force of this Argument the Infidels of our Age have these Two things to say 1. First That no True Miracles or Supernatural Works have been ever wrought 2. And Secondly That the Wonders we read of are no more an Argument of the truth of God's Existence than they are of the truth of Idolatry because Idolaters themselves have pretended to Miracles These two Subterfuges and Shifts must be now considered in their order 1. First They will allow of no higher Miracles than what have been found here in Nature when some unusual things have hapned the natural cause whereof could not be well assigned As for Supernatural Effects they are Fables in the account of these men because they cannot admit of such Effects without admitting of a Supernatural Power to produce them that is the Existence of a Deity which of all things in the world they are most afraid to own Now for the clearing of this weighty matter I would first ask these great Pretenders to Reason this General Question Whether it be rational to deny matter of Fact which hath as good Evidence as can possibly be given of any matter of Fact which we have not seen with our own eyes If this be rational then there is an end of Faith amongst Mankind and we must believe nothing but what our own Senses bear witness to and so no Credit is to be given to any History or Relation in the world If it be not rational then have we as good grounds to believe the truth of Supernatural Effects or Miracles as can in reason be expected for the truth of any thing that is gone and past And this shall be my next business to shew That the Account we have of such and such Miracles done carries with it as strong Evidence at least as any matters of Fact we find in any History of former Ages so that with as much reason men may reject the belief of any nay of all Accounts as the belief of this I do not here in the least pretend to support the Credit of all those Appearances which have gone under the name of Miracles especially in latter Ages We read of multitudes which have been either downwright Forgeries and Fictions purposely invented to carry on Lucrative and Superstitious Designs or else have been no better than Illusions of mens Senses whereby the Credulity of weak people hath been impos'd upon and abus'd Nay many of them are of such a ridiculous Nature that some have been ashamed of the Stories though they have made Money by the Invention To talk of such Miracles is a great disadvantage and prejudice to Christ's Religion however it may serve mens private Interest The Miracles I urge as clear Demonstrations of the Existence of a God are those recorded in the Scriptures in the Old Testament by Moses chiefly and in the New by the Evangelists And how slight soever Scepticks make of them there is as great evidence of the truth of them as there can be of any matter of fact if we will be so just to those Writers as to allow them the Common Reputation of having been fair Historians though at present we set aside the consideration of their having been divinely Inspired Now the greatest evidence that can possibly be given of any thing that was formerly done depends upon these four Grounds 1. That the Person said to have done it did really exist or that there was indeed such a Person 2. That the Relators of the Action were sufficiently Credible 3. That others who had Reason to know and were able to know the truth of the matter were sufficiently satisfied of the certainty of it 4. That things of great and publick Concernment were the consequents of it Where there are all these grounds of evidence no reasonable Men can question any matter of fact though it was done at a great distance of time from them and from all these it appears that such true Miracles have been done as argue the Existence of an Omnipotent Agent 1. For first That there was in the World such a Man as Moses and such a Person as Jesus Christ is as evident even from Humane Testimony as that there were such Men as Alexander Caesar and Cato Josephus shews out of those Ancient Writers Manetho and Cont. Appion l. 1. Chaeremon what a great esteem the old Egyptians had of Moses and what an Admirable Divine Person he was in the Account of that Nation Clemens Alexandrinus tells us out of the Greek Writers what an Honour the old Philosophers Stromat l. 1. among them had for Moses's Memory and that they look'd upon him as the only wise Man in his time and gave him the Character of a Prince a Law-giver a General a Just and Holy Person beloved of God The same Author tells us That the Egyptian Mystae believed that Moses was taken up into Heaven and that Eupolenius gave him the Character of the first wise Man and that the Mystae relating the Story of his killing the Egyptian said That he did it by the word of his Mouth and that Artapanus own'd the Story of his Imprisonment adding some fabulous Stuff concerning his Deliverance Numenius the Pythagorean said â—irom 5. that Moses was a Divine and a Prophet and that his Writings are worthy of belief Id. 28. and that he was a most powerful Man with God by his Prayers Trogus Pompeius mentions Abraham Euseb de prepar l. 9. c. 8. Moses and Israel as Kings of the Jews He takes notice of the many Sons of Israel though he mistakes the number He speaks particularly and by Name of those two Sons of Israel Juda and Joseph and then he goes on relating the story of Moses and of his leading the Jews out of Egypt though he sophisticates the Story with a great deal of falshood as also Cornelius Tacitus Justin l. 36. Tac. l. 5. Hist. doth in his Account of Moses and his Conduct Both which Ancient Historians follow the Narration which was given of this matter by the Egyptians themselves who mortally hated the Jewish Nation and told a great many Lies touching the Reasons and Manner of their Departure from them as Josephus shews in his first Book against Appion Justin Martyr upbraiding the Greeks in his time for being Enemies to the Christian Religion proved to them out of their own Authors that Moses who laid the Foundations Exhortat ad Graec. of Christianity was acknowledg'd much more Ancient than any of their Poets ' Historians Philosophers or Legislators ' And out of that noble Historian Diodorus he told them That Moses was reckoned a God by reason of his Divine and Excellent Wisdom and for teaching People to use good Laws and to live according to them which Account Diodorus who had spent thirty Years in Travels said he had from the Priests in Egypt To these Observations divers more might be added out of Grotius and other Modern Writers were it needful But the Learned know That
People from whom alone those advantages were to be expected if any advantage at all had been sought for Nay when he let those advantages go which he had already in his hands Whereas Men in Power endeavour to keep their Authority up and to transmit it to their Posterity Moses was content to let all that Power dye with him wherewith he was vested when he govern'd the whole Jewish Nation He appointed Joshua to succeed him in his Civil Authority The great Dignity and Advantages of the Priesthood he disposed of to his Brother Aaron and his Sons As for his own Children he left them in Subjection to the Priests to officiate under them in the ordinary and mean Ministrations of the Tabernacle not alloting them one foot of Land amongst all their Kindred All which shews that from the beginning to the end Moses designed nothing but the Honour of God and the Common good of his People And that no Honour or Interest of his own could possibly sway or tempt him to violate his Integrity And what could the four Evangelists propose to themselves that should move them to deceive the world and make their Relations incredible or suspected Honours they could not aim at unless men think it an Honour to be Dishonest Nor could Interest tempt them to impose fictions on mens Belief when they were sure beforehand to receive nothing in this world but Hardship Persecutions and Death for their Reward Very poor encouragements for men to invent and spread abroad idle Stories Or if it be said that 't was for the Credit and Propagation of their Religion they must be thought the oddest men in Nature that would coin Fictions for the sake of a Religion they believed to be false and yet they could not have believed otherwise of it if they had not known it to have been confirmed by Miracles for they were the only things that could give Evidence of its Truth beyond all Contradiction 3. This I have said to shew that however some Irreligious Men have the confidence to despise the Scripture-account of Divine Miracles to common human Reason it appears sufficiently credible from the certain Knowledge and manifest Probity of the Writers and consequently that we have as fair Evidence of the Reality of Miracles in that respect as can be had of any other matter of Fact that has been done in former Ages To which let us add in the next place this third ground of Credibility viz. that others who had reason to know and were able to know the truth of the matter were sufficiently satisfied of the certainty of it Here again we must return to Moses and First it is observable that the account he gives of Miracles done by him has continually past through a long succession of Ages uncontradicted which is an Argument that the Inquisitive and Knowing men in most Nations were well satisfied of the Reality of the matter For as the Mosaick Writings contain the most Ancient Records that are extant in the world so they seem to have been perused by the most Ancient Philosophers and Historians because the things related in them were spoken of and own'd generally by the whole Heathen world though sometimes not without a mixture of Poetical Fables as the Creation of the Universe the Sanctity of the Sabbaths the Story of the Deluge and of the Ark the Right of circumcision and the like as the Learned Grotius hath particularly shew'd in his First Book of the Truth of Christianity It is very probable that the general belief of these things sprang from the general persuasion which prevailed in the world of those Signs and Wonders that Moses had shew'd that made him so great a Person in the Esteem of Mankind There were thousands ready to have disproved the Relation if the Works had not been done nor is it in the least likely that of so many Neighbouring Nations round about the Jews which mortally hated the Jews and their Religion none would have discovered the Imposture had they not been satisfied that what Moses had written was true The Honour of having such great things done for them in the eyes of the world would have been thought too much for a despised hated People to have gone away with 2. But Secondly instead of Contradicting Moses's History the most Ancient Writers among the Egyptians and Greeks did own his Greatness Insomuch that the old Egyptians would have appropriated him to themselves pretending that he was of Egyptian Parentage and a Priest of Heliopolis by name Ozarsiph changing his name afterwards to Moses Some indeed of the other Heathens as Apuleius and Numenius the Pythagorean reckon him among the old Magicians and in particular among Jannes and Jambres the famous Magicians of Pharaoh but all lookt upon him as a very wonderful Person by reason of the Plagues he brought upon Egypt 3. And then Thirdly as for the Jews nothing can be more clear than that their whole Nation have all along acknowledg'd the truth of the Miracles done by Moses For their whole Constitution was founded upon the Credit of his Divine Authority and that depended upon the Credit of his Miracles And had any of them been unsatisfied in that point those Rebels who rose up against Moses and Aaron alledging that they took too much upon them would have alledged that they pretended too much also a great deal more than what was true Nor could those People who time after time Revolted from Moses's Law have had such another Plea for their Apostacies as this would have been that the Authority of the Law giver was not confirmed by Miracles as 't was believed I have said thus much of Moses to confront some in our days who have taken the confidence to deride the Writings which go under Moses's Name and the Miracles said to have been wrought by him that thereby they may with the greater boldness deny the Existence of God though if Men will take the evidence given of any matters of Fact done at a great distance of time from them it is impossible to find better evidence of any matters than there is of these of the certainty whereof those who had Reason to know and were able to know were fully satisfied I go on now in the next place from the same Consideration to prove the Reality of those Miracles which the Evangelists ascribe to Jesus Christ And who could think themselves more concern'd to enquire into the truth of them than those great Men who made it their business to oppose his Religion And yet that many notable Miracles had been done by him and by his Apostles after him was manifest to all that dwelt at Jerusalem and they could not deny it All that they had to say for their Infidelity was that Christ did those wonderful Works by the help of the Devil but matter of Fact they own'd Hence it was that soon after the Lord went out of the World divers pretended to a power of Miracles such as Simon Magus
