and Conceptions to which the Body gave no occasion so the Body is the Spring and Fountain of several Functions over which the Soul hath no Dominion nor any direct influence they remain as much distinct nothwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done shou'd we suppose them to have had an Existence previous to their Confederations or as they shall be after the dissolution of the Lâ—â—gue between them From all which it may be Scientifically concluded That they are distinct and different Principles in Man's Constitutâ—on but whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum or they to be stiled Parts will be resolv'd into a meer Longomachy or Chat about Words tho' to speak my own Mind I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the Appellation of Compositum and the Soul and Body be allow'd for Constituent Parts Nor thirdly doth the Cartesian Hypothesis tho' the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon fully satisfie an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us their Hypothesis is briefly this That God in his infinite Wisdom chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Beings 1. Some purely Material which through difference of the Figure Size Number Texture and Modification of their Parts come to multiply into many different Species 2. Some purely Immaterial among whom whether there be any Specifical Difference is Pro and Con disputed 3. Man a Compositum of both having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joyned to an Organical Body Now say they God having in his Soveraign Pleasure thought good to form Man such a Creature he hath not only by an uncontroulable Law confined the Soul to an intimate Presence with and constant Residence in the Body while it remains a fit Receptacle or till he give it a discharge but withal hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their Operations and in this mutual dependence of one upon the other with respect to many of their Operations they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist for through the Impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sence there result in the Soul certain Perceptions and on the other hand through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits and thus say they by the Action of each upon the other and their Passion from one another they are formally united But all this instead of loosing the Knot serves only to tye it faster For 1. this Mutual Dependancy as to Operation of one upon the other cannot be apprehended but in Posteriority of Nature to Union and consequently the formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it 2. There are Cases wherein neither the Impressions of outward Objects upon the Sensory Nerves beget or excite any Perceptions in the Soul which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind or intense Contemplation alike answers my drift and also Cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind make not any sensible Impressions upon the Body as in Extasies and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved which argues that it imports more than either an intimous Presence or a Dependance between them in point of Operation 3. 'T is altogether unintelligible how either a Body can act upon a Spirit or a Spirit upon a Body I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so but the manner of doing it or indeed how it can be done is not intelligible That a Tremour begot in the Nerves by the jogging of Particles of Matter upon the Sensory Organs shou'd excite Cogitations in the Soul or that the Soul by a meer Thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits and determine through what Meatus's they are to steer their Course is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly non-plust How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jogg to or receiving a shove from it shou'd either impress a Motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable so that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal Action upon and Passion by and from one another is to fix it in that which supposeth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be Now if common Unions of whose Reality and Existence we are so well assur'd be nevertheless with respect to their Nature not only so unknown but unconceivable we may lawfully presume if their lye nothing else against the immediate Union of Believers with Christ save that it cannot be comprehended that this is no Argument why we should immediately renounce the Belief of it If we can but once justifie that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith if we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason as to the reality of other Unions whose Modes are as little understood I see no cause why the Veracity of God provided we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony shou'd not satisfie us as to the Reality of the Union tho' the manner how it is were a question we cou'd not answer and indeed if Men will not be huff't and talk'd out of the perswasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reason ascertain them tho' they cannot answer all the Difficulties they are accosted with in their Enquiries about them much less ought Christians to be hector'd out of the Belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the Conception of them 't is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God tho' it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are the highest Assurance of the Reality of any thing is God's affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent unto its Truth tho' we can frame no adaequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our own Conceptions Our Saviour himself hath adjourned the perfect knowledge of this Mystery till the glorified state in these words At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Thus far you have had the Thoughts of the before-mention'd Author which I shall leave you to consider seriously at your leisure the Subject is indeed noble how despicably soever it may be treated by the Libertine whose Belief is stagger'd because he himself is not possest of what he has slighted and contemned and for that he finds himself at liberty to live as he listeth I must own indeed that it is scarce possible for one Man to infuse such Idea's into another as may be able to perswade that other that he himself is a Partaker of such a Spiritual Refreshment and Divine Consolation as nothing less than the Divine Gaace can communicate to his Soul and on this account I have the less admir'd that both Paelagius Socinus and their Adherents have gain'd so
used by this Philosopher I see no mighty prejudice there is indeed this mistake very oft attending That whereas by Fate or Destiny are understood the unalterable Laws of God which are founded upon his Prescience Men are apt to overlook the Lawgiver himself and to represent this Law by him establisht as a certain powerful Agent or irresistible Deity which they say does blindly and accountably govern the World Give me leave to take notice That I look upon this Fate and Destiny of the Heathens in its vulgarly received Phrase very nearly to correspond with the Predestination of some Modern Christians they do both of them partake of the same tyrannical despotic power and both tend to the same end viz. the robbing Man of his Freedom and exposing him Brute-like to act by an irresistible Impulse The Eternal Decrees of the Divine Being which are made as it were conditional and founded on a fore-knowledge of the Good and Evil that Man shall act carry nothing along with them contradictory to his Truth and Justice but the Absolute Predestination which is suppos'd exclusive of Mâ—ns Actions as a free Agent is a Doctrine so very harsh and so pregnant with ill Consequences as is not to be countenanced Thus much for Fate and Destiny Chance and Fortune are words so insignificant that had not a foolish Custom rendred them familiar one might justly admire that ever they should be mention'd by considering Men. The true Notion of Fortune in the words of a Learned Man denoteth nothing more than the ignorance of an Event in some knowing Agent concern'd about it so that it owes its very Being to Humane Understanding and without relation to that would be a Non Ens or really Nothing 'T was Man that first made Fortune and not Fortune Man so likewise the adequate meaning of Chance as it is discinguisht from Fortune in that the latter is understood to befal only Rational Agents but Chance to be amongst inanimate Bodies is really a bare Negation that signifies no more than this That any Effect amongst such Bodies ascribed to Chance is verily produced by Physical Agents according to the establisht Laws of Motion but without their consciousness of concurring to the Production and without their Intention of such an Effect So that in this genuine acceptation of Chance here is nothing supposed that can supersede the known Laws of natural Motion and thus to attribute the formation of Mankind to Chance is equally as absurd as to ascribe the same to Nature or Mechanism Having given you these few hints touching the unreasonableness of our ascribing any Effect to that which is in truth no more than a Chimaera or Fiction of the Brain and our looking on them as Agents which are meer Non-Entities I shall take notice of those other Expressions which are so frequently made use of not only by the Ignorant but even by Physicians themselves and other Learned Men such I mean as the Archaeus the Plastic Power the formative Faculty and that petty kind of Deity called Nature For the better comprehending the significancy of these several Terms let us put our selves upon reflecting and a very little attention will discover the fallacy Suppose then for instance that any Man should tell me that such or such a Thing will exhilirate the Archaeus or enliven decay'd Nature that such a Monster owes its rise to a Defect or Error committed by the Plastic Power or formative Faculty is it not very reasonable that we desire to know what either of these are whether or no they are real