State and Position and thereby attaining that Perfection Happiness and Everlasting Blessedness and Rest that is possible for any reasonable Man to desire or expect Only I must add this Caution that when I speak of the Doctrine of the Gospel and Christian Religion I do by no means exclude the Divine Revelation of the Old Testament for both Testaments make but one entire System of the True Christian Doctrine the Old Testament is preparatory to the New and the New Testament Explicative of the Old and takes in either in express Terms or by necessary admission all the Truths of God delivered in the Old and is recommended by Christ himself to his Disciples and Followers together with those other additional Discoveries and Precepts that he made and gave But yet thus much must needs be added That the Doctrine of Christianity as it is singly revealed in the New Testament gives a much greater Light makes more full Discoveries and contains more effectual Instances to bring about the Soul to Almighty God than that Old Testament alone did or could do And I shall now proceed to some of those most Eminent Particulars and Instances for this purpose 1. Whereas the Notion of God was greatly Corrupted in the Minds of Men as is shewn in the former Chapter the Christian Doctrine rectified those Notions and gives us a true Discovery of the Divine Nature so far as our finite Understandings are capable of it Acts 17.23 Whom ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you here we have the great Discoveries of the Perfection Excellency and Beauty of the Divine Nature and therefore an Object infinitely deserving the greatest Excess of our Love and of our Dependance and Reverence his Eternity Unity Purity Holiness Goodness Wisdom Power Justice Mercy Placability Long-suffering Gentleness Faithfulness Truth in a word that he is the Perfection of all Excellencies the Chiefest Good and the most Sovereign Object of all our Love even upon the single Account of his own transcendent Perfection and Excellence But I come to things more specifically applicable to the Redemption of Mankind by Christ Jesus Therefore 2. I have in the former Chapter mentioned the Suspicions and Inclinations of Mankind to think the Soul is immortal and that there is a Future State thereof for Rewards and Punishments but this Supposition was much clouded with uncertain Conjectures and Imaginations But Christ in the Gospel hath given us a full Discovery and Assurance of the Immortality of the Soul and a full Prospect of the future State of Rewards and Punishments and therefore is truly said to have brought Immortality and Life to Light by the Gospel 3. Whereas in the former Chapter I have shewed that although the External Blessings distributed among the Children of Men were greatly Valuable and more than any Creature could either deserve or by his own Power procure and therefore Almighty God in respect of these highly deserved our Love as our greatest Benefactor yet that many wise and considerate Men considering the promiscuous Dispensation of External Blessings and the great Excellency of the humane Soul did reach after Blessings of a higher Nature and Use than such as only served the Meridian of this Life Here we have a Discovery of the immense Beneficence and Love of the Glorious God unto Mankind and therefore the highest Attractive of the Soul namely Immortal Happiness Glory and Blessedness freely and bountifully offered by Almighty God through Jesus Christ to all that will be but converted and turn unto him and this done upon the Account of his own Beneficence and communicative Goodness unto the Children of Men that were Enemies and estranged from God by Evil Works as well as to the rest of Mankind Certainly if Love undeserved Love be the greatest Attractive of Love if the free Collation of the greatest Benefits that the humane Nature is capable of namely Immortal Glory Life and Blessedness be the greatest Allective of Love and Gratitude to our Benefactor then here is such an Attractive of the Soul to God as its chiefest Benefactor that cannot be elsewhere matched or equalled But this is not all Therefore 3. There is yet farther such an Instance of Love in the manner of procuring this Benefit that seems to equal the very Benefit it self namely God Almighty sending his Son his only Son into the World so far to humble himself as to take our Nature upon him with all its Natural Infirmities Sin only excepted 2. In that Nature to live a poor despised persecuted Life reproached with the most odious though undeserved Calumnies 3. In that Nature to be betrayed by his own Disciple condemned by his own Country-men that were of highest Esteem among them the Priests Scribes and Sanhedrim mocked by the Soldiers Crowned with Thorns his Flesh torn with Scourging delivered over to the Gentiles to be Executed and then