A Phisico-Theological DISCOURSE UPON THE 

Divine Being, or first Cause of all Things.  
Providence of God, General and Particular.  
Separate Existence of the Humane Soul.  
Certainty of Revealed Religion.  
Fallacy of Modern Inspiration. And  
Danger of Enthusiasm.   To which is added An APPENDIX Concerning the Corruption of Humane Nature, the Force of Habits, and the Necessity of Supernatural Aid to the Acquest of Eternal Happiness. WITH EPISTOLARY CONFERENCES between the Deceased Dr. Anthony Horneck and the Author, relating to these Subjects. In several LETTERS from a Gentleman to his Doubting Friend.  
London: Printed by F. C. for TIMOTHY CHILD at the White Hart at the West End of St. Paul's Churchyard. 1698.   

To the Reader of the following LETTERS.  
THat which principally engaged the Author in a Discourse of this Nature, is taken notice of in the first of the ensuing Letters; and to excuse its Publication is beyond his Intention, unless by intimating that neither Secular Advantage nor the vain hopes to become Popular, by such an Enterprise, had any share in it: If the World will not give him credit for the first, they must allow the last, since his desire to be concealed will plead the same in his behalf; but indeed he stands so much indebted to other Men for the confirmation of his own Opinions, that he freely owns himself in justice to be entitled to no more than the least valuable part thereof.  
There may seem, 'tis true, the less occasion for printing any thing of this kind, since there have been already so many excellent and learned Treatises delivered to the World: but whoever considers the Genius of the times, the Profanity and Libertinism of the present Age, together with the prevailing Contagion of our Modern Deisus, that lately revived shelter for Atheistic Principles, will be more easily persuaded that all that can be said for the proof of these important Truths is not to be judged needless, and that there has not been so much said, or the Subjects so fully handled, as to exclude the use of any thing hereafter to be added.  
The methods of men's writing must be acknowledged to be exceeding different, and 'tis no more than necessary they should be so, there being so great a difference in the tempers and dispositions of their Readers, who reject at one time the same Truth they embrace at another, when more suitably adopted to the mode of their Understandings. But beyond all others, the Pulpit Discourse, how prudently or sincerely soever managed, labours with disadvantage, in that by many People 'tis looked on but as a useless Cant, and the very name Priestcraft has made so great a noise in the World, that 'tis sufficient a Discourse be hist at by the unthinking Multitude, or the conceited Debauchee, if the same happened to be delivered in the manner of a formal Sermon.  
There has been of late abundance of pains taken to stagger Men in their Faith, to shake the very foundation of all true Piety, and to render Religion no more than a mere Scarecrow, set up by a sort of Men, viz. the Clergy, that they may frighten us into a slavish Vassalage, or condescension to their own sinister Designs. Some late Pamphlets of the Socinians have had a visible tendency this way, but much more the Writings of those insolent and barefaced Oppugners of Christianity, whose Designs (at least many of them) we have reason to believe no other than ●sten●tation of their Author's Parts: and in judging thus, we are as charitable as they themselves can expect we should: for tho' the Emissaries of the Powers of Darkness must have made use of such like Tools, for the undermining true Religion, and expelling all undissembled Piety out of the World, yet 'tis possible the Intentions of these high Pretenders to Reason were not altogether so villainous, whatever Consequences may attend their Writings.  
Whoever informs himself in their Characters, will think the Cause of Religion to be the l●ss concerned; neither will their Arguments, however weighty at the first view, be ever able to persuade the Man who is bottomed upon sound Principles: they may tickle the Sense of the Libertine, buoy him up in his practice of Impiety or Irreligion, and soothe his tormented Conscience with this deceitful Remedy when he comes to die: that seeing there is no farther time alottted for his continuance here, and that he can sin no longer, if he express his sorrow for what is past, he is out of danger from any thing to come 
* See t●e Account of the De●●● Religion in Oracle's of Reason. , for God is merciful, he makes no Man to damn him; and tho' the Offence be committed against an infinite Being, yet the Creature who commits it being but finite, Repentance is all that can be required by way of Atonement, for infinite Justice cannot be extended on a finite Creature infinitely, with out a contradiction to infinite Mercy: besides, if this wont do, God Almighty being Omnipotent, cannot be resisted, and irresistible Power is always safe, since he need punish no Man for his own Security, and 'tis beneath him to let us suffer by way of Revenge.  
I shall not think myself obliged to take any particular Survey of the Writings of these Men, nor to examine the Stories of their Author's Lives; some of which are so well known to the World, that they cannot injure any considerate Man, with their hetorodox Opinions. I need not instance in Mr. H— s (one of their Epistolary Correspondents) a Man however admired and celebrated for his Writings, yet died in a despondency, and had his Religion to choose even at the hour of his death. As for the right honourable my Lord— I think they had much better have left him out of their Oracles, since however fond he had formerly embraced both Them and their Opinions, it made a great part of his Contrition before he finished his Life, that he had ever countenanced such extravagant Thoughts, or showed himself a Favourite to such wretched Associates.  
Whoever considers the manner of Mr B— t'tis Life, and the circumstances attending his Death, may pity him as an unhappy Gentleman, but will find it a hard matter to persuade himself that he was more than a mere Sceptic, or in good earnest in any thing but his fatal Passion. His Father Sir Henry's Discourse de Anima, where he begins, Spiritus in nobis non manet in Identitate: sed recens ingeritur per renovationem continuam, sicut Flamma, sed velociore transitu, quia Res est spiritualior. Nos quotidie facti sumus ex iis quae transeunt in Nos: Morimur & renascimur quotidie, neque lidem hodie & heri sumus: Et Personam quam transeuntem non sentimus, tandem pertransisse agnoscimus, etc. This, I say, which was thought a noble Present, for the most ingenious Strephon, so far as it has a relation to the Material or Sensitive Soul in Man and Brutes, or in general to the Animal Life, is for the most part true, and what Philosophers have in general agreed to: but as intended to characterise the Rational Soul of Man, it is by no means to be allowed. Whether the Master of its Composition retained the same Sentiments at his Death, concerning the Reasoning Principle within him, I have not informed myself: but it is easy enough to conceive the Thought more readily indulged, that the loser Scheme of Religion might serve turn; and that the Sensitive Appetite might not admit of any Restraint, by the fears of a Post Mortem aliquid.  
How the Learned S—m came in among this Gang, is somewhat strange: That he was acquainted with them, we are given to understand by a Letter of Mr. B— 'tis, in which was enclosed an Epitome of Deism: I must confess I have been informed that excellent Physician was tainted with these Principles, but yet I could never understand but that he died far from an irreconcilable Enemy, to Christianity, and firmly persuaded of a future Retribution.  
I shall not mention such of them as are now living, although they seem to pride themselves in having been the Parents of those Monstrous Births, which they have boldly set their Names to, and delivered to the giddy World for the Standards of Truth and Reason: it may please Almighty God to enlighten their Understandings, and to bring about so happy a Reformation, that they may be satisfied in the certainty of those Divine Truths, which will shine still with the greater Lustre, the more powerfully they are assaulted, and flourish under the Scandal and Contempt of their malicious Adversaries.  
I must confess I had a great desire to see the Arguments of these Men, and when I had procured them, I looked them over without any such anticipated Prejudice as could sway me to a Partiality Pro or Contra: I rather premise this, as believing it no easy matter for any Man, who would be thought to have a Respect or Veneration, either for God or true Religion, to peruse such Treatises without so great an Abhorrence and Detestation of the Authors, as will hinder him from giving either a due attention to what they write, or to consider throughly the proper weight of their Expressions. Now upon a mature and deliberate consideration of what I find they have delivered, I have ventured to pass this Censure, that the Authors have plainly discovered themselves to be Men very far short of sound or right Reasoning, of very little Piety, and Men of no certain or steady Principles. And this Sentence I have adventured to pass upon them, on these Accounts; that whereas in one place I find them highly pleading for a Natural Religion, ridiculing Revelation, and mustering up all the Arguments that themselves and their Friends the Libertines can furnish out, in another they change their Aspect, and submissively condescend that the Scriptures should have some little Authority: they speak modestly of the two Testaments, calling them Sacred Records, and ingeniously confess, that since Humane Reason is like a Pitcher with two Ears, which may be taken on either side: in our Travels to the other World, we should choose the Common Road as the safest; for tho' Deism may serve to manure our Consciences, yet certainly if sowed with Christianity, it will produce the most plentiful Crop.  
There is nothing, says the same Person (in another place where he had been just before using Arguments to the discredit of our Immortality) more unaccountable and contradictory, than to suppose a hum drum Deity, chewing his own Nature, a Droning God sit hugging of himself, and hoarding up his Providence from his Creatures: This is an Atheism no less irrational, than to deny the very Essence of a Divine Being. It is the same also to believe the Soul to be Mortal, as to believe an Immortality without Rewards and Punishments.  
Thus it is very common with this sort of Men, to dogmatise even in the most important Points of Religion; strenuously affirming for Truth what their Reason dictates, and presently after, when they have said all they can, they are forced to grant that what they have said, is only such twilight Conjecture as Humane Reason (of which we yet so vainly boast) can furnish them withal, 'tis now an Aliquid Divinum which does all things, and our Capacities being unable to discern the same, make us fasten either upon the Elementary Qualities of Hypocrates or Galen, or the Cartesian Rule of Geometrical Proportions: The Conclusion of all is this, that since we are not qualified to understand the real Essence or intime Nature of things, we can know nothing certainly; all our Philosophy, excepting Scepticism, is little more than Dotage. These are their own words, which I think may give us a very justifiable occasion to look upon these Men, very improper Standards for our Reason or Religion to be directed by, and as unfit Oracles for us to consult. As for their Divinity, if a parcel of fine words will satisfy, we may think very devoutly of them: but indeed, I cannot for my own part persuade myself, when I consider the tendency of their common Discourse, and their Converse in the World, but that their Religion may be fairly resolved into 〈◊〉 De●s●●, or the single Belief of a first Cause; and that our Immortality was tacked to it, that the Bait might be swallowed with the less suspicion, and the extravagant Absurdity of their Novel Opinions, less strictly examined or enquired into. For when we find Men devoted to the study of irreligion, to frame and invent Arguments to disturb and perplex our Faith, we have surely but little Reason to think well of their Persons, or to regard their Speeches. And that this has been the design of those I am speaking of, even the whole bent of their Minds, in manifest enough, in the manner of their paraphrasing the Mosaic History, in their endeavours to establish the Sufficiency of Natural Religion, to future Happiness, and opposing the same to the Revelation of Christ Jesus: in their collecting. Arguments out of Ethnic Authors, for the Mortality of the Soul and the Eternity of the World, in their in●●●●●ting a Possibility for a free and reasoning Principle, to be compatible to Matter; and all this with the same Assurance as if they had received Intelligence from the Court of Heaven.  
I am informed one of their late Treatises, which contains the Heads of their Opinions, will be e'er long taken to pieces, and judiciously examined: however difficult the Task may appear, I see nothing in them to discourage any ingenious Man in the Undertaking: for if we deprive them of their Varnish, and set them in a clear Light, we shall find but little in them more than empty Sound and insignificant Harangue: They have been either feignedly or really ignorant of Antiquity, which is clear from their gross misrepresentation of some Passages, and their falsifying downright in others: They have racked their Brains for their beloved Cause of Natural Religion, but have not offered (which they ought first of all to have done) one Syllable to disprove the Founder of the Christian Religion, or the Apostles the Dispenser's of his Gospel. Indeed, the best of their Demonstration is either very Sophistical, or so very foolish, that a Schoolboy would expect better Arguing than some of theirs: Th●● we are told it is impossible to embrace or to believe any thing which comes not within the compass of our certain Knowledge, and if a Man can't believe, 'tis a sign the Evidence was not strong enough to make him. This indeed is so serviceable an Argument to the Profane and Debauched, that as nothing could have been better contrived for the advantage of such, so is there no Reply more frequently made by them: This serves them at all times under whatever Circumstances.  
When Men have as it were blinded their Intellects, polluted their Minds, vitiated and perverted their Cognoscent Faculties: when their Understanding is transformed into a brutish Appetite, and their Reason throughly tinctured with some long contracted and habitual Vice, the only Remedy they have then left to palliate their Misery, is to cry out They cannot help it, to do better is out of the compass of their Knowledge: and therefore they can't believe that they ought; and if they can't believe, 'tis a sign, you know, that the Evidence was not sufficient to convince them.  
But waving at this time any farther Reflection upon the Men of this Persuasion, it is convenient I promise somewhat that may justify the freedom I have taken with the Writings of other Men, which I did not out of Expectation of being entitled to the honour of their Labours, but to spare myself the pains of putting into any other form those Arguments which were ready at hand, and which I found so very nearly corresponding with my own Thoughts. Neither can it be, as I conceive, the least Injury to an Author, that by the transferring of his Arguments a Proselyte is made, though in another manner than was intended by him. The greater part of those I am in this Nature obliged to, are such whose Names will be found sufficient to recommend them to the World. They are such who have had too much Honesty as well as Honour to impose, and too much Sense to be imposed on. In a word, They are Men whose Learning and Reputation secure them from being lightly esteemed, even by their Adversaries, who have been unable to withstand the force of their Arguments, and shun their Acquaintance upon no other Account than the Fears of a Conviction.   

A Physico-Theological DISCOURSE, etc.  

LETTER I. Concerning GOD. To his Friend Mr.—  
My very much respected Friend;  
THERE will be less need of an Apology for my troubling you with the following Lines, when you consider that in some of our late Conferences, you have occasionally dropped one Expression or other, which has tended to evince not only your distrust of the Soul's Immortality, but also of the Existence of the Divine Being.  
I must confess I am less startled, to find a Man of your Capacity turn Sceptic, in an Age where satire supplies the place of solid Argument, Ridicule passes for Demonstration, and to be Wise is only to suspend the Judgement: But indeed the preceding Truths (if such they can be proved) are of so general and vast Importance, that we may very well admire that any Person should think himself unconcerned in their Indagation, or to find (amongst reasonable Men) one so profanely Impious, as to say, with the Psalmist's Fool, There is no God: unless he could give better Reasons for his saying so, than the most profound Adepti in Atheism have as yet produced.  
I was never too forward in Disputes of this Nature, for truly 'tis but seldom that I have observed the most prevalent or cogent Arguments to take place; which I ascribe for the most part to prejudicial Prepossessions, to an overfond Opinion of our own Abilities, to an entire dependence upon the Powers of our own Souls, and a Contempt of Divine Assistance. But at your Desire that I would enter upon this Subject, the last time we met, I have taken this Opportunity, wherein I shall endeavour to prove to you the necessity of rectifying your mistaken Judgement: and that the securing an after Happiness, or (in your own Phrase) the saving of your Soul, is a Task which will sufficiently recompense you, for all the trouble you may meet with in the Undertaking.  
I shall only mention the Conditions requisite to each of us, which I conceive to be more peculiarly the divesting ourselves of Prejudice, so far as it is possible, and not to suffer the Bias of Education, by any means to interfere: by this we shall make way for that steady and uniform Light of Impartial Reason to take place, which however misapplyed, mistaken or miscall●d, is undoubtedly the same simple undivided Essence, and (setting aside Revelation, which we are not to mention here) the only Rule bestowed upon us, for the regulating of our Actions.  
I know not whether I might not properly begin with some short Account of the Nature of the Humane Mind, and the Extent of its Powers, viz. those of Thinking, Apprehending, Reflecting, Judging, etc. by which we should both gain this one considerable Point, That Reason, how excellently advantageous soever it be to us, yet in its greatest Latitude, as it is applicable to the Mind of Man, surrounded with Corporeal Organs, is not a full commensurate Rule of Truth, at least not so adequate, as that we should exclude every Truth from being such on the account of its surmounting our Apprehension; but to descend into this Enquiry will take up too much time, you may if you please concede this Postulate, if not, you will find yourself however obliged to confess, that you do assent unto the verity of some things, which you are so far from conceiving or apprehending fully, that you have scarce any knowledge at all of them. To begin then,  
Amongst the several sorts of Atheists, who have denied the necessity of admitting one first independent Being, or Cause of all Things, which we call GOD, and have endeavoured to solve the Phaenomena of the Universe, without recourse to Him; they may all (if I mistake not) be reduced to those, who have first of all not scrupled to affirm an Eternity of Successions in the Generation of Mankind, as well à part ante as à parte post, or in the same (as much incomprehensible) sense that the Universal Systeme with its constituent parts, Bodies animate and inanimate, has been from all Eternity as we find it now, and shall for ever so continue. Or, Secondly, To those who perceiving the Absurdities of such a multiplied Eternity, have thought fit to acknowledge a Beginning of all Things; but rather than ascribe this mighty Work of Creation to a Divine Energy, will have every portion of the Mundane Matter, under whatever form, shape or texture, nay even the Body of Man himself however curiously contrived, to be the result of nothing more, than an unguided shuffling of senseless Atoms, after numberless occursions and conflicts with each other, at length happening into that beautiful Order and Harmony of the World. There are others who ascribe our Origine to the Effect either of an Astral or Solar Influence upon Matter duly modified: but these are such gross Figments, that I shall take no notice of their repugnancy, or spend time in setting upon their Confutation.  
Which of these Hypotheses may best please you I know not, nor indeed when I consider, can I persuade myself, that you heartily espouse either; since I impute your Incredulity rather to an unbecoming Negligence or careless Supinity, than to any reasonable Objection you can make against the Mosaic History of the Creation. I shall endeavour as briefly as I know how, to display some of those gross Absurdities and palpable Contradictions, which attend this Notion, that Mankind has thus eternally subsisted in infinite Generations already past; which being proved a downright falsehood, you will perceive that they had their rise from one primitive Couple: from hence I will proceed in such other Methods, as may be most likely to lay open the Falsity of all other Opinions, unless that which grounds the World's Genesis, upon the Power of Almighty God.  
The Thoughts of a very great Philosopher, as well as a Divine, upon this Argument run parallel with my own, and therefore I shall take the liberty to deliver them in his words.  

Mr. Bently's third Sermon at the Lecture which was ●ounded by the honourable 〈…〉  Infinite Generations of Men (you say) are already past and gone. But whatsoever is now past was once actually present. So that each of these infinite Generations was once in its turn actually present; therefore all except one Generation were once future, and not in Being, which destroys the very Supposition: for either that one Generation must it s●lf have been infinite, which is nonsense, or it was the finite beginning of infinite Generations between itself and us, which is infinitely terminated at both ends.  
Again, Infinite past Generations of Men have been once actually present, therefore there may be some one Man of them given, that was at infinite distance from us now; therefore that Man's Son likewise (suppose forty years younger than his Father) was either at infinite distance from us, or at finite: if that Son too was at infinite distance from us, than one Infinite is longer by forty years than another, which is absurd, if at finite, then forty years added to finite makes it infinite, which is absurd as the other.  
The number of Men that are already dead and gone is infinite, as you say, but the number of the several parts of the Bodies of those Men, must necessarily be much greater than the number of the Men themselves; and at this rate we shall have one infinite number twice, ten times, and thousands of times as great as another: which is a notorious Contradiction. And thus we see that 'tis impossible in itself, that any successive Duration should be actually and positively infinite, or have infinite Successions already gone and passed.  

Sixth Sermon.  But farther, That the present or a like frame of the World hath not subsisted from everlasting: We will readily concede that a Thing may be truly Eternal, tho' its duration be terminated at one end: for so we affirm human Souls to be immortal, tho' there was a time when they were nothing: and therefore their infinite duration will always be bounded at one extreme by that first beginning of Existence: So that for aught appears as yet, you may say the Revolutions of the Earth, and other Planets about the Sun, tho' they be limited at one end by the present Revolution, may nevertheless have been infinite and eternal, without any beginning; but then we must consider, that this duration of human Souls is only potentially infinite, for their Eternity consists only in an endless capacity of Continuance without ever ceasing to be, in a boundless Futurity that can never be exhausted; or all of it be past and present: but their duration can never be positively or actually Eternal, because it is most manifest that no Moment can ever be assigned, wherein it shall be true that such a Soul hath then actually sustained an infinite duration: for that supposed infinite duration will by the very Supposition be limited at two Extremes, tho' never so remote asunder, and consequently must needs be finite. Wherefore the true Nature and Notion of a Soul's eternity is this, That the future Moment's of its Duration can never be all past and present, but still there will be a futurity and potentiality of More for ever and ever. So that we evidently perceive from this Instance of a Soul, that whatever successive duration shall be bounded at one end, and be all past and present, must come infinitely short of Infinity; which necessarily evinceth that this or a like World can never have been Eternal, or that there cannot have been infinite past Revolutions of a Planet about a Sun: for this supposed Infinity is terminated at one Extreme, by the present Revolution, and all the other Revolutions are confessedly passed, so that the whole Duration is bounded at one end, and all past and present, and therefore cannot have been infinite. This will also show us the vast difference betwixt the false successive Eternity backwards, and the real one to come: for consider the present Revolution of the Earth, as the Bound and Confine of them both, God Almighty, if he so pleaseth, may continue this Motion to perpetuity, in infinite Revolutions to come, because Futurity is inexhaustible, and can never be all spent, and run out by past and present Moment's: but than if we look backwards from this present Revolution, we do apprehend the impossibility of infinite Revolutions on that side, because all are already past, and so were once actually present; and consequently are finite by the Argument before. For surely we cannot conceive a pretariteness (if I may so speak) still backwards in infinitum, that never was present, as we can an endless Futurity that never will be present: so that tho' one is potentially infinite, yet nevertheless the other is positively finite. And tho' this reasoning doth necessarily conclude against the past infinite duration of all successive Motion and mutable Being's, yet doth it not affect the Eternal Existence of the Adorable Divinity, in whose invariable Nature there is no past nor future, who is Omnipresent not only as to space, but as to duration: and with respect to such Omnipresence it is certain and manifest, that Succession and Motion are more Impossibilities, and repugnant in the very terms.  
Thus doth the Atheists Hypothesis, touching the Eternity of the World, absolutely destroy and confute itself. For let us suppose some infinite Revolution of the Earth about the Sun, to be already gone and expired, I take it to be self-evident, that if none of those past Revolutions have been infinite Ages ago, all the Revolutions put together cannot make up the Duration of infinite Ages; it follows therefore from this Supposition, that there may be some One assignable Revolution among them, that is at an infinite distance from the present; but it is self-evident likewise, that no one past Revolution can be infinitely distant from the present; for then an infinite or unbounded duration, may be bounded at two Extremes, by two annual Revolutions, which is absurd, and a Contradiction.  
And again, upon the same Supposition of an Eternal past Duration of the World, and of infinite annual Revolutions of the Earth about the Sun; I would ask concerning the Monthly Revolutions of the Moon about the Earth, or the Diurnal ones of the Earth upon its Axis, both which by the very Hypothesis are coaeval with the former, Whether these also have been finite or infinite? Not finite to be sure, because th●n a finite number would be greater than an infinite, as 12 or 365 are greater than a Unite. Nor infinite neither, for then two or three Infinites would exceed one another, as a year exceeds a Month, or both exceed a Day: So that both ways the Supposition is repugnant and impossible.  
These Difficulties, as I have already intimated, cannot be reasonably applied to the Eternal Duration of the Supreme Power; for tho' we cannot comprehend Eternity and Infinity, yet we understand what They are not, and something we are sure must have existed from Eternity, because all things could not emerge from nothing: So that if this Preaexistent Eternity is not compatible with a successive Duration, as we clearly and distinctly perceive that it is not, than something (tho' infinitely above our finite Comprehensions) must have had an Identical, invariable continuance from all Eternity: which Being is what we call God; for as his Nature is perfect and immutable, without the least shadow of Change, so his Eternal Duration is permanent and invisible, not measurable by Time and Motion, nor to be computed by number of successive Moment's.  

Third Sermon at ●●les ●●●ture.  But this Opinion of Infinite Generations, is repugnant likewise to Matter of Fact. 'Tis a Truth beyond opposition, That the Universal Species of Mankind has had a gradual Increase notwithstanding what War and Famine, Pestilence, Floods, Conflagrations, and other Causes, may at certain Periods of Time, have interrupted and retarded it. This is manifest from the History of the Jewish Nation, from the Account of the Roman Census, and from the Registers of our own Country, where the proportion of Births to Burials, is found upon observation to be yearly as fifty to forty: Now if Mankind do increase (though never so slowly, but one Couple suppose in an Age) 'tis enough to evince the falsehood of infinite Generations already expired: for tho' the Atheist should contend that there were Ten thousand million Couple of Mankind now in being (that we may allow him multitude enough) 'tis but going back so many Ages, and we descend to one single Original Pair: and 'tis all one in respect of Eternal Duration yet behind, whether we begin the World so many millions of Ages ago, or date it from the late Aera of about Six thousand years: which recent Beginning is, I think, sufficiently established, from the known Original of Empires and Kingdoms, and from the late Invention of Arts and Sciences: whereas, if infinite Ages of Mankind had already preceded, there could nothing have been left to be invented or improved by the successful Industry and Curiosity of our own. The Circulation of the Blood, and the Weight and Spring of the Air (which is as it were the Vital Pulse, and the great Circulation of Nature, and of more importance in all Physiology than any one Invention since the beginning of Science) had never lain hidden so many Myriad of Generations, and been reserved for a late happy discovery by two great Luminaries of this Island.  
I hope, from what has been said, you may gain (if not undoubted satisfaction) at least some certain knowledge, that this Notion of Infinite past Generations, or the World's Eternity, is so far from bearing the Test of a Reasonable Inquisition, that the very Supposition is void of Sense, and a palpable Contradiction.  
The Atomical Hypothesis of a fortuitous Jumble, without any Intelligent Being to direct the Portions of the Mundane Matter, into their several Forms, is a Fancy no less extravagant; a Whimsy so unaccountable, that (in the words of a great Man) there is nothing more wonderful to imagine, unless this, That it should ever enter into the heart of Man. The better to confute this, together with those other Opinions of the Astral and Solar Influence, I have here borrowed a Scheme of fair and reasonable Argumentation, from the Judicious Mr. Lock, such an one I hope as will extort a Confession from you, that there must unavoidably be admitted a first Cause of all things, and that the same can be no other than a most Intelligent as well as Powerful Being.  
1. Tho' God has given us (says that learned Man) no innate Ideas of himself; tho' he has stamped no original Characters on our Minds, 
Mr. Lock's Essay of Humane Understanding.  wherein we may read his Being; yet having furnished us with those Faculties our Minds are endowed with, he hath not left himself without witness, since we have Sense, Perception and Reason, and cannot want a clear proof of Him, as long as we carry ourselves about us; nor can we justly complain of our Ignorance in this great Point, since He has so plentifully provided us with the Means to discover and know Him, so far as is necessary to the end of our Being, and the great Concernment of our Happiness. But tho' this be the most obvious Truth that Reason discovers, and tho' its Evidence be (if I mistake not) equal to mathematical Certainty; yet it requires Thought and Attention, and the Mind must apply itself to a regular Deduction of it, from some part of our intuitive Knowledge, or else we shall be as uncertain and ignorant of this as of other Propositions, which are in themselves capable of clear demonstration. To show therefore that we are capable of knowing, i. e. being certain that there is a God, and how we may come by this Certainty, I think we need go no farther than ourselves, and that undoubted Knowledge we have of our own Existence.  
2. I think it is beyond question, that Man has a clear Perception of his own Being; he knows certainly that he Exists, and that he is something: He that can doubt whether he be any thing, or no, I speak no more to, than I would argue with pure Nothing, or endeavour to convince Nonentity that it were something. If any one pretend to be so sceptical, as to deny his own Existence (for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible) let him (for me) enjoy his beloved Happiness of being Nothing, until Hunger or some other Pain, convince him of the contrary. This I think I may take for a Truth, of which every ones certain Knowledge assures him, beyond the liberty of doubting, viz. That he is something that actually Exists.  
3. In the next place, Man knows by an Intuitive knowledge the Certainty that bore Nothing can no more produce any real Being, than it can be equal to two right Angles. If a Man knows not that Nonentity, or the Absence of all Being, cannot be equal to two right Angles, it is impossible that he should know any Demonstration in Euclid. If therefore we know there is some real Being, and that Nonentity cannot produce any real Being, it is an evident Demonstration that from Eternity there has been something; since what was from Eternity had a Beginning, and what had a Beginning must be produced from something else.  
4. Next, It is evident that what had its Being and Beginning from another, must also have all that which is in, and belongs to its Being to another too: all the Power it has must be owing to, and received from the same Source. This Eternal Source then of all Being, Being must also be the Source and Original of all Power, and so this Eternal Being must be also the most powerful.  
5. Again, A Man finds in himself Perception and Knowledge, we have then got one step farther, and we are certain now that there is not only some Being, but some knowing Intelligent Being in the World. There was a time then when there was no knowing Being, and when Knowledge began to be, or else there has been also a knowing Being from Eternity. If it be said there was a time when no Being had any Knowledge, when that Eternal Being was void of all Understanding; I reply, That then it was impossible there should ever have been any Knowledge; it being as impossible that things wholly void of Knowledge, and operating blindly without any Perception, should produce a knowing Being, as it is impossible that a Triangle should make itself three Angles bigger than two right ones: for it is as repugnant to the Idea of senseless Matter, that it should put into itself Sense, Perception and Knowledge, as it is repugnant to the Idea of a Triangle, that it should put into itself greater Angle's than two right ones.  
6. Thus from the Consideration of ourselves, and what we infallibly find in our own Constitutions, our Reason leads us to the knowledge of this certain and evident Truth, That there is an eternal, most powerful, and most knowing Being, which whether any one will please to call God, it matters not, the thing is evident, and from this Idea duly considered, will easily be deduced all those other Attributes we ought to ascribe to this Eternal Being. If nevertheless any one should be found so senslesly arrogant, as to suppose Man alone knowing and wise, but yet the Product of mere Ignorance and Chance, and that all the rest of the Universe is acted only by that blind Haphazard, I shall leave with him that very rational and emphatical Rebuke of Tully, Lib. 2. de Leg. to be considered leisurely: Quid est enim verius, quam neminem esse oportere tam stulte arrogantem, ut in se Mentem & Rationem putet inesse, in Coelo Mundóque non putet? aut ea quae vix summâ Ingenij ratione comprehendat, nulla ratione moveri putet? Or that of the Philosopher, Egregie mentiuntur qui dicunt non esse Deum, etiamsi enim interdiu negant Noctu tamen & sibi dubitant.  
From what has been said, it is plain to me, we have a more certain knowledge of the Existence of a God, than of any thing our Senses have not immediately discovered to us: Nay, I presume I may say that we more certainly know that there is a God, than that there is any thing else without us. When I say we know, I mean that there is such a Knowledge within our reach, which we cannot miss, if we will but apply our Minds to that, as we do to several other Inquiries.  
7. How far the Idea of a most perfect Being, which a Man may frame in his Mind, does or does not prove the Existence of a God, I will not here examine; for in the different make of men's Tempers and application of their Thoughts, some Arguments prevail more on one, and some on another, for the confirmation of the same Truth. But yet I think this I may say, that it is an ill way of establishing this Truth, and silencing Atheists, to lay the whole stress of so important a Point as this, upon that sole foundation, and take some men's having that Idea of God in their Minds (for 'tis evident some Men have none, and some worse than none, and the most very indifferent) for the only proof of a Deity, and out of an overfondness of that darling Invention, cashier, or at least endeavour to invalidate all other Arguments, and forbid us to hearken to those proofs, as being weak or fallacious, which our own Existence, and the sensible parts of the Universe offer so clearly and cogently to our Thoughts, that I deem it impossible for a considering Man to withstand them: for I judge it as certain and clear a Truth as can any where be delivered, that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World, being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead.  
Tho' our own Being furnishes us, as I have shown, with an Evident and incontestible Proof of a Deity, and I believe no Body can avoid the Cogency of it, who will but as carefully attend to it, as to any other Demonstration of so many parts; yet this being so fundamental a Truth, and of that consequence, that all Religion and genuine Morality depend thereon, I doubt not but I shall be forgiven, if I go over some parts of this Argument again, and enlarge a little more thereon.  
8. There is no Truth more evident than that something must be from Eternity: I never yet heard of any one so unreasonable that could suppose so manifest a Contradiction, as a time wherein there was perfectly nothing, this Being of all Absurdities the greatest to imagine that pure Nothing, the perfect Negation and Absence of all Being, should ever produce any real Existence.  
It being then unavoidable for all rational Creatures to conclude that something has existed from Eternity, let us next see what kind of thing that must be.  
9 There are but two sorts of Being's in the World, that Man knows or conceives; First, Such as are purely material, without Sense, Perception, or Thought. Secondly, Sensible thinking and perceiving Being's, which, if you please, we will hereafter call cogitative and incogitative Being's, being more to our present purpose, and perhaps better terms than Material and Immaterial.  
10. If then there must be something Eternal, let us see what sort of Being it must be: And to that it is very obvious to Reason, that it must necessarily be a cogitative Being; for it is as impossible to conceive that ever bare incogitative Matter should produce a thinking Intelligent Being, as that nothing should of itself produce Matter. Let us suppose any Parcel of Matter Eternal, great or small, we shall find it in itself able to produce nothing: for example; Let us suppose the Matter of the next Pibble we meet with Eternal, closely united, and the parts firmly at rest together: If there were no other Being in the World, must it not eternally remain so, a dead unactive Lump; is it possible to conceive it can add motion to itself, being purely Matter, or produce any thing? Matter then, by its own strength, cannot produce in itself so much as Motion, the Motion it has must also be from Eternity, or else be produced and added to Matter by some other Being more powerful than Matter. Matter, as is evident, having not power to produce Motion in itself. But let us suppose Motion eternal too, yet Matter, incogitative Matter and Motion, whatever Changes it might produce of figure and bulk, could never produce Thought. Knowledge will still be as far beyond the power of Motion and Matter to produce, as matter is beyond the power of nothing to produce: And I appeal to every ones one Thoughts, whether he cannot as easily conceive Matter produced by nothing, as Thought to be produced by pure Matter, when before there was no such thing as Thought or an Intelligent Being existing. Divide Matter into as minute parts as you will (which we are apt to imagine a sort of spiritualising or making a thinking thing of it) vary the figure and motion of it as much as you please, a Globe, Cube, Cone, Prism, Cylinder, and you may as rationally expect to produce Sense, Thought and Knowledge, by putting together in a certain figure and motion the grossest portions of Matter, as by those that are the very smallest that any where exist. They knock, impel and resist one another, just as the greater do, and that is all they can do: so that if we will suppose nothing first or eternal, Matter can never begin to be: if we suppose bare Matter without Motion eternal, Motion can never begin to be: if we suppose only Matter and Motion first or eternal, Thought can never begin to be; for it is impossible to conceive that Matter, either with or without motion, could have originally in and from itself, Sense, Perception and Knowledge, as is evident from hence that then Sense, Perception and Knowledge, must be a property eternally inseparable from Matter, and every particle of it. Not to add, that tho' our general or specific conception of Matter, makes us speak of it as one thing, yet really all Matter is not one individual thing, neither is there any such thing existing as one material Being, or one single Body that we know, or can conceive; and therefore if matter were the Eternal first cogitative Being, there would not be one Eternal infinite cogitative Being, but an infinite number of Eternal finite cogitative Being's, independent one with another, of limited Force and distinct Thoughts, which could never produce that Order, Harmony and Beauty, which is to be found in Nature.  
Since therefore whatsoever is the first Eternal Being, must necessarily be cogitative; and whatsoever is first of all things must necessarily contain in it, and actually have at least all the Perfections that can ever after exist, nor can it ever give to another any Perfection that it hath not, either actually in itself, or at least in a higher degree, it necessarily follows that the first Eternal Being cannot be Matter.  
11. If therefore it be evident that something necessarily must exist from Eternity, 'tis also as evident that that something must necessarily be a cogitative Being: for 'tis as impossible that incogitative Matter should produce a cogitative Being, as that Nothing, or the Negation of all Being should produce a positive Being or Matter.  
12. Tho' this Discourse of the necessary Existence of an Eternal Mind, does sufficiently lead us to the knowledge of a God since it will hence follow, that all other knowing Being's that have a beginning, must depend on Him, and have no other ways of Knowledge, or extent of Power, than what He gives them; and therefore if He made those, He made also the less excellent Pieces of this Universe, all inanimate Being's, whereby his Omniscience, Power, and Providence will be established, and all his other Attributes necessarily follow; yet to clear up this a little further, we will see what Doubts can be raised against it.  
13. First, Perhaps it will be said, that tho' it be as clear as Demonstration can make it, that there must be an Eternal Being, and that Being must also be knowing, yet it does not follow but that thinking Being may also be material. Let it be so; it still equally follows that there is a God: for if there be an Eternal, Omniscient, Omnipotent Being, it is certain that there is a God, whether you imagine that Being to be material or no. But herein I suppose lies the danger and deceit of that Supposition: There being no way to avoid the Demonstration that there is an Eternal knowing Being, Men devoted to Matter would willingly have it granted, that this knowing Being is material, and then letting slide out of their Minds, or their Discourse, the Demonstration whereby an Eternal knowing Being was proved necessarily to exist, would argue all to be Matter, and so deny a God that is an Eternal cogitative Being, whereby they are so far from establishing, that they destroy their own Hypothesis: for if there can be, in their opinion, Eternal Matter without any Eternal cogitative Being, they manifestly separate Matter and Thinking, and so suppose no necessary connexion of one with the other; and from hence establish the necessity of an Eternal Spirit, but not of Matter, since it has been proved already, that an Eternal cogitative being is unavoidably to be granted. Now if thinking and Matter may be separated, the Eternal Existence of Matter will not follow from the Eternal Existence of a cogitative Being, and they suppose it to no purpose.  
14. But now let us see how they can satisfy themselves, or others, that this Eternal thinking Being is material. First, I would ask them, whether they imagine that all Matter, every Particle of Matter thinks? This I suppose they will scarce say; since then there would be as many Eternal thinking Being's, as there are Particles of Matter, and so an infinity of Gods: And yet if they will not allow Matter as Matter, that is, every Particle of Matter, to be as well cogitative as extended, they will have as hard a task to make out to their own Reasons a cogitative Being, out of incogitative Particles, as an extended Being out of unextended parts, if I may so speak.  
15. Secondly, If all Matter do not think, I next ask, Whether it be only one Atom that does so? This has as many Absurdities as the other; for then this Atom of Matter must be alone Eternal, or not: if this alone be Eternal, than this alone by its powerful Thought or Will, made all the rest of Matter; and so we have the Creation of Matter by a powerful Thought, which is that the Materialists stick at: for if they suppose one single thinking Atom to have produced all the rest of Matter, they cannot ascribe that praeeminency to it upon any other account than that of its Thinking, the only supposed Difference: But allow it to be by some other way which is above our conception, it must be still Creation, and these Men must give up their great Maxim, Ex nihilo nil fit. If it be said that all the rest of Matter is equally Eternal as that thinking Atom, it will be to say any thing at pleasure, though never so absurd: for to suppose all Matter Eternal, and yet one small Particle in Knowledge and Power infinitely above the rest, is without any the least appearance of Reason to frame any Hypothesis: every Particle of Matter, as Matter, is capable of all the same Figures and Motions of any other; and I challenge any one in his Thoughts to add any thing else to one above another.  
16. Thirdly, If then neither one peculiar Atom alone, can be this Eternal thinking Being, nor all Matter, as Matter, i. e. every Particle of Matter can be it, it only remains that it is some certain System of Matter duly put together, that is this thinking Eternal Being: This is that which I imagine is that Notion which Men are aptest to have of God, who would have Him a Material Being, as most readily suggested to them by the ordinary Conceit they have of themselves, and of other Men, whom they take to be Material thinking Being's. But this Imagination however more natural, is no less absurd than the other; for to suppose the Eternal thinking Being to be nothing else but a Composition of the Particles of Matter, each whereof is incogitative, is to ascribe all the Wisdom and Knowledge of that Eternal Being, only to the Juxtaposition of parts, than which nothing can be more absurd: for unthinking Particles of Matter, however put together, can have nothing thereby added to them but a new relation of Position, which 'tis impossible should give Thought and Knowledge to them.  
17. But farther; This Corporeal System either has all its parts at rest, or it is a certain motion of the parts, wherein its thinking consists; if it be perfectly at rest, it is but one Lump, and so can have no Privileges above one Atom. If it be the Motion of its parts on which its thinking depends, all the Thoughts there must be unavoidably accidental and limited, since all the Particles that by Motion cause Thought, being each of them in itself without any Thought, cannot regulate its own Motions, much less be regulated by the Thought of the whole, since that Thought is not the Cause of Motion (for then it must be antecedent to it, and so without it) but the Consequence of it, whereby Freedom, Power, Choice, and all rational and wise Thinking and Acting will be taken away. So that such a Thinking Being will be no better nor wiser than pure blind Matter, since to resolve all into the accidental unguided Motions of blind Matter, or into Thought depending on the unguided Motions of blind Matter, is the same thing: not to mention the narrowness of such Thoughts and Knowledge, that must depend on the Motions of such parts: but there needs no more enumeration of any more Absurdities and Impossibilities in this Hypothesis (however full of them it be) than that before mentioned; since, let this thinking Systeme be all or a part of the Matter of the Universe, it is impossible that any one Particle should either know its own, or the Motion of any other Particle, or the whole know the Motion of every Particular, and so regulate its own Thoughts or Motions, or indeed have any Thought resulting from such Motion.  
18. Others would have Matter to be Eternal, notwithstanding they all owe an Eternal Cogitative immaterial Being. This, tho' it take not away the Being of a God, yet since it denies one and the first great Piece of his Workmanship, the Creation, let us consider it a little. Matter must be allowed Eternal: Why? Because you can't perceive how it can be made out of Nothing: Why do you not also think yourself Eternal? You will answer perhaps, Because about twenty or forty years since you began to be. But if I ask you what that You is, which began then to be, you can scarcely tell me: The Matter whereof you are made began not then to be; for if it did, than it is not Eternal: but it began to be put together into such a fashion or frame as makes up your Body; but yet that frame of Particles is not you, it makes not that thinking thing you are (for I have now to do with One who allows an Eternal immaterial thinking Being, but would have unthinking Matter eternal too) therefore when did that thinking Thing begin to be? If it did never begin to be, than you have always been a thinking Thing from Eternity; the absurdity whereof I need not confute, till I meet with one so void of understanding as to own it. If therefore you can allow a thinking Thing to be made out of Nothing (as all Things that are not Eternal must be) why also can you not allow it possible for a Material Being to be made out of Nothing by an equal Power, but that you have the Experience of the one in view, and not of the other: tho' when well considered, Creation of a Spirit will be found to require no less power than the Creation of Matter; nay, possibly if we would emancipate ourselves from vulgar Notions, and raise our Thoughts as far as they would reach to a closer Contemplation of Things, we might be able to aim at some dim and seeming Conception how Matter might at first be made and begin to exist, by the power of that Eternal first Being: but to give Beginning and Being to a Spirit, would be found a more inconceivable Effect of Omnipotent Power. But this Being what would perhaps lead us too far from the Notions on which the Philosophy now in the World is built, it would not be pardonable to deviate so far as Grammar itself would authorise, if the common settled Opinion opposes it; especially in this place, where the received Doctrine serves well enough to our present purpose, and leaves this past doubt, That the Creation or Beginning of any one Substance out of Nothing, being once admitted, the Creation of all other but the Creator himself, may with the same ease be supposed.  
19 But you will say, I● it not impossible to admit of the making any Thing out of Nothing, since we cannot possibly conceive it? I answer no: 1. Because it is not reasonable to deny the Power of an Infinite Being, upon the account that we cannot comprehend its Operations: We do not deny other Effects upon this Ground, because we cannot possibly conceive the manner of their production. We cannot conceive how Thought (or any thing but Motion in Body) can move a Body, and yet that is not a Reason sufficient to make us deny it possible against the constant Experience we have of it in ourselves, in all voluntary Motions which are produced in us only by the free Thoughts of our own Minds, and are not, nor can be the Effects of the impulse or determination of the Motion of blind Matter in or upon our Bodies, for than it could not be in our power or choice to alter it. For example, My right hand writes, whilst my left hand is still, what causes Rest in one, and Motion in the other? nothing but my Will, a Thought of my Mind: my Thought only changing, the right hand rests, and the left hand moves; this is matter of fact which cannot be denied: Explain this, and make it intelligible, and then the next step will be to understand Creation. For the giving a new determination to the Motion of the Animal Spirits (which some make use of to explain voluntary Motion) clears not the difficulty one jot●: to alter the determination of Motion, being in this Case no easier nor less than to give Motion itself; since the new determination given to the Animal Spirits, must be either immediately by Thought, or by some other Body put in their way by Thought, which was not in their way before, and so must own its Motion to Thought, either of which leaves voluntary Motion as unintelligible as it was before. In the mean time it is an over-valuing ourselves, to reduce all to the narrow measure of our Capacities, and to conclude all things impossible to be done whose manner of doing exceeds our Comprehension: this is to make our Comprehension infinite, or God finite, when what He can do is limited to what we conceive of it. If you do not understand the operations of your own finite Mind, that thinking Thing within you, do not deem it strange that you cannot comprehend the operations of that Eternal infinite Mind who made and governs all things, and whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain.  
I hope (my Friend) you will more readily excuse the foregoing Prolixity, on the account that first Principles (especially those of so great moment as these before us) ought to be as clearly and satisfactorily proved as it is possible: which if upon your most serious Reflection you find established beyond opposition, I expect that from this moment you date the downfall of your Atheism, and that you presently commence Deist in order to turn Christian.  
I know of no better way of arguing with the mere natural Man, or with such who value themselves so highly upon the strength of their own Judgement or Humane Reason, than to endeavour their Conviction by the most rational Deductions from as rational Propositions: whether or no these are such which I have transferred hither from the Writings of these two famous Men, I must leave you to consider. I confess there is little hopes of reclaiming such foolhardy Libertines, who argue for their Infidelity by the same powers in their Souls, which, to the more considerate, are convincing proofs, That the Soul, which is invested with such mighty Power, must undoubtedly be a Substance independent of Corporiety, and consequently incapable of suffering an extinction with the Lamp of Life; but of the Nature of the Rational Soul of Man, and its different Existence from the Soul of Brutes, I shall discourse elsewhere, having here confined myself more particularly to inquire after the Author of our own Being, and all others which surround us.  
There have been many Methods used in handling of this Subject, and indeed (were our Opponents so full of Reason as they pretend) one might wonder that any of them should prove insufficient. I shall not here stay to examine the Certainty of that Cartesian Notion, That 'tis impossible we could have had any Idea of that infinite Eternal alwise Being we call God, if such a Being did not really exist, or were not in rerum Natura: But of this we may be satisfied, that unless we do believe there is such an immense Being has created us with a design not to deceive us, we must be pure Sceptics: for it is impossible without this Belief, we should be fully assured of any Truth whatsoever; and therefore I think 'tis not without Cause that the Philosopher lays this down as a necessary Introduction to Science, Nihil intelligitur, nisi Deus prius intelligatur.  
Having proved the Necessity of some Eternal cogitative Being, by a train of Arguments which are founded upon right Reason, neither supported by Tradition or Authority, either Sacred or Profane, I shall next inquire how it comes to pass that this first and (if I may so say) greatest Truth, the Foundation of all true Happiness, is so wonderfully obscured effaced, and even obliterated out of the Hearts of a great part of Mankind.  
Whosoever will take the trouble to inform himself, after what manner most People account for the Productions they see daily brought to pass, may easily understand that where one Man speaks either reasonably or becomingly of the great Author of the Universe, and acknowledges any such Being as superintends the agency of second Causes; there are abundantly more who look no farther than the empty Sounds of Fate, Fortune, Chance, Destiny, and in their Inquiries into the Structure of Humane Bodies, or the Discords of the Animal Oeconomy, you rarely find any thing more particularly taken notice of than the Archaeus, by some, by others the Plastic Power, and indeed by all most commonly a certain Nature, which tho' continually in their Expressions, they know not what to make of.  
Excuse me (Sir) if I think it worth my while to examine which of these can supply the place of an Almighty, or of any real efficient Cause; or with what reason we can ascribe unto either of these nominal Agents, the Operations imputed to them.  