Agents or intellectual Beings imploying themselves in the care of our Conservation or in a word what they do truly import in their genuine and proper meaning If we make I say this Enquity we may satisfie our selves that every one of these words with many of the like signification particularly such as go by the name of Faculties and Qualities were first of all taken up either as an Umbrage for Mens Ignorance of real Causes or invented in order to a more compendious way of speaking whereby the several Means made use of towards a particular Production are comprised under some single Appellation And thus it happens as Mr. Boyle speaks that a fit and actuating Power of the Teeth Tongue Spittle Fibres and Membranes of the Gullet and Stomach together with the Natural Heat the Ferment and Menstruum and some other Agents which co-operate to the Transmutation of our Aliment into Chile are all included in that frequent Expression of Concoctive Faculty a word as commonly made use of by those who know not what they mean when they speak it as by those that do But amongst all the pretended Causes of those Effects we see daily produc'd there is none more frequently made use of than the word Nature upon which consideration the most Judicious Boyle foreseeing the abuse of that unhappy word was as he expresses himself so paradoxical as to make a very serious doubt whether this same Nature so much discourst of was a Thing or a Name or whether it was any real existent Being or a Being purely notional For when any Man tells me saith he that Nature does this or that that 't is natural for one thing to do this and another that he does in no wise help me to understand or to explicate the manner of these Productions for 't is manifest enough that whatsoever is done in this World where the Rational Soul intervenes not is really effected by corporeal Agents acting in a World so fram'd as ours is according to the Laws of Motion settled by its omniscient Author 'T is true that many acknowledge this Nature to be a Thing established by the Almighty and subordinate to Him but tho' many confess it when they are askt whether they do or not yet besides that they seldom or never lift up their Eyes to any higher Cause he that takes notice of their way of ascribing Things to Nature may easily discern that whatever their words sometimes be the Agency of the God of Nature is very little taken notice of in their Thoughts Indeed if I thought my Opinion might sway with you so far as to put you upon reflecting in good earnest I should give you to understand that 't is my real belief That the improper use of this very word has been vastly injurious to the Glory of our Maker and in the words of the foresaid Author I doubt not but the looking upon meerly Corporeal and oftentimes Inanimate Things as if they were endow'd with Life Sence and Understanding and the ascribing to Nature and some other Beings whether Real or Imaginary Things that belong only to God have been some if not the chief of the grand Causes of Atheism amongst Nominal Christians and of Polytheism and Idolatry amongst the Gentiles The wretched Subterfuges of Atheism being thus manifestly discover'd insufficient Causes of any manner of Production the greatest part of them being purely Imaginary and like
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
Confession from you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made you must at least allow your self to be the Workmanship of some Intelligent Being and altho' the commonness of the Object takes off your Admiration and you now find the Propagation of Mankind in a Method setled by the Divine Providence yet if you transgress not the Bounds of Reason you must affirm their first Production to be by the immediate Power of the Almighty Author of all Things and that every succeeding Generation of them are the Off-spring of one primitive Couple Having survey'd some of the Extremities of this mighty Machine and diligently passed over its outward Covering or Teguments my next advice to you is that you retire within and carefully examine not only the Parts wherein those Offices are perform'd but the Processes themselves such as that of Mastication Deglutition Chylification Sanguification the Inkindling of the Blood for the Lamp of Life its great Analogy in some respects with Culinary Fire viz. it s constant nenecessity of Ventilation through the vesiculae of the Lungs and a perpetual supply of a fit Pabulum or Fuel out of the received Aliment for the continuance of its Flame when you have done here and discover'd all the Secretions or Separations of the several Juices which are put off from the Sanguineous Mass in its wonderful Circulation and deposited in their several Receptacles till called for to their proper Employments you may lastly with that profound Humility and Veneration which becomes the Enquiry ascend into the Sanctum Sanctorum that Divine Emporium of the Soul the Brain where not only our Sensations but all our Cogitations our Perception Reflexion Intuition and all those noble Faculties of Memory