exposed to a most painful ignominious Death among Thieves and Malefactors And which yet was more than all this his very Soul made as it were an Offering for Sin heavy unto the Death astonished and in an Agony by the Eclipsing for the time of the Comfort and Influence of the Divine Presence and Love And all this done to expiate the Sins of Men to become a Sacrifice for the Sins of his very Enemies and purchase and impetrate for them this greatest Benefit of Everlasting Life and Glory and all this thus done by the very Design Counsel and Contrivance of the Offended God to satisfie his own Justice to magnifie his own Mercy and to save his undeserving Creature These are Instances of a strange and stupendous Love and do Aggrandize the very Benefit it self than which yet there could not be a Greater So God loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son into the world that as many as believed on him should not perish 1 John 4.10 Here is Love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins Herein the Love of God is manifest that when we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us And now if any be so inquisitive as to ask Why was all this adoe Could not God have saved Men without such a hard and bloody Scene or if he would not give Mankind Everlasting Life without Conversion of the Soul to him could he not by the Empire of his Power have over-ruled the Hearts of the Children of Men to such a Temper and Position I Answer It is true he could and might have done so but he that made Man an intellectual and a free Agent and placed all those Affections in his Nature which I have before-mentioned was not minded to abrogate nor alter the humane Nature and at once to shew both his Constancy to those Laws he hath most wisely settled in Nature and yet to bring about this Great Work of Conversion of the Soul to God without offering Violence to the Laws that he had settled in Nature and therefore in
Page 13 The Evidence of the Existence of a Deity from the Excellent Ordination of these Powers to their several Ends and Uses Page 30 The Evidences of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of GOD resulting from the Consideration of the Parts of the Universe and particularly of the Magnetical Parts The First Instance Page 37 The Wonderful Wisdom and Power of God appearing in the admirable and various Motions of the Magnet Page 52 Touching the Reason and Method of the ensuing Discourse Page 64 Concerning Divine Magnetism Page 68 Concerning the several Instances and Means of the Conversion of the Soul to God Page 74 Concerning the Natural Means of the Soul's Conversion to Almighty God Page 77 Concerning the Reasonable or Intellectual Means of Converting the Soul to God Page 83 Touching the Rational Instances and Motives of the Conversion of the Soul to God upon the Account of the Works of Nature and Providence Page 88 Touching the Second Means of Conversion of the Soul to God namely Divine Revelation Page 101 Touching the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion and the sutableness thereof to the Reduction of the Soul to its due State Position and Happiness Page 120 Concerning the Supernatural Means of retaining the Soul in its due Respect and Position to Almighty God and of the Reduction thereof unto it Page 131 The Conclusion Page 141 Upon Psal 86.8 Neither are there any Works like thy Works 151 Magnetismus Magnus OR Metaphysical and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS Upon the Consideration of the MAGNET CHAP. I. The Reason and Order of this Tract WHEN I look into the Writings of the Ancient and some Modern Philosophers that have written touching the Works of Nature I find in them very many and excellent Enquiries into Causes and Effects and excellent Natural Discoveries touching them And I need go no further for the Evidence thereof than the Books of Aristotle de Naturali Auditu de Meteoris de Anima de Generatione Corruptione de Generatione Animalium de Partibus Animalium and the rest of his Physical Discourses But in most of their Discourses that which is short in them is indeed the best and truest and noblest part of true Philosophy namely the carrying up of the admirable Works of Nature and their Regiment to the Supreme Cause of all Things and the Glorifying of that God that hath instituted and still continues that Law and Order which we call the Law of Nature but is in truth no other than the wise Institution of the Supreme Legislator fitted to every Being in their Creation in the greatest Beauty and Convenience and to several excellent Ends. The Universe and all the Parts thereof as they had their Origination from God so they are all of them full of admirable Order and Usefulness and do all proclaim as well as they can the Power Wisdom and Goodness of their Author It is a goodly and glorious