it or at least have no ground to imbrace it This is the most important objection of all the rest and most likely to prepossess timorous and wary inquirers against this Hypothesis wherefore I conceive that a full answer to this doubt will prevent many scrupulous Haesitations and make way for an unprejudic'd hearing of what I have further to alledge in the behalf of this opinion And 1. I wish that those that urge Scripture silence to disprove praeexistence would consider how silent it is both in the case of Daily Creation and Traduction we have seen already that there is nothing in Sacred writ to warrant either but only such Generals from which the respective Patrons of either Doctrine would inferr their own conclusion though indeed they all of them with better right and congruity prove Praeexistence 2. I suppose those that argue from Scripture-silence in such cases mistake the design of Scripture which is not to determine points of speculation but to be a rule of Life and Manners Nor doth it otherwise design the teaching of Doctrinals than as they have a tendency to promote the divine life righteousness and Holiness It was never intended by it's inspired Authors to fill our Heads with notions but to regulate our disorderly appetites and affections and to direct us the way to a nobler happiness Therefore those that look for a systeme of opinions in those otherways-designed writings do like him that should see for a body of natural Philosophy in Epictetus his morals or Seneca's Epistles 3. Christ and his Apostles spoke and writ as the condition of the persons with whom they dealt administred occasion as as did also the other pen-men
Therefore doubtless there were many noble Theories which they could have made the world acquainted with which yet for want of a fit occasion to draw them forth were never upon Record And we know sew speculative truths are deliver'ed in Scripture but such as were called forth by the controversies of those times And Praeexistence was none of them it being the constant opinion of the Jews as appears by that Question Master was it for this man's sin or his Fathers that he was born blind which supposeth it of the Disciples also Wherefore 4. There was little need of more teaching of that which those times were sufficiently instructed in And indeed as the case stands if Scripture-silence be Argumentative 't wil be for the advantage of Praeexistence since it being the then common opinion and the disciples themselves being of that belief 't is very likely had it been an errour that our Saviour or his Apostles would have witnest against it But there being not a word let fall from them in disapproval of that opinon though sometimes occasions were administred as by the Question of the Disciples and some other occurrences 't is a good presumption of the soundness of it Now that Praeexistence was the common opinion of the Jews in those times might be made good with full and convictive evidence were it worth our labour to insist much upon this Inquiry but this being only a by-consideration a brief touch of it will suffice us One of the great Rabbins therefore * Mr. Ben Israel in his Problems de Creatione assures us that Praeexistence was the common belief of all wise men among the Jews without exception And the Author of the Book of Wisdom who certainly was a Jew probably Philo plainly supposeth the same Doctrine in that Speech For I was a witty Child and had a good Spirit wherefore the rather being good I came into a body undefiled As also did the Disciples in their Foremention'd Question to our Saviour For except they supposed that he might have sinned before he was born the Question had been sensless and impertinent Again when Christ askt them whom men said he was they answered that some said John the Baptist others Elias others Jeremias or one of the Prophets which sayings of theirs suppose their belief of a Metempsychosis and consequently of Praeexistence These one would think were very proper occasions for our Saviour to have rectified his mistaken followers had their supposition been an errour as he was wont to do in cases not more considerable Therefore if the enemies of Praeexistence will needs urge Scriptures supposed silence against it they have no reason to take it amiss if I shew them how their Argument recoyls upon themselves and destroy their own cause instead of their Adversaries 5. Besides there were doubtless many Doctrines entertain'd by the Apostles and the more learned of their followers which were disproportion'd to the capacities of the generality who hold but little Theory There was strong meat for the more grown and manly Christians as well as milk for babes and weaker Constitutions Now Scripture was designed for the benefit of the most and they could little understand and less make use of a speculation so remote from common conceit as Praeexistence Among us wise men count it not so proper to deal forth deep and mysterious points in Divinity to common and promiscuous Auditories Wherefore the Apostles and others of their more improv'd and capable disciples might have had such a Doctrine among them though it were never expresly defined in their publick writings And the Learned Origen and some other of the Antients affirm that Praeexistence was a Cabbala which was handed down from the Apostolick ages to their times and we know those were early and had therefore better advantages of knowing the certainty of such a Tradition than we at so vast a distance Nor need any wonder how it came at length to be lost or at least kept but among a few who considers the grossness of succeeding ages when such multitudes could swallow the dull and course Anthropomorphite Doctrines much less if he reflects upon that black night of barbarick ignorance which spread it self over this western world upon the incursion of those rude and unciviliz'd Nations that ' ore-ran the Empire out of which darkness 't was the work of some Centuries to recover the then obscured Region of Civility and Letters Moreover it would allay the admiration of any one inquisitive in such researches when he shall have taken notice of the starting up and prevailing of School-Divinity in the world which was but Aristotles Philosophy theologiz'd And we know that Philosophy had the luck to swim in the general esteem and credit when Platonism and the more antient wisdom a branch of which Praeexistence was were almost quite sunk and buried So that a Theology being now made out of Aristotelian principles 't is no wonder that Praeexistence was left out nothing being supposed to have been said of it by the great Author of that Philosophy and his admiring Sectators were loath to borrow so considerable a Theory from their Masters neglected Rival Plato But 6 at once to remove this stone of offence out of the way I think Scripture is not so silent in this matter as is imagin'd And I 'm confident more can be said from those divine writings in behalf of Praeexistence than for many opinions that it's opposers are very fond of and think to be there evidently asserted And had this been a commonly received Doctrine and mens Wits as much exercised for the defence on 't as they have been for the common dogmata I nothing doubt but that Scriptures would have been heaped up in abundance for it's justification and it would have been thought to have been plainly witnest too in the inspired volume For as mens phancies will readily furnish them with a proof of that of whose truth they are strongly prepossessed So on the contrary they 'l be very backward to see any evidence of that which is strange to them and which hath alwaies been reputed an Absurdity But my Scripture-evidence is not so proper for this place I intending to make it an Argument by it self Therefore if the urger of this objection will but have a little patience till I come so far on the way of my discourse I hope he may be satisfied that Praeexistence is not such a stranger to Scripture as he conceits it CHAP. V. Reasons against Praeexistence answered Our forgetting the former state is no argument to disprove it nor are the other Reasons that can be produc'd more conclusive The proof of the possibility of Praeexistence were enough all other Hypotheses being absurd and contradictious But it is prov'd also by positive Arguments NOw therefore to proceed let us look back upon our progress and so enter on what remains We have seen that God could have created all Souls at first had he so pleased and that he hath revealed nothing