Phantasy or Imagination c. are surprisingly transacted Here if you diligently and Philosopically take to pieces the several parts of the Soul I mean the Sensitive you may readily comprehend with an excellent and most judicious Man that its Systasis or Constitution is made out of these two parts viz. the Vital or Flamy which respects the Blood and the Lucid or Ethereal which respects the Brain or whose Hypostasis are the Animal Spirits by whose alone Energy and Intervention we account for the Phaenomena of the Animal Regiment in all things where the Superiour or Rational Soul is unconcern'd When you have thus finish'd your Physiological Contemplation an Application of this Consequence will I think be not only pertinent but natural and genuine That since first in relation to the Vital or Flamy Part there are so many prae-requisites in order to Digestion or Transmuting the gross and solid Matter of our Food into that soft and pappy Substance we call Chyle if any one of which be wanting some certain detriment will ensue whether this be in the Ventricle it self a deficiency of its native Heat a weakness in the Tone of any or all its Fibres a want or perversion of the secreted Juices which compose its Menstruum or Dissolvent Or if all things are orderly performed here and safely delivered hence yet since there are also many requisites to a fit passage of the said Chylous Juice into the Blood such as the admistion of the Bile and the Pancreatic Juice either of which being peccant in quantity or quality many Mischiefs will ensue but if in these secondary Passages all things have gone on well yet if the Passages to the common Store-house or Receptaculum happen to be obstructed and thereby rendred impervious to the liquor they should receive or if others of those curiously slender Tubes the Lacteal Vessels by the forcible protrusion of the contained Matter should break or suffer a Solution of their Continuity the Chyle must be extravasated and a fatal Inundation thereof in some little time comes on But if hitherto Matters have succeeded as they ought and this noble Liquor is at length safely arriv'd through its many Meanders and inconspicuous Ways and as safely deliver'd up to the Heart yet if here it be not rightly sanguify'd or turn'd into Blood or if when it is so made and continued in its Circuit the containing Blood Vessels either from a Deficiency of the Vis Motoria or Disorder of the Spirits in the Orbicular nervous Fibrils implanted in the Tunics of the said Vessels labour with an Obstruction or suffer such a Distension by the impelling Blood as produces a Diruption there presently follows Extravasation and Stagnation of the Vital Liquor Farther If the Blood it self as from many Causes it may contract too great an Acidity or Viscosity or by Adustion grow perfectly Corrosive if its Crasis be considerably vitiated or disorder'd the Nutritious Juices must partake of the Infection and consequently the Assimulation or Apposition of their Particles for the growth and encrease of all the Parts of the Body cannot at all or not regularly be performed neither will the subtil parts of such a Blood tho' never so well elaborated in the Brain afford either a sufficient Plenty or an exactly homogeneous Spirit for the influencing the Nerves those Causes sine qua of every particular Function and Operation In a word that I may not tiâ—e you with a more particular Description of the parts of the Encephalon or Cabinet containing that inestimable Jewel the Soul when you consider that from any of these slightly mention'd Errors committed in any part the whole Fabrick suffers and the same becomes a tottering Carcass when you consider how very easily an heterogeneous Copula is admitted into the Nervous System there exciting those dismal irregular and horrid Explosions which after they have for sometime excruciated the frail Body leave it lifeless when you consider also how very easily those slender and to our fight impervious Conduits of the Nerves may by many ways be obstructed which happening at their Source as in the Apoplexy Lethergy Coma Carus we are presently deprived of our Sensations the Soul suffers an Eclipse and the ghastly Tyrant takes possession when you consider that the very Air so absolutely necessary for our Respiration does sometimes prove a Vehicle to those malign Miasâ—â—ata which impetuously rush on and notwithstanding our pretended strength in the twinkling of an Eye extinguish the Lamp of Life when you consider these Particulars with a due attention you will find abundant reason instead of denying any thing to be Supernatural to confess that the Life of Man whether it be conceived as limited to a shorter or longer Date is nothing less than one continued Miracle Before I finish my Discourse of Supernatural Productions or those Effects which do surmount what we call the Powers of Nature and frequently hare witness to God's especial Providence I will take the liberty to make a short Digression and give you my Opinion how it comes to pass that these unusual and extraordinary Events have gained so little Credit not only with the Profane and Sensual but even amongst very many Sober and Learned Men. That I may do this to your greater Satisfaction I must