they should not hearken to such a false Prophet but put him to Death though his Sign or Wonder came to pass Hence 't is easie to conclude That there are Miracles in appearance which are not true ones For God cannot act contrary to himself by working one Miracle to Establish his True Worship and another to Destroy it and therefore those Men are insinitely mistaken who pretend That if Miracles argue the Existence of a Deity they argue the truth of Idolatry also for it cannot be proved that any one Divine Miracle was ever yet done to confirm and give credit to Idolatry and therefore I deny that any Idolaters can with Truth or Reason pretend it Now here Two things may be demanded which I shall consider a little because they are pertinent to the point in hand and may be very useful if rightly understood 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done 2. And Secondly How we may be able to know and distinguish such Appearances from works which were strictly and properly Miraculous 1. First What Natural Power Miracles in Appearance may be imputed unto supposing they have been actually done This is no very difficult Proposal either to those Pagans who own the Existence of Demons or to us Christians who read of Angels Good and Bad all under the Government of a Supreme Glorious Being the Father of Spirits But to the Scepticks of our Age it will seem odd to speak of these things because they acknowledge not the Existence of any thing that is not Material and obvious to Sense and therefore explode the Belief of all Spiritual Beings both God and Angels These Men I must at present leave to be contradicted in this Point by all Mankind considering that it is a Subject too far out of my way and of so copious a nature as to admit of a large Discourse by it self for the clearing of it I take it for granted that there is another world besides this and that that other world is Inhabited by Invisible Beings which by God's Permission Interess themselves in the Affairs of this Which being suppos'd How can it seem to any Reasonable Men impossible for such Spirits what by the subtlety and active Faculties of their Nature and what by their great Knowledge of things in Nature and Art and what by their own long Experience in the world to do when God is not pleased to interpose or check them many things which may seem Miraculous to us though they be wrought by their own Natural Ordinary and Limited Power It is not hard for those Beings to shew Signs and Wonders by God's Permission though without the help of his immediate Hand They can by their Natural Agility and Power carry a Body from place to place as the Devil did our Saviour's own Body with God's leave They can modulate the Air so as to form a Voice in an Image as the Angel made Balaam's Ass to speak They can by the Natural Vigour of their Faculties as easily divide a stone as a man can cut off the Branch of a Tree By impressing a new Vigour upon the Animal Spirits they can help the defect of Sight when God pleaseth in one that is casualy blind though they cannot by any Natural Means help him to Eyes who was born without them By the use of many Natural Causes they may do Prodigies as the Magicians did by their help in Egypt In which instance two things are observable 1. That the Power of those Spirits was restrained For though they did some things extraordinary very like unto the Miracles which Moses had done with his Rod yet when the Miracle of Lice came the Magicians could not do it and therefore they confess That that was the finger of God Exod. 8. 18 19. 2. That though they brought some Plagues upon Egypt they could not remove any for which reason the King sought unto Moses all along a plain Sign that they were evil Angels with whom the Magicians were then in Confederacy Hence it appears That very wonderful Signs have been shew'd which look'd like true Miracles and were in imitation of true Miracles when they were not Works of an Almighty Hand but the ordinary Effects of that natural sinite Power that is in Daemons and Devils To which also we may rationally impute those Operations for which those Magicians presently after Christ and others after them were so famous among the Heathens and more especially those by which Apollonius Tyanaeus got himself such a Name in the World if the stories told of him be true which yet is very questionable nor doth Philostratus himself who relates them report them all as things certain though he wrote with a great deal of Partiality The like is to be said of those pretended Miracles we have been told so much of for several Ages past by Men of the Romish Communion Supposing some of those things were true I mean really done for he must have a most miraculous Faith that can believe all or but one half of them it will by no means follow that they were Miracles in a proper sense or Effects purely Supernatural above the power of all Second Causes For though no Natural Cause in this visible World could do them yet may they be very well imputed to the ordinary Power of created Beings that are invisible and so they are to be ranked among the workings of Satan whose coming is wont to be with Power and Signs and Lying Wonders which God hath many times permitted partly to prove and exercise the Faith of sincere Professors of Religion and partly to punish those who receive not the love of the Tâ—uth that they might be saved for which cause God doth send them strong delusions so that they believe a Lye 2 Thess 2 All this makes it evident that such preteâ—ded Miacles cannot possibly argue the Truth of Idolatry though actually done by Idolaters because they are suffer'd to be done in way of Judgment upon perverse and obstinate people However this advantage is hereby gained That those Miracles in appearance such as they are do argue the Existence of a God For if there are any invisible Beings permitted to shew Signs and Wonders vigorous in their Actings and limited in their Power it will follow that there is a Sovereign Being presiding over them that doth govern and command them suffer or controul chain or let them loose of his own pleasure and as the Reasons of Providence require it But it will be said That this distinction between Miracles in Reality and Miracles in Appearance is vain and to no purpose for who can see the difference of the one from the other by the nature of the things themselves because on each hand the works may be the same And it is not enough to say This was done by the Great Power of God and that by the Natural Power of Infernal Spirits when this doth not appear from the quality
have Memory to be nothing but the decaying remainder of Motion like the sound about a Bell when it has done ringing And every act and determination of the Will they would have to be Clinamen Principiorum or a declination of Atoms from a kind of perpendicular Line in which they suppose them to have hung before So that according to these Men every Operation of the Soul lieth in Atoms and is derived from Atoms which Whimsies deserve Laughter rather than any grave or sober Confutation For is it possible for Men of true solid Reason to believe that Atoms can be a bubling Fountain of Thoughts That they can study contemplate perceive argue form Opinions resolve Doubts discover Truth find out the different Natures of Good and Evil direct our Actions tell us what we must Do and what we must Avoid promise Rewards or threaten us with Punishment Nay inflict Punishment presently and plague wicked People with the intolerable Smart that attends an evil Conscience They may as well say that Atoms can write Books that the whole material World is an Academy of all manner of Learning and that the Motes which we see dancing in the Sun-beams are so many Historians Orators Philosophers and Divines The truth is 'T is not Reason that is the Ground-work of those wild Conceits but a sad Necessity they bring upon themselves of running to the most monstrous Absurdities to avoid all Thoughts of a God whose Existence they have disowned For it there be such a thing as a rational Soul distinct from Matter and Body it must inevitably follow that there is also a Deity who gave it its Being because nothing but a Deity could give it Therefore they who have the Front to deny the Being of a Deity are forced to deny the immateriality of the Soul of course And yet that the Soul is immaterial its excellent Powers Faculties and Operations will convince any one that will but lay his Hand upon his Heart and give himself leave to think soberly For if the Soul be Matter How came Men to dispute about its Immateriality How had the Mind any Notion of it How did the Mind get it at first since it is infinitely too high for Matter Nay since the Notion of Incorporiety is so contrary and repugnant to the Nature and Notion of Matter If the Soul be Matter How comes it to judge of material Representations and to discover those Impostures and Cheats which Matter many times puts upon the Imagination As for instance The Sun is found to be vastly bigger than the whole Earth though it appears to the Eye and Fansie to be but a Foot wide There are a thousand other Errors wherewith our Senses and Imaginations are apt to be deluded And how could the Mind look through all those Errors into the Truth and Reality of things if it were not a nobler Being than Matter that measures sensible Objects by intelligible Ideas of its own which are the proper Criterions of Truth If the Soul were Matter How could it be capable of Reflecting within it self Or how could it Recollect so many things done long ago in the Days of ones Minority and Recover so many fugitive Ideas as we find it doth Command and this by a native Power of its own purely by the strength of thinking Matter cannot act upon Matter but by some impulse from without it much less can it act upon it self as the Soul does by a peculiar Faculty it has of casting about and of rouling Thoughts within the Minds and therefore it must be a noble Being distinct from Matter that hath a Principle of Activity and an Empire within it self If it were Matter How could it command the Body in every Instance and make it obey at Pleasure Nay how could it command it self to think on this Subject or that as it listeth To go on a Meditating or give it over To resolve upon that Action or another without controul How could it forsee deliberate or advise How could it entertain any inward Pleasures and Joys impressions which Matter can no more receive than Rocks can dance How could it contemplate so excellent a Being as a Deity Or discourse of Eternity and another World Or possess wicked Wretches with such Fears as they can never quite rid their Mind of Or fill good Men with comfortable Hopes of a Reward The natures of Good and Evil and the Ideas of Divine Justice and Benignity are too Sublime to fall under Sense nor can they be incident to Matter and he must have the most ridiculous Conceptions in the World of his own Frame who thinks that the Operations and Perfections of his Soul are no higher or better than what Clay or Pebbles or Chips would be capable of were their Particles but otherwise modified Hence we infer That the rational Soul is of far higher Extraction than what Stone or Timber can pretend to That it is infinitely of a more noble Nature than Atoms of Dust And that its Operations and Perfections are vastly different from the Properties of Matter how fine soever you suppose it to be And therefore it will follow either that these Operatiosn and Perfections sprang from Nothing or that there is a Being of the most eminent and absolute Perfections from whom they are derived which indeed is the only true and satisfactory Account that can be given of the Nature and Faculties of a rational Soul I have hitherto argued from Reason only because they who deny the Existence of a Deity are constrained by necessary Consequence to deny Divine Revelation too and the Authority of the Holy Scriptures However we may ex abundanti observe what Moses tells us Gen. 1. 27. God created man in his own image in the image of God created be him And what St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. 7. That a man is the image and glory of God Which places of Scripture though they are to be understood partly of that Dominion Authority and Power which God hath given Man as his Vicegerent and Representative over all things here below yet do they I conceive speak also and perhaps chiefly of that Similitude and Resemblance which the Soul of every one of us does in its Frame bear of the Divine Nature and Perfections which will a little further shew its Excellence and consequently the Existence of a super-eminent Being whose Stamp and Impress it carries as far as the Capacities of a Creature can admit it We find how volatile and nimble our Thoughts are how soon they reach the very ends of the Earth how quickly they compass Sea and Land with what Facility they mount to Heaven how speedily they take a view of the whole Frame of Nature as it were at once and with what Celerity the Mind does gather and comprehend within it self so many different Ideas And what is this but an imperfect Representation of the Omnipresence of that God Who is said to fill heaven and earth Jer. 23. 24. Nay Whom the heaven and
