can subsist without it self and real separability cannot consist with Identity and Indistinction 3. The Sacred and Mosaical Philosophy supposeth the Soul to be a Substance that can come and be join'd to another For it tells us That God breathed into Adam's Nostrils the Breath of Life by which generally is understood his infusing a Soul into him And all the Arguments that are alledg'd from Scripture to prove its immediate Creation do strongly conclude it to be a distinct Substance from the Body And 4. The same Doctrine is more than once affirm'd by Aristotle himself for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It remains that the Mind or â—…oul comes from without and is only a Divine Thing Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is separate c. a thing apart from the Body For elsewhere he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Operations of the Body do not communicate with its the Soul's Operations He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Substance or Subsistence for supposing which I am reprehended by our Philosopher And affirms further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind is a Divine and Impassible Thing It appears then from the Testimonies and I could alledg more if there were occasion that Aristotle taught the real Distinction which I suppose and so according to our Author is one of them that understands not the opposition of one and many Yea 5. Our Philosopher's learned Friend and Admirer Sir Kenelm Digby is another for that ingenious Gentleman affirms in his Immortality That the Soul is a Substance and a Substance besides the Body and almost all that Discourse depends on that supposal 6. This Author himself affirms as much in his Peripatetical Institutions as ever I suppos'd For he saith 'T is most evident that the Mind is something of another kind from Quantity and Matter That 't is a substantial Principle of Man and no mode or determination of divisibility and that there is nothing common to Body and Spirit Besides which in the fifth Book of the same Institutions he discourseth of the Soul's separation from the Body and asserts it to be evident that it perisheth not with it because it hath Actions that belong not to a Body but hath of it self the Nature of a Being and its power of Existence is not taken away when the Body fails the Soul being apart from and besides it and that matter is not necessary to the Soul's Existence Many other Expressions there are in that Discourse to like purpose which speak the Soul 's Real Distinction from the Body in as great variety of Phrase as Diversity and Distinction can be spoken But all this is forgotten and now 't is a most important Error in Philosophy to suppose the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another and of this none can doubt that understand the Opposition of one and many I think now by all this 't is pretty clear that my supposition of the Soul 's being a distinct Substance from the Body is not peccant except all the wiser World both Ancient and Modern have been mistaken and our Author himself But besides all 2. It seems to me evident even from the nature of the things abstracting from Authority And I think it appears 1. From all the common Arguments that prove the Soul Immaterial For Perception Perception of Spirituals Vniversals Mathematical Liues Points Superficies Congenit Notions Logical Metaphysical and Moral Self-reflection Freedom Indifferency and Vniversality of Action These are all Propertiâ—…â—…t all agreeing with Body or Matter though of never so pure and simple a Nature Nor is it conceivable how any of these should arise from Modifications of Quantity being of a divers kind from all the Effects and Phaenomena of Motion 2. If the Soul be not a distinct Substance from the Body 't is then a certain Disposition and Modification of it which this Author in the tenth Lesson of his Intitutions seems to intimate saying That since the Soul is a certain Affection which is introduced and expell'd by corporeal Action Hence he infeâ—…rs something that is not for our purpose to relate And if so since all diversities in Matter arise from Motion and Position of Parts every different Perception will require a distinct order and position of the Parts of the Matter perceiving which must be obtain'd by Motion I demand then when we pass from one Conception to another is the Motion the cause of this Diversity merely casual or directed by some Act of Knowledg The former I suppose no Man in his wits will affirm since then all our Conceptions will be non-sense and confusion Chance being the Cause of nothing that is orderly and regular But if there be a knowledg in us of that directs the Motions that make every distinct Conception I demand concerning that Knowledg whether it be in like manner directed by some other or is it the Effect of mere Casual Motion If the former we must run up in infinitum in our inquiry and the latter admits the alledg'd Absurdities There is no way then of defending the Assertion of the Souls being Matter or any modification of it but by affirming with Mr. Hobbs a certain connection between all our Thoughts and a necessary fate in all things which whoever affirms will find Difficulties enough in his Assertion to bring him to mine that there is a Vanity in Dogmatizing and Confidence is unreasonable I have insisted the longer on this because the distinction of the Soul from the Body is a very material Subject the proof of which is very seasonable for the present Age and by it I have disabled our Author's pretended Solution of the three Difficulties I mention viz. of the Origine of the Soul its Vnion with the Body and its moving of it Concerning whiâ—…â—…st he adds P. 33. That true it is one animated Meâ—…â—…oves another but not that any Substance that is a pure Soul moves immediately any Member in which the Soul is not Which last I know no Body that saith I cannot affirm the Soul moves any Member immediately but 't is like it doth it by the Spirits its Instruments Much less did I ever say That the Soul moves any Member in which it is not But the Seat-of-Sense and Original of Animal Motion is in the Brain or Heart or some other main part of which in particular I determine nothing Thence the Soul sends its Influences to govern the Motions of the Body through all which it is diffused 'T is true one animate Member moves another but the Motion must somewhere begin In Actions purely Mechanical it begins in material Agents that work upon the Body and its Parts but in those that are immediately under our Wills the Motion hath its beginning from the Soul moving first something corporeal in us by which other parts are mov'd But our Author appeals to other Animals in which he saith There 's frankly denyed a Soul independent on the
Confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving it and if that be true which great Philosophers affiâ—… concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without Death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish Body behind it and being cloth'd only with its immedâ—…e Vehicle of Air or more subtile Matter may be quickly conducted to any place by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this Supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable Our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Extasies and the strange things Men report to have seen during those Deliquiums look favourably upon this Conjecture which seems to me to contradict no Principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for Vital Union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witch's anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is not any thing in such Conceptions but what hath been own'd by Men of Worth and Name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judg not altogether by customary Opinions There 's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick Notion what is the meaning else of that Expression Whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the Body without death Which if it be granted poâ—…sible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2. The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie to apprehend that the Power of Imagination may form those passive and pliable Vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the Fancy of the Mother can the stubborn Matter of the Foetus in the Womb as we see it frequently doth in the Instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the Senses of the Spectators and those Shapes are only Illusions But then 3. when they feel the Hurts in their gross Bodies that they receive in their Aiery Vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other Bodies than how Diseases should be inflicted by the Imagination or how the Fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible Relations do attest And 4. for their raising Storms and Tempests They do it not by their own but by the power of those Evil Spirits that reside in the Air and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but Entertainments for their Imaginations and likely design'd to perswade them that they do those strange things themselves Lastly For their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1. we know so little of the nature of Daemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the Reason of so strange an Action And yet 2. we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the Reeks and Vapours of Humane Blood and the Spirits that proceed from them Which supposal if we allow them Bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its Like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all Body and Matter besides the Reverence we owe to the wisest Antiquity there are several considerable Arguments I could alledge to render exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3. this may be only a Diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the Hellish Covenant To which I add 4. That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch but in the Action infuseth some poisonous Ferrnent into Her which gives her Imagination and Spirits a Magical Tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word Vâ—…nesica intimates some such Matter Now that the Imagination hath a mighty power in Operation is feen in the just-now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the Fancy is modified by the Qualities of the Blood and Spirits is too evident to need proof Which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the Evil Spirit having breath'd some vile Vapour into the Body of the Witch it may taint her Blood and Spirits with a noxious Quality by which her infected Imagination heightned by Melancholy and this worse Cause may do much hurt upon Bodies that are obnoxious to such Influences And 't is very likely that this Ferment disposeth the Imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the Soul from the Body and may perhaps keep the Body in fit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted Imagination Thus we see 't is not so desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odd Performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the Possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypothesis I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem improbable especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal And many great Truths are strange and odd till Custom and Acquaintance have reconciled them to our Fancies And I 'le presume to add on this occasion though I love not to be confident in affirming that there is none of the Platonical Supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be indifferently fair and reasonable III. III. A Nother Prejudice against the being of Witches is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who is a Wise and Mighty Spirit should be at the beck of a poor Hag and have so little to do as to attend the Errands and impotent Lusts of a sil'y old Woman To which I might answer 1. That 't is much more improbable that all the World should be deceiv'd in Matters of Fact and Circumstances of the clearest Evidence and Conviction than that the Devil who is wicked should be also unwise and that He that perswades all his Subjects and Accomplices out of their Wits should himself
immediate Author of it some that it was made by Angels and some by the Parents Whether it be Created or Traduced hath been the great Ball of contention to the latter Ages and after all the stir about it 't is still as much a question as ever and perhaps may so continue till the great Day that will put an end to all Differences and Disputes The Patrons of Traduction accuse their Adversaries of affronting the Attributes of God and the Assertors of Immediate Creation impeach them of violence to the nature of things And while each of the Opinions strongly opposeth the other and feebly defends it self some take occasion thence to say That both are right in their Oppositions but both mistaken in their Assertions I shall not stir in the Waters that have been troubled with so much contention The Famous St. Austin and others of the celebrated Antients have been content to sit down here in a profest Neutrality and I will not endeavour to urge Confessions in things that will be acknowledged but shall note some Difficulties that are not so usually observed which perhaps have more darkness in them than these so much controverted Doctrines 1. I begin with the Vnion of the Soul and Body In the Vnions that we understand there is still either some suitableness and likeness of Nature in the things united or some middle participating Being by which they are joyn'd but in this there is neither The natures of Soul and Body are at the most extream distance and their essential Attributes most opposite To be impenetrable discerpible and unactive is the nature of all Body and Matter as such And the properties of a Spirit are the direct contrary to be penetrable indiscerpible and self-motive Yea so different they are in all things that they seem to have nothing but Being and the Transcendental Attributes of that in common Nor is there any appearance of likeness between them For what hath Rarefaction Condensation Division and the other properties and modes of Matter to do with Apprehension Judgment and Discourse which are the proper acts of a Spiritual Being We cannot then perceive any congruity by which they are united Nor can there be any middle sort of Nature that partakes of each as 't is in some Unions their Attributes being such extreams or if there is any such Being or any such possible we know nothing of it and 't is utterly unconceivable So that what the Cement should be that unites Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness viz. Natures of so diverse a make and such disagreeing Attributes is beyond the reach of any of our Faculties We can as easily conceive how a thought should be united to a Statue or a Sun-beam to a piece of Clay how words should be frozen in the Air as some say they are in the remote North or how Light should be kept in a Box as we can apprehend the manner of this strange Vnion 2. And we can give no better account how the Soul moves the Body For whether we conceive it under the notion of a Pure Mind and Knowledg with Sir K. Digby or of a Thinking Substance with Des-Cartes or of a penetrable indiscerpible self-motive Being with the Platonists It will in all these ways be unconceivable how it gives motion to unactive matter For how that should move a Body whose nature it is to pass through all Bodies without the least jog or obstruction would require something more than we know to help us to conceive Nor will it avail to say that it moves the Body by its vehicle of corporeal Spirits for still the difficulty will be the same viz. How it moves them 3. We know as little How the Soul so regularly directs the Animal Spirits and Instruments of Motion which are in the Body as to stir any we have a will to move For the passages through which the Sâ—…rits are convey'd being so numerous and there being so many others that cross and branch from each of them 't is wonderful they should not lose their way in such a Wilderness and I think the wit of Man cannot yet tell how they are directed That they are conducted by some knowing Guide is evident from the steadiness and regularity of their motion But what that should be and how it doth it we are yet to seek That all the motions within us are not directed by the meer mechanick frame of our Bodies is clear from experience by which we are assured that those we call Spâ—…taneous ones aâ—…e under the Government of the Will at least the determination of the Spirits into such or such passages is from the Soul whatever we hold of the conâ—…eyances after and these I think all the Philosophy in the World cannot make out to be purely mechanical But though this be gain'd that the Soul is the principle of Direction yet the difficulty is no less than it was before For unless we allow it a kind of inward sight of every Vein Muscle Artery and other Passage of its own Body of the exact site and position of them with their several Windings and secret Chanels it will still be as unconceivable how it should direct such intricate Motions as that one that was born blind should manage a Game at Chess or marshal an Army And if the Soul have any such knowledg we are not aware of it nor do our minds attend it Yea we are so far from this That many times we observe not any method in the outward performance even in the greatest variety of interchangable motions in which a steady Direction is difficult and a Miscarriage easie As we see an Artist will play on an Instrument of Musick without minding it and the Tongue will nimbly run divisions in a Tune without missing when the Thoughts are engaged elsewhere which effects are to be ascribed to some secret Art of the Soul if that direct to which we are altogether strangers 4. But besides the Difficulties that lie more deep we are at a loss even in the knowledg of our Senses that seem the most plain and obvious of our Faculties Our eyes that see other things see not themselves and the Instruments of Knowledg are unknown That the Soul is the percipient which alone hath animadversion and sense properly so call'd and that the Body is only the receiver and conveyer of corporeal Motions is as certain as Philosophy can make it Aristotle himself teacheth it in that Maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Plato affirms That the Soul hath life and sence but that the Body in strictness of speaking hath neither the one nor other Upon which position all the Philosophy of Des-Cartes stands And it is so clear and so acknowledg'd a Truth among all considering Men that I need not stay to prove it But yet what are the Instruments of sensitive Perception and particular convers of outward Motions to the seat of Sense is difficult to find and how the pure Mind can receive information from things