Intellect having learnt the Precepts of Geometry and Astronomy takes the Spaces of inaccessible Places and their Heights the Floor or Breadth of any Superficies and the Contents of Solids yea the Dimensions of the whole Earthly Globe measures exactly the Spaces of Hours and Days the Times of the Year the Tropicks by the Progress only of a Shadow yea it measures the Orbs Magnitudes and Distances of the Sun and Stars for a long time to come calculates and exactly foretels their Risings and Settings Motions and Declinations and Aspects one to another We shou'd want time shou'd we set about to enumerate the several portentous Things either of the Practise or Speculation in the Mathematicks Then if passing over to Mechanicks we consider the several Works and Inventions of Men wonderfully made there will be no place for doubting but that the Humane Soul which can so curiously understand invent find out and effect I had almost said create Things so stupendious must needs be far different from the Brutal and as before is said Immortal especially for that living Brutes obtain only a few and more simple Notions and Intentions of Acting yea and those always of the same kind not determined but to one thing altogether ignorant of the Causes of Things they know not Rights or Laws of Political Society they are ignorant of every the most intelligent Mechanic Art neither can they unless taught by Imitation till how to number Three Since therefore in few words we have plainly detected in Man besides the Corporeal Soul such as is common with Brutes the prints of another meerly Spiritual we have abundant reason to conclude the same Immortal Thus Sir have I endeavour'd to prove the Reasonable Soul a Substance independent of Corporiety and that it is not only possible but certain that unless it shall please the Power who at first infus'd it to annihilate its Being it must outshine the Extinction of the Vital Flame and can receive no Injury in its Substance by the Destruction of that Body in which it had its Residence The Arguments I have brought are such whose Solidity every Man may judge of who is capable of a very little Reflection or serious Application of Mind Tho' they are not all my own yet are they such as naturally arise from a Philosophical or Physical Enquiry such as have been approved by the far greater number of Learned Men and such whose Evidence it is impossible to withstand without some secret reluctancy in our own Minds and without ever being able to demonstrate that they are not true The Sum of all that has been said upon this Matter will rest here That since there is nothing more certain than this that there is a Power in Man superiour to that of all meer Animals and superiour also to that Power which Man himself hath as related to those Creatures in their Capacity to be Sensible and to Imagine It is necessary to consider seriously what that Power can be and in what Subject the same is plac'd If you say you apprehend it to be no more than a meer Temperament a Harmony or you know not what kind of Disposition resulting from the Matter of his Composition I wou'd then beg you to remove my Doubts and to satisfie me how it comes to pass that Brutes are not thus endow'd with the same For if this high Prerogative of Reason had its dependence as Sense and Imagination have upon a Conformation or Mechanic Structure of the Animal Organs most certainly other Creatures must be alike dignify'd whose Brains bear so exact Affinity and in the Parts of which there is so great Analogy Resemblance or Similitude For here your Anatomical Disquisition will inform you that if you consider its outward Coverings and Vessels they have at least some of them the like Membranes viz. the Dura and Pia Mater the like Veins Arteries and Nerves If you consider its Division there are the like Hemispheres or Lobes the like Gyrations or Convolutions in its Surface the same double Substance viz. Cortical or Marrowy the same common Basis the Medulla Oblongata If you consider its inward Substance the like Ventricles Glandules Pinealis or Pituitaria Nates and Testes the Fornix the Infundibulum the Corpora Striata c. the like make also of the Cerebellum where Sense and Motion as also the Passions and Instincts meerly Natural tho' in some measure they depend upon the Brain are more properly performed here and in the Medulla Oblongata The Brain then of Brutes thus exactly corresponding with the Humane and the Sensations being alike Mechanically perform'd in both since the former show us not the least footsteps of any Capacity to Will or Reason which are so eminently conspicuous in the latter the Power which exerts the same must be more than Temperament or any Priviledge of Conformation which is so near alike in both and which in its greatest Latitude can reach no higher than Sense Imagination Memory and Appetite for it seems saith the Learned Doctor that the