of the thing produced As for instance Moses is said to have turned his Rod into a Serpent and then the Waters into Blood and then to have brought up Frogs out of the River and are not the Magicians said to have done so too Where then is the difference in the works And if there be no visible difference in them how doth it appear that there was a difference in the Powers which produced them And so why may not all be concluded an Imposture and consequently no substantial Evidence of the Existence of a God This now brings me to the second Enquiry How we may know and discern a true Miracle from a pretended one 1. For the clearing whereof it is First granted That they are not distinguishable by the visible quality of the works themselves unless it be in some particular Instances as the raising of the dead the giving Eyes to one that was born blind the multiplication of a few Loaves and the like In those cases the very Nature of the Works shew the singer of God for none but an Almighty Power could produce them nor could any created sinite Power pretend ever to have done the like But where one Wonder resembles another and seems to answer another there 2. Secondly The difference is discoverable chiesly from the Necessity and Tendency of the Operations Indeed their Circumstances and Manner of Production may go a great way to shew the singer of God or the working of Satan but I conceive a true Miracle may be most easily and best distinguish'd from a false one 1. By the Importance of the Reasons which make a Miracle necessary 2. By the End and Scope to which it tendeth 1. First When there is a true Necessity for Miracles As 1. When a man pretends to come from God with special Authority and Commission for some extraordinary Service in that case a Miracle is necessary to give evidence of his Commission and that he may be believed Such extraordinary Power must be back'd with extraordinary Works to attest it for otherwise people could not have sufficient Arguments to own it and 't is inconsistent with the Divine Nature to require mens Submission and not justify or set his Seal to that Authority which he binds them to submit unto but to leave them in a state of Guilt for rejecting that which he gave them not sufficient reasons to receive 2. Miracles are necessary when extraordinary Alterations are to be made in the world As when a solemn peculiar Form of Divine Worship is to be first set up or when a peculiar Form that was establish'd by Miracles is to be removed and taken down to make room for a different Form For these things are of such vast importance that in cases of this nature Men cannot be deceived without running the greatest hazards and nothing under a Miracle can keep them from being impos'd on Now when in these necessary cases Signs and Wonders are shew'd we may conclude them to be Divine Miracles but if there be no need at all of extraordinary Operations upon these accounts such as are pretended ought to pass for works Diabolical because God is not wont as they say to set his Seal to a Blank nor is it consistent with his Majesty and Wisdom to use his Omnipotence in vain 2. True Miracles may be distinguish'd from false ones by their scope and tendency The Works of God are Glorious not only for those signatures of Power they carry with them but also for that admirable Goodness and Wisdom which is discernable in them all because they always drive at the best and most important ends And so we must reckon such Miracles Divine as tend to confirm Truths which come by Divine Revelation For as such Truths cannot be consirmed but by the God of Truth that Reveals them so neither would they be attested by the Father of Lies the Devil did it lye in his Power to work a Miracle for the confirmation of them because nothing is more cross then Truth is to his interest in the world 2. Such Miracles are to be accounted Divine as tend to draw People off from the practice and love of Sin For as such Miracles are glorious manifestations of the Holiness of the Divine Nature so they serve to transform the Spirits of Men into the Divine Image and consequently can be wrought only by the Finger of God 3. Such Miracles as tend to preserve the true Worship of One God by acts of singular Love and Reverence and with an entire Resignation of Heart and Soul because this is the great end of God's whole Oeconomy and that which all Impostures hitherto have been intended to Defeat and Bassâ—le 4. In short Those are to be looked upon to be true Divine Miracles which tend to the utter destruction of the Devil's Power and Works These cannot possibly be thought Diabolical operations for if Satan rise up against himself and be divided he cannot stand but hath an end Mark 3. 26. All these things carry their own light with them and by that light we may very easily discern and distinguish true Miracles from those Impostures which have gone under that name in all times both Ancient and Modern Next after Moses Jesus Christ was the only Person publickly owned to have come from God upon an extraordinary Message to the world And in regard he intended to repeal the Mosaical Ordinances and instead thereof to enact more Spiritual Laws it was necessary for him to work Miracles to shew his Authority for the founding of his Church as Moses had shewed his for building of the Tabernacle And these were the noble ends of all Christ's Miracles to seal the Truth of his Doctrines that how Mysterious soever some of them might seem they might be believed for which reason he did no one Miracle before he began to Preach to reclaim Mankind from all manner of Vice