Tenderness All this is inconsistent with that great Benignity which is necessarily included in the Notion of God whose boundless Perfections argue him to be a most desirable Good a most adorable and charming Object of our Affections most bountiful benign merciful gracious long-suffering tender-hearted ready to bestow upon all that are capable the greatest felicities that 't is possible for us to enjoy or desire 9. Once more From the general Notion of God that he is a Being absolutely and eminently Perfect we must conceive him to be a God of perfect Equity and Justice always acting according to the eternal Rules of right Reason and the quality of Things There are some Principles of Righteousness so natural to the Soul of Man that they begin to appear as soon as humane common Reason begins to work And these are such Perfections in us as set us above the rest of the Sublunary World and indeed make us excel one another so that the Righteous is more valuable than his Neighbour what difference soever may be otherwise in their outward Circumstances and Fortunes These Principles could not come but from the common Author of our Nature and their Extraction shews him to be most exact himself in the Government and Disposal of his Creatures in whom all Iniquity is a great desect to say no worse because it proceeds either from want of due Knowledge or from want of honest Intention both which are Imperfections in our Nature nay Reproaches and Scandals to it Therefore that most perfect Nature which presideth over all must be conceiv'd to be most righteous towards all that are under his Care and Power So that as there is no ground for unreasonable Fears from his Omnipotence in regard of his great Goodness and Benignity so neither is there sufficient ground for Presumption from his Benignity in regard of his great Justice because as he has given us equal Laws so he will give upon us very equal Judgment and render to every man according to his works Rom. 2. 6. The Sum is if People would rightly understand and consider what the Notion of God imports they could not but look upon him as the most lovely and desirable Being in the whole World and instead of denying his Existence would be glad that there is a Being over them so transcendently Perfect so proper and suitable for them in this their imperfect State that supposing he did not exist all Mankind all good Men to be sure would have reason to wish he did Therefore before I entred upon treating of God's Existence I thought it needful for me by way of Preparation to shew what the word GOD meaneth according to the common Sense of Mankind in general A Being or Nature that is eminently and absolutely Perfect and in particular a Being that is Unmade Independent Ever-living a Spiritual Being subsisting of Himself discerning understanding and knowing all things able to do whatsoever is agreeable to his Will and Nature an inexhaustible Fountain of Love and Goodness that to communicate his Goodness and to display his Nature made the Universe and ever since the Creation hath govern'd all things inspecting the Works of his Hands providing for the good of the whole World ordering every thing after the wisest and best Manner taking a more particular care of Mankind consulting for our present and future Happiness giving us Laws disposing of our Fortunes exercising Discipline over us in order to that great End and throughout the whole Series of his Providence shewing himself to be an Infinite Mind that is perfectly Wise Beneficent Powerful Merciful Compassionate Kind Righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Psalm 145. 17. This is a particular and true though an imperfect Description of the Deity I have been the more critical in drawing it because it is a very rational Description that which is rationally deduced out of this common Principle That by God is understood a most perfect Being and that too which is fairly intelligible by a rational Soul For every Man understands what Knowledge means what Wisdom means what Goodness means what Power Love and Righteousness do mean All these intellectual and moral Perfections are very intelligible No sooner are they mention'd but we form a Conception of them in our minds we apprehend presently what they signify When they are spoken of a Creature we easily know what it is to be an understanding wise just and good Man And when we discover considerable degrees and measures of these Perfections in any Person the apprehension of them doth so affect our minds that we cannot but Admire Reverence Esteem and Love such a Person for the sake of these Perfections and how then can it be thought impossible for us to have in our minds a Conception of a Being that is eminently and absolutely Perfect in all intellectual and moral Virtues Why cannot we know what such a Being means Nay rather how is it possible for us not to adore venerate and love such a Being above all things I urge this because some that say in their hearts There is no God and are willing to believe there is none or wish at least there were no Deity do offer this in favour of their Insidelity That there is no Idea of God meaning that as we have not of that suppos'd transeendent Being any material Representation striking and pressing upon our outward Senses so neither have we any Conception in our Minds answerable to such a transcendent Being and hence they sancy that the Notion of a Deity being incomprehensible there is no such thing or that those Perfections which we call the Attributes of God are no Realities but honorary Titles bestowed upon an imaginary Being out of a goundless Fear Now in this they are as weak Logicians and Philosophers as they are bad Divines for they go upon two Principles here both which are utterly false 1. The first is That we have no Evidence or Knowledge no Conception or Thought of any thing which doth not fall under the cognisance of our bodily Senses For there are many Truths in Philosophy which can have no corporeal Representations to affect the Eye or the Ear nor that inward sensitive Part the Fancy that is common to Men and to Brute-creatures Though the Clink and Sound of the Words makes an impression upon the Sense yet the verity of the Propositions which those Words contain is quite a different thing that is purely intelligible and we know and assent to the Propositions with an act of the Understanding by means of the Congruity they bear to Principles of Reason and therefore none but rational Creatures can sind out and apprehend the truth of them A Beast sees the Colour of Snow as well as a Man but no Beast can understand the truth of this Proposition Snow is white because that is a thing out of its reach for want of that operation of Reason which makes all Truth intelligible and evident to the Mind There are also
as it becometh an Intellectual Wise and Voluntary Agent And lastly This Incorporeity renders the First Cause uncapable of beind divisible or determinable to Place after the manner of Bodies which consist of Magnitude and Dimensions And therefore how incomprehensible soever the Notion of Infinity may seem to us whose outward Senses are used only to things corporeal Reason will oblige us to think that every Being must be extended or unextended limited or unlimited circumscrib'd or diffused according as its Essence and Nature is and that the first Cause being incorporeal and having once an Immense World to make and ever since an Immense World to act upon and in cannot be confined to place but must be every where and undividedly in a manner agreeable to the Plenitude of its Nature Now this Account of the necessary Existence and Condition of a first Cause is so far a plain description of the Deity or of God And it is for the greatest reasons that we maintain that in order to the Production and Framing of this huge Universe the Existence of God was necessary that is the Existence of an Independent Self-existent Eternal All-powerful Immaterial and Infinite Being These are not bare Epithets of Honour bestowed as some strange Men conceive upon an imaginary something which the fancies and fears of People have without reason represented to their Minds but real solid severe and demonstrable Truths so that admiting the common and most rational Principle touching the necessity of a First Cause those glorious Perfections I have now mentioned must necessarily belong to it and because those Perfections are essential and peculiar to that Glorious Being we call God therefore God and God alone must be acknowledged the First Cause of all things and by natural consequence the Existence of God must necessarily be believed CHAP. III. HAVING proved the Truth and Reality of God's being from the necessary Existence of a first Independent Cause I proceed now to the second General Head of this Discourse touching the Consent of all Mankind for if it can be made appear That the belief of a Deity hath been universally received in the World 't is reasonable to conclude that that belief resulted from a common Principle of Nature which could not deceive the Minds of all Mankind Here then these two things are to be shew'd 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God 2. Secondly That this universal Agreement is a very strong Argument of God's Existence 1. First That Men have universally agreed in this That there is a God That noble Orator and Philosopher Cicero doth in several places acknowledge That all manner of People were naturally posfest with some Anticipations or Preconceptions De Nit-Deor lib. 1. Tuse Qu. lib. 1. de Leg. lib. 1. of a Deity so that no Nation was ever so wild and undisciplin'd but that they had a fear of God and owned his Being however they were mistaken as to the quality of his Nature To the same purpose Seneca tells That the belief Ep. 117. of a God is planted in every ones mind And Maximus Tyrius is positive Diss 1. That how great soever the Contentions of Men were about other Points they all agreed in this that there is one Supreme God over all Nay Epicurus Cic. de Nat. deor lib. 1. himself of whom this Character is given that in words he owned the Existence of God but in fact denied it was contented the belief of it should pass abroad because it was a kind of innate Principle not only among Philosophers but among the Unlearned too who all had some Pri-notion of a Deity So true is this That not only the real Existence but even the Singularity and Unity of a Supreme God hath been generally believed by Heathens themselves especially by the wiser fort of them which I think very material for me to take notice of here for the further Illustration and Confirmation of the Matter in hand Indeed the Heathens have been wont to worship a Plurality of Deities But withal it is very observable that they look'd upon those many Deities as a fort of middle Beings between Mon and the Supreme Deity and accordingly in their Devotions they addressed themselves to them as Agents and Officers under the Great God as his Ministers of State and as Mediators between them and the most high Sovereign Numen because they thought it irreligious Confidence to apply themselves to him immediately and directly such a venerable and august Opinion they had of the God over all Though in the Poetical Fabulous Ages of the World ignorant People were taught to worship a multitude of gods as the Souls of dead Men whom they believed to be Deified the Sun Moon and Stars which were suppos'd to be animated with Deities besides a great number of Daemons or incorporeal Substances or Spirits which they thought were generated and had the Administration and Government of the World committed to them yet they owned One Sovereign Numen One Incomprehensible Self-existent Being the Prince and Father of all Nay the more intelligent sort of Pagans anciently thought that the Plurality of Deities which the Vulgar worshipped were only so many several Names of one and the same Supreme God according to the several Manifestations of his Power In the Heavens saith St. Austin they called De Civit. 