Temple which in every particular and in the whole Compagination of it shews forth the Excellence of the Architect But because all these Works though made with admirable Order and Wisdom yet every Integral thereof hath not Understanding to consider their Own or the World's Beauty and Order nor actively to carry up the Praise and Glory of their Being and Beauty to their Author the Glorious God hath placed in this goodly Temple certain Intelligent Beings Angels and Men for these great Uses First To behold the goodly Frame of the World and intellectively to consider it Secondly To carry up these Works of God to their proper Cause and Author Thirdly To Admire and Magnifie the Power the Wisdom and Goodness of God in all his Works Man therefore is indued not only with a Sentient Nature to behold the Works of Nature but also with an Intelligent Inquisitive Reasonable Soul to observe and consider them and the admirable Wisdom and Order that appears in them and to carry them up to their Wise and Bountiful Author and is placed in the Temple of this Lower World as the Priest of that part of the Creation for himself and in the behalf of the rest of the Creatures to Magnifie and Glorifie the Great Creator and to carry up to him their common Tribute of Praise and Glory And indeed this is the best Part and truest Use of all Philosophy And although a due Attention unto the Works of Nature will readily prompt any considerate Man to this part of Philosophy yet herein the Excellency of the Holy Scriptures and the true Philosophy that we may learn therein exceeds all other Philosophical Discourses of the Ancient Philosophers It carries up all the Works which we usually call Works of Nature and their admirable Order Laws and Regiment to the Great Creator and Governor of them and teacheth Mankind their Duty thereupon and to present the Glory and Praise of the whole Creation and all the Creatures therein to the Sovereign Lord of all Things Psal 104.24 O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Psal 107. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men Psal 111.2 The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal 92.5 O Lord how great are all thy works and thy thoughts are very deep It is a True and Wise Saying of that Excellent Person Sir Francis Bacon That though a little Philosophy may make a Man an Atheist yet a deep Search into it will bring a Man to the Acknowledgment and Veneration of God He therefore that rests in the bare Search and Prospect of the Phaenomena of Nature without running of them up to the Author and Law-giver of Nature is not gone half way in true Philosophy nor hath attained that End that ought principally to be minded in his Natural Enquiries Some of those that have gone before me in Magnetical Philosophy as Grandamicus Kircherus and Mr. Ward have left me an Example of improving this little Portion of Natural Philosophy into Divine Speculations I shall therefore take the liberty to close my Magnetical Observation with something of the like nature though I shall not go altogether in the same Path that they have gone as will appear in the several succeeding Chapters and their Contents There is not the least Rivulet but if I follow it downward in its course it will bring me either mediately or immediately to the Ocean as the Term of its Motion And yet if I follow it upward first to its apparent Fountain and then thorough those Anfractus Terrestres that feed that Fountain it will bring me by necessary consequence to the Ocean as its Original Eccles 1.7 All the rivers run into the sea yet the sea is not full into the place from whence the rivers came thither they return again As all Secondary Beings are directed to the Honour and Glory of Almighty God and of his Goodness Wisdom and Power as
this Great Work of the Conversion of the Soul to God draws it with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love and deals with the humane Soul more humano and by those admirable and stupendous Instances of his Beneficence and Love to Man attracts and draws the humane Soul to love this incomparable Benefactor and consequently to that Duty and Obedience which he owes to God and to Felicity and Happiness which Almighty God thereupon freely and bountifully will confer upon the humane Soul and Nature by such Means as were exactly sutable to the Laws of Nature settled by him 4. But yet farther If this greatest Benefit Everlasting Happiness brought about for Mankind by so Stupendous a Means should yet not be attainable by the Children of Men without very difficult Terms and Conditions on their part the Mercy it self though Signal and Great possibly would not be attainable But to obviate this Difficulty the Terms and Conditions on the part of Man are very fair and easie namely to believe this Message from Heaven brought by the Son of God and to use our sincere and best Endeavour to obey the Precepts of a Sober Righteous and Godly Life enjoyned by the Son of God and thereby to perfect and rectifie the Soul to its just State and Habit. 