and Immorality or whatever is contrary to God's Nature or reproachfel to their own to establish Piety and Honesty in the world to teach men to lead Sober Righteous and Godly Lives in this world to direct them how to Worship the only True God in Spirit and Truth and to deliver not only the Bodies but the Souls of all People from the Tyranny and Power of the Devil whose business was to Captivate all Mankind that they might walk on still in darkness and blindness of Heart which being the reasons and ends of the Lord Jesus his Miracles we may be sure that those reasons having been once answer'd and the ends sufficiently served by himself and his first Disciples there was no further need of Miracles And therefore whatever Signs and Wonders have been shewed supposing they were really effected either by some Pagans immediately following the time of Christ or by some Romanists in latter Ages they are not to be reckoned Divine Operations but so many Workings of Satan and his Instruments which are so far from justifying or giving credit to their Ways
most Curious Enquiries in so many Philosophical and Learned Ages This shews that the Tradition is grounded upon Principles of Nature that therefore it is common with our Nature and must be as constant and common as Humane Nature continues 2. To which I add Secondly That though Truth went along with the Tradition yet of it self alone and without the Dictates of Nature it could not have been universally received in all Places and Ages For every one is not ready to embrace Truth it self though it be never so probable and when it is received in process of time it doth often drop nor is it easy to conceive how this Truth could have gone so current as it hath gone in all parts and from hand to hand without any considerable opposition unless it had had the help of strong Reason to support it and to carry it on still No doubt but Adam taught his Children in that long tract of time the Nine hundred and thirty years of his life many Truths both Philosophical and Divine which yet are now quite lost especially to those people who have not the use of those Books which are open before us Nay though we are able by the help of Discourse to gather divers things out of Moses's Writings which the old Pagans had no knowledge at all of yet are there several matters which we our selves are to seek for because they are not evident from clear cogent Principles of Nature But this great Truth concerning the Existence of God hath been propagated all along together with Mankind and as people have every where multiplied successively from Generation to Generation Nay the higher we go to those Elder times after the Creation the less of Infidelity we find Though there were then very few Books in the World yet God was believed on and even by those who in their lives dishonoured him For in those days Nature spake with simplicity and much plainer and better than in after-times when men of wanton Wits and of base Minds used Arts and so corrupted and debauch'd their Natural Reason This shews that the Belief of God's Existence is grounded upon something in Humane Nature which hath still preserv'd it in the world notwithstanding the miscarriage of many other Traditions which our old Ancestors transmitted to their Posterity and left with them This hath escaped undestroy'd uncontradicted but by a very few Partial Conceited and Designing Men of which no other cause can be rationally assigned but that it is most consonant to the frame of our Nature a Natural Principle an Idea of God which he himself hath as it were imprinted and stamp'd upon every ones minds so that it cannot be worn out by Time it self which weareth out other Notions that are not fixt and rivetted as this is into the common Reason of Mankind and therefore it is not to be imputed to mere Tradition 2. Nor Secondly Can it be imputed to Fear which is the next Pretence For those who would destroy the Belief of a God would fain persuade the world that it is only a thing of Phancy a fictitious frightful Idea put into peoples heads by Designing Men or formed in their Brains by the power of their own Imagination and that their minds being once scared were easily bent to conceive that there is a Terrible Being over them which those bold hardy Wretches imagine to be nothing but a Bugbear without any real Existence and accordingly they bottom Religion upon groundless Fears believing Hell and Damnation and a Deity to be Figments things invented and talked of to terrify the World and so the Atheistical Author of the Leviathan represents them comparing them as he has the confidence to express it to an empty Hat upon a crooked Stick to fright Birds from the Corn. I should beg every good Christian's pardon for but mentioning such Impiety did not the Looseness of the Age we live in constrain us to take notice of the strange Notions that are got abroad The meaning whereof in short is That if people were not frighted out of their Wits they would hardly believe the Existence of a Deity for they ground that Belief upon Fear and make Popular Fear to be the cause of it And hence it is they think that this Belief hath generally prevailed in the World not from any Natural Principle in the Understanding but from a slavish foolish Passion of heart and because men have been every where taught to be fearful and timorous or have made themselves so Now to every Considerate Rational Man it is plain that Fear cannot be the cause of that Belief but is the consequence and effect of it That is Men do not believe a God because they are afraid but are therefore afraid