and supposeth a conflict Therefore we say that God is good and holy but not vertuous Take away a possibility of evil and in the Creature there is no moral goodness And then no Reward no Pleasure no Happiness Therefore in sum 5ly The divine Goodness is manifested in making all Creatures sutably to those Idea's of their natures which he hath in his All-comprehensive Wisdom And their good and happiness consists in acting according to those natures and in being furnisht with all things necessary for such actions Now the divine Wisdom is no arbitrary thing that can change or alter those setled immutable Idea's of things that are there represented It lopps not off essential Attributes of some Beings to inâ—culate them upon others But distinctly comprehending all things assigns each Being its proper nature and qualities And the Divine goodness according to the wise direction of the eternal Intellect in like distinct and orderly manner produceth all things viz. according to all the variety of their respective Idea's in the divine wisdom * Wherefore as the goodness of God obligeth him not to make every Planet a fixt Star or every Star a Sun So neither doth it oblige him to make every degree of Life a rational Soul or every Soul an impeccable Angel * For this were to tye him to contradictions Since therefore such an order of Beings as rational and happy though free and therefore mutable creatures were distinctly comprehended in the Divine Wisdom It was an effect of God's Goodness to bring them into being even in such a condition and in such manner as in their eternal Idea's they were represented Thus then we see it is not contrary to the infinite plenitude of the Divine Goodness * that we should have been made peccable and lyable to defection And being thus in our very essential constitutions lapsible 't was no defect in the goodness of our Maker that he did not interpose by his absolute omnipotence to prevent our actual praevarication and apostasie Since his goodness obligeth him not to secure us upon any terms whatever but upon such as may most promote the general good and advantage And questionless 't was much better that such as would wilfully depart from the laws of their blessed natures and break through all restraints of the divine commands should feel the smart of their disobedience than that providence should disorder the constitution of nature to prevent the punishment which they drew upon themselves Since those apostate spirits remain instances to those that stand of the divine justice and severity against sinners and so may contribute not a little to their security And for that long night of silence in which multitudes ofsouls are buried before they descend into terrestrial matter it is but the due reward of their former disobedience for which considering the happy circumstances in which they were made they deserv'd to be nothing for ever And their re-instating in a condition of life and self-injoyment after so highly culpable delinquencies is a great instance of the over-flowing fulness of the divine compassion and benignity Thus then we see That Gods making us lapsible and permitting us to fall is no prejudice in the least to the infinite fecundity of his goodness and his making all things best So that mine Argument for Praeexistence bottom'd on this Foundation stands yet firm and immoveable notwithstanding the rude assault of this objection From which I pass to a fourth CHAP. IX A 4th Objection against the Argument from God's goodness viz. That it will conclude as well that the World is infinite and eternal Answered The conclusion of the second Argument for Praeexistence THerefore fourthly it will be excepted If we may argue from the divine goodness which always doth what is best for the Praeexistence of Souls then we may as reasonably thence conclude that the world is both infinite and eternal since an infinite communication of goodness is better than a finite To this because I doubt I have distrest the Readers patience already I answer briefly 1 Every one that believes the infiniteness of Gods goodness is as much obliged to answer this objection as I am For it will be said infinite goodness doth good infinitely and consequently the effects to which it doth communicate are infinite For if they are not so it might have communicated to more and thereby have done more good than now 't is supposed to do and by consequence now is not infinite And to affirm that goodness is infinite where what it doth and intends to do is but finite will be said to be a contradiction since goodness is a relative term and in God always respects somewhat ad extra For he cannot be said to be good to himself he being a nature that can receive no additional perfection Wherefore this Objection makes no more against mine Argument than it doth against the Infinity of the Divine Goodness and therefore I am no more concern'd in iâ— than others Yea 2 ly the Scripture affirms that which is the very strength of mine Argument viz. That God made all things best Very Good saith our Translation but the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a particle of the Superlative And therefore every one that owns its sacred Authority is interested against this Objection For it urgeth it had been far more splendid glorious and magnificent for God to have made the universe commensurate to his own immensity and to have produced effects of his power and greatness where ever he himself is viz. in infinite space and duration than to have confined his omnipotence to work only in one little spot of an infinite inane capacity and to begin to act but tâ—other day Thus then the late creation and finiteness of the World seem to conflict with the undoubted oracle of truth as well as with mine Argument and therefore the Objection drawn thence is of no validity 3 Those that have most strenuously defended the orthodox doctrine against the old opinion of the eternity and infinity of the world * have asserted it to be impossible in the nature of the thing And sure the divine benignity obligeth him not to do contradictions or such things as in the very notion of them are impossible But in the case of Praeexistence no such thing can be reasonably pretended as above hath been declared and therefore there is no escaping by this Evasion neither Nor can there any thing else be urged to this purpose but what whoever believes the infinity of the divine bounty will be concern'd to answer And therefore 't will make no more against me than against a truth on all hands confessed Let me only add this That 't is more becoming us to inlarge our apprehensions of things so as that they may suit the Divine Beneficence than to draw it down to a complyance with our little schemes and narrow models Thus then I have done with the Argument for Praeexistence drawn from the