1. 4. c. 11. him Jupiter in the Air Juno in the Sea Neptune in the Earth Pluto and very many more Appellations there were which though the sottish Rabble believed to have been proper Names for distinct Deities yet the Philosophers thought they did all belong to one Supreme Numen variously acting and displaying his Virtue And with this agrees that of De Benef. l. 4. c. 7. Seneca What else is Nature saith he but God or Divine Wisdom and Power displaying it self in the whole world and in all the parts of it You may when you please give several Titles to the Author of all things And you may call him Jupiter Optimus Maximus and Tonans and Stator not from stopping the Roman Army in their flight but because all things do stand or consist by him You may well apply to him what Names you will that signify his Heavenly Power and Efficacy There may be as many Appellations as there are Gifts or Effects of God Besides Jupiter Tonans and Stator we call him Liber Pater Hercules and Mercurius Liber Pater because he hath produced all things Hercules because his Power is invincible and Mercury by reason of his Wisdom Turn you which way you please God meets you for nothing is without him He filleth all his Works so that his various Names were according to the various Manifestations of him Should you receive a kindness from Seneca and say you owed it to Annaeus or Lucius you would not change the Person but his Name for what Name soever you call him by you mean still the same man And so you may
believed the Existence of God even in their Idolatrous Gentile Condition The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard Their sound is gone out into all lands and their words unto the ends of the world Psalm 19. 1 3 4. Where David represents those glorious Creatures as proclaiming and all Nations as hearing them proclaim the Transcendent Wisdom Power Goodness and Majesty of their Maker and Conserver All People how ignorant soever they have been of other Languages have understood this However they have differed from one another in their Polity Laws Customs or Manner of Life have unanimously consented in this That there is a God And though many have lived as if they were without God in the World yet none have been without him in their Consciences Here falls in an Account which hath been given us by a most Inquisitive and Learned Writer of our Church and which both for the Usefulness and Curiosity of it well deserves to be taken notice of in this place That Great Man Bishop Stillingfleet's Defence of his Discourse concerning Idolatry undertaking to prove That men may be guilty of Idolatry though they believe and worship the True God shews particularly That the grossest Idolaters of later times both in the East and West Parts of the World have acknowledged one Sovereign Being over all those inferior Deities they worshipp'd that they gave him the highest Honours and that that they called him in their respective Languages by some peculiar Name which signified the greatest Excellency First he shews of the Idolaters of the East-Indies That they all believed there was but One God who made the World and reigns in Heaven and that they worshipp'd this One God as well as Christians and referred all the Honour to him which they gave to other things that some called the Supreme God Parabrama which in their Language signifies absolutely Perfect being the Fountain of all things existing from himself and free from all Composition that others call'd that Sovereign Being Achar that is Immutable others Tento believing him to be the Governor of the World others Sciaxeti or Scianti which signifies the Supreme Monarch and Tienciu which is as much as to say The Lord of Heaven Then the Learned Author gives this Account of the Idolatrous Tartars That they believed and worshipp'd One God owning him to be the Maker of all things visible and invisible and to be the Author of all worldly Good and Punishment Of the Inhavitants of Madagascar he shews That they believed One God who made Heaven and Earth and will one day punish the bad and reward the good Actions of men Of the People of Monomotapa That they acknowledge One God whom they call Mozimo and are said to worship nothing else besides him Of the Idolatrous Muscovites That they worshipp'd only the Creator of the Universe to whom they offer'd the first Fruits of all things even their Meat and Drink Of the Idolaters of Cranganor That they worshipp'd the God of Heaven calling him Tambram and believing him to have made the World Of the Northern Idolaters especially the Goths he shews That the most ancient of their gods was called by them Alfader that is the Father of all they believ'd that this God lives for ever that he governs all things that he made the Heavens and Earth and Air and all Things in them and which is the greatest of all that he made Man and gave him a Soul that should live for ever although the Body be destroyed and that those who are good shall be with him Touching the Idolaters in Asrick that Excellent Writer shews That they worshipped God under the Name of Guighimo that is The Lord of Heaven and that though the Negroes adored many gods yet they acknowledged One Supreme whom they called Ferisso and believed him to be the Author of the Good and Evil they received As for the account he gives out of Josephus Acosta and Garcilasso de la Vega touching the Idolaters in America before their Conversion to Christianity I have reserved it to the last because it seems so clear and full that it is the fittest Observation to conclude this Point The surn of it is That those Idolatrous Indians acknowledged a Supreme Lord and Author of all things whom they of Peru called Pachacamac that is the Soul of the World the true Sovereign Creator of the Sovereign Creator of the World and Usapu which is Admirable and such like and though they had a great Veneration for the Sun and Moon and other things yet they held and adored Pachamac as the chiefest of all and whenever they mentioned his Name did it with all the Reverence and Devotion imaginable in Honour to the unexpressible Majesty of God And hence was that Observation of the Spanish Jesuit Acosta That those who at that time did Preach the Gospel to the Indians found no great difficulty to perswade them that there is a High God and Lord over all and that this was the Christians God and the True God This saith he is a truth conformable to Reason That there is a Sovereign Lord and King of Heaven and him the Gentiles with all their Infidelities and Idolatries have not denied so that the Preachers of the Gospel had no great difficulty to plant and perswade this Truth of the Supreme God though the Nations to whom they preached were never so Barbarous and Brutish The hard thing was to root out of their minds this Perswasion That there is no other God nor any other Deity than one and that all other things of themselves have no Power Being nor working proper to themselves but what the Great and only Lord doth give and impart to them However People have been mistaken in their belief of a multiplicity of Deitics this hath been a common Notion in all barbarous Countries that there is One Supreme God infinitely Good I think no more need be said to shew the universal Perswasion of Mankind concerning God's Existence However before I proceed to Argue and Reason from it and to prove the Truth of God's Existence from this universal Perswasion it will be necessary to take notice of two Pretences which are commonly used to evade the force of this Argument 1. The first is That some whole Nations have been found which have been without all Sense of God as was reported particularly of some People in America after the discovery of them by Christians To this there are three things in answer First That the matter alledged is not evident or certain because the Men who first related it were Strangers to the Language and Customs of those People and therefore could not be competent Judges of their Principles Nay they were abhorred as Enemies and consequently were uncapable of understanding the Mysteries of those Peoples Religion a thing which Men are generally very shy of discovering especially to those who use them hardly
absurd and monstrous but it has been disputed for at least may be disputed for by men of parts and doth it hence follow that the contrary Principles are not true One Philosoper maintain'd that there is no such thing as Motion another would have persuaded people that Snow is black and some stood in it that the same thing may be and may not be at the same time and in the same respect that is that both parts of a Contradiction can be true and shall such odd Whimseys prevail against the common Sense and Reason of Mankind Some never saw the light in all their lives and doth this argue that there is no real Sun or that That is no Sun which the whole World beholds Why a man of unprejudiced and impartial Reason may with his mind as easily see God in his Works as I can see the day with my eyes But should I so affect singularity as to shut my eyes and then pretend that all the World is a dismal dark confused Chaos could it be concluded hence that there is not one Star in the Firmament why 't is as senseless to conclude that there is no God and that Mankind have been all along mistaken in their belief of God because two or three Impious Philosophers have shut the eyes of their Understanding against him This indeed is an argument against themselves a proof of their own folly stupidity and wickedness But 't is no argument against all other men who have no mind to be so stupid and irreligious as they were 'T is far from being a proof that there is no Existing Deity as the generality of men have been in all times and places unanimously and throughly persuaded 2. Nay that I may proceed to the Second thing I proposed under this Head from Matter of Fact to Evidence of Reason this Universal Consent is a strong Argument of God's Existence For whence could this common belief proceed but from a common natural Principle wherewith the Souls of all men were endued by the Common Creator to bear witness of his Being as a Signature made by his own Finger I do not mean that the Notions we have of God are connatural to the Sou that is inbred innate and engraven as it were in our minds upon our Conception in the Womb so that every man in his Senses doth of himself by common instinct understand that there is a God Methinks we need not go so far It is enough that there is in us an inclination towards God a disposition and propension to Religion and an aptness to receive the knowledge of God upon Instruction Education and the use of common Reason This we may well call a Natural Principle and so the Notions we have of God are Natural Notions because they do naturally result from the free exercise of our Natural Faculties Now this plainly infers the Existence of God because none but God could put the Souls of all Mankind into this frame None but the Author of Nature could be the Author of those Principles in our Nature whereby every man is able to discover and find out God as all men have done and do who use their Reason All have consented in this that there is a Deity Of this One Universal Uniform Principle there must be One Universal Uniform Cause nor can any other Cause be reasonably assigned but that Soveraign Being who is the Cause of all things and who ordered our common Nature thus Had not God made our Faculties so that the belief of his Existence springs