required to comprehend them whatever God hath said is to be assented to tho' we cannot frame adequate Notions of the Thing it self nor understand the Manner how it should be 'T is as much against Reason as Faith to think to fathom the Perfections Councils and Works of God seeing Reason acknowledgeth him to be infinite and it self finite 2. If we will pretend to Reason in Religion we are to believe whatever God hath said to be true this being the greatest Reason that He who is Truth it self cannot lye there is nothing more consonant to the transcendency of so high a Nature as that of God than that it be acknowledg'd Incomprehensible nor is there any thing more agreeable to his infinite Wisdom than that his Designs and Contrivances shou'd be held past finding out 'T is as well irrational as unjust to think that Man shou'd penetrate those Depths and Abysms which the Angels desire only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into as vailed and hidden from sight But on the other hand tho' there are many things contained in Holy Scripture which are above our Reason yet most certainly there is nothing therein which is contradictory thereunto To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's repugnant to right Reason is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance or rather as the Invention of distracted Men and withal to open a Door for filling the World with Figments and Lyes under the Palliation of Divine Mysteries We cannot gratifie the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them that the prime Articles of our Belief imply a Contradiction to our Faculties In a word this Hypothesis were it receiv'd wou'd make us renounce Man and espouse Brute in Matters of the chiefest and greatest Concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower Species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible And when Men have filled Religion with Opinions contrary to common Sence and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such an one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the Evidence and Principles of both Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under the pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common Sence and did violence to the universal uniform and perpetual Light of Mankind Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil others of them having establisht two several Gods one Good another Bad others having affirmed the Soul to be a Particle of the Divine Substance not to mention a thousand Falsities more all these they defended against the Assaults of the Orthodox by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be hearken'd to Thus do others to this day who being resolv'd to obtrude their Phansies upon the World and unable to prove or defend what they say pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorems nor can I assign a better reason for the Antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy than that it overthrows the Follies and Absurdities of their Religion this themselves confess by devoting Almansor to the Vengeance of Heaven because he hath weakened the Faith of Mussel-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them In brief Tho' we make not Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine yet we may safely allow it a Negative Voice we place it not in the Chair in Councils but only permit it to keep the Door to hinder the Entry of Contradictions and irrational Fansies disguis'd under the name of Sacred Mysteries And it is necessary also to be remarkt that when we say there is nothing in Religion which is truly repugnant to Principles of Reason we do not by Principles of Reason understand all that this or that sort of Men vote or receive for such The Universal Reason of Mankind is of great moment but mistaken Philosophy and false Notions of Things which this or that Man admits for Theorems of Reason are of very small importance Men being misled by their Senses Affections Interests and Imaginations do many times mingle Errors and false Conceipts with the genuine Dictates of their Minds and then appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason when they are indeed nothing else but the vain Images of our Phansies and the Conclusion of Ignorance and Mistakes So that in reading the Holy Scriptures it highly concerns us to be very careful that the proper and original Sence of the Words be not neglected there have been those and yet are who will hardly allow any Text of Scripture a proper Sence but do every where obtrude an Allegoric meaning as if that alone were intended by the Holy Ghost and nothing else but such kind of Expositors do in effect little less than undermine the whole Scripture betray Religion and turn the Sacred Oracles into Burlesque Nor is there any Notion so Romantic which the Scripture by a luxuriant Phansie may not at this rate be wrested and debauched to give countenance to yea a very small measure of Wit will serve to pervert the plainest Scripture Testimony to quite another Sence than ever was intended by the Writer of them An Instance of this we have in those who by turning the whole Scripture into Allusions have wrested the Revelations of the Word to justifie their own wild Phantasms and framed the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their own private Notions and thereby evacuated the Sublimest Doctrines and most glorious Actions into empty Metaphors and vain Similitudes thus the Person of Christ is allegorised into themselves and the Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour are construed after the manner of Aesop's or Phylostratus's Fables into useful Morals as if these were intended only to declare what is to be done in us by way of Allusion But leaving these and supposing only for the present that there has been a Supernatural or Divine Revelation of the Almighties Will to Mankind which every Moral Man will find his interest to believe and imbrace if it were upon no other account than the Extraordinary Advantage it affords us towards the securing both a Temporal and Eternal Felicity by those Excellent Precepts it contains above what is discoverable in Natural Religion Supposing this I say 't is reasonable for us to think that there can be nothing in this admirable System essential to a Saving Faith or fundamentally necessary to our future Welfare but what is as intelligible as legible to every Reasonable Creature Most certainly the Essentials of Religion consist not in any intricate or perplexing Theory's but in the Practise of our Duties The Lord hath shewed thee O Man saith the Prophet what is good and what doth he require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Again saith another of them Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in Affliction and to keep
of the Slime of the Earth of their own accord and that all their Thoughts and the whole of what they call Soul are only various Action and Repercussion of small Particles of Matter kept a while moving by some Mechanism or Clock-work which finally ceases and perishes by Death If contrary to the Evidence in your own Understanding you can listen with Complacency to these Horrid Suggestions if you can willingly and with Joy let go your Hopes of another Life and entertain the Thoughts of Perdition with Triumph and Exultation If you can glory in debasing and villanising the rest of Mandind to the Condition of Brute Beasts and permit your Folly to baffle all Arguments to be proof against the clearest or most perspicuous Demonstration what wou'd you have us think better or more favourably than this that you resolve to carry your Atheism with you to the Grave and that the Infernal Horrour and Despair must be alone sufficient to Rectifie your Mistake or to Convince you of your Errour I have nothing more in this but to intimate my Request to you that you wou'd consider what has been said with that Attention which becomes the Subject and if you can object nothing against the Fundamental Parts of the Discourse let not the Arguments here borrowed by any means suffer from any disorderly Management committed by London Febr. 20. 1691 Yours c. The Appendix Concerning the Corruption of Humane Nature and the Necessity of Divine Grace c. To Mr. THere remains my Friend as a necessary Suppliment to what has been so lately deliver'd that we make a short Enquiry into the Nature of the Divine Grace I mean that we consider whether or no there is an absolute Necessity of any Extraordinary or Supernatural Accession of Aid or Assistance to the Security and Confirmation of our Faith and Practise or if with Pelagius we are to conceive our selves able by the natural Powers of our own Souls or the free Exertion of our Rational Faculties exclusive of this extraordinary Co-operation to obtain the same and that Grace according to this Heretical Opinion consists only in the free Pardon of our Sins through the Mediator and the Doctrine and Perswasions only to a Holy Life for the time to come with God's ordinary Concurrence If the former of these Opinions be true that there is somewhat necessary which is independent on the Powers of our own Souls we may be able to satisfie our selves in that it is possible to give credit to the Truths of Religion and yet at the same time to neglect their Practise but if the latter be the most consonant to the Truth it will be then as I imagine scarce conceivable that any Man who is satisfy'd in the Verity of Religion shou'd at the same time be negligent or remiss in the performance of what his Faith requires or deflect out of the Paths which he knows will conduct him to his greatest Happiness At this rate we must think every Man who believes does practise accordingly and that whatever Verbal Confessions we may meet with of their Creeds yet if they act not steddily in conformity to the same we are to suppose there is a certain Diffidence intermixed with their Faith a sort of Disbelief or at the least a distrust of the Certainty of Religious Truths which they think may be no more than empty Notions But this Opinion seems so directly opposite both to right Reason and the Experience of Mankind that to admit it we must Exclude the whole Creation from any just Claim to future Happiness and take for granted that there never was such a Thing as a Religious Man or a true Believer in the World On the contrary as we have no reason to question but that there have been vast numbers both of Men and Women who have been as convincingly satisfy'd of the Truth of the Supreme Being and their Soul 's Incorruptibility as of any thing whatever so may we safely assert that there never was any one of these who has not at certain times been an actual Transgresor or a Trespasser against his Faith And farther that in whatever State of Purity the first Man was created yet since the Lapse or Degeneracy of Humane Nature from its Primitive Perfection there is no Man able without the Concurrence of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divinium aliquid we are treating of to live in a real Contempt of the present World or to disregard its manifold Temptations It is besides my Intention to make a scrutinous Enquiry How the first Man came to fall from Original Righteousness or how this Degeneracy comes to be derived from him to his Posterity It seems hard indeed to perswade our selves that the Rational Soul is immediately contaminated with this Sin but is so necessarily so soon as we become capable of sinning so that according to a right Notion of the Matter the Damage we have sustained proceeds from our first Parents unhappy Forfeiture of Immortality since which it is impossible without Divine Assistance for Mankind thus propagated in the constant Methods of Nature to secure themselves from Falling and from rendring themselves obnoxious to a Transgression of the Laws of God I know the Atheist does here wonderfully pride himself in having found out an Objection impossible to be resolved by our finite Understandings For saith he if the Grace of God be sufficient for all Men and that the Co-operation of Man's Will to sufficient Grace is to be conceived the Cause of his Election why did not God so constitâ—te Mankind as that all shou'd Co-operate to this sufficient Grace and consequently be Elected to Everlasting Bliss To this I say when they have met with no other Reply than that sâ—ch was God's Eternal Will they presently attack the Divine Being and in their own Conceits immediately displace him from his Throne and Government 'T is here likewise that the Deist struts and exalts the lucky hit of his Phancy thinking himself more knowing than the whole World besides in that he has now found out the Juggle as he calls it of Christianity 'T is first saith he unnecessary that there should be a Mediator the Mercy of God being sufficient for his Justice 2dly God must appoint this Mediator and so was reconciled to the World before And 3dly a Mediator derogates from God's Infinite Mercy equally as an Image does from his Spirituality And thus the mighty Monster lays his Plot against the Redemption of Mankind looks big upon the Contrivance and doubts not but with these three strokes he doe's the Christian's Business His next Onset is upon our Immortality or Separate Existence of the Soul which he gradually lessens by insinuating that Brutes are ejusdem Rationis Participantes or endow'd with the same Reason as Man tho' not altogether in the same degree Indeed 't is great pity that those who are debasing Mankind at this ridiculous rate shou'd be lookt upon otherwise than the more sensible Beasts or
great footing in the World and that the Doctrine of the Divine Grace shou'd be redicul'd by them and esteemed little otherwise than as a sensless Notion the Opinions of these Men run so smooth to the sense of the Natural Understanding that so long as Men are careless and unwilling to look farther they are constrained to make their Reason the positive and adaequate Rule both of their Morality and Divinity But for my own part I shou'd not so much dispute with them this Mysterious Co-operation or Divine Concurrence provided they cou'd but show me any true Practical Christian one who is so in Deeds as well as Words who has espoused their Opinions I may be free to say I know nothing like one nor do I think it possible to meet with a sincerely devout Convert or Regenerate Person who is not ready to acknowlege that of himself he was able to do nothing as he ought and that the Renovation or happy Change of his Mind was purely owing to the Adeption of a new Principle or to a Union with the Divine Spirit of Jesus Christ. 'T is true amongst the Followers of Pelagius and Socinut there are those who understanding the Verity of their Opinions would be measur'd by their Practises have been more than ordinarily exemplary in their Conversation with the World and their Self-denial of some Temporal Enjoyments Men who have kept themselves to a constant attendance upon Religious Worship and set those about them an extraordinary Pattern for the practise of private Duties and all these we may readily grant the possibility of their attaining by the meer strength of their Natural Faculties or the Powers of their own Souls independent of the Divine Grace these however necessary were never lookt on by considerate Men for more than the Introduction or Outside of true Religion but altho' there are amongst them Persons so very circumspect in their Deportment or Behaviour yet the greatest part of them are such as wholly devote themselves to disputation in mixt Companies where they continually gain Proselytes among loose People such who as they never cou'd reconcile themselves to the practise of Religion are very glad to find the same resolv'd into Matter of Speculation by which means every Man may have an opportunity to raise a suitable Theory to his own Inclinationâ— Now I must confess that which has principally induc'd me to dissent from the Principles of these Men is a consciousness I have had that it is not only possible but certain that Men may have an Historical Faith and that they may believe or assent to the Truth of the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and yet at the same time to show themselves as if wholly unconcerned in their Lives and Practises whether the things deliver'd in that Gospel be true or not which I think is hardly reconcileable even to our own Reason nor can be otherwise ascribed than to the want of that Supernatural and Divine Aid I plead for Upon the other Extream as these we were just now speaking of many of them at least will not allow any such Doctrine as that of the Divine Grace so there have been those who have affirmed that a Person may by Philosophy and Contemplation attain such a Degree of Union with the Divine Being as to know and understand things by a Contactus or Conjunction of Substance with the Deity The Passages saith my Author which occur in Plotinus Porphirius Jamblicus and Proclus all great and famous Platonists of such a tendency are numerous and need not to be here transcribed This Imagination was espoused by the Arabian Philosophers and had it been entertained by the Contemplative Heathen only we might have taken the less notice of it but it was imbibed and that very timely by Origen himself and from him the Ferment or Leaven thereof was derived to the ancient Monks from all or some of these it spread amongst the Romish Monasticks such of them as are called Mystick Theologues nothing more frequent with that sort of Men than a Tattle of an intime Union with God whereby the Soul becomes Deify'd and from them the Weigelians and Familists borrowed their Magnificent Language of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ. The adventurous Determinations of the School-men concerning the beatifical Vision smell rank of the same blasphemous nonsensical Figment for by their contending that the Divince Essence is immediately united as an intelligible Species to the Intellect of the blessed and that this Species and the glorify'd Understanding do not remain distinct things but become identify'd they do in effect affirm the Soul to be transubstantiated into God and to be really deify'd and seeing it 's a Matter of easie Demonstration that the Knowledge which we shall enjoy of God in Heaven differeth only in degree from that which we possess here otherwise it is both altogether unintelligible and uncapable of Rational Explication it will follow by a short Harangue of Discourse either that Believers have no Knowledge of God at all in this Life or else that their Soul 's become Deify'd and Essentially united to God by knowing him I shall not name here the admired Nonsence and high-flown Cantings of some Modern Enthusiasts which carry a broad-fac'd Aspect this way 't is easie for us to instruct our selves from what Springs these with the like Visionaries have drawn the putrid Conceits which they propine to the World 'T is enough for us that we believe the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers to remain distinct after all the Union that intercedes between them Let us be thankful for the Influences of his Grace and for the In-dwellings of his Holy Spirit but let us detest those swelling Words of Pride and Ignorance of being Christed and Deify'd for whatsoever be the nature and kind of the Union between Christ and Christians that the same shou'd by Hypostatical cannot without Blasphemy be imagined And thus my Friend I hope I have with no unpardonable Prolixity gone over these very weighty Subjects I pray God we may all of us have right Notions of them fixed on our Hearts and that they may be attended with the Fruits of a sincere Repentance and Amendment of our Lives I shall endeavour to conclude all with the most suitable Advice I can and in order to the same wou'd wish and desire you to think often and seriously upon the certainty of your Death for whatever you may think of an Immortality hereafter 't is manifest you can obtain none here consider what Thoughts will be most likely to intrude upon you what Business you will principally be employ'd about shou'd you have time allotted you for such a purpose the Conflicts and Consternation you must encounter the Confusion of your last Minutes the Agony of your Soul in the moment of its flight For let me tell you however you may please your self in this time of Health and Vigour that an approach of a privation of your