5. And because this Evangelical Message seems to be very strange that the Son of God should come into the World and take our Nature and dye for the Sins of Men and procure for them Everlasting Life and Happiness the Glorious and Bountiful God hath not spared to obviate this Difficulty also and provided those great Evidences of the Truth and Credibility of the Evangelical Doctrine and Message that are most sutable to work upon the humane Reason and Understanding and greater than which no Truth in the World ever had or can have And though I am not minded in this place to make a Collection of all the Evidences of the Truth of the Christian Religion which hath been already abundantly done to my hands by others yet I shall summarily mention some of those Evidences that render the Truth and Divinity of the Evangelical Message highly credible upon the most rational Accounts that can be desired by any reasonable Man First The Prophecies of former Ages recorded in the Old Testament of the Mission of the Messias and the Great Ends and Success thereof fulfilled exactly in Christ Jesus and the Success of his Doctrine Secondly The Miracles which he performed for the Confirmation both of his Mission and Message above the Power of Natural Causes to Effect are a Seal from Heaven of the Truth thereof and the greatest and most convincing Testimony that can possibly be expected or given for the confirming of the Truth thereof There is not any thing that doth more vigorously strike upon the humane Assent or Affect it than Miracles exceeding the Course and Power of Nature Thirdly And above all those Miracles the Miracle of his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven which as it is above the Course of mere Natural Agents to effect so the Truth of the Fact as to both is confirmed by abundant Testimony of many Eye-Witnesses of it Fourthly The laying down and pledging of his Life in Witness and Testimony of the Truth of what he had taught he could not possibly have any Design to deceive Men that would give such a Testimonial of the Truth of what he had delivered Fifthly The admirable Success of this Doctrine which quickly obtained through the most part of the then Habitable and Learned World notwithstanding the great Disadvantages that attended the Promulgation of it As 1. The General Opposition of the Jewish Doctors 2. The great and deep Root that Idolatry had in the rest of the World 3. And the severe Persecutions by both against it and the Professors of it 4. The Meanness and Unlearnedness of the first Promulgators of it Fishermen and Mechanicks 5. The Author of it publickly Crucified and supposed dead by those that oppos'd it Sixthly The Sutableness of the Doctrine delivered to the best Sentiments of the rectified humane Nature But of this hereafter Seventhly The Obedience required from those that were to expect the benefit of this great Redemption had these singular Advantages viz. The Precepts of Christ and his Gospel were most Excellent and Perfect Precepts such as if deeply and seriously considered were most highly sutable to Reason and truly rectified humane Nature such as admirably conduce to the Peace and common Good of Mankind to the tranquillity of the Mind and to the perfecting of the humane Nature there is no one true Moral Precept of Vertue among the most Polite Heathen Moralists but here it is to be found and some others far more Noble and Generous than they ever dream'd of Piety towards God Submission to his Will Obedience to his Commands Righteousness Justice Fidelity Innocence towards Men Sobriety Humility Lowliness of Mind Patience in Tribulation Neglect and Contempt of Wealth and Greatness Contentation with our Condition Forgiveness of Injuries and many such like And really I must say that if I had neither Miracles nor Tradition to assure my Faith of the Truth of the Gospel of Christ in all Particulars thereof yet the admirable Purity Rectitude and Excellency of the Evangelical Precepts their high Congruity to rectified Reason the great Perfection that they give to the humane Nature where duly observed and practised are an Evidence of most high Credibility of the Truth of the whole Evangelical Doctrine So true is that of our Saviour If any man will keep my words he shall know whether the Doctrine be mine or his that sent me Secondly Not only the Precepts but the Example of Christ Jesus was sutable to a Doctrine of high Perfection Learn of me for I am meek and ye shall find rest unto your souls Thirdly The Motives and Helps to Obedience of this most Excellent Doctrine and the imitation of this unexampled Example are high powerful and efficacious namely