forth in every one's mind with his Reason and grows up with his Reason we might argue with Lucilius in Cicero De Nat. Deor. lib. 2. That it would have been impossible for that Belief to have continued every where constant or to have been confirmed by a long tract of time and to have become inveterate together with mens Ages For vain fictitious Opinions wear out by Diuturnity Time discovers and destroys the falshood of Imagination but confirms the solid dictates and determinations of Nature Which shews that this common lasting Notion of the Existence of God is natural and owes its original to a Power above whose workmanship we all are To defond themselves against the strength of this Argument those that say in their hearts there is no God pretend that this so universal a belief of the Existence of a Deity may be impured to one or other of these four Causes if not to all of them Tradition Fear State-policy and common Compact the vanity of which Pretence I am now to shew that I may not pass by any thing material which lies in my way upon this necessary useful and seasonable Subject â— As to the pretence of Tradition though we suppose it to have been one Cause of that Universal Consent I have spoken of yet these two things must be said First That Tradition argues the Truth of the Belief and therefore is alledg'd to no purpose Secondly That Tradition of it self alone and without the dictates of Nature could not have been a sufficient cause of this Universal Consent First Tradition argues the Truth of that Belief which hath prevailed amongst all Mankind By Tradition is meant if men will speak Sense and Reason an Opinion handed down from some First Authors Nor can any other Authors of this Tradition be assigned but those from whose Loins all Mankind descended for how was it possible for a common Principle to spring but from a common Root our First Parents Now this leads us back to the Times which Moses speaks of when the First Parents of Mankind were formed And the Faith of God's Existence being derived originally from them cannot but be unquestionably true because they could not but know their own beginning They could not but know that God had made them after a preternatural manner that God had formed them by his immediate Power and that they came out of the hands of God Nor is it conceivable that they should have taught their Children the knowledge of God had not they themselves been sure there was One That they should wilfully and designedly impose a Fiction upon all their Posterity and such a Fiction too as would keep their minds in continual bondage under the most frightful apprehensions this is an Imagination which confounds the Understanding of any reasonable man and is altogether unaccountable Besides Had not the Tradition been certain how could it have held so every where in the World and all along for several Thousand years to this day Fables are apt to be soon lost what Hand soever sends them abroad to pass about in the World The falshood of them is somewhere or other discover'd in time especially when Inquisitive and Wise men begin to search into them and to examine what substance there is in them and what credit they are of And how was it possible for this Tradition had it been fabulous to have gone through the world without interruption or stop notwithstanding all the
most Curious Enquiries in so many Philosophical and Learned Ages This shews that the Tradition is grounded upon Principles of Nature that therefore it is common with our Nature and must be as constant and common as Humane Nature continues 2. To which I add Secondly That though Truth went along with the Tradition yet of it self alone and without the Dictates of Nature it could not have been universally received in all Places and Ages For every one is not ready to embrace Truth it self though it be never so probable and when it is received in process of time it doth often drop nor is it easy to conceive how this Truth could have gone so current as it hath gone in all parts and from hand to hand without any considerable opposition unless it had had the help of strong Reason to support it and to carry it on still No doubt but Adam taught his Children in that long tract of time the Nine hundred and thirty years of his life many Truths both Philosophical and Divine which yet are now quite lost especially to those people who have not the use of those Books which are open before us Nay though we are able by the help of Discourse to gather divers things out of Moses's Writings which the old Pagans had no knowledge at all of yet are there several matters which we our selves are to seek for because they are not evident from clear cogent Principles of Nature But this great Truth concerning the Existence of God hath been propagated all along together with Mankind and as people have every where multiplied successively from Generation to Generation Nay the higher we go to those Elder times after the Creation the less of Infidelity we find Though there were then very few Books in the World yet God was believed on and even by those who in their lives dishonoured him For in those days Nature spake with simplicity and much plainer and better than in after-times when men of wanton Wits and of base Minds used Arts and so corrupted and debauch'd their Natural Reason This shews that the Belief of God's Existence is grounded upon something in Humane Nature which hath still preserv'd it in the world notwithstanding the miscarriage of many other Traditions which our old Ancestors transmitted to their Posterity and left with them This hath escaped undestroy'd uncontradicted but by a very few Partial Conceited and Designing Men of which no other cause can be rationally assigned but that it is most consonant to the frame of our Nature a Natural Principle an Idea of God which he himself hath as it were imprinted and stamp'd upon every ones minds so that it cannot be worn out by Time it self which weareth out other Notions that are not fixt and rivetted as this is into the common Reason of Mankind and therefore it is not to be imputed to mere Tradition 2. Nor Secondly Can it be imputed to Fear which is the next Pretence For those who would destroy the Belief of a God would fain persuade the world that it is only a thing of Phancy a fictitious frightful Idea put into peoples heads by Designing Men or formed in their Brains by the power of their own Imagination and that their minds being once scared were easily bent to conceive that there is a Terrible Being over them which those bold hardy Wretches imagine to be nothing but a Bugbear without any real Existence and accordingly they bottom Religion upon groundless Fears believing Hell and Damnation and a Deity to be Figments things invented and talked of to terrify the World and so the Atheistical Author of the Leviathan represents them comparing them as he has the confidence to express it to an empty Hat upon a crooked Stick to fright Birds from the Corn. I should beg every good Christian's pardon for but mentioning such Impiety did not the Looseness of the Age we live in constrain us to take notice of the strange Notions that are got abroad The meaning whereof in short is That if people were not frighted out of their Wits they would hardly believe the Existence of a Deity for they ground that Belief upon Fear and make Popular Fear to be the cause of it And hence it is they think that this Belief hath generally prevailed in the World not from any Natural Principle in the Understanding but from a slavish foolish Passion of heart and because men have been every where taught to be fearful and timorous or have made themselves so Now to every Considerate Rational Man it is plain that Fear cannot be the cause of that Belief but is the consequence and effect of it That is Men do not believe a God because they are afraid but are therefore afraid because they believe there is one a Just and Powerful Being over all And therefore their Fears proceed from an Universal Common and Natural Principle in every ones mind touching God's Existence for otherwise it were impossible for mens Fears to be so great so universal so fixt in Humane Nature as never to be eradicated First It can never stand with common Reason to conceive how Fear should create Tormenting Apprehensions of a Being whom all Mankind have ever adored for his great Goodness and whom Heathen Philosophers themselves have discover'd by the Light of Nature to be for his Divine Perfections the most Lovely and Desirable Being in the whole world What Reverence soever the sense of his Greatness may call for disquieting Terrors of a Being so infinitely Perfect cannot spring but from an Evil Conscience And then I appeal to all Men of Sense whether that Conscience ought to be heard against God whose Interest it is to have none This is certain That there can be no fear where there is not supposed an Object to be afraid of That Object must be acknowledged not only to be but to be Angry and Threatning otherwise our Faculties would be both vain and delusory constrained to fear where no grounds of fear are which is to reproach Nature it self that is so adored by some Insidels and to impeach it for a Common Cheat. Secondly Though we should think some particular Persons imposed upon by their Fears yet how could all Men in the World fall under the same Imposture at once How could they be seiz'd with one Agony universally but from an Epidemical Principle in Humane Nature Or how could they all jump together in one Principle without the Hand of a God who made them all and intended by this means to hold them all fast to himself Thirdly If we should be so unreasonable as to suppose Mankind to have been frighted all at the same instant no body knows by whom or when or how and by that fright to have been possest with the thoughts of a Deity can we suppose too that they had no time in so many Ages to recover themselves out of that panick Distemper Fear is a cruciating and tormenting Passion which every Man is desirous to rid himself
as the Greeks first borrowed their Letters of the Jews so the best Laws at Athens and afterwards at Rome took their Original from the Laws of Moses And that Jesus Christ formerly lived in the Land of Judea is acknowledg'd even by those who were no Friends to his Religion Josephus the Jew who seems to have been our Saviour's Cotemporary saith That in the Regency of Pontius Pilate there lived one Jesus a wise Man saith he if yet it Antiq. l. 18. c. 4. be sit to call him a Man because he did many Miracles and appeared alive again the third Day after his Crucifixion That Roman Historian Tacitus Cornel. Tac. l. 15. speaking of the Christians tells us That the Author of that Name was one Christ who in the Reign of Tiberius the Emperor was put to Death by Pontius Pilate About fifty Years after our Saviour's Time Pliny the Proconsul of Bithynia sent the Emperor Trajan Plin. l. 10. Ep. 97. this Account of the Christians That their Custom was to sing Hymus to Christ as to a God Suetonius In Vit. Claud. makes mention of him too meaning not so much his Person as his Doctrine The Acts of Pilate to which the Primitive Christians were wont to appeal shew that there was such a Man once in being Those Learned Heathens who wrote against his Faith Celsus Porphyry and Julian never questioned the Truth of the History touching his Life and Death The most hardned Jews themselves that hate and reproach his Memory cannot deny but that there was such a Man and that their Ancestors killed him Nay they are sensible to this day that for that very reason they are despised and abhorred by the Christian World So that no account whatsoever of matter of fact can possibly be more attested more clear and certain than this is That Jesus Christ once lived in the World 2. The next thing is That the History of those Miracles which are said to have been done by Moses and our Blessed Saviour is also as sufficiently credible as any Historical Account can be Two Qualifications are necessary in an Historian to make his Relations sufficiently Credible Knowledge and Integrity and where both these Qualifications meet that is where a Man cannot be ignorant of the Truth of what he writes nor can be justly suspected of an intention to deceive in that case there can be no fair or tolerable reason for our disbelief 1. Now as to Moses's Knowledge 't is impossible to conceive That he knew not what he did himself or that he was not conscious of his own Actions And 't is as impossible to think that