by so uncertain and proverbially inconstant a thing as the Winds But I shall not trouble my self to remarque on Matters with which my Discourse hath nothing to do My business is with the pretended Answers to the Difficulties I mention as not well resolv'd by any yet known Hypothesis On which the Learned Man enters Plea 5th and in order begins with those about the SOUL in these words 1. In the third Chapter therefore of his most eloquent Discourse he objects our Ignorance of that thing we ought to be best acquainted with viz. our own SOVLS p. 30. This I do and to the Difficulties I propound about the Origine of the Soul It 's Vnion with the Body It 's moving of it and direction of the Spirits The general short Answer is That to suppose the Soul a Substance that may be made come and joinâ—…d to another a Subsistence Thing or Substance is a most important Error in Philosophy of which he saith none can doubt that is able to discern the opposition of one and many ibid. The meaning of which must be That the Soul is no distinct Substance from the Body And if so almost all the World hath hitherto been mistaken For if we inquire iâ—…to the Philosophy of the Soul as high as any accounts are given of it we shall find its real substantial distinction from the Body to have been the current belief of all Ages notwithstanding what this Gentleman saith That none can doubt that this is an error in Philosophy that knows the opposition of one and many For 1. The highest times of whose Doctrines we have any History believ'd its Preexistence and consequently that it is a certain Substance that might be made come and be join'd to another Of this I 'le say a few things If credit may be given to the Chaldean Oracles and perhaps more is due to them than some will allow Preexistence is of highest Antiquity We have that Doctrine plainly taught in those ancient Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet te festinare ad Lucem patris Lumina Vnde missa tibi est anima And afterwards more clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaere tu animae canalem unde aut quo ordine Coâ—…pori inservieris in ordinem a quo effluxisti Rursuâ—… restituas And Isellus in his exposition of the Chaldean Theology tells us That according to their Doctrine Souls descended hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either through the moultring of its Wings or the will of the Father of Spirits that they might adorn this Terrestrial State And again Zoroaâ—…ter speaking of Humane Souls saith they are sent down to Earth from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Trismegistus if those remains that bear his Name may be allow'd is express in asserting the same Doctrine In his Minerva Mundi he brings in God threatning those he had placed in an happy condition of Life and injoyment with Bonds and Imprisonment in case of Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they transgressing he adds That he commanded the Souls to be put into Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in another place assigns this for the cause of their Imprisonment in Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have them acknowledg that they sustain'd that punishment and imprisonment in Bodies for the things they had done before they came into them 3. It was also the Opinion of the Ancient Jews That all Souls were at first created together and resided in a place they call Goph a Celestial Region And therefore 't is said in the Mishna Non aderit filius David priusquam exhaustae fuerint universae Animae quae fuâ—…t in Goph So that they believ'd all Generations on Earth to be supplyed from that Promptuary and Element of Souls in Heaven whence they supposed them to descend by the North Pole and to ascend by the South whence the saying of the Cabalists Magnus Aquilo Scaturigo Animarum From which Tradition 't is like Homer had this Notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Janua duplex Haec Boream Spectans homines demittit at illa Respiciens Austrum divinior invia prorsus Est homini praebâ—…tque viam immortalibus unis 4. 'T is notoriously known that Pythagoras and his Sectators held the Doctrine of Transmigration which supposeth Preexistence and both that the Soul is a Substance which can come and be join'd to another thing Some Pythagoreans write that Pythagoras himself after 216 years Transanimation returned to Life again Now this Opinion being so universally imputed to this Philosopher and his School I shall not need to insist on it as far as it concerns them but I take notice that both Jews Persians Indians Arabians and divers other Nations c. did of old and do still hold the same Doctrine Manasseh â—…en Israel ascribes the Opinion of Transmigration to Abraham and the Cabalists teach that every Soul is successively join'd to three Bodies So the same Soul they say was in Adam David and the Messias and the same in Seth Shem and Moses according to R. Simeon who as the Cabalists generally do stops the course in the third Transmigration as is noted from him by a Learned Man of our own There are at this day great Sects among the Indians of the East that retain this Doctrine of Transanimation believing that the Souls of some descend again into Humane Bodies but that others pass into the Bodies of Beasts So did some of the Ancient Pythagoreans who taught that good Men returned to their former blessed and happy Life but that the wicked in their first Transmigration chang'd their Sex in the second they descended into Beasts yea some supposed them at last to go into Trees and other Vegetables Now all these committed the great Error in Philos phy of which I am accused in supposing the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another thing and so according to our Author They could none of them discern the opposition of one and many But 2. This pretended important Error in Philosophy of the Soul 's being a Thing and Substance and one distinct from the Body must be held by all that believe its natural Immortality for Separability is the greatest Argument of real distinction especially that which the Schools call Mutual Now the Soul's Immortality hath had a general Reception from the wiser and better part of Mankind The Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Indians Jews Greeks and universally all that had a name for Wisdom among the Ancients believ'd it And the same hath been the apprehension of latter Ages A Councel of the Church of Rome it self hath defin'd it and recommended the demonstrating of it to all Christian Philosophers And if the Soul lives after the dissolution of the Body 't is certainly a Substance distinct from it for nothing
Religion upon it self But that better use may be made of it and by some is will appear by considering particularly how acquaintance with Nature assists RELIGION against its greatest Enemies which are Atheism Sadducism Superstition Enthusiasm and the Humour of Disputing FOr the First Atheism I reckon thus The deeper insight any Man hath into the Affairs of Nature the more he discovers of the accurateness and Art that is in the contexture of things For the Works of God are not like the compositions of Fancy or the Tricks of Juglers that will not bear a clear light or strict scrutiny but their exactness receives advantage from the severest inspection and he admires most that knows most since the insides and remotest recesses of things have the clearest stamps of inimitable Wisdom on them and the Artifice is more in the Wheel-work than in the Case For if we look upon any of the Works of Nature through a Magnifying Glass that makes deep Discoveries we find still more beauty and more uniformity of contrivance whereas if we survey the most curious piece of humane ingenuity by that Glass it will discover to us numerous Flaws Deformities and Imperfections in our most Elegant Mechanicks Hence I gather That the study of God's Works shewing us more of the riches of Nature opens thereby a fairer Prospect of those Treasures of Wisdom that are lodged within it and so furnisheth us with deeper Senses and more Arguments and clearer Convictions of the existence of an infinitely intelligent Being that contrived it in so harmonious and astonishing an order So that if any are so brutish as not to acknowledge him upon the view of the meer external frame of the Universe they must yet fall down before the evidence when Philosophy hath opened the Cabinet and led them into the Jewel-bouse and shewn them the surprizing variety that is there Thus though the obvious Firmament and the motions of the Sun and Stars the ordinary vicissitudes of Seasons and productions of things the visible beauty of the great World and the appearing variety and fitness of those Parts that make up the little one in Man could scarce secure Galen from the danger of being an Atheist Yet when he pryed further by Anatomical Enquiries and saw the wonderful diversity aptness and order of the minutest Strings Pipes and Passages that are in the inward Fabrick He could not abstain from the devoutness of an Anthem of Acknowledgment And that the real knowledge of Nature leads us by the hand to the confession of its Author is taught us by the Holy Pen-man who suggests that the visible things of the Creation declare him The Plebeian and obvious World no doubt doth but the Philosophical much more So that whosoever saith that inquiry into Nature and God's Works leads to any degree of Atheism gives great ground of suspicion that himself is an Atheist or that he is that other thing that the Royal Psalmist calls him that saith in his heart there is no God For either he acknowledgeth the Art and exactness of the Works of Nature or he doth not if not he disparageth the Divine Architect and disables the chief Argument of his existence If he doth and yet affirms that the knowledge of it leads to Atheism he saith he knows not what and in effect this That the sight of the order and method of a regular and beautiful contrivance tends to perswade that Chance and Fortune was the Author But I remember I have discours'd of this elsewhere and what I have said for Philosophy in general from its tendency to devout Acknowledgments is not so true of any as of the Experimental and Mechanick For the Physiology of the modern Peripatetick Schools creates Notions and turns Nature into words of second Intention but discovers little of its real beauty and harmonious contrivance so that God hath no glory from it nor Men any Argument of his Wisdom or Existence And for the Metaphysical Proofs they are for the most part deep and nice subject to Evasions and turns of Wit and not so generally perswasive as those drawn from the plain and sensible Topicks which the Experimental Philosophy inlargeth and illustrates This then gives the greatest and fullest assurance of the Being of God and acquaintance with this kind of Learning furnisheth us with the best Weapons to defend it For the modern Atheists are pretenders to the Mechanick Principles viz. those of meer Matter and Motion and their pretensions cannot be shamed or defeated by any so well as by those who throughly understand that wild Systeme of Opinions These indeed perceive that there is only Nature in some things that are taken to be supernatural and miraculous and the shallow Naturalist sees no further and therefore rests in Nature But the true Philosopher shews the vanity and unreasonableness of taking up so short and discovers infinite Wisdom at the end of the Chain of Causes I say If we know no further than occult Qualities Elements Heavenly Influences and Forms we shall never be able to disprove a Mechanick Atheist but the more we understand of the Laws of Matter and Motion the more shall we discern the necessity of a wise mind to order the blind and insensible Matter and to direct the original Motions without the conduct of which the Vniverse could have been nothing but a mighty Chaos and mishapen Mass of everlasting Confusions and Disorders This of the FIRST viz. That the knowledge of Nature serves Religion against Atheism and that it doth also II. AGainst Sadducism 'T is well known that the Sadduces denyed the existence of Spirits and Immortality of Souls And the Heresie is sadly reviv'd in our days 1. What a Spirit is and whether there be Spirits or not are questions that appertain to the disquisition of Philosophy The Holy Scripture that condescends to the plain capacities of Men useth the word Spirit commonly for the more subtile and invisible Bodies and 't will be difficult from thence to fetch a demonstrative proof of Spirits in the strict Notion That there are Angels and Souls which are purer than these gross Bodies may no doubt be concluded from thence But whether these are only a finer sort of Matter or a different kind of Beings cannot I think be determin'd by any thing deliver'd in the Divine Oracles The Inquiry therefore belongs to Philosophy which from divers Operations in our own Souls concludes That there is a sort of Beings which are not Matter or Body viz. Beings self-motive penetrable and indivisible Attributes directly contrary to those of Matter which is impenetrable divisible and void of Self-motion By these Properties respectively the distinct nature of Spirit and Body is known and by the same that there are Spirits in the strictest sence as well as corporeal Beings Now by stating the Nature and proving the Existence of Spirits a very considerable service is done to Religion For hereby our Notion of the adorable Deity is freed from all material grosness