characterise the Rational Soul of Man it is by no means to be allowed Whether the Master of its Composition retain'd the same Sentiments at his Death concerning the Reasoning Principle within him I have not inform'd my self but it is easie enough to conceive the Thought more readily indulged that the looser Scheme of Religion might serve turn and that the Sensitive Appetite might not admit of any Restraint by the fears of a Post Mortem aliquid How the Learned S m came in among this Gang is somewhat strange That he was acquainted with them we are given to understand by a Letter of Mr. B t s in which was enclosed an Epitome of Deism I must confess I have been inform'd that excellent Physician was tainted with these Principles but yet I could never understand but that he dy'd far from an irreconcileable Enemy to Christianity and firmly perswaded of a future Retribution I shall not mention such of them as are now living although they seem to pride themselves in having been the Parents of those Monstrous Births which they have boldly set their Names to and deliver'd to the giddy World for the Standards of Truth and Reason it may please Almighty God to enlighten their Understandings and to bring about so happy a Reformation that they may be satisfy'd in the certainty of those Divine Truths which will shine still with the greater Lustre the more powerfully they are assaulted and flourish under the Scandal and Contempt of their malicious Adversaries I must confess I had a great desire to see the Arguments of these Men and when I had procur'd them I look'd them over without any such anticipated Prejudice as could sway me to a Partiality Pro or Contra I rather premise this as believing it no easie matter for any Man who would be thought to have a Respect or Veneration either for God or true Religion to peruse such Treatises without so great an Abhorrence and Detestation of the Authors as will hinder him from giving either a due attention to what they write or to consider throughly the proper weight of their Expressions Now upon a mature and deliberate consideration of what I find they have deliver'd I have ventur'd to pass this Censure that the Authors have plainly discover'd themselves to be Men very far short of sound or right Reasoning of very little Piety and Men of no certain or steddy Principles And this Sentence I have adventur'd to pass upon them on these Accounts that whereas in one place I find them highly pleading for a Natural Religion ridiculing Revelation and mustering up all the Arguments that themselves and their Friends the Libertines can furnish out in another they change their Aspect and submissively condescend that the Scriptures should have some little Authority they speak modestly of the two Testaments calling them Sacred Records and ingeniously confess that since Humane Reason is like a Pitcher with two Ears which may be taken on either side in our Travels to the other World we should choose the Common Road as the safest for tho' Deism may serve to manure our Consciences yet certainly if sowed with Christianity it will produce the most plentiful Crop There is nothing says the same Person in another place where he had been just before using Arguments to the discredit of our Immortality more unaccountable and contradictory than to suppose a hum drum Deity chewing his own Nature a Droaning God sit hugging of himself and hoarding up his Providence from his Creatures This is an Atheism no less irrational than to deny the very Essence of a Divine Being It is the same also to believe the Soul to be Mortal as to believe an Immortality without Rewards and Punishments Thus it is very common with this sort of Men to dogmatize even in the most important Points of Religion strenuously affirming for Truth what their Reason dictates and presently after when they have said all they can they are forced to grant that what they have said is only such twilight Conjecture as Humane Reason of which we yet so vainly boast can furnish them withal 't is now an Aliquid Divinum which does all things and our Capacities being unable to discern the same make us fasten either upon the Elementary Qualities of Hippocrates or Galen or the Cartesian Rule of Geometrical Proportions The Conclusion of all is this that since we are not qualify'd to understand the real Essence or intime Nature of things we can know nothing certainly all our Philosophy excepting Scepticism is little more than Dotage These are their own words which I think may give us a very justifiable occasion to look upon these Men very improper Standards for our Reason or Religion to be directed by and as unfit Oracles for us to consult As for their Divinity if a parcel of fine words will satisfie we may think very devoutly of them but indeed I cannot for my own part perswade my self when I consider the tendency of their common Discourse and their Converse in the World but that their Religion may be fairly resolv'd into 〈◊〉 Deâ—sâ—â— or the single Belief of a first Cause and that our Immortality was tack't to it that the Bait might be swallowed with the less suspition and the extravagant Absurdity of their Novel Opinions less strictly examin'd or inquir'd into For when we find Men devoted to the study of â—â—religion to frame and invent Arguments to disturb and perplex our Faith we have surely but little Reason to think well of their Persons or to regard their Speeches And that this has been the design of those I am speaking of even the whole bent of their Minds in manifest enough in the manner of their paraphrasing the Mosaick History in their endeavours to establish the Sufficiency of Natural Religion to future Happiness and opposing the same to the Revelation of Christ Jesus in their collecting Arguments out of Ethnic Authors for the Mortality of the Soul and the Eternity of the World in their inâ—â—â—â—â—ting a Possibility for a free and reasoning Principle to be compatible to Matter and all this with the same Assurance as if they had receiv'd Intelligence from the Court of Heaven I am inform'd one of their late Treatises which contains the Heads of their Opinions will be e're long taken to pieces and judiciously examined however difficult the Task may appear I see nothing in them to discourage any ingenious Man in the Undertaking for if we deprive them of their Varnish and set them in a clear Light we shall find but little in them more than empty Sound and insignificant Harangue They have been either feignedly or really ignorant of Antiquity which is clear from their gross mis-representation of some Passages and their falsifying downright in others They have rack't their Brains for their beloved Cause of Natural Religion but have not offer'd which they ought first of all to have done one Syllable to disprove the Founder of the Christian Religion or the
of the Humane Soul and whatever else belongs to the Science of Metaphysics which teacheth us to abstract from all Matter and Quantity Nay I presume it will not be accounted Paradoxical in me to affirm that Immaterial Objects are most genuine and natural to the Understanding especially since Cartes hath irrefutably demonstrated that the knowledge we have of the Existence of the Supream Being and of our own Souls is more certain clear and distinct than the knowledge of any Corporeal Nature whatever according to that Canon of Aquinas Nulla res qualiscunque est c. The Moral Considerations usually brought in defence of the Soul 's Incorruptibility are principally three 1. The Universal Consent of Mankind 2. Man's inseparable Appetite of Immortality 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men and punishing evil Men after Death Now as Cicero judiciously observes Omni in re consentio omnium Gentium Lex naturae putanda est and thus the Notion of the Soul's Immortality is so implanted in the Nature and Mind of Man that whoso denies it doth impugn his own Natural Principles As for that common Objection the Alteration observable in Infancy and old Age we may answer with the great Master of Nature at least one so esteem'd by some Innasci autem Intellectus videtur substantia quaedam esse nec corrumpi nam si corrumperetur quidem id maxime fieret ab habitatione illa quae in Senectute contingit nunc autem res perinde fit ac in ipsismet sensuum instrumentis si enim Senex Occulum Juvenilem reciperet non secus ac ipse Juvenis videret unde Senectus non ex eo est quod quidquam passa Anima sit fed quod simile aliquid ac in Ebrietate morbisque eveniat ipsaque intelligendi contemplandi functio propter aliquid aliud interius corruptum marcescit cum ipsum interim cujus est passionis expers maneat Which words consider'd we have good reason to affirm that all that Change which the Epicurean would have to be in the Rational Soul or Mind during the growth of the Body in Youth and decay of it in old Age doth not proceed from any Mutation in the Soul it self but some other Interiour thing distinct from it as the Imagination or Organ of the common Sense the Brain which being well or ill affected the Soul it self suffereth not at all but only the Functions of it flourish or decay accordingly for as the Philosopher remarks if it were possible to give an old Man a young Eye and a young Imagination his Soul would soon declare by exquisite vision and quick reasoning that it was not she that had grown old but her Organs and that she is capable of no more Change from the impairment of the Body than is usually observed to arise pro tempore from a fit of Drunkenness or some Disease of the Brain so that it is evident from hence that whatever Change Men have thought to be in the Soul by reason of that great decay generally attending old Age to not really in the Soul but only in the Imagination and the Organs thereof which are not so well dispos'd as in the Vigour of Life In like manner are we to understand that the Soul when the Members grow cold and mortify'd doth then indeed instantly cease to be in them yet is not cut off by piece-meal or diminisht and gradually dissipated but the whole of it remains in so much of the Body as yet continues warm and perfused by the Vital Heat until ceasing longer to animate the principle Seat of its Residence whether the Brain or Heart it at length bids adieu to the whole and withdraweth it self entire and perfect so that Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame and not of the Soul which as Solomon calls it is the brightness of the Everlasting Light the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God and the Image of his Goodness and being but one she can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new The like may be said with relation to those failings observable in swooning fits which fall not upon the Soul but on the Vital Organs at those times render'd unfit for the uses and actions to which they were framed and accommodated and if the Causes of such failings shou'd happen to be so violent as to bring on a sudden Death then the Soul must indeed depart yet not by reason of any dissolution in its Substance or imbecility in it self but for want of those dispositions in the Organs of Life by which she was enabled to enliven the Body Now if saith this Author in such a Thesis or Proposition which is not capable of being evinced by Geometrical Demonstration there can yet be expected such substantial and satisfactory Reasons Physical or Moral as may suffice to the full establishment of its Truth in the Mind of a reasonable Man If this be granted I thence argue that the Soul is an Immortal Substance and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine but also demonstrable by Reason or the Light of Nature To be convinc'd of our Immortality and satisfactorily perswaded whether or no there is any thing in us which shall not perish with the Life we are shortly to lay down is of so great and so important Consequence that I can readily expect your forgiveness if I trespass upon your Patience and inlarge a little farther upon this weighty Argument That there is somewhat in us essentially differing from distinct and superior to other Animals or that the Rational Soul of Man bears no Analogy with the Souls of other Creatures is farther elegantly toucht upon in these words of Dr. Willis The Eminency of the Rational Soul above the Brutal or Corporeal shines clearly by comparing either both as to the Objects and to the chief Acts or Modes of Knowing As to the former whenâ—â— every Corporeal Faculty is limited to sensible Things the Object of the Humane Mind is every Ens whether above or sublâ—mary material or immaterial true or fictitious real or intentional The Acts or Degrees of Knowledge common to either Soul are vulgarly accounted these three to wit Simple Apprehension Enunciation and Discourse How much the power of the Rational excels the other which is Corporeal we shall consider 1. The knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul is Phantasie or Imagination which being planted in the middle part of the Brain receives the sensible Species first only impressed on the Organs of Sense and from thence by a most quick irradiation of the Spirits deliver'd inwards and so apprehends all the several Corporeal Things according to their Exterior Appearances which notwithstanding as they are perceived only by the Sense which is often deceived they are admitted under an appearing and not always under a true Image or Species for so we imagine the Sun no bigger than a Bushel the Horizon of the Heaven and the Sea to meet