Imagination is a certain Undulation or Wavering of the Animal Spirits begun more inwardly in the middle of the Brain and expanded or stretched out from thence on every side towards its Circumference On the contrary the Act of the Memory consists in the Regurgitation or Flowing back of the Spirits from the Exterior compass of the Brain towards its middle The Appetite is stirred up for that the Animal Spirits being some how moved about the middle of the Brain tend from thence outwardly towards the Nervous System Now till you can make it out how or in what Mechanic Structure or Disposition of the Brain and Animal Organs the Rational Faculty lyes conceal'd and prove to us by Dissection that there is any such part in the Humane Brain whereof the more perfect Brutes are destitute and wherein 't is likely the Acts of Reason shou'd be perform'd Till this I say be done it becomes you as a Man as well as a Religionist to believe with more than three parts of the Learned as well as the unlearned World That the Principle of Reason is placed in a Spiritual Indivisible Substance or in something which neither depends on nor can be the Result of any Material Disposition Let me beg you Dear Sir to consider throughly the foregoing Paragraph If it contains a Truth I am sure 't is one of the highest Importance and I must solemnly protest to you that it seems to me almost a perfect Demonstration It is no ways improbable but I may be deceived which if you surmise or believe let me request you or some of your more Learned Friends the A t s to furnish me with some certain knowledge That Mankind have been for some Thousand years impos'd on deluded and abus'd and that the Phaenomena of Will and Reason are at length intelligibly solv'd without the Supposition either of Spirituality or Immortality I must confess 't is some Mens Interest that the Rational as well as
I hope it will be excus'd by those who consider the Person unto whom I write You have given me I must acknowledge a liberty to open the Pandects of Nature and to furnish my self from thence with any thing that seems useful but will have nothing to be thought valid which is transferr'd from the more Sacred Records of Revelation A God ergo a Providence has been by almost all but especially Christian Philosophers thought a necessary Conclusion but since we are to concede nothing by way of an implicite Faith or as founded upon the bare Testimony of other Men I shall not spend my time in considering the Analogy or reflecting whether or no these terms are Synonimous but will endeavour impartially to take notice not only of some few particulars which may countenance but of some others which seem to thwart and to be repugnant to this Notion as it seems generally establisht In order to my proceeding I expect you should take notice that with some others who have written upon this Subject I distinguish Providence as bipartite or under a double signification viz. General and Particular the former which by Philosophers is term'd the general Concourse or Co-operating Influence I conceive to be so reasonable and intelligible a Notion that I presume when once you have consented to the acknowledgment of a first Cause of all Things you will find your self as it were necessitated to own that the same Power who created the Universal Matter out of Nothing and disposed its several Parts into so many curious and elaborate Engines must unavoidably be concern'd at least in the preservation of the same from Annihilation or extend a Power of Conservation to its continuance and support for however possible it may be to conceive that God Almighty in directing the Particles of Matter into their several Shapes Forms or Configurations did establish certain Catholick Laws of Motion yet surely if hereupon we suppose the Deity to retire within himself no farther to be concern'd with his Divine Workmanship nor so much as ever after to think of or regard it it is utterly unconceivable that Matter and Motion and the several Textures arising from their Combination can be kept on foot or secured from their Primitive Non-existence In this Doctrine of God's ordinary Concurrence I must confess I can find nothing but what is easie and as it were self-evident but when we survey some very unaccountable Phâ—nomena and those various Anomali's which run retrograde to our Sense and Opinions of the Divine Attributes when we reflect upon what some call the Prosperity of wicked Men and the Adversity of the good when we see Justice and Innocence trampled under foot and all that 's good and vertuous degraded and contemned whilst Vice in the mean while reigns as it were triumphant when we see that neither the Profession nor Practise of the Sacred Rites of Religion can secure us from Rapine Cruelty and Oppression lastly when we consider as the Atheist says That Time and Chance hapneth to all these I say notwithstanding they may be fairly solv'd by those Primitive Laws of Motion bestow'd on Matter and still maintain'd by the Divine Being yet when we view them as under his immediate Concern and Government