Seneca l. 2. the ●●●●ion. ●●tural.  Fate or Destiny (saith SENECA) is an immutable and invincible Law, imposed upon Things and Actions. You will say perhaps that this thing shall happen, or not happen: if it must come to pass, altho' you vow and make your request, yet shall it take effect: If it shall not come to pass, vow and pray as much as you list, yet it shall not fall out. Now the Consequence, saith he, of this Argument is false, because you have forgot the Exception that I have put between them both; that is to say, This shall happen provided a Man makes Vows and Prayers, it must necessarily happen, that to vow, or not to vow, are comprehended in, and are parts of the same Destiny. Again, It is destinated, or it is such a Man's fate to be an eloquent Man; but under this Condition, it is likewise destinated that he be instructed in good Letters. It is destinated for another Man to he rich, but here 'tis included in the same Destiny, that be make use of the means for their procurement. So likewise may it be said it was such a Man's destiny to be hanged; but here that he render himself guilty of some capital Offence, for which he is convicted by the Law, is part of the same Destiny.  
In the sense wherein these words are used by this Philosopher, I see no mighty prejudice; there is indeed this mistake very oft attending, That whereas by Fate or Destiny are understood the unalterable Laws of God, which are founded upon his Prescience, Men are apt to overlook the Lawgiver himself, and to represent this Law by him established, as a certain powerful Agent or irresistible Deity, which they say does blindly and accountably govern the World.  
Give me leave to take notice, That I look upon this Fate and Destiny of the Heathens (in its vulgarly received Phrase) very nearly to correspond with the Predestination of some Modern Christians; they do both of them partake of the same tyrannical, despotic power; and both tend to the same end, viz. the robbing Man of his Freedom, and exposing him, Brute-like, to act by an irresistible Impulse.  
The Eternal Decrees of the Divine Being, which are made as it were conditional, and founded on a foreknowledge of the Good and Evil that Man shall act, carry nothing along with them contradictory to his Truth and Justice: but the Absolute Predestination which is supposed exclusive of M●ns Actions, as a free Agent, is a Doctrine so very harsh, and so pregnant with ill Consequences, as is not to be countenanced. Thus much for Fate and Destiny.  
Chance and Fortune are words so insignificant, that had not a foolish Custom rendered them familiar, one might justly admire that ever they should be mentioned by considering Men. 
Bentley's 5th Serm.  The true Notion of Fortune (in the words of a Learned Man) denoteth nothing more than the ignorance of an Event in some knowing Agent, concerned about it; so that it owes its very Being to Humane Understanding, and without relation to that would be a Non Ens, or really Nothing. 'Twas Man that first made Fortune, and not Fortune Man; so likewise the adequate meaning of Chance (as it is discinguisht from Fortune, in that the latter is understood to befall only Rational Agents, but Chance to be amongst inanimate Bodies) is really a bare Negation that signifies no more than this, That any Effect amongst such Bodies ascribed to Chance, is verily produced by Physical Agents, according to the established Laws of Motion, but without their consciousness of concurring to the Production, and without their Intention of such an Effect. So that in this genuine acceptation of Chance, here is nothing supposed that can supersede the known Laws of natural Motion; and thus to attribute the formation of Mankind to Chance, is equally as absurd as to ascribe the same to Nature or Mechanism.  
Having given you these few hints, touching the unreasonableness of our ascribing any Effect to that which is in truth no more than a Chimaera or Fiction of the Brain, and our looking on them as Agents, which are mere Nonentities, I shall take notice of those other Expressions which are so frequently made use of, not only by the Ignorant, but even by Physicians themselves and other Learned Men, such I mean as the Archaeus, the Plastic Power, the formative Faculty, and that petty kind of Deity called Nature. For the better comprehending the significancy of these several Terms, let us put ourselves upon reflecting, and a very little attention will discover the fallacy. Suppose then, for instance, that any Man should tell me that such or such a Thing will exhilirate the Archaeus, or enliven decayed Nature; that such a Monster owes its rise to a Defect or Error committed by the Plastic Power, or formative Faculty; is it not very reasonable that we desire to know what either of these are, whether or no they are real Agents, or intellectual Being's, employing themselves in the care of our Conservation; or in a word, what they do truly import in their genuine and proper meaning. If we make, I say, this Enquity, we may satisfy ourselves, that every one of these words, with many of the like signification, particularly such as go by the name of Faculties and Qualities, were first of all taken up, either as an Umbrage for men's Ignorance of real Causes, or invented in order to a more compendious way of speaking, whereby the several Means made use of towards a particular Production, are comprised under some single Appellation. 
boil's Enquiry into the Notion of Nature.  And thus it happens (as Mr. boil speaks) that a fit and actuating Power of the Teeth, Tongue, spital, Fibres and Membranes of the Gullet and Stomach, together with the Natural Heat, the Ferment and Menstruum, and some other Agents, which cooperate to the Transmutation of our Aliment into Chile, are all included in that frequent Expression of Concoctive Faculty; a word as commonly made use of by those who know not what they mean when they speak it, as by those that do.  
But amongst all the pretended Causes of those Effects we see daily produced, there is none more frequently made use of than the word Nature, upon which consideration the most Judicious boil, foreseeing the abuse of that unhappy word, was (as he expresses himself) so paradoxical, as to make a very serious doubt, whether this same Nature so much discoursed of, was a Thing or a Name; or whether it was any real existent Being, or a Being purely notional. For when any Man tells me, saith he, that Nature does this or that; that 'tis natural for one thing to do this, and another that; he does in no wise help me to understand, or to explicate the manner of these Productions: for 'tis manifest enough, that whatsoever is done in this World (where the Rational Soul intervenes not) is really effected by corporeal Agents, acting in a World so framed as ours is, according to the Laws of Motion, settled by its omniscient Author.  
'Tis true, that many acknowledge this Nature to be a Thing established by the Almighty, and subordinate to Him: but tho' many confess it when they are asked, whether they do or not: yet besides that they seldom or never lift up their Eyes to any higher Cause; he that takes notice of their way of ascribing Things to Nature, may easily discern, that whatever their words sometimes be, the Agency of the God of Nature, is very little taken notice of in their Thoughts.  
Indeed, if I thought my Opinion might sway with you so far, as to put you upon reflecting in good earnest, I should give you to understand that 'tis my real belief, That the improper use of this very word has been vastly injurious to the Glory of our Maker, and (in the words of the foresaid Author) I doubt not but the looking upon merely Corporeal, and oftentimes Inanimate Things, as if they were endowed with Life, Sense and Understanding, and the ascribing to Nature, and some other Being's, whether Real or Imaginary, Things that belong only to God, have been some, if not the chief of the grand Causes of Atheism amongst Nominal Christians, and of Polytheism and Idolatry amongst the Gentiles.  
The wretched Subterfuges of Atheism, being thus manifestly discovered insufficient Causes of any manner of Production, the greatest part of them being purely Imaginary, and (like airy Phantoms) disappearing at the Light of Truth, I hope that you'll endeavour to remove that Veil of Ignorance which has so long darkened your Understanding, and that you will find yourself necessitated to acknowledge the Eternal Cause, in whom you Live, Move, and have your Being.  
If at length you are persuaded of this Supreme Intelligence, and satisfied that the Universal Systems is a Product of his Power, that the several Species of Animals, under whatsoever Genus, must necessarily take their Rise from some Prolific Seeds or Seminal Principles created by the same Power (spontaneous Productions, and the whole Business of aequivocal Generation being detected a plain Fallacy) if this, I say, appears manifest (as I see not how any thing can be more evident) altho' the Mosaic History of Genesis is seemingly unintelligible and contradictory to many later Observations and Experiments, I shall expect that you heartily subscribe the prime Article of our Creed, viz the Belief of God.  
As there is no Man indispensably tied to the Letter of the Mosaic History, so its being to our Conjectures unphilosophitick, or it's not exactly quadrating with the latter Discoveries of our Vertuoso's, neither is, nor aught to be reputed either as an Error in the Historian, or a Flaw in the History, by those who consider the Condition of the Infant World, and the Genius of the People to whose Capacities this Narration was more especially adapted. To instance in one Particular; Tho' we are to suppose that Joshua was too great a Philosopher to be unacquainted with the Copernican Hypothesis of the Earth's Motion, yet considering the Apprehension of his Auditory, if in the Hearing of the Multitude, he had commanded the Earth, as he did the Sun to stand still, he would not unlikely have been deemed a Man distracted by such who would have thought it a very extravagant Absurdity, to bid the Earth, which they conceived a dead, unactive Lump, to stand still, or to command rest to that which they imagined was incapable of Motion.  
Be this however as it will, 'tis not a Fundamental of Religious Faith; besides, we have no such certainty as to exclude all doubting, that the Sun is a fixed Planet, or that the Earth turns round upon an Axis.  
This Mosaic History, you find, has employed the Wits, and perplexed the Understandings of many Learned Men, who, tho' they have taken upon them to find faults in this Account, yet in their Endeavours to erect a new Theory, or to reconcile the old to their own Reason, they have generally come short of the satisfaction they had at first proposed to themselves.  
Disquisitions of this Nature are for the most part fruitless; and indeed it is but just that we meet with Disappointments in such Inquiries, where we limit the Power of the Divine Being to our finite Apprehensions; and seemingly infer that even Omnipotence itself cannot act any thing unfathomable by our weak Capacities.  
Let it suffice that we enjoy a plenary Knowledge that the World was created by the Power of God, without enquiring for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or quo pacto: and if the Revealed History of Genesis is not full enough to surprise us into admiration of its mighty Author, let us survey but any Portion of the curious Fabric, and we may find as it were stamped thereon, such indelible Characters of his Power and Wisdom, as must undoubtedly astonish us, and these discoverable by the common mode of Humane Understanding.  
Nevertheless, if the Exposition or Explanation of the Learned, may be in any manner satisfactory, I shall here give you the Sentiments of one (and him alone I prefer to a whole Sect of Philosophers) I mean the Judicious Mr. boil, who in his Inquiries into the vulgarly received Notion of Nature, expresses himself as follows.  
I think it probable (for I would not dogmatise on so weighty and so difficult a Subject) that the great and wise Author of Things, did when he first formed the universal and undistinguished Matter into the World, put its parts into various Motions, whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless Portions of different Bulks, Figures and Situations in respect to each other; and by His infinite Wisdom and Power, He did so guide and overrule the Motion of those parts at the Beginning of Things (whither in a shorter or a longer time, Reason cannot well determine) that they were finally disposed into that beautiful and orderly Frame we call the World, among whose parts some were so curiously contrived as to be fit to become the Seeds or Seminal Principles of Plants and Animals. And I farther conceive, that He settled such Laws or Rules of Local Motion amongst the parts of the Universal Matter, that by his ordinary and preserving Concourse, the several parts of the Universe, thus once completed, should be able to maintain the great Construction or Systeme and Oeconomy of the Mundane Bodies, and propagate the Species of Living Creatures.  
Again (saith he) I consider the Frame of the World already made, as a great and (if I may so speak) pregnant Automaton, or as a Ship furnished with Pumps, Ordnance, etc. and is such an Engine as comprises and consists of several less, and this compounded Machine in Conjunction with the Laws of Motion, freely established, and still maintained by Almighty God in all its parts, I look upon as a complex Principle, from whence results the settled Order or Course of Things corporeal; and that which happens according to this Course, may generally speaking be said to come to pass according to Nature, or to be done by Nature; and that which thwarts this Order, may be said to be preternatural, or contrary thereto. And indeed, tho' Men talk of Nature as they please, yet whatever is done amongst Things inanimate (which make up incomparably the greatest part of the Universe) is really done, but by particular Bodies acting on one another by local Motion, modefyed by the other Mechanical Affections of the Agent of the Patient, and of those other Bodies that necessarily concur to the Effect or Phaenomena produced.  

●●●le of Qualities and Forms.  Farther, Tho' I agree with our Epicureans in thinking it probable, that the World is made up of innumerable Multitude of singly insensible Corpul●ses, endowed with their own Sires shapes and motions: And tho' I agree with the Cartesians in believing (as I find that Anaxagoras did of old) that Matter hath not its motion from itself, but originally from God; yet in this I differ from both Epicurus and Des Cartes, that whereas the former of them plainly denies that the World was made by any Deity; and the latter of them, for aught I can find in his Writings, or some of those of his eminent'st Disciples, thought that God, having once put Matter into Motion, and established the Laws of that Motion, needed not more particularly interpose for the Production of Things corporeal, nor even of Plants or Animals, which according to him are but Engines: I do not at all believe that either th●se Cartesian Laws of Motion, or the Epicurean Casual Concourse of Atoms, could bring mere Matter into so orderly and well contrived a Fabric as this World; and therefore I think that the wise Author of Things, did not only put Matter into Motion, but (when he resolved to make the World) did so regulate and guide the Motions of the small parts of the Universal Matter, as to reduce the greater Systems of them into the order in which they were to 〈◊〉, and did more particularly contrive some of the Portions of that Matter into Seminal Rudiments or Principles, lodged in convenient R●ceptacles (and as it were Wombs) and others into the Bodies of Plants and Animals: one main part of whose Contrivance did (as I apprehend) consist in this, That some of their Organs were so framed, that supposing the Fabric of the geater Bodies of the Universe, and the Laws he had established, some juicy and spirituous parts of these living Creatures must be fit to be turned into prolific Seeds, whereby they may have a power by generating their like, to propagate their Species. So that, according to my apprehension, it was at the beginning necessary that an intelligent and wise Agent should contrive the Universal Matter into the World (and especially some Portions of it into Seminal Organs and Principles) and settle the Laws, according to which the Motions and Actions of its Parts upon one another, should be regulated: without which Interposition of the World's Architect, however moving Matter, with some probability (for I see not in the Notion any Certainty) be conceived to be able, after numberless occursions of its insensible Parts, to cast itself into such grand Conventions and Convolutions as the Cartesians call Vortices, and as I remember Epicurus speaks of under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : yet I think it utterly improbable that brute and unguided Matter (altho' moving) should ever convene into such admirable Structures as the Bodies of perfect Animals. But the World being once framed, and the Course of Nature established, the Naturalist (excepting those Cases where God and Incorporeal Agents interpose) has recourse to the first Cause, but for its general and ordinary Support and Influence; whereby it preserves Matter and Motion from annihilation or desition; and in explicating particular Phaenomena, considers only the Size, Shape, Motion, (or want of it) Texture and the resulting Qualities and Attributes of the small Particles of Matter, and thus in this great Automaton the World (as in a Watch or Clock) the Materials it consists of being left to themselves, could never at the first convene into so curious an Engine: yet when the skilful Artist has once made and set it a going, the Phaenomena it exhibits are to be accounted for by the Number, Bigness, Proportion, Shape, Motion (or endeavour) Rest, Coaptation, and other Mechanical Affections of the Spring, Wheels, Pillars, and other Parts it is made up of: and those Effects of such an Engine that cannot this way be explicated, must, for aught I yet know, he confessed not to be sufficiently understood.  
You may hereby inform yourself of the Sentiments of this great Philosopher, with respect to the unavoidable necessity that we meet with of referring ourselves to some powerful intelligent Being, for the disposing the Mundane Bodies into that wonderful and mighty Fabric we call the World. So that to sum up all, whatever Opinion you may as yet harbour, with relation to the Nature of your own Mind, and how great soever the Difficulties and seeming Absurdities may be, which tend to impeach the Divine Providence, and rob the Deity of his Government of the World; thus far I hope we are got at least, that whether or no we are willing, we must acknowledge his Divine Fiat in the Business of Creation; and there is no Man will e'er be looked on as a Rabbi (if I may so speak) in Atheism, till he becomes not only acquainted with real Essences, the Mechanical Affections and all the Powers of Matter, but can intelligibly resolve us how second Causes act in their several Productions, and which is the main point of all, can prove to us that there was no need of Intelligence, Power or Wisdom to preside in their Primitive Constitution.  
'Tis now high time to look about you, and if you look as becomes a Creature endowed with Reason, there is nothing can present itself, which is not able to discover its Almighty Author, or (in Helmont's Phrase) the Wisdom of the Protoplast.  

The Interest of Reason in Religion.  The Existence of a God (says another of great Learning) were there no such thing as Supernatural Revelation, is plainly evidenced as well by what is without us, as what's within. Hence it is, that altho' God, has wrought many Miracles to convince Infidels and Misbelievers, yet He never wrought any to Convince an Atheist, nor do the Penmen of Sacred Writ attempt to prove it, but take it for granted, as being evidently manifest both by sensible and rational Demonstration.  
As for innate Ideas of God (continues He) I see no occasion to believe any such thing at all: for I know of none that are formally innate; what we commonly call so, are the Result of the Exercise of our Reason. The Notion of God is no otherways inbred, than that the Soul is furnished with such a natural Sagacity, that upon the Exercise of her Rational Powers, she is infallibly led to the Acknowledgement of a Deity: and thus by looking inwardly upon ourselves, we perceive that the Faculty resident in us, is not furnished with all Perfections, and therefore not Self-existent, nor indebted to itself for those it hath: otherwise it would have clothed itself with the utmost Perfections it can imagine, and by consequence finding its own Exility and Imperfection, it naturally and with case arrives at a Persuasion of deriving its Original from some first Supreme and free Agent, who hath made it what it is, and this can be nothing but God. 2. We perceive that we have such a Faculty as apprehendeth, judgeth, reasoneth: but what it is, whence it is, and how it performeth these things, we know not; and therefore there must be some Supreme Being, who hath given us this Faculty, and understands both the Nature of it, and how it knoweth which we ourselves do not. 3. Our Natures are such, that as soon as we come to have the use of our Intellectual Faculties, we are forced to acknowledge some things good, and others evil. There is an unalterable Congruity betwixt some Acts and our reasonable Souls, and an unchangeable incongruity betwixt them and others. Now this plainly sways to the Belief of a God, for all distinctions of Good and Evil relate to a Law under the Sanction of which we are, and all Law supposeth a Superior who hath right to command us: and there can be no Universal independent Supreme but God. 4. We find ourselves possessed of a Faculty necessarily reflecting on its own Acts, and passing a Judgement upon itself in all it does: which is a farther Conviction of the Existence of a God; for it implys a Supreme Judge to whom we are accountable. 5. We find that we are furnished with Faculties of vast Appetites and Desires, and that there is nothing in the World that can satisfy our Cravings, and by Consequence there must be some Supreme Good, adequate and proportionate to the longings of our Souls; which can be nothing but God. 6. We find the frame of our Rational Powers to be such that we cannot form a Notion of God, tho' it were in denying Him, but we include his Actual Existence in it. Optimus maximus, or a perfect Being is the Idea we have of God, whensoever we think of Him; now this includes actual Existence, it being a greater perfection for a thing to be essentially, independently and necessarily; then to be contingently, and by imagination from another, on whose pleasure its Existence depends. All Propositions, whose Predicate is included in the Essence of the Subject, are styled Self-evident, or per se nota: because if we do but once understand the import of the Term styled the Subject, we necessarily assent to its Identity with the Predicate. 7. By consulting still our Faculties, we do not find any thing included in our Idea, by virtue of which we must either ever have been, or through existing this moment must necessarily exist the next; which naturally conducts us to a persuasion of a God, from whom we derived our Being at first, and to whom we owe our continued Subsistence.  
Secondly, If we look around us, there is nothing discoverable but what bears the most clear and perspicuous Characters of Wisdom, Contrivance or Design. Now if we consider the naked Existence of Things, how they come to be in the posture they are, we can by no means grant that they could cause themselves: Existence as always presupposed to acting; Nothing can be both before and after itself. Nor 2 dly, were they Eternal: For 1. it is an Hypothesis pregnant with Contradictions, that any thing finite or dependent, as all things in the World are, should be Eternal. 2. We see every thing subsist by a succession of Generation and Corruption, which is plainly repugnant to Self and Eternal Existence: Production from Eternity is a palpable Contradiction; whatever is produced, passeth from a state of Nonentity into a state of Being; and therefore we must conceive a time when it was not, ere we can conceive the time when it was. But the recency of the Existence of things, is plain from the Deficiency either of History or Tradition antecedently to Moses, and He is so far from recording the World to have been Eternal, that He instructs us particularly both how and when it began; and as the Word was not Eternal, so neither did it result by a casual Concourse of the Particles of Matter, moving in an infinite ultra Mundane space, and justling one another till they fell into this form and order in which we now behold them. For 1. the Eternity of Atoms is attended with the same Contradictions as the Eternity of the World. 2. Motion is hereby supposed intrinsical to Matter, which is not only false, but impossible. It is the greatest Absurdity that can be imposed upon Reason, to ascribe Motion to such a stupid and unactive Principle as Matter, without the acknowledgement of a first and Divine Motor. 3. If all things be the Result of Matter, how comes a Principle of Reason to be conveyed into us, by that which had it not inherent in itself. 4. This Hypothesis supposeth that to have been the Effect of Chance, which openly shows a Divine Contrivance. 5. If the Fabric of the World be no more than the result of the casual Meeting and Concatenation of Atoms, how comes it to pass that by their daily striking against each other, they do not dance themselves into more Worlds, at least into some one Animal or other. 6. Epicurus 's Infinity of Atoms carries a repugnancy in it to his inane space, and yet without this his whole Hypothesis falls to the ground; nor is it possible to solve the permanency of the World, and the continuity of Bodies, by the fortuitous concatenation of Atoms, through their different configurations and jagged Angles, without the superintendency of an Omnipotent Goodness, who sustains both the whole Creation and every part. Especially it is not conceivable how such Bodies as are made up, either of globular Particles, or of those minute Corpuscles which Des Chartes styles his first and second Elements, should hold together without the influence of a higher Principle to keep them in their consistency. And thus from these manifold Considerations of things both without us and within us, are we led to a Persuasion and Conviction of the Being of a God.  
Nor can the Atheist who denies his Existence, give any rational Account of the Universal Consent of Mankind, that there is one; whereas he that maintains one, can easily resolve it by showing how such a Persuasion flows naturally from the Exercise of every Man's Understanding: and forasmuch as it is alleged that there have been some who have dissented, and consequently that the Persuasion is not Universal, it amounts to no more, but that there have been some who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. speak falsely of and belly our Nature: which may be so perverted by Vice, that Men will not acknowledge what lies most proportionate to Reason; being corrupted by bad Education, evil Customs and wicked Institutions, they destroy even their most natural Notions. So that if the Contradiction of a single Individual or two, were enough to invalidate a Universal Persuasion, or to impeach a Natural Truth, there would be neither one nor tother in the World; for not only Cicero tells us there is nothing so absurd which some of the Philosophers have not maintained: But Aristotle informs us that there have been some who have held that the same Thing might at the same time be, and not be. So that, that thing is universally known, not which every one acknowledgeth, but that which every one who hath not debauched his Faculties, doth discern.  
'Tis a very sad Truth, when Men are sunk into the greatest Sensualities, their Reason becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, compliant with their Sensual Appetites. Besides, such Men living as if there were no God, can make no Apology to the World for it, but by espousing such Notions as may justify them in their Courses. Withal, being resolved to live as they list, it is their Interest with reference to their Tranquality in the mean time to believe, through holding that there is none to call them to account, that they may do so, & quod valde volumus facile credimus.  
From what has been said upon this Argument, I see not what Evasions can be found out to avoid this Concession that there is a God: And truly, considering the slender supports of Atheism, viz. Chance and the World's Eternity, are so easily overthrown, and prove insufficient to satisfy even the thinking Libertine himself, I admire not that the more reputable Name of Deist has been taken up by our Modern Vitioso's: the initial Letter of your Character must be now expanged, and unless you acknowledge Theism, the Men of Letters, (however debauched) will laugh at and contemn you.  
I have often wondered what those Men think of the Divine Being, or what God is, who are so very familiar with his Name, that they scarce repeat a Sentence without it, altho' it be by way of imprecating his Judgements, or wishing him to damn them.  
That the Name is more than a useless Sound most of them will acknowledge; and those who boldly plead for the Custom of Swearing, do grant that tho' God is, yet doth He not take notice of what they say; neither are they capable (if not punished here) of suffering hereafter. It must certainly be this Conceit that emboldened a lewd Fellow, when he was asked whether he was in earnest when he cried G—d D— ● Him, to reply, That for his part, Jest or Earnest he thought were equal, since tho' he wished Damnation, he believed there was nothing in his Composition which was capable of it, and therefore there was no danger. Custom had rendered the practice of it familiar, and he used it instead of other words to embellish his Discourse.  
If profane Sweeting be at all allowable, it must be to such as these; but for any Man to pray that G— d would D—m his Soul, and at the same time to believe its Immortality, or at least to fear any such thing, is a Matter unaccountable, and no ways to be resolved but by the Degeneracy of our Reason, the Abolition of our Sense, and a total Depravation of our Understandings: and yet this is the Practice (I do not say of yourself) of many who tell us they are persuaded of the Being of a God, and that they are far from any Certainty that their Souls may not survive their Bodies.  

Dr. H— y's new Principles of Philosophy.  There are many Men (saith a Modern Philosopher, and Physician) ●●tho take a wonderful delight in Swearing, each word must have a S'w— ds, by G—d, or a G— d D—m them for its attendance; otherwise the Language would seem to be imperfect, or at least to want its natural Eloquence. This Interjection of Speech is so much practised, that some Masters of Languages in France make it the third Lesson to their Scholars. A Germane (continues he) newly arrived at Paris, and applying his Mind to the study of that Language, showed me his third Lesson which his Master had recommended to him to get by heart. This Pius of Doctrine did contain no less than Thirty, or Five and Thirty Oaths, some of which he said were of the last years Invention, which his Master had particularly marked. I asked the Gentleman how he would come to know their proper Places and Insertions? He answered me, that that was the first Question he asked his Master; who resolved him, that a little Converse with the French would soon make him perfect in that Business.  
Well might this Ingenious Man cry out upon these Reflections, O Tempora! O Mores! and surely it must strike every more than ordinary thoughtful Man, with the most profound Admiration, to consider the Practices of those Men, who are continually acting that which they themselves have all imaginable assurance they shall sooner or later repent of, and be concerned for.  
'Tis very common, as I have before taken notice of, for Men to live as if there were no God; and we may meet with some so extravagantly audacious, as to tell us they are both certain of the truth of their Opinions, and certain that (come what will) they shall never alter them. But yet I very much question, whether one Instance can be given of a clearly reasoning Atheist, unconcerned in his last Minutes. I had a very slight Acquaintance with a Gentleman of some acquired Parts, who had frequently beasted amongst his intimate Friends; that he questioned not but he should show at his Death the same disregard to the Belief of a Divine Being, and the Immortality, as he had done all along; and this he spoke with a more than usual Seriousness. Some few years after (as I was told by one of his Friends) this Gentleman being on the Th●●es, the Boat was overset by some Accident, and turned the bottom upwards. The Spark had been just before Swearing and Damning himself in his wont ●●ife; and yet nevertheless upon his first sinking, he was heard very dolefully to cast out, ●● God be mercif—. By the endeavour of the Watermen, and some other Assistance, they were all saved, some of them almost expiring their last Breath. 'Twas several days before this Person was able to go abroad; and upon his first visit to one of his Fellows, he was upbraided with Cowardice for betraying the Cause of Irreligion, and falsifying his Promise to die an Infidel. The Sense of his late Disorder had made too great an Impression to be so soon obliterated, and calling to Mind his Deportment when he thought himself a dead Man, he fairly confessed that he could not help what he did; tho' at the same time, if his Soul proved independent, he thought himself plunging into Eternal Misery: At this time (saith he) my fears are pretty well worn off, I find myself as much a Libertine as ever; though I must tell you, that you shall never catch me making Resolutions what to do when I am dying.  
Thus do these miserable Wretches, at one time or other (in spite of their most firm Resolves to the contrary) betray the Weakness of their Cause, and by their apparent fears that they are in the wrong, together with their many private and public Recantations, they by some means or other satisfy us, that there is no secure Dependence upon the strongest of their Arguments, or weightiest of their Notions.  
I might illustrate this Subject by a Transcript of those clear Thoughts and Apprehensions of the Deity, which are conspicuous in the Writings even of the Heathen Philosophers: but having already transgressed the Bounds of an Epistle, I shall shut up all in the words of an unknown Author to this purpose.  