because they believe there is one a Just and Powerful Being over all And therefore their Fears proceed from an Universal Common and Natural Principle in every ones mind touching God's Existence for otherwise it were impossible for mens Fears to be so great so universal so fixt in Humane Nature as never to be eradicated First It can never stand with common Reason to conceive how Fear should create Tormenting Apprehensions of a Being whom all Mankind have ever adored for his great Goodness and whom Heathen Philosophers themselves have discover'd by the Light of Nature to be for his Divine Perfections the most Lovely and Desirable Being in the whole world What Reverence soever the sense of his Greatness may call for disquieting Terrors of a Being so infinitely Perfect cannot spring but from an Evil Conscience And then I appeal to all Men of Sense whether that Conscience ought to be heard against God whose Interest it is to have none This is certain That there can be no fear where there is not supposed an Object to be afraid of That Object must be acknowledged not only to be but to be Angry and Threatning otherwise our Faculties would be both vain and delusory constrained to fear where no grounds of fear are which is to reproach Nature it self that is so adored by some Insidels and to impeach it for a Common Cheat. Secondly Though we should think some particular Persons imposed upon by their Fears yet how could all Men in the World fall under the same Imposture at once How could they be seiz'd with one Agony universally but from an Epidemical Principle in Humane Nature Or how could they all jump together in one Principle without the Hand of a God who made them all and intended by this means to hold them all fast to himself Thirdly If we should be so unreasonable as to suppose Mankind to have been frighted all at the same instant no body knows by whom or when or how and by that fright to have been possest with the thoughts of a Deity can we suppose too that they had no time in so many Ages to recover themselves out of that panick Distemper Fear is a cruciating and tormenting Passion which every Man is desirous to rid himself
Truth of God's Existence because then it would prove too the truth of Idolatry forasmuch as all Nations were once Idolaters and consented in the worship of a great many Deities To this two things may be easily returned First That there was no such universal Consent as to that no not among the Pagans themselves For though they worshipped a plurality of Objects and the vulgar People paid their Devotions to them as to so many real and distinct Deities yet as I shew'd before they own'd One Supreme God and look'd upon the rest as Inferior Beings Deities that had been generated or made by the great Cause of all things and them they adored for his sake and upon his account as Deputies and Administrators under him and as Mediators for Men to him so that they referred their Worship to him by them and did terminate all of it in him And yet the wiser sort of Men among them did not esteem that multitude of Deities as so many real Persons Substances and Beings distinct from the Supreme but rather as so many several Virtues and Powers of One Sovereign Numen personated fictitiously according to the See Dr. Cudworth's Intel. System l. 1. c. 4. p. 502. various Works and Manifestations of that One God that did Pervade all things did Exist in all things did Act in all things and was conceived by them to be in a manner all things and consequently was as they thought most honoured and best serv'd by the Religious Honours which were given him by and through his Works every where as he manifested every where his Virtue and display'd his Power So that the great Error among the old Heathens seems not to have been about the Existence of One God as to which they were well agreed but about the way and manner of Worshipping him as to that they were divided in their Opinions some believing the Supreme God to be worshipped joyntly with other Deities and the rest conceiving him to be worshipped alone under several Names Titles and Appellations Now though the Being of God was a thing so evident obvious and bright that it flash'd in all their faces yet in their Notions of God's Worship a thing which required greater use of Reason and Philosophy they were puzled and distracted and therefore universal Consent cannot be pleaded to prove the truth of their Religion and the real Existence of all their Deities because they were not generally agreed as to that as they were in this Common Principle That there is One God over all things 2. Secondly How gross soever the Conceits of the Heathens were the whole account of the matter shews That they were inclined and willing to Worship the True God if they could but have certainly known where or how to have found him In places of the thickest Darkness and in times of the greatest Ignorance there was in all Men a Propensity to some Religion or other so that rather than People would have no God at all they would adore many which still serves to confirm the Point in hand That the belief of a Deity is radicated in Humane Nature how hard soever some few odd Men have labour'd and strain'd to tear it out Seeing a belief so universal cannot be founded on meer Tradition or Fear or Policy or any advised Agreement and Institution amongst Mankind if we will enquire soberly into the Reasons of it no other rational Account can be given but that the Faculties of our Nature are so framed by the Excellent Wisdom and Power of God that upon the due exercise of our Understanding and Reason an