in which way those must conceive him that acknowledge nothing but Body in the World which certainly is a very great dis-interest to his Glory and suggests very unbecoming thoughts of him And by the due setling the Notion of a Spirit the conceit of the Soul 's Traduction is overthrown which either ariseth from direct Sadducism or a defect in Philosophy Hereby our Immortality is undermined and dangerously exposed But due Philosophical Disquisition will set us right in the Theory For the former of the Errors mention'd viz. the Aâ—…hropomorphite Doctrines that make God himself a corporeal Substance Those cannot be disproved but by the Use and Application of the Principles of Philosophy Since let us bring what Arguments we can from the Scriptures which speak of the Perfection Infinity Immensity Wisdom and other Attributes of God These no doubt will be granted but the Query will be Whether all may not belong to a material Being a question which Philosophy resolves and there is no other way to search deep into this Matter but by those Aids So likewise as to the Traduction of the Soul The Arguments from Scripture against it are very general yea many expressions we find there seem at first sight to look that way And therefore this other help Philosophy must be used here also and by the distinct representation which it gives of the Nature of Sprit and Matter and of the Operations that appertain to each this Error is effectually confuted which it cannot be by any other proceeding Thus Philosophy befriends us against Sadducism in the first Branch of it as it explodes the being of Spirits 2. The other is the denyal of the Immortality of our Souls The establishment of this likewise the Students of Philosophy and God's Works have attempted in all Ages and they have prov'd it by the Philosophical considerations of the nature of Sense the quickness of Imagination the spirituality of the Vnderstanding the freedom of the Will from these they infer that the Soul is immaterial and from thence that it is immortal which Arguments are some of the most demonstrative and cogent that the meer reasons of Men can use but cannot be manag'd nor understood but by those that are instructed in Philosophy and Nature I confess there are other Demonstrations of our Immortality for the plain Understandings that cannot reach those Heights The Scripture gives clear evidence and that of the Resurrection of the Holy Jesus is palpable But yet the Philosophical Proofs are of great use and serve for the conviction of the Infidel to whom the other inducements are nothing and the deeper knowledge of things is necessary to defend this great Article of Religion against such Men since they alledge a sort of Arguments to prove the Soul to be mortal that cannot be consuted but by a reason instructed in the Observations of Nature For the Modern Sadduce pretends that all things we do are performed by meer Matter and Motion and consequently that there is no such thing as an immaterial Being so that when our Bodies are dissolv'd the whole Man is destroyed and lost for ever which dismal conclusion is true and certain if there be nothing in us but Matter and the results of Motion and those that converse but little with Nature understand little what may be done by these and so cannot be so well assured that the Elevations Mixtures and Combinations of them cannot be at last improv'd so far as to make a sensible reasoning Being nor are they well able to disprove one that affirms that they are actually advanc'd to that height whereas he that hath much inquired into the Works of God and Nature gains a clear sight of what Matter can perform and gets more and stronger Arguments to convince him that its Modifications and Changes cannot amount to perception and sense since in all its Varieties and highest Exaltations he finds no Specimens of such Powers And though I confess that all Mechanick Inquirers make not this use of their Inquisitions and Discoveries yet that is not the fault of the Method but of the Men and those that have gone furthest in that way have receded most from the Sadducean Doctrines Among such I suppose I may be allowed to reckon the Noble Renatus Des-Cartes And his Metaphysicks and Notions of Immaterial Beings are removed to the greatest distance from all Corporeal Affections which I mention not to declare or signifie my adherence to those Principles but for an Instance to shew that acquaintance with Matter and the knowledge of its Operations removes the Mind far off from the belief of those high Effects which some ascribe to Corporeal Motions and from all suppositions of the Soul 's being bodily and material Thus Philosophy is an excellent Antidote against Sadducism in both the Main Branches of it But then I must confess also that the Philosophy of the late Peripatetick Writers doth rather assist than overthrow this dangerous Infidelity I mean in what it teacheth concerning Substantial Forms which I fear tends to the disabling all Philosophical Evidence of the Immortality of Humane Souls For these Peripateticks make their Forms a kind of medium between Body and Spirit viz. Beings that are educed as they speak out of Matter and are so dependent on it that they perish utterly or return into the bosom of the Matter as some cant when they cease to inform it But yet they allow not that those Forms are material in their essential Constitution and Nature This is the Peripatetick account of substantial Forms and such they assign to all Bodies and teach That the noblest sort of them are sensitive and perceptive which are the Souls of Brutes If this be so that Beings which are not Spirits but corruptible dependants upon Matter may be endowed with Animadversion and Sense what Arguments have we then to shew that they may not have Reason also which is but an Improvement and higher degree of simple Perception 'T is as hard to be apprehended how any of the results of Matter should perceive as how they should join their Perceptions into Reasonings and the same Propositions that prove the possibility of one prove both so that those who affirm that Beasts also have their degrees of true Reason speak very consonantly to those Principles And if such material corruptible Forms as the Peripateticks describe are sufficient for all the Actions and Perceptions of Beasts I know not which way to go about to demonstrate that a more elevated sort of them may not suffice for the reasonings of Men. To urge the Topicks of Proof I mention'd from Notions Compositions Deductions and the like which are alledged to prove our Souls Immaterial I say to plead these will signifie nothing but this That Humane Souls are no portions of Matter nor corporeal in their formal Essence But how will they evince that they are not educed from it that they depend not on Matter and shall not perish when their respective Bodies are dissolved Certainly
that are not like it self nor the objects they represent is I think not to be explain'd Whether Sensation be made by corporeal Emissions and material Images or by Motions that are convey'd to the common sense I shall not dispute the latter having so generally obtain'd among the Philosophers But How the Soul by mutation and motion in matter a substance of an other kind should be excited to action and how these should concern it that is of so divers a nature is hardly to be conceiv'd For Body cannot act on any thing but by Motion Motion cannot be receiv'd but by Matter the Soul is altogether immaterial and therefore how shall we apprehend it to be subject to such Impressions and yet Pain and the unavoidableness of our Sensations evidently prove That it is subject to them Besides How is it and by what Art doth the Soul read That such an Image or Motion in matter whether that of her Vehicle or of the Brain the case is the same signifies such an Object If there be any such Art we conceive it not and 't is strange we should have a Knowledg that we do not know That by diversity of Motions we should spell out Figures Distances Magnitudes Colours things not resembled by them we must ascribe to some implicit inference and deduction but what it should be and by what Mediums that Knowledg is advanced is altogether unintelligible For though the Soul may perceive Motions and Images by simple sense yet it seems unconceivable it should apprehend what they signifie and represent but by some secret Art and way of inference An illiterate Person may see the Letters as well as the most Learned but he knows not what they mean and an Infant hears the sounds and sees the motion of the Lips but hath no conception convey'd to him for want of knowing the signification of them such would be our case not-withstanding all the motions and impressions made by external things if the Soul had not some unknown way of learning by them the quality of the Objects For instance Images and Motions have but very small room in the Brain where they are receiv'd and yet they represent the grâ—…st Magniâ—… The Image Figure or what-evâ—… else 〈◊〉 may be call'd of an Hemisphere of the Heavens cannot have a Subject larger than the pulp of a Walnut and how can such petty Impressions make known a Body of so vast a wideness without some kind of Mathematicks in the Soul And except this be suppos'd I cannot apprehend how Distances should be perceiv'd but all Objects would appear in a cluster Nor will the Philosophy of Des-Cartes help us here For the moving divers Filaments in the Brain cannot make us perceive such modes as Distances are unless some such Art and Inference be allow'd of which we understand nothing 5. The Memory is a Faculty in us as obscure and perhaps as unâ—…ccountable as any thing in Nature It seems to be an Organical Power because Diseases do often blot out its Ideas and cause Oblivion But what the marks and imprâ—…ssions are by which the Soul râ—…members is a question that hath not yet been very well resâ—…'d There are four principal Hypotheses by which an account hath been attempted The Peripatetick the Cartesian the Digbaean and the Hobbian 1. According to the Peripatetick Schools Objects are conserv'd in the memory by certain Intentional Species as they call them a sort of Beings that have a necessary dependance upon their Subjects but are not material in their formal Constitution and Nature I need not say much against these arbitrary precarious Creatures that have no foundation in any of our Faculties Or be that how it will They are utterly unintelligible neither bodily nor spiritual neither produc'd out of any thing as the matter of their production nor out of nothing which were Creation and not to be allow'd to be in the power of every or any finite Being And though there were no such contradictious contrivance in the framing these Species yet they could not serve any purpose as to the Memory since 't is against the nature of â—…native Effects such as these are to subsist but by the continual influence of their Causes and so if this were the true Solution we could remember nothing longer than the Object was in presence 2. The account of Des-Cartes is to this purpose The Spirits are sent about the Brain to find the tracks of the Objectâ—… we would call to mind which Tracks consist in this viz That the Pores through which the Spiâ—…ts that came from the Objects past are more easily open'd and afford a more ready passage to those others that seek to enter whence ariseth a special motion in the Glandule which signifies this to be that we would remember But if our Remembrance arise from the easie motion of the Spirits through the opened passages according to this Hypothesis How then do we so distinctly remember such a variety of Objects whose Images pass the same way And how the Distances of Bodies that lie in a Line Why should not the impell'd Spirits find other open passages besides those made by the thing we would remember When there are such continual motions through the Brain from numerous other Objects Yea in such a pervious substance as that is why should not those subtile Bodies meet every where an easie passage It seems to me that one might conceive as well how every Grain of Corn in a Sieve should be often shaken through the same holes as how the Spirits in the repeated acts of Memory should still go through the same Pores Nor can I well apprehend but that those supposed open'd passages would in a short time be stopt up either by the natural gravity of the parts or the making new ones near those or other alterations in the Brain 3. The Hypothesis of Sir Kenelm Digby is next viz. That things are preserv'd in the Memory by material Images that flow from them which having imping'd on the common sense rebound thence into some vacant Cells of the Brain where they keep their ranks and postures as they entred till again they are stirr'd and then they appear to the Fancy as they were first presented But how is it conceiveable That those active Particles which have nothing to unite them or to keep them in any order yea which are continually justled by the occursion of other minute Bodies of which there must needs be great store in this Repository should so long remain in the same state and posture And how is it that when we turn over those Idaea's that are in our memory to look for any thing we would call to mind we do not put all the Images into a disorderly floating and so make a Chaos of confusion there where the exactest Order is required And indeed according to this account I cannot see but that our Memories would be more confused than our Dreams and I can as easily conceive how an heap of Ants
Body But this Learned Man knows The Platonists assign them Souls immaterial Bâ—…ings divers from the Body and the Peripateticks substantial Forms distinct from Matter Des Cartes indeed thinks them to be pure Machines mov'd altogether after the manner of a Clock or Engine which if it should prove to be truly their case yet have we no reason to believe it so in our selves since we feel it otherwise viz. That we can move and stop many of our Motions upon the command and direction of the Will which Faculty belongs to some Principle Immaterial And if this be always determin'd by something Corporeal and not in our own power as he seems to intimate Farewel Liberty and welcome Stoical Necessity and irresistible Fate in all things For the other things that follow pag. 35. in answer to the Doubts about Sensation particularly our decerning Quantities Distances c. 'T is evident by what he speaks of demonstrating those things by the Opticks that he understands not the force of the Objection and hath said nothing that comes near it as will appear plainly to any capable Person that will take the pains to compare what we both write He comes next p. 36. to my Difficulties about the Memory concerning which I say not as he suggests That 't is impossible to be explicated but that none of the known Hypotheseis have yet explain'd it which is sufficient for my general conclusion of the present Imperfection and the Narrowness of our Knowledg But our Author thinks Sir K. Digby's account to be the true Solution and answers to my Objection that 't is as conceivable how the Images and representations of Objects in the Brain should keep their distinct and orderly situations without confusion or dissipation as how the Rays of Light should come in a direct Line to the Eye or how the Atomical Effluvia that continually flow from all Bodies should find their way To which I reply 1. The multiplying Difficulties doth not solve any for supposing these to be unaccountable or very hard to be explain'd yet this would only argue another defect in our Knowledg and so be a new evidence of the truth of my general Conclusion But a. The propos'd Instances are not so desperate For 1. supposing Light with Des-Cartes which is most probable to consist in the conamen of the aethereal Matter receding from the Centre of its Motion the direct tendency of it to the Eye is no difficulty worth considering or if the Rays be Atomical Streams and Effluxes from the Sun there is then nothing harder to be conceiv'd in this Hypothesis than in the direct spouting of Water out of a Pipe nor any more than in the beating of the Waves against the side of a Ship when it swims in the Sea And 2. for the other Instance of corporeal emissions that find their way to the Bodies with which they have intercourse it would require to be prov'd that the secret Operations of Nature are performed by such material effluvia Perhaps 't is more likely that those strange Effects are not Mechanioal but Vital effected by the continuity of the great Spirit of Nature which is diffus'd through all things or however to suppose the Memory to be as clear and plain as Magnetism and Sympathies will be no great Advantage to the belief of the intelligibleness of it There needs no more here only I take notice of the Charge p. 41. in these words I 'd remember the ingenious Author that he mis-imposeth the third Opinion which relisheth nothing of Philosophy upon Aristotle who taught the Digbaean way To which I say if the Doctrine of Intentional Species be not Aristotle's than the Universities of Europe who have taught this Opinion to be his have hitherto been mistaken and this Assertion that Aristotle deliver'd the Dighaean Doctrine of Atomical Effluvia will alter the whole Hypothesis and then there will be little or nothing of Aristotle in his Schools 2. The Digbaean Atomical Opinion is notoriously known to have been the way of Democritus and Epicurus which Aristotle frequently and professedly opposeth That Democritus taught