Enquiry into the Evidence of Christian Faith.  It would be too tedious to consider all the little Cavils and Objections of Atheists against a Deity: The most material are reducible to those that have been proposed, and may be refuted by the Answers we now have given, for they proceed either from wrong Apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God, or from Ignorance of the Nature and Relation of other things, or from an obstinate Resistance of what is de facto evident; and all of them demonstrate their Unreasonableness and Absurdity, which doth further appear by the unreasonable Consequences of not acknowledging a Deity, which is a second way of proving it.  
For if there be no God, than it necessarily folloes that either every Thing made itself, or that all things came from nothing, and that there are Effects which have no Cause: for there is Life, Sense, and Reason without any Being capable to produce them: and there are artificial Contrivances, regular Proceedings, and wise Adaptations of Things to ends and purposes, far above the Power and Capacity of any Thing which is Existent. These, and many such Things as these follow the Denial of a God, which are not only great Difficulties, but such gross and senseless Absurdities, as no thinking Person can swallow or digest.  
As therefore Deformity showeth Shape and Proportion beautiful, so the Belief of a Deity appears more reasonable by the Absurdity and Unreasonableness of Atheism, which contradicts common Sense, overturns the agreed Principles of Knowledge and Reason, confounds Chance and Contrivance, Accident and Design, and which has its recourse to wild Romantic and most precarious Hypotheses; for they cannot shun the owning an Infinity, and the Existence of something from Eternity; and they are forced to acknowledge that things are framed according to the Rules of Art and Proportion. Now as it not more reasonable to ascribe the constant observance of these Rules, to an Intelligent Being, than to Chance or no Cause? for there is no middle Thing betwixt them to be fixed on: either the one or the other must take place. Nature, which they talk so much of, is an obscure word for concealing their Thoughts and Sentimens'; if by this they mean something distinct from Matter, which moves and directs it, their Nature is God in disguise; and if they must flee to this for a rational account of the Production of Things, why do they quarrel at the word (GOD) which carries a clear Idea, and in the sense of which all the World is agreed. Tho' this Nature of theirs be equivalent, yet it is more mysterious, and therefore it smells of some designed Perverseness, as if by the use of this word, and the disuse of the other, they would turn People's thoughts from God, and God from the Honour of being the Creator of all things. But if by Nature they only understand certain Laws, and I know not what Ordinances, by which things must move, is this sufficient to explain the first Productions of Things? For though it should be true that Matter cannot move but according to those Laws, and that moving by them in process of time, the Work could have been produced as it is at present, after that Romantic manner of Cartesius: yet there was no cecessity that Matter should move at all, nor could it move of itself; wherefore, whether they will or not, they must own the Existence of something prior to Matter itself; or the Motion of it, which Cartes was sensible of, and therefore he could not build his airy and fanciful System without supposing the Existence of a Deity. So that in a word, as God is the first Cause and Author of all things, this Belief is the foundation of all solid Reason; what is not built on this is Nonsense and Absurdity.  
I know the Atheists arrogate to themselves Wit and Judgement and Knowledge above others, and do think that it is the Ignorance and Credulity of the Bulk of Mankind (at one lately words it) which make them to be of another Belief: but why I pray must they carry away Sense and Understanding from others, because they are so vain as to think it? Do not those in Bedlam think themselves wiser than others? all the rest of the World are Fools in their eyes, and those who keep them there not only such, but Oppressors and most unjust. Yet Atheism is a more extravagant and pernicious Madness, which it is the highest Interest of Mankind to keep from spreading. But alas, it has been suffered to take root, it is cherished and encouraged: Men walk the Streets, and publicly act this Madness: in every Corner they throw their Scoffs, and Droll against the Almighty Author of their Being. They meet in Companies to concert how they may most wittily expose Him, and what is the readiest way to render Him ridiculous in the eyes of others: a Clinch, a Jest, or puny Witticism, is received and entertained and carried about with all diligence. Tho' there be no reason why the Atheist should be a Zealot, there being no obligation on him to propagate his opinions, and because the less they are entertained by others, he himself is the more secure: Yet no Sect is become more zealous of late than Atheists and their Fraternity, who maintain their Cause by an affronting Impudence, by the Exercise of a frothy Wit instead of Reason, and by jesting and drolling instead of serious Arguments; but let any Man judge if this be a reasonable or commendable way of handling a Matter so serious and important: Should Impudence run down Evidence? Should a Jest or a foolish Witticism be of more weight than the Dictates of common Sense and sound Reason? If these Men were capable of Counsel, I would ask them whether they are absolutely sure that they are in the right? Are they able to demonstrate that there is no God? This is more than any ever yet pretended to: and if they cannot pretend to this, ought they not to walk very cautiously; if there be a God (as there may for any assurance they have to the contrary) what then have they to expect for their bold Insults and Oppositions to Him? Our Notion of a God is no vain Hypothesis or imaginary Supposition; 'tis a Truth loudly proclaimed and strongly confirmed, not only by Reason, but every part of the World. So that whatever the Atheist may arrogate to himself, and whatever esteem may be paid to him in a corrupt Age, yet i● he so far from being wiser than others, that by the Universal Voice of Nature, as well as that of Divine Revelation, he will be declared a Fool who saith there is no God.  
May the Supreme Power direct us all to a Knowledge of Himself, such a Knowledge as will be attended here with a solid Peace and Satisfaction, and hereafter with Eternal Happiness. I have nothing more to add, unless this, that I am (in all Sincerity)  
Your real Friend to serve you.   

LETTER II. Concerning Providence. To Mr. etc.—  
My esteemed Friend,  
IN my former you had the Thoughts of several Learned Men, together with my own Conjectures, concerning that unhappily controverted Truth (the Basis of all others) the Existence of a God. In this I shall communicate my own Sentiments (amongst those of some more prudent Persons) concerning Providence: a Matter by almost all Men frequently debated, altho' by very few of them very rationally explicated.  
This is indeed a Theme so difficult, so intricate and obscure, so amasingly stupendious, and withal a Subject that requires so very much Caution in its Explanation, on the account of its general Moment and Concern, that I profess to you, I scarce know where or in what manner to begin, or how to deliver my Conceptions freely on this weighty Argument: I will however venture some few of my own Thoughts, rude and indigested as they have occurred upon a short Reflection; if the Philosopher should happen to get the Ascendant of the Christian, I hope it will be excused by those who consider the Person unto whom I write: You have given me, I must acknowledge, a liberty to open the Pandects of Nature, and to furnish myself from thence with any thing that seems useful, but will have nothing to be thought valid which is transferred from the more Sacred Records of Revelation.  
A God, ergo a Providence, has been by almost all, but especially Christian Philosophers, thought a necessary Conclusion: but since we are to concede nothing by way of an implicit Faith, or as founded upon the bare Testimony of other Men, I shall not spend my time in considering the Analogy, or reflecting whether or no these terms are Synonimous: but will endeavour impartially to take notice, not only of some few particulars, which may countenance, but of some others which seem to thwart and to be repugnant to this Notion, as it seems generally established.  
In order to my proceeding, I expect you should take notice that with some others, who have written upon this Subject, I distinguish Providence as bipartite, or under a double signification (viz.) General and Particular; the former, which by Philosophers is termed the general Concourse or Co-operating Influence, I conceive to be so reasonable and intelligible a Notion, that I presume, when once you have consented to the acknowledgement of a first Cause of all Things, you will find yourself as it were necessitated to own, that the same Power who created the Universal Matter out of Nothing, and disposed its several Parts into so many curious and elaborate Engines, must unavoidably be concerned, at least in the preservation of the same from Annihilation, or extend a Power of Conservation to its continuance and support; for however possible it may be to conceive that God Almighty in directing the Particles of Matter into their several Shapes, Forms, or Configurations, did establish certain Catholic Laws of Motion, yet surely, if hereupon we suppose the Deity to retire within himself, no farther to be concerned with his Divine Workmanship, nor so much as ever after to think of or regard it; it is utterly unconceivable that Matter and Motion, and the several Textures arising from their Combination, can be kept on foot, or secured from their Primitive Nonexistence.  
In this Doctrine of God's ordinary Concurrence, I must confess I can find nothing but what is easy and as it were self-evident; but when we survey some very unaccountable Ph●nomena, and those various Anomalis which run retrograde to our Sense and Opinions of the Divine Attributes; when we reflect upon what some call the Prosperity of wicked Men, and the Adversity of the good; when we see Justice and Innocence trampled under foot, and all that's good and virtuous, degraded and contemned, whilst Vice in the mean while reigns as it were triumphant; when we see that neither the Profession nor Practice of the Sacred Rites of Religion, can secure us from Rapine, Cruelty and Oppression; lastly, when we consider, as the Atheist says, That Time and Chance happeneth to all; these, I say, notwithstanding they may be fairly solved by those Primitive Laws of Motion bestowed on Matter, and still maintained by the Divine Being; yet when we view them as under his immediate Concern and Government, or resulting from his especial Providence, they then appear with a somewhat differing Aspect, and leave our Reason in a thick Darkness and Obscurity.  
To this purpose, you may object that however great and wise that Power may be, who made the World, you can discover not much of either in its Government. You can own indeed, that all Effects must have sufficient Causes, but then (of which you make so mighty an advantage) you daily find these Causes take place in the production of all Effects promiscuously, and that they are seldom or never prevented by a Divine Suspension, even when they seem to impeach the Power and Wisdom of an especial Providence. That I may give an Instance suitable to your own Thoughts; You see that Mankind (from whatsoever Cause they had their Origine) are now continued by the mutual Embrace or Carnal Knowledge of the Two Sexes; and therefore you don't admire, that when they come together in the state of Wedlock, or under the Nuptial Institution, with the Generative Organs rightly disposed, that they should propagate their Species: but when on the other hand, you consider many incestuous Embraces, and that a Conception is the Result of a Venereal Act in Fornication or Adultery, provided the feminine Ova are prolific, or capable of Impregnation by the Seminal Aura of the Male: Here you see abundant Reason to cry out of Providence, and expect the Supreme Power should either immediately pursue the Transgressor's with Divine Vengeance, or suspend his Laws of Motion in the Act, in order to prevent a spurious Illegitimate Issue.  
Again, by the same Catholic Law of Motion, or rather by a Specific Gravity or Principle of Gravitation (which is the Property of every Particle of Matter) you come to understand that if a ponderous Body be suspended by too slender a Line, or a weighty Structure raised upon an infirm Basis, insufficient for its Support or Fulcrum: Here, I say, by a very little knowledge in Mechanics, you easily foresee, that if the suspended Body preponderate the force intended to hold it up, the Line must necessarily break, and the weight as necessarily fall: so likewise the Building in time grown ruinous, or decayed by other Accidents (the Foundation failing) most certainly tumbles; but if a sober or reputed pious Man passing by should chance to make a Perpendicular to the suspended Body at the time of the Lines breaking, and by the fall of the said weight receive some extraordinary hurt: or if by the sinking of an infirm Building, a supposedly righteous Family should be crushed to Death; here the Atheist thinks he has a strong and powerful Reason to inveigh against, or triumph over the Providence of God, and will hardly be persuaded, but that if the Divine Being did inspect or concern himself with the Affairs of Mankind, he would upon all such Emergencies miraculously interpose, and either by a Revelation, or some other Supernatural Illumination, discover to us the impending danger, or (for our Security) stop the Laws of Motion, which he at first established, or deprive those Bodies of their Specific Gravitation which would otherwise injure us.  
Farther, According to this general and prime established Law, 'tis easy to conceive that 
* According to Mr. boil.  the minute Particles of Matter, each of them having their own proper size, shape or texture, as it happens that they are posited in reference to the Horizon, as erected, inclining or level, when they come to convene into one Body, from their primary Affections, Disposition and Contrivance, as to Posture and Order, there must necessarily result that which by one comprehensive Name, we call the Figure, Shape, or Texture of that Body: and what we call a Monster after this manner produced, is so far from being an Error or Trespass upon the Laws of Motion, that there is nothing less than a Miracle could prevent it; and indeed supposing the Particles of Matter (from whatever Cause) posited in the manner we are now speaking, it would be much more monstrous, if they should convene into any other Shape, which we account more regular, handsome, or complete. But then, when we survey this unusual Figure as the Workmanship of the Deity, especially where we suppose the same was designed a Mansion for the Rational Soul, we expect that the Supreme Architect should have interposed, and either altered the Laws of Motion, or have given a new Modification to the Particles of Matter, whereby they might be disposed to have better answered his Design, and to be rendered more pliable to what Philosophers pronounce the Plastic Power.  
Our Reflections of this Nature, upon the particular Providence or God's Government of the World, do put us very often upon the most impious Conclusions, and almost persuade us to question (if we are not very cautious and sensible that it is impossible for us to fathom his Designs) whether there be any Divine Intelligence at all, or other Superintendent Being, who sits at the Helm, and takes notice of us Mortals; all this being in our Opinions more easily resolvable into Time and Chance, Matter and Motion.  
These (if I mistake not) are the unhappy Doubts of the Inconsiderate, and altho' they appear not so bare faced in the modester sort of Infidels, yet are they (so far as we are able to apprehend) the genuine Thoughts of every irreligious or profane Person.  
We are too apt to set up our own perverted, shallow, and corrupt Reason for the Universal Standard, to which Test must be brought not only each others Actions, but those of God himself, and (which is somewhat strange) notwithstanding scarce any one of our Lives is regulated by this Exemplar; yet if we cannot immediately reconcile the unsearchable and inscrutable Designs of the Supreme Power, to our own finite Understandings; if we discover not the most secret Mysteries or Arcana Deitatis, and are unable to account for each several Dispensation, we blaspemously cry out with Epicurus, Aut De●● vult toltere Mala, & non potest: aut potest & non vult: aut utque vult neque potest: aut & vult & potest. Si vult & non potest, imbecillis est, idioque non Deus. Si potest & non vult, invid●● est, quod aeque alienum à Deo. Si neque vult neque potest: & invid●● & imbecillis est, idebque utque Deus. Si vult & potest, quod solum Deo convenit, unde ergo Mala? aut cur illa non tollit?  
Believe me (Sir) I have been often apt to think, that we need not seek much farther for the Causes of Irreligion, than our mistaken Notions concerning Providence▪ nor indeed can I persuade myself of a greater stumbling Block, or more considerable Difficulty, to be encountered in the Christian Warfare. It is this which hath sometimes staggered the Faith of some of the wisest Men, and made others pure Sceptics in Matters of Religion. It was this which put the Divine Psalmist (if I may use his words) upon crying out, 
* Psal. 73.  But as for me, my Feet were almost go●e, my step● had well ●igh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked: for they are not in trouble as other Men, neither are they ●l●g●ed like other Men. Their Eyes stand out with fatness: they ●●●e more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly. They set their Mouth against the Heavens, and they say how doth God kn●w. Behold! these are the ungodly, who prosper in the World: Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in Innocence: for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every Morning. When I thought to know this it was too painful for me, until I went into the Sanctuary of God, then understood I their end.  
We have surely the less Reason to admire, that the regardless and foolish Libertine should be startled at the seemingly unequal distribution of the Divine Favours, when we find the devout Psalmist himself almost confounded, and openly confessing that these things were too painful for his knowledge, till he went into the Sanctuary and there informed himself.  

Lactantius lib. 3. c. 17.  To the same purpose (says one of the ancient Fathers) Videbat Epicurus, Bonis adversa semper accidere: Paupertatem, Labores, Curae, Amissiones: Malos contrà Beatos esse, augeri Potentia, Honoribus affici. Videbat Innocentiam minus tutam, Scelera impune committi. Videbat sine delectu Morum, sine ordine & discrimine annorum, saevire Mortem: sed alios ad Senectutem pervenire, alios Infantes rapi, alios jam robustos interire, alios in primo adolescentiae flore immaturis funeribus extingui. In Belli● potius meliores & vinci, & perire; maxim autem commovebat, Homines imprimis religiosos malis affici; iis autem, qui aut Deos omnino negligerent, aut minus pie colerent, vel minora incommod● evenire, vel nulla.  
It was the like Consideration, which extorted that Confession of Ovid, 
Cum rapiant Mala Fata Bonos, ignoscite fasso,  
Sollicit●r null●s esse putare Deos.   
It was the seeming Felicity of the Impious and Unjust, with the smart Afflictions of the Pious and Devout, that amazed the sober Claudian (as he is called by Dr. Changed—) and more than inclined him to Apostatise from Religion, and declare himself on the side of Epicurus in these words: 

In Ruffian. lib. 1.  Sepe mihi dubiam traxit Sententia Mentem,  
Curarent Superi Terras, au nullus inesset  
Rector, & incerto fluerent Mortalia Casu?  
Sed cum Res Hominum ta●ta Caligine volvi  
Adspicerem, laetósque diu florere Nocentes,  
Vexariqu● Pios: rursu● labefacta Cadebat  
Religio, causaeque viam non sponte sequebar  
Alterius vacuo quae currere semina motu  
Adfirmat, magnúmque novas per Inane figuras  
Fortuna, non Arte regi, quae Numina Sensu  
Ambiguo vel nulla putat, vel nescia nostri.   
Men look into the World; and perceive a shower of Good and Evil over their Heads, which falls down, as they imagine, without Choice or Direction: They acknowledge indeed an established Law of Motion, but by what Power they heed not; nor will they be persuaded of the Author's Justice, since the same Event at sometimes happens to all; and if the Wicked have not the Precedence, they are at least equally happy in this Life with the Good and Pious.  