an Eternal Recompence of Reward Fourthly The Remedies and Allowances for our Deficiencies from the Exactness of an Obedience in all things to all Evangelical Precepts are great and encouraging Almighty God accepting a sincere diligent Endeavour of an exact Conformity thereunto and pardoning the Defects therein that happen through humane Frailty and all for the sake of that Great Sacrifice of his Son And therefore to close up all that I have said I find the Method of the Evangelical Dispensation to reduce and bring the Souls of Men to their just Habitude and Position towards Almighty God admirably effectual to that End I find also that this Reduction of the Soul to its due Habitude to Almighty God the most natural and sutable way of attaining its True Happiness I find the Precepts of the Gospel full of admirable Congruity to the perfecting of the humane Nature to the good of humane Society and to the enriching and enabling the humane Soul So that upon the
it is truly said that life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel But although this be true that the Contrivance of Man's Redemption could only be by infinite Wisdom and the Discovery it self is supernatural a divine Message from Heaven and published to us by the Son of God Heb. 1. yet the Truths thus revealed do bear a great Consonance and Congruity to the True Light of Reason to the true State of the humane Nature For to say the Truth True Reason in the Souls of Men is but a Ray or Beam of that transcendent Wisdom that is in God and it is no longer true Reason than as it bears a Congruity and Consonance to that Divine Reason as I may with Submission call it namely the Divine Wisdom And though in relation thereunto the humane Reason bears not so great a Proportion as the Light of a Candle doth to the Sun yet certainly if it be True Reason it holds an Analogy and Conformity to its Fountain and Original and ceaseth to be Reason when it suits not to it And in this respect I have adventured to range this means of Conversion of the Soul to God among Means that are rational and to call them reasonable and intellectual Means And indeed they are so there is no Religion that is or ever was professed in any Age that hath so great a sutableness to True Reason no Means or Method of bringing the Soul into its true genuine State and Position as the Christian Religion and Doctrine I shall not pursue this Subject at large but shall give some Instances making good my Affirmation 1. The Evangelical Doctrine gives us a clear Account of the Immortality of the Soul and this is a Doctrine highly sutable to the very Sentiments of our Souls 1. The Consent of the most Learned and Judicious Sects of the Philosophers the Platonists and many of the Stoicks 2. It seems an utter unlikely thing that the Noble Creature Man of such admirable Endowments and Faculties of Mind a Mind of that great Capacity furnished with Conceptions that are of an Extent beyond a Life of Sense a Mind reaching after Immortality and Communion with Almighty God or at least with those Noble Creatures the Angels I say it is highly incredible that such a Nature such a Mind should be placed and made only to take a Turn for a few years upon the Theatre of this World and then die and perish and vanish like a blast of flame or smoke and have a lesser Privilege of Duration than many Vegetables and Brutes 2. The Evangelical Doctrine gives us a distinct Account of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments This is also a Truth highly consonant to natural Sentiments of Mankind and to the ordinary Appearances in the State of humane Nature 1. There is scarce any Sect of Learned and Judicious Men nay scarce any Nation under Heaven but is highly persuaded of the Truth thereof in general though they labour under differing manners of explicating it 2. The whole Frame of the Universe do proclaim Almighty God to be delighted in the due Order and Disposal of all things every thing is full of Order Congruity Beauty and Comeliness only the Dispensations of External Good and Evil to Mankind seem very confused and disproportionable to the Conditions and Deserts of Men Good Men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked and wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous therefore it is not conceptible but that there must be a time to set things at rights a day of the manifestation of the Righteous Judgments of the God of Order this was the natural Conclusion of the Wise Man Eccles 3.16 17. when he saw the Disorder that was in the Dispensations among Men I said in my heart God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every purpose and for every Work 3. The Gospel teacheth that the Way and Means to attain a State of Blessedness and Glory in that future Life of Immortality is by converting the Soul to Almighty God by