the Evangelists knew not what Jesus Christ did For Matthew and John were contiually about him attending personally upon him Eye-witnesses of all his Actions especially the latter who was admitted into his Privacies so that no Miracle is said to have been done at any time out of the common View but what John was a constant Eye-witness of And if Luke and Mark were not such Attendants upon Christ himself as the others were yet the least that is said of them is that the one was conversant with Paul who had as certain Information of all things as the rest of the Apostles had and that the other was conversant with Peter who was allowed the same Priviledge which John enjoyed and was continually one of those three special Favourites who were privy to the Lord Jesus his more secret Actions 2. This short account being given of all these Writers Knowledge the next thing to be shewed to make their Testimony sufficiently credible is their great Intergity which will soon appear to any reasonable Man that will but consider 1. First The Impartiality 2. And then the Simplicity that is observable in their Writings 1. The Evangelists have given us an Impartial Account of the Obscurity of Christ's outward Condition of the Meanness of his Disciples Quality and Fortunes of their Natural Inabilities of the Dulness of their Understandings of the slowness of their Hearts to believe of their Insirmities and Faults and particularly of the Treachery of one Apostle and of the shameful Lapse of another There are none of those things concealed which Men of Art and Partiality would hardly have made known Nay it is observable of Mark that though he was Peter's great Attondant in the Execution of his Ministry yet in relating the Story of Peter's denying his Master he tells it as plainly as Matthew doth with this little difference that he doth not take such affecting notice of his Repentance as the other doth For whereas St. Matthew saith That he wept bitterly St. Mark saith only He wept as if he lessened his Sorrow after an humble modest manner in respect to Peter whose Amanuensis he then was An instance that shews That if there was any Partiality in these Writers it was in this That they did not say enough of one anothers Virtues Such Impartiality is seen throughout the History written by Moses For therein he sets down not only the Poverty of his beginnings but even the Faults and Miscarriages he had been guilty of and how angry God was for them He relates as well the Crimes as the Infirmities of his Ancestors all along from Noah down to the Twelve Patriarchs and among them he particularly notes the Persidiousness and Cruelty of his great Grandfather Levi when he and Simeon trick'd the Sechemites out of their Lives and Fortunes for which Inhumanity their Father Jacob set a Curse upon them which Moses has very faithfully recorded in Gen. 43. In short Whereas Partial Historians are wont to seek themselves a Name by favouring and many times by slattering the Parties they belong to Moses spared not his own Nation But hath left the World a long and lasting Account of the Follies the Insidelity the Murmurings the Ingratitude the Apostacies together with the perverse and incorrigible Temper of that People the Jews neither concealing nor excusing nor extenuating their Provocations his great Design being to set forth the Glory of God's Truth and Goodness who set his love upon them and chose them not because they were better or more in number than any People for they were the fewest of all People and a Rebellious People but because the Lord loved them and because he would keep the Oath which he had sworn unto their Fathers 2. To demonstrate yet further the Integrity of Moses and the Evangelists who speak of such Miracles done let us consider Secondly their great Simplicity of Mind without any mixture of Sinister or Self-designs Men are not wont to tell Tales for nothing 'T is either Vanity or some private Interest which is the end and drift of Impostors And what could Moses propose to himself by telling stories which the Egyptians and Jews were so easily able to contradict if those Miracles had not been done among them Or what advantage can Men think he aimed at when at the same time he spake so hardly of those
of the thing produced As for instance Moses is said to have turned his Rod into a Serpent and then the Waters into Blood and then to have brought up Frogs out of the River and are not the Magicians said to have done so too Where then is the difference in the works And if there be no visible difference in them how doth it appear that there was a difference in the Powers which produced them And so why may not all be concluded an Imposture and consequently no substantial Evidence of the Existence of a God This now brings me to the second Enquiry How we may know and discern a true Miracle from a pretended one 1. For the clearing whereof it is First granted That they are not distinguishable by the visible quality of the works themselves unless it be in some particular Instances as the raising of the dead the giving Eyes to one that was born blind the multiplication of a few Loaves and the like In those cases the very Nature of the Works shew the singer of God for none but an Almighty Power could produce them nor could any created sinite Power pretend ever to have done the like But where one Wonder resembles another and seems to answer another there 2. Secondly The difference is discoverable chiesly from the Necessity and Tendency of the Operations Indeed their Circumstances and Manner of Production may go a great way to shew the singer of God or the working of Satan but I conceive a true Miracle may be most easily and best distinguish'd from a false one 1. By the Importance of the Reasons which make a Miracle necessary 2. By the End and Scope to which it tendeth 1. First When there is a true Necessity for Miracles As 1. When a man pretends to come from God with special Authority and Commission for some extraordinary Service in that case a Miracle is necessary to give evidence of his Commission and that he may be believed Such extraordinary Power must be back'd with extraordinary Works to attest it for otherwise people could not have sufficient Arguments to own it and 't is inconsistent with the Divine Nature to require mens Submission and not justify or set his Seal to that Authority which he binds them to submit unto but to leave them in a state of Guilt for rejecting that which he gave them not sufficient reasons to receive 2. Miracles are necessary when extraordinary Alterations are to be made in the world As when a solemn peculiar Form of Divine Worship is to be first set up or when a peculiar Form that was establish'd by Miracles is to be removed and taken down to make room for a different Form For these things are of such vast importance that in cases of this nature Men cannot be deceived without running the greatest hazards and nothing under a Miracle can keep them from being impos'd on Now when in these necessary cases Signs and Wonders are shew'd we may conclude them to be Divine Miracles but if there be no need at all of extraordinary Operations upon these accounts such as are pretended ought to pass for works Diabolical because God is not wont as they say to set his Seal to a Blank nor is it consistent with his Majesty and Wisdom to use his Omnipotence in vain 2. True Miracles may be distinguish'd from false ones by their scope and tendency The Works of God are Glorious not only for those signatures of Power they carry with them but also for that admirable Goodness and Wisdom which is discernable in them all because they always drive at the best and most important ends And so we must reckon such Miracles Divine as tend to confirm Truths which come by Divine Revelation For as such Truths cannot be consirmed but by the God of Truth that Reveals them so neither would they be attested by the Father of Lies the Devil did it lye in his Power to work a Miracle for the confirmation of them because nothing is more cross then Truth is to his interest in the world 2. Such Miracles are to be accounted Divine as tend to draw People off from the practice and love of Sin For as such Miracles are glorious manifestations of the Holiness of the Divine Nature so they serve to transform the Spirits of Men into the Divine Image and consequently can be wrought only by the Finger of God 3. Such Miracles as tend to preserve the true Worship of One God by acts of singular Love and Reverence and with an entire Resignation of Heart and Soul because this is the great end of God's whole Oeconomy and that which all Impostures hitherto have been intended to Defeat and Bassâ—le 4. In short Those are to be looked upon to be true Divine Miracles which tend to the utter destruction of the Devil's Power and Works These cannot possibly be thought Diabolical operations for if Satan rise up against himself and be divided he cannot stand but hath an end Mark 3. 26. All these things carry their own light with them and by that light we may very easily discern and distinguish true Miracles from those Impostures which have gone under that name in all times both Ancient and Modern Next after Moses Jesus Christ was the only Person publickly owned to have come from God upon an extraordinary Message to the world And in regard he intended to repeal the Mosaical Ordinances and instead thereof to enact more Spiritual Laws it was necessary for him to work Miracles to shew his Authority for the founding of his Church as Moses had shewed his for building of the Tabernacle And these were the noble ends of all Christ's Miracles to seal the Truth of his Doctrines that how Mysterious soever some of them might seem they might be believed for which reason he did no one Miracle before he began to Preach to reclaim Mankind from all manner of Vice and Immorality or whatever is contrary to God's Nature or reproachfel to their own to establish Piety and Honesty in the world to teach men to lead Sober Righteous and Godly Lives in this world to direct them how to Worship the only True God in Spirit and Truth and to deliver not only the Bodies but the Souls of all People from the Tyranny and Power of the Devil whose business was to Captivate all Mankind that they might walk on still in darkness and blindness of Heart which being the reasons and ends of the Lord Jesus his Miracles we may be sure that those reasons having been once answer'd and the ends sufficiently served by himself and his first Disciples there was no further need of Miracles And therefore whatever Signs and Wonders have been shewed supposing they were really effected either by some Pagans immediately following the time of Christ or by some Romanists in latter Ages they are not to be reckoned Divine Operations but so many Workings of Satan and his Instruments which are so far from justifying or giving credit to their Ways