Dr Stillingfleet Serm. at Whitehall on Luke 7.35.  These Men (saith that great Master of Antiquity the Learned B— of W—) have found out an expurgatory Index for those Impressions of a Deity which are in the hearts of Men; and use their utmost Art to obscure, since they cannot extinguish, those lively Characters of his Power, which are every where to be seen in the large Volume of the Creation.  
Religion is no more to them, but an unaccountable Fear, and the very Notion of a Spiritual Substance (even of that without which we could never know what a Contradiction meant) is said to imply one; but if for quietness sake, and it may be to content their own Minds, as well as the World, they are willing to admit of a Deity (which is a mighty Concession from them who have so much Cause to be afraid of Him) then to ease their Minds of such troublesome Companions as their Fears, they seek by all means to dispossess Him of his Government of the World, by denying his Providence and Care of Humane Affairs. They are contented He should be called an Excellent Being, that should do nothing, and therefore signify nothing in the World. Or if the Activity of their own Spirits may make them think that such an Excellent Being may sometimes draw the Curtain, and look abroad into the World, than every Advantage which another hath got above them, and every cross Accident which befalls themselves (which by the power of Self-flattery, most Men have learned to call the prosperity of the Wicked, and the Sufferings of good Men) serve them for mighty Charges against the Justice of Divine Providence. Thus either God shall not govern the World at all, or if He do, it must be upon such terms as they please, or approve of. So great is the Pride and Arrogance of our Nature, that it loves to be condemning what it cannot comprehend; and truly, there need be no greater Reason given concerning the many Disputes in the World about Divine Providence, than that God is wise, and we are not, but would fain seem to be so; while we are in the Dark, we shall be always quarrelling, and those who contend most, do it that they might seem to others to see, when they know themselves that they do not.  
The variety of Disputes which have been founded upon the unaccountable Methods of the Divine Providence, and the Arguments brought by designing Men to overthrow this Notion, as it is founded in Religious Minds, tho' they have perverted the Faith of some, and like an impetuous Torrent, overwhelmed and confounded a great part of the Christian, as well as Heathen World, have yet proved ineffectual to Bias or Seduce those, whose Modesty has been greater than to set up their own Reason for an adequate Rule of Truth; who have had more Piety and solid Wisdom than to limit the Power even of Omnipotence itself, to their own bounded and very narrowly circumscribed Intellectuals; and too much Consideration to be imposed on, by the Information of their External Senses, or to take every slight appearance of Reason for a convincing Argument.  
It is surely the most ridiculous Folly and Presumption of which any Man can be guilty, to pretend to set limits to that most Excellent Being, by whose Power we live; or to deny the Alwise Author that Homage and Fealty due unto Him, for no other Reason, but because we can't acquaint ourselves with the secret● of his Designs, have very little knowledge of final Causes, cannot dive into the motives of every single Dispensation, and are not chosen Privy Councillors to the Majesty of Heaven. But before I attempt any Explication of the foregoing Difficulties, or make any Reply to these usual Atheistical Objections, I will give you the Sentiments of two very Learned Men concerning the general Concourse or Act of Conservation, which one of them has been pleased to term a continued Act of Creation; a Business of so vast an import and necessity, that should it please the Almighty Architect, for the least moment of time, wholly to withdraw his Divine Power of Preservation or ordinary Concourse, the Universal System must fall to ruin, and this beautiful Fabric be immediately translated into its Primitive Chaos.  
In our Reflections upon Divine Providence, 
Des Cartes upon the Passions of the Soul.  we are to imagine it impossible that any thing should happen otherwise, than the same Providence hath determined: for it must be understood that all things are guided by his Providence, whose Decrees are so immutable, that unless those things which the said Decrees have pleased to let depend on our free Disposition, we ought to think for our parts, that nothing happens but what must of necessity; nor can we without a Crime, desire that the same should happen otherwise.  
Mr. Boil in his Enquiry into the Notion of Nature, has some particular Thoughts, which however at first view they may seem to thwart an especial Providence of God, for that He does not interpose or miraculously intervene, so often as we expect he should; yet they will give us a clear insight into our mistaken Notions concerning that Semideity we call Nature, and helps us to reconcile some very odd Effects, not only to our Belief of the Divine Being, but of his general Concourse.  
1. I conceive (saith that Excellent Philosopher) that the Omniscient Author of Things, 
Boil of Nature.  who in his vast and boundless Understanding comprehended at once the whole Systeme of his Works, and every part, did not mainly intend the welfare of such or such particular Creatures, but subordinated his Care of their Preservation and Welfare, to his Care of maintaining the Universal Systeme and Primitive Scheme and Contrivance of his Works; and especially those Catholic Rules of Motion and other grand Laws, which he at first established amongst the portions of the Mundane Matter: so that when there happens such a Concourse of Circumstances, that particular Bodies, fewer or more must suffer, or else the settled Frame, or the usual Course of things must be altered, or general Law of Motion hindered from taking place; in such Cases, I say, the Welfare and Interest of Man himself, as an Animal, and much more that of inferior Animals, and of other particular Creatures, must give way to the Care that Providence takes of Things of a more general and important Nature and Condition. This premised, to obvi●●● Misconstructions, I shall take notice that there are several Instances of Persons, who have been choked with a Hair, which they were unable either to cough up, or to swallow down. The reason of this fatal Accident is probably said to be the irritation that is made by the stay of so unusual a thing as a Hair in the Throat, which occasions every violent and disorderly or convulsive Motions, to expel it in the Organs of Respiration; by which means the continued Circulation of the Blood, necessary to the Life of Man, is hindered, the consequence whereof is speedy Death: but this agrees very ill with the Vulgar Supposition of such a kind and provident Being as they represent Nature, which is always at hand to preserve the Life of Animals, and succour them in their Physical Dangers and Distresses, as occasion requires; for since a Hair is so slender a Body that it cannot stop the Throat, so as to hinder either the free passage of Meat and Drink into the Stomach, or that of the Air to and from the Lungs (as may he argued from divers no way mortal Excrescencies and Ulcers in the Throat) were it not a great deal better for Nature to let the Hair alone, and to stay till the Juices of the Body have resolved or consumed it, or some other favourable Accident have removed it, than like a passionate and transported thing, oppose it like a Fury, with such a blind violence, as instead of ejecting the Hair, expels the Life of him who was troubled with it. How the care and wisdom of Nature will be reconciled to so improper and disorderly a proceeding, I leave her Admirers to consider: but it will appear very reconcileable to Providence, if we reflect upon the lately given Advertisement; for in regard of the use and necessity of deglutition, and in many cases of coughing and vomiting, 'twas in the general most convenient that the part ministering to those Motions, should be irritated by the sudden sense of things that are unusual, tho' perhaps they would not be otherwise dangerous or offensive; because, as we formerly noted, 'twas fit that the Providence of God should, in making provision for the welfare of Animals, have more regard to that which usually and regularly befalls them, then to extraordinary Cases or unfrequent Accidents.  
2. Now the difficulty we find to conceive, how so great a Fabric as the World can be preserved in order, and kept from running again to a Chaos, seems to arise from hence, That Men do not sufficiently consider the unsearchable Wisdom of the Divine Architect, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as the Scripture styles Him) of the World; whose piercing Eyes were able to look at once quite through the Universe, and to take into his prospect both the beginning and the end of time: so that perfectly foreknowing what would be the consequence of all the possible Conjectures of Circumstances, into which Matter divided and moved according to such Laws, could in an Automaton, so constituted as the present World is, happen to be put, there can nothing fall out, unless when a Miracle is wrought, that shall be able to alter the course of things, or prejudice the Constitution of them any farther than He did from the Beginning foresee and think fit to allow. And truly, it more sets off the Wisdom of God, in the Fabric of the Universe, that He can make so vast a Machine as the Macrocosm, perform all those many things which he designed it should, by the mere contrivance of brute Matter, managed by certain Laws of local Motion, and upheld by his ordinary and general concourse, than if He employed from time to time an intelligent Overseer, such as Nature is fancied to be, to regulate, assist and control the Motion of its parts. For as Aristotle, by introducing the Opinion of the World's Eternity, did at least in almost all men's Opinions, openly deny God the Production of the World; so by ascribing those admirable Works of God to what he calls Nature, he tacitly denys him the Government of the World.  
Now those things (continues he) which the School Philosophers ascribe to the Agency of Nature, interposing according to Emergencies, I ascribe to the Wisdom of God in the Fabric of the Universe; which He so admirably contrived, that if He but continue his ordinary and general Concourse, there will be no necessity of extraordinary Ineterpositions; which may reduce Him to seem as it were to play after-games: all those Exegencies upon whose account Philosophers and Physicians have devised what they call Nature, being foreseen and provided for in the first Fabric of the World: So that mere Matter, thus ordered, shall in such and such Conjunctures of Circumstances, do all that Philosophers ascribe on such occasions to their almost Omniscient Nature, without any knowledge what it does, or acting otherwise than according to the Catholic Laws of Motion. For when it pleaseth God to overrule or control the established Course of Things in the World, by his own Omnipotent Hand, what is thus performed may be much easier discerned and acknowledged to be miraculous, by them that admit in the ordinary Course of Corporeal things, nothing but Matter and Motion, whose powers Men may well judge of, than by those who think there is besides a certain Semideity which they call Nature, whose skill and power they acknowledge to be exceeding great, and yet have no sure way of estimating how great they are, and how far they may extend. And give me leave to to take notice to you, on this occasion, that I observe the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles, pleaded by Christians on behalf of their Religion, to have been very differently looked upon by Epicurean and other Corpuscularian Infidels: and by those other Unbelievers, who admit of a Soul, of the World, or Spirits in the Stars; or in a word, think the Universe to be governed by Intellectual Being's distinct from the Supreme Being we call GOD: For this latter sort of Infidels have often admitted those Matters of Fact, which we Christians call Miracles, and yet have endeavoured to solve them by Astral Operations and other ways; whereas the Epicurean Enemies of Christianity have thought themselves obliged resolutely to deny the Matters of Fact themselves, as well discerning that the Things said to be performed, exceeded the Mechanical Powers of Matter and Motion (as they were managed by those who wrought the Miracles) and consequently must either be denied to have been done, or be confessed to have been truly miraculous. Thus far Mr. boil.  
I must confess myself extremely taken with the Thoughts of this great Man, which are every where so weighty, and withal so modest, that I know of no Author I have as yet consulted, who hath so pertinently handled in a few words this noble Theme, or afforded me so much Content and Satisfaction.  
I have been formerly, like yourself, very familiar with Fate and Fortune, Time and Chance, with Destiny and other empty Notions; and which was the farthest of my Flight, when I knew how to talk of Real Qualities and Substantial Forms, when I conceived the Archaeus or Plastic Power as a kind of Agent or Intelligent Being, disposing and ordering the Seminal Principles; choosing or selecting fit Materials; designing and drawing out as it were the first Rudiments of Life, and delivering to each Part a Capacity to discharge its Office or proper Function. Lastly, When I could resolve all with much ease into the ambiguous term of Nature, I thought myself arrived at a Ne plus ultra, till the Result of a more serious Consideration, which I was put upon by a Converse with the Writings of this Divine Philosopher, obliged me to conclude thus, and to take for granted, That however all the Phaenomena, or each several Event we have, or ever shall see come to pass, may be accounted the immediate Offspring of Matter, as variously modified by local Motion: Yet notwithstanding this Concession, we must mediately recur to the Divine Providence, not only for some Author of this Motion, who did in the beginning establish its Laws, or prescribe those general Rules 'tis governed by; but also for a Power by whose Co-operating Influence the same are still maintained, and without which these second Causes (by too many only taken notice of) would be deprived of their Energy.  
There is nothing, Sir, will hely you to evade this, unless it be the sorry Refuge of the World's Eternity; which in my former Letter was proved to be taken up with any shadow of Reason or Probability: a most precarious Assertion, which being denied can never be proved: A Contradiction to the Universal Tradition of Mankind, which hath always attested that the World had a Beginning. It is an Assertion against the current Testimony of all History, which traceth the Original of Nations and People, the Invention of Arts and Sciences, and which showeth that all have happened within the space of less than Six thousand years, according to the most probable (if not certain) Calculation, which could not be if the World or Man had been Eternal: 'Tis therefore with much reason that your beloved Lucretius thus wittingly argues upon this Topic, 
But grant the World Eternal, 
Lucret. l. 5.  grant it knew  
No Infancy, and grant it never now,  
Why then no Wars our Poet's Songs employ  
Beyong the Siege of Thebes, or that of Troy?  
Why former Heroes fell without a Name?  
Why not their Battles told by lasting Fame?  
But 'tis as I declare; and thoughtful Man  
Not long ago and all the World began:  
And therefore Arts that lay but rude before  
Are published now, we now increase the store  
We perfect all the old and find out more.  
Shippings improved, we add new Oars and Wings,  
And Music now is found and speaking Strings.  
These Truths, this Rise of Things we lately know.   
But I have endeavoured likewise to demonstrate that the Supposition of Eternal Matter is ogregiously absurd, and that Motion is by no means to be accounted of the Essence of Matter, but extra-advenient thereunto; yet supposing that hath Motion and Matter were Eternal, without a powerful and wise Providence to direct the Particles of Matter, and give Laws to Motion, there could never have been any thing else than an Eternal Jumble, nor so much as one regular Structure would ever have been produced. This I am persuaded is an Apodictical or Self-evident Truth, altho' for its Illustration I will enlarge in Mr. B—'s words.  
There are indeed but few productions which are not Mechanical; 
Rently's 4th Serm. p. 19, 20.  but the Powers of Mechanism, as they are entirely dep●●●●●● on the Deity, so they afford us a very solid Argument for the Reality of his Nature. If we consider the Phaenomena of the Material World, with a due and serious attention, we shall plainly perceive that its present Frame and Constitution, with its established Laws, are constituted and preserved by gravitation alone; that is the powerful Cement which holds together this magnificent Structure of the World; without that the whole Universe, if we suppose an undetermined Power of Motion infused into Matter, would have been a confused Chaos; without Beauty or Order, and never stable or permanent in any Condition: Nevertheless this Gravity, the great Basis of all Mechanism, is not itself Mechanical, but the immediate Fiat or Finger of God, and the Execution of the Divine Law: for there is no body that has this Power of tending towards a Centre, either from itself or from other Bodies: so that tho' we do believe and allow that every Particle of Matter is endowed with a Principle of Gravity, whereby it would descend to the Centre, if it were not repelled upwards by heavier Bodies; yet are we fully persuaded, and certainly convinced, that this Gravity must be derived to it by nothing less than the Power of God.  
If we consider the Heart which is supposed to be the first Principle of Motion and Life, and mentally divide it into its constituent Parts, its Arteries and Veins, and Nerves and Tendons, and Membranes and the innumerable little Fibres that these secondary Parts do consist of; we shall find nothing here singular, but what is in any other Muscle of the Body: 'tis only the Site and Posture of these several Parts, and the Configuration of the whole, that give it the Form and Functions of a Heart: now why should the first single Fibres in the formation of the Heart, be peculiarly drawn in spiral Lines, when the Fibres of all other Muscles are made by a transverse Rectilinear Motion, or what could determine the fluid Matter into that odd and singular Figure, when as yet no other Member is supposed to be form, that might design the Orbit of its Course? Let Mechanism here make an Experiment of its Power, and produce a spiral and turbinated Motion of the whole moved Body without an External Director? 'Tis true, when the Organs are once framed by a Supernatural and Divine Principle, we can willingly enough admit of Mechanism in many Functions of the Body, but that the Organs themselves should be mechanically formed, is as impossible as inexplicable.  
I shall now flatter myself with hopes, that what I have here alleged will be looked upon by you to be but little short of Demonstration, not only that there is a God (which was the Subject of my first) but that He governs the World at least by keeping up his established Laws of Motion, or by the general Concourse of his Providence, which is manifestly conspicuous in his maintaining this mighty System of the World, and in the Efficacy derived from Him unto Secondary Agents, or those which are more frequently termed Natural Causes.  
What remains of this Argument, which is by much the more intricate and difficult part, relates to the special Providence, upon which is founded, as I conceive, our Belief of these two Propositions: 1. That God Almighty, or the First and Supreme Being, in his Government of the World, has not so indispensably confined Himself to those general Laws of Motion He at first settled in the World, but that He has reserved to Himself a power of Dispensing with the same, and does deviate from these Rules by Suspending the Laws of Motion, or by a particular Intervention and Interposition of his Power, so often as it pleaseth Him to act miraculously, or to bring to pass a Supernatural Effect. 2. That all the several Changes, Revolutions, or whatever else befalls us from the Womb even to our Graves, are by the special Providence of God allotted for us.  
As to what respects the first of these, viz. God Almighty's deflecting or at some times deviating from his usual and general Laws, it is impossible we should ever Convince any obstinate Infidel of any such Matter of Fact, unless he were an Eye-witness when the Business was transacted, and so as it were compelled to acknowledge the Effect to be Supernatural, or surmounting the Power of Secondary Agents.  
We have indeed a sort of Men in the World, so wonderfully conceited of their own Acquirements, and so strangely opinioned of the Extension of their own Minds, as to imagine there can be no such thing as an inexplicable Event; but that all may be fairly and intelligibly resolved without that pusillanimous and servile Refuge (as they express themselves) of recurring to a Miracle, the Founders (say they) of which, have always been some subtle Impostors, who to promote an Interest or to serve their own turn, have found it no very difficult Matter to impose upon the Mole-eyed Multitude. And at this rate not only the Supernatural Actions of the Apostles, but the Surprising and Stupendious ones of their Master Jesus Christ, must either by these Men be utterly denied, or resolved (if it were possible) by the generally established Laws, or (in their own words) by the Powers of Nature: so that we must either believe the History of our Saviour to be pure Forgery, a Romantic Legend fobbed upon us by designing Men, or else we must have recourse to the Men of this piercing Apprehension, and consult them as our Oracles for an Explanation of those Accounts, which we, poor silly Creatures, believe to have been miraculous.  
It is in vain, I know, to send you to that Sacred History, where so many of these Stupendious and Divine Operations are faithfully recorded, whilst you continue so Sceptical as to doubt concerning the Credit of the Historian, or so much an Infidel as to deny the History to be an Authentic Record. If you can believe there was ever such a Person as Jesus Christ, or such Men as his Apostles, which I think in reason you are as much obliged, as to believe that there were any Contemporary Prince or People at that time upon Earth, nay (setting aside the remoteness of Place and Time) as that there ever was such a Person as King Charles the First in England, or Lowis the Thirteenth in France: If, I say, you can concede this, I would then beg you to consider, which way or by what means you can conceive it possible, that the surprising and supernatural Acts of those we are now speaking of, such as the turning Water into Wine, satisfying the hungry Appetites of many hundreds with no more than naturally sufficed for some few single Persons: Walking upon the Surface of the Water, restoring the Sick by a word speaking, and commanding the Dead to arise from the Grave, with many others which were performed, not clandestinely or in private, but in the midst of very great Assemblies, or a large Concourse of People, and those for the most part implacable Enemies, and consequently very curious in sifting out the Truth: I say, I would fain know which way you can conjecture a Possibility that a Design of this Import and Universal Tendency, could be fraudulently carried on inperceptibly to that great Number of Auditors and Spectators, who were not wholly made up of the giddy Rabble or inconsiderate Mob, but had some, even of the Priests and Elders of the Jewish Church (Men doubtless too well acquainted with the Powers of Matter and Motion to be imposed on) to attest the Truth of many of these Operations. We may easily believe that those who looked upon the Gospel Promulgation, as an insupportable Burden and Encroachment, and accounted it no other than a kind of Heretical Innovation upon their more anciently established Law, would make it their Business to pry into and inquire with their utmost Caution into the truth of those Facts, which finding themselves obliged to acknowledge Supernatural or Surmounting the Laws of Nature, or the force of Second Causes, yet rather than confess any such Matter as a Divine Energy, they would have them to be transacted by a Diabolical Assistance.  
I might make, I think a farther very rational Query, Whether you can believe the Accounts we have given us in Ecclesiastic History of the Martyrdoms or painful Sufferings of some of these Apostles: If you do believe any of these Accounts, as I think you may those at lest which are recorded by some Friends even of the Tyrants themselves, who were concerned in the Patriarchal Tragedies, it will be worth while to inquire into the Motives which induced them to hazard their Lives, by taking on them their several Embassses: If instead of Honour, you find they had Disgrace; instead of Riches and Grandeur, Poverty and Contempt: if instead of Courtesy, Civility and Respect, they met with nothing but Reproach and Raillery: Lastly, if for all their hardship, instead of Temporal Promotion and Preferment, they willingly submitted to an accursed, ignominious and painful Death, you then must either think there never were any such Men (and thus by the same liberty you may disbelieve any such Places as the Countries where 'tis reported they suffered Death) or if you think there were, you must believe them either distracted, or finally, that in following the Direction of their great Patron, they acted like Men truly reasonable and discreet, and in that they preferred a Life of Misery, Anguish, Disquiet and Tribulation, it is plain they had an Assurance, as well as Expectation, of their Reward elsewhere; and that they questioned not to find a sufficient Recompense bestowed upon them for all their Sufferings, in those Sacred Mansions not made with hands, Eternal in the Heavens. But of this I shall discourse more hereafter, when I come to give you my Opinion of Revealed Religion. In the mean time, if none of those unaccountable Phaenomena which latter Ages have produced some of which have been transacted within the compass of our own Memory; and many more within a Century last passed; such as Voices, Spectres, Apparitions, Stupendious Recoveries of the Sick and Lame, together with the Satanical Powers of Fascination and Diabolical Possessions: if these, I say, however sufficiently attested, will not be sufficient to induce you to believe, that there ever was such a Thing as a Supernatural Production, but that all Things are buried on by an established Law, or (in your own more pleasing words) by an irresistible Fate or Destiny, and that all Effects are the pure Result of Matter under its several Modifications, whose Powers were never superseded by any higher Principle; and farther, that there are no such extraordinary Prints of a Divinity, or Marks of Wisdom conspicuous in the Creation; I would then desire you with as much attention as you can, considerately to examine the Structure of your own Body: And if you begin with a Survey, even of an inconsiderable part thereof, such as your Fingers, in each of these (as is well remarked by Mr. B—) you will find Bones and Cartilages, Ligaments and Membranes, Muscles and Tendons, Nerves and Arteries, Veins and Skin, and Cuticle and Nail, together with the Medulla, the Fat and Blood, and other nutritious Juices, and all these solid parts of a determinate size and figure, texture and situation; and each of them made up of myriads of little Fibres and Filaments, not discoverable to the naked Eye; I say, when you consider how innumerable Parts must constitute so small a Member, surely you cannot look upon it, or the whole Body, wherein appear so much fitness, use and subserviency to infinite Functions, any otherwise than as the Effect of Skill and Contrivance: If this will not extort a Confession from you, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you must at least allow yourself to be the Workmanship of some Intelligent Being; and altho' the commonness of the Object takes off your Admiration, and you now find the Propagation of Mankind in a Method settled by the Divine Providence, yet if you transgress not the Bounds of Reason, you must affirm their first Production to be by the immediate Power of the Almighty Author of all Things, and that every succeeding Generation of them are the Offspring of one primitive Couple.  
Having surveyed some of the Extremities of this mighty Machine, and diligently passed over its outward Covering or Teguments; my next advice to you is, that you retire within, and carefully examine not only the Parts wherein those Offices are performed, but the Processes themselves; such as that of Mastication, Deglutition, Chylification, Sanguification, the Enkindling of the Blood for the Lamp of Life, its great Analogy in some respects with Culinary Fire, viz. it's constant nenecessity of Ventilation through the vesiculae of the Lungs, and a perpetual supply of a fit Pabulum or Fuel out of the received Aliment for the continuance of its Flame: when you have done here, and discovered all the Secretions or Separations of the several Juices, which are put off from the Sanguineous Mass in its wonderful Circulation, and deposited in their several Receptacles, till called for to their proper Employments; you may lastly, with that profound Humility and Veneration which becomes the Enquiry, ascend into the Sanctum Sanctorum, that Divine Emporium of the Soul, the Brain; where not only our Sensations, but all our Cogitations, our Perception, Reflection, Intuition, and all those noble Faculties of Memory, fantasy or Imagination, etc. are surprisingly transacted. Here if you diligently and Philosopically take to pieces the several parts of the Soul, I mean the Sensitive, you may readily comprehend, with an excellent and most judicious 
* Dr. Willi●.  Man, that its Systasis or Constitution is made out of these two parts; viz. the Vital or Flamy, which respects the Blood, and the Lucid or Ethereal, which respects the Brain, or whose Hypostasis are the Animal Spirits, by whose alone Energy and Intervention we account for the Phaenomena of the Animal Regiment, in all things where the Superior or Rational Soul is unconcerned.  
When you have thus finished your Physiological Contemplation, an Application of this Consequence will, I think, be not only pertinent, but natural and genuine: That since first, in relation to the Vital or Flamy Part, there are so many prae-requisites in order to Digestion or Transmuting the gross and solid Matter of our Food, into that soft and pappy Substance we call Chyle; if any one of which be wanting, some certain detriment will ensue, whether this be in the Ventricle itself, a deficiency of its native Heat, a weakness in the Tone of any or all its Fibres, a want or perversion of the secreted Juices which compose its Menstruum or Dissolvent: Or if all things are orderly performed here, and safely delivered hence, yet since there are also many requisites to a fit passage of the said Chylous Juice into the Blood, such as the admistion of the Bile and the Pancreatic Juice, either of which being peccant in quantity or quality, many Mischiefs will ensue: but if in these secondary Passages all things have gone on well, yet if the Passages to the common Storehouse or Receptaculum happen to be obstructed, and thereby rendered impervious to the liquor they should receive; or if others of those curiously slender Tubes, the Lacteal Vessels, by the forcible protrusion of the contained Matter should break, or suffer a Solution of their Continuity, the Chyle must be extravasated, and a fatal Inundation thereof in some little time comes on. But if hitherto Matters have succeeded as they ought, and this noble Liquor is at length safely arrived through its many Meanders and inconspicuous Ways, and as safely delivered up to the Heart; yet if here it be not rightly sanguifyed or turned into Blood; or if when it is so made and continued in its Circuit, the containing Blood Vessels, either from a Deficiency of the Vis Motoria, or Disorder of the Spirits in the Orbicular nervous Fibrils implanted in the Tunics of the said Vessels, labour with an Obstruction, or suffer such a Distension by the impelling Blood, as produces a Diruption, there presently follows Extravasation and Stagnation of the Vital Liquor. Farther, If the Blood itself (as from many Causes it may) contract too great an Acidity or Viscosity, or by Adustion grow perfectly Corrosive; if its Crasis be considerably vitiated or disordered, the Nutritious Juices must partake of the Infection, and consequently the Assimulation or Apposition of their Particles for the growth and increase of all the Parts of the Body, cannot at all, or not regularly be performed, neither will the subtle parts of such a Blood, tho' never so well elaborated in the Brain, afford either a sufficient Plenty, or an exactly homogeneous Spirit for the influencing the Nerves, those Causes sine qua of every particular Function and Operation: In a word (that I may not ti●e you with a more particular Description of the parts of the Encephalon, or Cabinet containing that inestimable Jewel the Soul) when you consider that from any of these slightly mentioned Errors committed in any part, the whole Fabric suffers, and the same becomes a tottering Carcase: when you consider how very easily an heterogeneous Copula is admitted into the Nervous System, there exciting those dismal irregular and horrid Explosions, which after they have for sometime excruciated the frail Body, leave it lifeless: when you consider also how very easily those slender (and to our fight impervious) Conduits of the Nerves may by many ways be obstructed, which happening at their Source, as in the Apoplexy, Lethargy, Coma, Carus, we are presently deprived of our Sensations, the Soul suffers an Eclipse, and the ghastly Tyrant takes possession: when you consider that the very Air, so absolutely necessary for our Respiration, does sometimes prove a Vehicle to those malign Mias●●ata, which impetuously rush on, and notwithstanding our pretended strength, in the twinkling of an Eye extinguish the Lamp of Life: when you consider these Particulars with a due attention, you will find abundant reason, instead of denying any thing to be Supernatural, to confess that the Life of Man, whether it be conceived as limited to a shorter or longer Date, is nothing less than one continued Miracle.  
Before I finish my Discourse of Supernatural Productions, or those Effects which do surmount what we call the Powers of Nature, and frequently hare witness to God's especial Providence, I will take the liberty to make a short Digression, and give you my Opinion how it comes to pass that these unusual and extraordinary Events, have gained so little Credit, not only with the Profane and Sensual, but even amongst very many Sober and Learned Men. That I may do this to your greater Satisfaction, I must give you to understand that many of those surprising Symptoms, which are produced by the Disorders of the Nervous System, are by the generality of all Men, unless Physicians, very frequently looked on as unaccountable Prodigies: Thus many Hysteric Persons have been esteemed Planetstruck, especially if by a Resolution of some particular Nerves, one Muscle has been relaxed; and its Antagonist contracted, by which the Parts have been distorted, and thereby rendered deformed: or if the Celestial Bodies have been acquitted, it must be imputed to Fascination or Witchcraft. Epileptics in like manner are taken for Daemoniacs, and the surprising Phaenomena they exhibit, such as Dancing, Singing, Crying, Laughing etc. are presently supposed to be wrought by a Praestigious or Diabolical Possession: and if, as it often happens, the Priest be sent for instead of the Physician, to eject the Evil Spirit, the mistake is then so far from being rectified, or the Fallacy detected, that whole Cities have been imposed on by such like Reports, and the supposed Authentic Testimony of the Parson of the Parish has served for an irrefutable Confirmation. By these means, when Atheistical Men have understood that such like Accidents, have proceeded from no other Causes than the Convulsive Disorders which do frequently disturb the Animal Oeconomy, and that by Mechanic Principles they are to be explained, 'tis natural for them presently to conclude, that all Relations of the like tendency, proceed either from the same Origine, and exceed not the force of second Causes, or that they are downright Cheats, which for the countenancing some Design, are promoted and carried on by a Knavish Confederacy or Combination: and indeed, tho' I am far from denying all accounts of Daemoniacs, or the Satanical Power of Fascination, yet I could heartily wish that none of them were published, without the proper Examen of Expert Physicians; for to speak freely, I am well satisfied that those Subjects which have furnished so many Histories, Discourses and Reports upon this Matter, have been for the greatest part no other than Maniacal, Hypochondriacal, Hysterical or Epileptical Persons, and that the usual Appearances they exhibit, belong properly to Spasmology, or the Doctrine of Convulsions.  
'Tis not long since my Curiosity lead me to take a view of a young Woman, the Report of whose Circumstances had brought a Multitude of Spectators from all parts of the Town, who generally returned amazed at so surprising a Spectacle, and gave out that she was Daemonical, or possessed with an evil Spirit, who did sometimes utter very unusual Sounds, some of them not unlike the howling of a Dog, without any perceptible Motion of her own Organs of Speech.  
When I came into the Room with a particular Friend, we found her accompanied by two or three other Women, and discoursing rationally, which they said at some intervals she used to do. During the time I stayed, there was a continual Motion of the Vertebrae of her Neck, and sometimes those of her Loins; the former occasioned a violent throwing backwards and forwards of her Head: and that which they looked on as unaccountable was this, That if any one offered to stop this motion of her Neck and Loins, the same was then quicker, and continued with a redoubled force. Upon this Advertisement just then received from herself and the good Women, my Friend on one side, and I on the other (as she was sitting on the Feet of the Bed) laid our hands on each side on the top of her Shoulders, and first gently pressing of them down to retard the Motion, I perceived a very sensible Opposition or Resistance, even beyond my Conjectures of her own strength, insomuch that at length endeavouring with all our Power to suppress this uncommon Motion of the Head and Body, the Resistance made against us was so very forcible, as almost to throw us from her, and the Agitation of both began to grow so vehement, as to occasion very irregular Distortions of the Eyes, a Foaming at the Mouth, together with a very considerable Influx of Blood upon the Surface of her Face; which frighting her Acquaintance, and rendering her uneasy, we were desired to desist, and after some few Minutes the Disturbance went off, she returning to her accustomed Motion of gently moving her Head backwards and forwards.  
During this time of her Agony, she spoke nothing; but being pretty well recovered, I found her very willing to believe it a Supernatural Power that thus impetuously moved her; and the rather, she said she was induced to think so, because it was involuntary and much against her Inclination: for when at any time (being all the while sensible) she wilfully endeavoured to stop the Motion, and to keep herself in Aequilibrio, she was so violently tormented in some other parts of her Body, that if she did not submit herself to the Evil Spirit, he would certainly kill her.  
Before I attempt an Explication of these several Phaenomena, it will be requisite that I acquaint you with the Method I took in the Exploring thereof. There was at that time in the room an ancient Midwife, who, as I understood, had put this young Woman under a Course of Physic, tho' altogether unsuccessfully. Upon which Information I enquired on what account the Physic had been given, or what expectation she designed it should answer: which understanding who I was, she very freely told me, That what she had ordered, was for a Suppression of— under which Obstructions the Patient had laboured for a considerable time. I enquired no farther, but having given my Opinion, came away with this Satisfaction, that if the whole was not Imposture, and she a Counterfeit, as it was not impossible but she might, there was nothing in all this but a Spasmodic or Convulsive Disorder of the Nerves, frequently attending Hysterical and Epileptic Persons. I had beforehand asked her whether there was Truth in those Reports she had suffered to be printed, concerning the Devil's speaking in her, and barking like a Dog. She utterly denied this; and replied she knew nothing of that Matter: and that it was both unknown to her, and against her will that such Discourses should be dispersed. The Maid, I must needs say, seemed very modest and soberly disposed, and was extraordinarily lamented by some of those who knew that her Education and Converse in the World had been unblamable and pious. I never certainly understood how her Distemper terminated, and being willing to judge Charitably of her so far as I was concerned, shall only intimate by the way, that it was publicly reported, not long after, that she was proved a Cheat, and had got much Money by it. But as to this I am not certain, being rather inclinable to believe the contrary, and that she laboured with the Symptoms of an Hysterical Affection.  
I shall not think myself concerned to give you here a Mechanical Account of the Progress of these Distempers, or to tell you by what means the Morbific Matter is contracted which insinuates itself into the Muscular Fibres, and there excites these direful Effects; 'tis sufficient, at your leisure, that you consult any Physical Author who hath handled this Subject. In the Writings of the acute and very sagacious Willis, 
See Willis's Discourse of Convulsions.  you may find Relations of this Nature sufficient to Evince those almost incredible and surprising Phaenomena, which take their Rise from an heterogeneous Copula admitted into the Nerves, or a degeneracy of the Spirits themselves from their natural Crasis, exciting very strange unusual Explosions, and producing oftentimes most astonishing Effects in the Humane Body; which yet nevertheless we have no more reason to look upon as transacted by an Infernal or Supernatural Power, than the prodigious strength of some Lunatics, their long protracted Abstinence from Alimentary Provision, and the like; which altho' more frequent, and consequently less regarded, are every whit as worthy of our Enquiry or Indagation.  
I remember some few years since, amongst others, I presented the R— S— with one very remarkable Case that occurred to my observation, relating to a Youth bitten by a Dog, who after the Wound was cured, was seized with a Deliriam, snapped at every thing that approached him, and so nearly imitated the Barking of a Dog in the height of his Paroxysms, that any Person unacquainted might have been so imposed on, as to imagine there had been a Dog barking in the Chamber: and I make it no question, had the Infection been communicated by some indiscernible Passage, or had the Parents been ignorant that the wound was made after this manner, they with many others would have thought their Child possessed, and nothing less than the Devil must have been the reputed Author of his surprising Actions.  
But it is now time for me to resume the thread of my Argument, concerning God's particular Providence, which that I might the better illustrate, I thought myself obliged to make mention of those really Supernatural Acts of the Divine Power, or the Miracles which have been wrought for the Conviction of Infidels: and this I thought could not effectually be done without a Specimen of the Powers of Matter, and the efficacy of second Causes in the Production of Events by Mechanic Principles. By these Instances you may the more readily collect how far these Powers may reach, and distinguish the Truth of asupernatural Act, from a supposititious Miracle, many of which having been enquired into, and by inconsiderate Men discovered either Forgeries, or the Effects of Convulsive Indispositions, has been the occasion of a vast Increase to the number of our Modern saducees and nominal Deists, who if they condescend to grant that God Almighty may be a Spirit, yet must it be accounted Dissonant to Reason, an Imposition upon our senses, and the Effect of a servile abject Mind, to think there should be any other.  
Thus having touched upon those two Extremes, of such who on the one side will allow nothing to surmount Mechanic Powers; and those on the other, whose over credulity has imposed the name of Miracle upon every more than ordinary Accident; there remains a third sort, who however Sober and Learned they may appear, and notwithstanding the fair glosses put upon their Designs, yet the too great freedom they have taken with the Sacred Writings, their cavilling at some of the Hebrew Particles for being equivocal, and rendering the Translations, even the Septuagint, in many things uncertain and doubtful, give us grounds to surmise that they let their own Reason keep pace with their Faith, and that they either disbelieve, or suspend their Assent in all Matters which they can't resolve by their own Pinciples: amongst those you may well enough imagine that I reckon our late Malmeiburian Oracle the great Leviathan, and those equally mischievous Authors Mr. B— and G— who with some others have been so fond conceited of their own Performances, as to deliver them out for the Oracles of Reason, and so profanely irreligious, as to set up the Light of Nature in opposition to the Divine Revelation, or their own Fantastic Whimsies to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But before I leave my Discourse of Miracles, it may not be unnecessary in respect to their Description and Definition to acquaint you, that not only those Events which do result from a Supernatural Concourse, but those also which are immediately produced by Secondary Agents, may in the timing of those Agents, and continuing their Action after an unusual manner, manifest unto us the Power of their great Author, and aught to be reputed by us for unquestionable Miracles.  
There is a Learned Foreigner, and a very great Critic, in whose Writings I find a concurring Testimony to this Opinion. This Person, in some of his Dissertations upon the Book of Genesis, has presented the Men of Letters with some curious Thoughts: whether his Design be what it ought, I shall not go about to determine; but will only acquaint you, that when he comes to discourse of the Israelites Deliverance, from the Egyptian Servitude, by their wonderful Passage over the Red-Sea; he conceives (contrary to most other Commentators) that the Miracle did not consist in that the Waters were divided, as generally supposed, without a manifest Cause; but in this, 
Monsieur le Clerk's Dissertations upon Genesis.  That upon the motion of the Rod, God raised a mighty and impetuous Wind the Night before this great Design was to be put in practice, which with the advantage of the Sea's ebbing, drove the Waters so far from the farther end of the Gulf, towards its Mouth, that there appeared a large Ford over against the Israelites, through which they went to the opposite Shoar: and that the Wonder was still more conspicuous in this, that so soon as the Israelites were safely arrived on the other side, and their Pursuers plunged in, the Wind, which kept back the Waters, on a sudden ceased, and the same Waters as suddenly returning, their Enemies were overwhelmed by the Inundation. The same Person, in his Comments on the Destruction of Sodom, does not think it necessary to believe any such thing as a Shower of lighted Sulphur falling down upon 〈◊〉 ●abitants, but that the whole of the Miracle might be wrought by the natural Efficacy of Thunder and Lightning. We have already (saith he) shown that this Tract of Land was full of Bitumen, which as it will easily take Fire, was soon enkindled by the Lightning, and the Flame was not only to be seen upon the Superficies of the Earth, but so pierced into the Subterranean Veins of Sulphur and Bitumen, that that Matter being destroyed, the whole Earth sunk down, and afforded a Receptacle to the Waters flowing thither. Now God (continues he) is not barely said to have reigned down Brimstone and Fire, but Brimstone and Fire from the Lord, where the addition of from the Lord, which at first sight may appear to be superfluous, does particularly describe the Thunderbolt, which by the Hebrews, and other Nations, is called the Fire of God, or the Fire from God. And farther, Tho' Moses does not inform us after what manner the Thunderbolts subverted those unhappy Cities and the adjoining Territories, yet since he makes mention of them, we cannot comprehend how it happened otherwise, than that the Thunderbolts falling in great plenty upon some of the bituminous Pits, the Veins of that combustible Matter took fire immediately, and as the fire penetrated into the lowermost Bowels of this bituminous Soil, those wicked Cities were subverted by a tremor or sinking of the Ground.  
I have instanced in these few, amongst other Cases of the like Import, not so much to justify or countenance these Deviations from the Letter of the History; or in favour of every phanciful Interpretation of them; as to demonstrate that we are not absolutely tied to think that every Miracle is an unaccountable Production, or effected by Powers every way Supernatural; but that it is very possible a true and real Miracle may be brought to pass by natural Agents, and that many of the Divine Judgements have been executed by their being put into Action, tho' perhaps after an uncommon manner, at particular times.  
As to what relates to Spectres or Apparitions, together with inorganic Sounds and Voices, I shall reserve my Thoughts for another Letter; where it is possible I may entertain you with some things diverting: I shall in this place just mention that there are a multitude of Histories of real Demoniacs, of Places and particular Families disturbed by Facination; of others miserably tormented with Diabolical Delusions and odd Transactions; with which, notwithstanding I was never otherwise acquainted then at second hand, yet I take some of them to be so well attested by curious and inquisitive Men, who have made it their business to detect any supposed Fallacy, that it were very great Injustice to ourselves, as well as an Affront to their Authority, should we suspect them, or deny the Truth of all, because many such like Stories have been proved false. That these Matters may be consistent with the especial Providence of God, and reconcileable to the Divine Attributes, is undertaken (as I am told) by a Learned Pen to be proved, amongst other Particulars of this kind; for which reason I shall pass on to some other seemingly insoluble Objections that have been invented by the subtlety of the Infernal Emissaries to perplex this Argument, to which that I may reply effectually, and with as much brevity as I can, I shall affirm with a judicious Author, 
Dr. Changed— n D●rkness, of Atheism.  That every Man in whom the Light of Nature is not dampt by Fatuity, either Native and Temperamental, or casually Supervenient, hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Impress of an especial Providence, decreeing and disposing all Events that have, do, or shall befall him. And this, I think, as sufficiently manifest from hence, that there is scarce any Man, tho' edicated in the wildest Ignorance, or highest Barbarity imaginable, but what is naturally, and by the Adviso ' s of his intestine Dictator, inclined either to conceive or embrace some kind of Religion, as an Homage due from him to that Supreme Power, in whose Hands he apprehends the Rains of Good and Evil to be held, and whose Favour and benign Aspect he thinks procurable, and Anger atoneable by the seasonable Addresses of Invocation and Sacrifice.  
And in truth to him, whose Meditations shall sink deep enough, it will soon appear that this Anticipation is the very Root of Religion; for tho' Man stood fully persuaded of the Existence of God, yet would not that alone suffice to convince him, into a necessity of a de●out Adoration of him, unless his Mind were also possessed with a firm belief of this proper Attribute of his Nature, which so nearly concerns his Felicity or Infelicity, viz. his especial Providence, which regulates all the Affairs, and appoints all the Contingenciet of every individual Man's Life: for 'tis the sense of our own Defects, Imperfections and Dependency, that first leads us to the Knowledge of his Alsufficiency, Perfection and Self-subsistance: the Apprehension of our Necessities is the School wherein we first learn our Orisons, and the Hope of obtaining Blessings from his immense Bounty, is both the Excitement and Encouragement of our Devotion.  
This indeed is the Spark at which all the Tapors of Religion were first kindled. The very Ethnics themselves, whilst groping in the Chaos of Idolatry, have discovered this; witness their magnificent Temples, costly Hecatombs, Humane Holocausts, and frequent solemn Invocations, all which kinds of Addresses they generally made use of, and obliged themselves unto, as the only hopeful means as well to atone the Displeasure, as conciliate the Favour of that Power, in whose hands they conceived the Book of Fate to be kept, and who had the Guardianship or Administration of the Fortunes, not only of Cities, Nations and Families, but even of every single Person: Witness also that glorious Pagan Cicero, who deriving the Pedigree of Religion, Fathers it immediately upon the persuasion of an especial Providence in these words: S●nt Phylosophi & fuerunt, 
Cicero de Nat. Deorum, lib. 1.  Qui omnino nullam habere censerent humanarum rerum procurationem Deos: Quorum si vera est Sententia, quae potest esse Pietas? Quae Religio? haec enim omnia pure ac caste tribuenda Deorum Numini ita sunt, si animadvertuntur ab his, & si est aliquid à Diis immortalibus hominum Generi tributum; sin autem Dij neque possunt, nec volunt nos juvare, nec curant omnino nec quid agamus animadvertant, nec est quod ab his ad Hominum vitam permanere possit: quid est quod nullos Diis immortalibus Cultus, Honours, Preces adhibeamus! in specie autem fictae simulationis sicut reliquae vertutes; ita Pietas inesse non potest, cum qua simul & sanctitatem, & Religionem tolli necesse est: quibus sublatis perturbatio vitae sequitur & magna Confusio.  
Moreover, as this inoppugnable Propensity to Religion is a Cyon of God's own engraffing on the Mind of Man, so also is it out of his power, tho' assisted by all the hellish Stratagems, totally to eradicate it thence. This is a Truth confirmed by the Experience of all Ages; for notwithstanding the insolent Pretences, and blasphemous Rho●omontado's of many Miscreants, who gloried in the most execrable Cognomen of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and studied to advance their Names to the highest Pinnacle of Fame, by being accounted Men of such absolute and fearless Spirits, as that they scorned to own any Being superior to their own, to which they should be accountable for their Actions; yet have they been compelled (so violent are the secret touches of that 〈◊〉 which converts all things into Demonstrations of his own Glory) either by the Scourge of some sharp Calamity, or the Rack of some excruciating Disease in their Lives to repent, or at the near approach of that King of Terrors, Death, to confess this their horrid Impiety.  
Thus the proud Adamant-hearted Pharaoh, who deriding the Divine Embassy of Moses, in an imperious strain of Scorn and expostulatory Bravado, demanded of him, Quis est Jehovah? cujus voci auscultem dimittendo Israelem. Non novi Jehovam, etc. did yet, when the Divine Vengeance by heavy Judgements had convinced him, send presently away for those whom he had barbarously exiled from his Presence, humbles himself before them, and howls out this Palinodia, Peccavi hac vice, Jehova justissimus, Ego vero & Populus meus sumus improbissimi.  
Thus Herod Agrippa, who by the blast of p●pular Euge ' s had the Wings of his Pride fanned up to so sublime a pitch, that he lost sight of his own Humanity, and vainly conceived the adulatory Hyperbole of his Auditors, to be but their just Acknowledgement of his Divinity, being wounded by the invisible Sword, by a fatal Experiment, confuted both his own and his Flatterers Blasphemy, and with the Groans of a tortured Wretch, he cries out, En ille Ego, vestra appellatione Deus, vitam relinquere j●beor, fatali necessitate mendacium vestrum coarg●e●te, & quem immortalem salutastis ad Mortem rapior; se● ferenda est voluntas Celestis Numinis. Joseph. 19 Antiq. p. 565.  
Thus Antiochus Epiphanes, who had not only denied, but enraged by a malicious Frenzy, publicly despited and reviled the Almighty Patron of the Jews, blasphemed his most Sacred Name, demolished his Temples, profaned his Consecrated Utensils, violated his Religious Institutions, and persecuted his Worshippers with all the most bloody Cruelties that the Wit of an exalted Malice could invent or inflict: being put upon the Rack of a sore and mortal Disease, and despairing of any Help but from his injured Enemy God, he sighs out his Confession, The sleep is gone from mine Eyes, and my Heart faileth for very care; and I thought with myself, into what Tribulation am I come, and how great a Flood of Misery is it wherein I now am. But now I remember the Evils I did at Jerusalem; I perceive therefore that for this Cause these Troubles are come upon me, etc. It is meet to be subject unto God, and that a Man who is mortal, should not proudly think himself equal to God. 1 Maccab. chap. 6. v. 9, 10, 11.  
Thus the Emperor Maximinus, as cruel to the Christians as Antiochus had been to the Jews, boasting the acuteness of his Wit, by the Invention of new ways of Tortures for those patient Martyrs, and advancing the Roman Eagle in Defiance of those who fought under the bloody Standard of the Cross, was so infatuated with the Confidence of his own Greatness and Personal Strength, that he conceited Death durst not adventure to encounter him: yet notwithstanding, when he felt himself invaded with a verminous Ulcer, evaporating so contagious and pestilential a Stench, as killed some of his Physicians, being then sensible that the same was a Supplitium divinitus illatum, his Heart began to melt, Et tandem (saith Eusebius) sentire caepit, Quae contra Pios Dei Cultores impie gesserat, & haec se propter insaniam contra Christum praesumptam merito & ultionis vice perpeti confessus est; in the midst of these Acknowledgements of his own Gild and the Divine Justice, he breathed out his execrable Soul from a gangrenous and loathsome Body.  
Thus also that notorious Apostate Julian, 
Vid. Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. l. 3. c. 20.  who had not only renounced the Faith of Christ, but proclaimed open and implacable Hostility against him, and to quench the Thirst of his Diabolical Malice, drank whole Tuns of the Blood of his Members, being defeated and mortally wounded in a Battle fought against the Permians, he instantly learned of his awakened Conscience, that the Cause of his present overthrow was his former Impiety, and rightly ascribing the Victory to the revenging Finger of that God whose Divinity he had abjured, rather than to the Arm of Flesh, he threw up his Blood into the Air, and together with his black Soul, gasped out this desperate Ejaculation, Vicisti Galilaee Vicisti.  
The Examples of this Nature are very numerous, and each of them is a kind of Proof that Religion is a Plant so deeply radicated in the Soul of Man, that tho' the damp of a barbarous Education or Conversation may a while retard, or the rankness of those Weeds of Sensuality, the Honours and Delights of this World, conceal its Germination: yet will it at some time or other, early or late, and always in the Winter of Calamity, shoot up and bud forth into an absolute Demonstration, of the Dependence of our Happiness and Misery on the Will of the Supreme Being.  
The Sum of this is by the excellent Tertullian comprised in these words; Anima licet Corporis Carcere pressa, licet Institutionibus pravis Circumscripta, licet lebidinibus & concupiscentiis Evigorata, licet falsis Diis exanci●●ata: cum tamen resipiscit ut ex Crapula, ut ex Somno, ut ex aliqua valetudine, & sanitatem suam patitur Deum nominat. And by Lactantius in these, who speaking of men's forgetfulness of the Divine Providence, in the time of their Prosperity, Tum maxim (saith He) Dem ex Hominum memoria elabitur, cum beneficiis ejus fruentes honor●m dare Divinae Indulgentiae deberent: yet, continues he, the least gust of Affliction soon sets them to rights, and renders these Characters fair and legible to the first reflexive Glance of the S●●l: Si qua enim necessitas gravis presserit, tum demum recordantur, si belli terror infremuerit, si Alimenta frugibus longa siccitas denegaverit, si saeva tempestas, si grando ingruerit, ad Deum protinus confugiunt, à Deo petitur Auxilium, Deus ad subveniat oratur: Si quis in Mari vento saeviente jactatur hunc inv●cat, si quis aliqua vi afflictatur hunc protinus impl●rat.  
Indeed, it seems to me very evident, as well as reasonable, that the special Providence of God is a Notion so unquestionable, that without its Establishment in the Heart of Man, the Foundation and Support of all Religion would be unhinged. For instance; could we once persuade ourselves that the Divine Being was inexorable, our Prayers and Supplications for the Supply of what we want, and for the Removal of our Evils must be all invalid. Could we assure ourselves, that either God could not, or would not be our Refuge when we call upon him, but that he hath left us wholly, having set before us Good and Evil, to the determination of our own Wills, without the least regard or notice of our Election, or without concerning Himself in any manner to help us, to direct or assist us when we are wandered and have ran astray: In a word, if we can once persuade ourselves there is no God that heareth Prayer, that hath neither the Power of Life nor Death, neither acquitteth nor condemneth, to what purpose are all our Petitions, our Prayers, Penitential Tears, or fervent Supplications? or on what account do we frequent any Places, either of Public or Private Worship? Omnipotence, Justice and Goodness are ascribed in vain, if God neither made the World, nor regard it being made: Nor will it be easy to persuade Men to worship Him, if we are neither beholding to Him for our Being, nor under His Laws, and if He no more respect our Adorations, than if we did reproach and blaspheme Him: If it were thus, we should undoubtedly have cause to think ourselves, by much the most miserable part of the Creation. But on the other hand, That there is a natural Belief in us, both of God and of his Providence, the greatest of our Adversaries, the most irreligious and profane, the learned and profound Atheist, as well as the illiterate, nay, all Mankind have been as it were forced to grant and acknowledge. I am sure it is a prodigiously rare Case, to find any so unconcerned an Infidel, let his Life have been never so remarkable for Immorality, or one continued Act of Impiety and Irreligion, notwithstanding the force of contracted evil habits may have throughly immersed him in all kinds of Sensuality, yet when some grievous Calamity hath befallen him, or the disorder of his Body put him upon a Retirement, he begins to think first that there may be such a Thing as Divine Providence, as well as that there may not: and when a farther Reflection convinces him that it is more probable there is, than that there is not, if Death approach him, in the midst of his Meditations, there is scarce an Atheistical Desparado, can forbear giving his Testimony to this great Truth, but either silently or loudly breathes out his Soul with an O God be merciful.  
Now if these Men, the mighty Sticklers against the Divine Providence all their Lives, had that assurance in their last Minutes, that God Almighty is neither wise enough to know their Circumstances, nor powerful enough to punish them, I would gladly know from whence proceeds these lamentable Expirations? You will say perhaps from those bugbear Fears of invisible Powers, with which Tales they are so perpetually plagued from Pulpit Harangues, and promiscuous Converse with Men devoted to a Religious Superstition, that it is hardly possible for any Man so throughly to shake off these Childish Fears and Apprehensions, but that at some time or other they will intrude upon him, and in spite of all his Opposition embitter his Delights and Natural Satisfactions. The World, you say, is so pestered with the Levitical Tribe, that there is scarce a Corner of the Earth to be found, where a Man might live secure from this disturbing Noise of a Being who sees all our Actions, and will retribute to every Man after he is dead and buried, you know not how nor where, according to his Deserts, either of Reward or Punishment. Thus the Prejudice and Prepossession of Education in some, of Conversation in others, are the great Bias that sways the whole Bulk of Mankind, and keeps them under those servile Fears which necessarily arise from a Supposition of a God, and of other Separate Being's.  
That I may make a short, tho' I hope sufficient Reply to this Objection, I must confess that the Allegation of an early imbibed or preconceived Prejudice, may be prevalent enough to startle those, who either through a careless Negligence or Incapacity, have never dived into the bottom of this weighty Affair; but that it should have force enough to master and overpower the great and potent Masters of Humane Reason, and subjugate their seemingly impregnable and strenuous Fortresses, or strong Holds of Atheistical Argumentation, is in my Opinion, plainly giving up their Cause, and a silent Acknowledgement that the Proleptic Evidence or Light of their own Consciences, notwithstanding their vain Endeavours to suppress and extinguish it, will, however it may be sometimes smothered and kept under, break out at length to their sorrowful assurance, That those Noble Faculties of their Souls are more than a mere Sound or Echo from the clashing of senseless Atoms, and must indubitably proceed from a Spiritual Substance of a Heavenly and Divine Extraction: and that those admirable Fabrics of their Bodies ought no longer to be ascribed to the fatal Motions of blind unthinking Matter, but to the Wisdom and Contrivance of a Power Omnipotent.  
The Recollections of this Nature, and Recantations of former Principles, together with the strange Horror and Consternation those we are speaking of lie under at particular times, is deciphered by Juvenal in these Lines; 