Faith Love and Obedience by Purity and Holiness by Righteousness and Charity by Sobriety and Patience and all these Christian Vertues recommended to us by the Precept and Example of Christ Jesus And certainly if we examine this impartially by Reason such a State and Position and Temper of the Soul is most sutable and agreable to a Life of Immortality and Happiness And we may take a measure of it by the contrary Let us but suppose a Soul entirely addicted to a Sensual Life and the love of this World placing its Felicity in Carnal Pleasures Eating Drinking Wantonness Recreations Bravery of Apparel Splendid Houses and Furniture Great Retinue great Store of Lands Money Flocks Herds in Delights of the Ear the Eyes and other Senses in Power and Rule over others and in the Sence and Delight of these Enjoyments the Soul to be wholly immersed let any Man but think with himself how it is possible for such a Soul thus addicted and habituated to be in any kind of Congruity with the State of Happiness of a separated immortal Soul nay how it is possible for such a Soul to be without extream Vexation Sorrow and Perturbation when it comes into such a State as is wholly unsutable to and uncapable of such Enjoyments which once it made its Felicity and if it had a Capacity to relish and taste such worldly Contentments yet they are not in that State to be had they are quite gone and out of date and vanished away 4. The Doctrine of the Gospel commands and commends unto Mankind Piety towards God Vertue Charity Righteousness Justice Veracity Fidelity Sincerity Integrity Purity Holiness Humility Sobriety Temperance Patience Longanimity and all other excellent Vertues and certainly if we take a Measure of these Precepts even by the Light of Nature and True Reason we shall find them admirably consonant thereunto though there were no other future Life to come 1. If once that most radical and natural Notion of the Existence of a Deity and of his great Perfection be but deeply digested in the Soul the greatest and most divine sort of Evangelical Precepts are and would be as naturally consequential thereupon as the most necessary Conclusion of a Logical Demonstration such as are the Love and Fear of God Reverence and Veneration of him entire Obedience to him Patience and Resignation of our Wills to his Will Sincerity and Uprightness of Heart Thankfulness to him Dependance upon him Trust in him a vigilant Conversation becoming his Sight and Presence an imitation of him in all things that we are capable to imitate him in Again 2. Tranquillity of Mind and Conscience was accounted among the Wisest of the Philosophers the greatest Pitch of Happiness attainable by Man in this Life and I dare confidently assert That no Precepts no Practice under Heaven is more conducible to the Tranquillity of the Mind
of Man than these Evangelical Precepts before-mentioned as might be made easily evident by Induction of Particulars 3. The Peace and Good of Mankind and of humane Societies is a thing justly valuable by all Wise and Good Men And what in the world is more conducible thereunto then Veracity and Truth Fidelity Righteousness Justice Temperance Sobriety Charity Beneficence Longanimity Goodness Forgiveness Meekness Humility Contentation and all this bound on to the Soul by the strictest Bond of the Love Fear and Duty we owe to the God of Heaven The greatest part of the Disorders in humane Society arise by those Vices that are contrary to those excellent Vertues as by Pride Ambition Covetousness Falseness Dissimulation Churlishness Injustice Unrighteousness These and the like Distempers of Soul fill the World with Rapine Violence Oppression Contention and Deceit which are cured and remedied by an Observance of the Evangelical Doctrine than which there cannot be any thing more conducible to the perfecting of the humane Nature and benefit of humane Societies 5. The Evangelical Doctrine evermore inculcates these two great Qualifications of the humane Soul namely the True Knowledge of God and the true Love of God the former is that which excites the latter and the latter is that great commanding Affection of the Soul that fully brings about the Soul to God and to a chearful and sincere Observance of him and his Will The Love of God is the First and great Commandment and draws along with it the Whole Duty of Man to God And this is most consonant to what Reason it self dictates and Experience evidenceth he that hath but the firm hold upon this Affection governs a Man as he pleaseth 6. The Evangelical Doctrine in order to bring about Man to love God gives us the highest most transcendent and obliging Instances of the Love of God the antecedent undeserved Love of God to Man especially in the admirable Oeconomy of our Redemption by Christ as hath been before-shewed And certainly this is the most rational way