prodigiously Cruel which plainly demonstrates how unfit he was to lay claim to the Prophetic Priviledge and Dignity If we consult the Doctrine of the Alcoran we have all the Evidence that the Reason of Man can desire that it neither did nor cou'd proceed from God It is true there are some things in it stolen from the Scripture but even those are so perversly related and so wretchedly corrupted with Fables that they lose the very similitude of Truth through the villainous management of them Persons are so misnam'd Times are so mistaken the whole so interlarded with Contradictions and disguised with Absurdities that we must needs say the Contriver had a bad Memory and a worse Understanding In a word the whole Alcoran is nothing but a Cento of Heathenism Judaism and Christianity all miserably corrupted and as wildly blended together The Doctrines of it are for the most part either impossible blasphemous or absurd The Rewards promised to the Embracers of it are impure and foolish The whole was at first invented out of Pride and Ambition propagated by Violence and Rapine and is still maintain'd in the ways it was establisht Profound Ignorance Sensual Baits and force of Arms gave it its first Promotion and do still maintain its Credit in the World Thus the meanest Reason if duly exercised is able manifestly to disprove the Divinity of the Alcoran This Business of Revelation has been of late so curiously handled by the B of C that I can do no less then recommend to you a perusal of those his Excellent Discourses at Mr. Boyle's Lecture where I am ready to believe you will find but little wanting to a Demonstration of the Necessity of Reveal'd Religion of a possibility for the Almighty to reveal his Will and lastly not only the Probability but the Certainty that he has reveal'd his Will to Mankind and that this Revelation is the same which is contained in the two Testaments For the â—leing all which Truths viz. the Possibility Expedience Usefulness Necessity and the Certainty of Divine Revelation he has offer'd such Evidence Rational Natural Traditionary and Supernatural as may suffice for the Conviction of the unprejudic'd Infidel and will be found too strong to be made void or overthrown by the subtilest of the Hellish Tribe Our Belief of the Scriptures being a Divine Revelation does indeâ—d suppose the Existence of a God and therefore our Knowledge of his Being must precede our Faith of the Divine Authority of the Bible I grant the Scriptures may be brought not only to such as own their Truth but even to Infidels as a proof of a Deity but then it must not be upon the score of their naked Testimony but on the account of their being of such a Frame Nature and Quality that they can proceed from no other Author and thus may we arrive by the Scripture at an assurance of God's Existence as we do at the Knowledge of a Cause by its Effect But so far as we assent to any thing upon the credit of the Scriptures meer testification we are necessitated to presuppose the Existence of a God it bring only on the account of his Veracity in himself and that the Bible is a Divine Revelation that we do without the least guilt of vain Credulity because upon the highest Reason implicitly believe it Again Those who owe their Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God to meer Report to Principles of Education the Felicity of their Birth or the Clime where they were born receive the Scripture upon no better Motives than the Turks do their Alcoran If pretended Inspiration may pass for the Demonstration of the Truth of what every bold Pretender will obtrude upon us we must expose our selves not only to the belief of every groundless Imagination but of innumerable Contradictions for not only the grossest Follies but Doctrines palpably repugnant both to Reason and one another have been deliver'd by Enthusiasts and pretended Inspirato's I grant that the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Souls and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures is the most convincing Evidence that such Persons can have of its Divinity But 1. the Holy Ghost convinceth no Man as to the belief of the Scripture without enlightning him in the Ground and Reasons upon which its proceeding from God is evidenc'd and establishâ— There is no Conviction begot by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Men otherways than by Rational Evidence satisfying our Understandings through a Discovery of the Motives and Inducements that ascertain the Truth of what he wou'd convince us of 2. No Man's particular assurance obtain'd thus in way of Illumination by the Holy Ghost is to be otherwise urged as an Argument of Conviction to another than by proposing the Reasons on which our Faith is erected The way of such Mens Evidence is communicable to none unless they cou'd kindle the same Rays in the Breasts of others which have irradiated their own and therefore they must deal with others by producing the Grounds of their Conviction not pleading the Manner of it for that another is convinced and perswaded by them depends wholly on the weight and momentousness of the Reasons themselves not on the manner that such a Person came to discover them for shou'd he have arrived at the discerning them by any other means they had been of the same significancy to the Conviction of an Adversary 3. The Holy Ghost as a distinct Person in the Deity is not a Principle demonstrable by Reason seeing then it is by the Scripture alone that we are assured of the Existence of the Divine Spirit as a distinct Person in the Godhead therefore his testimony in the Hearts and Consciences of Men to the Scripture cannot be allow'd as a previous Evidence of its Divinity To prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost when we cannot otherwise prove that there is a Holy Ghost but by the Testimony of the Scâ—ipture is to argue circularly and absurdly So that in short when we have to do with such as either question or deny the Authority of the Scripture we are to prove it by Ratiocination from common Principles receiv'd amongst Mankind and by Topicks that lye even and proportionate to Intellectual Natures Our Reason is here justly to be magnify'd as highly subservient to Religion in that it can demonstrate the Divine Authority of the Scripture upon which our Faith as to all particular Articles and Duties of Religion is grounded This I say our Reason can do to the Conviction of all who are not wilfully obstinate and for such there is no means either sufficient or intended by the Almighty to satisfie them For it is certain that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings partly through the Nature Quality Extent and Arduousness of Objects and our inadaequate Conceptions of them partly through Prepossessions Prejudices and the Bias of Lusts and Passions
that we are subject to partly through Supineness Sloth and Inadvertency we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from Self-evident and Universal Maxims and thereupon establish erroneous and mistaken Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason But then this is the fault of Philosophers not of Philosophy or of Philosophy in the Concrete as existing in this or that Person not in the Abstract as involving such a Mischief in its Nature and Idea Our Intellectual Faculties being vitiated and tinctur'd with Lust inthralled by Prejudices darkened by Passions ingaged by vain and corrupt Interests distorted by Pride and Self-love and fastened to Earthly Images do often impose upon us and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axioms for undoubted and incontestable Principles of Reason It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this adulterate Reason which is both unfriendly and dangerous to Religion it is to this that most of the malignant Heresies which have infected the Church do owe its rise and whoever will trace the Errors which have invaded Divinity to their Source may resolve them into false Reasonings or absurd Maxims of Philosophy which have been by their Founders superscribed with the venerable Name of Principles of Reason Indeed whatever can be made appear to lye in a Contradiction to right Reason we may profess our selves ready to abandon and disclaim but we are satisfy'd and do fully believe that a great deal which only crosses some false and lubricous Principles that Dogmatists have given that name to falls under the Imputation of Disagreement with Reason the Repugnancy of Reason fasten'd upon some Tenets is rather the Result of Ignorance Prepossession and sometimes Lust than their contrariety to Universal Reason or any genuine Maxims of it Farther It must be granted and hath always been judged that the Incomprehensibleness of a Doctrine through the Sublimity and Extension of its Object is no just bar to the Truth of it And indeed it is to be wonder'd that any who have studied the Weakness of their discursive Capacity the Feebleness of Intellectual Light how soon it is dazled with too bright a Splendour the Confinement and Boundaries our Understandings are subject to together with the Majesty of the Gospel Truth the Immensity of the Objects of the Christian Faith shou'd think the arduousness of framing distinct and adaequate Conceptions of them a sufficient ground for their being renounced and disclaimed Yet this is the Standard by which some Men regulate their Belief As to the Bible ' tho every thing in it be not alike necessary yet every thing in it is alike true and our Concernment lyes more or less in it There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in Matters of Religion besides this and therefore the import and meaning of its Terms can be no other ways decided but by their habitude to their Measure For this end did the Almighty give forth the Scripture that it might be the Foundation and Standard of Religion and thence it is we are to learn its Laws and Constitutions The instructing Mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness was our Makers design in vouchsafing to us a supernatural Revelation and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an end the Respect and Veneration which we pay to his Sapience and Goodness oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportioned the Means thereunto Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts 1. Such as besides their being made known by Revelation and believed on the account of Divine Testimony have also a Foundation in the Light of Nature and there are Natural Mediums by which they may be proved Of this kind are the Being of or Attributes of God the Immortality of the Soul the Certainty of Providence the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil. 2. Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature by which they cou'd have been found out or known but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the discovery of them their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them and these also are of two sorts 1. There are some Doctrines which tho' our Understandings by Natural Mediums cou'd never have discover'd yet being onâ—e â—evealed our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason facilitate the Apprehension of them and confirm it self in their Belief Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to Penitent Sinners There are others which as Reason cou'd never have discover'd so when reveald it can neither comprehend them nor produce any Medium in Nature by which either the Existence of their Objects can be demonstrated or their Truth illustrated Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God of these our Reason is not able to give us any adaequate Conceptions and yet these are by a clear and necessary connexâ—on united with other Doctrines of Faith which Reason enlighten'd by Revelation can give a Rational account of For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Work of Redemption by the Incarnation of an Infinite Person hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice in order to the dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders And the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the end aforesaid hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind and this Corruption is both fully confessed and easily demonstrated by Reason Thus tho' all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with those of Reason yet these very Doctrines of Faith which lye remoâ—est from the Territories of Reason and seem to have least affinity with its Light are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith which when once discover'd Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm it self in I need not add that the most mysterious Doctrines of Religion are necessarily connected with a Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God and that is a Truth which right Reason is so far from rejecting that it is able to demonstrate the same Now if in Explaining the Phaenomena of Nature which is the proper Province of Reason the most that a discreet Philosopher will pretend to is to declare the possible ways by which a Phoenomenon may be accounted for without presuming to say that it is only performed in this way and that there is no other in which it may be explain'd much more doth it become us in the great Mysteries of Revelation to abstain from defining the Manner how they are and to content our selves with what God hath been pleased to tell us for in such Doctrines these things appertain to Reason 1. To shew that it is not
Substance that the Rays which cause the visible Species are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body repercussed in their going forth and reflected variously here and there according to Gassendus or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air and as it were by inkindling them render them luminous and these at length others and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation which is the more probable Opinion if we may credit Dr. Willis Farther Admitting in the Case of Hearing that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies after the manner described or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound in a word admitting the rest of the Senses the Touch the Smell and Taste and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body might after some such manmer be explor'd by the Corpuscular Philosophy yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers and judges so exquisitely of each of these Sensations must it self be independent both of Matter and Mechanism How then is it possible for any Man without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding when he has made this Enquiry and satisfy'd himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions how is it I say that this shou'd incline a Man to Atheism unless contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience he were resolv'd that way or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all or one no better viz. Chance or Fortune So that to deal freely I can do no less than believe with a Modern Philosopher That whoever does profess Philosophy and thinks not rightly of God may be judg'd not only to have shaken hands with Religion but with his Reason also and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity The sum of this Argument lyes here That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious On the other hand to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable So that to put the Cause upon this Issue let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us whether it be to do Good or Evil Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion or that in any manner inclines us to Vice we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation but if on the contrary it appear that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Vertue and that any Pretence either to the one or to the other not built on Rational Principles may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisie thâ—n certainly 't is our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures 't is this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion and when by our Reason we are perswaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired which as is intimated before we have abundant Reason to believe we must then let our Faith take place and not only assent unto those things which we can account for but even of those also which tho' not contrary to are above our Reason and must be acknowledg'd to surmount our Apprehension The Belief of a God of his Providence and of future Rewards and Punishments is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion but the Foundation of that Faith lyes in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind All the Certainty saith the pious Father Malebranch which we can have in Matters of Faith depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason I may answer with a very Ingenious Man That by Reason is to be understood that steddy uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled so far I mean as they are able to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions and thereupon to pronounce them true or false There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men occasion'd by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves and the different Representation of Things from without but the Light by which all things are discerned is universally one and the same The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights it wou'd be impossible for one Man by any Representation whatsoever to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may injoy it can only be of authority and useful to themselves or at most it can be only so far useful and of authority to others as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it All Matters of Religion even as all other Affairs of Humane Life are to be handled by Men in reference to one another in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him of our Selves and of the Relation we stand in to Him and to our fellow Creatures The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things whatsoever that Cause be I call it God and the Idea that we have of this powerful â—â—cing arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that