satire 13.  Hi sunt qui trepidant & ad omnia fulgura Pallent  
Cum tonat Exanimes primo quoque murmure Coeli.   
There is no occasion to search Antiquity for these Examples, Modern Story will abundantly furnish us; we have lately had a R— r that may serve for all: A Man who, as perhaps his Profanity wants a Parallel, so likewise his incredible Acuteness of Judgement and Apprehension, together with his great Learning, had qualified him for diving as far into the Mystery of Atheism, as any of those that went before, or may happen to follow after him. I suppose you are no Stranger to the last Conferences which he held with the present B— of S— nor of those Rational and Penitential Expressions that ushered in his last Minutes; upon which account I shall ease myself of the Trouble of their Transcription. But since that happy, tho' unexpected Alteration in the opinion of his Lordship, is by his once beloved Libertines imputed to a Decay of his Rational Faculties, and a want of his former Strength and Vivacity of Judgement, induced by a long and painful Sickness, together with his frequent Commerce with the infectious Priests; tho' this, I say, be all too weak to blacken and obscure the Testimony of that late, yet unfeigned noble Convert, or to render his Religious Deportment but an inconsiderable Reflection upon the strength and goodness of their Cause: yet if I thought it might contribute to your farther Satisfaction, I could give you a signal Instance of some Affinity with the former, relating to a short Intercourse between myself and a deceased Friend: the former will indeed have this Advantage, that it wants not your knowledge of the Person, at least his Character, together with the Circumstances of Time and Place, as also the very forcible Attestation of several worthy Gentlemen: whereas this with which I am about to acquaint you, must for its credibility depend wholly upon your good Opinion of its Relator, since not only the Name and Place of Residence, but whatever else may tend to his Discovery, are to be buried in oblivion. Be the Event as it will with relation to your Conjectures.  
It is no long time ago that I paid a sorrowful Farewell to a dying Friend, a Man whom I never adventured to think more than a Deist, and that but nominal: I knew him to be both a Gentleman and a Scholar, that his Studies had been mostly Mathematical, and indeed he had made as good proficiency in Physics or Natural Philosophy, as perhaps almost any Person of his years.  
Having the good fortune to find him without Company, the freedom I had formerly taken with him, excused a farther Ceremony; and I immediately desired to know (having but little time to tarry) if he would grant me the liberty of ask him two or three short Questions, which, after his Concession, I put to him in these words: 1. Whether he conceived his Mind to be now as clear, as active, and as vigorous as it had been some few days before his Illness? 2. Whether he found therein any Persuasives to Repentance, or did believe any Necessity, by such kind of Atonement, to endeavour an Expiation of his past Failings and Offences? 3. If he had, or had not a full Conviction of the Soul's Immortality? 4. What he thought of the Christian Religion? To all which, when he had sorrowfully sighed out a Heu! Quam Mutatus, He made answer to this Effect:  
1. That his Reason had as yet suffered nothing of an Eclipse, and that he found his Understanding (bating the Effect of his present Consternation) as firm as ever. 2. As for sorrowing for past Errors and Irregularities, he thought it was no more than natural, and to cry to Heaven for Mercy at the last Moment, either in Sighs or Words, what the wildest Pagan put in practice: but that the Contrition of so great a Libertine as himself had been, however fervent or sincere, yet considering the same proceeded from one unable to sin longer, to think this available to reconcile such a throughly polluted Soul to the Divine Favour, he looked upon absurd. 3. As to the Substance and Condition of the Rational Soul, that great Principle and Source of all his Intellectual Faculties, when he formerly considered the Ignorance and more than brutish Stupidity of his Infancy, his gradual increase of Knowledge, and the manner of his collecting Ideas, with their being placed, tho' he knew not how, in his Memory, together with his first Attempts to speak by an imitation of those about him, these put him upon thinking, that the whole Progress had so entire a Dependence upon the Conformation or Mechanic Structure of the Brain, as to make him doubtful, whether there was any thing more in his Composition than Matter under various Modifications; and to believe that which hath obtained the Denomination of Mind or Soul, was only the Result or Completion of the Animal Organs, or did consist in some subtle Particles of the Blood, after divers unaccountable ways exerting their several Functions. But since he had more warily considered the strength of his own Mind, under a violent and very sensible Alteration and Decay of the Parts of his Body, that it grew more clear still as his end approached, and would not let him rest without confessing to its independency on the Body; since he reflected farther upon its Essence, and that it was certain its Faults or Imperfections might not be such in itself, but seem so as it stands related to the Body, in which whilst it is an Inhabitant and tied to Corporeal Organs, it must act accordingly: since he had weighed that pertinent and well adapted Simile, That the Soul is no more unblamable for acting disagreeably in a disordered or distempered Brain, than the Artist who has missed his end only on the account of faulty or improper Instruments: Lastly and above all, when he considered the Nature of Good and Evil, the Justice of the Divine Being, in rewarding good Men, and punishing the wicked; these Rewards not being distributed here; he was persuaded must undoubtedly ensue hereafter: and that his Soul was truly and really a Substantial Form infused by a Divine Power, and no Accident of Matter, neither capable of perishing by the destruction of the Body. Farther, That whatever Vehicle it might assume in its state of separate Existence, he saw nothing in the Notion incongruous or absurd, but that without its forsaken Companion it might very well be capable of an Intuitive Knowledge, and of exercising those reflex Acts which have no dependence upon gross Material Images, or Coporeal Ideas. 4. The business of Revealed Religion, he said, had very often startled him; he gave the less regard to it, because it had never reached to all Parts of the World: and he did think it too smart a Reflection upon Providence, to be consistent with the Divine Attributes, that Mankind should not have equal Advantages, or the same Laws or Rules to govern themselves by. But as for his own Judgement, he thought it the less valuable; for notwithstanding he did always believe there was such a Thing as Natural Religion, or a Light set up in the Soul by which every Man might steer his Course, and that Morality was more than an empty Sound, yet he had governed himself very little or nothing by the same. To the Credit of Christianity he offered this, That by how much the less Reason he had to believe it false, the more he thought himself obliged to think it true: and indeed, when at sometimes he considered what mighty Gain its first Founders might make of its Promulgation, or what should be the Motive to induce any Man to carry on such a Design, these Doubts, he said, he was never able to resolve; for when (as it was but seldom) he searched the Sacred Writings, and found, they contained nothing but such Laws and Precepts, as would if carefully observed, make us truly and completely happy: since they had had the Suffrage of the most Learned, and all the Sober, and consequently more Considerate part of the World, he was willing to think, for his part, they were manumitted to us by a more than Humane Power, and that their Divinity was as well conspicuous in their Subject as their Style.  
He lamented his short Acquaintance with them, and the small Progress he had made in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers, and all other Ecclesiastic History: were he to live the latter years of his Life over again, he said they should be devoted to an Enquiry after the great Founder of the Christian Religion; for he did believe it a Concern of the highest moment, and that every Man ought to satisfy himself, so far as he is able, of the Authority of those Writings, which being once established on a well-grounded Faith, they are and will be certainly the surest Guide we have to an happy Eternity. As for himself, he told me, he had many perplexing Thoughts attending him; so that he must put all upon a mighty Risque; but that he hoped to continue to his last Breath an unfeigned humble Supplicant for Mercy to the Majesty of Heaven: and that if he had no right to any Claim by the Death of Christ, the Saviour of the World, which (tho' on slight Assurance) he earnestly hoped that he had, he must then take what was allotted for him by the Divine Justice.  
Thus I took a vary dismal Vale, after he had closed all with some short and pithy Expressions relating to myself. I have purposely in this place omitted the several Interruptions happening in Discourse, since the Contents of the Replies I made in conference with this my deceased Friend, are some of them already intersperst in this and my former Letter, and what remains may very probably be inserted in my next.  
I shall give you no more Instances of this Nature, but will only add a word or two concerning the unequal Distribution of the Goods of Fortune, together with the Prosperity of the Wicked, and the Afflictions of Good Men: which if they do not Convince you of the Divine Justice and Goodness, may at least serve to palliate and to render these General Reflections upon Providence the less weighty.  
But before we speak of Happiness or Infelicity, Prosperity and Adversity, it behoves us to fix upon some just Method of Discrimination, and that we agree upon some proper Terms that may significantly express the Nature of Good and Evil, not as they appear, but as they really and experimentally are found in themselves: for if you go by the commonly received Opinion, or the Customary Judgement Men too frequently make, and reckon that Man more happy than yourself, who has more Money, more Attendants, more Admirers, fares more daintily or deliciously, lives easier, and takes less care. You will quickly find the Fallacy, and a very little Thoughtfulness will give you to understand, that notwithstanding these, there is no Man can have more of solid Happiness, Content and Satisfaction, than he has of Honesty, Justice, Temperance and Sobriety; for if instead of laying out his Wealth, to the Honour of that Being by whose Permission he enjoys it, he either locks it up in his Coffers, or makes no other use of the same, than by furnishing himself with the means of Intemperance and Excess: If he lays it out upon sumptuous Furniture, numerous Attendants, in Gaming, Drunkenness, Sensuality, and the Satisfaction of every other brutish Passion, you will find the Possessor of this kind of Happiness, a greater and fitter Object for your Pity than your Emulation.  
However the Notion might be carried too far by the Stoics, in their Supposition of a perfect Apathy, yet undoubtedly they were right in their founding True Felicity upon Contentment, or for that they placed the same in the Peace and Satisfaction of a calm and serene Mind, neither capable of an exalted Pride in the Enjoyment of Abundance, nor of Anxiety or Perturbation in what the World calls Poverty.  
If this be the Criterion or adequate Measure of true Happiness, we shall find those who have been generally accounted happy, to be of all others the most miserable. You may easily conceive the wealthy Miser can have but little of this solid Peace and Tranquillity; for what with his Pain and Care to increase his Treasure, his denying himself the convenient and even necessary Supports of Life, together with the perpetual Disquiet and Anxiety that attends his Fear of losing what he has got; there is scarce an hour in the whole compass of his miserable Life that is truly happy; even his Rest is not refreshing, like that of other men's, but his Soul is like a troubled Sea, and his last Moment's in his unwillingness to surrender and leave his Muck behind him (setting aside his Thoughts of Futurity) openly declare his Misery.  
From him we may take a prospect of the Prodigal Libertine, the other Precedent of mistaken Happiness, and here the genuine Consequences are both a disordered or infirm Body, together with a perplexed and disturbed Mind: for however the make or temperament of some men's Bodies gives them the opportunity of continuing a longer Course: yet their Souls are still perpetually clouded, and the tottering Carcase must at length fall a Victim to their adored Bacchus or admired Venus: and indeed, supposing the best of them that we can, we shall find nothing like a solid Satisfaction, even in the height of what they call Enjoyments. If we view them diverting themselves in Gaming; here we find (not to mention the impairing their Estates, the beggering themselves and Families) every cross or adverse hit of Fortune transforms them into so many Furies, and raises such impetuous Storms and Tempests in their Breasts, as can be vented no other ways than in the most horrid Oaths, Execrations and Imprecations of the Divine Judgements upon themselves and others. If we inspect their dishonest Embraces, their Whoredoms and Adulteries, though ne'er so secure and secret, yet the loss of Reputation by discovery in some, the fear of Infection in others, or perhaps of a Conception: but above all, that Fear (which will very commonly crowd in even upon the Infidel himself) that 'tis possible there may be an after-reckoning; these, I say, do generally combine to embitter the Delights of their Lascivious Acts; but if the brutish Appetite be allayed, if the Gild be stifled by an habitual Repetition, if neither Body nor Reputation suffer, which is a very great hazard, yet may we find many of the more thinking sort of these Persons declare their Dissatisfaction, and candidly acknowledge it one of the greatest Follies of which a wise Man can be guilty.  
If we follow them to a Debauch of Drinking, here we shall find even the Sensitive Appetite presently satiated, its Satisfaction no longer lasting than the fleeting Gust; their Minds soon obnubilated, and themselves not Masters of their Actions, nor yet their Passions, their Conversation grows burdensome, and truly they have little left but Shape to difference them from Brutes: these, with the result of such a Crapula, viz. violent ensuing Hemicrans, loss of Appetite and general Lassitudes, will, I'm certain in the estimate of every judicious Man, make Bedlam preferable to their Bacchanalia, and the Lunatic for the time a happier Man than the Drunkard.  
'Tis plain from hence, that we are mightily out in our Accounts of Happiness, or the supposed Prosperity of the Wicked, and the Adversity of Good Men: 
Vid. Charlton's Darkness of Atheism.  For whatever Blessings the Bounty of Divine Providence hath ordained for our Refreshment and Consolation, in this Pilgrimage on Earth, and furtherance towards an easy purchase of after Happiness, such as Vigour, Health and Beauty of Body, Ingenuity of Disposition, Longaevity, Multitude of Friends, Equality in Marriage, Fertility of Issue, Education in Civility and Learning, Science, Wealth, Nobility of Blood, Absoluteness in Power and Government, etc. when these come into the poluting hands of vicious Men, they instantly suffer not only a diminution of their Goodness, but even a total depravation of their Benignity, and degenerate into perfect Curses: the possession of them raise● incessant Tempests and distracting Storms of Passions in the Region of their Minds, not permitting that comfortable Sun of true Content to shine clearly forth, or to make so much as one fair Day during their whole Lives.  
To all which may be superadded this, That the brightest and longest Days of Fortune have ever closed in the blackest and most tragical Nights of Sorrow: that the Plays of Libertines have always proved Comae Tragedies; and their pompous Masks finished in dismal Catastrophy's; nor can the Records of the whole World produce one Example of sinful greatness, that hath not either before, or at his Eternal Adieu, by woeful Experiment manifested the Truth of this Maxim, In Vertute Sola, Salus: or that none can ever arrive at the Elysium of true Felicity, who constantly pursue it through the Gardens of Sensuality, that the Rose of Happiness grows on the prickly Stem of Virtue, and that the just Discharge of our Duties to God and Man, to the utmost of our Abilities, is the only means of acquiring a durable Content and Satisfaction.  
I shall conclude with this necessary Caution, That we take not too bold a Freedom in our Reflections upon Providence, or Repining at some particular Dispensations towards us: It is the greatest Imprudence we can be guilty of, to expect either that Virtue should be immediately rewarded, or Vice immediately punished: for this would not only destroy a Life of future Retribution, but if Punishments were immediately to be inflicted upon Delinquents, our Obedience would cease to be a Virtue, as proceeding from our Fear more than our Choice.  
Besides, we are by no means to pass Sentence upon the Providences of God, without a Prospect of them from the Beginning to the End: Providence is one entire System, nor can we judge of the parts, but in relation to the whole; for what at first we could give no account of, we are very often brought to approve by a subsequent Course of Dispensations: and we do as frequently understand, that had our Desires been gratified, or our Expectations answered in some particular Cases, the same would have proved troublesome, if we had not been quite ruined or undone by them.  
Excuse the Imperfection of these incoherent Thoughts, and believe me to be (what I am)  
Lond. Jan. 26. 1696/ 7. Your Friend in all good Offices.   

LETTER III. Of the Immortality of the Soul. To Mr.— etc.  
My very good Friend,  
WHatever Success my last met with, I am emboldened to believe my time not altogether misspent, 'tis not out of a Presumption that I am able to deliver any thing extraordinary, or more than many others might say upon these weighty Subjects: but out of I know not what kind of Belief and Expectation, that you will more considerately peruse, and attentively examine them, as the Performances of a Friend (who you may easily assure yourself writes neither for Secular Interest, nor Popular Applause, but truly and unfeignedly with a pure Design of discovering the Truth) than if the same were delivered by those whose Interest we might judge it is to keep us under a slavish Subjection, and who make it the proper and sole business of their Lives, to furnish out such Maxims, Arguments and Precepts, as they themselves (too many of them) are unmindful to observe; so that, what is much to be bewailed, when Men look upon the Priests as of a quite different make from the rest of Mankind, neither subject to the same Desires, natural Inclinations and Passions of other Men: when they view them living as it were separate from the World, perpetually conversant in Prayer, Fasting, Religious Contemplation and Divine Meditations, they, by a kind of implicit Faith (especially the common People) rely upon the Certainty of the Things delivered to them, without ever seriously enquiring or searching into the Nature of the Truths themselves: Hence it is that the generality of them are no longer Religious, than that they find their Pastor to square his Life by his Doctrine, and every Immorality discovered in their Teacher, they make the sufficient occasion of Absolving them, not only from their Regard or Respect to him, but even God himself.  
Thus amongst some sensual inconsiderate Men, I have frequently met with such pitiful Argumentation as this. They knew a Dr. of Divinity that was Drunk: They heard another Swear: A third they found in Secret with a Prostitute: A fourth they saw Gaming: A fifth they heard was Covetous, and a miserable Oppressor, etc. And presently follows this Ergo, All Religion in gross, is no more than Priest craft, the Body of Divinity a well contrived Romance, the great and mighty Props of it are all presently shaken to pieces, and our Belief of a God, his Providence and the Souls separate Existence or Independency, are now ridiculed for mere Fables. The Sum of all is this, The Parsons Preach for Money, get many Livings and grow Rich, whilst they in the mean time, till they discovered the Cheat, were hindered from the Pursuit of their natural Desires, and kept under Apprehension of Invisible Powers, a Life to come, and they know not what frightful Bugbears, Heaven and Hell, Devils and damned Spirits, which they now find to be a Dream: for since the slip of the Clergyman has opened their Eyes, they find nothing but Nature: Time and Chance, say they, attends us all. And here the words of Solomon come pat to their purpose, which he gives us, as the natural Arguments of wicked Men for the overthrow of Religion: 
Eccl. 3.18.  I said in my heart concerning the estate of the Sons of of Men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are Beasts: for that which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts, even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea they have all one breath, so that a Man hath no pre-eminence above a Beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place, all are of the dust: and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward, and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth? Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a Man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his Portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?  
This is now become the common Language of the Libertine, and if the intestine Dictator Conscience, takes the advantage of some lucid Interval, and whispers them in the Ear with what's to come: their Hearts-ease is still ready, and a Post Mortem nihil est, or their Sempiternal Hush lulls all asleep.  
I would by no means have you to take this, as a Reflection in general upon the Pastoral Function; for, God be thanked, there are many of them as remarkable for their Learning, as conspicuous for their unfeigned Piety: and did their Adversaries come up with some of the meanest of them in the Government and Conduct of their Lives, they would think it an insupportable Grievance to their Natures, to be abridged their Liberty, or tied to the Exercise of almost any single Act of Mortification and Self-denial; whilst at the same time every little Immorality in these Men is looked on through a Magnifying Glass; and the same which they account a Venial Fault or Peccadillo in themselves, must be deemed in the other a Crime of the first magnitude, an unpardonable Transgression.  
Being obliged in prosecution of the following Discourse to remove what Difficulties I could out of the way, and to mention at least some of the mighty Obstacles of our Faith: amongst others I have been necessitated to touch upon the Clergy, whom we are too prone to follow blindly, and when once our great Opinion of their Learning and Piety has placed them in the Chair of Infallibility; the first false step they make, at once subverts our Faith, and taking all before for granted which they delivered to us, we now dispute the Verity of those Doctrines we had inbibed from them.  
Bad Precedents are always very prevalent Contagions amongst our Equals; but when we find our Pastors or our Parents, our Masters, our Governors, or our Princes infected with any manner of Vice, we quickly become their Apes, and readily excuse ourselves, because we do but imitate those, whom we imagine to know better than ourselves.  
Thus many Men have had their Faith staggered by a View of the Profaneness and Impiety of Learned and Great Men; by the dissolute Lives of the Gentry and Nobility in the Countries where they live: as if these by their vicious Practices could alter the Nature even of Good and Evil; or if it was possible that Men immersed in Matter, tho' never so profoundly skilled in Science, could regulate their Lives by the Laws of God, whilst they contemn the Divine Aid, and regard not his Assistance. Instead of this, 'tis become the Fashion of the Town to ridicule Virtue, and render Vice as amiable as they can; and if they find it possible to prevail upon some simple Clergyman (who is naturally as lose as themselves) to be Drunk, to Whore, to Game, to Curse and Swear profanely, there are many Men so extravagantly proud of such a Conquest over an hypocritical Sinner, as to think they give hereby a fatal stroke to all true Piety, as if the very Essence of God, the Condition of the Soul, and every other Sacred Truth, were by such trivial and childish Instances to be obliterated or wiped out.  
I have premised this by way of Anticipation, or to Caution you how requisite it is before you set up for a Libertine, to go upon sure grounds: for undoubtedly 'tis unbecoming any Pretender to Reason, to run a hazard, especially one of this Consequence, or to declare himself either openly or privately for the Cause of Atheism, till he hath positively assured himself, beyond contradiction, that there is no Superintendent Power takes notice of his Actions; or if there should, that he is above the reach of his Justice, and that his last Breath will carry all into perpetual Oblivion; for if he goes not farther than probability that Matters may be so, yet if there remain the least doubt that they may not, he forfeits at once both his Reason and Security, and 'twill be a pitiful Satisfaction, that the greater part of the World have involved themselves with him in the same Misery.  
It is the less admirable that Men should so very easily give up the Cause of Religion, who never examined their first Principles; whose Faith is no otherwise founded than on the Custom of their Country, the Credit of their Ancestors, or the Example of those under whose Guardianship and Tutelage they have been brought up: And truly, in one sense, what the Poet remarks is a certain Truth, 
By Education, most have been misled; 
Hind and Panther.   
So they believe, because they so were bred:  
The Priest continues, what the Nurse began,  
And thus the Child imposes on the Man.   
He who never considers the Why or Wherefore, nor so much as once ever rightly weighed the Motives of his Belief, becomes a perfect Weathercock, every Blast of a new Doctrine carries him to and fro, till at length, being unsettled, he despise● all.  
This is what I have thought necessary by way of Introduction to my Discourse of the Immortality, which I intent the subject of this present Letter: for having in the two former, endeavoured to establish those two great Truths of the Divine Being and his Providence, Order requires that I take notice how far we are concerned, if we concede or admit the foregoing Propositions. For if we lie under no Obligation to, or have no future Dependence upon God or his Providence, it is a Matter purely indifferent, whether we believe them or not; what Advantage can I have by my belief in God, if I am secure that he has left me to my own disposal, and inspects not any of my Actions? or why should I deny myself the Satisfaction of my Desires, how exorbitant soever they may be, since I know the worst, and that if Death will at length come and put an end to my Delights, it will likewise finish all my Trouble and Disquiet?  
However I may resign up my own Reason, or betray the Weakness of my Judgement, I must confess to you, that when I have very often seriously reflected upon this Subject, and once admitted a Supreme Intelligent and Powerful Cause of all Things, I presently found myself under a kind of irresistible Necessity, to believe our Souls must be Immortal: and the Supposition of a down right Necessity that it should be so, without any respect to Arguments, either Sacred or Profane, that it is so▪ does at this time overcome me: for however short of Demonstration they may prove, we must take up with the most notorious Absurdity imaginable, if we persuade ourselves that there can be an Alwise, Just, and Omnipotent God, and yet notwithstanding that Thefts, Rapines, Murders, and all other the most egregious Vices should go unpunished, both here and hereafter. However this be, the Result of my own Thinking, and a Consequence which it's possible you may not allow, I speak it not by any means to prepossess your Judgement; neither do I desire you should look upon the same, either as Matter of Fact, or so much as Rational Evidence.  

Vid. Willis de A●●m.  It will add little to the Illustration of my present Task, that you are informed at large with the Opinion of the Ancients concerning the Humane Soul: let it suffice you to understand that as some of them affirmed the s●me to be a Substance existing of itself and Immortal; so there were others who denied that it had any Substance, but was only an accidental Form.  
The Platonists and Pythagoreans opined that the Souls of all living Creatures were a part of the Soul of the World● that they were immerged in Bodies as in a Sepulchre, and that when the Bodies died, they were by a various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inhabitants or Guests to other Bodies; sometimes to those of Men, at other times to those of Beasts.  
The Manichees supposed that all Souls in general were taken out of the Substance itself of God, that they actuated Terrestrial Bodies, and going from hence again returned into God himself.  
The Originists, That all Souls were created from the beginning of the World, at first to subsist of themselves, then as occasion served that Bodies being formed, they entered into them, actuated them during Life, and at length returned into their primitive and singular Substances.  
O●hers have affirmed, That the Soul of Man does arise up of her own accord, from power only of Matter rightly disposed, making her to be no more than a Temperament resulting from the Mixture, which as it adds nothing substantial to the Prae-existing Matter, the Soul itself seems to be from thence a mere Ens Rationis, or only an Extrinsic Denomination.  
Whoever makes a scrutinous Enquiry into their Sentiments, will find this the beloved Opinion, not only of our Modern professed Atheists, but of those also who have screened themselves under the less harsh and more acceptable Name of Deists.  
If you think fit to pay any Deference to Men, not only on the account of their Sobriety, but for their profound Learning and Metaphisical Acquirements, the two following, I doubt not, are unquestionable for both I mean Dr. Moor and Mr. Robert boil: The first of them defines the Soul of Man (i.e. the Rational) to be an immaterial Substance, endowed with Life and the Faculty of Motion, virtually containing in it Penetrability and Indiscerpibility. The judicious Esquire 
* History of Qualities and Forms  boil has been pleased to own, That he knew of nothing (naturally speaking) that was composed of Matter and a Substance distinct from Matter, except Man, who is made up of an Immaterial Form and a Humane Body.  
It were endless to cite the Opinions of all Learned Men, who have delivered their Sentiments about this Subject. I find in the general, with very little variation, they have concluded thus, That the Superior or Rational Soul in Man, is a most pure Substance, Immaterial, Penetrable and Indivisible, Essentially Vital, Perceptive and Appetitive, animating an Humane organised Body.  
Before I set about the justifying this Definition, I conceive it requisite that we have a right understanding, not only that there is an essential Difference between ou● Souls, and those of other Creatures, but wherein also the same consists: For give me leave to take notice to you, I am apt enough to believe, with a certain late 
* See a Discourse of the Nature of Rational and Irrational Souls by M.S.  Author, That the Cartesian Hypothesis, which allows Brutes to be no more than insensible Machine's, has been very injurious to our rightly conceiving the reasonable Soul of Man; for indeed the Notion in itself, notwithstanding its many Favourites, is so repugnant to common Observation and Experience, and withal so very harsh and incredible, that had it not been for the blind respect which is paid by most Men to its Founder, on the account of his Ingenuity and Penetration of Thought, it could never have so long imposed upon the Credit of his Disciples.  
Neither is it to be thought strange, That Cartes, who had denied the possibility of sensible Atoms, should start this Assertion concerning Brutes for the support of his Hypothesis: for when he had allowed but one Principle, both of Sense and Reason to Man, and endeavoured to prove this Principle superior to any Power in Matter, when after this the whole stress of our Immortality was laid upon the Immateriality of the Soul, he did well enough foresee, that by granting Sense to Brutes, he must also grant them actuated by a Principle above Matter, and Immateriality being his grand Proof of Immortality, they must necessarily come in with Man for a share in this Prerogative: To avoid which Absurdity, being at the same time unable to understand that mere Matter, however modified, should be capable of Sensation, he fixes upon one as great, and tells us there is none but Man amongst the Creatures, that is both capable of Sense and Reason, and that Brutes are only some of the more curiously contrived Machines', devoid of Sense, Feeling or Perception.  
Thus much may indeed be said in the behalf of this great Man, That it is really unaccountable to Humane Reason that Matter should be sensible: but yet it was too bold an Adventure, utterly to deny its possibility, when at the same instant we have a full Assurance that it is so.  
It is altogether as unintelligible, that Matter and Spirit should influence, and have such mutual Commerce with each other as we experience in ourselves. However inconsistent both may seem to our finite Understandings, they are by no means to be thought so with a Divine and Infinite Capacity or Power: upon which account, and the certain assurance that Brutes are capable of Sensation, those who allowed hereof, but yet would have Sense and Reason to arise from the same Source, were reduced to that miserable Subterfuge, That it was possible the Souls of Brutes were but so many particular Eradiations or Effluxes from the Spring of Life above, when and wheresoever there is any fitly prepared Matter capable to receive them, and to be actuated by them, to have a sense and fruition of themselves in it so long as it continues such, but so soon as ever those organised Bodies of theirs, by reason of their Indisposition, become incapable of being farther actuated by them, then to be resumed again, and retracted back to their Original Fountain.  
In supposing thus we must believe, both a prae and post Eternal Existence of brutal Souls; but if this won't do, there are others who would persuade us of the probability that the Souls of Brutes, as they are created out of nothing, may be annihilated by the same Power, and so with as much likelihood may the Soul of Man.  
These are some of the dangerous Consequences and Inconveniencies attending that monstrous Opinion, That Reason and Sensation are Affections of one and the same Soul. To remove which Difficulties, and in order to our arrival at a clearer Knowledge of our whole Compositum, I shall as briefly as I can, attempt a Proof that the Soul of Brutes, altho' sensible, is Corporeal.  
That Brutes are sensible (says a late 
* M. S.  Author) we have the same certainty as one Man can have that another Man is sensible, supposing that other Man were Dumb. I cannot feel the Impressions made upon another Man of Pain, Hunger and Thirst, but must judge of them by outward Indications: and I have all the same outward Indications that Brutes feel all these, as I have that any Man feels them; and therefore it would be ridiculous to go about to prove this by particular Instances.  
That the Brutish Soul is Material, 
See Gibson's Epit. Anat.  I come to understand because it is extended and divisible, being made up of the Vital Spirits and the Arterial Blood their Vehicle, and by the Rivulets of the Nerves they are communicated from the Brain to all the Sentient parts of the Body, which therefore are endowed with the power of performing Animal Actions.  
If you object, That this will prove no more than that the Immaterial Substance is so closely united to the Material, that it perceives every impression made upon the Body. I reply, That we could not then feel distinct Pains in several parts, but the Pain must be equally felt over the whole Body; for the Soul b●ing indivisible, it cannot feel in parts, but the whole must feel, and consequently the whole Body seem in equal pain: Neither, if this were true, could there be any degrees of Pain in the Sentient Parts, but a Cut in the Flesh would s●art as much as a Cut amongst the Nerves, for there can be no Reason assigned why i● should be otherwise, but because there is more of the sensible Nature in one part, than there is in another, but how can there be more or less when the whole fe●ls both? wherefore if there are degrees of Pain in the Sentient Parts, if we c●n feel pain in this part, and none in the other, and can at once feel several distinct Pains, in several distinct parts, than the Soul must either feel by parts, which an Indivisible cann●t, or Sensation must belong to another Principle whose Properties are Extension and Divisibility, and if those Properties do not belong to Body, or can belong to Spirit, we have no Notion either of Body or Spirit.  
Whoever throughly considers this Argument, will find that the Judgement of most Learned Physician▪ concur with this Opinion, of the Corporiety of the Souls of Brutes; and that the same is plainly hinted in those places of 
* 〈…〉 v. 1, 1●, 1●, 1●, 14.  Scripture which relate to the Jewish Prohibition of Eating Blood, because the same contained the Life or Soul. For as our Animal Spirits 〈◊〉 off by what we call the insensible Transpiration, we are sensibly enfeebled, and grow unactive till there are new ones ma●e out of the Arterial Blood, which Blood must be again supplied by Corporeal Nourishment. Thus we see Bodies, unaccustomed to hot Countries, in those places their Po●es are so much opened as to cause the Spirits, flying away in such quantities that the Life would soon expire, without the assistance of spirituous Liquors, which give a speedy supply of Spirits. On the other hand we find, Dormice will sleep whole Months without the help of Food; but if you observe those Creatures in their sleep, they are stiff and cold, their Pores are so contracted, that the Life cannot fly off, and therefore they want no Recruit; but when warmth awakens them, whereby their Pores are opened, they can fast no longer than other Creatures: therefore if the Animal Life flies off by parts, which are again renewed by Corporeal Nourishment, it is a clear Evidence that the Soul of Brutes, or Animal Life, is Corporeal; and by this we come to a plain and true Notion of Death, that it is not (as usually defined) a Separation of the Soul and Body, which is but a Consequence of Death but an absolute Extinguishment of the Animal Life or Vital Flame. For to suppose that mere Animals are a Compound of Matter and Spirit, and that Death is only a Separation of them, is to ridicule all the Natural Arguments for Man's Immortality, by making them hold as strong for the Immortality of Brutes; which is both against Divinity and Common Sense. And indeed, the reason why some Physicians (who of all Men should admire most the wonderful Works of Creating Wisdom) have been Atheistically inclined, is, because they are able to demonstrate that Sense is made by Matter and Motion, and therefore have carelessly concluded Reason to spring from the same Principle, and all our Actions to be accounted for by Mechanism: and those Men help much to the Confirmation of this Opinion, who assign the Office of Sensation to the Rational Soul, and allow Reason to other Animals; there is no Adversary to Religion, but will readily grant the Animal Life and Rational Soul to be the same thing; and that all Animals are Rational; but then he subjoins that the Animal Life is Corporeal: and therefore concludes that Rationality is no Argument either of Immateriality or Immortality.  
My Lord Bacon upon this Subject delivers his Opinion in the following words: The sensible Soul, or the Soul of Beasts, 
Ad L. 208, 209.  must needs be granted to be a Corporeal Substance, attenuated by Heat, and made invisible: let there be therefore made a more diligent Enquiry touching this Knowledge, and the rather for that this Point, not well understood, bathe brought forth superstitious and very contagious Opinions, and most vilely abasing the dignity of the Soul of Man, of Transmigration of Souls out of one Body into another, and lustration of Souls by Periods of Years, and finally of the too near affinity in every point of the Soul of Man with the Soul of Beasts. This Soul in Beasts is a principal Soul whereof the Body of the Beast is the Organ; but in Man th●s Soul is itself an Organ of the Soul Rational.  
Having made this Enquiry into the Soul of Brutes, and given, I hope, sufficient proof that the same is Corporeal, we shall next inform ourselves what Knowledge they are endowed with, and inquire whether or no there is a Principle of Reason in the most subtle of their Actions.  

Author of the Discourse of Rational and Irrational Souls.  Our common Observation may assure us, That all the Actions of mere Animals are either the Effects of a bare Sensitive Nature, which in various degrees is common to all; or of Sensitive Creatures, as they are framed of this or that peculiar Species or Kind: for what those Creatures act according to the Nature common to all, is plainly the Effect of bare Sensation: We see Idiots do as much, who have no use of Reason; they distinguish who feeds them, and fear who beats them. Outward Objects must affect the Animal Spirits, the Animal Spirits must make Traces in the Brain, and lodge those Ideas, and so far Will and Reason have nothing to do.  
And altho' the Actions of mere Animals, as they are of this or that peculiar Species or Kind, seem somewhat agreeable to Reason, yet they prove only a wise Author of their Being's, and that the more strongly, because 'tis visible that those Actions are not the Effects of a reasoning Principle in those Creatures, for Actions that are constantly agreeable to Reason must be somewhere directed by Reason, but they are not the Effect of Re●son in those Creatures.  
In earthly created Being's, we find Reason is improved by degrees, from a Series of Observations or from Information: Men cannot conclude or reason about any thing but a Posteriori, from the operation and effects of things; but mere Animals act according to their Nature, immediately and without observation; which are so many Demonstrations that they are instructed by a secret Instinct, and not by Reason, or a Knowledge of what they do, for they ever act according to their Natures, when by plain and visible Accident they act against the most apparent Reason. One would think a little, very little Reason would instruct Creatures that they could not eat when their Mouths are sewed up, at least a trial might learn them that knowledge; yet stitch up the Mouth of a Ferret day after day, and for all that he'll as warmly pursue the Rabbits for his food, as if his Jaws were at liberty. Farthermore, Mere Animals must act according to their kind, when so acting is visibly their certain ruin. Take a Bull-dog and muzzle him, throw him Bones that he may find he cannot open his Mouth, ●●t after that show him a Bull, and he shall as boldly attack the Bull, as if he had no Muzzle on.  
Again, It is certain that young Birds bred in Trees, will starve with Meat before them if it be not put into their Mouths, whereas those whose Kind breed on the Ground, can never be taught to gape for their Food, but so soon as batched betake themselves to seek out and pick up their food. These I say, with a thousand Instances of the like nature, are evident Marks of a Providential Wisdom, because they are Rational Actions, many of them at least performed not accidentally, but constantly, by Irrational Agents.  
Understanding being got by a Series of Experiments, Observations or Information, therefore it is some old Arts are improved, some quite lost, some new ones found out, but all mere Animals act the same yesterday and to day; thus far they always went, and no farther: which fully proves they were originally compel d and limited to act according to their Kind, and had nothing to do with Will or Reason.  
It may be objected, That several sorts of Animals are very d●cible Creatures, and learn several things, by the Discipline of Mankind, which would make one ready to think that those Creatures have some degrees of Reason. To which, I say, thus far is proved that those Creatures do act artificially, and for ends, without Deliberation and Knowledge; and those being the chief ends for which they were made, we cannot reasonably suppose that they should blindly act that part, and yet have the use of Reason in things of lesser moment. It must therefore be concluded, that the utmost extent of their Ability is to do, and not to know; and therefore tho' by the Impressions made upon the Senses, they may be forced to do what their Nature is capable of doing; yet this is all from the Senses, and Reason but begins where the Senses end. To do and to know why we do, proceed from different Principles: 'tis true, the most docible Creatures may mimic several things they see Men do, yet can they give us no Indication that they know why or to what end they do them: for that their Souls being Corporeal, it follows necessarily, that all their Motions must be made either by an External or Internal Force or Impulse; whereas Will and Reason can be no other than the Powers of a selfmoving Principle, which is a spiritual immaterial Essence. Sense and Imagination can conceive nothing but what is Corporeal; and the highest Conceptions which depend on Sense, amount no higher than Imagination, which likewise is unable to receive any other than Corporeal Ideas: Nor can it reflect or make any Conclusions about what it perceives. So that Brutes may very well be thus far endowed without any such thing as a Rational Exertion. For a farther Explanation hereof, I shall give you the Descriptton of a Learned Man of the Mechanic Process by which Brute Animals come by all their Habits, and that acquired seeming Knowledge which though in some degrees it surpasses their Natural Instincts, is however most strictly tied to Sense and Imagination.  