that can be imagined for the gaining of this great Affection and the Conversion of the Soul to God 1. It is in it self a most effectual Means to that end Love and Beneficence is the great Attractive of Love as hath been before shewn and that Great God that formed the humane Soul and placed it in its several Habitudes and Affections and therefore best knows what doth most vigorously strike upon those active Strings the Soul did therefore choose this effectual Magnetism to bring about the Soul to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us first Again 2. This Method of Attracting the Soul to God by the great and primitive Instances of his Love to Man is most sutable to the Frame and Mould of the Nature of the humane Soul and offers no Violence to it It is true the Glorious God is not necessarily bound to the Laws that he hath established in Nature they were Laws given to his Creatures and not to himself and he may and sometimes for great Ends derogates from those Laws by the Interposition of his own immediate Power as in Miracles And upon the same Account may or might if he please break in upon the Laws that he hath instituted in the humane Soul and might infringe the Liberty of his Will and turn him about to him by an irresistible over-powring Necessity But the Wise God hath settled and established the Rules and Laws of the Natures of things with so great Wisdom and Foresight that he rarely violates them but ordinarily proceeds in the way of his Providential Regiment of all things according to those Laws and Institutions which he hath fixed in the Natures of things in things simply Natural he usually proceeds by Natural Applications and in Rational Beings by Means sutable to a Rational Nature and therefore hath chosen this Means to draw the Soul of Man to him namely by the Cords of a Man and the Bonds of Love as most sutable to the Complexion Nature and Constitution settled by his own Ordination in the humane Soul Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude that as the Apostle Rom. 12. stiles the Consecration of the Body and Soul to God a reasonable Service so I do with the same Evidence of Reason style the Doctrine of the Gospel the Christian Religion a reasonable Religion a Religion fitted and ordered with the most exquisite Reason and sutableness thereunto to bring the Soul to its due Position Respect and Habitude to Almighty God and thereby to have an Everlasting Happiness CHAP. XIV Concerning the Supernatural Means of retaining the Soul in its due Respect and Position to Almighty God and of the Reduction thereof unto it I Have hitherto considered of those two Means of Reduction of the Soul to its due Position and Respect to Almighty God which I have stiled Natural and Rational It now remains that I should consider the Third Means which I call Supernatural It appears in the consideration of the Natural Causes and Effects in the World that besides the Intrinsick Powers and Propensions of things there are certain Extrinsick common adjuvant Causes that have a great Influence in the Effects and Appearances in the World The Magnet hath not only its intrinsick active Principle its Form from which its Motions proceed but there is also a common Magnetism of the Earth and its Effluxes that greatly assist excite and direct its Motions Animals and Vegetables have not only their intrinsick specifical vital Principles of their specifical Motions and Operations but the Sun and its heat and influence is an universal adjuvant exciting Principle of all vital and sentient Operations And not only the ancient Philosophers as Aristotle and Plato and their several Commentators as Simplicius Themistius Alexander Aphrodiceus Avicen and Averroes but also the Jewish Doctors and the Christian Philosophers and Divines for some Ages after Christ did think that besides the individual intellectual Soul of every Man there was also a certain common intelligent Nature or Being substituted by Almighty God whose Office it was to illuminate the humane Soul to excite actual Intellection in it and to communicate unto it these common intellectual Principles which ordinarily and generally obtain in all Men and stood in relation to the humane Intellectual Soul as the Sun and its Light and Influence stands in relation to vital Natures in the Lower World And this they call Intellectus Agens which Averroes supposeth to be Vltima Intelligentiarum separatarum and deputed to the actuating and exciting of Intellection in Men. This Opinion hath been possibly upon Reasons probable enough laid aside for many Ages in the Christian Church the Use therefore that I make of it only is this that though this Opinion seems to be dark and obscure and not bottom'd upon a clear Evidence yet it carries with it and under it an Adumbration of a great and real Truth though they attained not a