and in little mechanical contrivances others love to be riming almost as soon as they can speak plainly and are taken up in small essays of Poetry Some will be scrawling Pictures and others take as great delight in some pretty offers at Musick and vocal harmony Infinite almost are the ways in which this pure natural diversity doth discover it self * Now to say that all this variety proceeds primarily from the meer temper of our bodies is me thinks a very poor and unsatisfying Account * For those that are the most like in the Temper Air Complexion of their bodies are yet of a vastly differing Genius Yea they that have been made of the same clay cast in the same mould and have layn at once in the same natural bed the womb yea whose bodies have been as like as their state and fortunes and their education and usages the same yet even they do not unfrequently differ as much from each other in their genius and dispositions of the mind as those that in all these particulars are of very different condition Besides there are all kind of makes forms dispositions tempers and complexions of body that are addicted by their natures to the same exercises and imployments so that to ascribe this to any peculiarity in the body is me seems a very improbable solution of the Phaenomenon And to say all these inclinations are from custom or education is the way not to be believed since all experience testifies the contrary What then can we conjecture is the cause of all this diversity but that we had taken a great delight and pleasure in some things like and analogous unto these in a former condition which now again begins to put forth it self when we are awakened out of our silent recess into a state of action And though the imployments pleasures and exercises of our former life were without question very different from these in the present estate yet 't is no doubt but that some of them were more confamiliar and analogous to some of our transactions than others so that as any exercise or imployment here is more suitable to the particular dispositions that were praedominant in the other state with the more peculiar kindness is it regarded by us and the more greedily do our inclinations now fasten on it Thus if a Musician should be interdicted the use of all musical instruments and yet might have his choice of any other Art or Profession 't is likely he would betake himself to Limning or Poetry these exercises requiring the same disposition of wil and genius as his beloved Musick did And we in like manner being by the â—ate of our wretched descent hindred from the direct exercising our selves about the objects of our former delights and pleasures do yet as soon as we are able take to those things which do most correspond to that genius that formerly inspired us And now 't is time to take leave of the Arguments from Reason that give evidence for Praeexistence If any one think that they are not so demonstrative but that they may be answered or at least evaded I pray him to consider how many demonstrations he ever met with that a good wit resolv'd in a contrary cause could not shuâ—â—le from the edge of Or let it be granted that the Arguments I have alledged are no infallible or necessary proofs yet if they render my cause but probable yea but possible I have won what I contended for For it having been made manifest by as good evidence as I think can be brought for any thing that the way of new creations is most inconsistent with the honor of the blessed Attributes of God And that the other of Traduction is most impossible and contradictioâ—s in the nature of things * There being now no other way left but Prae-existence if that be probable or but barely possible 't is enough to give it the victory And whether all that hath been said prove so much or no I leave to the indifferent to determine I think he that will say it doth not can bring few proofs for any thing which according to his way of judging will deserve to be called Demonstrations CHAP. XI Great caution to be used in alledging Scripture for our speculative opinions The countenance that Praeexistence hath from the sacred writings both of the old and new Testament Reasons of the seeming uncouthness of these allegations Praeexistence stood in no need of Scripture-proof IT will be next expected that I should now prove the Doctrine I have undertaken for by Scripture evidence and make good what I said above That the divine oracles are not so silent in this matter as is imagined But truly I have so tender a sense of the sacred Authority of that Holy volume that I dare not be so bold with it as to force it to speak what I think it intends not A presumption that is too common among our confident opinionists and that hath occasioned great troubles to the Church and diâ—â—epute to the inspired writings For for men to ascribe the odd notions of their over-heated imaginations to the Spirit of God and eternal truth is me thinks a very bold and impudent belying it Wherefore I dare not but be very cautious what I speak in this matter nor would I willingly urge Scripture as a proof of any thing but what I am sure by the whole tenor of it is therein contained And would I take the liberty to fetch in every thing for a Scripture-evidence that with a little industry a man might make serviceable to his design I doubt not but I should be able to â—ill my Margent with Quotations which should be as much to purpose as have been cited in general CATECHISMS and CONFESSIONS of FAITH and that in points that must forsooth be dignified with the sacred title of FVNDAMENTAL But Reverend ASSEMBLIES may make more bold with Scripture than private persons And therefore I confess I 'm so timorous that I durst not follow their example Though in a matter that I would never have imposed upon the belief of any man though I were certain on 't and had absolute power to enjoyn it I think the only way to preserve the reverence due to the oracles of Truth is never to urge their Authority but in things very momentous and such as the whole current of them gives an evident suffrage to But to make them speak every trivial conceit that our sick brains can imagine or dream of as I intimated is to vilifie and deflowre them Therefore though I think that several Texts of Scripture look very fairly upon Praeexistence and would encourage a man that considers what strong Reasons it hath to back it to think that very probably they mean some thing in favour of this Hypothesis yet I 'le not urge them as an irrefutable proof being not willing to lay more stress upon any thing than it will bear Yea I am most willing to confess the weakness of my Cause in
the solid earth to reach but to a certain and that not very great distance from the surface and 't is obvious this way to give an account of the Phaenomenon * For according to this Hypothesis the gravity of those bodies is less because the quantity of the earth that draws them is so whereas were it of the same nature and solidity to the center this diminution of its bulk and consequently vertue would not be at all considerable nor in the least sensible Now though there are other causes pretended for this effect yet there is none so likely and easie a solution as this though I know it also is obnoxious to exceptions which I cannot now stand to meddle with all that I would have is that 't is a probability * and the mention of the fountains of the great deep in the sacred History as also the flaming Vulcano's and smoaking mountains that all relations speak of are others * Now I intend not that after a certain distance all is fluid matter to the center For the Cartesian Hypothesis distributes the subterranean space into distinct regions of divers matter which are divided from each other by as solid walls as is the open air from the inferiour Atmosphere Therefore I suppose