Vide Willis de Anon. 〈◊〉.  When the Brain, saith he, in the more perfect Brutes grows clear, and the Constitution of the Animal Spirits becomes sufficiently lucid and defecated, the Exteror Objects being brought to the Organs of the Senses, make Impressions, which being from thence transmitted for the continuing the Series or Orders of the Animal Spirits inwards towards the streaked Bodies, affect the common Sensory, and when as a sensible impulse of the same, like a waving of waters, is conveyed farther into the callous Body, and thence into the Cortex or shelly substance of the Brain, a Perception is brought in concerning the Species of the thing admitted by the Sense, to which presently succeeds the Imagination, and Marks or Prints of its Type being left, constitute the Memory: but in the mean time, whilst the sensible Impression being brought to the common Sensory ●ffects there the Perception of the thing felt, as some direct Species of it tending farther creates the Imagination and Memory, so other reflected Species of the same Object as they appear either Congruous or Incongruous, produce the Appetite and local Motions its Executors: that is, the Animal Spirits looking inwards for the Act of Sension, being struck back, leap towards the streaked Bodies, and when as these Spirits presently possessing the beginnings of the Nerves irritate others, they make a Desire of flying from the thing felt, and a Motion of this or that Member or Part to be stirred up; then because this or that kind of Motion succeeds once or twice to this or that Sension, afterwards for the most part this Motion follows that Sension as the Effect follows the Cause, and according to this manner, by the admitting the Ideas of sensible things, both the knowledge of several things, and the habits of things to be done, or of local Motions, are by little and little produced. For indeed from the beginning almost every Motion of the animated Body, is stirred up by the Contact of the outward Object, viz. the Animal Spirits residing within the Organ are driven inward, being stricken by the Object, and so (as we have said) constitute Sension or Feeling, then like as a stood sliding along the banks of the shore, is at last beaten back: so because this waving or inward turning down of the Animal Spirits, being partly reflected from the common Sensory, is at last directed outwards, and is partly stretched forth even into the inmost part of the Brain, presently local Motion succeeds the Sension, and at the same time a Character being affixed on the Brain, by the sense of the thing perceived, it impresses there Marks or Vestigia of the same for the Fantasy and the Memory then affected, and afterwards to be affected; but when as the Prints or Marks of very many Acts of this kind of Sensation and Imagination, as so many Tracts or Ways are engraven in the Brain, the Animal Spirits oftentimes of their own accord, without any other forewarning, and without the presence of an Exterior Object, being stirred up into Motion, forasmuch as the fall into the footsteps before made, represent the Image of the former thing, with which, when the Appetite is affected, it desiring the thing objected to the Imagination, causes spontaneous Actions, and as it were, drawn forth from an inward Principle. As for Example sake; The Stomach of an Horse feeding in a barren Ground or Fallow-land, being incited by Hunger, stirs up and variously Agitates the Animal Spirits flowing within the Brain; the Spirits being thus moved by accident, because they run into the footsteps formerly made, they call to mind the former more plentiful Pasture fed on by the Horse, and the Meadows at a great distance: then the imagination of this desirable thing (which at that time is cast before it by no outward Sense, but only by the Memory) stops at the Appetite: that is, the Spirits implanted in the streaked Bodies are affected by that Motion of the Spirits flowing within the middle part or marrow of the Brain, who from thence presently after their formerly accustomed manner, enter the Origines of the Nerves, and actuating the nervous System after their wont manner, by the same Series produce local Motions, by which the hungry Horse is carried from place to place, till he has found out the imagined Pasture, and indeed enjoys that good the Image whereof was painted in his Brain.  
After this manner the sensible Species, being intromitted by the benefit of the Exterior Organs in the more perfect Brutes, for that they affix their Characters on the Brain, and there leave them, they constitute the Faculties of Fancy and Memory, as it were Storehouses full of Notions; farther stirring up the Appetite into local Motions agreeable to the Sensions, frequently they produce an habit of acting, so that some Beasts being taught or instructed for a long time, by the assiduous Incursions of the Objects, are able to know and remember many things, and learn manifold Works, i. e. to perform them by a complicated and continued Series and Succession of very many Actions. Moreover, this kind of acquired knowledge of the Brutes, and the practic Habits introduced by the Acts of the Senses, are sometimes promoted by other means to a greater degree of Perfection.  
Living Brutes are taught by Example, by the Imitation and Institution of others of the same, or of a divers kind, to perform certain more excellent Actions. Hence it is that the Ape so plainly imitates Man, that by some it is thought a more imperfect Species of him: for this Animal being extremely mimical, as it is endowed with a most caepactous and hot Brain, it imitates to an hair almost all the Gestures that it happens to see presently, with a ready and expeditious composing of its Members, and is furnished with a notable Memory, and retains all its Tricks which it hath once acted, very firmly afterwards, being wont to repeat them at its pleasure. Yet notwithstanding 'tis very clear and apparent, that Brutes are directed to all things which belong to the Defence and Conservation of the Individuum, and that are to be done for the Propagation of their Kind's by a natural Instinct, as it were a Law or Rule fixed in their Hearts, when as therefore we behold for these ends, ordained by Divine Providence, Brutes to order their Matters wisely, and as it were by Counsel, no Man esteems this the Work of Reason, or any Liberal Faculty; for they are led into these Enterprises by a certain Predestination, rather than by any proper Virtue or Intention.  
Having given you this Account of the Soul of Brutes, proved the same a Corporeal, Divisible Substance, whose peculiar residence is in the Blood and Spirits, and evinced their knowledge not to exceed the powers of Sensation and Imagination, it is time that we return to discourse of the Rational Soul of Man; and if it can be discovered that there is a Principle of Action in him which proceeds from a different way of Operation than Sensation doth, and that there are such Operations of this Soul which are not Imaginations, it will be then as clear that there is a Principle in Man higher than Matter and Motion, and impossible, without a spiritual immaterial Being, to solve those Appearances in him which thus transcend the Power of Imagination.  

Vide Gas. Phy. sect. 3. lib. 10, 11.  The renowned Philosopher Gassendus has given sufficient proof, That the Sensitive Soul in Man is exactly the same with that of Brutes, Corporeal, Extended, Native, and Corruptible: but that the Rational is a Substance purely Incorporeal and Immortal.  
Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon Thessalonians, v. 23. says Man consists of three Parts: First the Body, which denotes the Flesh and Members. Secondly the Vital Soul, which Animal and Sensitive Soul is common to Man and Brute. Thirdly Spirit, which is the Rational Soul. This Division he confirms by the Testimony of Heathen Authors and ancient Fathers. So that those who disregard the Scriptures, may in these admirable Authors be furnished with other Authorities; but those who do, may consider what the Apostle saith in the forementioned Text, viz. I pray God your whole Body, Soul and Spirit be preserved: to which we may add what he says in another place, 
Heb. 4.12.  The Word is sharper than a two edged Sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit, and of the Joints and Marrow. The meaning whereof is, Let things be never so closely united, God can separate them; but then they must be in their nature separable, or else it implys a Contradiction. So that if the Soul and Spirit are separable, we have gained our Point; if they are not, the Apostle has told us that can be, which cannot be. But further; This Truth that there is two distinct Souls in Man, is by the Apostle demonstrated from the dictates of Internal Sense: I find (saith he) a Law, 
Rom. 7.21, 22, 23.  that when I would do good evil is present with me, for I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man. But I see another Law in my Members, warring against the Law of my Mind, and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin, which is in my Members. So then with my Mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the Flesh the Law of Sin.  
Now what can be more expressive of two several perceptive Souls in Man, 
See the Discourse of Rational and Irrational Souls.  whose Natures and whose Laws are contrary to each other? But perhaps you'll say, These contrary Laws do indeed arise because Man is a Compound of contrary Natures, yet there is but one perceptive Nature in him: but that Nature having the several Faculties of Reason and Sensation, and being united to Flesh, whereby the Sensitive Faculty may be gratified, hence arises the War between Sense and Reason. To which I answer, Thus far then we are agreed, that Sense is the Source of all Carnal Delights, Pains and Aversions, therefore Sense is no Faculty of the Spirit, or all Carnal Delights, Lusts and Passions spring from the Spirit: and what excellent sense would this make the Apostle speak, I find a Law in my Mind warring against the Law of my Mind; so then with the Mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the Mind the Law of Sin: for if Sense be a Faculty of the Mind, the Laws of Sense are are as much the Laws of the Mind as the Laws of Reason.  
The Soul and Spirit, by reason of their close unaccountable Union, have also unaccountable mutual Influences upon each other; but for all that, their contrary Natures are very discernible: and to make Sense and Reason Faculties of the Spirit, is to make the Spirit as the Man, a Compound of contrary Natures; for that Sense and Reason are of contrary Natures, is discernible from the natural and constant struggle and contentions between them. Secondly, From the natural Fruit they bring forth, which is certainly contrary if Good and Evil are so: wherefore we may with all imaginable certainty, affirm the Souls of all mere Animals, and the Sensitive Soul of Man, to be Corporeal, but the Rational Soul of Man to be truly a Spiritual Immaterial Substance, if there were not such a Substance in him distinct from the Sensitive Soul of Brutes, and a Power Superior to Sensation, we might reasonably interrogate with the Judicious Willis, 
Willis de Anum.  Curio non Quadrupedes aeque ac Homo Intellectu & Ratiocineo polleant, immo Scientias & Artes discant: quandoquidem in utriusque preter Animas pariter Immateriales, eadem prorsus fit Conformatio Organorum Animalium, à quibus sane Animam rationalem dum in Corpore est, quoad Actus & habitus suos pondere constat, quoniam laesis aut impeditis Organis, horum privatio aut Eclipsis succedit: Quamobrem quod Bruti Anima iisdem ac Homo Organis utens, nihil praeclare scire nec supra Actus & Objecta materialia assurgere potest, plane sequitur illum ab Anima rationali diversam, insuter long inferiorem & materialem esse. But to proceed,  
Those who hold no difference between the Soul of Man and Brutes, with respect to Essence, and at the same time will allow Sacred Authority, would do well to consider whether it be reasonable to think the latter were endowed with that Divine Spiraculum, which the former was honoured with in his Creation: if they think it reasonable, they strike at the Mosaic Relation; if they do not, let them tell me what that Spiraculum was, if not the Rational Spirit. And indeed, if this alone were well considered, we should hear no more of the Rationality of Brutes, from those who acknowledge the Truth of Revelation.  
But farther; That this Reasonable Soul is a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance, we have this to allege, for that it is Rational and has a freedom of Choice, neither of which can possibly belong to Matter, for all the Motions of Matter are necessarily made, no Choice but Force must make its Motion, and that Force must be immediate, for Matter moves no longer than the Impulse lasts: but to deliberate and judge of a Train of Consequences, is no immediate impulsion of Matter, for those Consequences are not yet in Being, but only such as will be upon our acting thus or thus; nay, perhaps only such things as may, but never will be; but to choose to act (as such power we have, and every Man feels it within himself) purely in regard to those Consequences, is many times to act in opposition to all the immediate and strong Impresses of Matter; and hence it is apparent, that neither Will nor Reason do belong to Matter, but to something vastly different.  
Again, The Animal Spirits make no other Impression on the Brain, than as things appear not always as they are, which Error is corrected; yes, you'll say, but 'tis corrected by the Senses themselves. But what puts the Senses in the way and method to correct themselves? If the Senses are their own directing Power, than all Creatures that are alike sensible would be alike knowing; and mere Animals would be daily finding out new Arts and Inventions as well as Man. It is impossible to give the least shadow of a Reason why it should be otherwise, unless we allow a Principle in Man which Brutes have not: we see, except Man, all Creatures of the same kind run in one constant and settled Method, whilst he is not only learning from every thing he sees, but invents how to learn and try the Truth or Falsehood of this or that Invention by Experiments; and sometimes he finds himself in the right, sometimes in the wrong: Now, tho' in these Cases the Truth or Falsehood of this or that Invention is proved by the Senses, yet the Invention preceded the Proof, and therefore could not be from the Information of the Senses. Besides, 'tis yet more evident those Inventions are not from the Senses, but from another Principle, because the same are sometime, false, and will not hold; but when we come to prove them, our Senses will bring in no such Appearances: For altho' we know nothing but a posteriori from the Operations and Effects of Things, yet from visible Operations and Effects, we can consider and reason about the Nature of the Invisible Operator, as from the Beauty and Order of the Universe, we reason that there must be a mighty Wise and Invisible Power that framed and continues the same. Now the Impressions of Matter upon Sense go no farther than so these Appearances are, and here of necessity we should ever rest, had we no other Principle but Matter, and could never inquire how or why things come to be so; but when we advance to the Notion of an Invisible Operator, then certainly we outfly our Senses, unless our Eyes are so good as to see an Invisible Object: But suppose there is no such Invisible Object, but that all our Notions concerning such a Being are but mere Chimaeras, let us for Argument sake suppose all that, however whether the Notion of an invisible Incorporeal Operator be true or false, so much is true, that there is such a Notion amongst Men, and that it is a full Evidence that there is an incorporeal Principle in Man, because Matter cannot possibly impress or be impressed with any other but material Ideas; therefore were Man's whole Compositum pure Matter, he could not possibly stir beyond material Ideas, and the World had never heard of Immaterial Substance. To confirm this, I shall here add the Opinion of one whose Sentiments upon other Matters I have elsewhere made bold with.  

See Charlton upon the Soul's immortality.  The Considerations (saith he) which may be alleged in favour of the Soul's Immortality, are either Physical or Moral: The former are such as arise from the Nature of the Soul herself, and do all of them seem to refer to this one Capital Argument, The Reasonable Soul of Man is Immaterial, and therefore Immortal: The reason whereof is, what wants Matter wants likewise Parts into which it might be distracted or dissolved; and what is incapable of being dissolved, must of necessity always continue to be what it is: for whatever is of a Nature free from the Conditions of Matter or Body, doth neither carry the Principles of Dissolution in itself, nor fear them from External Agents.  
There are but two ways comprehensible by the Understanding, how any thing that hath Existence in Nature can perish; the one is by the Exolution and Dissipation of the Parts of which it was composed; the other by an absolute Adnibilation of its Entity, as the Schoolmen phrase it. The former way of destruction is peculiar to Corporeals, and the latter may be competent to Incorporeals: But to argue à possi, ad esse, that God doth, or will annihilate any thing, because it as in his power, is much below any good Logician to infer: nor are we to suppose any Innovation in the general state of things; but that the Course of the Universe doth constantly and invariably proceed in the same manner or tumour of method, which was at first instituted by the Wisdom of the Creator.  
Now to prove that there is a power in us above the sensitive Soul or independent of Matter, notwithstanding this great Man was in some things tainted with the Cartesian Principles, he thus rightly argues, That if all our Cognition doth proceed originally from our Senses, as is affirmed by Aristotle in his Maxim of Nihil in intellectu, etc. and that Intellection is made by Analogy, by Composition, Division, Ampliation, Extenuation, and the like ways of managing the Species or Images of things immitted into the common Sensory by the External Senses; then certainly we can have no knowledge of any thing whereof we have no Image, and consequently without Imagination there is no Intellection; so that in fine, to imagine and understand a Thing will be all one; whereas to answer this we may affirm, that no Corporeal Image or Species is ever received into the Mind, and that pure Intellection as well of a Corporeal as Incorporeal thing is made without any material Image or Species at all. As for Imagination, to that indeed is required the presence of some Corporeal Image to which the Mind might apply itself, because there can be no Imagination but of Corporeal things, and yet nevertheless that Corporeal Image doth not enter into the Mind. The truth is, the Intellect also makes use of Images conceived by the Fancy (and therefore called Phantasms) yet only as certain means or degrees, that progressing through them, it may at length attain the knowledge of some things which it afterwards perceives as sequestered, and in a manner sublimed from those Phantasms: but this is that which doth sufficiently argue its being Immaterial, because it carrieth itself beyond all Images material, and comes to the Science of some things of which it hath no Phantasms.  
All the particular Knowledges that Man hath, or can have, concerning finite and complete Entities (except only the Notion of Being) are only certain comparisons or respects between particular things; but of respect there can be no Image or Representation at all in the Fancy, and therefore our Knowledge is without Images. All the particular Notions we have (except of Being) do belong to some one of the ten Predicaments, all which are so manifestly respective, that no Man doubteth them to be so: In particular, Substance hath a respect to Being: Quantity doth consist in a respect unto Parts: Quality hath a respect unto that Subject which is denominated from it: Action and Passion result from the Union of Quality and Substance: Relation denoteth the respect betwixt the Relatum and Correlatum: Ubi and Quando arise from Substance considered with the Circumstances of Place and Time: Situation is from the respect of parts to the whole: Habit is a respect to the Substance wherein it is, as being the Propriety by which it is well or ill, conveniently or inconveniently affected, in regard of its own Nature. If you question the verity of the foregoing Assertion, exercise your Mind in seriously reviewing all these things that have been derived from the Senses, and see if you can find among them any such thing as we call a respect; it hath neither Figure nor Colour, nor Sound, nor Odour, nor Taste, and so cannot possibly be represented to the Sense or Imagination: hence, I think, there is no need to doubt that the Notions of things in the Intellect or pure Understanding, are extremely different from whatsoever is immitted into the Mind by the mediation of the Senses, and so that the Intellect hath a knowledge of some things independent of Corporeal Images or Ideas. For in simple Imagination the Mind doth always apply itself to the thing speculated, or the Image rather of that thing; but in pure Intellection in quitteth the Image, and converteth itself upon itself; the former Act being still accompanied with some labour and contention of Mind, the latter free, easy and instantaneous.  
Now in the Fancy of Beasts, there is always a Conjunction of the Image of that particular good or harm they have formerly received from such or such things with the Images of the things themselves, which is all that can be said to render the subtlest of them Conscious, and is indeed the Cause of all those so much admired Effects called Sympathys and Antipathys amongst Animals of different kinds.  
Another sort of Actions evincing the Soul's Immateriality, are those whereby we do not only form to ourselves Universals or Universal Notions, but also understand the reason of Universality itself; for it being evidently impossible that any Corporeal thing should be exempted from all material Conditions and Differences of Singularity, as Magnitude, Figure, Colour, Time, Place, etc. and undeniably certain that the Understanding hath a power to divest them of all and every one of those Conditions and Circumstances, and to speculate them in that abstracted state devoyed of all Particularities, it follows necessarily, that the Soul which hath this power so to abstract them, must itself be exempt from all Matter, and of a Condition more eminent than to be confined to material Conditions.  
To these few Reasons of the Immateriality of the Humane Soul, defumed from the Excellency of her Operations, I might here add a multitude of others of the same Extraction and equivalent Force, as in particular that of the Existence of Corporeal Natures in the Soul by the power of Apprehension: that of her drawing from Multitude to Unity: her apprehension of Negations and Privations: her containing of Contraries without Opposition: her Capacity to move without being moved herself: the Incompossibility of opposite Propositions in the Understanding, and sundry others, the least whereof is of Evidence and Vigour sufficient to carry the Cause against all those Enemies to her Immortality who would degrade her from the Divine Dignity of her Nature, to an equality with the Souls of Brutes, that are but certain Dispositions of Matter, and obnoxious to Dissolution upon change of the same by contrary Agents.  
But farther, There is no Corporeal Faculty but what is confined to the Perception of only some one certain Genus of things, as in particular the Sight to Visibles, the Hearing to Sounds, etc. and tho' the Imagination seems to be extended to very many kinds, yet all those are contained under the Classis of Sensibles, and thence it comes that all Animals, endowed only with Fantasy, are addicted only to Sensibles, no one affecting the knowledge of any thing which falleth not under the Sense: but the Intellect alone is that which hath for its Object, Omne verum, and as the Schoolmen speak, Ens ut Ens, every Being in the Universe, and therefore hath no mixture of Matter, but is wholly free from it and Incorporeal, a Truth so clearly revealed by the Light of Nature, that Anaxogoras and Aristotle both subscribed, Esse intellectum necessario 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immistum, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoniam intelligit Universa.  
That Incorporeals are within the Orb of the Intellects Activity, and do not escape the apprehension of this unbounded and universal Capacity, needs no other proof besides that of our own sublime Speculations concerning the Nature of God, of Intelligencies, of Angels, of the Humane Soul, and whatever else belongs to the Science of Metaphysics, which teacheth us to abstract from all Matter and Quantity. Nay, I presume it will not be accounted Paradoxical in me to affirm, that Immaterial Objects are most genuine and natural to the Understanding, especially since Cartes hath irrefutably demonstrated that the knowledge we have of the Existence of the Supreme Being, and of our own Souls, is more certain, clear, and distinct than the knowledge of any Corporeal Nature whatever, according to that Canon of Aquinas, Nulla res qualiscunque est, etc.  
The Moral Considerations, usually brought in defence of the Soul's Incorruptibility, are principally three: 1. The Universal Consent of Mankind. 2. Man's inseparable Appetite of Immortality. 3. The Justice of God in rewarding good Men, and punishing evil Men, after Death. Now as Cicero judiciously observes, Omni in re, consentio omnium Gentium, Lex naturae putanda est; and thus the Notion of the Soul's Immortality is so implanted in the Nature and Mind of Man, that whoso denies it doth impugn his own Natural Principles.  
As for that common Objection the Alteration observable in Infancy and old Age, we may answer with the great Master of Nature (at least one so esteemed by some) Innasci, autem Intellectus videtur, & substantia quaedam esse, nec corrumpi, nam si corrumperetur quidem id maxime fieret ab habitatione illa, quae in Senectute contingit: nunc autem res perinde fit ac in ipsismet sensuum instrumentis; si enim Senex, Occulum Juvenilem reciperet, non secus ac ipse Juvenis videret, unde & Senectus non ex eo est, quod quidquam passa Anima sit; fed quoth simile aliquid ac in Ebrietate morbisque eveniat, ipsaque intelligendi & contemplandi functio, propter aliquid aliud interius corruptum marcescit, cum ipsum interim cujus est passionis expers maneat. Which words considered, we have good reason to affirm, that all that Change which the Epicurean would have to be in the Rational Soul or Mind, during the growth of the Body in Youth, and decay of it in old Age, doth not proceed from any Mutation in the Soul itself, but some other Interior thing distinct from it, as the Imagination or Organ of the common Sense, the Brain, which being well or ill affected, the Soul itself suffereth not at all, but only the Functions of it flourish or decay accordingly; for as the Philosopher remarks, if it were possible to give an old Man a young Eye, and a young Imagination, his Soul would soon declare by exquisite vision and quick reasoning, that it was not she that had grown old, but her Organs; and that she is capable of no more Change from the impairment of the Body, than is usually observed to arise (pro tempore) from a fit of Drunkenness, or some Disease of the Brain: so that it is evident from hence, that whatever Change Men have thought to be in the Soul by reason of that great decay, generally attending old Age, to not really in the Soul, but only in the Imagination and the Organs thereof, which are not so well disposed as in the Vigour of Life.  
In like manner are we to understand that the Soul, when the Members grow cold and mortified, doth then indeed instantly cease to be in them, yet is not cut off by piece-meal, or diminished and gradually dissipated, but the whole of it remains in so much of the Body as yet continues warm and perfused by the Vital Heat, until ceasing longer to animate the principle Seat of its Residence, whether the Brain or Heart, it at length bids adieu to the whole, and withdraweth itself entire and perfect: so that Death is an Extinction of the Vital Flame, and not of the Soul, which, as Solomon calls it, is the brightness of the Everlasting Light, the unspotted Mirror of the Power of God, and the Image of his Goodness, and being but one, she can do all things, and remaining in herself, she maketh all things new.  
The like may be said with relation to those failings observable in swooning fits, which fall not upon the Soul, but on the Vital Organs, at those times rendered unfit for the uses and actions to which they were framed and accommodated: and if the Causes of such failings should happen to be so violent as to bring on a sudden Death, than the Soul must indeed depart; yet not by reason of any dissolution in its Substance, or imbecility in itself, but for want of those dispositions in the Organs of Life, by which she was enabled to enliven the Body.  
Now if (saith this Author) in such a Thesis or Proposition, which is not capable of being evinced by Geometrical Demonstration, there can yet be expected such substantial and satisfactory Reasons, Physical or Moral, as may suffice to the full establishment of its Truth in the Mind of a reasonable Man: If this be granted, I thence argue that the Soul is an Immortal Substance, and that its Immortality is not only credible by Faith or upon Authority Divine, but also demonstrable by Reason, or the Light of Nature.  
To be convinced of our Immortality, and satisfactorily persuaded whether or no there is any thing in us, which shall not perish with the Life we are shortly to lay down, is of so great and so important Consequence, that I can readily expect your forgiveness, if I trespass upon your Patience, and enlarge a little farther upon this weighty Argument.  
That there is somewhat in us, essentially differing from, distinct and superior to other Animals, or that the Rational Soul of Man bears no Analogy with the Souls of other Creatures, is farther elegantly touched upon in these words of Dr. Willis.  
The Eminency of the Rational Soul above the Brutal or Corporeal, 
De Anim. Brutorum.  shines clearly by comparing either both as to the Objects, and to the chief Acts or Modes of Knowing. As to the former, when●● every Corporeal Faculty is limited to sensible Things, the Object of the Humane Mind is every Ens, whether above or sublimary, material or immaterial, true or fictitious, real or intentional. The Acts or Degrees of Knowledge common to either Soul, are vulgarly accounted these three; to wit, Simple Apprehension, Enunciation, and Discourse: How much the power of the Rational excels the other which is Corporeal, we shall consider, 1. The knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul is Phantasie or Imagination, which being planted in the middle part of the Brain, receives the sensible Species first only impressed on the Organs of Sense, and from thence by a most quick irradiation of the Spirits delivered inwards, and so apprehends all the several Corporeal Things according to their Exterior Appearances, which notwithstanding, as they are perceived only by the Sense (which is often deceived) they are admitted under an appearing, and not always under a true Image or Species: for so we imagine the Sun no bigger than a Bushel, the Horizon of the Heaven and the Sea to meet: the Stars not to be far distant from us in the Horizon, that in respect of us there are no Antipodes. Farther, we may think the Image in the Glass, or in a Fountain delineates itself, that the Echo itself is a Voice coming from some other place; that the Shoar moves when we are upon the Water; yea, and many other things being received by the Sensories, whilst Fancy is the only guide, seem far otherwise than indeed they are. But the Intellect presiding o'er the Imagination beholds all the Species deposited in itself, discerns or corrects their Obliquities or Hypocrisies, sublimes the Fancy there drawn forth, and divesting it from Matter, forms Universal Things from Singulars. Moreover, it frames out of these some other more sublime Thoughts, not competent to the Corporeal Soul, so it speculates and considers both the Nature of every Substance, and abstracted from the Individuals of Accident, viz. Humanity, Rationality, Temperance, Fortitude, Corporiety, Spirituality, etc. being carried higher it contemplates God, Angels, itself, Infinity, Eternity, and many other Notions far remote from Sense and Imagination. And thus as our Intellect in these kind of Metaphisical Conceptions, makes things almost wholly naked of Matter, or carrying itself beyond every sensible Species, considers or beholds them immaterial and immortal, because if this aptness or disposition were Corporeal, as it could conceive nothing Incorporeal by Sense, so would it suspect and deny that there were any such thing in the World. 2. It appears clearly that Fancy, or the knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul, doth not only apprehend simple things, but also compose and divide many things at once, and from thence makes Enuntiations because living Brutes in various Objects together, which are for food, discern things convenient from others inconvenient or unfit; moreover, they choose out of these, things grateful, before others less grateful, and get them sometimes by force, sometimes by cunning, and as it were by stealth. A Dog knows a Man at a great distance, if he be a Friend he runs to him and fawns on him; if an Enemy and fearful, he barks at him, or flies at him; but if armed, or threatening him, he flies away from him. These kind of Propositions the Brutes easily conceive, forasmuch as some Species of the sensible Thing being newly admitted, meets with Species of one thing or other before laid up in the Memory, or being suggested by a natural Instinct, associates with them, or repulses them.  
But indeed, how little is this in respect to the Humane Intellect, which not only beholds all Enuntiations conceived by the Fancy, but judges them whether they be true or false, congruous or incongruous, orders and disposes them into Series of Notions accommodated to Speculation or Practice. Moreover, it restrains the Fancy itself, being too unstable, and apt to wander through various Fantasies, it calls it away from these or those Conceptions, and directs it to others; yea, it keeps it within certain limits at its pleasure, lest it should expatiate and divert too much from the thing proposed, which without peradventure clearly indicateth a Superior Soul in Man, that moderates and governs all the Faculties and Acts of the Corporeal.  
Again; The Humane Intellect not only eminently contains every Virtue of the Fancy, but from the Species perceived in it, deduces many other Thoughts altogether unknown to the Sense, and which the Fancy of itself could no way imagine: For besides that it conceives the formal Notions of Corporeal Things, and abstracted from all Matter, and attributes to them Predicates merely intentional, yea and understands Axioms or first Principles alone, and as it were by a proper Instinct, without recourse to Corporeal Species, the same Mind also beholds itself by a reflected Action, it supposes itself to think, and thence knowing a proper Existency not to be perceived, neither by Sense nor Fantasy, when in the mean time neither Sense nor Imagination (of which no Images are extant) do perceive themselves to know or imagine. The Rational Soul comprehends moreover, as it were by its own proper Light, God to be Infinite and Eternal, that he ought to be worshipped, that Angels and Spirits do inhabit the World, Heavens and Places beneath the Earth, that there are Places of Beatitude and Punishment, and many other Notions merely Spiritual, by no means to be learned from Sense or Fantasy.  
3. The Prerogatives of the Rational Soul, and the differences from the other Sensitive and Corporeal, may be yet farther noted, by comparing the Acts of Judgement and Discourse or Ratiocination, which it puts forth more perfectly, and oftentimes demonstratively; when these kind of Acts from this power in the Brutes are drawn forth imperfectly, and only analogically. We have already declared the utmost that Brutes can do, and how far they can go towards the Exercise of Reasoning and Deliberation, through innate Faculties and acquired Habits: which truly, if the whole be compared with the Functions of the Humane Intellect and its Scientific Habits, it will hardly seem greater than the Drop of a Bucket to the Sea.  
For to say nothing of that Natural Logic, by which any one endowed with a free and perspicatious Mind probably, and sometimes most certainly concludes concerning Doubtful Things, or Things sought after, if we mind how much the Humane Mind, being adorned by Learning, and having learned the Sciences and Liberal Arts, is able to work, understand, and search out, it would be thought, tho' in a Humane Body, to be rather living with Gods or Angels; for indeed here may be considered the whole Encyclopaedia, or Circle of Arts and Sciences, which (excepting Divinity) have been the Product or Creatures of the Humane Mind, and plainly argues the Workman, if not Divine, to be at least a Particle of Divine Breath, to wit, a Spiritual Substance, wonderfully Intelligent, Immaterial, and which therefore for the future must be Immortal. It would be tedious to rehearse the subtle Wiles of Logic, and the extremely curious Web of Notions, or of the Reason of Essences or Being's, where the things of Natural Philosophy being unfolded by their Causes, are dissected as it were to the Life, the most pleasant Speculations, the profound Theorems, or rather Celestial, of the Metaphysics or Supernatural Things; yea, and the grand Mysteries of other Learning, first found out by Humane Industry: But above the rest, is it not truly amasing to see the most certain Demonstrations of the Mathematics, and therefore akin and greatly alluding to the Humane Mind, its Problems and Riddles, how difficult soever, to be extricated with no Labour, yea, and many things of it attained, and most glorious Inventions? What is it below a Prodigy, that Algaebra, from one Number or Dimension, which at first was uncertain and unknown, being placed, should find out the quantity of another altogether unknown? What shall I say concerning the Proportions of a Circle, a Triangle, a Quadrangle, and other Figures, and of their Sides and Angles variously measurable amongst themselves, being most exactly computed? What besides that the Humane Intellect having learned the Precepts of Geometry and Astronomy, takes the Spaces of inaccessible Places and their Heights, the Floor or Breadth of any Superficies, and the Contents of Solids, yea, the Dimensions of the whole Earthly Globe: measures exactly the Spaces of Hours and Days, the Times of the Year, the Tropics by the Progress only of a Shadow; yea, it measures the Orbs, Magnitudes, and Distances of the Sun and Stars, for a long time to come calculates and exactly foretells their Risings and Setting, Motions and Declinations, and Aspects one to another. We should want time, should we set about to enumerate the several portentous Things, either of the Practice or Speculation in the Mathematics: Then, if passing over to Mechanics, we consider the several Works and Inventions of Men, wonderfully made, there will be no place for doubting but that the Humane Soul, which can so curiously understand, invent, find out, and effect, I had almost said create, Things so stupendious, must needs be far different from the Brutal, and, as before is said, Immortal: especially for that living Brutes obtain only a few and more simple Notions and Intentions of Acting, yea, and those always of the same kind, not determined but to one thing altogether ignorant of the Causes of Things; they know not Rights or Laws of Political Society; they are ignorant of every the most intelligent Mechanic Art; neither can they, unless taught by Imitation, till how to number Three. Since therefore, in few words, we have plainly detected in Man, besides the Corporeal Soul, such as is common with Brutes, the prints of another merely Spiritual, we have abundant reason to conclude the same Immortal.  
Thus, Sir, have I endeavoured to prove the Reasonable Soul a Substance independent of Corporiety, and that it is not only possible, but certain, that unless it shall please the Power who at first infused it, to annihilate its Being, it must outshine the Extinction of the Vital Flame, and can receive no Injury in its Substance, by the Destruction of that Body in which it had its Residence.  
The Arguments I have brought, are such, whose Solidity every Man may judge of, who is capable of a very little Reflection or serious Application of Mind: Tho' they are not all my own, yet are they such as naturally arise from a Philosophical or Physical Enquiry, such as have been approved by the far greater number of Learned Men, and such whose Evidence it is impossible to withstand, without some secret reluctancy in our own Minds, and without ever being able to demonstrate that they are not true. The Sum of all that has been said upon this Matter will rest here, That since there is nothing more certain than this, that there is a Power in Man superior to that of all mere Animals, and superior also to that Power which Man himself hath as related to those Creatures, in their Capacity to be Sensible and to Imagine: It is necessary to consider seriously, what that Power can be, and in what Subject the same is placed. If you say you apprehend it to be no more than a mere Temperament, a Harmony, or you know not what kind of Disposition resulting from the Matter of his Composition, I would then beg you to remove my Doubts, and to satisfy me how it comes to pass that Brutes are not thus endowed with the same? For if this high Prerogative of Reason had its dependence, as Sense and Imagination have, upon a Conformation or Mechanic Structure of the Animal Organs, most certainly other Creatures must be alike dignifyed whose Brains bear so exact Affinity, and in the Parts of which there is so great Analogy, Resemblance, or Similitude: For here your Anatomical Disquisition will inform you, that if you consider its outward Cover and Vessels, they have (at least some of them) the like Membranes, viz. the Dura and Pia Mater, the like Veins, Arteries and Nerves: If you consider its Division, there are the like Hemispheres or Lobes, the like Gyrations or Convolutions in its Surface, the same double Substance, viz. Cortical or Marrowy, the same common Basis, the Medulla Oblongata: If you consider its inward Substance, the like Ventricles, Glandules, Pinealis or Pituitaria, Nates and Testes, the Fornix, the Infundibulum, the Corpora Striata, etc. the like make also of the Cerebellum, where Sense and Motion, as also the Passions and Instincts merely Natural, 
According to Wi●●s.  tho' in some measure they depend upon the Brain, are more properly performed here, and in the Medulla Oblongata.  
The Brain then of Brutes thus exactly corresponding with the Humane, and the Sensations being alike Mechanically performed in both, since the former show us not the least footsteps of any Capacity to Will or Reason, which are so eminently conspicuous in the latter; the Power which exerts the same, must be more than Temperament, or any Privilege of Conformation, which is so near alike in both, and which in its greatest Latitude can reach no higher than Sense, Imagination, Memory and Appetite: for it seems, saith the Learned Doctor, that the Imagination is a certain Undulation or Wavering of the Animal Spirits, begun more inwardly in the middle of the Brain, and expanded or stretched out from thence on every side, towards its Circumference. On the contrary, the Act of the Memory consists in the Regurgitation or Flowing back of the Spirits from the Exterior compass of the Brain towards its middle. The Appetite is stirred up for that the Animal Spirits being some how moved about the middle of the Brain, tend from thence outwardly towards the Nervous System.  
Now till you can make it out, how or in what Mechanic Structure or Disposition of the Brain and Animal Organs the Rational Faculty lies concealed, and prove to us by Dissection, that there is any such part in the Humane Brain, whereof the more perfect Brutes are destitute, and wherein 'tis likely the Acts of Reason should be performed. Till this, I say, be done, it becomes you as a Man, as well as a Religionist, to believe with more than three parts of the Learned, as well as the unlearned World, That the Principle of Reason is placed in a Spiritual Indivisible Substance, or in something which neither depends on, nor can be the Result of any Material Disposition.  
Let me beg you (Dear Sir) to consider throughly the foregoing Paragraph. If it contains a Truth, I am sure 'tis one of the highest Importance, and I must solemnly protest to you, that it seems to me almost a perfect Demonstration. It is no ways improbable but I may be deceived; which if you surmise, or believe, let me request you, or some of your more Learned Friends the A— 'tis, to furnish me with some certain knowledge, That Mankind have been for some Thousand years imposed on, deluded and abused, and that the Phaenomena of Will and Reason are at length intelligibly solved, without the Supposition either of Spirituality or Immortality.  
I must confess 'tis some men's Interest that the Rational, as well as Sensitive Soul, should be Material, and that both should have their entire dependence on the Organization of the Brain. But it is no Man's desire, nor yet his belief, that it is so, can make it so, if it be otherwise. You yourself must acknowledge it a very pitiful and weak Argument, that because you have reason to fear your Soul should be Immortal, or for that you would by no means have it so, therefore it is not so. And truly (however vain and trifling it appear) this with a Grimace, a profane Witticism, or an impious Scoff, serve the far greater number of our Modern Infidels, instead of solid Proof and Demonstration; but I expect a better Treatment from my Friend.  
There remains one thing to be taken notice of before I conclude, relating to the Power that a Man hath over his own Thoughts, or the freedom he has to act without an Impulse upon his Will; and this, I think, seems the more necessary to be discussed, because, if as some contend, Man has not an Internal Principle of Freedom, but is confined, restrained, or forcibly determined to act by an Impulse out of his own Power, I see not what great Advantage can redound to him from his being a Reasonable Creature, how he is to be accounted deserving Commendation or Dispraise, Rewards or Punishments, or indeed in what he differs from the Brutes themselves.  
I have neither room enough, nor yet at present any desire, to take notice of the perplexing Disputes and Arguments which some Men have raised upon our Liberty, or the want thereof: most of which, as I have reason to think, have been founded on Men's Ignorance in the Method of the Divine Understanding, for believing the Supreme Being has praedetermined all Things from Eternity, not being able to reconcile Voluntary and Contingent Actions to his Prescience, they will not therefore by any means allow Man to be a free Agent.  