or resulting from his especial Providence they then appear with a somewhat differing Aspect and leave our Reason in a thick Darkness and Obscurity To this purpose you may object that however great and wise that Power may be who made the World you can discover not much of either in its Government You can own indeed that all Effects must have sufficient Causes but then of which you make so mighty an advantage you daily find these Causes take place in the production of all Effects promiscuously and that they are seldom or never prevented by a Divine Suspension even when they seem to impeach the Power and Wisdom of an especial Providence That I may give an Instance suitable to your own Thoughts You see that Mankind from whatsoever Cause they had their Origine are now continued by the mutual Embrace or Carnal Knowledge of the Two Sexes and therefore you don't admire that when they come together in the state of Wedlock or under the Nuptial Institution with the Generative Organs rightly dispos'd that they should propagate their Species but when on the other hand you consider many incestuous Embraces and that a Conception is the Result of a Venereal Act in Fornication or Adultery provided the faeminine Ova are prolific or capable of Impregnation by the Seminal Aura of the Male Here you see abundant Reason to cry out of Providence and expect the Supreme Power should either immediately pursue the Transgressors with Divine Vengeance or suspend his Laws of Motion in the Act in order to prevent a spurious Illegitimate Issue Again by the same Catholic Law of Motion or rather by a Specific Gravity or Principle of Gravitation which is the Property of every Particle of Matter you come to understand that if a ponderous Body be suspended by too slender a Line or a weighty Structure raised upon an infirm Basis insufficient for its Support or Fulcrum Here I say by a very little knowledge in Mechanicks you easily foresee that if the suspended Body preponderate the force intended to hold it up the Line must necessarily break and the weight as necessarily fall so likewise the Building in time grown ruinous or decay'd by other Accidents the Foundation failing most certainly tumbles but if a sober or reputed pious Man passing by should chance to make a Perpendicular to the suspended Body at the time of the Lines breaking and by the fall of the said weight receive some extraordinary hurt or if by the sinking of an infirm Building a supposedly righteous Family should be crusht to Death here the Atheist thinks he has a strong and powerful Reason to inveigh against or triumph over the Providence of God and will hardly be perswaded but that if the Divine Being did inspect or concern himself with the Affairs of Mankind he would upon all such Emergencies miraculously interpose and either by a Revelation or some other Supernatural Illumination discover to us the impending danger or for our Security stop the Laws of Motion which he at first establisht or deprive those Bodies of their Specific Gravitation which would otherwise injure us Farther According to this general and prime establisht Law 't is easie to conceive that the minute Particles of Matter each of them having their own proper size shape or texture as it happens that they are posited in reference to the Horizon as erected inclining or level when they come to convene into one Body from their primary Affections Disposition and Contrivance as to Posture and Order there must necessarily result that which by one comprehensive Name we call the Figure Shape or Texture of that Body and what we call a Monster after this manner produced is so far from being an Error or Trespass upon
the Laws of Motion that there is nothing less than a Miracle could prevent it and indeed supposing the Particles of Matter from whatever Cause posited in the manner we are now speaking it would be much more monstrous if they should convene into any other Shape which we account more regular handsom or compleat But then when we survey this unusual Figure as the Workmanship of the Deity especially where we suppose the same was design'd a Mansion for the Rational Soul we expect that the Supreme Architect should have interpos'd and either alterd the Laws of Motion or have given a new Modification to the Particles of Matter whereby they might be disposed to have better answer'd his Design and to be rendred more pliable to what Philosophers pronounce the Plastic Power Our Reflections of this Nature upon the particular Providence or God's Government of the World do put us very often upon the most impious Conclusions and almost perswade us to question if we are not very cautious and sensible that it is impossible for us to fathom his Designs whether there be any Divine Intelligence at all or other Superintendent Being who sits at the Helm and takes notice of us Mortals all this being in our Opinions more easily resolvable into Time and Chance Matter and Motion These if I mistak not are the unhappy Doubts of the Inconsiderate and altho' they appear not so bare fac'd in the modester sort