only that under this thick outside there is next a vast and large region of fluid matter * which for the most part very likely is a gross and fetid kind of air as also considerable proportions of fire and water under all which there may be other solid floors that may incompass and cover more vaults and vast hollows the contents of which 't were vanity to go about to determine only 't is very likely that as the admirable Philosophy of Des Cartes supposeth * the lowest and central Regions may be filled with flame and aether which suppositions though they may seem to some to be but the groundless excursions of busie imaginations yet those that know the French Philosophy and see there the Reasons of them will be more candid in their censures and not so severe to those not ill-framed conjectures Now then being thus provided I return again to prosecute my main intendment Wherefore 't is very probable that the wicked and degenerate part of mankind * are after death committed to those squalid subterraneous habitations in which dark prisons they do severe penance for their past impieties and have their senses which upon earth they did so fondly indulge and took such care to gratifie now persecuted with darkness stench and horror Thus doth the divine justice triumph in punishing those vile Apostates suitably to their delinquencies Now if those vicious souls are not carried down to the infernal caverns by the meer congruity of their natures as is not so easie to imagine we may then reasonably conceive * that they are driven into those dungeons by the invisible Ministers of Justice that manage the affairs of the world by Axiom 3. For those pure Spirits doubtless have a deep sense of what is just and for the good of the universe and therefore will not let those inexcusable wretches to escape their deserved castigations or permit them to reside among the good lest they should infect and poyson the better world by their examples Wherefore I say they are disposed of into those black under-Abysses where they are suited with company like themselves and match't unto bodies as impure as are their depraved inclinations Not that they are all in the same place and under the like torments but are variously distributed according to the merits of their natures and actions some only into the upper prisons * others to the Dungeon And some to the most intolerable Hell the Abyss of fire Thus doth a just Nemesis visit all the quarters of the Vniverse Now those miserable prisoners cannot escape from the places of their confinement for 't is very likely that those watchful spirits that were instrumental in committing them * have a strict and careful eye upon them to keep them within the confines of their goal that they rove not out into the regions of light and liberty yea 't is probable that the bodies they have contracted in those squalid mansions may by a kind of fatal magnetisme be chained down to this their proper element Or they having now a congruity only to such fetid vehicles may be no more able to abide the clear and lightsome Air than the Bat or Owl are able to bear the Suns noon-day beams or the fish to live in these thinner Regions This may be the reason of the unfrequency of their appearance and that they most commonly get them away at the approach of light Besides all this some there are who suppose that there is a kind of polity among themselves which may * under severe penalties prohibit all unlicensed excursions into the upper world though I confess this seems nor so probable and we stand in no need of the supposition For though the laws of their natures should not detain them within their proper residences yet the care and oversight of those watchful Spirits who first committed them will do it effectually And very oft when they do appear they signifie that they are under restraint and come not abroad but by permission as by several credible Stories I could make good But for brevity I omit them Now though I intend not this Hypothesis either for a discovery of infallible truth or declarement of mine own opinions yet I cannot forbear to note the strange coincidence that there is between Scripture expressions in this matter some main stroaks of the Orthodox Doctrine and this Philosophical conjecture of the state and place of the wicked 'T is represented in the Divine Oracles as a deep pit a prison a place of darkness fire and brimstone and the going thither is named a descent All which most appositely agree with the representation we have made And the usual Periphrasis of Hell torments fire and brimstone is wonderfully applicable to the place we have been describing since it abounds with fuliginous flames and sulphureous stench and vapours And as we have conjectur'd the lowest cavity is nothing else but a vault of â—â—re For the other expressions mentioned every one can make the application So that when a man considers this he will almost be tempted to think that the inspired writers had some such thing in their fancies And we are not to run to tropes and figures for the interpretation of plain and literal descriptions except some weighty reason force us to such a Refuge Moreover Hell is believed among the Orthodox to have degrees of torments to be a place of uncomfortable horror and to stand at the greatest distance from the seat and habitation of the blessed All which and more that I could reckon up cannot more clearly be made out and explained than they are in this Hypothesis Thus then we see the irreclaimably wicked lodg'd in a place and condition very wretched and calamitous If any of
Members nourished and decays of strength repaired I say the gathering from all these which one would think were a very natural consequence that there is a wise Principle which directs all these Beings unknown to you in their several motions to their several ends supposing the dependence and relations of things to be contingent and arbitrarious were a piece of folly and incogitancy For how can the Order of those things speak a wise and understanding Being which have no relation or respect unto one another but their whole agreement suitableness and proportion is a meer casual issue of absolute and independent Will If any thing may be the cause of any effect and a proportionate mean to any end who can infer infinite Wisdom from the dependence of things and their relations unto one another * For we are to know that there is a God and the Will of that God before we can know the mutual Harmony or Disproportion of things and yet if we do not know these principal respects that things have among themselves it is impossible we should ever come to the knowledge of a God For these are the only arguments that any Logick in the world can make use of to prove any conclusion But suppose we should come to know that there is a God which as I have demonstrated denying the necessary and immutable truth of common Notions and the indispensible and eternal relations of things is altogether impossible However let it be supposed yet how shall we know that these common Notions and principles of natural instinct which are the foundation of all Discourse and Argumentation are certain and infallible Truths and that our Senses which with these former Principles we suppose this Divine Nature to have given us to converse with this outward world were not on purpose bestowed upon us to befool delude and cheat us if we be not first assured of the Veracity of God And how can we be assured of that if we know not that Veracity is a perfection and how shall we know it is so unless there be an intrinsecal relation betwixt Veracity and Perfection For if it be an arbitrarious respect depending upon the Will of God there is no way possible left whereby