See Charlton's Darkness of Atheism.  Dr. Charlton in his Reply to the Fatist, speaks pertinently to our present purpose. 1. Saith he, We are to abominate that execrable Opinion of Democritus, not only because it is uncapable of due Consistence with the Sacred and Indubitable Principles of Religious Faith, which ascertain that the Creation, Molition, Conservation, and constant Administration of all Things are impossible rightly to be ascribed to any Cause, but the Supreme Being alone: but also because it is è Diametro repugnant to the Evidence of that Infallible Criterion the Light of Nature, which demonstrates the Soul of Man to be an arbitrary uncoacted Agent; for that Man hath in himself a Power of Inhibiting or Suspending his Assent unto, and Approbation of any Object, the verity of whose Species is not sufficiently clear, but dubious, is a perfect Demonstration of the Indifferency or Liberty of his Intellect, and so also of its Charge, the Will or Faculty Elective. See Cartes his Princip. Philos. Part 1. Sect. 6.  
Nor is it a legal Process in the Pleas of Reason, to argue thus, That God hath left us to act our own Parts in the World, therefore he takes no farther care of us; all the Occurrences of our Lives being either the necessary Subsequents or collateral Adjuncts of our own, either Natural or Moral Actions. For though it be most true, that he hath endowed us with an absolute freedom of our Wills (an Evidence of his exceeding Grace and Benignity) and that indeed which supports the necessity of our Rationality; for if our Wills were subject to Compulsion, undoubtedly we should have little or no use at all of our Reason (since then our Objects would be then both judged of and elected to our hands) and so permitted us the enjoyment of our own entire Liberty; yet hath he out of a compassionate Praenotion of the Deceptibility of our Judgement, prescribed us Rules whereby our Understandings may be directed in the Selection of Good, and Devitation of Evil; or to speak more expressly. He hath set on our right hand real and true Good, on our left only specious and apparent; the Election of either is dependent on our Will; our Will is guided by our Judgement, and our Judgement is the Determination or Resolve of our intellect (for without despair, tho' common Physiology hath founded this Liberty on the Indifferency of the Will, yet is it radicated in the Indifferency of the Intellect or Cognoscent Faculty primarily and secondarily only in the Will, insomuch as that ever follows the Manuduction of the Intellect) but yet that he might in a manner direct as to our Choice, He hath annexed Happiness as a Reward to invite us to the one, and Misery as a Punishment to deter us from the other.  
I have acquainted myself with the Opinions of very many Learned Men upon this Subject, and indeed I know of none of them who has written more satisfactorily than the Ingenious Mr. Lock; a short Summary of whose Discourse on this particular Point, is in the following words.  
Liberty consists in a power to act or not to act, 
Essay of Humane Understanding.  according as the Mind directs. A power to direct the operative Faculties to Motion or Rest in particular Instances, is that which we call the Will. That which in the train of our voluntary Actions determines the Will to any Change of Operation, is some present uneasiness, which at least is always accompanied with that of Desire. Desire is always ●●●oe● by Evil to fly it, because a total freedom from Pain always makes a necessary part of our Happiness: But every Good, nay every greater Good, does not constantly move Desire, because it may not make, or may not be taken to make a necessary part of our Happiness: for all that we desire is only to be happy; but tho' this general Desire of Happiness operates constantly and invariably, yet the satisfaction of any particular Desire can be suspended from determining the Wilt to any subservient Action, till we have maturely examined, whether the particular apparent Good we then desire, make a part of our ●●al Happiness, or be consistent or inconsistent with it, the result of our Judgement upon that Examination, is what ultimately determines the Man, who could not be free if his Will were determined by any thing but his own Desire guided by his own Judgement.  
But farther; In our inquiries about Liberty, I think the Question is not so proper, whether the Will be free, but whether the Man be free: Thus, I think, that so far as any one can by the Direction or Choice of his Mind, preferring the Existence of any Action, to the Nonexistence of that Action, and vice versa, make it to Exist or not to Exist, so far he is free: For if I can by a thought of my Mind, preferring one to the other, produce either Words or Silence, I am at liberty to speak or hold my peace; and as far as this power reaches, of acting or not acting, by the determination of his own Thought preferring either, so far a Man is free; for how can we think any one freer than to have a power to do what he will; so that in respect of Actions within the reach of such a power in him, a Man seems as free as it is possible for freedom to make him. Yet the inquisitive Mind of Man, willing to shift off from himself, as far as he can, all thought of Gild, tho' it be by putting himself into a worse state than that of fatal Necessity, is not content with this, will have this to be no freedom, unless it reaches farther; but is ready to say, a Man is not free at all, if he be not as free to will, as he is to act what he wills. Concerning a Man's Liberty therefore, there yet is raised this farther Question, whether a Man be free to will; which, I think, is what is meant, when it is disputed whether the Will be free. As to that, I imagine, That willing or choosing being an Action, and Freedom consisting in a power of acting or not acting, a Man in respect of willing any Action in his power, once proposed to his Thoughts, cannot be free. The Reason whereof is very manifest; for it being unavoidable that the Action depending on his Will, should Exist or not Exist; and its Existence or not Existence following perfectly the determination and preference of his will, he cannot avoid the willing the Existence or not Existence of that Action, it is absolutely necessary that he will the one or the other, i e. prefer the one to the other, since one of them must necessarily follow; and that which does follow, follows by the determination and choice of his Mind, that is, by his willing it; for if he did not will, it would not be: so that in respect of the act of willing, a Man is not free; Liberty consisting in a power to act, or not to act, which, in regard of volition, a Man has not, it being necessary and unavoidable (any Action in his power being once thought on) to prefer either its doing or forbearance, upon which preference the Action or its Forbearance certainly follows, and is truly voluntary. So that to make a Man free in this sense, there must be another antecedent Will to determine the Acts of this Will, and another to determine that, and so in Infinitum; for wherever one stops, the Actions of the last Will cannot be free: nor is any Being, so far as I can comprehend Being's above me, capable of such a freedom of will, that it can forbear to will, i. e. to prefer the Being or not Being of any thing in its power, which it has once considered as such.  
This then is evident, A Man is not at liberty to will or not to will any thing in his power that he once considers of; Liberty consisting in a power to act or not to act. Since than it is plain, a Man is not at Liberty whether he will will or no (for when an Action in his power is proposed to his Thoughts, he cannot forbear volition he must determine one way or the other) the next thing to be determined is, whether he be at liberty to will which of the two he pleases, Motion or Rest. This Question carries the Absurdity of it so manifestly in itself, that one might thereby be sufficiently convinced that Liberty concerns not the Will in any case; for to ask whether a Man be at liberty to will either Motion or Rest, Speaking or Silence, which he pleases, is to ask whether a Man can will what he wills, or be pleased with what he is pleased with. A question which, I think, needs no Answer: and whoever can make one of it, must suppose one Will to determine the Acts of another; and another to determine that, and so forwards. To avoid these and the like Absurdities, nothing can be of greater use than to establish in our Minds clear and steady Notions of the Things under consideration: If the Ideas of Liberty and Volition were well fixed in our Understandings, and carried along with us in our Minds, as they ought, through all the Questions are raised about them, I suppose a great part of the Difficulties that perplex men's Thoughts, and entangle their Understandings, would be much easier resolved, and we should perceive where the confused signification of Terms, or where the Nature of the Thing caused Obscurity.  
First then, It is carefully to be remembered, that freedom consists in the dependence of the Existence or not Existence of any Action, upon our Volition of it: and not in the dependence of any Action, or its contrary, on our preference: Or our freedom consists in our being able to act, or not to act, according as we shall choose or will.  
Secondly, We must remember that volition or willing is an act of the Mind, directing its Thoughts to the Production of any Action, and thereby exerting its power to produce it.  
Thirdly, The Will being nothing but a power in the Mind, to direct the operative Faculties of a Man to Motion or Rest, as far as they depend on such Direction. To the Question, what is it determines the Will? the true and proper Answer is the Mind: for that which determines the general power of directing to this or that particular Direction, is nothing but the Agent itself exercising the power it has that particular way. If this Answer satisfies not, 'tis plain the meaning of the Question, what determines the Will? is this, what moves the Mind in every particular Instance to determine its general power of directing to this or that particular Motion or Rest. And to this I answer, The motive for continuing in the same state or action is only the present satisfaction in it: The motive to change is always some uneasiness; nothing setting us upon the change of state, or upon any new action, but some uneasiness. This is the true Motive that works on the Mind to put it upon action, which for shortness sake we call determining the Will.  
I shall not descend farther into the Particulars of this Learned Discourse; if you look it over, you will find many curious Thoughts, particularly in his Enquiry, Why the greatest positive Good determines not the Will, unless that our Desire be raised proportionably, and makes us uneasy in the want of it: for we must by no means confound our Will with our Desire. Desire itself being an uneasiness.  
Before I finish this Argument of the Power and Freedom which we experience in ourselves, and that manifest liberty we have to assent, to deny, to choose or refuse what is presented to our Fantasies, I shall endeavour to solve some of those many Doubts, which seem to relate to the Moral conduct of our Lives, by which the wretched Subterfuge of the Libertine Coaction or Compulsion will be plainly refuted, and himself in all respects chargeable with his own Commissions, Omissions, or the Impiety of his Actions.  
That this may appear evident, I must desire you to keep in mind the following Proposition, That tho' the first Motions of our Minds are but little in our Power, and that we have not a perfect liberty to suppress every sudden Thought, Apprehension, Passion or Desire which are excited in our Minds, by unexpected Objects presented to our Imagination. If we are not able to stop them from appearing to us; or cannot hinder them from coming into our Minds, yet is it in our power to deny our consent, or to assent unto the same: and in this very Assent or Denial are laid the Foundations of Vice and Virtue, and accordingly hereunto we must expect our Thoughts deserve the Character of Good or Evil.  
As for instance; When I behold a beautiful Woman, altho' at the presentment of such an Object unforeseen and unexpected, I am perhaps unable to prevent some libidinous Idea in my Mind, yet is it wholly in any power to choose whether or no I will indulge the Thought, or take all Opportunities to continue the lewd Fancy; or whether I should make it my business to satisfy my Concupiscible Appetite by a Carnal Embrace or Contact.  
Again, Supposing it impossible I should keep my Thoughts from Wine, which at one time or other may be presented to me, yet have I full liberty to refuse Drinking, to consider whether any Prejudice may arise from it, or whether it be necessary I should impair my Health, or brutify my Nature, by its extravagant use. I have the rather taken notice of these two Particulars, because I find Men so apt to cry out upon the Corruption of their Nature, the Frailty of their Composition. The Lascivious Man pleads the prevalency of the Temptation, which was too powerful for his Resistance, he could not withstand it. So likewise says the Drunkard, he cannot help it, it is a natural Infirmity out of his power to overcome.  
In handling this Subject, the Learned 
* In his Sermon upon the Government of of the Thoughts.  Archbishop of York has thus excellently delivered his Thoughts: When Temptations are presented unto us, tho' we cannot perhaps avoid the feeling some irregular Passion, Motion or Inclination within ourselves, upon occasion thereof: yet is it ever at that time absolutely in our power, whether we will comply with those Passions or Inclinations, or not; whether we will consent to them or not; whether we will pursue them farther or not: Now if we do not consent, but endeavour to stop, to stifle and resist so soon as we are aware of them, there is yet no harm done, our Thoughts, how indecent or irregular soever, are but Infirmities: But if on the other side, we consent to any wicked Motion or Inclination that arises in us, let it come how it will, never so suddenly, never so unexpectedly, if we close with any Thought that prompts us to evil, so as to be pleased with it, to delight in it, to think of pursuing it till it be brought into action; in that case 'tis a folly to plead our Original Corruption, for in that very instant we become Actual Sinners, and Transgressor's of the Law of God, the Obligation of which reaches to our very Hearts and Thoughts, as well as Actions, tho' yet we are not so great Transgressor's, so long as our Sin is only in Thought or Desire or Purpose, as if it had proceeded to outward Action. All this is taught us for true Divinity by the Apostle James, in the first Chapter of his Epistle, v. 13, 14, 15. Let no Man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God tempteth no Man; but every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed. Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin; and Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth Death. Which passage contains these three Propositions: 1. That no Man is drawn to commit Sin, by any state or condition that God hath put him into; no nor by any Temptation either outward or inward that is presented to him. It is not a Sin to be tempted, nor yet to feel that we are tempted by some disorderly Inclination that arises in our Minds thereupon. But secondly, than our Sin begins, when we yield to the Temptation, when we are drawn away by our own Lusts, when they get the Victory over us, and we do consent to them, than Lust hath conceived, and bringeth forth Sin. But thirdly, Tho' the very consent of our Wills to a Temptation, be a Sin in us, yet is not that Sin so great as it will be afterwards when it is brought into Action: Sin in the desire or purpose is but an Embryo, or the first Rudiments of Sin, but when it comes to be acted it is then a Sin in its full Dimensions, and the Consequence of it will be fatal without Repentance; for Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death.  
Having thus hinted to you the power we have not, or in what our liberty does not consist, I will just mention to you the power we have over our own Thoughts, and take notice to you wherein that power or liberty consists: For if, say you, we be such Slaves to our Thoughts, and as it were necessarily subject to them, and passive under them, where is our freedom? To this I answer, That we have not only a liberty of thinking, and can choose our own Thoughts; but that liberty and freedom which we have in thinking, does consist in that, if we so please we may apply our Minds more vigorously to one sort of things than to another, and according to this application so will the most of our Thoughts be. It is in our power, amongst the multitude of Objects that present themselves to our Minds (as for Instance, God, Virtue, Holiness, Heaven, Wealth, Power, Greatness, Preferment, fine Clothes, splendid Equipage, Sensual Pleasures, Recreations, Divertisements, Knowledge, Learning, Arts, and the like: I say, amongst all this Multitude of Objects that present themselves to our Minds) it is in our power to determine ourselves which of them we will dwell upon and make a business of, and accordingly, when at any time we have pitched upon any of them as a business, it is in our power to mind that business either more or less diligently: and if it be such, as that we mean in good earnest to concern ourselves about it, it will then so fill our Minds, as that by its attendance we shall either prevent in a great measure other Thoughts from coming into our Heads, or if they do come in, they will not long stay there, but speedily give place to that which we make our more important business at that time: and the reason of this is plain, because our Natures are of that make, that two things at once cannot well possess our Minds; and therefore, if we be intent about one thing, we cannot have much room or leisure for Thoughts of another Nature.  
I have spoke the more upon this Principle of Freedom, the mighty Privilege of Man above his Fellow-Creatures, because I conceive it a Matter of the highest Consequence; for if Man be not a free Agent, free to assent and free to deny, free to love, to fear, to hate, to admire, etc. we at once unhinge the Foundation of all true Religion, and put the most contemptible Brute in competition with him: we destroy the very Nature of Rewards and Punishments founded upon his Actions, and take every thing from him commendable or praiseworthy. But, saith the Atheist, we would have had him placed in such a Condition, that he should only have had a power or freedom to do everything he ought, but never to have had the liberty of forfeiting his Future Happiness.  
The Absurdity of this Desire or Expectation is so palpably conspicuous, that there is no Man can consider it without perceiving it: For if Mankind had been compelled to the Duties of Religion, whether they would or no; or had there been a perfect Impossibility that any Man should fall into Infidelity, in what I pray had lain the Advantage of a Religious Faith; if Men, tho' never so desirous, could not be vicious, where had been the Benefit or the just Reward of Virtue; if they had never the power of degrading their Natures, and falling into Luxury, Epicurism and Sensuality, who had ever heard of Temperance and Sobriety. Where would be our Christian Fortitude and Magnanimity, if there were no Difficulties to be encountered, or Dangers to be overcome; or in a word, what reason have we to value ourselves for our Honesty, Justice, Charity, Patience, Resignation, if all these stood but for so many Ciphers or empty insignificant Sounds, as they must be, did we suppose ourselves in such a state as this where we are hurried on by some unseen Impulse or Coaction, independent on the Powers or Faculties of our own Minds.  
I must confess there are some Places or Texts in the Sacred Writings, which seem at first sight to countenance this Opinion, That Man is not a free Agent, or invested with this Power which we contend for: But whoever will take the trouble of collecting the several Expositions, not only of Divines, but Philosophers, will find them all satisfactorily explained, their Scruples fairly removed, and the more natural and genuine Sense of them demonstratively asserted.  

See a Treatise of Liberty and Necessity by Mr. Hobbs.  There is no Person, that I know of, hath made so much Noise in the World about Liberty and Necessity, or about our acting necessarily, as Mr. Hobbs. That Man, saith he, is free to do a thing, that may do it if he have the will to do it, and may forbear if he have the will to forbear; and yet if there be a necessity that he shall have the will to do it, the Action is necessarily to follow: and if there be a necessity that he shall have the will to forbear, the forbearing also will be necessary. The Question therefore is not, Whether a Man be not a free Agent? that is to say, whether he can write or forbear, speak or be silent, according to his will? But whether the will to write, or the will to forbear, come upon him according to his will, or according to any thing else in his own power? I acknowledge this Liberty, that I can do if I will; but to say I can will if I will, I take to be an absurd Speech.  
Again saith Mr. Hobbs, Every Effect must have a Cause to produce it; that Cause must be sufficient to produce it, otherwise it had never been produced: if that Cause be sufficient, it must likewise be necessary to produce it; for if any thing were wanting that was necessary to the Production of the Effect, it could not be effected, and thus the Effect comes to be produced necessarily, or of pure necessity. The Comparison stands thus; The Will of Man must have some Cause, that Cause must be sufficient, if sufficient, likewise necessary, Ergo, Man's Will is necessitated. Whoever will trouble himself with a little Reflection, may easily unriddle this Mystery, and prove the Argument to be a mere Sophism, however strenuous it appear at the first view. The judicious Mr. E— d hath done it already to my Hand, and therefore I shall refer you to his Dialogues for a Solution. In the interim I shall be plain with you in this particular, That whatever Applause this Author may have gained in the World, and how much soever extolled for a Man of profound Thought, or a deep Judgement, I see nothing in him more taking than his manner of Expression; in which he was indeed so peculiar and singularly fortunate, that many Men have been hereby so soothed and tickled into an Opinion of his Judgement, as to take all he says for granted, and to believe every thing new, till a farther Consideration discovers to them, that there is nothing more so than his stile and the order of his Thoughts.  
I have some reason to believe you tainted with this Man's Principles, on which account, as an Antidote against the Rest of his Heretical Opinions, I would recommend you to the Writings of Bishop Lucy, my Lord C— n, Mr. W— and particularly to the lately mentioned E— d.  
When Men have degraded themselves into Beasts by practice, they would have it thought by any means that 'tis unavoidable for them to act otherwise than they do: From hence they take the Measures of their Opinions, and will allow of no Difference betwixt themselves and the pittiful●st Brute, but that Matter in them is fallen into a more lucky Texture and Modification. And indeed, the Brutish Soul will very well serve all the ends of some Men, who to justify their Sensuality, earnestly contend that they have nothing more to indulge, or gratify besides their Animal Inclinations.  
But notwithstanding, whatever these Men think, this is a most undoubted Verity, That next to the Belief of the Being of God, the Persuasion of the Soul's being Immortal is the great Basis of all true Happiness, the Hinge upon which all Religion turns: 'Tis this that leads us both to contemn the Gratifications of the Flesh, and to be solicitous about a Happiness hereafter, tho' it be with undergoing some present Inconveniences; nor is there any Truth whatever that hath a more powerful Influence upon the whole Course of our present Lives.  
Men may study to palliate and ease the Disquiet of their troubled Souls after what manner they please, yet still there will be some lucid Intervals, which will discover to them the possibility of a Life to come, and put them upon questioning the Certainty of their Souls perpetual Sleep, which, should it happen to be a mistake, will prove one of the most dangerous and pernicious Consequence.  
Sic mihi (saith the Eloquent 
* De Off. lib. 1.  Cicero) persuasi, sic sentio, Cum tanta celeritas sit Animorum, tanta memoria praeteritorum, futurorumque prudentia, tot Artes, tot Scientiae, tot Inventa, non posse eam Naturam, quae eas res contineat esse Mortalem; cumque Animus semper Agitetur, nec principium motus habeat quia ipse se moveat, nec finem quidem habiturum esse motus, quia nunquam se ipse sit relicturus, & cum simplex Animi sit Natura, neque habeat in se quidquam admistum dispar sui, atque dissimile, non posse cum dividi: quod si non posset, non posset interire.  
There is a very remarkable Account I have somewhere read, of one whom we might reasonably believe, if he had ever heard of such a thing as Priestcraft, was above the reach of its Infection, and too well acquainted with the Knowledge of Material Powers (at least in his own Conceit) to admit or suffer an Imposition upon his Reason: not to keep you in suspense, 'tis Aristotle I mean, of whom Averro, one of his Commentators, gives this Encomium: Complevit Artes & Scientias, & nullus corum qui secuti sunt cum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille & quingentorum Annorum quidquam addidit, nec invenies in ejus verbis Errorem alicujus quantitatis, & talem esse vertutem in Individio uno Miraculosum & Extraneum existit: & haec Dispositio cum in uno Homine reperitur dignus est esse divinus magis quam humanus. In another place he speaks thus: Landemus Deum qui seperavit hunc Virum ab aliis in perfectione, appropriavitque ei ultimam dignitatem humanam quam non omnis Homo potest in quacunque aetate attingere. Again, saith he, Aristotelis Doctrina est summa veritas, quoniam ejus Intellectus fuit finis humani Intellectus, quare bene dicitur de eo quod ipse fuit creatus & datus nobis ut non ignoremus possibilia sciri. Yet this wonderful Philosopher (if we may credit this Character) who has set so many Learned Men contesting about his Principles, and diving into his Opinion of the great Soul of Man, notwithstanding he had thought of all the subtle Subterfuges his Wit could devise, to evade acknowledging its distinct Subsistence, and amongst others had invented (for he owns himself its first Broacher) that impossible Notion of the World's Eternity, yet is it reported of him, that he was so fully convinced of the separate Being of his own Soul, that immediately before his Exit he is said earnestly to have cried out to this purpose, En dubitans vixi, moriensque, Animae quid accidet sum ignotus, Tu ergo Domine Essentiarum 〈◊〉, Miserere mei.  
I hope now the preceding Passages will in some measure convince you of this great Truth, That it has been not only the Opinion of particular Men, but a kind of Universal Belief in Mankind that their Soul's would survive their Bodies, and that the very Ethnics themselves, who were capable of an abstracted Speculation, and thoroughly acquainted with the Powers of their own Minds, have by Evidence from Natural Light subscribed this Confession, either openly in words, or secretly, by their apparent Doubts and Fears of a Life to come.  
To conclude, Let me request you, when your Soul is the least ruffled with Anxiety or Perturbation, and your rational Faculties with Sensual Delights and Satisfactions: when your Mind is most serene, most Calm and Lucid, to divest yourself but for some few Moment's of all gross Ideas and material Images, and perhaps by the free and considerate Exercise of some Reflex Act, that Intuitive Knowledge may so enlighten your Understanding, as I hope to convince you that the Rational and Thinking Part of you, which enjoys this great Prerogative, must be infinitely above the Powers of Matter, under whatever Modification: and that your Capacity to know things by this kind of Reflection, which have no manner of Relation to Material Ideas, neither yet are represented in the Brain by any Corporeal Image, is perfect Demonstration that there are Being's of a Spiritual Incorporeal Nature, that your Superior or Rational Soul is of this Class, infu●●●●● thereinto by the Almighty Author of all Things.  
I remain (my very good Friend) most affectionately Yours. London, Jan. 30. 1691.  
POSTSCRIPT.  
THat the preceding Discourse may be the more entertaining, I have here taken an opportunity of presenting you with an Epitome of the Sentiments of two famous Men. The Hypotheses are both new, or at least were never, as I have heard, delivered to us before in such Regular Systems: the First is that of Monsieur Malebranch, where discoursing of our Sensations, he endeavours to establish the following Notion, That they are neither such as we have all along accounted them, nor do they at all reside in those Parts we have supposed; or to speak more intelligibly, That our Sense, whether of Heat, Colours, Tastes, Sounds, etc. is nothing real in the Object, nor yet in the Part which is believed the Sentient. To instance in one of these, that upon the approach of your Hand to the Fire, the Heat you apprehend, is neither in the Fire nor in your Hand, but a pure Modification of your Soul itself, which is thus variously modefyed by the Supreme Being at the presentment of the several Objects.  
In his Explaining this, he takes notice to us that in this approach of the Hand to the Fire, there is nothing but an invisible Motion in the Fire or Hand: in the former, by the continual Expulsion of igneous Particles against the Fibres of the Hand; and in the Hand a Motion or Division of the same Fibres, by the intrusion of the fiery Particles. And thus, 
* vid. Malebr. de veritat. inquirend.  saith he, that we may not neglect the Care and Preservation of the several Parts of our Bodies, it hath pleased the Almighty Maker of them to new modify our Souls, after so wonderful a manner, that when any Danger approaches, which would prejudice their make or structure, we should apprehend our Pains and Disorders, and feel them as it were in those places where the Danger lies, without conceiving at the same time the Modification of our Souls; and this will hold in every of our Sensations, which are nothing real any where, unless in the Soul itself.  
This may now inform us that we should be very cautious in giving Credit to the Testimony of our Senses, which do for the most part involve us in most of our Mistakes; for these are not given us to inform us of the Truth of Things, but only as they stand related to the Preservation of our Bodies. That this Argument may be enforced with a farther Perspicuity, here is another signal Instance of the general Errors into which (amongst the other Senses) our Sight betrays us, in reference to Light and Colours.  
When we have looked upon the Sun, for some time, this is what passes in our Eyes and in our Souls, and these are the Errors we fall into.  
Those who know the first Elements of Dioptrics, and any thing of the admirable Structure of our Eyes, are not ignorant that the Rays of the Sun are refracted in the crystalline and other Humours, and that they meet afterwards upon the Ret●●●, or Expansion of the Optic Nerve, which, as it were, furnishes with Hangings all the bottom of the Eyes, even as the Rays of the Sun, which pass through a Convex Glass, meet together in the Focus at two, three, or four Finger's breadth distant, in proportion to its convexity. Now Experience shows, that if one put at the Focus of the Convex Glass a little piece of Stuff, or brown Paper, the Rays of the Sun make so great an impression upon this Stuff or Paper, and agitate the small Particles thereof with so great a violence, that they break and separate them from one another: in a word, they burn them, or reduce them into Smoke and Ashes. Thus we must conclude from this Experience, that if the Pupil through which the Light passes, were so dilated that it would admit an easy passage for the Rays of the Sun, or on the contrary, were so contracted as to obstruct them, our Retina would suffer the same thing as the Paper or piece of Stuff, and the Fibres would be so very much agitated that they would soon be broken and burnt.  
It is for this Reason that most Men are sensible of a Pain, if they look upon the Sun but for one moment, because they cannot so well close up the Orifice of the Pupil, but that there will enter sufficient Rays to agitate the Strings of the Optic Nerve, with much violence, and not without danger of breaking them. The Soul has no knowledge of what we have spoke, and when it looks upon the Sun it neither perceives its Optic Nerve, no● any Motion in it. But that's not the Error, 'tis only a simple Ignorance. The first Error it falls into is, that it judges the Pain it feels, is in its Eyes.  
If immediately after looking upon the Sun, we go into a dark place with our Eyes open, the Motion of the Fibres of the Optic Nerve, caused by the Rays of the Sun, diminishes and changes by little and little: this is all the Change that can be perceived in the Eyes; however, 'tis not what the Soul perceives there, but only a white and yellow Light. Its second Error is, it judges that the Light it sees is in the Eyes, or upon the next Wall. In fine, the Agitation of the Fibres of the Retina always diminishes and ceases by little and little; for when a Body has been shaken, nothing can be perceived in it, but a diminution of its Motion: but 'tis not that which the Soul perceives in its Eyes; it sees the White become an Orange colour, afterwards Red, and then Blue; and the reason of this Error is, that we judge there are Changes in our Eyes, or upon the next Wall, that differ much as to the more or less, because the Blue, Orange, and Red colours which we see, differ much otherwise amongst themselves, besides in the more or less. These are some Errors which we are subject to in reference to Light and Colours; and these Errors beget many others.  
Thus the Learned and Devout Father proceeds in this Sublime and Curious Speculation, and whatever Consequences may be drawn by designing Men from the Modification of our Souls by the Supreme Being, as might be instanced in some few Particulars, yet most certainly there are many weighty Truths, depending on this noble Theory: and whoever dives into the bottom of the Notion, may not unlikely find (that however some Superficial Wits may calumniate and despise it) his Divine Faith may be exalted, and a more profound Esteem and Veneration raised for that Power, from whom is derived all the Benefits we can enjoy.  
By a serious Enquiry of this Nature, we might undoubtedly arrive at a more certain Account of the Nature and Usefulness of that infinite number of little Being's, which we call Species and Ideas, which are as nothing, and which represent all things that we create and destroy when we please, and that our Ignorance hath made us imagine to render a Reason for Things that we understand not: we should likewise be enabled to show the solidity of their Opinion, who believe God is the true Father of Light, who only instructs all Men, without whom the most simple Truths could not be intelligible, nor would the Sun, how bright soever, be so much as visible to us. And of theirs who acknowledge no other Nature than the Will of God, and who upon such like Reflections have confessed, that the Ideas which represent the Creatures to us, are only the Perfections of the Divine Being, which answer to those same Creatures, and represent them to us.  
The second of these new Hypotheses, tho' I conceive its first rise from the same Fountain with the former, yet I find the same very strenuously pleaded for and judiciously vindicated by our Countryman Mr. Norris: and this is the Doctrine of the Divine Light, as it relates to the Humane Intellect: of which that I may give you a short Specimen, or briefly hint to you, I must take notice that in one part of his Treatise he citys Monsieur Malebranch, who considering with himself all the possible ways of Humane Understanding, or whereby we come to have the Ideas of things without us, makes this Division or Enumeration of them. 1. It is necessary that these Ideas should either proceed from the Objects: Or, 2. that our Mind has a power of producing them: Or, 3. That God should produce them either with the Mind when he creates it, or occasionally as often as we think of any Object. 4 Or that the Mind should possess in itself all the Perfections which it sees in things. Or 5thly and lastly, that it be united to some absolutely perfect Being that includes in himself all the Perfections of Created Being's. After this Enumeration, I find that both the Father, and after him Mr. Norris, have pitched upon the last of these, as the only Expedient to help us in the manner of our Knowledge or Understanding, and it is on the same Basis that the latter hath erected the following Scheme.  

See Mr. Norris of the Divine Light.  I. Whereas, saith he, the Cue— rs talk of this Light within as of some Divine Communication or Manifestation only, I make it to be the very Essence and Substance of the Deity, which I suppose virtually to contain all things in it, and to be intimately united to our Minds.  
II. They represent this Light within as a sort of extraordinary Inspiration (whence they have the name of Enthusiasts) whereas according to my Notion, it is a Man's natural and ordinary way of Understanding.  
III. Farther (if I mistake not) They confine their Light within to some certain Objects, namely Moral and Spiritual Truths, in order only to the Direction of Practice, and accordingly make it a Supplement to Scripture, which they say is not sufficient without it, nor indeed any more than a mere dead Letter. On the other hand I appropriate not this Divine Light to Moral or Spiritual Truths or Things, but extend it as far as all Truth, yea as far as all that is intelligible, which I believe to be perceived and understood in this Divine Light as I explain it.  
IV. They (viz. the Q—rs) make their Light within, a special Privilege of a certain Order of Men, their own Party, not indeed as to the possibility, because they suppose all Men to be indifferently capable of this Divine Illumination, as may appear from their contending against Predestination, and for Universal Grace; but tho' they do not make it a special Privilege as to the possibility, yet they do as to the act; making none but those of their own way to be actually enlightened by it: whereas, according to my Principles, this is no special Privilege, but the common and universal Benefit of all Men, yea of all the Intelligent Creation, who all see and understand in this Light of God, without which there would be neither Truth nor Understanding.  
V. Again, By their Light within they understand some determinate formed Dictate or Proposition, expressly and positively directing and instructing them to do so or so. Now according to my Notion, this Divine Light is only the Essential Truth of God, which indeed is always present to my Understanding, as being intimately united with it, but does not formally enlighten or instruct me, unless when I attend to it, and read what is written in those Divine Ideal Characters.  
VI And lastly, they offer not any Rational or Intelligible account of the Light within, neither as to the thing, nor as to the mode of it, but cant only in some loose general Expressions about the Light, which they confirm with the Authority of St. John's Gospel, tho' they understand neither one nor tother: Whereas I have offered a Natural, Distinct, and Philosophical way of Explaining both, namely by the Omniformity of the Ideal World, or the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who has in himself the Essences and Ideas of all things, and in whom the same are perceived by us and by all Creatures.  
I shall not detain you, with my own Comments hereupon, any otherwise than by informing you, that so far as I am able to apprehend the same may be a solid Truth, I mean Mr. Norris' Explanation of the Divine Light. Futurity will make us all wiser, and open a Door to those recluse Arcana or hidden Mysteries which in this Life are likely to be veiled from our Eyes.  
Adieu.   

LETTER IV. Of Religion. To Mr.— etc.  
The certainty of Revelation in Time past: The Fallacy of Modern Inspiration; and the Danger of Enthusiasm.  
My good Friend,  
IT is with no small concern, that I have left my former Argument of the Soul, and yet methinks I am not perfectly without hopes that you will find something therein to evidence its Immortality; for altho' the one half of what may be alleged in its Vindication, cannot be reduced to the narrow limits of an Epistle; yet if I mistake not, there are some few of the Physical Arguments do manifestly evince, that without supposing it to be a Spiritual Incorporeal Substance (whatever Jargon this may seem to the absolute Corporealist) there are many of its Phaenomena will be eternally incapable of any tolerable or allowable Explanation. I shall therefore earnestly request you that you live not in a contempt of it; for notwithstanding the Powers of Sense and Imagination may so obscure and darken the pure Acts of the Mind, as to persuade you that Will and Reason arise from the same Principle; assure yourself that an immediate prospect of another Life, will change the Scene: the intercepting Curtain will open and represent the Antichamber of Death, where you will find yourself in the midst of such Confusion, Horror, Consternation and Perplexity, as nothing will be able to mitigate but a sincere Penitence or fervent Contrition, a devout and humble Prosternation of your Soul to the Power offended: and if the dread of this being insufficient still heighten your disturbance, you may taste perhaps that Hell you so very lately had ridiculed by way of Anticipation, before your fatal Leap from the dismal and horrid Precipice of Life.  

1.  

Norris' Miscellan.  It must be done, my Soul, but 'tis a strange,  
A dismal and mysterious Change:  
When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay,  
And to an unknown somewhere wing away:  
When Time shall be Eternity, and Thou  
Shalt be thou knowst not what, and live Thou knowst not how.   

2.  
amazing State! no wonder that we dread  
To think of Death or view the Dead;  
thou'rt all wrapped up in Clouds, as if to Thee  
Our very Knowledge had Antipathy;  
Death could not a more sad Retinue find,  
Sickness and Pain before, and Darkness all behind.   

3.  
Some Courteous Ghost, tell this great Secrecy,  
What 'tis you are, and we must be:  
You warn us of approaching Death, and why  
May we not know from you what 'tis to die,  
But you having shot the Gulf, delight to see  
Succeeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty.   

4.  
When Life's close knot, by Writ from Destiny,  
Disease shall cut, or Age untie,  
When after some delays, some dying strife,  
The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life,  
With what a dreadful Curiosity,  
Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity.   

5.  
So when the spacious Globe was deluged o'er,  
And lower Holds could save no more,  
On th'utmost Bough the astonished Sinners stood,  
And viewed the Advances of th'encroaching Flood:  
O'retopt at length by th'Elements increase,  
With Horror they resigned to the untried Abyss.   
Thus has the ingenious Mr. Norris most livelily represented the frightful Exit of the departing Soul: but to avoid any farther Interruption, I shall hasten to my intended Discourse, with this Expectation, if not Assurance, that on whatsoever side you find right Reason, you will make no Opposition: or where the Light of your Understanding shines clearly forth, that you by no means stifle, or study to obscure the same.  
Whoever then has once admitted, and does unfeignedly believe the Truth of these Three Propositions, (viz.) That there is a most powerful and wise Being, the first Cause of all things. That the same Being does inspect or take notice of the Actions of Mankind, and will retribute to every one according to those Actions, in a Life to come: whoso, I say, has granted these, will find himself at no great loss, to conceive that it highly behoves him to have a regard both to his Thoughts and Actions: to do nought indeliberately, but to regulate the Conduct of his whole Life, by some such certain, just, and immutable Rule, as he foresees is most likely to tend to his Security and Wellbeing.  
Now it having pleased this Alwise Being, to endow his darling Favourite Man above the other Creatures, with a Principle of Reason, and to be himself a Light unto his Soul, wherein he may Contemplate those other. Being's which surround him; we need not dispute but that by a devout consulting this Intestine Director or Dictator, we may come to understand what Measures are to be taken for our Information. If by the alone assistance of this Natural Light in the Understanding, we find it neither practicable nor possible, to invent any such Laws or Rules as would be agreed unto by the Body of Mankind, or such as would never need any Alteration, but be complied with and understood, and all this while contain every thing necessary to the discharging of our Duty to our God and to each other: If Humane Reason, or the Light of Nature, is insufficient to direct us to such a uniform and steady Rule, or System of Laws; or if it could, since the greater part of Men would think themselves unconcerned, or under no necessity to observe them, on the account of a Deficiency in Authority, or a want of a Divine Sanction or Manumission: it is reasonable, as well as natural, for us to wish and expect upon these accounts, that our Maker would in some manner reveal Himself unto us, that He would prescribe our Laws, and stamp the same with some Divine Impression, whereby we might be enabled to discover their Authority, and read in them the Characters of a more than Humane Contrivance or Composition.  