a profound Judgment and substantial Knowledge must undoubtedly lead us to very great Devotion and the more exquisitely curious the Anatomist is the greater Reason will he have if he abuse not his Understanding to adore and admire the Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of his great Creator and consequently to worship to love and to obey him If you believe Reveal'd Religion which was never so question'd or refuted as to deserve the Answer of any soberly learned Man you must believe the Truth of God's particular Providence altho' you cannot reconcile every particular Phaenomenon either to your own Reason or the Corpuscular Philosophy The holy Scriptures are a System of Divine Philosophy and I should think that the Assertions of the Almighty ought to be received by Rational Men before the seeming clearness of any meer Humane Hypothesis Alas how little is it that we know and granting the Supream Being to have made our World in the Nature of a Clock is this an Argument that its first Fabrication or the Motions bestowed upon its several Parts can result from any thing short of an Almighty and Divine Power but our Philosophy is unable to inform us of all the Wheels the Pius and several Motions of this stupendious Frame 't is true we set it move according to Mechanick Laws but there may be many thousand Motions in it of which we are ignorant Let us bless our God for the Revelation which he has given us and let us as most certainly it behoves us rely upon his special Providence whoever does so will in the event find Comfort and Satisfaction nor do I see how a good Man can have any real Happiness or Consolation without it As for Mr. B s Divinity I must own there are many things in it both Rational and Solid but when he comes to spiritualize the Divine Ordinances and Institutions of Christ and his Apostles he not only sets himself up in opposition to the Churches of Christ to the Sense and Practise of the Primitive Christians as I am able to prove but exposes a want of knowledge in Scripture Interpretation The Novelty of the Sect and the dangerous tendency of their pretended Inspiration is argument enough to â—â—e of their Inconsistency with themselves and true Religion and surely we ought to be extreamly cautious how we side with such whimsical upstart Opinions till we can reconcile the Possibility for Divine Goodness and Mercy to suffer Christendom to lye in Ignorance for Sixteen hundred years and that the Churches immediately planted by the Apostles shou'd make Mistakes of that vile Consequence even when their Founders were present to set them to rights if they had done so as we must believe they did if Q sm be true A well-grounded knowledge in the Primitive Christianity which may be truly fetcht out of Ecclesiastick History and the Fathers of the Church will give you this Satisfaction that the holy Ordinances from the first promulgation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ such I mean as Water-Baptism and the Eucharist have been practis'd even to this day by all good Christians by the use of the outward Elements in their Administration I deny not but there have been both great Abuses Misapprehensions and Mistakes in the performance of them or in the manner of their Reception and I think I may say there are 〈◊〉 more egregiously absurd than some of those derived from the Chair of supposed Infallibility but this will by no means extenuate our Crimes of neglecting their use or making light of putting them at all in practise I desire you at your leisure to consider well Mr. B s Comment upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which he lays a very great stress and if you compare it with some of those Places in Holy Writ which clearly justifie this manner of Baptismal initiation into Christ's Church you will find it so gross a Metaphor that neither Grammar Rhetorick nor the Rules of Logick neither which I prefer to them all the Reason of an understanding Man will ever be able to countenance We may set into what Absurdities even Learned Men are betray'd when they too much rely upon their own Judgments when they set up for new Discoveries and impose their own Phantâ—sies for Divine Revelations If you please to send me what you think the sufficient Proofs which this Learned Man has excogitated for the support of his new Religion I will if God enable me give you my impartial Thoughts for I must seriously profess to you I see nothing in his Works which ought to sway any true Christian to leave any Protestant Church for the sake of Q sm I have formerly been in Mr. B s Company but cou'd never discover any thing like fair Argumentation I must own him to have been a Man of very considerable parts yet his Scripture Quotations were for the most part manifestly wrested and his general Discourse a pure Invective or down-right Railery against the Church of England at which I must confess I was very much surprised having framed to my self other Notions of the Man before I left him with this undoubted satisfaction in my self that the Spirit of Self-conceit of Pride and Bitterness must needs be very reâ—â—te from the true Spirit of Christianity I thank you for your Discourse concerning the Natural Power of Spasms or the Disorders of the Nervous System but as to what you say about Daemoniacs Fascination and the Operation of Evil Spirits I must refer my Opinion to a time of greater leisure or till you please to visit me in the mean time I pray God more and more to inlighten your Understanding c. I am your real Friend A. H. Some little time after this I receiv'd a Second Letter from that sincerely Religious and most excellent Divine by way of Answer to one that I had sent him which as I find it amongst my Papers begins thus SIR I Rejoyce with you that it hath pleased our good God to confirm in you such a Belief of his Existence and your own Creation after the Divine Image as may secure to you a Remembrance of the Duty incumbent on you and put you both upon a constant and fervent Prayer for the supply of Divine Grace together with a steddy and devout Submission to and Dependence upon his especial Providence I do look upon your last Letter to be the Picture of your Mind and bating the Ceremony I find no other fault than this that how lamentably true soever your Remarks may be upon the present Age for the most part yet I am free to acquaint you with my Thoughts that there are a much greater number of good People amongst us than you imagine I may say blessed be our God for it I have the personal knowledge of many whom I can call truly pious and sincere Christians Some of them such who as they by no means value themselves upon their Humane Acquirements are yet able to silence the Calumnies of the Profane
present but it is self-evident likewise that no one past Revolution can be infinitely distant from the present for then an infinite or unbounded duration may be bounded at two Extremes by two annual Revolutions which is absurd and a Contradiction And again upon the same Supposition of an Eternal past Duration of the World and of infinite annual Revolutions of the Earth about the Sun I would ask concerning the Monthly Revolutions of the Moon about the Earth or the Diurnal ones of the Earth upon its Axis both which by the very Hypothesis are coaeval with the former Whether these also have been finite or infinite Not finite to be sure because thâ—n a finite number would be greater then an infinite as 12 or 365 are greater than a Unite Nor infinite neither for then two or three Infinites would exceed one another as a year exceeds a Month or both exceed a Day So that both ways the Supposition is repugnant and impossible These Difficulties as I have already intimated cannot be reasonably apply'd to the Eternal Duration of the Supreme Power for tho' we cannot comprehend Eternity and Infinity yet we understand what They are not and something we are sure must have existed from Eternity because all things could not emerge from nothing So that if this Prae-existent Eternity is not compatible with a successive Duration as we clearly and distinctly perceive that it is not then something tho' infinitely above our finite Comprehensions must have had an Identical invariable continuance from all Eternity which Being is what we call God for as his Nature is perfect and immutable without the least shadow of Change so his Eternal Duration is permanent and invisible not measurable by Time and Motion nor to be computed by number of successive Moments But this Opinion of Infinite Generations is repugnant likewise to Matter of Fact 'T is a Truth beyond opposition That the Universal Species of Mankind has had a gradual Increase notwithstanding what War and Famine Pestilence Floods Conflagrations and other Causes may at certain Periods of Time have interrupted and retarded it This is manifest from the History of the Jewish Nation from the Account of the Roman Census and from the Registers of our own Country where the proportion of Births to Burials is found upon observation to be yearly as fifty to forty Now if Mankind do increase though never so slowly but one Couple suppose in an Age 't is enough to evince the falshood of infinite Generations already expir'd for tho' the Atheist should contend that there were Ten thousand million Couple of Mankind now in being that we may allow him multitude enough 't is but going back so many Ages and we descend to one single Original Pair and 't is all one in respect of Eternal Duration yet behind whether we begin the World so many millions of Ages ago or date it from the late Aera of about Six thousand years which recent Beginning is I think sufficiently establisht from the known Original of Empires and Kingdoms and from the late Invention of Arts and Sciences whereas if infinite Ages of Mankind had already preceded there could nothing have been left to be invented or improved by the successful Industry and Curiosity of our own The Circulation of the Blood and the Weight and Spring of the Air which is as it were the Vital Pulse and the great Circulation of Nature and of more importance in all Physiology than any one Invention since the beginning of Science had never lain hidden so many Myriads of Generations and been reserv'd for a late happy discovery by two great Luminaries of this Island I hope from what has been said you may gain if not undoubted satisfaction at least some certain knowledge that this Notion of Infinite past Generations or the World's Eternity is so far from bearing the Test of a Reasonable Inquisition that the very Supposition is void of Sence and a palpable Contradiction The Atomical Hypothesis of a fortuitous Jumble without any Intelligent Being to direct the Portions of the Mundane Matter into their several Forms is a Fancy no less extravagant a Whimsy so unaccountable that in the words of a great Man there is nothing more wonderful to imagine unless this That it should ever enter into the heart of Man The better to confute this together with those other Opinions of the Astral and Solar Influence I have here borrowed a Scheme of fair and reasonable Argumentation from the Judicious Mr. Lock such an one I hope as will extort a Confession from you that there must unavoidably be admitted a first Cause of all things and that the same can be no other than a most Intelligent as well as Powerful Being 1. Tho' God has given us says that learned Man no innate Idea's of himself tho' he has stamped no original Characters on our Minds wherein we may read his Being yet having furnisht us with those Faculties our Minds are endow'd with he hath not left himself without witness since we have Sense Perception and Reason and cannot want a clear proof of Him as long as we carry our selves about us nor can we justly complain of our Ignorance in this great Point since He has so plentifully provided us with the Means to discover and know Him so far as is necessary to the end of our Being and the great Concernment of our Happiness But tho' this be the most obvious Truth that Reason discovers and tho' its Evidence be if I mistake not equal to mathematical Certainty yet it requires Thought and Attention and the Mind must apply it self to a regular Deduction of it from some part of our intuitive Knowledge or else we shall be as uncertain and ignorant of this as of other Propositions which are in themselves capable of clear demonstration To show therefore that we are capable of knowing i. e. being certain that there is a God and how we may come by this Certainty I think we need go no farther than our selves and that undoubted Knowledge we have of our own Existence 2. I think it is beyond question that Man has a clear Perception of his own Being he knows certainly that he Exists and that he is something He that can doubt whether he be any thing or no I speak no more to than I would argue with pure Nothing or endeavour to convince Non-Entity that it were something If any one pretend to be so sceptical as to deny his own Existence for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible let him for me enjoy his beloved Happiness of being Nothing until Hunger or some other Pain convince him of the contrary This I think I may take for a Truth of which every ones certain Knowledge assures him beyond the liberty of doubting viz. That he is something that actually Exists 3. In the next place Man knows by an Intuitive knowledge the Certainty that bare Nothing can no more produce any real Being than it
can be equal to two right Angles If a Man knows not that Non-Entity or the Absence of all Being cannot be equal to two right Angles it is impossible that he should know any Demonstration in Euclid If therefore we know there is some real Being and that Non-Entity cannot produce any real Being it is an evident Demonstration that from Eternity there has been something since what was from Eternity had a Beginning and what had a Beginning must be produced from something else 4. Next It is evident that what had its Being and Beginning from another must also have all that which is in and belongs to its Being to another too all the Power it has must be owing to and received from the same Source This Eternal Source then of all Being Being must also be the Source and Original of all Power and so this Eternal Being must be also the most powerful 5. Again A Man finds in himself Perception and Knowledge we have then got one step farther and we are certain now that there is not only some Being but some knowing Intelligent Being in the World There was a time then when there was no knowing Being and when Knowledge began to be or else there has been also a knowing Being from Eternity If it be said there was a time when no Being had any Knowledge when that Eternal Being was void of all Understanding I reply That then it was impossible there should ever have been any Knowledge it being as impossible that things wholly void of Knowledge and operating blindly without any Perception should produce a knowing Being as it is impossible that a Triangle should make it self three Angles bigger than two right ones for it is as repugnant to the Idea of sensless Matter that it should put into it self Sense Perception and Knowledge as it is repugnant to the Idea of a Triangle that it should put into it self greater Angles than two right ones 6. Thus from the Consideration of our Selves and what we infallibly find in our own Constitutions our Reason leads us to the knowledge of this certain and evident Truth That there is an eternal most powerful and most knowing Being which whether any one will please to call God it matters not the thing is evident and from this Idea duly considered will easily be deduced all those other Attributes we ought to ascribe to this Eternal Being If nevertheless any one should be found so senslesly arrogant as to suppose Man alone knowing and wise but yet the Product of meer Ignorance and Chance and that all the rest of the Universe is acted only by that blind Hap-hazard I shall leave with him that very rational and emphatical Rebuke of Tully Lib. 2. de Leg. to be consider'd leisurely Quid est enim verius quam neminem esse oportere tam stulte arrogantem ut in se Mentem Rationem putet inesse in Coelo Mundóque non putet aut ea quae vix summâ Ingenij ratione comprehendat nulla ratione moveri putet Or that of the Philosopher Egregie mentiuntur qui dicunt non esse Deum etiamsi enim interdiu negant Noctu tamen sibi dubitant From what has been said it is plain to me we have a more certain knowledge of the Existence of a God than of any thing our Senses have not immediately discovered to us Nay I presume I may say that we more certainly know that there is a God than that there is any thing else without us When I say we know I mean that there is such a Knowledge within our reach which we cannot miss if we will but apply our Minds to that as we do to several other Enquiries 7. How far the Idea of a most perfect Being which a Man may frame in his Mind does or does not prove the Existence of a God I will not here examine for in the different make of Mens Tempers and application of their Thoughts some Arguments prevail more on one and some on another for the confirmation of the same Truth But yet I think this I may say that it is an ill way of establishing this Truth and silencing Atheists to lay the whole stress of so important a Point as this upon that sole foundation and take some Mens having that Idea of God in their Minds for 't is evident some Men have none and some worse than none and the most very indifferent for the only proof of a Deity and out of an over-fondness of that darling Invention cashier or at least endeavour to invalidate all other Arguments and forbid us to hearken to those proofs as being weak or fallacious which our own Existence and the sensible parts of the Universe offer so clearly and cogently to our Thoughts that I deem it impossible for a considering Man to withstand them for I judge it as certain and clear a Truth as can any where be delivered that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Tho' our own Being furnishes us as I have shewn with an Evident and incontestible Proof of a Deity and I believe no Body can avoid the Cogency of it who will but as carefully attend to it as to any other Demonstration of so many parts yet this being so fundamental a Truth and of that consequence that all Religion and genuine Morality depend thereon I doubt not but I shall be forgiven if I go over some parts of this Argument again and inlarge a little more thereon 8. There is no Truth more evident than that something must be from Eternity I never yet heard of any one so unreasonable that could suppose so manifest a Contradiction as a time wherein there was perfectly nothing this Being of all Absurdities the greatest to imagine that pure Nothing the perfect Negation and Absence of all Being should ever produce any real Existence It being then unavoidable for all rational Creatures to conclude that something has existed from Eternity let us next see what kind of thing that must be 9. There are but two sorts of Beings in the World that Man knows or conceives First Such as are purely material without Sense Perception or Thought Secondly Sensible thinking and perceiving Beings which if you please we will hereafter call cogitative and incogitative Beings being more to our present purpose and perhaps better terms than Material and Immaterial 10. If then there must be something Eternal let us see what sort of Being it must be And to that it is very obvious to Reason that it must necessarily be a cogitative Being for it is as impossible to conceive that ever bare incogitative Matter should produce a thinking Intelligent Being as that nothing should of it self produce Matter Let us suppose any Parcel of Matter Eternal great or small we shall find it in it self able to produce nothing for example Let us suppose the Matter of the next