we should come to know that it is in God at all And therefore we have fully as much reason to believe that all our common Notions and Principles of natural instinct whereupon we ground all our reasonings and discourse are meer Chimaera's to delude and abuse our faculties and all those Idea's Phantasms and Apprehensions of our external senses we imagine are occasioned in us by the preâ—ence of outward objects are meer Spectrums and Gulleries wherewith poor mortals are befooled and cheated as that they are given us by the first Goodness and Truth to lead us into the Knowledge of himself and Nature This is a clear and evident consequence and cannot be denyed by any that doth not complain of darkness in the brightest and most Meridian Light And here you have the foundations laid of the highest Scepticism for who can say he knows any thing when he hath no basis on which he can raise any true conclusions SECT X. That the denying the Eternal and immutable Respects of things frustrates all the noble Essays of the mind or understanding of man THus you see the noble faculties of man his Mind and Understanding will be to no end and purpose but for a Rack and Torture for what greater unhappiness or torment can there be imagined than to have Faculties whose Accomplishment and Perfection consists in a due conformation unto their objects and yet to have no objects unto which they may be conformed to have a Soul unmeasurably breathing after the embraces of Truth and Goodness and after a search and enquiry after one and the other and to find at last they are but â—iery empty and uncertain Notions depending upon the arbitrarious determinations of boundless and independent Will which determinations she sees it beyond her reach ever to come to any knowledge of SECT XI That in the abovesaid denial are lad the Foundations of Rantism Debauchery and all Dissoluteness of Life HEre you have likewise the true Foundations of that we call Rantism for if there be no distinction 'twixt Truth and Falshood Good and Evil in the nature of the things themselves and we never can be assured what is the mind and pleasure of the supream and absolute Will because Veracity is not intrinsecally and ex natura reâ— a Perfection but only an Arbitrarious if any Attribute in the Deity * then it infallibly follows that it is all one what I do or how I live and I have as much reason to believe that I am as pleasing unto God when I give up my self unto all Fâ—â—thiness Uncleanness and Sin when I swell with Pride Envy Hatred and Malice c. as when I endeavour with all my Might and Strength to purge and purifie my Soul from all pollution and deâ—ilement both oâ— Flesh and Spirit and when I pursue the mortification of all my â—arnal Lusts and Inclinations And I have fully as much ground and assurance that the one is the ready Way to Happiness as the other SECT XII That our assurance of future Happiness is quite cut off by the Denying of the Eternal and immutable respects of things ANd this is another branch of this second Absurdity from the denial oâ— the intrinfecal and eternal respects and relations of things that a man would not have any assurance of future Happiness for though it be true indeed or at least we fancy to our selves that God hath sent Jesus Christ into the world and by him hath made very large and ample promises that whosoever believes in him and conforms his life unto his precepts shall be made heir of the same Inheritance and Glory which Christ is now possessed of and invested with in the Kingdom of his Father yet what ground have we to believe that God does not intend only to play with and abuse our Faculties and in conclusion to damn all those that believe and live as is above expressed and to take them only into the Injoyments of Heaven and Hâ—ppiness who have been the great Opposers of the Truth and Gospel and Life and Nature of Jesus Christ in the world For if there be no eternal and indispensible Relation of Things then there 's no intrinsecal Evil in Deceiving and Falsifying in the damning the Good or saving obstinate and contumacious Sinners whilst such notwithstanding any promises or threatnings to the contrary and if the things be in themselves indifferent it is an unadvised Confidence to pronounce determinately on either side Yea further suppose we should be assured that God is Verax and that the Scripture doth declare what is his Mind and Pleasure yet if there be not an intrinsecal opposition betwixt the Being and not Being of a thing at the same time and in the same respect then God can make a thing
dead to their life But the changing of our Earthly Body for an Aereal or Aethereal this is not Death but Reviviscency in which all the energies of the Soul are not depressed but exalted and our Memory with the rest quickened as it was in Esdras after he had drunk down that Cup offered to him by the Angel full of Liquor like Fire which filled his Heart with Understanding and strengthned his Memory as the Text says Thus we see how all Objections against the three Reasons of lapsed Souls losing the memory of the things of the other state vanish into smoak Wherefore they every one of them single being so sound all three put together methinks should not fail of convincing the most refractory of this Truth That though the Soul did pre-exist and act in another state yet she may utterly forget all the Scenes thereof in this Pag. 46. Now if the reasons why we lose the remembrance of our former life be greater c. And that they are so does appear in our Answer to the Objections made against the said Reasons if the Reader will consider them Pag. 50. And thereby have removed all prejudices c. But there is yet one Reason against Pre-existence which the ingenious Author never thought of urged by the Anti-Pre-existentiaries namely That it implies the rest of the Planets peopled with Mankind it being unreasonable to think that all Souls descended in their lapse to this onely Earth of Ours And if there be lapsed Souls there how shall they be recovered shall Christ undergo another and another death for them But I believe the ingenious Author would have looked upon this but as a mean and trifling Argument there being no force in any part thereof For why may not this Earth be the onely Hospital Nosocomium or Coemeterium speaking Platonically of sinfully lapsed Souls And then suppose others lapsed in other Planets what need Christ die again for them when one drop of his Bloud is sufficient to save myriads of Worlds Whence it may seem a pity there is not more Worlds than this Earth to be redeemed by it Nor is it necessary they should historically know it And if it be the Eclipse of the Sun at his Passion by some inspired Prophets might give them notice of it and describe to them as orderly an account of the Redemption as Moses does of the Creation though he stood not by while the World was framed but it was revealed to him by God And lastly it is but a rash and precarious Position to say that the infinite Wisdom of God has no more ways than one to save lapsed Souls It is sufficient that we are assured that this is the onely way for the saving of the Sons of Adam and these are the fixt bounds of revealed Truth in the Holy Scripture which appertains to us Inhabitants on Earth But as for the Oeconomy of his infinite Wisdom in the other Planets if we did but reflect upon our absolute ignorance thereof we would have the discretion not to touch upon that Topick unless we intended to make our selves ridiculous while we endeavour to make others so Chap. 6. pag. 51. Now as the infinite goodness of the Deity obligeth him always to do good so by the same to do that which is best c. To elude the force of this chief Argument of the