Idea of God ariseth in every one's mind which is therefore rightly called a Natural Idea because it may be formed by the use of our Natural Faculties without the assistance of special Revelation and because our Nature is so ordered by the Father of Spirits Divines rightly say That the Idea of God is imprinted on all Mens minds by the Finger of God and is a mark of himself and of his own setting to let us know that we are all his and to draw from us all possible returns of Praises and Reverence of Admiration and Love of Imitation and Obedience and Universal Submission to his Divine Will and Pleasure CHAP. IV. HAVING fully consider'd this Argument of God's Existence taken from the Universal Consent of Mankind and the Common Principle which is in Humane Nature I proceed now to that which was proposed as the Third Head viz. The Consideration of some Extraordinary Occurrences in the World which further argue the Being of a God And here many things might be taken notice of were I minded to let this Discourse swell into a great bulk as The Strange Discoveries which have been made of many the most Secret Villanies the Wonderful Events whereby the Designs of Wicked Men have been prevented and over-rul'd the Various Providences whereby Opprest Innocence hath been vindicated and deliver'd the Several Revelations of the Divine Will which have been given since the beginning of the Creation the constant supporting of Government and Order in the World the remarkable Translation of Empires for Peoples Provocations the Astonishing Examples which have been made of many Bold Incorrigible Wretches and the like All which do in their kind shew that there is a Divine Disposer and Governor of the Universe an Observing and Righteous God that judgeth all the Earth But because these may chance to be looked upon rather as Popular Suggestions than Convincing Solid Arguments I shall for brevity sake wave them and insist only upon Two things which the most Judicious Men are commonly wont to urge and which indeed are past all contradiction if matter of Fact can be made appear And they are 1. First Such Miraculous Works as could never have been done but by an Almighty Power And 2. Secondly Such Predictions and Prophesies as could never have been delivered without the foreknowledge of an Omniscient Being 1. First For those Miraculous Works which could never have been done without an Almighty Power By Miracles I mean such as are True Miracles or such Effects as no Second Subordinate Cause can possibly work of it self no Finite Natural Agent can do by any Causality or Virtue of its own And of such Miracles there seem to be these Three sorts which most of all relate to the matter in hand 1. First Such as have been done without any Concurrence or Instrumentality of Second Causes nay such as could never have been done by any Limited Power As the giving sight to those who were born without Eyes the making the Sun to go back or to stand still the Raising of the Dead to life again and the multiplying a few Loaves and Fishes to satisfy Five thousand People 2. Such Effects as perhaps might have been done in time by the help of Natural means but yet never were nor could be wrought on a sudden by their use and application as the healing of the Leprosy in a moment the instantaneous removing
overthrow of their whole Government both in Church and State and then too was the Desolation foretold by Jesus Christ not one stone left upon another neither in the City of Jerusalem for as Josephus acknowledgeth it was razed to the Foundations and laid even with the Ground Nor yet in the Temple for as our Learned Paraphrast observes out of Scaliger as a full Completion of our Saviour's Prophecy the very Foundations of the Temple were torn up by Turnus Rufus with a Plow-share so that no part of it Under-ground was left undissolved not one stone left upon another How could a clearer Argument be expected than that was of the Existence of an All-seeing an All-powerful and Righteous God who weighed the Sins of an hardned People and by his determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge made their Punishment then as plain as their Guilt had been when with wicked hands they crucified the Lord of Life and wish'd that his Blood might be upon them and upon their Children 2. But Secondly Besides these Predictions which concern'd them and were fulfilled in their Sufferings there were others which had references to the Propagation of Christ's Religion Christ himself had foretold That when he should be lifted up from the earth he would draw all men unto him Joh. 12. 32. And near Two thousand years before that time the Patriarch Jacob presignified on his Death-bed That when Shilo should come to him the gathering of the people should be Gen. 49. 