voluntary Motions which are produced in us only by the free Thoughts of our own Minds and are not nor can be the Effects of the impulse or determination of the Motion of blind Matter in or upon our Bodies for then it could not be in our power or choice to alter it For example My right hand writes whilst my left hand is still what causes Rest in one and Motion in the other nothing but my Will a Thought of my Mind my Thought only changing the right hand rests and the left hand moves this is matter of fact which cannot be deny'd Explain this and make it intelligible and then the next step will be to understand Creation For the giving a new determination to the Motion of the Animal Spirits which some make use of to explain voluntary Motion clears not the difficulty one jotâ— to alter the determination of Motion being in this Case no easier nor less than to give Motion it self since the new determination given to the Animal Spirits must be either immediately by Thought or by some other Body put in their way by Thought which was not in their way before and so must own its Motion to Thought either of which leaves voluntary Motion as unintelligible as it was before In the mean time it is an over-valuing our selves to reduce all to the narrow measure of our Capacities and to conclude all things impossible to be done whose manner of doing exceeds our Comprehension this is to make our Comprehension infinite or God finite when what He can do is limited to what we conceive of it If you do not understand the operations of your own finite Mind that thinking Thing within you do not deem it strange that you cannot comprehend the operations of that Eternal infinite Mind who made and governs all things and whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain I hope my Friend you will more readily excuse the foregoing Prolixity on the account that first Principles especially those of so great moment as these before us ought to be as clearly and satisfactorily prov'd as it is possible which if upon your most serious Reflection you find establisht beyond opposition I expect that from this moment you date the downfal of your Atheism and that you presently commence Deist in order to turn Christian. I know of no better way of arguing with the meer natural Man or with such who value themselves so highly upon the strength of their own Judgment or Humane Reason than to endeavour their Conviction by the most rational Deductions from as rational Propositions whether or no these are such which I have transferr'd hither from the Writings of these two famous Men I must leave you to consider I confess there is little hopes of reclaiming such fool-hardy Libertines who argue for their Infidelity by the same powers in their Souls which to the more considerate are convincing proofs That the Soul which is invested with such mighty Power must undoubtedly be a Substance independant of Corporiety and consequently incapable of suffering an extinction with the Lamp of Life but of the Nature of the Rational Soul of Man and its different Existence from the Soul of Brutes I shall discourse elsewhere having here confin'd my self more particularly to enquire after the Author of our own Being and all others which surround us There have been many Methods used in handling of this Subject and indeed were our Opponents so full of Reason as they pretend one might wonder that any of them should prove insufficient I shall not here stay to examine the Certainty of that Cartesian Notion That 't is impossible we could have had any Idea of that infinite Eternal all-wise Being we call God if such a Being did not really exist or were not in rerum Natura But of this we may be satisfy'd that unless we do believe there is such an immense Being has created us with a design not to deceive us we must be pure Scepticks for it is impossible without this Belief we should be fully assur'd of any Truth whatsoever and therefore I think 't is not without Cause that the Philosopher lays this down as a necessary Introduction to Science Nihil intelligitur nisi Deus prius intelligatur Having proved the Necessity of some Eternal cogitative Being by a train of Arguments which are founded upon right Reason neither supported by Tradition or Authority either Sacred or Profane I shall next inquire how it comes to pass that this first and if I may so say greatest Truth the Foundation of all true Happiness is so wonderfully obscur'd effac'd and even obliterated out of the Hearts of a great part of Mankind Whosoever will take the trouble to inform himself after what manner most People account for the Productions they see daily brought to pass may easily understand that where one Man speaks either reasonably or becomingly of the great Author of the Universe and acknowledges any such Being as superintends the agency of second Causes there are abundantly more who look no farther than the empty Sounds of Fate Fortune Chance Destiny and in their Enquiries into the Structure of Humane Bodies or the Discords of the Animal Oeconomy you rarely find any thing more particularly taken notice of than the Archaeus by some by others the Plastick Power and indeed by all most commonly a certain Nature which tho' continually in their Expressions they know not what to make of Excuse me Sir if I think it worth my while to examine which of these can supply the place of an Almighty or of any real efficient Cause or with what reason we can ascribe unto either of these nominal Agents the Operations imputed to them Fate or Destiny saith SENECA is an immutable and invincible Law imposed upon Things and Actions You will say perhaps that this thing shall happen or not happen if it must come to pass altho ' you vow and make your request yet shall it take effect If it shall not come to pass vow and pray as much as you list yet it shall not fall out Now the Consequence saith he of this Argument is false because you have forgot the Exception that I have put between them both that is to say This shall happen provided a Man makes Vows and Prayers it must necessarily happen that to vow or not to vow are comprehended in and are parts of the same Destiny Again It is destinated or it is such a Man's fate to be an eloquent Man but under this Condition it is likewise destinated that he be instructed in good Letters It is destinated for another Man to he rich but here 't is included in the same Destiny that be make use of the means for their procurement So likewise may it be said it was such a Man's destiny to be hang'd but here that he render himself guilty of some capital Offence for which he is convicted by the Law is part of the same Destiny In the sence wherein these words are
for it implys a Supreme Judge to whom we are accountable 5. We find that we are furnisht with Faculties of vast Appetites and Desires and that there is nothing in the World that can satisfie our Cravings and by Consequence there must be some Supreme Good adequate and proportionate to the longings of our Souls which can be nothing but God 6. We find the frame of our Rational Powers to be such that we cannot form a Notion of God tho' it were in denying Him but we include his Actual Existence in it Optimus maximus or a perfect Being is the Idea we have of God whensoever we think of Him now this includes actual Existence it being a greater perfection for a thing to be essentially independently and necessarily then to be contingently and by imagination from another on whose pleasure its Existence depends All Propositions whose Praedicate is included in the Essence of the Subject are stiled Self-evident or per se nota because if we do but once understand the import of the Term stiled the Subject we necessarily assent to its Identity with the Praedicate 7. By consulting still our Faculties we do not find any thing included in our Idea by virtue of which we must either ever have been or through existing this moment must necessarily exist the next which naturally conducts us to a perswasion of a God from whom we derived our Being at first and to whom we owe our continued Subsistence Secondly If we look around us there is nothing discoverable but what bears the most clear and perspicuous Characters of Wisdom Contrivance or Design Now if we consider the naked Existence of Things how they come to be in the posture they are we can by no means grant that they could cause themselves Existence as always presuppos'd to acting Nothing can be both before and after it self Nor 2 dly were they Eternal For 1. it is an Hypothesis pregnant with Contradictions that any thing finite or dependent as all things in the World are shou'd be Eternal 2. We see every thing subsist by a succession of Generation and Corruption which is plainly repugnant to Self and Eternal Existence Production from Eternity is a palpable Contradiction whatever is produc'd passeth from a state of Non-Entity into a state of Being and therefore we must conceive a time when it was not e're we can conceive the time when it was But the recency of the Existence of things is plain from the Deficiency either of History or Tradition antecedâ—ntly to Moses and He is so far from recording the World to have been Eternal that He instructs us particularly both how and when it began and as the Word was not Eternal so neither did it result by a casual Concourse of the Particles of Matter moving in an infinite ultra Mundane space and justling one another till they fell into this form and order in which we now behold them For 1. the Eternity of Atoms is attended with the same Contradictions as the Eternity of the World 2. Motion is hereby supposed intrinsâ—cal to Matter which is not only false but impossible It is the greatest Absurdity that can be imposed upon Reason to ascribe Motion to such a stupid and unactive Principle as Matter without the acknowledgment of a first and Divine Motor 3. If all things be the Result of Matter how comes a Principle of Reason to be convey'd into us by that which had it not inherent in it self 4. This Hypothesis supposeth that to have been the Effect of Chance which openly shows a Divine Contrivance 5. If the Fabric of the World be no more than the result of the casual Meeting and Concatenation of Atoms how comes it to pass that by their daily striking against each other they do not dance themselves into more Worlds at least into some one Animal or other 6. Epicurus 's Infinity of Atoms carries a repugnancy in it to his inane space and yet without this his whole Hypothesis falls to the ground nor is it possible to solve the permanency of the World and the continuity of Bodies by the fortuitous concatenation of Atoms through their different configurations and jagg'd Angles without the superintendency of an Omnipotent Goodness who sustains both the whole Creation and every part Especially it is not conceivable how such Bodies as are made up either of globular Particles or of those minute Corpuscles which Des Chartes stiles his first and second Elements should hold together without the influence of a higher Principle to keep them in their consistency And thus from these manifold Considerations of things both without us and within us are we led to a Perswasion and Conviction of the Being of a God Nor can the Atheist who denies his Existence give any rational Account of the Universal Consent of Mankind that there is one whereas he that maintains one can easily resolve it by shewing how such a Perswasion flows naturally from the Exercise of every Man's Understanding and forasmuch as it is alledg'd that there have been some who have dissented and consequently that the Perswasion is not Universal it amounts to no more but that there have been some who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. speak falsly of and bely our Nature which may be so perverted by Vice that Men will not acknowledge what lies most proportionate to Reason being corrupted by bad Education evil Customs and wicked Institutions they destroy even their most natural Notions So that if the Contradiction of a single Individual or two were enough to invalidate a Universal Perswasion or to impeach a Natural Truth there would be neither one nor t'other in the World for not only Cicero tells us there is nothing so absurd which some of the Philosophers have not maintained But Aristotle informs us that there have been some who have held that the same Thing might at the same time be and not be So that that thing is universally known not which every one acknowledgeth but that which every one who hath not debauch'd his Faculties doth discern 'T is a very sad Truth when Men are sunk into the greatest Sensualities their Reason becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compliant with their Sensual Appetites Besides such Men living as if there were no God can make no Apology to the World for it but by espousing such Notions as may justifie them in their Courses Withal being resolved to live as they list it is their Interest with reference to their Tranquality in the mean time to believe through holding that there is none to call them to account that they may do so quod valde volumus facile credimus From what has been said upon this Argument I see not what Evasions can be found out to avoid this Concession that there is a God And truly considering the slender supports of Atheism viz. Chance and the World's Eternity are so easily overthrown and prove insufficient to satisfie even the thinking Libertine himself I admire not that the
them and there are artificial Contrivances regular Proceedings and wise Adaptations of Things to ends and purposes far above the Power and Capacity of any Thing which is Existent These and many such Things as these follow the Denial of a God which are not only great Difficulties but such gross and sensless Absurdities as no thinking Person can swallow or digest As therefore Deformity sheweth Shape and Proportion beautiful so the Belief of a Deity appears more reasonable by the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of Atheism which contradicts common Sense overturns the agreed Principles of Knowledge and Reason confounds Chance and Contrivance Accident and Design and which has its recourse to wild Romantic and most precarious Hypotheses for they cannot shun the owning an Infinity and the Existence of something from Eternity and they are forced to acknowledge that things are framed according to the Rules of Art and Proportion Now as it not more reasonable to ascribe the constant observance of these Rules to an Intelligent Being than to Chance or no Cause for there is no middle Thing betwixt them to be fixed on either the one or the other must take place Nature which they talk so much of is an obscure word for concealing their Thoughts and Sentimens if by this they mean something distinct from Matter which moves and directs it their Nature is God in disguise and if they must flee to this for a rational account of the Production of Things why do they quarrel at the word GOD which carries a clear Idea and in the sence of which all the World is agreed Tho' this Nature of theirs be equivalent yet it is more mysterious and therefore it smells of some designed Perversness as if by the use of this word and the disuse of the other they would turn Peoples thoughts from God and God from the Honour of being the Creator of all things But if by Nature they only understand certain Laws and I know not what Ordinances by which things must move is this sufficient to explain the first Productions of Things For though it should be true that Matter cannot move but according to those Laws and that moving by them in process of time the Work could have been produced as it is at present after that Romantic manner of Cartesius yet there was no cecessity that Matter should move at all nor could it move of it self wherefore whether they will or not they must own the Existence of something prior to Matter it self or the Motion of it which Cartes was sensible of and therefore he could not build his aiery and fanciful System without supposing the Existence of a Deity So that in a word as God is the first Cause and Author of all things this Belief is the foundation of all solid Reason what is not built on this is Nonsence and Absurdity I know the Atheists arrogate to themselves Wit and Judgment and Knowledge above others and do think that it is the Ignorance and Credulity of the Bulk of Mankind at one lately words it which make them to be of another Belief but why I pray must they carry away Sense and Understanding from others because they are so vain as to think it Do not those in Bedlam think themselves wiser than others all the rest of the World are Fools in their eyes and those who keep them there not only such but Oppressors and most unjust Yet Atheism is a more extravagant and pernicious Madness which it is the highest Interest of Mankind to keep from spreading But alas it has been suffer'd to take root it is cherisht and encourag'd Men walk the Streets and publickly act this Madness in every Corner they throw their Scoffs and Droll against the Almighty Author of their Being They meet in Companies to concert how they may most wittily expose Him and what is the readiest way to render Him ridiculous in the eyes of others a Clinch a Jest or puny Witticism is receiv'd and entertain'd and carried about with all diligence Tho' there be no reason why the Atheist should be a Zealot there being no obligation on him to propagate his opinions and because the less they are entertain'd by others he himself is the more secure Yet no Sect is become more zealous of late than Atheists and their Fraternity who maintain their Cause by an affroâ—ting Impudence by the Exercise of a frothy Wit instead of Reason and by jesting and drolling instead of serious Arguments but let any Man judge if this be a reasonable or commendable way of handling a Matter so serious and important Should Impudence run down Evidence Should a Jest or a foolish Witticism be of more weight than the Dictates of common Sense and sound Reason If these Men were capable of Counsel I would ask them whether they are absolutely sure that they are in the right Are they able to demonstrate that there is no God This is more than any ever yet pretended to and if they cannot pretend to this ought they not to walk very cautiously if there be a God as there may for any assurance they have to the contrary what then have they to expect for their bold Insults and Oppositions to Him Our Notion of a God is no vain Hypothesis or imaginary Supposition 't is a Truth loudly proclaim'd and strongly confirm'd not only by Reason but every part of the World So that whatever the Atheist may arrogate to himself and whatever esteem may be paid to him in a corrupt Age yet iâ— he so far from being wiser than others that by the Universal Voice of Nature as well as that of Divine Revelation he will be declared a Fool who saith there is no God May the Supreme Power direct us all to a Knowledge of Himself such a Knowledge as will be attended here with a solid Peace and Satisfaction and hereafter with Eternal Happiness I have nothing more to add unless this that I am in all Sincerity Your real Friend to serve you LETTER II. Concerning Providence To Mr. c. My esteemed Friend IN my former you had the Thoughts of several Learned Men together with my own Conjectures concerning that unhappily controverted Truth the Basis of all others the Existence of a God In this I shall communicate my own Sentiments amongst those of some more prudent Persons concerning Providence a Matter by almost all Men frequently debated altho ' by very few of them very rationally explicated This is indeed a Theme so difficult so intricate and obscure so amasingly stupendious and withal a Subject that requires so very much Caution in its Explanation on the account of its general Moment and Concern that I profess to you I scarce know where or in what manner to begin or how to deliver my Conceptions freely on this weighty Argument I will however venture some few of my own Thoughts rude and indigested as they have occur'd upon a short Reflection if the Philosopher shou'd happen to get the Ascendant of the Christian