the Atomical Hypothesis we have Aristotle's affirmation to justifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of Leucippus and Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dicunt 〈◊〉 Printas magnitudines multitudine quidem infinitas magnitudine vero indivisibiles and as he goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horum complexione circumplexu omnia gigâ—…i And that these solv'd the way of Sensation by material Images we have from Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Democritus Epicurus per Idolorum ingressus putarunt visivum evenire This Hypothesis Aristotle endeavours to confute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Absurdum eâ—…iam quod illi non â—…nerit in mentem clubitare cur oculus vidit solus aliorum vero nullum quibus apparent idola And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Democritus plurimi Physiologerum quicnque loquuntur de sensia absurdiâ—… quiddâ—…m faciunt omnia enim sensibitia tactilia faciunt We see then Aristotle thought the Doctrine of Sensation by Corporeal Images absurd in Democritus and Epicurus and therefore he must have much contradicted himself if he taught the same Doctrine with Sir K. Digby about the Memory which was one with that of those Ancients And there is little doubt but that the Memory is excited to Action by the like Instruments that the external Senses are consonantly to that of Plato in his Phâ—…do speaking of the Senses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. That the Memory is begot of them And the same Aristotle affirms almost in the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Memory is begot out of the Sense So that I think I am not mistaken in this matter or if I am I err with the great Body of his Sectators But whether the Doctrine 〈◊〉 Intentional Species be Aristotlt's or not 't is no great matter I make this no charge against him And if it be noâ—… 〈◊〉 't is however the common Tenent of his Schools and so lit to be consider'd as an Hypothosis which I have done and shâ—…wn it to be an insufficient account of the Memory To the Difficulty I propose about the Formation of Animals our Author offers two Things The first of them may deservs a word or two about it 〈◊〉 In his own words 't is thus expresâ—… Conceive the first thus Lâ—…'s say the Seed of a Plant or Animal contains invisible parts of all the Animal's Members These let 's say supplyed with moisture increase with some slight mutation whereof the reason may be easily rendred for example that some parts dryer and harder others are more throughly water'd and grow soft and what great matter will be apprehended in the formation of living things You may remember Sir that once when you and I were talking of the wonderful discoveries of the Microscope and the many compleat Animals it discloseth which lay hid from our unaided sight we fell thence into a discourse of the strange and incredible
all those Arguments that are brought for our Immortality are in this way clearly disabled For all that we can say will prove but this That the Soul is no Body or part of Matter but this will amount to no evidence if there are a middle kind of Essences that are not corporeal and yet mortal So that when I say Philosophy serves Religion against Sadducism I would not be understood to mean the Peripatetick Hypotheseis but that Philosophy which is grounded upon acquaintance with real Nature This by leaving this whole unintelligible sort of Beings out of its Accounts as things for which there is no shadow of ground from Reason or Nature but good evidence of their non-existence from both disappoints the Sadduce of the advantage he hath from this needless and precarious Principle And by distributing Substance into Body and Spirit without the admission of middle Natures the Real Philosophy gives demonstrative force to those Arguments for our Immortality that prove our Souls are not Bodies and so Sadducism is ruined by it These things I have thought fit to advertise not out of design to censure any particular way of Philosophy but for the security of my Discourse And though I have made a little bold with the Peripateticks here yet the great Name of Aristotle to which they pretend is not concerned for I am convinc'd that he taught no such Doctrine of substantial Forms as his later Sectators and Interpreters have imputed to Him who indeed have depraved and corrupted his sense almost in the whole Body of his Principles and have presented the World with their own Fancies instead of the genuine Opinions of that Philosopher But I proceed III. THe Real Philosophy that inquires into God's Works assists Religion against Superstition another of its fatal Enemies That I may prove this it must be premised That Superstition consists either in bestowing Religious Valuation and Esteem on things in which there is no good or fearing those in which there is no hurt So that this Folly expresseth it self one while in doting upon Opinions as Fundamentals of Faith and Idoliziug the little Models of Fancy for Divine Institutions And then it runs away afraid of harmless indifferent Appointments and looks pale upon the appearance of any usual Effect of Nature It tells ominous Stories of every Meteor of the Night and makes sad Interpretations of each unwonted Accident All which are the Products of Ignorance and a narrow Mind which defeat the Design of Religion that would make us of a free manly and generous Spirit and indeed represent Christianity as if it were a fond sneaking weak and peevish thing that emasculates Mens Understandings making them amorous of toys and keeping them under the servility of childish fears so that hereby it is exposed to the distrust of larger Minds and to the scorn of Atheists These and many more are the mischiefs of Superstition as we have sadly seen and felt Now against this evil Spirit and its Influences the Real Experimental Philosophy is one of the best Securities in the World For by a generous and open Inquiry in the great Field of Nature Mens minds are enlarged and taken off from all fond adherences to their private Sentiments They are taught by it That Certainty is not in many things and that the most valuable Knowledge is the practical By which means they will find themselves disposed to more indifferency towards those petty Notions in which they were before apt to place a great deal of Religion and to reckon that all that will signifie lies in the few certain operative Principles of the Gospel and a Life suitable to such a Faith not in doting upon Questions and Speculations that engender strife and thus the Modern Experimental Philosophy of God's Works is a Remedy against the notional Superstition as I may call it which hath been and is so fatal to Religion and the peace of Mankind Besides which by making the Soul great this Knowledge delivers it from fondness on small Circumstances and imaginary Models and from little scrupulosities about things indifferent which usually work disquiet in narrow and contracted Spirits And I have known divers whom Philosophy and not Disputes hath cured of this Malady This we may observe that those Remedies are the best and most effectual that alter the temper and disposition of the Mind For 't is suitableness to that which makes the way to Mens Judgments and settles them in their Perswasions There are few that hold their Opinions by Arguments and dry Reasonings but by congruity to the Understanding and consequently by relish in the Affections So that seldom any thing cures our intellectual Diseases throughly but what changes these And I dare affirm that the Free Experimental Philosophy will do this to purpose by giving the Mind another Tincture and introducing a sounder Habit which by degrees will repel and cast out all Malignities and settle it in a strong and manly Temperament that will master and put to flight all idle Dotages and effeminate Fears The Truth is This World is a very Bedlam and he that would cure Madmen must not attempt it by Reasoning or indeavour to shew the absurdity of their Conceits but such a course must be taken as may restore the Mind to a right Crasis and that when it is effected will reduce and rectifie the extravagances of the distemper'd Brain which Disputes and Oppositions will but inflame and make worse Thus for instance when frantick Persons are fond of Feathers and mightily taken with the employment of picking Straws 't would signifie very little to represent to them the vanity of the Objects of their Delights and when the Melancholist was afraid to sit down for fear of being broken supposing himself of Glass it had been to little purpose to have declared to him the ridiculousness of his Fears the disposition of the Head was to be alter'd before the particular Phrensie could be cured 'T is too evident how just this is in the application to the present Age Superstitious fondness and fears are a real degree of madness And though I cannot say that Philosophy must be the only Catholick way of Cure for of this the far greatest part of Men is incapable yet this I do affirm that 't is a Remedy for those that are strong enough to take it and the rest must be helped by that which changeth the Genius and this cannot ordinarily be done by any thing that opposeth the particular Fancy However I must say 2. That the sort of Superstition which is yet behind in my account and consists in the causless fear of some Extraordinaries in Accident or Nature is directly cured by that Philosophy which gives fair likely-hoods of their Causes and shews that there is nothing in them supernatural the light of the day drives away Apparitions and vain Images that fancy forms in obscure shades and darkness Thus particularly the Modern Doctrine of Comets which have been always great Bugbears to the guilty
of Disputes are qualified and the Disease it self is undermined 5. It inclines Men to place the Essential Principles of Religion only in the plain and certain Articles For Philosophers are disposed to think that Certainty is in a little room And whoever believes so concerning the Tenents of Theology will not lay the main stress upon any but the clear acknowledg'd Principles by which prudent Caution he serves all the important Concernments of Religion He will not wrangle for every Conceit nor divide for every Difference but takes care to walk in the ways of Charity and Obedience And so the Church is safe and Schisms are prevented and cured 6. The Real Philosophy ends many Disputes by taking Men off from unnecessary Terms of Art which very osten are the chief occasions of the Contests If things were stated in clear and plain words many Controversies would be ended and the Philosophy I am recommending inclines Men to define with those that are simplest and plainest and thereby also it very much promotes the Interests both of Truth and Peace In sum I say the Free and Real Philosophy makes Men deeply sensible of the Infirmities of Humane Intellect and our manifold hazards of mistaking and so renders them wary and modest diffident of the certainty of their Conceptions and averse to the boldness of peremptory asserting So that the Philosopher thinks much and examines many things separates the Certainties from the Plausibilities that which is presumed from that which is prov'd the Images of Sense Phansie and Education from the results of genuine and impartial Reason Thus he doth before he Assents or Denies and then he takes with him also a Sense of his own Fallibility and Defects and never concludes but upon resolution to alter his Mind upon contrary Evidence Thus he conceives warily and he speaks with as much caution and reserve in the humble Forms of So I think and In my Opinion and Perhaps 't is so with great difference to opposite Perswasion candour to Dissenters and calmness in Contradictions with readiness and desire to learn and great delighâ—… in the Discoveries of Truth and Detections of his own Mistakes When he argues he gives his Reasons without Passion and shines without flaming Discourses without wrangling and differs without dividing He catcheth not at the Infirmities of his Opposite but lays hold of his Strength and weighs the Substance without blowing the dust in his eyes He entertains what he finds reasonable and suspends his Judgment when he doth not clearly understand This is the Spirit with which Men are inspired by the Philosophy I recommend It makes them so just as to allow that liberty of Judgment to others which themselves desire and so prevents all imperious Dictates and Imposings all Captious Quarrels and Notional Wars And that this is the Philosophick Genius may be shewn in a grand Instance the ROYAL SOCIETY which is the Great Body of Practical Philosophers In this Assembly though it be made up of all kinds of Dispositions Professions and Opinions yet hath Philosophy so rarely temper'd the Constitution that those that attend there never see the least inclination to any unhandsome opposition or uncivil reflexion no bold obtrusions or consident sayings The forbearing such Rudenesses is indeed a Law of that Society and their Designs and Methods of Inquiry naturally form Men into the modest temper and secure them from the danger of the Quarrelsome Genius This is palpable evidence of the sweet Humour and ingenious Tendencies of the Free Philosophy and I believe 't will be hard to shew such another Example in any so great a Body of differing Inclinations and Apprehensions Thus the Experimental Learning rectifies the grand Abuse which the Notional Knowledge hath so long foster'd and promoted to the hinderance of Science the disturbance of the World and the prejudice of the Christian Faith And there is no doubt but as it hath altered and reformed the Genius in Matters of Natural Research and Inquiry so it will in its progress dispose Mens Spirits to more Calmness and Modesty Charity and Prudence in the Differences of Religion and even Silence Disputes there For the free sensible Knowledge tends to the altering the Crasis of Mens Minds and so cures the Disease at the Root and true Philosophy is a Specifick against Disputes and Divisions To confirm which we may observe further That where-ever this sort of Knowledge prevails the Contentious Divinity loseth ground and 't will be hard to find any one of those Philosophers that is a zealous Votary of a Sect which reservedness doth indeed give occasion to Sectaries and Bigotts to accuse them of Atheism and Irreligion But it really is no Argument of less Piety but of more Consideration and Knowledge And 't would make much for the advantage of Religion and their own if those fierce Men would understand that Christianity should teach them that which they rail against in the Philosophers But now I must expect to hear I. That Disputes serve to discover Truth as latent Fire is excited and disclosed by the collision of hard Bodies So that the Pretence is That Philosophy doth on this account rather disserve than promote the Interests of Religion To this I Answer 1. That all the necessary material Truths in Divinity are already discover'd and we have no need of New Lights there the Ancientest are truest and best though in the disquisitions of Philosophy there will be always occasions of proceeding I add 2. Disputes are one of the worst ways to discover Truth If new things were to be found out in Religion as well as Nature they would scarce be disclosed by this way of Enquiry A calm Judgment and distinct Thoughts and impartial Consideration of many things are necessary for the finding Truth which lies deep and is mingled up and down with much Error and specious falshood and 't is hard if not utterly impessible to preserve any one of these in the heat of Disputation In such Occasions the Mind is commonly disordered by Passion and the Thoughts are confused and our Considerations tyed to those things which give colour to our Opinions We are biast by our Affections towards our own Conceits and our love to them is inflamed by opposition we are made incapable of entertaining the assistance of our Opposites Suggestions by strong prejudice and inclined to quarrel with every thing he saith by spight and desire of triumph and these are ill Circumstances for the discovery of Truth He is a wonderful Man indeed that can thread a Needle when he is at Cudgels in a crowd and yet this is as easie as to find Truth in the hurry of Disputation The Apostle intimates 1 Tim. 6. 5. That perverse Disputers are destitute of Truth and tells us That of the strife of words come envy railings evil surmisings but no discovery of unknown Verities But II. we are told in favour of Disputes in Religion That we are to contend earnestly for the Faith that was once