10. which was not possible for Jacob at such a vast distance of time to say or foresee of himself no more than 't was possible for the Prophets in after-times without Revelation from an All-knowing Being to predict as they did That all kings should fall down before him That all nations should do him service That he should stand for the people That to him the Gentiles should seek That from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same his name should be great among the Gentiles That the Heathen should be for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession All which Predictions proved in the Event most evidently true notoriety of fact shews it and yet the exact impletion of these Prophecies could never have been foreknown as it was but by a Supreme Numen who knoweth all things considering how unlikely it was as things stood for Christianity to find universal success and entertainment in the world because it was so opposite to mens Lusts and Pleasures the Jews were so hardned against it the Pagan Religion which Christianity was intended to destroy was so spread over the Gentile Nations and so fixt by Laws Princes were so set against it the Devil used such various methods to stop its progress and the Preachers of it were of themselves so weak and unable to carry it over the world that without the Assistance of a Divine Power it could not have prevailed over the hearts of people so universally and in such a conquering manner notwithstanding all Obstacles which were in the way But herein appeared the wonderful Conduct of Divine Providence That the Government of the Jews being quite dissolved upon the destruction of Jerusalem the Scepter then being utterly departed from Judah and the Lawgiver from between his feet Shiloh reigned with triumph and glory As the Jews lost ground so Christ whom they had crucified got it and a great deal more So that in a very little time not only multitudes of the Jewish Nation were Converts to Christianity but great Armies of People in the Gentile world and in the most Barbarous Countries were brought in obedience to Christ's Faith And hereby the Ends of God's Providence were served by the Romans themselves first by being his Instruments to captivate and subdue the wicked Jews and then by being themselves subdued to Jesus Christ so that where-ever the Roman Eagles flew there Christ was a Conquerer by his Holy Spirit 3. To which let me add Thirdly this one Observation more concerning those Predictions which relate to the Dispersed and Reproachful Condition of the Jews since the Overthrow of their City and Government As the Old Prophets had told those People long before what a sad miserable Condition they would bring themselves to at last so Christ had foretold them in express terms That upon the treading down of Jerusalem they should be led away captive into all nations Luk. 21. 24. A Prediction which was literaly fulfilled as soon as they were conquer'd by Titus his Army Many thousands of them were carried away divided and scatter'd up and down in the world where their wretched Posterity inherit their Ancestors Curse to this day leading still a forlorn sort of life Vagabonds into all parts and hated where-ever they go An Avenging Hand from above doth still pursue them and every day the world sees the Predictions concerning them more and more fulfilled Which is as it were an Ocular Evidence as well of the Truth of Christianity as of the Existence of a Just God I use this Argument the rather because it is a kind of sensible proof of a Deity and not of so remote a Nature as the rest are Though it be apparent to Reason that there must be a First Cause of all things though the common notions and impressions we have in our Nature shew who and what that First Cause is though Miracles are undeniably convincing and Predictions when accurately fulfilled demonstratively infer the Existence of a Being that foresees all Events though at the greatest distance yet because those Observations are most operative which most nearly affect men I urge this Observation touching the Jews Punishment as being a thing verified by our own Experience Miracles we have not seen but this Remarkable Judgment against the Jews we see daily and therein we see the plain accomplishment of some Predictions which we know were written some considerable time before the Events happned so that we may well wonder how there can be an Atheist as long as there is a Jew living in the world To this purpose a Learned and Judicious Prelate of our Church who hath solidly written upon the great Subject now under my hand expresseth his thoughts in these words with which I shall conclude this present Point There Bishop Wilkins ' s Nat. Rel. p. 89. is saith he one particular which to me seemeth very considerable for the proof of a Deity though but little notice of it be taken by others and that is The State of the Jewish Nation who for these 1600 years have been driven out of their own Countrey having now no particular place of abode belonging to them as a Nation but are scatter'd and dispersed over all the habitable world hated and despised where-ever they are permitted to dwell very frequently persecuted impoverish'd banish'd murder'd in vast multitudes And notwithstanding all this they are not yet so mixt and blended with other Nations as to be lost among them but are still kept up
extort this Confession from all Men That there is a Being incomprehensibly Excellent which formed so excellent a Creature as our humane Nature is In Discoursing then upon this Subject I shall endeavour to shew these Two things 1. First Wherein the Excellence of humane Nature does consist 2. Secondly That this Excellence was derived not from the casual Modification of stupid Matter but from the Agency of an intelligent Cause that is eminently and absolutely Perfect 1. First Touching the Excellence of our humane Nature By our humane Nature is understood strictly the intellectual thinking and rational Thing within us which we call the Soul And when I spake of its Excellence I mean its essential Perfection before Vice comes to deprave and hurt it And I spake too of a comparative Perfection not meaning that it is Excellent in such a sublime Degree as a Deity is supposed to be but Excellent in its Kind and in comparison of the other Parts of this visible World Now that every rational Soul is thus Excellent will appear both from its Nature