of Infidels yet are they so far as we are able to apprehend the genuine Thoughts of every irreligious or profane Person We are too apt to set up our own perverted shallow and corrupt Reason for the Universal Standard to which Test must be brought not only each others Actions but those of God himself and which is somewhat strange notwithstanding scarce any one of our Lives is regulated by this Exemplar yet if we cannot immediately reconcile the unsearchable and inscrutable Designs of the Supreme Power to our own finite Understandings if we discover not the most secret Mysteries or Arcana Deitatis and are unable to account for each several Dispensation we blaspemously cry out with Epicurus Aut Deâ—â— vult toltere Mala non potest aut potest non vult aut utque vult neque potest aut vult potest Si vult non potest imbecillis est idioque non Deus Si potest non vult invidâ—â— est quod aeque alienum à Deo Si neque vult neque potest invidâ—â— imbecillis est idebque utque Deus Si vult potest quod solum Deo convenit unde ergo Mala aut cur illa non tollit Believe me Sir I have been often apt to think that we need not seek much farther for the Causes of Irreligion than our mistaken Notions concerning Providence nor indeed can I perswade my self of a greater stumbling Block or more considerable Difficulty to be encountred in the Christian Warfare It is this which hath sometimes stagger'd the Faith of some of the wisest Men and made others pure Sceptics in Matters of Religion It was this which put the Divine Psalmist if I may use his words upon crying out But as for me my Feet were almost goâ—e my stepâ— had well â—igh slipt For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked for they are not in trouble as other Men neither are they â—lâ—gâ—ed like other Men. Their Eyes stand out with fatness they â—â—â—e more then heart could wish They are corrupt and speak wickedly They set their Mouth against the Heavens and they say how doth God knâ—w Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the World Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in Innocence for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every Morning When I thought to know this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I their end We have surely the less Reason to admire that the regardless and foolish Libertine shou'd be startled at the seemingly unequal distribution of the Divine Favours when we find the devout Psalmist himself almost confounded and openly confessing that these things were too painful for his knowledge till he went into the Sanctuary and there inform'd himself To the same purpose says one of the ancient Fathers Videbat Epicurus Bonis adversa semper accidere Paupertatem Labores Curae Amissiones Malos contrà Beatos esse augeri Potentia Honoribus affici Videbat Innocentiam minus tutam Scelera impune committi Videbat sine delectu Morum sine ordine discrimine annorum saevire Mortem sed alios ad Senectutem pervenire alios Infantes rapi alios jam robustos interire alios in primo adolescentiae flore immaturis funeribus extingui In Belliâ— potius meliores vinci perire maxime autem commovebat Homines imprimis religiosos malis affici iis autem qui aut Deos omnino negligerent aut minus pie colerent vel minora incommodâ— evenire vel nulla It was the like Consideration which extorted that Confession of Ovid Cum rapiant Mala Fata Bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitâ—r nullâ—s esse putare Deos. It was the seeming Felicity of the Impious and Unjust with the smart Afflictions of the Pious and Devout that amazed the sober Claudian as he is called by Dr. Ch and more than inclined him to Apostatize from Religion and declare himself on the side of Epicurus in these words Sepe mihi dubiam traxit Sententia Mentem Curarent Superi Terras au nullus inesset Rector incerto fluerent Mortalia Casu Sed cum Res Hominum taâ—ta Caligine volvi Adspicerem laetósque diu florere Nocentes Vexariquâ— Pios rursuâ— labefacta Cadebat Religio causaeque viam non sponte sequebar Alterius vacuo quae currere semina motu Adfirmat magnúmque novas per Inane figuras Fortuna non Arte regi quae Numina Sensu Ambiguo vel nulla putat vel nescia nostri Men look into the World and perceive a showre of Good and Evil over their Heads which falls down as they imagine without Choice or Direction They acknowledge indeed an establisht Law of Motion but by what Power they heed not nor will they be perswaded of the Author's Justice since the same Event at sometimes happens to all and if the Wicked have not the Precedence they are at least equally happy in this Life with the Good and Pious These Men saith that great Master of Antiquity the Learned B of W have found out an expurgatory Index for those Impressions of a Deity which are in the hearts of Men and use their utmost Art to obscure since they cannot extinguish those lively Characters of his Power which are every where to be seen in the large Volume of the Creation Religion is no more to them but an unaccountable Fear and the very Notion of a Spiritual Substance even