delivered to the Saints and hereby Heresies are said to be confuted and overthrown So that the disabling and suppressing of Disputes seems to be a weakening rather than any advantage to Religion and the Concernments of it To this I say That by the Faith we are to contend for I conceive the Essentials and certain Articles are meant These we may and we ought to endeavour to defend and promote as there is occasion and we have seen how the Real Philosophy will help our Reasons in that Service But pious Contentions for these are not the disputings of which I am now discoursing those are stiff Contests about uncertain Opinions And such I dare very boldly say are no Contentions for the Faith but the Instruments of the greatest mischiefs to it As for those other Disputes that are used to convince Men of the Truths of the Gospel and the great Articles thereof and for the disproving Infidelity and Heresie they are necessary and Philosophy is an excellent help in such Contests So that those other Objections pleadable from the necessity of proving and trying our Faith and convincing Hereticks From the Example of our Saviour's disputing with the Doctors and the Sadduces and of St. Paul at Athens with the Jews These and such other little Cavils can signifie nothing to the disadvantage of what I have said about the Humour of Disputing in Matters of doubtful and uncertain Opinions against which the Real Philosophy is an Antidote ANd thus I have shewn under five material Heads That the knowledge of Nature and the Works of God promotes the greatest Interests of Religion and by the three last it appears how fundamentally opposite it is to all Schism and Fanaticism which are made up and occasioned by Superstition Enthusiasm and ignorant perverse Disputings So that for Atheists and Sadduces and Fanaticks to detest and inveigh against Philosophy is not at all strange 'T is no more than what may well be expected from Men of that sort Philosophy is their Enemy and it concerns them to disparage and reproach it But for the Sober and Religious to do any thing so unadvised and so prejudicial to Religion is wonderful and deplorable To set these right in their Judgment about Philosophical Inquiry into God's Works is the Principal design of these Papers and in order to the further promoting of it I advance to the last Head of Discourse proposed viz. IV. THat the Ministers and Professors of Religion ought not to discourage but promote the knowledge of Nature and the Works of its Author This is the result of the whole Matter and follows evidently upon it And though it will not infer a necessity of all Mens deep search into Nature yet this it will That no Friend or Servant of Religion should hinder or discountenance such Inquiries And though most private Christians and some publick Ministers have neither leisure nor ability to look into Matters of natural Research and Inquisition yet they ought to think candidly and wish well to the endeavours of those that have and 't is a sin and a folly either in the one or other to censure or discourage those worthy Undertakings So that I cannot without trouble observe how apt some are that pretend much to Religion and some that minister in it to load those that are studious of God's Works with all the studious Names that contempt and spight can suggest The Irreligion of which injurious carriage nothing can excuse but their ignorance And I will rather hope that they neither know what they say nor what they do than believe that they have any direct design against the Glory of their Maker or against any laudable endeavours to promote it I know well what mischief Prejudice will do even upon Minds that otherwise are very honest and intelligent enough And there are many common slanders and some plausible Objections in the Mouths of the Zealous against Philosophy which have begot an ill Opinion of it in well-meaning Men who have never examined things with any depth of Inquiry For the sake of such I shall produce the most considerable Allegations of both sorts and I hope make such returns to them as may be sufficient to satisfie those whose Minds are not barr'd by Obstinacy or Ignorance I speak first of the bold and broad Slanders among which that I. Of Atbeism is one of the most ordinary But certainly 't is one of the most unjust Accusations that Malice and Ignorance could have invented This I need not be industrious to prove here having made it appear that Philosophy is one of the best Weapons in the World to defend Religion against it and my whole Discourse is a confutation of this envious and foolish charge Concerning it I take notice That Philosophical Men are usually dealt with by the Zealous as the greatest Patrons of the Protestant Cause are by the Sects For as the Bishops and other Learned Persons who have most strongly oppugned the Romish Faith have had the ill luck to be accused of Popery themselves in like manner it happens to the humblest and deepest Inquisitors into the Works of God who have the most and fullest Arguments of his Existence have raised impregnable Ramparts with much industry and pious pains against the Atheists and are the only Men that can with success serve Religion against the Godless Rout These Superstitious Ignorance hath always made the loudest out-cry against as if themselves were guilty of that which they have most happily oppugned and defeated And the certain way to be esteemed an Atheist by the fierce and ignorant Devoto's is to study to lay the Foundations of Religion sure and to be able to speak groundedly and to purpose against the desperate Cause of the black Conspirators against Heaven And the greatest Men that have imploy'd their Time and Thoughts this way have been pelted with this Dirt while they have been labouring in the Trenches and indeavouring to secure the Foundations of the Holy Fabrick But besides I observe That narrow angry People take occasion to charge the freer Spirits with Atheism because they move in a larger Circle and have no such fond adherence to some Opinions which they adore and count Sacred And for my own part I confess I have not Superstition enough in my Spirit or Nature to incline me to doat upon all the Principles I judge true or to speak so dogmatically about them as I perceive confident and disputing Men are wont But contenting my self with a firm assent to the few practical Fundamentals of Faith and having fix'd that end of the Compass I desire to preserve my Liberty as to the rest holding the other in such a posture as may be ready to draw those Lines my Judgment informed by the Holy Oracles the Articles of our Church the Apprehensions of wise Antiquity and my particular Reason shall direct me to describe And when I do that 't is for my self and my own satisfaction but am not concern'd to impose my Sentiments
their peculiar Animals The certainty of which I believe the improvement of Microscopical Observations will discover From whence I infer That since this little Spot is so thickly peopled in every Atom of it ' â—…is weakness to think that all the vast spaces above and hollows under Ground are desert and uninhabited And if both the superiour and lower Continents of the Universe have their Inhabitants also 't is exceedingly improbable arguing from the same Analogy that they are all of the meer sensible Nature but that there are at least some of the Rational and Intellectual Orders Which supposed there is good foundation for the belief of Witches and Apparitions though the Notion of a Spirit should prove as absurd and unphilosophical as I judg the Denial of it And so this first Objection comes to nothing I descend then to the second Prejudice which may be thus formed in behalf of the Objectors II. II. THere are Actions in most of those Relations ascribed to Witches which are ridiculous and impossible in the nature of things such are 1. their flying out of Windows after they have anointed themselves to remote places 2. Their transformation into Cats Hares and other Creatures 3. Their feeling all the hurts in their own Bodies which they have received in those 4. Their raising Tempests by mattering some nonsensical words or performing Ceremonies alike impertinent as ridiculous And 5. their being suck'd in a certain private place of their Bodies by a Familiar These are presumed to be actions inconsistent with the nature of Spirits and above the powers of those poor and miserable Agents And therefore the Objection supposeth them performed only by the Fancy and that the whole mystery of Witchcraft is but an illusion of crasie Imagination To this aggregate Objection I return 1. In the general The more absurd and unaccountable these Actions seem the greater confirmations are they to me of the truth of those Relations and the reality of what the Objectors would destroy For these Circumstances being exceeding unlikely judging by the measures of common belief 't is the greater probability they are not fictitious For the contrivers of Fictions use to form them to as near a conformity as they can to the most unsuspected Realities endeavouring to make them look as like Truth as is possible in the main Supposals though withal they make them strange in the Circumstance None but a Fool or Madman would relate with a purpose of having it believed that he saw in Ireland Men with Horns on their Heads and Eyes in their Breasts or if any should be so ridiculously vain as to be serious in such an incredible Romance it cannot be supposed that all Travellers that come into those parts after him should tell the same Story There is a large Field in Fiction and is all those Relations were Arbitrary Compositions doubtless the first Romancers would have framed them more agreeable to the common Doctrine of Spirits at least after these supposed Absurdities had been a thousand times laugh'd at People by this time would have learn'd to correct those obnoxious Extravagancies and though they have not yet more Veracity than the Ages of Ignorance and Superstition yet one would expect they should have got more Cunning. This suppos'd Impossibility then of these Performances seems to me a probable Argument that they are not wilful and designed Forgeries And if they are Fancies 't is somewhat strange that Imagination which is the most various thing in all the World should infinitely repeat the same Conceits in all Times and Places BUT again 2. the strange Actions related of Witches and presumed to be impossible are not ascribed to their own Powers but to the Agency of those wicked Confederates they imploy And to affirm that those evil Spirits cannot do that which we conceit impossible is boldly to stint the powers of Creatures whose Natures and Faculties we know not and to measure the world of Spirits by the narrow Rules of our own impotent Beings We see among our selves the Performances of some out-go the Conceits and Possibilities of others and we know many things may be done by the Mathematicks and Mechanick Artifice which common Heads think impossible to be effected by the honest ways of Art and Nature And doubtless the subtilties and powers of those mischievous Fiends are as much beyond the reach and activities of the most knowing Agents among us as theirs are beyond the wit and ability of the most rustick and illiterate So that the utmost that any Man's Reason in the World can amount to in this particular is only this That he cannot conceive how such things can be performed which only argues the weakness and imperfection of our Knowledg and Apprehensions not the impossibility of those Performances and we can no more from hence form an Argument against them than against the most ordinary Effects in Nature We cannot conceive how the Fâ—… is form'd in the Womb nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on we know not how our Souâ—…s move the Body nor how these distant and extream Natures are united as I have shewn elsewhere And if we are ignoâ—…t of the most obvious things about us and the most considerable within our selves 't is then no wonder that we know not the Constitution and Powers of the Creatures to whom we are such strangers Briefly then Matters of Fact well proved ought not to be denied because we cannot conceive how they can be performed Nor is it a reasonable method of Inference first to presume the thing impossible and thence to conclude that the Fact cannot be proved On the contrary we should judg of the Action by the Evidence and not the Evidence by our Fancies about the Action This is proudly to exalt our own Opinions above the clearest Testimonies and most sensible Demonstrations of Fact and so to give the Lye to all Mankind rather than distrust the Conceits of our bold Imaginations But yet further 3. I think there is nothing in the Instances mention'd but what may as well be accounted for by the Rules of Reason and Philosophy as the ordinary Affairs of Nature For in resolving Natural Phaenomena we can only assign the probable Causes shewing how things may be not presuming how they are And in the particulars under our Examen we may give an account how 't is possible and not unlikely that such things though somewhat varying from the common road of Nature may be acted And if our narrow and contracted Minds can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such Performances though perhaps not the true ones 't is an argument that such things may be effected by Creatures whose Powers and Knowledg are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of such performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are Contradictions and impossible For the first then That the
act like his own Temptations and Perswasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this Objection than that Wickedness is Baseness and Servility and that the Devil is at leasure to serve those whom he is at leasure to tempt and industrious to ruine And 2. I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witches Confederate but perhaps it may fitly be considered whether the Familiar be not some departed Humane Spirit forsaken of God and Goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of Mischief and Revenge which possibly by the Laws and capacity of its State it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandering up and down the Earth and Air when he is said to be held in the Chains of Darkness and yet that the separated Souls of the Wicked of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any Sacred Record should be thought so imprison'd that they cannot possibly wag from the Place of their Confinement I know no shadow of Conjecture This Conceit I 'm confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludicrous as Appearing Spirits are sometimes reported to be in their Frolicks and they presume that Souls departed never revisâ—… the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good Men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be so supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked Spirits of our own Kind and Nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this Life This Supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the Actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are always Devils And to this Conjecture Pleadventure to subjoin another which also hath its probability viz. 3. That 't is not impossible but that the Familiars of Witches are a vile kind of Spirits of a very inferiour Constitution and Nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degencrated into the Spirits we call Devils The common division of Spirits is in my Opinion much too general and why may we not think there is as great a variety of Intellectual Creatures in the Invisible World as of Animals in the Visible And that all the Superiour yea and Inferiour Regions have their several kinds of Spirits differing in their natural Perfections as well as in the Kinds and Degrees of their Depravities Which if we suppose 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd Servilities And thus the Sagess and grandeur of the Prince of Darkness need not be brought in question on this Occasion IV. BVt IV. the Opinion of Witches seems to some to accuse Providence and to suggest that it hath exposed Innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful Fiends yea and supposeth those most obnoxious of whom we might most reasonably expect a more special care and protection most of the cruel practices of those presum'd Instruments of Hell being upon Children who as they least deserve to be deserted by that Providence that superintends all things so they most need its Guardian Influence To this so specious an Objection I have these things to answer 1. Providence is an unfathomable Depth and if we should not believe the Phaenomena of our Senses before we can reconcile them to our Notions of Providence we must be grosser Scepticks than ever yet were extant The miseries of the present Life the unequal distributions of Good and Evil the ignorance and barbarity of the greatest part of Mankind the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular Instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting Appearances and consequently we ought not to deny the being of Witches and Apparitions because they will create us some difficulties in our Notions of Providence 2. Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the World cannot certainly offer such an Objection for what is a little trifling pain of a moment to those eternal Tortures to which if they die as soon as they are born according to the tenour of this Doctrine they are everlastingly exposed But however the case stands as to that 't is certain 3. That Providence hath not secur'd them from other violences they are obnoxious to from cruelty and accident and yet we accuse It not when a whole Townful of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous Executioners in Wars and Massacres To which I add 4. That 't is likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil Spirit immediately but by the malignant influence of the Sorceress whose power of hurting consists in the fore-mention'd Ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real Fascination in the Witches Eyes and Imaginations by which for the most part she acts upon tender Bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the Pestilential Spirits being darted by a spightful and vigorous Imagination from the Eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the Bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with anoxious Quality that makes dangerous and strange Alterations in the Person invaded by this poisonous Influence which way of acting by subtil and invisible Instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural Efficiencies And 't is now past question that Nature for the most part acts by subtil Streams and Aporrhaea's of Minute Particles which pass from one Body to another Or however that be this kind of Agency is as conceivable as any of those Qualities which our Ignorance hath called Sympathy and Antipathy the reality of which we doubt not though the manner of Action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how Infection should pass in certain tenuious Streams through the Air from one House to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the Blood and Spirits with a venomous and malign Ferment the application of the Vertue doing the same in our Case as that of Contact doth in this Yea some kinds of Fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the
like by which the contagious Quality may be transmitted as we see Diseases often are by the touch Now in this way of conjecture a good account may be given why Witches are most powerful upon Children and timerous Persons viz. because their Spirits and Imaginations being weak and passive are not able to resist the fatal Influence whereas Men of bold Minds who have plenty of strong and vigorous Spirits are secure from the Contagion as in pestilential Airs clean Bodies are not so liable to Infection as other tempers Thus we see 't is likely enough that very often the Sorceress her self doth the mischief and we know de facto that Providence doth not always secure us from one anothers Injuries And yet I must confess that many times also the Evil Spirit is the Mischievous Agent though this Confession draw on me another Objection which I next propose V. V. IT may be said that if Wicked Spirits can hurt as by the Direction and at the desire of a Witch one would think they should have the same power to do us injury without instigation or compact and if this be granted 't is a wonder that we are not always annoyed and infested by them To which I Answer 1. That the Laws Liberties and Restraints of the Inhabitants of the other World are to us utterly unknown and in this way we can only argue our selves into confessions of our Ignorance which every Man must acknowledge that is not as immodest as ignorant It must be granted by all that own the Being Power and Malice of Evil Spirits that the security we enjoy is wonderful whether they act by Witches or not and by what Laws they are kept from making us a Prey to speak like Philosophers we cannot tell Yea why they should be permitted to tempt and ruine us in our Souls and restrain'd from touching or hurting us in our Bodies is a Mystery not easily accountable But 2. though we acknowledg their Power to vex and torment us in our Bodies also yet a reason may be given why they are less frequent in this kind of mischief viz. because their main Designs are levell'd against the interest and happiness of our Souls which they can best promote when their Actions are most sly and secret whereas did they ordinarily persecute Men in their Bodies their Agency and wicked Influence would be discover'd and make a mighty noise in the World whereby Men would be awaken'd to a sutable and vigorous opposition by the use of such means as would engage Providence to rescue them from their rage and cruelties and at last defeat them in their great purposes of undoing us eternally Thus we may conceive that the security we enjoy may well enough consist with the power and malice of those Evil Spirits and upon this account may suppose that Laws of their own may prohibit their unlicenc'd Injuries not from any goodness there is in their Constitutions but in order to the more successful carrying on the projects of the Dark Kingdom as Generals forbid Plunder not out of love to their Enemies but in order to their own success And hence 3. we may suppose a Law of Permission to hurt us at the instance of the Sorceress may well stand with the polity of Hell since by gratifying the wicked Person they encourage her in malice and revenge and promote thereby the main ends of their black Confederacy which are to propagate Wickedness and to ruine us in our eternal Interests And yet 4. 't is clear to those that believe the History of the Gospel that Wicked Spirits have vexed the Bodies of Men without any instigation that we read of and at this day 't is very likely that many of the strange Accidents and Diseases that befal us may be the infliction of Evil Spirits prompted to hurt us only by the delight they take in mischief So that we cannot argue the improbability of their hurting Children and others by Witches from our own security and freedom from the Effects of their Malice which perhaps we feel in more Instances than we are aware of VI. VI. ANother Prejudice against the belief of Witches is a presumption upon the enormous force of Melancholly and Imagination which without doubt can do wonderful Things and beget strange Perswasions and to these Causes some ascribe all the Effects of Sorcery and Witchcraft To which I reply briefly and yet I hope sufficiently 1. That to resolve all the clear Circumstances of Fact which we find in well-attested and confirm'd Relations of this kind into the power of deceivable Imagination is to make Fancy the greater Prodigy and to suppose that it can do stranger Feats than are believed of any other kind of Fascination To think that Pins and Nails for instance can by the power of Imagination be convey'd within the Skin or that Imagination should deceive so many as have been Witnesses in Objects of Sense in all the Circumstances of Discovery This I say is to be infinitely more credulous than the Assertors of Sorcery and Demoniack Contracts By the same reason it may be believ'd that all the Battels and strange Events of the World which our selves have not seen are but Dreams and fond Imaginations and like those that are fought in the Clouds when the Brains of the deluded Spectators are the only Theatre of those fancied Transactions And 2. to deny evidence of Fact because their Imagination may deceive the Relators when we have no reason to think so but a bare presumption that there is no such thing as is related is quite to destroy the Credit of all Humane Testimony and to make all Men liars in a larger sense than the Prophet concluded in his haste For not only the Melancholick and the Fanciful but the Grave and the Sober whose Judgements we have no reason to suspect to be tainted by their Imaginations have from their own knowledge and experience made reports of this Nature But to this it will possibly be rejoyn'd and the Reply will be another prejudice against the belief for which I contend viz. VII VII THat 't is a suspicious circumstance that Witchcraft is but a Fancy since the Persons that are accused are commonly poor and miserable old Women who are over-grown with discontent and melancholy which are very imaginative and the Persons said to be bewitch'd are for the most part Children or People very weak who are easily imposed upon and are apt to receive strong Impressions from nothing whereas were there any such thing really 't is not likely but that the more cunning and subtil Desperado's who might the more successfully carry on the mischievous Designs of the Dark Kingdom should be oftener engaged in those black Confederacies and also one would expect Effects of the Hellish Combination upon others than the Innocent and the Ignorant To which Objection it might perhaps be enough to return as hath been above suggested that nothing can be concluded by this and such-like arguings but that the
policy and menages of the Instruments of Darkness are to us altogether unknown and as much in the dark as their Natures Mankind being no more acquainted with the Reasons and Methods of Action in the other World than poor Cottagers and Mechanicks are with the Intrigues of Government and Reasons of State Yea peradventure 2. 't is one of the great Designs as 't is certainly the Interest of those wicked Agents and Machinators industriously to hide from us their influences and ways of acting and to work as near as is possible incognito upon which supposal 't is easie to conceive a reason why they most commonly work by and upon the weak and ignorant who can make no cunning Observations or tell credible Tales to detect their Artifice Besides 3. 't is likely a strong Imagination that cannot be weaken'd or disturb'd by a busie and subtil Ratiocination is a necessary requisite to those wicked Performances without doubt an heightned and obstinate Fancy hath a great influence upon impressible Spirits yea and as I have conjectur'd before on the more passive and susceptible Bodies And I am very apt to believe that there are as real Communications and Intercourses between our Spirits as there are between Material Agents which secret Influences though they are unknown in their Nature and ways of acting yet they are sufficiently felt in their Effects For Experience attests that some by the very majesty and greatness of their Spirits discover'd by nothing but a certain noble Air that accompanies them will bear down others less great and generous and make them sneak before them and some by I know not what stupifying vertue will tie up the Tongue and confine the Spirits of those who are otherwise brisk and voluble Which thing supposed the influences of a Spirit possess'd of an active and enormous Imagination may be malign and fatal where they cannot be resisted especially when they are accompanied by those poisonous Reaks that the Evil Spirit breaths into the Sorceress which likely are shot out and applyed by a Fancy heightned and prepared by Melancholy and Discontent And thus we may conceive why the Melancholick and Envious are used upon such occasions and for the same reason the Ignorant since Knowledge checks and controuls Imagination and those that abound much in the Imaginative Faculties do not usually exceed in the Rational And perhaps 4. the Daemon himself useth the Imagination of the Witch so qualified for his purpose even in those Actions of mischief which are more properly his for it is most probable that Spirits act not upon Bodies immediately and by their naked Essence but by means proportionate and sutable Instruments that they use upon which account likely 't is so strictly required that the Sorceress should belive that so her Imagination might be more at the Devotion of the mischievous Agent And for the same reason also Ceremonies are used in Inchantments viz. for the â—…egetting this Diabolical Faith and heightning the Fancy to a degree of strength and vigour sufficient to make it a fit Instrument for the design'd performance These I think are Reasons of likelihood and probability why the Hellish Confederates are mostly the Ignorant and the Melancholick VIII VIII THe frequent Impostures that are met with in this kind beget in some a belief that all such Relations are Forgeries and Tales and if we urge the evidence of a Story for the belief of Witches or Apparitions they will produce two as seemingly strong and plausible which shall conclude in Mistake or Design inferring thence that all others are of the same quality and credit But such Arguers may please to consider 1. That a single Relation for an Affirmative sufficiently confirmed and attested is worth a thousand Tales of forgery and imposture from whence an Universal Negative cannot be concluded So that though all the Objector's Stories be true and an hundred times as many more such Deceptions yet one Relation wherein no fallacy or fraud could be suspected for our Affirmative would spoil any Conclusion could be erected on them And 2. It seems to me a belief sufficiently bold and precarious that all these Relations of Forgery and Mistake should be certain and not one among all those which attest the Affirmative Reality with Circumstances as good as could be expected or wish'd should be true but all fabulous and vain Certainly they have no reason to object Credulity to the Assertors of Sorcery and Witchcraft that can swallow so large a Morsel And I desire such Objectors to consider 3. Whether it be fair to infer that because there are some Cheats and Impostors that therefore there are no Realities Indeed frequency of deceit and fallacy will warrant a greater care and caution in examining and scrupulosity and shiness of assent to things whereing fraud hath been practiced or may in the least degree be suspected But to conclude because that an old Woman's Fancy abused her or some knavish Fellows put tricks upon the ignorant and timorous that therefore whole Assizes have been a thousand times deceived in judgement upon Matters of Fact and numbers of sober Persons have been forsworn in things wherein Perjury could not advantage them I say such Inferences are as void of Reason as they are of Charity and good Manners IX IX IT may be suggested further That it cannot be imagin'd what design the Devil should have in making those solemn Compacts since Persons of such dehauch'd and irreclaimable Dispositions as those with whom he is supposed to confederate are pretty securely his antecedently to the Bargain and cannot be more so by it since they cannot put their Souls out of possibility of the Divine Grace but by the Sin that is unpardonable or if they could so dispose and give away themselves it will to some seem very unlikely that a great and mighty Spirit should oblige himself to such observances and keep such a-do to secure the Soul of a silly Body which 't were odds but it would be His though He put himself to no further trouble than that of his ordinary Temptations To which Suggestions 't were enough to say that 't is sufficient if the thing be well prov'd though the Design be not known and to argue negatively à fine is very unconclusive in such Matters The Laws and Affairs of the other World as hath been intimated are vastly differing from those of our Regions and therefore 't is no wonder we cannot judge of their Designs when we know nothing of their Menages and so little of their Natures The ignorant looker-on can't imagine what the Limner means by those seemingly rude Lines and Scrawls which he intends for the Rudiments of a Picture and the Figures of Mathematick Operation are non-sense and dashes at a venture to one un-instructed in Mechanicks We are in the dark to one anothers Purposes and Intendments and there are a thousand Intrigues in our little Matters which will not presently confess their Design even to sagacious Inquisitors And therefore 't