of that without which we cou'd never know what a Contradiction meant is said to imply one but if for quietness sake and it may be to content their own Minds as well as the World they are willing to admit of a Deity which is a mighty Concession from them who have so much Cause to be afraid of Him then to ease their Minds of such troublesome Companions as their Fears they seek by all means to dispossess Him of his Government of the World by denying his Providence and Care of Humane Affairs They are contented He should be called an Excellent Being that shou'd do nothing and therefore signifie nothing in the World Or if the Activity of their own Spirits may make them think that such an Excellent Being may sometimes draw the Curtain and look abroad into the World then every Advantage which another hath got above them and every cross Accident which befals themselves which by the power of Self-flattery most Men have learnt to call the prosperity of the Wicked and the Sufferings of good Men serve them for mighty Charges against the Justice of Divine Providence Thus either God shall not govern the World at all or if He do it must be upon such terms as they please or approve of So great is the Pride and Arrogance of our Nature that it loves to be condemning what it cannot comprehend and truly there need be no greater Reason given concerning the many Disputes in the World about Divine Providence than that God is wise and we are not but would fain seem to be so while we are in the Dark we shall be always quarrelling and those who contend most do it that they might seem to others to see when they know themselves that they do not The variety of Disputes which have been founded upon the unaccountable Methods of the Divine Providence and the Arguments brought by designing Men to overthrow this Notion as it is founded in Religious Minds tho' they have perverted the Faith of some and like an impetuous Torrent overwhelmed and confounded a great part of the Christian as well as Heathen World have yet proved ineffectual to Bias or Seduce those whose Modesty has been greater than to set up their own Reason for an adequate Rule of Truth who have had more Piety and solid Wisdom than to limit the Power even of Omnipotence it self to their own bounded and very narrowly circumscribed Intellectuals and too much Consideration to be impos'd on by the Information of their External Senses or to take every slight appearance of Reason for a convincing Argument It is surely the most ridiculous Folly and Presumption of which any Man can be guilty to pretend to set limits to that most Excellent Being by whose Power we live or to deny the All-wise Author that Homage and Fealty due unto Him for no other Reason but because we can't acquaint our selves with the secretâ— of his Designs have very little knowledge of final Causes cannot dive into the motives of every single Dispensation and are not chosen Privy Councellors to the Majesty of Heaven But before I attempt any Explication of the foregoing Difficulties or make any Reply to these usual Atheistical Objections I will give you the Sentiments of two very Learned Men concerning the general Concourse or Act of Conservation which one of them has been pleased to term a continued Act of Creation a Business of so vast an import and necessity that shou'd it please the Almighty Architect for the least moment of time wholly to withdraw his Divine Power of Preservation or ordinary Concourse the Universal System must fall to ruine and this beautiful Fabric be immediately translated into its Primitive Chaos In our Reflections upon Divine Providence we are to imagine it impossible that any thing shou'd happen otherwise than the same Providence hath determin'd for it must be understood that all things are guided by his Providence whose Decrees are so immutable that unless those things which the said Decrees have pleased to let depend on our free Disposition we ought to think for our parts that nothing happens but what must of necessity nor can we without a Crime desire that the same shou'd happen otherwise Mr. Boyle in his Enquiry into the Notion of Nature has some particular Thoughts which however at first view they may seem to thwart an especial Providence of God for that He does not interpose or miraculously intervene so often as we expect he shou'd yet they will give us a clear insight into our mistaken Notions concerning that Semi-Deity we call Nature and helps us to reconcile some very odd Effects not only to our Belief of the Divine Being but of his general Concourse 1. I conceive saith that Excellent Philosopher that the Omniscient Author of Things who in his vast and boundless Understanding comprehended at once the whole Systeme of his Works and every part did not mainly intend the welfare of such or such particular Creatures but subordinated his Care of their Preservation and Welfare to his Care of maintaining the Universal Systeme and Primitive Scheme and Contrivance of his Works and especially those Catholic Rules of Motion and other grand Laws which he at first establisht amongst the portions of the Mundane Matter so that when there happens such a Concourse of Circumstances that particular Bodies fewer or more must suffer or else the setled Frame or the usual Course of things must be alter'd or general Law of Motion hindred from taking place in such Cases I say the Welfare and Interest of Man himself as an Animal and much more that of inferiour Animals and of other particular Creatures must give way to the Care that Providence takes of Things of a more general and important Nature and Condition This premis'd to obviâ—â—â— Mis-constructions I shall take notice that there are several Instances of Persons who have been choak't with a Hair which they were unable either to cough up or to swallow down The reason of this fatal Accident is probably said to be the irritation that is made by the stay of so unusual a thing as a Hair in the Throat which occasions every violent and disorderly or convulsive Motions to expel it in the Organs of Respiration by which means the continued Circulation of the Blood necessary to the Life of Man is hindred the consequence whereof is speedy Death but this agrees very ill with the Vulgar Supposition of such a kind and provident Being as they represent Nature which is always at hand to preserve the Life of Animals and succour them in their Physical Dangers and Distresses as occasion requires for since a Hair is so slender a Body that it cannot stop the Throat so as to hinder either the free passage of Meat and Drink into the Stomach or that of the Air to and from the Lungs as may he argued from divers no way mortal Excrescencies and Ulcers in the Throat were it not a great deal better for Nature
and servile Refuge as they express themselves of recurring to a Miracle the Founders say they of which have always been some subtil Impostors who to promote an Interest or to serve their own turn have found it no very difficult Matter to impose upon the Mole-ey'd Multitude And at this rate not only the Supernatural Actions of the Apostles but the Surprising and Stupendious ones of their Master Jesus Christ must either by these Men be utterly deny'd or resolv'd if it were possible by the generally establisht Laws or in their own words by the Powers of Nature so that we must either believe the History of our Saviour to be pure Forgery a Romantic Legend fob'd upon us by designing Men or else we must have recourse to the Men of this piercing Apprehension and consult them as our Oracles for an Explanation of those Accounts which we poor silly Creatures believe to have been miraculous It is in vain I know to send you to that Sacred History where so many of these Stupendious and Divine Operations are faithfully recorded whilst you continue so Sceptical as to doubt concerning the Credit of the Historian or so much an Infidel as to deny the History to be an Authentic Record If you can believe there was ever such a Person as Jesus Christ or such Men as his Apostles which I think in reason you are as much obâ—ig'd as to believe that there were any Contemporary Prince or People at that time upon Earth nay setting aside the remoteness of Place and Time as that there ever was such a Person as King Charles the First in England or Lowis the Thirteenth in France If I say you can concede this I would then beg you to consider which way or by what means you can conceive it possible that the surprising and supernatural Acts of those we are now speaking of such as the turning Water into Wine satisfying the hungry Appetites of many hundreds with no more then naturally sufficâ—d for some few single Persons Walking upon the Surface of the Water restoring the Sick by a word speaking and commanding the Dead to arise from the Grave with many others which were performed not clandestinely or in private but in the midst of very great Assemblies or a large Concourse of People and those for the most part implacable Enemies and consequently very curious in sifting out the Truth I say I would fain know which way you can conjecture a Possibility that a Design of this Import and Universal Tendency cou'd be fraudulently carried on inperceptibly to that great Number of Auditors and Spectators who were not wholly made up of the giddy Rabble or inconsiderate Mob but had some even of the Priests and Elders of the Jewish Church Men doubtless too well acquainted with the Powers of Matter and Motion to be impos'd on to attest the Truth of many of these Operations We may easily believe that those who lookt upon the Gospel Promulgation as an insupportable Burthen and Incroachment and accounted it no other than a kind of Heretical Innovation upon their more anciently establisht Law would make it their Business to pry into and enquire with their utmost Caution into the truth of those Facts which finding themselves obliged to acknowledge Supernatural or Surmounting the Laws of Nature or the force of Second Causes yet rather than confess any such Matter as a Divine Energy they would have them to be transacted by a Diabolical Assistance I might make I think a farther very rational Query Whether you can believe the Accounts we have given us in Ecclesiastick History of the Martyrdoms or painful Sufferings of some of these Apostles If you do believe any of these Accounts as I think you may those at least which are recorded by some Friends even of the Tyrants themselves who were concern'd in the Patriarchal Tragedies it will be worth while to enquire into the Motives which induced them to hazard their Lives by taking on them their several Embassses If instead of Honour you find they had Disgrace instead of Riches and Grandeur Poverty and Contempt if instead of Courtesie Civility and Respect they met with nothing but Reproach and Railery Lastly if for all their hardship instead of Temporal Promotion and Preferment they willingly submitted to an accursed ignominious and painful Death you then must either think there never were any such Men and thus by the same liberty you may disbelieve any such Places as the Countries where 't is reported they suffer'd Death or if you think there were you must believe them either distracted or finally that in following the Direction of their great Patron they acted like Men truly reasonable and discreet and in that they preferr'd a Life of Misery Anguish Disquiet and Tribulation it is plain they had an Assurance as well as Expectation of their Reward elsewhere and that they question'd not to find a sufficient Recompence bestow'd upon them for all their Sufferings in those Sacred Mansions not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens But of this I shall discourse more hereafter when I come to give you my Opinion of Reveal'd Religion In the mean time if none of those unaccountable Phaenomena which latter Ages have produc'd some of which have been transacted within the compass of our own Memory and many more within a Century last past such as Voices Specters Apparitions Stupendious Recoveries of the Sick and Lame together with the Satanical Powers of Fascination and Diabolical Possessions if these I say however sufficiently attested will not be sufficient to induce you to believe that there ever was such a Thing as a Supernatural Production but that all Things are burried on by an establisht Law or in your own more pleasing words by an irresistible Fate or Destiny and that all Effects are the pure Result of Matter under its several Modifications whose Powers were never superseded by any higher Principle and farther that there are no such extraordinary Prints of a Divinity or Marks of Wisdom conspicuous in the Creation I would then desire you with as much attention as you can considerately to examine the Structure of your own Body And if you begin with a Survey even of an inconsiderable part thereof such as your Fingers in each of these as is well remarkt by Mr. B you will find Bones and Cartilages Ligaments and Membranes Muscles and Tendons Nerves and Arteries Veins and Skin and Cuticle and Nail together with the Medulla the Fat and Blood and other nutritious Juices and all these solid parts of a determinate size and figure texture and scituation and each of them made up of myriads of little Fibres and Filaments not discoverable to the naked Eye I say when you consider how innumerable Parts must constitute so small a Member surely you cannot look upon it or the whole Body wherein appear so much fitness use and subserviency to infinite Functions any otherwise than as the Effect of Skill and Contrivance If this will not extort a
and the adjoyning Territories yet since he makes mention of them we cannot comprehend how it hapned otherwise than that the Thunderbolts falling in great plenty upon some of the bituminous Pits the Veins of that combustible Matter took fire immediately and as the fire penetrated into the lowermost Bowels of this bituminous Soil those wicked Cities were subverted by a tremor or sinking of the Ground I have instanc'd in these few amongst other Cases of the like Import not so much to justifie or countenance these Deviations from the Letter of the History or in favour of every phanciful Interpretation of them as to demonstrate that we are not absolutely ty'd to think that every Miracle is an unaccountable Production or effected by Powers every way Supernatural but that it is very possible a true and real Miracle may be brought to pass by natural Agents and that many of the Divine Judgments have been executed by their being put into Action tho' perhaps after an uncommon manner at particular times As to what relates to Specters or Apparitions together with inorganic Sounds and Voices I shall reserve my Thoughts for another Letter where it is possible I may entertain you with some things diverting I shall in this place just mention that there are a multitude of Histories of real Demoniacs of Places and particular Families disturb'd by Facination of others miserably tormented with Diabolical Delusions and odd Transactions with which notwithstanding I was never otherwise acquainted then at second hand yet I take some of them to be so well attested by curious and inquisitive Men who have made it their business to detect any supposed Fallacy that it were very great Injustice to our selves as well as an Affront to their Authority shou'd we suspect them or deny the Truth of all because many such like Stories have been proved false That these Matters may be consistent with the especial Providence of God and reconcileable to the Divine Attributes is undertaken as I am told by a Learned Pen to be proved amongst other Particulars of this kind for which reason I shall pass on to some other seemingly insoluble Objections that have been invented by the subtilty of the Infernal Emissaries to perplex this Argument to which that I may reply effectually and with as much brevity as I can I shall affirm with a judicious Author That every Man in whom the Light of Nature is not dampt by Fatuity either Native and Temperamental or casually Supervenient hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Impress of an especial Providence decreeing and disposing all Events that have do or shall befal him And this I think as sufficiently manifest from hence that there is scarce any Man tho' edicated in the wildest Ignorance or highest Barbarity imaginable but what is naturally and by the Adviso ' s of his intestine Dictator inclin'd either to conceive or embrace some kind of Religion as an Homage due from him to that Supreme Power in whose Hands he apprehends the Rains of Good and Evil to be held and whose Favour and benign Aspect he thinks procurable and Anger atoneable by the seasonable Addresses of Invocation and Sacrifice And in truth to him whose Meditations shall sink deep enough it will soon appear that this Anticipation is the very Root of Religion for tho' Man stood fully perswaded of the Existence of God yet would not that alone suffice to convince him into a necessity of a deâ—out Adoration of him unless his Mind were also possessed with a firm belief of this proper Attribute of his Nature which so nearly