overthrow of their whole Government both in Church and State and then too was the Desolation foretold by Jesus Christ not one stone left upon another neither in the City of Jerusalem for as Josephus acknowledgeth it was razed to the Foundations and laid even with the Ground Nor yet in the Temple for as our Learned Paraphrast observes out of Scaliger as a full Completion of our Saviour's Prophecy the very Foundations of the Temple were torn up by Turnus Rufus with a Plow-share so that no part of it Under-ground was left undissolved not one stone left upon another How could a clearer Argument be expected than that was of the Existence of an All-seeing an All-powerful and Righteous God who weighed the Sins of an hardned People and by his determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge made their Punishment then as plain as their Guilt had been when with wicked hands they crucified the Lord of Life and wish'd that his Blood might be upon them and upon their Children 2. But Secondly Besides these Predictions which concern'd them and were fulfilled in their Sufferings there were others which had references to the Propagation of Christ's Religion Christ himself had foretold That when he should be lifted up from the earth he would draw all men unto him Joh. 12. 32. And near Two thousand years before that time the Patriarch Jacob presignified on his Death-bed That when Shilo should come to him the gathering of the people should be Gen. 49. 10. which was not possible for Jacob at such a vast distance of time to say or foresee of himself no more than 't was possible for the Prophets in after-times without Revelation from an All-knowing Being to predict as they did That all kings should fall down before him That all nations should do him service That he should stand for the people That to him the Gentiles should seek That from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same his name should be great among the Gentiles That the Heathen should be for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession All which Predictions proved in the Event most evidently true notoriety of fact shews it and yet the exact impletion of these Prophecies could never have been foreknown as it was but by a Supreme Numen who knoweth all things considering how unlikely it was as things stood for Christianity to find universal success and entertainment in the world because it was so opposite to mens Lusts and Pleasures the Jews were so hardned against it the Pagan Religion which Christianity was intended to destroy was so spread over the Gentile Nations and so fixt by Laws Princes were so set against it the Devil used such various methods to stop its progress and the Preachers of it were of themselves so weak and unable to carry it over the world that without the Assistance of a Divine Power it could not have prevailed over the hearts of people so universally and in such a conquering manner notwithstanding all Obstacles which were in the way But herein appeared the wonderful Conduct of Divine Providence That the Government of the Jews being quite dissolved upon the destruction of Jerusalem the Scepter then being utterly departed from Judah and the Lawgiver from between his feet Shiloh reigned with triumph and glory As the Jews lost ground so Christ whom they had crucified got it and a great deal more So that in a very little time not only multitudes of the Jewish Nation were Converts to Christianity but great Armies of People in the Gentile world and in the most Barbarous Countries were brought in obedience to Christ's Faith And hereby the Ends of God's Providence were served by the Romans themselves first by being his Instruments to captivate and subdue the wicked Jews and then by being themselves subdued to Jesus Christ so that where-ever the Roman Eagles flew there Christ was a Conquerer by his Holy Spirit 3. To which let me add Thirdly this one Observation more concerning those Predictions which relate to the Dispersed and Reproachful Condition of the Jews since the Overthrow of their City and Government As the Old Prophets had told those People long before what a sad miserable Condition they would bring themselves to at last so Christ had foretold them in express terms That upon the treading down of Jerusalem they should be led away captive into all nations Luk. 21. 24. A Prediction which was literaly fulfilled as soon as they were conquer'd by Titus his Army Many thousands of them were carried away divided and scatter'd up and down in the world where their wretched Posterity inherit their Ancestors Curse to this day leading still a forlorn sort of life Vagabonds into all parts and hated where-ever they go An Avenging Hand from above doth still pursue them and every day the world sees the Predictions concerning them more and more fulfilled Which is as it were an Ocular Evidence as well of the Truth of Christianity as of the Existence of a Just God I use this Argument the rather because it is a kind of sensible proof of a Deity and not of so remote a Nature as the rest are Though it be apparent to Reason that there must be a First Cause of all things though the common notions and impressions we have in our Nature shew who and what that First Cause is though Miracles are undeniably convincing and Predictions when accurately fulfilled demonstratively infer the Existence of a Being that foresees all Events though at the greatest distance yet because those Observations are most operative which most nearly affect men I urge this Observation touching the Jews Punishment as being a thing verified by our own Experience Miracles we have not seen but this Remarkable Judgment against the Jews we see daily and therein we see the plain accomplishment of some Predictions which we know were written some considerable time before the Events happned so that we may well wonder how there can be an Atheist as long as there is a Jew living in the world To this purpose a Learned and Judicious Prelate of our Church who hath solidly written upon the great Subject now under my hand expresseth his thoughts in these words with which I shall conclude this present Point There Bishop Wilkins ' s Nat. Rel. p. 89. is saith he one particular which to me seemeth very considerable for the proof of a Deity though but little notice of it be taken by others and that is The State of the Jewish Nation who for these 1600 years have been driven out of their own Countrey having now no particular place of abode belonging to them as a Nation but are scatter'd and dispersed over all the habitable world hated and despised where-ever they are permitted to dwell very frequently persecuted impoverish'd banish'd murder'd in vast multitudes And notwithstanding all this they are not yet so mixt and blended with other Nations as to be lost among them but are still kept up
the motion of any one hath been disturbed out of its orderly Tenor especially since all is supposed by our Refined Wits to depend upon Chance which is far more likely to dissolve or disorder a Rapid Body than ever it was to form it for they themselves cannot tell the manner how this was done but 't is very easie for any man to conceive how that may be and if there be nothing but Luck in the case it must be a great wonder to any considering man that by some odd Luck or other the whole World hath not been dissolved long ago To draw this Consideration to a period Suppose these Scepticks should see what I have somewhere read of a Great Machine of Brass like that Sphere which Tully saith his Friend Posidonius made contriv'd according to Ptolemy's Hypothesis wherein there is a visible Description of the Heavens and Earth of the supposed Orbs and Spheres above of the Cycles and Epicycles with an ingenious but imperperfect Representation of the Centrical and Eccentrical Motions of the Heavenly Bodies and all this in a round Scheme of Materials orderly dispos'd in their proper places fitted together in apt Connexions and holding all together in a firm lasting and permanent Frame Would they themselves fancy this Machine to have been formed not by the Design Art or Hand of any Skilful Workman but only by Chance and by the Fortuitous Motion of Atoms But because such a Machine I speak of is not every where to be seen let them with an accurate Eye observe some Pieces of Art which have been the Curious though now Ordinary Improvement of this Age I mean the Pendulum Clocks wherein the Movements are so fine so adapted to each other so regular nay so steady and constant in their course that some without any help will go and keep their Order a full Month some a Year and some more and can it be rational to impute all this to Luck and Fortune and to the casual falling together of unguided Particles of Matter when Chance never produceth any thing that is orderly and uniform exact and steady stable fixt and constant Or thirdly Let them view a Common Globe and distinctly observe the Poles the Axis the Horizon the Meridian the Aequator the Ecliptick the Zodiack the Tropicks and all the Degrees whereby they may follow and trace with their Finger the determinate course of the Sun and then let them say whether that poor ordinary Frame can be thought the effect of Blind Fortune too Nay Lastly Let them survey their own Houses and examine the Solidity of the Foundations the Cementing of the Walls the Contignation of the Beams and Rafters and all the parts of the Buildings so duly and properly laid so regularly erected so strongly fastned so depending upon each other for support so fitted and compacted for use and all making up such Firm Durable and Permanent Structures as can bid desiance to Winds and Tempests and after all would it not be ridiculous Folly to conceive that those Edifices were not intended for use by any Architect's Forecast nor raised by any Architect's Contrivance nor finish'd by any Architect's Skill and Workmanship but that all hapned to be erected by the Fortuitous Concurrence of Unguided Instruments and by the accidental motion of Irrational Materials the Stones leaping by chance out of the Qarries the Timbers dancing away from their Roots the Mortar taking a frolick to be in too and Saws and Axes and Trowels and Hammers and Nails and Pins helping and moving too by Chance they know not how nor when Now if these be such Senseless Imaginations what gross Stupidity is it to think that this Goodly Magnificent Fabrick the Universe was made without the Counsel and Wisdom of a Divine Architect and merely by the chancemotions and friskings of small Particles of Matter that without the Power and Directions of an Infinite Mind were no more able to make a Star or a Man than the Motes of the Sun were to Re-build the Great City of London when it lay in Ashes I have instanced in these things of Art to shew the monstrous unreasonableness of those who will not allow so much of Skill and Contrivance to have been used in setting the World into this Commodious Apt and Permanent Order as is necessary for the perfecting of Humane Inventions tho indeed there was infinitely more of Wisdom necessary besides the Power requisite to raise the Materials of the World out of nothing For as a Learned Writer speaks may not the most Excellent Pieces of Humane Artifice the Fairest Structures the Finest Portraictures the most Ingenious and Useful Enquiries such as we are wont most to admire and commend with infinitely more ease happen to exist without any Industry or Contrivance spent upon them If we cannot allow those rude Imitations of Nature to spring up of themselves but as soon as we espy them are ready to acknowledge them Products of Excellent Art though we know not the Artist nor saw him work how much more reason is there that we should believe those Works of Nature so incomparably more Accurate to proceed also from Art although invisible to us that is Divine and performing its Workmanship by a Secret Hand This Argument for the Existence of a Deity was urged by that Wise Philosopher Cicero who observ'd That in the Nulla in Coelo nec fortuna nec temeritas necerratio nec vanitas inest contraque omnis ordo veritas ratio constantia Cic de Nat. Deor. lib. 2. Heavens there is nothing of Fortune Temerity or Error nothing which is vain or useless but that on the contrary there is all Order Truth Reason and Constancy And hence he shews That since things perfected by Nature are much better than Works performed by Art and yet Art it self doth nothing without Reason therefore we must believe that Nature is not void of Reason and Wisdom If then Si ergo meliora sunt ea quae naturâ quà m illa quae arte perfecta sunt nee ars efficit quidquam sine ratione ne natura quidem rationis expers est habenda Quî igitur convenit Signum aut tabulam pictam cùm aspexe ris scire adhibitam esse artem cumque procul cursum navigii videris non dubitare quin id ratione atque arte moveatur aut cùm Solarium vel descriptum aut ex aquâ contemplere intelligere declarari horas arte non casu mundum autem qui has ipsas artes earum artifices cuncta complectatur consilii rationis expertem putare Quòd si in Scythiam aut in Britanniam Shpaeram aliquis tulerit hanc quam nuper familiaris noster effecit Posidonius cujus singulae conversiones idem efficiunt in Sole in Luná in quinque stellis errantibus quod efficitur in Coelo singulis diebus noctibus quis in illâ Barbarie dubitet quin ea Sphaera sit perfecta ratione H◠autem dubitant de