Pre-existentiaries an ingenious Opposer has devised a way which seems worth our considering which is this viz. By making the Idea of God to consist mainly in Dominion and Soveraignty the Scriptures representing him under no other notion than as the Supream Lord and Soveraign of the Universe Wherefore nothing is to be attributed to him that enterferes with the uncontroulableness of his Dominion And therefore says he they that assert Goodness to be a necessary Agent that cannot but do that which is best directly supplant and destroy all the Rights of his Power and Dominion Nay he adds afterwards That this notion of Gods goodness is most apparently inconsistent not onely with his Power and Dominion but with all his other moral Perfections And for a further explication of his mind in this matter he adds afterwards That the Divine Will is indued with the highest kind of liberty as it imports a freedom not onely from foreign Violence but also from inward Necessity For spontaneity or immunity from coaction without indifferency carries in it as great necessity as those motions that proceed from Violence or Mechanism From whence he concludes That the Divine Will cannot otherwise be determined than by its own intrinsick energie And lastly Forasmuch as no Courtisie can oblige but what is received from one that had a power not to bestow them if God necessarily acted according to his Goodness and not out of mere choice and liberty of Will there were no thanks nor praise due to him which therefore would take away the duties of Religion This is the main of his Hypothesis whereby he would defeat the force of this Argument for the Pre-existence of Souls taken from the Goodness of God Which this Hypothesis certainly would do if it were true and therefore we will briefly examine it First therefore I answer That though the Scriptures do frequently represent God as the Lord and Soveraign of the Universe yet it does not conceal his other Attributes of Goodness and Mercy and the like But that the former should be so much inculcated is in reference to the begetting in the People Awe and Obedience to him But it is an invalid consequence to draw from hence that the Idea of God does mainly consist in Dominion and Soveraignty which abstracted from his other Attributes of Wisdom and Goodness would be a very black and dark representation of him and such as this ingenious Writer could not himself contemplate without aversation and horror How then can the Idea of God chiefly consist in this It is the most terrifying indeed but not the most noble and accomplishing part in the Idea of the Deity This Soveraignty then is such as is either bounded or not bounded by any other Attributes of God If bounded by none then he may do as well unwisely as wisely unjustly as justly If bounded by Wisdom and Justice why is it bounded by them but that it is better so to be than otherwise And Goodness being as essential to God as Wisdom and Justice why may not his Soveraignty be bounded by that as well as by the other and so he be bound from himself of himself to do as well what is best as what is better This consists with his absolute Soveraignty as well as the other And indeed what can be absolute Soveraignty in an intelligent Being if this be not viz. fully and entirely to follow the will and inclinations of its own nature without any check or controul of any one touching those over whom he rules Whence in the second place it appears that the asserting that Gods goodness is a necessary Agent in
it may be so much as the motion of the Earth suppose and Des Cartes his Vortices and the like to be certain Science it is the interest of every National Church to define the truth of no more Theories than are plainly necessary for Faith and good manners because if they either be really or seem to be mistaken in their unnecessary Decisions or Definitions this with those that are more knowing than ingenuous will certainly lessen the Authority and Reverence due to the Church and hazard a secret enmity of such against her But to adventure upon no Decisions but what have the Authority of Scripture which they have that were the Decisions of General Councils before the Apostasie and plain usefulness as well as Reason of their side this is the greatest Conservative of the Honour and Authority of a Church especially joyned with an exemplary life that the greatest Prudence or Politicks can ever excogitate Which true Politicks the Church of Rome having a long time ago deserted has been fain an horrid thing to think of it to support her Authority and extort Reverence by mere Violence and Bloud Whenas if she had followed these more true and Christian Politicks she would never have made herself so obnoxious but for ought one knows she might have stood and retained her Authority for ever In the mean time this is suitable enough and very well worth our noting That forasmuch as there is no assurance of the Holy Ghost's assisting unnecessary Decisions though it were of the Universal Church much less of any National one so that if such a point be determined it is uncertainly determined and that there may be several ways of holding a necessary Point some more accommodate to one kind of men others to another and that the Decisions of the Church are for the Edification of the people that either their Faith may be more firm or their Lives more irreprehensible these things I say being premised it seems most prudent and Christian in a Church to decline the Decision of the circumstances of any necessary point forasmuch as by deciding and determining the thing one way those other handles by which others might take more fast hold on it are thereby cut off and so their assent made less firm thereto We need not go far for an example if we but remember what we have been about all this time It is necessarie to believe that we have in us an Immortal Spirit capable of Salvation and Damnation according as we shall behave ourselves This is certainly revealed to us and is of indispensable usefulness But though this Opinion or rather Article of Faith be but oâ—e yet there are several waies of holding it And it lies more easie in some mens minds if they suppose it created by God at every conception in the Womb in othersome if they conceive it to be ex Traduce and lastly in others if it pre-exist But the waies of holding this Article signifie nothing but as they are subservient to the making us the more firmly hold the same For the more firmly we believe it the greater influence will it have upon our lives to cause us to live in the fear of God and in the waies of Righteousness like good Christians Wherefore now it being supposed that it will stick more firm and fixt in some mens minds by some one of these three waies rather than by either of the other two and thus of any one of the three It is manifest it is much more prudently done of the Church not to cut off two of these three handles by a needless nay a harmful Decision but let every one choose that handle that he can hold the Article fastest by for his own support and Edification For thus every one laying firm hold on that handle that is best fitted for his own grasp the Article will carry all these three sorts of believers saâ—e up to Heaven they living accordingly whenas two sorts of them would have more slippery or uncertain hold if they had no handle offered to them but those which are less suitable to their grasp and Genius Which shews the Prudence Care and Accuracy of Judgment in the Church of England that as in other things so in this she has made no such needless and indeed hurtful Decisions but left the modes of conceiving things of the greatest moment to every ones self to take it that way that he can lay the fastest