and Faculties In its Nature it is 1. First Immaterial For it is a distinct thing from Matter and the Properties of it are quite different from the Properties of Matter It is of the Nature of Matter to be locally extended as a Wall is part by part and one part by another in a palpable Series of Contiguity to move as a Stone does as it is moved forcibly by some other Agent and to communicate its Motion to a corporeal Substance by strokes imprest upon it to be wholly passive to external Violence to be in an utter state of Rest when Force is not offered to be as Senseless as a Stone and as void of Cogitation and when it is stirred and agitated to be destitute of all Apprehension which way or in what manner or to what end it moves These and the like dull Properties essentially and necessarily belong to Matter There is as much difference between them and the Attributes of the rational Soul as between Death and Life Because this is a busie Thing prone and ready to enquire into the qualities of Objects to discover their Natures to apprehend Ideas to commit Notions to Memory for a long time to discern and distinstuish between Truth and Falshood and between Right and Wrong to infer Conclusions from Premises to spin Opinions out of a train of Thoughts to judge what is to be Received and what is to be Rejected to exert an Appetite towards that which is Good and to rest with Complacency and Delight in the Enjoyment of it Nay besides all this to be also in its operations Self-active and Self-determining is Essential to it For the Soul of Man is not pulled or forced dragged or drawn or thrust on like a Machine No the Principle of its Actions is within its self nor can any thing move it but by its own consent and voluntary compliance Indeed outward Objects make Impressions upon it and such as do affect it and incline it to act according as things appear to be either desirable or hurtful But this is not done by any violent necessitating Impulse like the Force imprest upon a common Engine but in a Moral way by perswasion and allurement and by the intervening use of Reason which judgeth of the Object whether it may be chosen or refused and accordingly dictates and directs So that when the Soul resolves upon Actions and comes to exert its Power it determines it self being sollicited thereunto by Temptations and Arguments from the inviting Appearance of an Object but not driven to it by irresistible Violence For in many Cases we do resist Offers though they be very Tempting because the Motives for our compliance are not so strong as the Reasons which are against it And when the Reasons on each hand seem equally fair the Soul is unresolved and in suspence hanging in doubt in aequilibrio like Scales that are exactly even till some Grains be added some more Arguments offered on the one side which outweigh all on the contrary and so turn and cast the Scale and bring the Soul to a Determination Of these things every Man hath daily Experience in his own Breast We all feel in our selves this our native Liberty and determining Power And hence it follows That after all the Disputes about the Substance of the rational Soul what it is we may certainly conclude what it is not It cannot be any material corporeal Substance though you suppose it to be never so fine and thin because its Operations are quite different from the Motions of the most subtile Body They proceed not from any necessitating Cause nor are they carried on after a necessitating Manner nor are they brought to any necessary Result as the Motions of Matter are these are still imprest upon it by some necessitating thing which is without and foreign to it But the Soul of Man hath a Principle of Freedom and voluntary Activity within it self and in its Nature whereby it is apt to begin and order and govern and perfect its own Actions as its own Reason directeth and as it self judgeth to be most convenient and best 2. And because it is immaterial it must follow that its own Nature it is immortal also which is the Second Argument of its Excellence if compar'd with all the other parts of this visible World That this thing may be rightly understood we must consider that there is a two fold Life in Man 1. The Life of the Compositum as they call it or the Life of the whole Man that Life which results from the Vital Union between Soul and Body This cannot be thought immortal because we see it every Day destroy'd by the separation of those two Substances Soul and Body from each other 2. There is the Original Life of the Soul it self consider'd singly and separately as a distinct thing from the Body This Life is I conceive a state of Vigour and Activity and a state which is peculiar and proper to the Soul Now this is immortal that is though the Body turns to Dust and Ashes yet the Soul continues a living Being still or subsisteth on in a state of Vigour so that the Nature of it is not subject to Mortality For by Mortality is meant a proneness or tendency in a Being to a Dissolution of it upon the failing of that Principle of Activity within it which we call Life And three things are requisite to render a thing Mortal as we see by every Day 's Experience in all Creatures which naturally consume away and die 1. There must be a Mixture of contrary Qualities as Heat and Cold and the like 2. There is a corruptibility of Humours upon the Prevalence and Predominancy of one Quality over the others 3. And Thirdly a Divisibility of the Parts upon and after the over-powering the Faculties and Temperament of Nature So that 't is Matter that is liable to Death nor can Death be incident