Idea the Mesentery as it 's called by Anatomists meaning a most curious Net-work of innumerable porous Strings which fasten the Entrails together in a Circle and with their gaping Orifices devour and drink up the spirituous Chyle throughout its Passage Thence being convey'd through those somenting Parts and spungy Kernels the Clandules the Supplement of Life is by the constant Motions of the Diaphragm forced and drawn upwards again but in a new way some into the Liver some into other Vessels but mostly into a common Receptacle like a little Lake whence it is carried on still further upwards Wâ—â—eus Ibid. towards the Neck there to be discharged into a great Vein or Canal of Blood This constant course of the Chyle prepared in the Stomach and conducted through so many Vessels was not discovered so exactly and particularly till some late Criticks in Anatomy made the strictest search And though it may seem to lie out of a Divines way yet because the Speculation is so useful and important in the Consequence as well as diverting in it self I shall for once venture upon it a little further That milky Substance the Chyle being now commixt and swimming with the Blood is instantly transmitted into the Right-Ventricle of the Heart there as some have thought to be turned into perfect Blood of the form of its Vehicle Thence it runs through a Chanel into the Lungs there to be enriched by impregnating Particles from the Air whence it takes a circuit back again into the Left-Ventricle of the Heart where being instantly Sublimated and made highly Spirituous it is ejected thence up into a great Artery which by innumerable Branches conveys it speedily over the whole Body there by the assistance and supply of more Spirits from the Nerves to warm and comfort to enliven and invigorate to feed and nourish the several Parts and so the remainder returns to be supplied with fresh Chyle to the Heart again through Veins which though they be numberless yet is the Circulation so quick that the Blood goes through the Heart as a very learned Physician hath Dr. Lower de Cordc computed it no less than thirty times within the compass of and Hour This I take to be the short account of Nutrition especially in Man wherein if there be any slight mistake I submit to the Judgment of those of the noble Faculty and Profession whose business it is to understand it much better And now considering the admirable usefulness of all those Parts which serve to these vital Purposes I would ask any reasonable Person Whether meer Chance or blind Matter or any thing else without the Skill and Providence of a most wise Being could contrive such artificial and wonderful Methods Conveyances Instruments and Vessels of such various Sorts and all so curiously Formed so orderly Disposed and so exquisitely Connected and Fitted to bring about such necessary and excellent Ends If it be said That all these things are done by Common Animal Nature 't is easily answered That Nature of its self is without all Understanding utterly uncapable of Forecast or Cogitation and therefore shews that there is an intelligent Being over it that erected and ordered the business of Nutrition which common Nature never knew either how to perfect and finish or how to begin nor indeed doth humane Reason it self help to carry it on As for instance A Man deliberates indeed what he shall eat and what he shall drink for these are Objects which fall under Consultation or at least Fancy But when once his Nutriment is cast down into the Stomach there is an end of all deliberation as to the manner of Digestion and of turning the digested Matter into Blood and Spirits In the whole Oeconomy of this Affair Reason hath not the least Hand nor did any Man ever yet consider how he should convert his Food into Chyle or convey it from the Stomach to the Mesentery or how he should there separate it and so carry it to the Heart The greatest Politician in the World never yet thought of managing this Intrigue Nature indeed does the thing to his Hand But because that Principle of Life which we call Nature is utterly void of all Policy and Thought we must rationally conclude that there is a Being of excellent Knowledge and Wisdom that is a Deity which hath contrived these Operations for Nature and hath directed and fixt the Methods of them If it be said again that Nature operates thus in a Mechanical way by forcing and thrusting on the Chyle and Blood like the Art and Method used in Water-works it may be very reasonably demanded Who invented this Art for Nature Who at first put that unintelligent and blind thing upon it And what Hand prepared that stupendious Course and Instruments it was to use in order to the Animal's Nutrition Nay who contrived the Animal it self and designed the Nourishment of it Or if these Questions be not enough we may very well ask the great Pretenders to Reason one more viz. How the Circulation of the Blood which is so Demonstrable is so constantly performed and so quickly finish'd in its periodical Course For here the greatest Artists are divided Disp de Deo p. 462. in their Opinions whether the reduction of the Blood to the Heart through the Veins be by the inosculation of the Veins and Arteries an Opinion which seems to be out of Doors or by the porosities of the fleshy Parts or by the systaltick Motion as some call it in the Veins themselves As to this Men of the best Skill are yet to seek how to give a clear and satisfactory Account of the manner of the Circulation of the Blood though the Circulation it self be apparent which to me is an Argument that the whole Method of Nutrition in us was instituted and is still carried on by a Divine Being which hath made some things undiscoverable by humane Art that by the Mysteries we find in Nature we may be the more easily prevailed on to believe the sublimest Truths in Religion 2. Having thus observed the First thing which tends to the preservation of that Nature which is common to Man and Beast the work of Nutrition that is performed in the Bowels Let us in the next place consider briefly the Second thing or the Business of Sensation that is performed in the Head both inwardly in the Fancy and outwardly by the Instruments of Sensation as the Eye the Ear and the like which convey to the Fancy all sensible Objects from abroad And here I must not be so vain as to pretend to give a distinct accurate and full account of all the operations of Nature and of its hidden means and manner of Working No it is enough for one of my Profession to take such a summary notice of those things which serve for Sensation as may satisfie any reasonable Person that the whole Work of Sensation argues wonderful Wisdom and Contrivance and consequently the Existence of a God
to any thing but Matter nay to corruptible Matter nor can any corporeal Substance be Immortal till this Corruptible hath put on Incorruption If then a Being be immaterial or destitute of Bodily Parts it must be in its own Nature immortal too A Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones and Blood as every Humane Body hath and consequently it cannot be liable to those jarring Elements whereof our Bodies do consist nor can it of it self be capable of Corruption or Dissolution of Parts as our Mortal Bodies are seeing it is supposed to have no Parts at all to be divided Therefore since the Rational Soul is a Spirit or such a Being as is incorporeal and immaterial as I have now shew'd it is it must follow that it is not naturally subject to Mortality as the Body is because it is utterly void of all Natural Principles of Mortality and is incorruptible in its Essence and therefore it must by the ordinary Necessity of its own Nature as well as by the Will and Pleasure of a Superiour Being survive the Body to receive Rewards or Punishments in another World according to the Quality of its Actions in this 2. Having thus briefly consider'd the Nature of every Humane Soul let us Secondly take some Account of its Excellence in respect of its Faculties and Powers in order to prove the Existence of a God as the only Cause that could give this Soul a Being There are some Faculties in a Man which are common to Brute Creatures also As 1. Sense or the power of perceiving Idea's imprest from outward Objects upon the Organs of Sensation the Eye Ear c. 2. Phansie or a power of apprehending the seeming Suitableness or Unsuitableness of an Object to its Nature 3. Memory or the power of retaining for some time the Idea's and Shapes of things sensible 4. Appetite or a power of moving according as an Object appears either agreeable or hurtful being allur'd by the one or frighted and dampt by the other But these several Powers are nothing in comparison of those noble faculties peculiarly belonging to the Rational Soul as any Man may perceive that will but search into himself and observe what he finds and feels there For 1. First We find that we have a Power to Think and Consider I mean to examine those Objects which are presented to our outward Sense to employ our Minds conversantly about them to take notice of their Proportions Forms and Qualities to compare one thing with another to discover the Causes and Effects of them so that we may penetrate into the inside of them and dive into their Natures Now this no Brute Creature doth or can do The ox indeed knoweth his owner and the ass his masters crib that is they come to both being invited and moved thereunto by the appearance of things which are wont to gratifie the Eye and Palate But in this there is no such thing as Consideration nothing that can properly be call'd Thought because such Creatures are not capable of enquiring in themselves Who or what their Feeders are or What the Substance of their Fodder is or What produced it or How it was provided or To what End it serves and For what Reason it is proper and good to be used Acts of this kind are too high for Animals which are meerly Sensitive Their Phancies go no further than the Crib They are well satisfy'd with the bare enjoyment of that which is before them The Considering part belongs to Man To observe the natural difference between Things and Things to examine their distinct Causes Properties Dispositions and Uses and so to look into their intrinsick Essences and Natures this is the peculiar work and business of a Soul that is Rational 2. We find in our selves that we have a power to understand also that is a Faculty and Ability to comprehend the Reason and Condition and Philosophy of Matters nay to know many things which are not directly obvious to our outward Senses That Perception which is in Animals Irrational is an Idea in the Phancy deriv'd from those Efsluvium's Rays and Images of external Objects which are imprest upon the Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting or Feeling-Faculty and so convey'd through the Nerves into the Brain These are sensible Phantasms and the possessing of an Animal with them is properly called Sensation because the Creature is affected with a sensible Object meerly by the use of its Senses But Sensation is one thing and Intellection or Understanding is another This properly is when a Man's Mind is so possest and enlightned with Intelligible Notions or with such Idea's as are not subject to corporeal Sense and therefore such as cannot be stampt upon the Mind by Motion or Pressure from Bodies without us but such Idea's as spring out of the Mind it self by an active exerting Power that is native to it There are many kinds of such intelligible Notions as do not fall under external Sense and yet are very clear and evident to us As several Certainties in Mathematicks which appear from Demonstration divers Truths in Natural Philosophy which we are convinced of by pure Reason several Moral Verities which we are assured of from the immutable Natures of Vice and Virture several Doctrines in Theology which our Minds yield us from the Contemplation of the Divine Attributes and Perfections Besides divers such common Notions as these wherein all Mankind are agreed of themselves That what hath not any Being cannot act That things which agree in one Third agree among themselves That the Cause is in order of Nature before the Effect That Equals added unto Equals do make Equals That Nothing can produce it self out of Nothing and the like These are eternal Truths which depend not upon Sense but upon natural certain Reason for they would be Truths though there were not any Sensitive Creatures in the World Now this is a noble Power in the Soul which sets it infinitely above the Souls of Irrational Creatures in that it can act within it self abstractedly from Matter and without using the Bodily Senses can speculate and understand those leading Truths and necessary Notions which are in order to the greatest Undertakings and inable the Mind of Man to search into all the Secrets of Nature to open the Mysteries of the Creation to invent Arts to improve Sciences to prescribe the most commendable Rules of Life and in short to govern the World All which I shall shew is an Argument of the Existence of an absolutely perfect Mind or a God that formed the Rational Soul with Divine Faculties and Powers to act under him 3. 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