concerns his Felicity or Infelicity viz. his especial Providence which regulates all the Affairs and appoints all the Contingenciet of every individual Man's Life for 't is the sense of our own Defects Imperfections and Dependency that first leads us to the Knowledge of his Alsufficiency Perfection and Self-subsistance the Apprehension of our Necessities is the School wherein we first learn our Orizons and the Hope of obtaining Blessings from his immense Bounty is both the Excitement and Encouragement of our Devotion This indeed is the Spark at which all the Tapors of Religion were first kindled The very Ethnics themselves whilst groping in the Chaos of Idolatry have discover'd this witness their magnificent Temples costly Hecatombs Humane Holocausts and frequent solemn Invocations all which kinds of Addresses they generally made use of and oblig'd themselves unto as the only hopeful means as well to attone the Displeasure as conciliate the Favour of that Power in whose hands they conceiv'd the Book of Fate to be kept and who had the Guardianship or Administration of the Fortunes not only of Cities Nations and Families but even of every single Person Witness also that glorious Pagan Cicero who deriving the Pedigree of Religion Fathers it immediately upon the perswasion of an especial Providence in these words Sâ—nt Phylosophi fuerunt Qui omnino nullam habere censerent humanarum rerum procurationem Deos Quorum si vera est Sententia quae potest esse Pietas Quae Religio haec enim omnia pure ac caste tribuenda Deorum Numini ita sunt si animadvertuntur ab his si est aliquid à Diis immortalibus hominum Generi tributum sin autem Dij neque possunt nec volunt nos juvare nec curant omnino nec quid agamus animadvertant nec est quod ab his ad Hominum vitam permanere possit quid est quod nullos Diis immortalibus Cultus Honores Preces adhibeamus in specie autem fictae simulationis sicut reliquae vertutes ita Pietas inesse non potest cum qua simul sanctitatem Religionem tolli necesse est quibus sublatis perturbatio vitae sequitur magna Confusio Moreover as this inoppugnable Propensity to Religion is a Cyon of God's own ingraffing on the Mind of Man so also is it out of his power tho' assisted by all the hellish Stratagems totally to eradicate it thence This is a Truth confirm'd by the Experience of all Ages for notwithstanding the insolent Pretences and blasphemous Rhoâ—omontado's of many Miscreants who gloried in the most execrable Cognomen of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and studied to advance their Names to the highest Pinnacle of Fame by being accounted Men of such absolute and fearless Spirits as that they scorn'd to own any Being superiour to their own to which they should be accountable for their Actions yet have they been compell'd so violent are the secret touches of that 〈◊〉 which converts all things into Demonstrations of his own Glory either by the Scourge of some sharp Calamity or the Rack of some excruciating Disease in their Lives to repent or at the near approach of that King of Terrors Death to confess this their horrid Impiety Thus the proud Adamant-hearted Pharaoh who deriding the Divine Embassy of Moses in an imperious strain of Scorn and expostâ—latory Bravado demanded of him Quis est Jehovah cujus
prone to follow blindly and when once our great Opinion of their Learning and Piety has placed them in the Chair of Infallibility the first false step they make at once subverts our Faith and taking all before for granted which they deliver'd to us we now dispute the Verity of those Doctrines we had inbib'd from them Bad Presidents are always very prevalent Contagions amongst our Equals but when we find our Pastors or our Parents our Masters our Governours or our Princes infected with any manner of Vice we quickly become their Apes and readily excuse our selves because we do but imitate those whom we imagine to know better than our selves Thus many Men have had their Faith stagger'd by a View of the Profaneness and Impiety of Learned and Great Men by the dissolute Lives of the Gentry and Nobility in the Countries where they live as if these by their vitious Practices cou'd alter the Nature even of Good and Evil or if it was possible that Men immerst in Matter tho' never so profoundly skill'd in Science cou'd regulate their Lives by the Laws of God whilst they contemn the Divine Aid and regard not his Assistance Instead of this 't is become the Fashion of the Town to ridicule Vertue and render Vice as amiable as they can and if they find it possible to prevail upon some simple Clergy-man who is naturally as loose as themselves to be Drunk to Whore to Game to Curse and Swear profanely there are many Men so extravagantly proud of such a Conquest over an hypocritical Sinner as to think they give hereby a fatal stroke to all true Piety as if the very Essence of God the Condition of the Soul and every other Sacred Truth were by such trivial and childish Instances to be obliterated or wiped out I have premis'd this by way of Anticipation or to Caution you how requisite it is before you set up for a Libertine to go upon sure grounds for undoubtedly 't is unbecoming any Pretender to Reason to run a hazard especially one of this Consequence or to declare himself either openly or privately for the Cause of Atheism till he hath positively assur'd himself beyond contradiction that there is no Superintendent Power takes notice of his Actions or if there shou'd that he is above the reach of his Justice and that his last Breath will carry all into perpetual Oblivion for if he goes not farther than probability that Matters may be so yet if there remain the least doubt that they may not he forfeits at once both his Reason and Security and 't will be a pitiful Satisfaction that the greater part of the World have involv'd themselves with him in the same Misery It is the less admirable that Men shou'd so very easily give up the Cause of Religion who never examin'd their first Principles whose Faith is no otherwise founded than on the Custom of their Country the Credit of their Ancestors or the Example of those under whose Guardianship and Tutelage they have been brought up And truly in one sense what the Poet remarks is a certain Truth By Education most have been misled So they believe because they so were bred The Priest continues what the Nurse began And thus the Child imposes on the Man He who never considers the Why or Wherefore nor so much as once ever rightly weigh'd the Motives of his Belief becomes a perfect Weather-Cock every Blast of a new Doctrine carries him to and fro till at length being unsetled he despiseâ— all This is what I have thought necessary by way of Introduction to my Discourse of the Immortality which I intend the subject of this present Letter for having in the two former endeavour'd to establish those two great Truths of the Divine Being and his Providence Order requires that I take notice how far we are concern'd if we concede or admit the foregoing Propositions For if we lye under no Obligation to or have no future Dependance upon God or his Providence it is a Matter purely indifferent whether we believe them or not what Advantage can I have by my belief in God if I am secure that he has left me to my own disposal and inspects not any of my Actions or why should I deny my self the Satisfaction of my Desires how exorbitant soever they may be since I know the worst and that if Death will at length come and put an end to my Delights it will likewise finish all my Trouble and Disquiet However I may resign up my own Reason or betray the Weakness of my Judgment I must confess to you that when I have very often seriously reflected upon this Subject and once admitted a Supream Intelligent and Powerful Cause of all Things I presently found my self under a kind of irresistible Necessity to believe our Souls must be Immortal and the Supposition of a down right Necessity that it should be so without any respect to Arguments either Sacred or Profane that it is so does at this time overcome me for however short of Demonstration they may prove we must take up with the most notorious Absurdity imaginable if we perswade our selves that there can be an All-wise Just and Omnipotent God and yet notwithstanding that Thefts Rapines Murthers and all other the most egregious Vices shou'd go unpunish'd both here and hereafter However this be the Result of my own Thinking and a Consequence which it 's possible you may not allow I speak it not by any means to prepossess your Judgment neither do I desire you shou'd look upon the same either as Matter of Fact or so much as Rational Evidence It will add little to the Illustration of my present Task that you are inform'd at large with the Opinion of the Ancients concerning the Humane Soul let it suffice you to understand that as some of them affirm'd the sâ—me to be a Substance existing of it self and Immortal so there were others who deny'd that it had any Substance but was only an accidental Form The Platonists and Pythagoreans opin'd that the Souls of all living Creatures were a part of the Soul of the Worldâ— that they were immerged in Bodies as in a Sepulchre and that when the Bodies died they were by a various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inhabitants or Guests to other Bodies sometimes to those of Men at other times to those of Beasts The Manichâ—es supposed that all Souls in general were taken out of the Substance it self of God that they actuated Teâ—restrial Bodies and going from hence again return'd into God himself The Originists That all Souls were created from the beginning of the World at first to subsist of themselves then as occasion serv'd that Bodies being form'd they enter'd into them actuated them during Life and at length return'd into their primitive and singular Substances Oâ—hers have affirm'd That the Soul of Man does arise up of her own accord from power only of Matter rightly dispos'd making her to be no more
put at the Focus of the Convex Glass a little piece of Stuff or brown Paper the Rays of the Sun make so great an impression upon this Stuff or Paper and agitate the small Particles thereof with so great a violence that they break and separate them from one another in a word they burn them or reduce them into Smoak and Ashes Thus we must conclude from this Experience that if the Pupil through which the Light passes were so dilated that it wou'd admit an easie passage for the Rays of the Sun or on the contrary were so contracted as to obstruct them our Retina wou'd suffer the same thing as the Paper or piece of Stuff and the Fibres wou'd be so very much agitated that they wou'd soon be broken and burnt It is for this Reason that most Men are sensible of a Pain if they look upon the Sun but for one moment because they cannot so well close up the Orifice of the Pupil but that there will enter sufficient Rays to agitate the Strings of the Optic Nerve with much violence and not without danger of breaking them The Soul has no knowledge of what we have spoke and when it looks upon the Sun it neither perceives its Optic Nerve noâ— any Motion in it But that 's not the Error 't is only a simple Ignorance The first Error it falls into is that it judges the Pain it feels is in its Eyes If immediately after looking upon the Sun we go into a dark place with our Eyes open the Motion of the Fibres of the Optic Nerve caused by the Rays of the Sun diminishes and changes by little and little this is all the Change that can be perceived in the Eyes however 't is not what the Soul perceives there but only a white and yellow Light Its second Error is it judges that the Light it sees is in the Eyes or upon the next Wall In fine the Agitation of the Fibres of the Retina always diminishes and ceases by little and little for when a Body has been shaken nothing can be perceived in it but a diminution of its Motion but 't is not that which the Soul perceives in its Eyes it sees the White become an Orange colour afterwards Red and then Blue and the reason of this Error is that we judge there are Changes in our Eyes or upon the next Wall that differ much as to the more or less because the Blue Orange and Red colours which we see differ much otherwise amongst themselves besides in the more or less These are some Errors which we are subject to in reference to Light and Colours and these Errors beget many others Thus the Learned and Devout Father proceeds in this Sublime and Curious Speculation and whatever Consequences may be drawn by designing Men from the Modification of our Souls by the Supream Being as might be instanc't in some few Particulars yet most certainly there are many weighty Truths depending on this noble Theory and whoever dives into the bottom of the Notion may not unlikely find that however some Superficial Wits may calumniate and despise it his Divine Faith may be exalted and a more profound Esteem and Veneration raised for that Power from whom is derived all the Benefits we can enjoy By a serious Enquiry of this Nature we might undoubtedly arrive at a more certain Account of the Nature and Usefulness of that infinite number of little Beings which we call Species and Idea's which are as nothing and which represent all things that we create and destroy when we please and that our Ignorance hath made us imagine to render a Reason for Things that we understand not we should likewise be enabled to show the solidity of their Opinion who believe God is the true Father of Light who only instructs all Men without whom the most simple Truths cou'd not be intelligible nor wou'd the Sun how bright soever be so much as visible to us And of theirs who acknowledge no other Nature than the Will of God and who upon such like Reflections have confessed that the Idea's which represent the Creatures to us are only the Perfections of the Divine Being which answer to those same Creatures and represent them to us The second of these new Hypotheses tho' I conceive its first rise from the same Fountain with the former yet I find the same very strenuously pleaded for and judiciously vindicated by our Country-man Mr. Norris and this is the Doctrine of the Divine Light as it relates to the Humane Intellect of which that I may give you a short Specimen or briefly hint to you I must take notice that in one part of his Treatise he cites Monsieur Malebranch who considering with himself all the possible ways of Humane Understanding or whereby we come to have the Idea's of things without us makes this Division or Enumeration of them 1. It is necessary that these Idea's should either proceed from the Objects Or 2. that our Mind has a power of producing them Or 3. That God should produce them either with the Mind when he creates it or occasionally as often as we think of any Object 4 Or that the Mind should possess in it self all the Perfections which it sees in things Or 5thly and lastly that it be united to some absolutely perfect Being that includes in himself all the Perfections of Created Beings After this Enumeration I find that both the Father and after him Mr. Norris have pitched upon the last of these as the only Expedient to help us in the manner of our Knowledge or Understanding and it is on the same Basis that the latter hath erected the following Scheme I. Whereas saith he the Qu rs talk of this Light within as of some Divine Communication or Manifestation only I make it to be the very Essence and Substance of the Deity which I suppose virtually to contain all things in it and to be intimately united to our Minds II. They represent this Light within as a sort of extraordinary Inspiration whence they have the name of Enthusiasts whereas according to my Notion it is a Man's natural and ordinary way of Understanding III. Farther if I mistake not They confine their Light within to some certain Objects namely Moral and Spiritual Truths in order only to the Direction of Practise and accordingly make it a Suppliment to Scripture which they say is not sufficient without it nor indeed any more than a meer dead Letter On the other hand I appropriate not this Divine Light to Moral or Spiritual Truths or Things but extend it as far as all Truth yea as far as all that is intelligible which I believe to be perceived and understood in this Divine Light as I explain it IV. They viz. the Q rs make their Light within a special Priviledge of a certain Order of Men their own Party not indeed as to the possibility because they suppose all Men to be indifferently capable of this Divine