hold of it and it will lie the most easily in his mind without doubt and wavering And therefore there being no one of these handles but what may be useful to some or other for the more easie and undoubted holding that there is in us an Immaterial and Immortal Soul or Spirit my having taken this small pains to wipe off the soil and further the usefulness of one of them by these Annotations if it may not merit thanks it must I hope at least deserve excuse with all those that are not of too sowre and tetrick a Genius and prefer their own humours and sentiments before the real benefit of others But now if any one shall invidiously object that I prefer the Christian Discretion of my own Church the Church of England before the Judgment and Wisdom of a General Council namely the fifth Oecumenical Council held at Constantinople in Justinians time under the Patriarch Eutychius who succeeded Menas lately deceased to whom Justinian sent that Discourse of his against Origen and his errours amongst which Pre-existence is reckoned one In answer to this several things are to be considered that right may be done our Mother First What number of Bishops make a general Council so that from their Numerosity we may rely upon their Authority and infallibility that they will not conclude what is false Secondly Whether in whatsoever matters of debate though nothing to the Salvation of mens souls but of curious Speculation fitter for the Schools of Philosophers than Articles of Faith for the edification of the people whose memory and conscience ought to be charged with no notions that are not subservient to the rightly and duly honouring God and his onely begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ and to the faithful discharging their duty to man the assistance of the Spirit of God can rationally be expected or onely in such things as are necessary to be professed by the people and very useful for the promoting of Life and Godliness And as Moses has circumscribed his Narrative of the Creation within the limits of Mundus Plebeiorum and also the Chronology of time according to Scripture is bounded from the first Adam to the coming again of the second to Judgment and Sentencing the wicked to everlasting punishment and the righteous to life everlasting so whether the Decisions of the Church are not the most safely contained within these bounds and they faithfully discharge themselves in the conduct of Souls if they do but instruct them in such truths only as are within this compass
revealed in sacred Scripture And whether it does not make for the Interest and Dignity of the Church to decline the medling with other things as unprofitable and unnecessary to be decided Thirdly Whether if a General Council meet not together in via Spiritus Sancti but some stickling imbitter'd Grandees of the Church out of a pique that they have taken against some persons get through their interest a General Council called whether is the assistance of the Holy Ghost to be expected in such a meeting so that they shall conclude nothing against truth Fourthly Whether the Authority of such General Councils as Providence by some notable prodigie may seem to have intimated a dislike of be not thereby justly suspected and not easily to be admitted as infallible deciders Fifthly Whether a General Council that is found mistaken in one point anathematizing that for an Heresie which is a truth forfeits not its Authority in other points which then whether falshoods or truths are not to be deemed so from the Authority of that Council but from other Topicks Sixthly Since there can be no commerce betwixt God and man nor he communicate his mind and will to us but by supposition That our senses rightly circumstantiated are true That there is skill in us to understand words and Grammar and schemes of speech as also common notions and clear inferences of Reason whether if a General Council conclude any thing plainly repugnant to these is the Conclusion of such a Council true and valid and whether the indeleble Notices of truth in our mind that all Mankind is possessed of whether Logical Moral or Metaphysical be not more the dictates of God than those of any Council that are against them Seventhly If a Council as general as any has been called had in the very midnight of the Churches Apostasie and ignorance met and concluded all those Corruptions that now are obtruded by the Church of Rome as Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Worshipping of Images and the like whether the Decisions of such a Council could be held infallible or valid What our own excellently well Reformed Church holds in this case is evident out of her Articles For Eighthly The Church of England plainly declares That General Councils when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore saith she things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Artic 21. Ninthly And again Artic. 20. where she allows the Church to have power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith but with this restriction That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another she concludes Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation What then does she null the Authority of all the General Councils and have no deference for any thing but the mere Word of God to convince men of Heresie No such matter What her sense of these things is you will find in 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Wherefore Tenthly and lastly What General Councils the Church of England allows of for the conviction of Hereticks you may understand out of these words of the Statute They shall not adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresies but onely such as heretofore have been adjudged to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresie by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures By brief reflections upon some of these ten Heads I shall endeavour to lessen the Invidiousness of my seeming to prefer the Discretion of the Church of England before the Judgment of a General Council I mean of such a General Council as is so unexceptionable that we may relie on the Authority of their Decisions that they will not fail to be true Of which sort whether the fifth reputed General Council be we will briefly first consider For reflecting on the first head It seems scarcely numerous enough for a General Council The first General Council of Nice had above three hundred Bishops That of Chalcedon above six hundred This fifth Council held at Constantinople had but an hundred sixty odd And which still makes it more unlike a General Council in the very same year viz. 553 the Western Bishops held a Council at Aquileia and condemned this fifth Council held at Constantinople Secondly The Pre-existence of Souls being a mere Philosophical Speculation and indeed held by all Philosophers in the affirmative that held the Soul incorporeal we are to consider whether we may not justly deem this case referrible to the second Head and to look something like Pope Zacharies appointing a Council to condemn Virgilius as an Heretick for holding Antipodes Thirdly We may very well doubt whether this Council proceeded in via Spiritus Sancti this not being the first time that the lovers and admirers of Origen for his great Piety and Knowledge and singular good service he had done to the Church of Christ in his time had foul play plai'd them Witness the story of Theophilus Bishop of Antioch who to revenge himself on Dioscorus and two others that were lovers of Origen and Anti-Anthropomorphites stickled so that he caused Epiphanius in his See as he did in his own to condemn the Books of Origen in a Synod To which condemnation Epiphanius an Anthropomorphite and one of more Zeal than Knowledge would have got the subscription of Chrysostome the Patriarch of Constantinople but he had more Wisdom and Honesty than to listen to such an injurious demand And as it was with those Synods called by Theophilus and Epiphanius so it seems to be with the fifth Council Piques and Heart-burnings amongst the Grandees of the Church seemed to be at the bottom of the business Binius in his History of this fifth Council takes notice of the enmity betwixt Pelagius Pope Vigilius's Apocrisiarie and Theodorus Bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae an Origenist And Spondanus likewise mentions the same who says touching the business of Origen that Pelagius the Popes Apocrisiarie eam quaestionem in ipsius Theodori odium movisse existimabatur And truly it seems to me altogether incredible unless there were some hellish spight at the bottom that they should not have contented themselves to condemn the errours supposed to be Origens but after so long a time after his death there being in his writings such choppings