is folly and incogitancy to argue any thing one way or other from the designs of a sort of Beings with whom we so little communicate and possibly we can no more aim or guess at their Projects and Designments than the gazing Beast can do at ours when they see the Traps and Gins that are laid for them but understand nothing what they mean Thus in general But I attempt something more particularly in order to which I must premise That the Devil is a name for a Body Politick in which there are very different Orders and Degrees of Spirits and perhaps in as much variety of place and state as among our selves so that 't is not one and the same Person that makes all the Compacts with those abused and seduced Souls but they are divers and those 't is like of the meanest and basest quality in the Kingdom of Darkness which being supposed I offer this account of the probable Design of those wicked Agents viz. That having none to rule or tyrannize over within the Circle of their own Nature and Government they affect a proud Empire over us the desire of Dominion and Authority being largely spread through the whole circumference of degenerated Nature especially among those whose pride was their original transgression every one of these then desires to get Vassals to pay him homage and to be employed like Slaves in the services of his Lusts and Appetites to gratifie which desire 't is like it may be allowed by the constitution of their State and Government that every wicked Spirit shall have those Souls as his property and particular Servants and Attendants whom he can catch in such Compacts as those wild Beasts that we can take in hunting are ours by the allowance of our Laws and those Slaves that a Man hath purchas'd are his peculiar Goods and the Vassals of his Will Or rather those deluding Fiends are like the seducing Fellows we call Spirits who inveigle Children by their false and flattering Promises and carry them away to the Plantations of America to be servilely employed there in the Works of their Profit and Advantage And as those base Agents will humour and flatter the simple unwary Youth till they are on Ship-board and without the reach of those that might rescue them from their hands In like manner the more mischievous Tempter studies to gratifie please and accommodate those he deals with in this kind till Death hath lanâ—…h'd them into the Deep and they are past the danger of Prayers Repentance and Endeavours and then He useth them as pleaseth Him This account I think is not unreasonable and 't will fully answer the Objection For though the Matter be not as I have conjectur'd yet 't will suggest a way how it may be conceiv'd which destroys the Pretence That the Design is inconceivable X. BVt X. we are still liable to be question'd how it comes about that those proud and insolent Designers practice in this kind upon so few when one would expect that they should be still trading this way and every-where be driving on the Project which the vileness of Men makes so feisable and would so much serve the interest of their Lusts. To which among other things that might be suggested I return 1. That we are never liable to be so betrayed and abused till by our vile Dispositions and Tendencies we have forfeited the care and oversight of the better Spirits who though generally they are our guard and defence against the malice and violence of Evil Angels yet it may well enough be thought that sometimes they may take their leave of such as are swallowed up by Malice Envy and desire of Revenge qualities most contrary to their Life and Nature and leave them exposed to the invasion and sollicitations of those Wicked Spirits to whom such hateful Attributes make them very sutable And if there be particular Guardian Angels as 't is not absurd to fancy it may then well be supposed that no Man is obnoxious to those Projects and Attempts but only such whose vile and mischievous Natures have driven from them their protecting Genius Against this dereliction to the power of Evil Spirits 't is likely enough what some affirm that the Royal Psalmist directs that Prayer Psal. 71. 9 10. Cast me not off in the time of old Age forsake me not when my strength faileth For They that keep my Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the LXX and the Vulgar Latin Qui custodiunt animam meam they take counsel together saying God hath forsaken him persecute him and take him for there is none to deliver him 2. 'T is very probable that the stare wherein they are will not easily permit palpable Intercourses between the bad Genii and Mankind since 't is probable that their own Laws and Government do not allow their frequent excursions into this World Or it may with as great likelyhood be supposed that 't is a very hard and painful thing for them to force their thin and tenuious Bodies into a visible consistence and such Shapes as are necessary for their designs in their correspondencies with Witches For in this Action their Bodies must needs be exceedingly compress'd which cannot well be without a painful sense And this is perhaps a reason why there are so few Apparitions and why Appearing Spirits are commonly in such hast to be gone viz. that they may be deliver'd from the unnatural pressure of their tender Vehicles which I confess holds more in the Apparitions of Good than of Evil Spirits most Relations of this kind describing their discoveries of themselves as very transient though for those the Holy Scripture records there may be peculiar reason why they are not so whereas the Wicked Ones are not altogether so quick and hasty in their Visits The reason of which probably is the great subtilty and tenuity of the Bodies of the former which will require far greater degrees of compression and consequently of pain to make them visible whereas the latter are more feculent and gross and so nearer allied to palpable Consistencies and more easily reduceable to Appearance and Visibility At this turn I have again made use of the Platonick Hypothesis That Spirits are embodied upon which indeed a great part of my Discourse is grounded And therefore I hold my self obliged to a short account of that supposal It seems then to me very probable from the Nature of Sense and Analogy of Nature For 1. we perceive in our selves that all Sense is caus'd and excited by Motion made in Matter and when those Motions which convey sensible Impressions to the Brain the Seat of Sense are intercepted Sense is lost So that if we suppose Spirits perfectly to be disjoin'd from all Matter 't is not conceivable how they can have the sense of any thing For how material Objects should any way be perceiv'd or felt without Vital Union with Matter 't is not possible to imagine Nor doth it 2. seem sutable to the
Analogy of Nature which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations whereas were there no order of Beings between Us who are so deeply plunged into the grossest Matter and pure unbodied Spirits 't were a mighty jump in Nature Since then the greatest part of the World consists of the finer portions of Matter and our own Souls are immediately united unto these 't is exceeding probable that the nearer orders of Spirits are vitally join'd to such Bodies and so Nature by degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtile Matter gets at last to the pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immaterial Minds which the Platonists made the highest Order of Created Beings But of this I have discoursed elsewhere and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to add another Reason of the unfrequency of Apparitions and Compacts viz. 3. Because 't is very likely that these Regions are very unsutable and disproportion'd to the frame and temper of their Senses and Bodies so that perhaps the Courser Spirits can no more bear the Air of our World than Bats and Owls can the brightest Beams of Day Nor can the Purer and Better any more endure the noysom Steams and poisonous Reeks of this Dunghil Earth than the Delicate can bear a Confinement in nasty Dungeons and the foul squalid Caverns of uncomfortable Darkness So that 't is no more wonder that the better Spirits no oftner appear than that Men are not more frequently in the Dark Hollows under-ground Nor is 't any more strange that evil Spirits so rarely visit us than that Fishes do not ordinarily fly in the Air as 't is said one sort of them doth or that we see not the Batt daily fluttering in the Beams of the Sun And now by the help of what I have spoken under this Head I am provided with some things wherewith to disable another Objection which I thus propose XI XI IF there be such an intercourse between Evil Spirits and the Wicked How comes it about that there is no correspondence between Good Angels and the Vertuous since without doubt these are as desirous to propagate the Spirit and Designs of the Vpper and better World as those are to promote the Interest of the Kingdom of Darkness Which way of arguing is still from our Ignorance of the State and Government of the other World which must be confest and may without prejudice to the Proposition I defend But particularly I say 1. That we have ground enough to believe that Good Spirits do interpose in yea and govern our Affairs For that there is a Providence reaching from Heaven to Earth is generally acknowledg'd but that this supposeth all things to be order'd by the immediate influence and interposal of the Supreme Deity some think is not very Philosophical to suppose since if we judge by the Analogy of the Natural World all things we see are carried on by the Ministery of Second Causes and Intermediate Agents And it doth not seem so Magnificent and Becoming an apprehension of the Supreme Numen to fancy his immediate Hand in every trivial Management But 't is exceeding likely to conjecture that much of the Government of us and our Affairs is committed to the better Spirits with a due subordination and subserviency to the Will of the chief Rector of the Universe And 't is not absurd to believe that there is a Government that runs from Highest to Lowest the better and more perfect orders of Being still ruling the inferiour and less perfect So that some one would fancy that perhaps the Angels may manage us as we do the Creatures that God and Nature have placed under our Empire and Dominion But however that is That God rules the Lower World by the Ministery of Angels is very consonant to the Sacred Oracles Thus Deut. 32. 8 9. When the Most High divided the Nations their Inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the Bounds of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Angels of God as the Septuagint renders it the Authority of which Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hebrew Text even there where it differs from it as Learned Men have observ'd We know also that Angels were very familiar with the Patriarchs of old and Jacob's Ladder is a Mystery which imports their ministring in the Affairs of the Lower World Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the Presidential Angels Jer. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go Like the Voice heard in the Temple before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdom and Religion among the Beasts He sees a Watcher according to the LXX an Angel and an Holy One come down from Heaven Dan. 4. 13. who pronounceth the sad Decree against Him and calls it the Decree of the Watchers who very probably were the Guardian Genii of of Himself and his Kingdom And that there are particular Angels that have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdoms Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Persia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the Concerns of Judaea yea our Saviour himself tells us that Children have their Angels and the Congregation of Disciples supposed that St. Peter had his Which things if they be granted the good Spirits have not so little to do with Us and our Matters as is generally believed And perhaps it would not be absurd if we referr'd many of the strange Thwarts and unexpected Events the Disappointments and lucky Coincidences that befal us the unaccountable Fortunes and Successes that attend some lucky Men and the unhappy Fates that dog others that seem born to be miserable the Fame and Favour that still waits on some without any conceivable Motive to allure it and the general neglect of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such-like odd things may with the greatest probability be resolv'd into the Conduct and Menages of those Invisible Supervisors that preside over and govern our Affairs But if they so far concern themselves in our Matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest Correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their Influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now add what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. That the Apparition of Good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better World what-ever such may be for the Interest of the other For we have had the
whose Genius and Ways are so unlike him But the other excellent Souls I describ'd will as certainly be visited by the Divine Presence and Converse as the Chrystaline Streams are with the Beams of Light or the fitly prepared Earth whose Seed is in it self will be actuated by the Spirit of Nature So that there is no reason to Object here the want of Angelical Communications though there were none vouchsafed us since good Men enjoy the Divine which are infinitely more satisfactory and indearing And now I may have leave to proceed to the next Objection which may be made to speak thus XII XII THe belief of Witches and the wonderful things they are said to perform by the help of the Confederate Daemon weakens our Faith and exposeth the World to Infidelity in the great Matters of our Religion For if they by Diabolical Assistance can inflict and cure Diseases and do things so much beyond the comprehension of our Philosophy and activity of common Nature What assurance can we have that the Miracles that confirm our Gospel were not the Effects of a Compact of like nature and that Devils were not cast out by Beelzebub If Evil Spirits can assume Bodies and render themselves visible in humane Likeness What security can we have of the reality of the Resurrection of Christ And if by their help Witches can enter Chambers invisibly through Key-holes and little unperceived Crannies and transform themselves at pleasure What Arguments of Divinity are there in our Saviour's shewing himself in the midst of his Disciples when the Doors were shut and his Transfiguration in the Mount Miracles are the great Inducements of Belief and how shall we distinguish a Miracle from a Lying Wonder a Testimony from Heaven from a Trick of the Angels of Hell if they can perform things that astonish and confound our Reasons and are beyond all the Possibilities of Humane Nature To this Objection I reply 1. The Wonders done by Confederacy with Wicked Spirits cannot derive a suspition upon the undoubted Miracles that were wrought by the Author and Promulgers of our Religion as if they were performed by Diabolical Compact since their Spirit Endeavours and Designs were notoriously contrary to all the Tendencies Aims and Interests of the Kingdom of Darkness For as to the Life and Temper of the Blessed and Adorable JESUS we know there was an incomparable sweetness in his Nature Humility in his Manners Calmness in his Temper Compassion in his Miracles Modesty in his Expressions Holiness in all his Actions Hatred of Vice and Baseness and Love to all the World all which are essentially contrary to the Nature and Constitution of Apostate Spirits who abound in Pride and Rancour Insolence and Rudeness Tyranny and Baseness Universal Malice and Hatred of Men And their Designs are as opposite as their Spirit and their Genius And now Can the Sun borrow its Light from the Bottomless Abyss Can Heat and Warmth flow in upon the World from the Regions of Snow and Ice Can Fire freeze and Water burn Can Natures so infinitely contrary communicate and jump in Projects that are destructive to each others known Interests Is there any Balsam in the Cockatrices Egg or Can the Spirit of Life flow from the Venom of the Asp Will the Prince of Darkness strengthen the Arm that is stretcht out to pluck his Usurp't Scepter and his Spoils from him And will he lend his Legions to assist the Armies of his Enemy against him No these are impossible Supposals No intelligent Being will industriously and knowingly contribute to the Contradiction of its own Principles the Defeature of its Purposes and the Ruine of its own dearest Interests There is no fear then that our Faith should receive prejudice from the acknowledgement of the Being of Witches and Power of Evil Spirits since 't is not the doing wonderful things that is the only Evidence that the Holy JESUS was from God