Illumination as may appear from their contending against Predestination and for Universal Grace but tho' they do not make it a special Priviledge as to the possibility yet they do as to the act making none but those of their own way to be actually inlighten'd by it whereas according to my Principles this is no special Priviledge but the common and universal Benefit of all Men yea of all the Intelligent Creation who all see and understand in this Light of God without which there would be neither Truth nor Understanding V. Again By their Light within they understand some determinate form'd Dictate or Proposition expresly and positively directing and instructing them to do so or so Now according to my Notion this Divine Light is only the Essential Truth of God which indeed is always present to my Understanding as being intimately united with it but does not formally enlighten or instruct me unless when I attend to it and read what is written in those Divine Ideal Characters VI. And lastly they offer not any Rational or Intelligible account of the Light within neither as to the thing nor as to the mode of it but cant only in some loose general Expressions about the Light which they confirm with the Authority of St. John's Gospel tho' they understand neither one nor t'other Whereas I have offer'd a Natural Distinct and Philosophical way of Explaining both namely by the Omniformity of the Ideal World or the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who has in himself the Essences and Ideas of all things and in whom the same are perceived by us and by all Creatures I shall not detain you with my own Comments hereupon any otherwise than by informing you that so far as I am able to apprehend the same may be a solid Truth I mean Mr. Norris's Explanation of the Divine Light Futurity will make us all wiser and open a Door to those recluse Arcana or hidden Mysteries which in this Life are likely to be veiled from our Eyes Adieu LETTER IV. Of Religion To Mr. c. The certainty of Revelation in Time past The Fallacy of Modern Inspiration and the Danger of Enthusiasm My good Friend IT is with no small concern that I have left my former Argument of the Soul and yet methinks I am not perfectly without hopes that you will find something therein to evidence its Immortality for altho' the one half of what may be alledg'd in its Vindication cannot be reduc'd to the narrow limits of an Epistle yet if I mistake not there are some few of the Physical Arguments do manifestly evince that without supposing it to be a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance whatever Jargon this may seem to the absolute Corporealist there are many of its Phaenomena will be eternally incapable of any tolerable or allowable Explanation I shall therefore earnestly request you that you live not in a contempt of it for notwithstanding the Powers of Sense and Imagination may so obscure and darken the pure Acts of the Mind as to perswade you that Will and Reason arise from the same Principle assure your self that an immediate prospect of another Life will change the Scene the intercepting Curtain will open and represent the Anti-chamber of Death where you will find your self in the midst of such Confusion Horrour Consternation and Perplexity as nothing will be able to mitigate but a sincere Penitence or fervent Contrition a devout and humble Prosternation of your Soul to the Power offended and if the dread of this being insufficient still highten your disturbance you may tast perhaps that Hell you so very lately had ridicul'd by way of Anticipation before your fatal Leap from the dismal and horrid Praecipice of Life 1. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A dismal and mysterious Change When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and Thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live Thou know'st not how 2. Amasing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in Clouds as if to Thee Our very Knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad Retinue find Sickness and Pain before and Darkness all behind 3. Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be You warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty 4. When Life 's close knot by Writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or Age untye When after some delays some dying strife The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity 5. So when the spacious Globe was delug'd o're And lower Holds could save no more On th' utmost Bough the astonisht Sinners stood And view'd the Advances of th' encroaching Flood O'retopt at length by th' Elements increase With Horror they resign'd to the untry'd Abyss Thus has the ingenious Mr. Norris most livelily represented the frightful Exit of the departing Soul but to avoid any farther Interruption I shall hasten to my intended Discourse with this Expectation if not Assurance that on whatsoever side you find right Reason you will make no Opposition or where the Light of your Understanding shines clearly forth that you by no means stifle or study to obscure the same Whoever then has once admitted and does unfeignedly believe the Truth of these Three Propositions viz. That there is a most powerful and wise Being the first Cause of all things That the same Being does inspect or take notice of the Actions of Mankind and will retribute to every one according to those Actions in a Life to come whoso I say has granted these will find himself at no great loss to conceive that it highly behoves him to have a regard both to his Thoughts and Actions to do nought indeliberately but to regulate the Conduct of his whole Life by some such certain just and immutable Rule as he foresees is most likely to tend to his Security and Well-being Now it having pleased this All-wise Being to endow his darling Favourite Man above the other Creatures with a Principle of Reason and to be himself a Light unto his Soul wherein he may Contemplate those other Beings which surround him we need not dispute but that by a devout consulting this Intestine Director or Dictator we may come to understand what Measures are to be taken for our Information If by the alone assistance of this Natural Light in the Understanding we find it neither practicable nor possible to invent any such Laws or Rules as would be agreed unto by the Body of Mankind or such as wou'd never need any Alteration but be comply'd with and understood and all this while contain every thing necessary to the discharging of
our Duty to our God and to each other If Humane Reason or the Light of Nature is insufficient to direct us to such a uniform and steddy Rule or System of Laws or if it cou'd since the greater part of Men wou'd think themselves unconcern'd or under no necessity to observe them on the account of a Deficiency in Authority or a want of a Divine Sanction or Manumission it is reasonable as well as natural for us to wish and expect upon these accounts that our Maker wou'd in some manner reveal Himself unto us that He wou'd prescribe our Laws and stamp the same with some Divine Impression whereby we might be enabled to discover their Authority and read in them the Characters of a more than Humane Contrivance or Composition Whether or no this Almighty Being has made any such Discovery of his Will to the World or revealed to them such Laws or Rules of Worship as will be most acceptable to Him is the Business of our present Enquiry for let me tell you whatever Noise our Deists have made in the World about the Sufficiency of Natural Religion we have very little reason to think them in good earnest If their Natural Religion does oblige them to believe in God and to confess the Truth of the Souls Immortality how comes it to pass that the Result of such a Faith is so little conspicuous in their Lives and Conversations and why I pray is it that the Precepts of Christianity which aim at nothing more than the Happiness of Mankind and contain the compleatest System both of Moral and Divine Laws to direct us in our Duty shou'd be no more regarded 'T is plain enough to every sober and judicious Man that there is nothing in reveal'd Religion that can seem harsh even to a real Deist He that is a Deist in good earnest will find it his highest Interest and Concern to do every thing which Christianity has enjoyn'd upon which score since we find it otherwise we have abundant cause to think with a Learned Man That Revelation in it self is not the stumbling Block it is not the Fundamentals of the Christian Doctrine nor yet the Articles of her Creed it is the Duty to God and our Neighbour that is such an inconsistent incredible Legend He who is more than a Nominal Deist must heartily subscribe this following Confession which that you may be the better opinion'd of I shall give you in their own words We do believe that there is an infinitely powerful wise and good God who superintends the Actions of Mankind in order to retribute to every one according to their Deserts Neither are we to boggle at this Creed for if we do not stick to it we ruine the Foundation of all Humane Happiness and are in effect no better than meer Atheists Whatsoever is adorable saith another of them aimiable and imitable by Mankind is in one supream infinite and perfect Being which we call God who is to be worshipped by an inviolable adherence in our Lives to all the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an imitation of all his infinite Perfections especially his Goodness and believing magnificently of it Again in their new Scheme of Natural Religion I find acknowledg'd the following Particulars 1. That there is one Infinite Eternal God Creator of all things 2. That he governs the World by Providence 3. That 't is our Duty to worship and obey Him as our Creator and Governour 4. That our worship consists in Prayer to Him and Praise of Him 5. That our Obedience consists in the Rules of Right Reason the Practice whereof is Moral Vertue 6. That we are to expect Rewards and Punishments hereafter according to our Actions in this Life 7. And lastly When we err from the Rules of our Duty that we repent us and trust in God's Mercy for our Pardon Now show me the Man who acts according to this Faith and let him be never so well opinion'd of Natural Religion I make it no question but he will readily acknowledge as the most considerate and judicious of them have always done that Christianity however mysterious is indisputably the best method of cultivating Mens Minds and manuring their Consciences I must confess with Mr. Norris were we to consult the perverse Glosses and Comments of some Christian Rabbins and to take our Measures of this Religion from those ill-favour'd Draughts of it we may sometimes meet with we shou'd be induc'd to think that as some Christians are the worst of Men so will their Religion appear to be the worst of Religions an Institution unworthy the Contrivance even of a wise Politician much less of Him who is the Father of Wisdom And indeed whatever Declamations are made against Judaism and Paganism the worst Enemies of the Christian Religion are some of those who profess and teach it for if it be in reality as some of those who call themselves Orthodox describe it we may boldly say that it is neither for the Reputation of God to be the Author of such a Religion nor for the Interest of Men to be guided by it Those of whom this Author more particularly takes notice as the Misrepresenters of Christianity are first of all the Antinomians who are impudent and ignorant enough in express terms to assert that the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ does wholly excuse us from all manner of Duty and Obedience Secondly the Solifidians who under pretence of Advancing the Merits of the Cross and â—he Freeness of the Divine Grace require nothing of a Christian in order to his Justification and Acceptance before God but firmly to rely on the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ and without any more to do to apply all to himself And thirdly Those who have a share in the foremention'd Charge are such who make Christianity a Matter of bare Speculation rending and dividing themselves from one another by those unhappy and dangerous Disputations which instead of making Proselytes to the Truth of Christianity have drawn Men first of all to Deism afterwards to Scepticism and thence by a very easie step to Infidelity and Atheism These are they who think all Religion absolved in Orthodoxy of Opinion that care not how men live but only how they teach and are so over-intent upon the Creed that they neglect the Commandments little considering that Opinion is purely in order to Practise and that Orthodoxy of Judgment is necessary only in such Matters where a Mistake wou'd be of dangerous influence to our Actions that is in Fundamentals so that the necessity of thinking rightly is derived from the necessity of doing rightly and consequently the latter is the most necessary of the two Having touched on some few of those particular Opinions which have brought a Scandal upon Revealed Religion and very much obscur'd its glorious Lustre it behoves me to say something to Revelation it self which I shall do in the words of a late Author As
all Mankind have agreed in this that besides the Light of Reason there ought to be some Supernatural Revelation of the Will of God so being imbued with the Perswasion that there is a God and that He ought to be worshipped they are convinced also that all the Religion of Men at present towards God is the Religion of Sinners in all the Addresses of the Sons of Men to God they constantly apply to Him under a sense of Defilement and Guilt in all their transactions from time to time with the Deity They have been studying how to purge and cleanse themselves to attone and appease Him Now Sinners can perform nothing duly in Religion towards God without a knowledge of the Subordination we were created in at first to Him his Right and Authority to prescribe Laws to us the Capacity we were in both of knowing and keeping them the way and means by which Sin enter'd that God will not desert the work of his hands to that Ruine which it hath incurr'd by its own folly but that He is yet appeasable towards us and will accept a Worship and Service at our hands with the ways means and terms that He will receive us again into favour and rescue us from the defilement we labour under Without some information in every one of these there is no solid foundation for Sinners to apply in way of Religion to God at all and shou'd they attempt it they will do nothing but prevaricate Seeing then the Experience of some Thousands of years have evidenc'd the ineffectualness of Natural Light to instruct the World in any one of these things we may from hence infer the necessity that there seems to be of Supernatural Revelation The Writings of the Heathen whether Poets or Philosophers are certainly void of all pretence of admission for Supernatural and Divine Records and our Reason is able to give us the like demonstrative Evidence that this Claim is also most unduly ascrib'd to the Alcoran 'T is true that Mahomet pretended to have receiv'd it by inspiration most think that he counterfeited in his pretence and it is certain that as to receiving it by inspiration from God he did so but that there was not an immediate interposure of the Devil in the case so that he was deceived himself e're he went about to deceive others is not so certain The Epileptical Distemper to which he was subject hath in others been attended with Diabolical Insinuation The Age in which he liv'd was Enthusiastically inclin'd and the grosness of the Arabian Wits together with the subserviency of Ethnick Idolatry which remain'd up and down among them might encourage Satan to make an Attempt that way among that People But whether it was indeed so or whether the whole be singly to be attributed to himself and one or two Impostors more that assisted him is not material nor makes to the business it self Mahometism began not till the Sixth Century about which time and for a considerable Season before the whole East was sorely infected by Heresies and rent by Schisms which together with the impure Lives of the Professors of the Gospel both there and in the West might justly provoke God to permit this Deceiver to accost the World but obtruding a new Religion and such a one too as neither Reason nor any former Revelation of God befriended it concern'd him to have justify'd his Mission by some Miracle or other as to what he went about and these himself plainly disclaims for tho' some of his Followers ascribe such to him yet there is so little brought in proof of them and withal they are so silly and ridiculous in themselves that they serve for nothing but to disparage both the Person and the Cause in whose behalf they are brought I know that all Persons who have spoken immediately from God have not had the Attestation of Miracles nor was it always needful especially when they only called Men to obedience to that which had been sufficiently so attested before In such a Case it became the Wisdom of God to be sparing of Miracles and indeed be thereby better provided for the Credit of those Doctrines as were either really or only in appearance new and also more served the interest of Mankind than if he shou'd have wrought Wonders in attestation of every ordinary Messenger or Familiar Truth And this may be a reason why none of all the Penmen of the Scripture are reported to have wrought Miracles save Moses the Giver of the Law and the Apostles the Promulgers of the Gospel But tho' every Herald of Heaven had not the Attestation of Miracles yet no one came inspired by God who had not some Testimony or other born to him to distinguish him from an Impostor either the Doctrines they deliver'd were of that Sublimeness that no finite Understanding cou'd have invented them and yet when discover'd were so correspondent to our Rational Desires and so perfective of our Natural Light that being duly weighed the Reason of Man acquiesceth in them and says this is what I lookt for but cou'd not find or else they made known some present Matter which lay out of the reach of all Humane Knowledge such as the Secrets of the Heart or declared some Fact done either at a distance or with that secrecy that no Man cou'd know it or else they foretold some future Contingent soon after to come to pass which accordingly fell out in every Circumstance Nor is it unlikely but that most if not all the Old Testament Prophets had their Missions confirm'd by the Prediction of something future which Humane Prudence cou'd not foresee or else they were born witness to by the prevalency and immediate success of their Prayers or the preventing some impendent Judgment or in the procuring some needful Mercy for thereby was declared either their foresight of what God was ready to do or the interest favour and power they had with him nor is it without probability that most of the Prophets under the Mosaic Dispensation justify'd their Missions by some such thing But as for Mahomet tho' he not only pretended to speak immediately from God but withal introduced a Doctrine really new yet he came authorised by no Miracle Sign or Badge by which he might be distinguish'd from an Impostor Yea whereas he owns that both Moses and Christ were sent from God it is an infallible Argument that he was not their Doctrine and his being altogether inconsistent Besides it hath been generally acknowledg'd not only by Jews and Christians but by Heathens and that agreeably to the Light of Reason that prophetick Illapses never befel impure and unclean Souls and that God never made an unhallowed Person his Oracle at least that never any such were employ'd for the Divine Amannenses Now if we examine the Alcoran by this Prophetic Text we find the Author of it to have been a Person lustful and tyrannical made up of nothing but Blood and Dirt grosly Sensual and