so considerable a distance from the Concave of the Aqueous Orb and the Aqueous Orb it self betwixt the Crust of the Earth and it But the Prisoners of this Gaol of the Rephaim will not be a little concerned This Hell of a suddain growing so smothering hot to them all though the Central Fire no more than it was And whatever becomes of those Spirits that suffer in the very Conflagration it self yet Ab hoc Inferno nulla est redemptio Pag. 147. Those immediate births of unassisted nature will not be so tender c. Besides the Air being replenisht with benign Daemons or Genii to whom it cannot but be a pleasant Spectacle to behold the inchoations and progresses of reviving Nature they having the Curiositie to contemplate these births may also in all likelihood exercise their kindness in helping them in their wants and when they are grown up assist them also in the methods of Life and impart as they shall find fit the Arcana of Arts and Sciences and Religion unto them nor suffer them to symbolize overmuch in their way of living with the rest of their fellow terrestrial Creatures If it be true that some hold that even now when there is no such need every one has his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Genius or Guardian Angel it is much more likely that at such a season as this every tender Foetus of their common Mother the Earth would be taken into the care of some good Daemon or other even at their very first budding out into life Pag. 148. But all this is but the frolick exercise of my Pen choosing a Paradox And let the same be said of the Pen of the Annotator who has bestowed these pains not to gain Proselytes to the Opinions treated of in this Discourse but to entertain the Readers Intellectuals with what may something inlarge his thoughts and if he be curious and anxious help him at a pinch to some ease of mind touching the ways of God and his wonderful Providence in the World Pag. 149. Those other expressions of Death Destruction Perdition of the ungodly c. How the entring into the state of Silence may well be deemed a real Death Destruction and Perdition that passage in Lucretius does marvelously well set out Nam si tantopere est animi mutata potestas Omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum Non ut opinor ea ab letho jam longiter errat Quapropter fateare necesse est quoe fuit ante Interiisse c. De Rerum Natura Lib. 3. And again in the same book he says though we were again just as we were before yet we having no memory thereof it is all one as if we were perfectly lost And yet this is the condition of the soul which the Divine Nemesis sends into the state of Silence because afterwards she remembers nothing of her former life His words are these Nec si materiam nostram collegerit oetas Post obitum rursúmque redegerit ut sita nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitoe Pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel quom sit retinentia nostri Pag. 150. In those passages which predict new Heavens and a new Earth c. I suppose he alludes especially to that place in the Apocalypse Chap. 21. where presently upon the Description of the Lake of Fire in the precedent Chapter which answers to the Conslagration it is said And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth But questionless that passage as in other places is Politically to be understood not Physically unless this may be the ingenious Authors meaning That the Writer of the Apocalypse adorning his style with allusions to the most rouzing and most notable real or Physical Objects which is observable all along the Apocalypse it may be a sign that a new Heaven and a new Earth succeeding the Conflagration is one of those noble Phaenomena true and real amongst the rest which he thought fit to adorn his style with by alluding thereto So that though the chief intended sense of the Apocalypse be Political yet by its allusions it may countenance many noble and weighty Truths whether Physical or Metaphysical As The existence of Angels which is so perpertually inculcated all along the Book from the beginning to the ending The Divine Shechina in the celestial Regions The Dreadful Abyss in which rebellious Spirits are chained and at the commination whereof they so much tremble The Conflagration of the Earth and lastly The renewing and restoring this Earth and Heaven after the Conflagration Pag. 150. The main Opinion of Pre-existence is not at all concerned c. This is very judiciously and soberly noted by him And therefore it is by no means fairly done by the Opposers of Pre-existence while they make such a pudder to confute any passages in this Hypothesis which is acknowledged by the Pre-existentiaries themselves to be no necessary or essential part of that Dogma But this they do that they may seem by their Cavils for most of them are no better against some parts of this unnecessarie Appendage of Pre-existence to have done some execution upon the Opinion it self which how far it extends may be in some measure discovered by these Notes we have made upon it Which stated as they direct the Hypothesis is at least possible but that it is absolutely the true one or should be thought so is not intended But as the ingenious Author suggests it is either this way or some better as the infinite Wisdom of God may have ordered But this possible way shews Pre-existence to be neither impossible nor improbable Pag. 151. But submit all that I have written to the Authority of the Church of England c. And this I am perswaded he heartily did as it is the duty of every one in things that they cannot confirm by either a plain demonstration clear authority of Scripture Manifestation of their outward Senses or some rouzing Miracle to compromise with the Decisions of the National Church where Providence has cast them for common peace and settlement and for the ease and security of Governours But because a fancy has taken a man in the head that he knows greater Arcana than others or has a more orthodox belief in things not necessarie to Salvation than others have for him to affect to make others Proselytes to his Opinion and to wear his badge of Wisdom as of an extraordinarie Master in matters of Theory is a mere vanitie of Spirit a ridiculous piece of pride and levitie and unbeseeming either a sober and stanched man or a good Christian But upon such pretences to gather a Sect or set up a Church or Independent Congregation is intolerable Faction and Schism nor can ever bear a free and strict examination according to the measures of the truest Morals and Politicks But because it is the fate of some men to believe Opinions to others but probable nor