and his Doctrine True but the conjunction of other Circumstances the Holiness of his Life the Reasonableness of his Religion and the Excellency of his Designs added credit to his Works and strengthned the great Conclusion That he could be no other than the Son of God and Saviour of the World But besides I say 2. That since Infinite Wisdom and Goodness rules the World it cannot be conceiv'd that they should give up the greatest part of Men to unavoidable deception And if Evil Angels by their Confederates are permitted to perform such astonishing things as seem so evidently to carry God's Seal and Power with them for the confirmation of Falshoods and gaining credit to Impostors without any Counter-evidence to disabuse the World Mankind is exposed to sad and fatal Delusion And to say that Providence will suffer us to be deceived in things of the greatest Concernment when we use the best of our Care and Endeavours to prevent it is to speak hard things of God and in effect to affirm That He hath nothing to do in the Government of the World or doth not concern himself in the Affairs of poor forlorn Men And if the Providence and Goodness of God be not a security unto us against such Deceptions we cannot be assured but that we are always abused by those mischievous Agents in the Objects of plain Sense and in all the Matters of our daily Converses If One that pretends he is immediately sent from God to overthrow the Ancient Fabrick of Established Worship and to erect a New Religion in His Name shall be born of a Virgin and honoured by a Miraculous Star proclaimed by a Song of seeming Angels of Light and Worshipped by the Wise Sages of the World Revered by those of the greatest Austerity and admired by all for a Miraculous Wisdom beyond his Education and his Years If He shall feed Multitudes with almost nothing and fast himself beyond all the possibilities of Nature If He shall be transformed into the appearance of extraordinory Glory and converse with departed Prophets in their visible Forms If He shall Cure all Diseases without Physick or Endeavour and raise the Dead to Life after they have stunk in their Graves If He shall be honoured by Voices from Heaven and attract the Universal Wonder of Princes and People If he shall allay Tempests with a Beck and cast out Devils with a Word If he shall foretel his own Death particularly with its Tragical Circumstances and his Resurrection after it If the Veil of the most famous Temple in the World shall be Rent and the Sun darkned at his Funeral If He shall within the time foretold break the Bonds of Death and lift up his Head out of the Grave If Multitudes of other departed Souls shall arise with Him to attend at the Solemnity of his Resurrection If He shall after Death visibly Converse and Eat and Drink with divers Persons who could not be deceived in a Matter of clear Sense and ascend in Glory in the presence of an astonisht and admiring Multitude I
Countenance He had on a long Robe of Purple Silk and a kind of Turban on his Head of the same colour which had a Star of Gold wrought on it worn just before He imbraced me with much affection expressing great satisfaction in the opportunity of entertaining me alone He enquired after the welfare of our People and whether we wanted any Accommodation either for our Whole or Sick I bowed with a low reverence and answer'd That we wanted nothing but an occasion to speak our acknowledgments of the Bounty and Humanity of that blessed Place and particularly to express how much we were oblidg'd to his Lordships generous favours He replyed smiling That Complements were not in use in Bensalem and taking me by the hand he led me into an handsome square Chamber wainscotted with Cedar which fill'd the Room with a very grateful odour It was richly painted gilt and full of Inscriptions in Letters of Gold He sate him down on a Couch of Green Velvet and made me take my place by him After some more particular inquiry into the condition of our Sick of whom I gave him an account he told me That the Father of Solomon's House commanded him to acquaint me with the state of Religion in Bensalem as himself had with the condition of Philosophy there and that he would have done this too but that the urgent Business of the Publick State which lay upon him would not afford him time I rose up at these words and answered with a low submission That I knew not in what terms to express my sense of the Father's Condescention and Goodness and that his excellent Relation of the state of Philosophy and its ways of improvement in that Kingdom had inflamed me with desire to know what I might concerning the Affairs of its Religion since the so miraculous plantation of Christianity in it And particularly Whether it had kept its ancient Purity and Simplicity in that Realm which was lost in most other places This Question replyed He making me sit down again by him I shall fully answer in the things I have to say to you and having paused a little to settle his Thoughts he began his Narrative in this manner AFTER the Conversion of this Land by the Evangelism of St. Bartholomew of which you have heard Religion underwent some Revolutions that I shall not mention But take my ground from the last which hapned no very long time since For the understanding which you must know That upon the South-West of this place in the unknown Ocean also lies an Island famous for the rise it gave to a very spreading Sect in Religion From this unfortunate Country came certain Zealous Persons hither that pretended to extraordinary Illuminations and to more purity strictness and Spirituality than other Christians They taught That our Rites and Government were Superstitious and Anti-christian That we wanted Pure Ordinances and Gospel-Worship That our Good Works and Christian Vertues were nothing worth That the best of our People were but Formalists and meer moral Men That our Priests were uninlightned strangers to the Power of Godliness and Mysteries of Religion and that there was a necessity of a thorow Godly Reformation of our Government and Worship The Men at first were only gazed upon by our People as strange Persons But at length by the vehemence of their Zeal and glory of their Pretences they began to make impression on some who had more Affection than Judgment By them and the continuance of their own restless Importunities they wrought upon others And in process of time and endeavour through the secret Judgment and Permission of God prevail'd so far that the great Body of the People especially of those that were of warm and Enthusiastick Tempers was leaven'd more or less with their Spirit and Doctrines Here he stopt a little and then said 'T is wonderful to consider how some Ages and Times are dispos'd to changes some to one sort of alteration and some to another In this Age one Sect and Genius spreads like Infection as if the publick Air were poisoned with it and again in that those same Doctrines and Fancies will not thrive at all but die in the hands of their Teachers while a contrary or very different sort flies and prevails mightily There is something extraordinary in this the contemplation of which would be noble Exercise but not for our present purpose 'T is enough to note That the Age at the coming of those Seducers hither was inclined to Innovation and to such particular sorts of it So that in few years the generality of the Zealous and less considerate were tainted with those new and gay Notions And so pâ—…ssest they were with the conceit of the divineness and necessity of their Fancies and Models that they despised and vilified the Ecclesiastical Government and Governors and vehemently assaulted our most excellent SALOMONA the King of this Realm with continual Petitions and Addresses to establish them by Law and to change the whole Constitution of Religion in complyance with their Imaginations But he was a Wise and Religious Prince He saw the folly and danger of such Alterations and endeavour'd by all the ways of Lenity and Goodness to allay the heat of their unreasonable Prosecutions But they being the more emboldned by this moderate Course and provoked by the little inclination the good King shew'd to their New Models broke out after some less violent struglings into down-right Rebellion which after many Revolutions too long to be mention'd now succeeded so far at last that the Pious Prince was depos'd and murder'd the Government usurp'd by the prevailing Tyrants And not to mention the disorders of the Civil State that follow'd the Ecclesiastical was most miserable For now all the Sects that have a Name in History in any part of the known World started up in this Church as if they had all been transplanted hither They arose as it were out of the Earth which seem'd to bring forth nothing but Monsters full grown at their Birth with Weapons in their hands ready for Battel and accordingly they fell one upon another with strange rage and fierceness For having torn and destroyed the Ancient Doctrine and Government every one contended to set up its own and to have its beloved Opinions and Models entertain'd and worship'd as the infallible Truths and Ways of God So that all places were fill'd with New Lights and those Lights were so many Wild-Fires that put all into Combustion We saw nothing of Religion but glaring Appearances and Contention about the Shells and Shadows of it It seem'd to run out wholly into Chaff and Straw into Disputes and Vain Notions which were not only unprofitable but destructive to Charity Peace and every pious Practice All was Controversie and Dissention full of Animosity and Bitterness For though they agreed in some common Falshoods and Follies yet that made no Vnion every dissent in smallest Matters was ground enough for a Quarrel and Separation
the commanding of their passions and bounding their desires and governing themselves by the Laws of Vertue and Prudence Such were their Ethicks and their Tempers and Practices were suitable For though they were men of rais'd understandings and great learning Yet were they not in the least haughty or conceited but their behaviour was generally most sweet and obliging They cared for no mans wit that wanted goodness and despis'd no mans weakness that had it They hated the humour of those learned men who were stately and imposing and dislik'd nothing more then Ill-nature whatever their own was by Birth and Temper their care was to make it sweet by Discipline and Usage and so exercis'd their Moral Pinciples and Rules upon themselves They were no admirers of Popularity but pitied those that were at pains for Air and noise They followed a sober vertuous course without flanting shews and pretensions and liv'd in an innocent even cheerfulness without rapture on the one hand or dejection on the other They were free in their Conversations and not superstitiously scrupulous about things that are harmless and indifferent But said the Governour I consider I need not insist thus on the description of their Moral Temper of Spirit It may be collected in these and many other particulars from what hath been said before And therefore I now pass immediately to their METAPHYSICKS About which I must first tell you That they had no opinion of those of the Peripatetick Schools which consisted of Logical niceties and empty notions that sophisticated mens reasons and inclin'd them to hover in abstracted generals and to rest in meer Terms of Art to the neglect of the more material ratiotinations Such Metaphysicks were in use at that time in the Vniversities of Bensalem and therefore out of respect to the Statutes of those Seats of Learning They did not professedly endeavour to expose those studies No They were against rude and violent Innovations But yet as they had opportunity they prudently advis'd such Youth as they knew to take care that they did not dwell on those Aery Notions or reckon of them as any part of that standing Knowledge which they were to use through the course of their future lives They allowed them for exercise but caution'd against the reception of them as Principles of Truth and Science Here I ask'd whether Those men were against all Metaphysicks or what sort they allowed He made answer That They were not against all But that 1. Some of them counted The explication of General Terms and notions of things to appertain to Metaphysicks and this they reckon'd to be most necessary and useful for the avoiding confusions and mistakes in reasoning So that they never entred into any Controversie or Enquiry without stripping the words and notions they were to treat of from all fantastry and borrowed senses and fixing them in their natural and genuine acception Knowing that most disputes and errours in reasoning arise from mistakes of simple Terms 2. But then others of Them who as highly esteem'd of this course judg'd it to belong to Logick and that it was not to be brought under this science the only object of which They made the Spiritual and Immaterial World And in this sort of Metaphysicks the Science of Spirits they were not all of one Opinion For some were for the Doctrine of Plato making Sprita extended penetrable indiscerpible self-motive substances Whereas others thought with Descartes that extention motion and the like Attributes belong'd only to Bodies and had nothing to do with Spirits which could be defin'd by nothing but Thinking and the Modes of it But this difference in Opinion produc'd no rudeness or heats of opposition only it gave exercise some times to their wits in their private Philosophical entertainments As for the Doctrine of the common Schools of Tota in Toto Both sides esteem'd it contradictious and vain And knew that this was one great occasion of the Sadducism and disbelief of Spiritual Beings which was so much the Mode of that age I said That I had heard something of both these Doctrines And that each of them seem'd to me to contain opinions that were very strange adding that I desir'd to know whether those Gentlemen entertain'd the conceits that the old Platonists and our Cartesians did in their Hypotheses He ask'd me what notions I meant I answer'd That the Platonists held There was an Anima Mundi and the Praeexistence of particular Souls things seemingly very uncouth and absurd And the Cartesians on the other side taught That all things were Mechanical but Humane thoughts and operations and that the Beasts were but meer Automata and insensible machins which said I seem very odd and ridiculous fancies As to these Opinions replyed he They had different thoughts as other Philosophers have Some of them supposing that the Platonical Opinions are very fit to be admitted to give assistance to the Mechanical Principles which they think very defective of themselves And Others judging That the Cartesian Hypotheses are probable and Mechanism sufficient to account for the Phoenomena and that there is no need of introducing so hopeless and obscure a Principle as the Soul of the World In the Matters and Mysteries of Providence They also take several ways of Opinion But then the dissenters to either judgment do not condemn the opposite as ridiculous and absurd Knowing That there is a great appearance of truth in the contrary Doctrine and no certainty in that which they approve most As to the Opinion of Praeexistence of souls It hath said He been the Doctrine of many of the wisest men of eldest times both Gentiles Jews and Christians and the almost general belief of the old Eastern World It contains no opposition to any Article of Faith and some believe It will give a very plausible and fair solution of the main and most difficult things in Providence On which accounts it should not I think be rashly condemn'd as absurd but may very well deserve to be heard and is very worthy to be examin'd Though added He I affirm nothing positively of it And I suppose many of the persons I describe were dispos'd to like thoughts with these in reference to that Hypothesis I pray'd him to acquaint me with their Opinion of the MATHEMATICKS He Answered That They were great valuers of those Sciences which they accounted excellent preparatives and helps to all sorts of Knowledge and very serviceable particularly in this That they us'd the mind to a close way of reasoning and were a good Antidote against the confus'd and wandring humour of Disputers For which reason Some of them thought it would be very well If they were us'd as the first Institutions of the Academick Youth judging that these Sciences would exercise the wit as much as the usual Logicks at least and beget a much better habit in the mind then those contentious studies Besides This said He I cannot at present think of any thing more considerable concerning their