See Dr. S— 'tis Letter to a Deist.  Whether or no this Almighty Being has made any such Discovery of his Will to the World, or revealed to them such Laws or Rules of Worship, as will be most acceptable to Him, is the Business of our present Enquiry: for let me tell you, whatever Noise our Deists have made in the World about the Sufficiency of Natural Religion, we have very little reason to think them in good earnest.  
If their Natural Religion does oblige them to believe in God, and to confess the Truth of the Souls Immortality, how comes it to pass that the Result of such a Faith is so little conspicuous in their Lives and Conversations, and why I pray is it that the Precepts of Christianity, which aim at nothing more than the Happiness of Mankind, and contain the compleatest System both of Moral and Divine Laws to direct us in our Duty, should be no more regarded? 'Tis plain enough to every sober and judicious Man, that there is nothing in revealed Religion, that can seem harsh even to a real Deist: He that is a Deist in good earnest, will find it his highest Interest and Concern, to do every thing which Christianity has enjoined: upon which score since we find it otherwise, we have abundant cause to think with a 
* Mr. Bently  Learned Man, That Revelation in itself is not the stumbling Block; it is not the Fundamentals of the Christian Doctrine, nor yet the Articles of her Creed; it is the Duty to God and our Neighbour that is such an inconsistent incredible Legend.  
He who is more than a Nominal Deist, must heartily subscribe this following Confession, which that you may be the better opinioned of, I shall give you in their own words. 
† Letter to the Deists, p. 125.  We do believe that there is an infinitely powerful, wise, and good God, who superintends the Actions of Mankind, in order to retribute to every one according to their Deserts: Neither are we to boggle at this Creed; for if we do not stick to it, we ruin the Foundation of all Humane Happiness, and are in effect no better than mere Atheists.  
Whatsoever is adorable (saith another of them) aimiable and imitable by Mankind, is in one supreme, infinite and perfect Being, 
Oracles of Reason, p. 88  which we call God; who is to be worshipped by an inviolable adherence in our Lives, to all the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by an imitation of all his infinite Perfections, especially his Goodness, and believing magnificently of it.  
Again, in their new Scheme of Natural Religion, I find acknowledged the following Particulars.  
1. That there is one Infinite, Eternal God, Creator of all things. 
Ibid. p. 195.   
2. That he governs the World by Providence.  
3. That 'tis our Duty to worship and obey Him as our Creator and Governor.  
4. That our worship consists in Prayer to Him, and Praise of Him.  
5. That our Obedience consists in the Rules of Right Reason, the Practice whereof is Moral Virtue.  
6. That we are to expect Rewards and Punishments hereafter, according to our Actions in this Life.  
7. And lastly, When we err from the Rules of our Duty, that we repent us, and trust in God's Mercy for our Pardon.  
Now show me the Man, who acts according to this Faith, and let him be never so well opinioned of Natural Religion, I make it no question but he will readily acknowledge (as the most considerate and judicious of them have always done) that Christianity, however mysterious, is indisputably the best method of cultivating men's Minds, and manuring their Consciences.  
I must confess with 
* Miscel. p. 212.  Mr. Norris, were we to consult the perverse Glosses and Comments of some Christian Rabbins, and to take our Measures of this Religion, from those ill-favoured Draughts of it, we may sometimes meet with; we should be induced to think, that as some Christians are the worst of Men, so will their Religion appear to be the worst of Religions; an Institution unworthy the Contrivance even of a wise Politician, much less of Him who is the Father of Wisdom. And indeed, whatever Declamations are made against Judaisme and Paganism, the worst Enemies of the Christian Religion are some of those who profess and teach it: for if it be in reality, as some of those who call themselves Orthodox describe it, we may boldly say that it is neither for the Reputation of God to be the Author of such a Religion, nor for the Interest of Men to be guided by it.  
Those of whom this Author more particularly takes notice, as the Misrepresenters of Christianity, are first of all the Antinomians, who are impudent and ignorant enough, in express terms, to assert that the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ does wholly excuse us from all manner of Duty and Obedience. Secondly the Solifidians, who under pretence of Advancing the Merits of the Cross, and ●he Freeness of the Divine Grace, require nothing of a Christian in order to his Justification and Acceptance before God, but firmly to rely on the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ; and without any more to do to apply all to himself. And thirdly, Those who have a share in the forementioned Charge, are such who make Christianity a Matter of bare Speculation, rending and dividing themselves from one another, by those unhappy and dangerous Disputations which instead of making Proselytes to the Truth of Christianity, have drawn Men first of all to Deism, afterwards to Scepticism, and thence by a very easy step to Infidelity and Atheism. These are they who think all Religion absolved in Orthodoxy of Opinion, that care not how men live, but only how they teach; and are so over-intent upon the Creed, that they neglect the Commandments, little considering that Opinion is purely in order to Practise, and that Orthodoxy of Judgement is necessary only in such Matters where a Mistake would be of dangerous influence to our Actions, that is in Fundamentals: so that the necessity of thinking rightly, is derived from the necessity of doing rightly, and consequently the latter is the most necessary of the two.  
Having touched on some few of those particular Opinions which have brought a Scandal upon Revealed Religion, and very much obscured its glorious Lustre, it behoves me to say something to Revelation itself, 
See the Interest of Reason in Religion; A Discourse by Mr. F.  which I shall do in the words of a late Author.  
As all Mankind have agreed in this, that besides the Light of Reason, there ought to be some Supernatural Revelation of the Will of God; so being imbued with the Persuasion that there is a God, and that He ought to be worshipped, they are convinced also that all the Religion of Men at present towards God, is the Religion of Sinners: in all the Addresses of the Sons of Men to God, they constantly apply to Him under a sense of Defilement and Gild: in all their transactions from time to time with the Deity, They have been studying how to purge and cleanse themselves, to atone and appease Him.  
Now Sinners can perform nothing duly in Religion towards God, without a knowledge of the Subordination we were created in at first to Him: his Right and Authority to prescribe Laws to us, the Capacity we were in both of knowing and keeping them: the way and means by which Sin entered: that God will not desert the work of his hands, to that Ruin which it hath incurred by its own folly, but that He is yet appeasable towards us, and will accept a Worship and Service at our hands, with the ways, means and terms: that He will receive us again into favour, and rescue us from the defilement we labour under. Without some information in every one of these, there is no solid foundation for Sinners to apply in way of Religion to God at all; and should they attempt it, they will do nothing but prevaricate.  
Seeing then the Experience of some Thousands of years, have evidenced the ineffectualness of Natural Light to instruct the World in any one of these things; we may from hence infer the necessity that there seems to be of Supernatural Revelation.  
The Writings of the Heathen, whether Poets or Philosophers, are certainly void of all pretence of admission for Supernatural and Divine Records: and our Reason is able to give us the like demonstrative Evidence, that this Claim is also most unduly ascribed to the Alcoran. 'Tis true that Mahomet pretended to have received it by inspiration: most think that he counterfeited in his pretence; and it is certain, that as to receiving it by inspiration from God, he did so: but that there was not an immediate interposure of the Devil in the case, so that he was deceived himself, ere he went about to deceive others, is not so certain. The Epileptical Distemper to which he was subject, hath in others been attended with Diabolical Insinuation. The Age in which he lived was Enthusiastically inclined, and the grossness of the Arabian Wits, together with the subserviency of Ethnic Idolatry, which remained up and down among them, might encourage Satan to make an Attempt that way among that People. But whether it was indeed so, or whether the whole be singly to be attributed to himself, and one or two Impostors more that assisted him, is not material, nor makes to the business itself.  
Mahometism began not till the Sixth Century, about which time and for a considerable Season before, the whole East was sorely infected by Heresies, and rend by Schisms: which, together with the impure Lives of the Professors of the Gospel, both there and in the West, might justly provoke God to permit this Deceiver to accost the World; but obtruding a new Religion, and such a one too as neither Reason nor any former Revelation of God befriended: it concerned him to have justified his Mission, by some Miracle or other, as to what he went about: and these himself plainly disclaims; for tho' some of his Followers ascribe such to him, yet there is so little brought in proof of them, and withal they are so silly and ridiculous in themselves, that they serve for nothing but to disparage both the Person and the Cause in whose behalf they are brought.  
I know that all Persons, who have spoken immediately from God, have not had the Attestation of Miracles: nor was it always needful, especially when they only called Men to obedience to that which had been sufficiently so attested before: In such a Case it became the Wisdom of God to be sparing of Miracles, and indeed be thereby better provided for the Credit of those Doctrines, as were either really or only in appearance new, and also more served the interest of Mankind, than if he should have wrought Wonders in attestation of every ordinary Messenger or Familiar Truth. And this may be a reason why none of all the Penmen of the Scripture are reported to have wrought Miracles, save Moses the Giver of the Law, and the Apostles the Promulgers of the Gospel.  
But tho' every Herald of Heaven had not the Attestation of Miracles, yet no one came inspired by God, who had not some Testimony or other born to him, to distinguish him from an Impostor: either the Doctrines they delivered were of that Sublimeness, that no finite Understanding could have invented them, and yet when discovered were so correspondent to our Rational Desires, and so perfective of our Natural Light, that being duly weighed, the Reason of Man acquiesceth in them, and says this is what I looked for, but could not find: or else they made known some present Matter, which lay out of the reach of all Humane Knowledge, such as the Secrets of the Heart, or declared some Fact done either at a distance, or with that secrecy, that no Man could know it: or else they foretold some future Contingent soon after to come to pass, which accordingly fell out in every Circumstance. Nor is it unlikely, but that most, if not all the Old Testament Prophets, had their Missions confirmed by the Prediction of something future, which Humane Prudence could not foresee: or else they were born witness to by the prevalency and immediate success of their Prayers, or the preventing some impendent Judgement, or in the procuring some needful Mercy; for thereby was declared either their foresight of what God was ready to do, or the interest favour, and power they had with him: nor is it without probability that most of the Prophets under the Mosaic Dispensation, justified their Missions by some such thing. But as for Mahomet, tho' he not only pretended to speak immediately from God, but withal introduced a Doctrine really new, yet he came authorised by no Miracle, Sign or Badge by which he might be distinguished from an Impostor. Yea, whereas he owns that both Moses and Christ were sent from God, it is an infallible Argument that he was not, their Doctrine and his being altogether inconsistent. Besides, it hath been generally acknowledged, not only by Jews and Christians, but by Heathens, and that agreeably to the Light of Reason, that prophetic Illapses never befell impure and unclean Souls, and that God never made an unhallowed Person his Oracle, at least that never any such were employed for the Divine Amannenses. Now if we examine the Alcoran by this Prophetic Text, we find the Author of it to have been a Person lustful and tyrannical; made up of nothing but Blood and Dirt, grossly Sensual and prodigiously Cruel, which plainly demonstrates how unfit he was to lay claim to the Prophetic Privilege and Dignity. If we consult the Doctrine of the Alcoran, we have all the Evidence that the Reason of Man can desire, that it neither did nor could proceed from God. It is true, there are some things in it stolen from the Scripture, but even those are so perversely related, and so wretchedly corrupted with Fables, that they lose the very similitude of Truth, through the villainous management of them. Persons are so misnamed, Times are so mistaken, the whole so interlarded with Contradictions, and disguised with Absurdities, that we must needs say the Contriver had a bad Memory, and a worse Understanding. In a word, the whole Alcoran is nothing but a Cento of Heathenism, Judaisme and Christianity all miserably corrupted, and as wildly blended together. The Doctrines of it are for the most part, either impossible, blasphemous or absurd. The Rewards promised to the Embracers of it, are impure and foolish. The whole was at first invented out of Pride and Ambition, propagated by Violence and Rapine, and is still maintained in the ways it was established. Profound Ignorance, Sensual Baits, and force of Arms gave it its first Promotion, and do still maintain its Credit in the World. Thus the meanest Reason, if duly exercised, is able manifestly to disprove the Divinity of the Alcoran.  
This Business of Revelation has been of late so curiously handled by the B— of C— that I can do no less than recommend to you a perusal of those his Excellent Discourses at Mr. boil's Lecture; where I am ready to believe you will find but little wanting to a Demonstration of the Necessity of Revealed Religion; of a possibility for the Almighty to reveal his Will; and lastly, not only the Probability, but the Certainty that he has revealed his Will to Mankind; and that this Revelation is the same which is contained in the two Testaments. For the ●leing all which Truths, (viz.) the Possibility, Expedience, Usefulness, Necessity, and the Certainty of Divine Revelation, he has offered such Evidence, Rational, Natural, Traditionary and Supernatural, as may suffice for the Conviction of the unprejudiced Infidel, and will be found too strong to be made void, or overthrown by the subtlest of the Hellish Tribe.  
Our Belief of the Scriptures being a Divine Revelation, does indeed suppose the Existence of a God, and therefore our Knowledge of his Being, must precede our Faith of the Divine Authority of the Bible. I grant the Scriptures may be brought, not only to such as own their Truth, but even to Infidels, as a proof of a Deity; but than it must not be upon the score of their naked Testimony, but on the account of their being of such a Frame, Nature and Quality, that they can proceed from no other Author: and thus may we arrive by the Scripture at an assurance of God's Existence, as we do at the Knowledge of a Cause by its Effect. But so far as we assent to any thing upon the credit of the Scriptures mere testification, we are necessitated to presuppose the Existence of a God, it bring only on the account of his Veracity in himself, and that the Bible is a Divine Revelation that we do, without the least guilt of vain Credulity, because upon the highest Reason, implicitly believe it.  
Again, Those who owe their Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God, to mere Report, to Principles of Education, the Felicity of their Birth, or the Clime where they were born, receive the Scripture upon no better Motives, than the Turks do their Alcoran. If pretended Inspiration may pass for the Demonstration of the Truth of what every bold Pretender will obtrude upon us, we must expose ourselves, not only to the belief of every groundless Imagination, but of innumerable Contradictions: for not only the grossest Follies, but Doctrines palpably repugnant both to Reason, and one another, have been delivered by Enthusiasts and pretended Inspiratoes. I grant that the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Souls and Consciences of Men to the Truth of the Scriptures, is the most convincing Evidence that such Persons can have of its Divinity. But 1. the Holy Ghost convinceth no Man as to the belief of the Scripture, without enlightening him in the Ground, and Reasons upon which its proceeding from God, is evidenced and establish●. There is no Conviction begot by the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Men, otherways than by Rational Evidence, satisfying our Understandings, through a Discovery of the Motives and Inducements that ascertain the Truth of what he would convince us of. 2. No Man's particular assurance obtained thus in way of Illumination by the Holy Ghost, is to be otherwise urged as an Argument of Conviction to another, than by proposing the Reasons on which our Faith is erected. The way of such men's Evidence is communicable to none, unless they could kindle the same Rays in the Breasts of others, which have irradiated their own: and therefore they must deal with others by producing the Grounds of their Conviction, not pleading the Manner of it; for that another is convinced and persuaded by them, depends wholly on the weight and momentousness of the Reasons themselves, not on the manner that such a Person came to discover them: for should he have arrived at the discerning them by any other means, they had been of the same significancy to the Conviction of an Adversary. 3. The Holy Ghost, as a distinct Person in the Deity, is not a Principle demonstrable by Reason, seeing then it is by the Scripture alone that we are assured of the Existence of the Divine Spirit, as a distinct Person in the Godhead, therefore his testimony in the Hearts and Consciences of Men to the Scripture, cannot be allowed as a previous Evidence of its Divinity. To prove the Divine Authority of the Scripture, by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost, when we cannot otherwise prove that there is a Holy Ghost but by the Testimony of the Scripture, is to argue circularly and absurdly. So that in short, when we have to do with such, as either question or deny the Authority of the Scripture, we are to prove it by Ratiocination, from common Principles received amongst Mankind, and by Topics that lie even and proportionate to Intellectual Natures. Our Reason is here justly to be magnified as highly subservient to Religion, in that it can demonstrate the Divine Authority of the Scripture, upon which our Faith, as to all particular Articles and Duties of Religion, is grounded. This, I say, our Reason can do to the Conviction of all, who are not wilfully obstinate, and for such there is no means, either sufficient or intended by the Almighty, to satisfy them. For it is certain, that partly through the Weakness and Darkness which have arrested our Understandings, partly through the Nature, Quality, Extent and Arduousness of Objects, and our inadaequate Conceptions of them, partly through Prepossessions, Prejudices, and the Bias of Lusts and Passions that we are subject to; partly through Supineness, Sloth and Inadvertency, we do often prevaricate in making Deductions and Inferences from Self-evident and Universal Maxims; and thereupon establish erroneous and mistaken Consequences as Principles of Truth and Reason. But then this is the fault of Philosophers, not of Philosophy, or of Philosophy in the Concrete, as existing in this or that Person, not in the Abstract, as involving such a Mischief in its Nature and Idea. Our Intellectual Faculties being vitiated and tinctured with Lust, enthralled by Prejudices, darkened by Passions, engaged by vain and corrupt Interests, distorted by Pride and Self-love, and fastened to Earthly Images, do often impose upon us, and lead us to obtrude upon others absurd Axioms for undoubted and incontestable Principles of Reason. It is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this adulterate Reason which is both unfriendly and dangerous to Religion; it is to this that most of the malignant Heresies which have infected the Church, do owe its rise; and whoever will trace the Errors which have invaded Divinity to their Source, may resolve them into false Reasonings or absurd Maxims of Philosophy, which have been by their Founders superscribed with the venerable Name of Principles of Reason.  
Indeed whatever can be made appear to lie in a Contradiction to right Reason, we may profess ourselves ready to abandon and disclaim: but we are satisfied, and do fully believe, that a great deal which only crosses some false and lubricous Principles that Dogmatists have given that name to, falls under the Imputation of Disagreement with Reason: the Repugnancy of Reason fastened upon some Tenets, is rather the Result of Ignorance, Prepossession, and sometimes Lust, than their contrariety to Universal Reason, or any genuine Maxims of it.  
Farther, It must be granted, and hath always been judged that the Incomprehensibleness of a Doctrine, through the Sublimity and Extension of its Object, is no just bar to the Truth of it. And indeed it is to be wondered, that any who have studied the Weakness of their discursive Capacity, the Feebleness of Intellectual Light, how soon it is dazzled with too bright a Splendour, the Confinement and Boundaries our Understandings are subject to, together with the Majesty of the Gospel Truth, the Immensity of the Objects of the Christian Faith, should think the arduousness of framing distinct and adequate Conceptions of them, a sufficient ground for their being renounced and disclaimed. Yet this is the Standard by which some Men regulate their Belief.  
As to the Bible, ' tho every thing in it be not alike necessary, yet every thing in it is alike true, and our Concernment lies more or less in it. There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in Matters of Religion besides this; and therefore the import and meaning of its Terms can be no other ways decided, but by their habitude to their Measure. For this end did the Almighty give forth the Scripture, that it might be the Foundation and Standard of Religion, and thence it is we are to learn its Laws and Constitutions. The instructing Mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness, was our Maker's design in vouchsafing to us a supernatural Revelation: and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an end, the Respect and Veneration which we pay to his Sapience and Goodness, oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportioned the Means thereunto. Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts: 1. Such as besides their being made known by Revelation, and believed on the account of Divine Testimony, have also a Foundation in the Light of Nature, and there are Natural Mediums, by which they may be proved: Of this kind are the Being of, or Attributes of God, the Immortality of the Soul, the Certainty of Providence, the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil. 2. Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature, by which they could have been found out or known, but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the discovery of them; their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God; a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them: and these also are of two sorts. 1. There are some Doctrines, which tho' our Understandings by Natural Mediums could never have discovered, yet being on●e revealed, our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason, facilitate the Apprehension of them, and confirm itself in their Belief: Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body, and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to Penitent Sinners. There are others, which as Reason could never have discovered, so when revealed, it can neither comprehend them, nor produce any Medium in Nature, by which either the Existence of their Objects can be demonstrated, or their Truth illustrated: Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Son of God; of these our Reason is not able to give us any adequate Conceptions: and yet these are by a clear and necessary connexion united with other Doctrines of Faith, which Reason enlightened by Revelation can give a Rational account of. For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption, by the Incarnation of the Son of God: and the Work of Redemption by the Incarnation of an Infinite Person, hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice, in order to the dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders: And the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the end aforesaid, hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind; and this Corruption is both fully confessed and easily demonstrated by Reason.  
Thus tho' all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with those of Reason, yet these very Doctrines of Faith, which lie remo●est from the Territories of Reason, and seem to have least affinity with its Light, are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith, which when once discovered, Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm itself in. I need not add, that the most mysterious Doctrines of Religion, are necessarily connected with a Belief of the Bible's being the Word of God, and that is a Truth which right Reason is so far from rejecting, that it is able to demonstrate the same.  
Now if in Explaining the Phaenomena of Nature, which is the proper Province of Reason, the most that a discreet Philosopher will pretend to, is to declare the possible ways by which a Phoenomenon may be accounted for, without presuming to say that it is only performed in this way, and that there is no other in which it may be explained: much more doth it become us, in the great Mysteries of Revelation, to abstain from defining the Manner how they are, and to content ourselves with what God hath been pleased to tell us: for in such Doctrines these things appertain to Reason, 1. To show that it is not required to comprehend them: whatever God hath said is to be assented to, tho' we cannot frame adequate Notions of the Thing itself, nor understand the Manner how it should be. 'Tis as much against Reason as Faith, to think to fathom the Perfections, Councils, and Works of God; seeing Reason acknowledgeth him to be infinite, and itself finite. 2. If we will pretend to Reason in Religion, we are to believe whatever God hath said to be true, this being the greatest Reason that He, who is Truth itself, cannot lie: there is nothing more consonant to the transcendency of so high a Nature as that of God, than that it be acknowledged Incomprehensible; nor is there any thing more agreeable to his infinite Wisdom, than that his Designs and Contrivances should be held past finding out. 'Tis as well irrational, as unjust, to think that Man should penetrate those Depths and Abysms, which the Angels desire only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into, as vailed and hidden from sight.  
But on the other hand, tho' there are many things contained in Holy Scripture which are above our Reason, yet most certainly there is nothing therein which is contradictory thereunto. To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's repugnant to right Reason, is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance, or rather as the Invention of distracted Men: and withal to open a Door for filling the World with Figments and Lies under the Palliation of Divine Mysteries.  
We cannot gratify the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them, that the prime Articles of our Belief, imply a Contradiction to our Faculties. In a word, this Hypothesis, were it received, would make us renounce Man and espouse Brute in Matters of the chiefest and greatest Concernment: for without debasing ourselves into a lower Species, we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible. And when Men have filled Religion with Opinions contrary to common Sense and Natural Light, they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith, namely, such an one that commends itself from believing Doctrines repugnant to the Evidence and Principles of both. Thus the first Heretics that troubled the Christian Church, under the pretence of teaching Mysteries, overthrew common Sense, and did violence to the universal, uniform, and perpetual Light of Mankind: Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil; others of them having established two several Gods, one Good, another Bad: others having affirmed the Soul to be a Particle of the Divine Substance; not to mention a thousand Falsities more, all these they defended against the Assaults of the Orthodox, by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be harkened to. Thus do others to this day, who being resolved to obtrude their Fancies upon the World, and unable to prove or defend what they say, pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorems: nor can I assign a better reason for the Antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy, than that it overthrows the Follies and Absurdities of their Religion; this themselves confess, by devoting Almansor to the Vengeance of Heaven, because he hath weakened the Faith of Musselmen in the Alcoran, through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them.  
In brief, Tho' we make not Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine, yet we may safely allow it a Negative Voice: we place it not in the Chair in Councils, but only permit it to keep the Door to hinder the Entry of Contradictions and irrational Fancies disguised under the name of Sacred Mysteries. And it is necessary also to be remarked, that when we say there is nothing in Religion which is truly repugnant to Principles of Reason, we do not by Principles of Reason, understand all that this or that sort of Men vote or receive for such. The Universal Reason of Mankind is of great moment, but mistaken Philosophy, and false Notions of Things, which this or that Man admits for Theorems of Reason, are of very small importance; Men being misled by their Senses, Affections, Interests and Imaginations, do many times mingle Errors and false Conceits, with the genuine Dictates of their Minds, and then appeal to them as the Principles of Truth and Reason; when they are indeed nothing else but the vain Images of our Fancies, and the Conclusion of Ignorance and Mistakes. So that in reading the Holy Scriptures, it highly concerns us to be very careful that the proper and original Sense of the Words be not neglected: there have been those, and yet are, who will hardly allow any Text of Scripture a proper Sense, but do every where obtrude an Allegoric meaning, as if that alone were intended by the Holy Ghost, and nothing else: but such kind of Expositors do in effect little less than undermine the whole Scripture, betray Religion, and turn the Sacred Oracles into Burlesque: Nor is there any Notion so Romantic, which the Scripture by a luxuriant Fancy, may not at this rate be wrested and debauched to give countenance to: yea, a very small measure of Wit will serve to pervert the plainest Scripture Testimony, to quite another Sense than ever was intended by the Writer of them. An Instance of this we have in those, who by turning the whole Scripture into Allusions, have wrested the Revelations of the Word to justify their own wild Phantasms, and framed the words of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to their own private Notions, and thereby evacuated the Sublimest Doctrines and most glorious Actions, into empty Metaphors and vain Similitudes: thus the Person of Christ is allegorised into themselves, and the Birth, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Saviour are construed after the manner of Aesop's, or Phylostratus' Fables, into useful Morals; as if these were intended only to declare what is to be done in us by way of Allusion. But leaving these, and supposing only for the present, that there has been a Supernatural or Divine Revelation of the Almighty's Will to Mankind, which every Moral Man will find his interest to believe and embrace, if it were upon no other account than the Extraordinary Advantage it affords us towards the securing both a Temporal and Eternal Felicity, by those Excellent Precepts it contains above what is discoverable in Natural Religion: Supposing this, I say, 'tis reasonable for us to think, that there can be nothing in this admirable System essential to a Saving Faith, or fundamentally necessary to our future Welfare, but what is as intelligible as legible to every Reasonable Creature; 
See a late Treatise of Humane Reason.  Most certainly the Essentials of Religion consist not in any intricate or perplexing Theory's, but in the Practice of our Duties. The Lord hath showed thee, O Man, saith the Prophet, what is good; and what doth he require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Again, saith another of them, Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father, is this, to visit the Fatherless and Widows in Affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the World. And it is in consequence of this Principle (saith the 
* Of this Treatise.  Author) that the whole Tenure of the Scripture declares unto us, that we shall be judged, not according to our Belief, but according to our Works; witness abundance of Passages both in the Old and New Testament, particularly that of St. Paul, where he says that we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his Body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Religion lies not in the barely embracing this or that Opinion however Orthodox, neither yet in associating ourselves with this or that Sect of Professors, in admiring or following this or that Doctor, tho' even he were a Paul, an Apollo's or a Cephas; but its important Work is to draw us from that which is Evil, and to engage us in the practice of that which is good.  
It is a wonderful thing to consider the Heats and Animosities which are sprung up in the World, from difference in Opinion in what we call Articles of Faith: Every Man will have his own to be the only true ones; nay some (alas too many) are so barbarous, that they not only condemn others to Death, but deliver them also by their Anathema ' s (as much as in them lies) to the Devil and Damnation for difference of Opinion in some Metaphisical Speculations. It is nevertheless certain that neither Christ nor his Apostles have tied the Salvation of Mankind so indispensably to the particular Belief of any incomprehensible Mystery, as some of the present Doctors of his Church now do. We read that our Lord himself pronounced St. Peter blessed upon the bare declaration, that he believed him to be the Christ the Son of the living God. St. Philip in like manner baptised the Eunuch upon no other Profession of his Faith than in the terms of this short Symbol, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. St. John teaches us plainly, that to confess that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh, is a certain Characteristical Mark of the Spirit of God, and St. Paul explains himself in this point yet more particularly telling us, That if we confess with our Mouths the Lord Jesus, and believe in our Hearts that God hath raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.  
This simplicity of the Scriptures in those Articles of Belief, which they propose to us as necessary to Salvation, may justly raise our Astonishment at the imprudence of those Men who have perplexed all Matters of Faith with so many inexplicable Difficulties, not content with what the Scripture teacheth of Christianity, they have had recourse to a wordy Philosophy, thereby to refine their Notions and adorn them with the Lustre of seemingly mysterious Expressions; insomuch that a great 
† Palav.  Cardinal has not stuck to acknowledge, That without the help of Aristotle we should have wanted many Articles of Faith: and that which aggravates yet more the Extravagance of these Dogmatisers is, that they themselves acknowlenge the Incomprehensibility of those very things which they undertake to explain with such Critical Exactness, as if they had entered into the very Councils, and fathomed the Depths both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God; we may therefore without Danger shake off the tyranny of those Prejudices that have possessed us: the Names of Orthodox and Heretic are too partial and illusory any longer to deceive us, they have these many Ages been made use of with so much Irregularity, Interest and Passion, that the ordinary Application of them cannot at this day be any just ground either of Assurance or Fear.  
We may undoubtedly be assured, that the Righteous Judge of all Men, will not impute unto us the Gild of any Criminal Heresy, so long as we sincerely believe what he has expressly revealed to us: and if peradventure we understand not clearly the whole sense of every Expression in which those things have been declared; we ought certainly for that very reason so much the less presume to alter them, or affect new forms of explaining ourselves, and least of all to impose upon others, any doubtful Inferences drawn from such dark and intricate Premises.  
But with Submission to this great Master of Humane Reason, I shall take the Liberty to reply this, That as I cannot think every thing a Fundamental in Religion, which some Men would persuade us; so on the other side, I am satisfied that there is more required to Salvation, than some others seem to intimate. I can well enough comply with that Opinion, 
See the Occasional Paper Numb. 1.  which supposes there is no more than one Essential in Christianity, to wit, the Belief that Jesus is the Messiah, provided they take in the Genuine Consequences, and the Natural Results of such a Faith; such as his Divinity, his miraculous Incarnation, his Ascension into Heaven, and his coming to Judge the World at the last Day. Without these Attendants upon this one Fundamental, the System of Christianity will be lame and incoherent, and it cannot indeed be known what is meant by saying Jesus is the Messiah: A Man may say so much, and have no other Notion of him, than the Jews had who expected him a Temporal Prince; but we must believe that he will raise our Bodies, and judge us at the last Day; not to instance in all the other Fundamentals which the Apostle mentions Hebr. 6.1, 2. If we believe him such a Messiah as the Scripture represents him, such parts of our Belief will have, besides the Explaining of our Faith, a great Influence on the End of it, viz. the making us good Men: for he that believes Jesus only a Temporal Prince, to govern him in this World, will never think himself so much obliged to conform his very Thoughts and Desires to his Laws, as he that is persuaded that he will one day judge him in another. Again, we ought above all things to be satisfied in his Divinity; for if we do not acknowledge him to be one God with the Father, and worship him accordingly, we neglect a Gospel Duty; and if we do worship any thing but the one God, we are Idolaters.  
As for his Satisfaction, a right Notion of it is of that importance, that without it he that believes Jesus to be the Messiah, has no Notion for what he was anointed and sent, or of what he has done for us. These, I say, must all go along with that one Fundamental; and to our Belief of this, there is nothing more required, than our Belief of the Authority of Holy Writ, where these things are plainly revealed to us. If we do believe the Scriptures to be Authentic, we must believe it our Duty not to dispute the Mysteries of Christian Religion: it is sufficient for us that we consent in our Hearts to what is there plainly delivered as to these Points, altho' we are altogether unskiled in the Metaphysics, and unable by the Principles of Philosophy, to account for the manner of Hypostatic Union, the Trinity or the Resurrection; for this were to confine Eternal Happiness to the Men of Letters, and to tie Salvation to the Schools.  
It is something pleasant (as a Modern Philosopher has remarked) to observe now adays, that the great step which makes an approved Christian as well as a Philosopher, is to talk unintelligibly, and to solve us one Difficulty by making twenty more. These, says he, are the Men in vogue, whilst the poor Man, that gives a plain reason for what he says, is put by for a Coxcomb, he wants profundity.  
But to proceed, should we go about to bring down the Doctrines of Religion to the Model of our own Reason, we should wholly overthrow our Belief, and pay no more Respect to the Authority and Testimony of our God, than we would to a Worm like ourselves. If there were no Obscurity nor Difficulty in the Notions of Gospel Truths, where would our Submission and Humility be, which are the Qualifications that do most of all recommend us to God, and upon this account, especially, because they prepare the Mind for Faith, and give Check to all bold and curious Inquiries.  
It is enough, if we can by Rational Proofs demonstrate the Bible to be his Word, whose Veracity is proportionate to his Wisdom, and both of them infinite: nor is it needful that its Doctrines should further adjust themselves to our Understandings. 
* Interest of Reason in Religion.  Our Reason is often non-plused about its own proper Objects, and the Phaenomena of Nature, and shall we think it a competent Judge of Objects to which it never was adapted? for it is below many of the Works of God, and therefore much more below Mysteries of Revelation: here are many things which we ought to admire, but must never hope fully to understand; our work here is to believe, and not to inquire. If our Minds will not submit to a Revelation, until they see a Reason of the Proposition, they do not believe or obey at all, because they submit not till they cannot choose. Faith bears not upon Demonstration, but upon the Authority and Veracity of the Speaker: and therefore to believe nothing but what we do comprehend, is not to believe but to argue, and is Science, not Faith. Ye that will believe in the Gospel what you please, and what ye think fit, ye believe not, but renounce the Gospel, saith Austin to the Manichees, for ye believe yourselves, not it. So that to believe nothing but what we can fully comprehend, is to remonstrate to the Wisdom and Power of God, at least to challenge to ourselves an Omniscience proportionable to the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence. Furthermore, it is true that the Rule and Measure of our Faith must be certain, but no Man's Reason universally is so; for what one Man's Reason assents to, another rejects: Every Man pretends to right Reason, but who hath it is hard to tell. If it be lawful for one Man to reject a plain Revelation in one particular, because he cannot comprehend it, why may not a second do the same with Reference to a Revelation in another Particular. For as the Socinians by making their Reason the sole Judge of what they are to believe, will not admit many of the prime Articles of the Gospel, so some Philosophers would make their Reason Judge of what they should receive, and their Reason at sometimes will not admit the Gospel at all.  
Now the Certainty of Revelation is justly preferred to all other Evidence, and we are commanded to submit our Reason to the Authority of God in the Scripture, and by consequence we are not to set up our Reason for the positive Measure of Religion. The Sacred Writers do every where remit us to the Scripture itself, as the Rule of Faith, and not to the Tribunal of our own Reason. Herein are the Socinians justly impeachable, for tho' sometimes they acknowledge Religion to be above Reason, yet at other times they speak in a very differing manner. Even in denying the Divinity of our Saviour, and at the same time paying Religious Worship to any thing which is not God, is acting contrary to the Reason of Mankind.  
'Tis a very great unhappiness we labour under through the Difference of our Religious Opinions, and indeed a Uniformity in Religion is by no means to be expected till Men grow less Speculative and more Practical. The real and sincere Practice of Piety, the Loving the Lord our God with all our Hearts, and our Neighbours as ourselves, the keeping our Consciences void of Offence towards our God and one another, and the holding fast no more than the whole form of sound words without letting of them slip: these, I say, would quickly bring us together, and the Names of Sect and Party, of Schism and Heresy, would be altogether unknown to us.  
'Tis true, I doubt not of good Men to be found in every Christian Communion, nor do I look upon it any Scandal to the Profession, that there should be many Profane Irreligious Persons shroud themselves under it. Yet on the other hand, tho' I am persuaded my Charity is well placed in this respect, I must be free to declare to you my Opinion, that so far as I am able to judge, there is more of Interest, Singularity of Humour, Influence of Education, Misunderstanding and Mistake about Essentials as well as Circumstances purely indifferent, than either a just, or indeed reasonable ground, for any Man to separate from the present established C— of E— I am sure 'tis thought no Blemish to that Constitution, that Men should be good and pious; and that they may not only be so, but have as great helps to their being so, as in any state of Separation, I am sufficiently satisfied: and I can say, I have met with few Separatists, how much soever bigoted to Nonconformity, who have not been ready to show a better liking to this Ch— than to any dissenting from it, except their own.  
But whether or no this, or any other Ecclesiastical Form of Government, comes up exactly to the Primitive Pattern, I am not enough knowing positively to determine; yet considering the Nature of a National Church which must be so contrived and calculated, as to obviate a multitude of Inconveniencies, which cannot happen to any private or single Congregation: A Ch— which must be framed for the Reception of all Sorts and Conditions of Men, and the manner of her Worship adapted to their different Capacities and Understandings: there is nothing certainly has the Marks of a better or more serviceable Contrivance, to answer the end of a Religious Institution. I speak in respect of her general Ecclesiastic Polity: for tho' there are many particular Flaws therein, which it were much to be wished were better inspected; tho' the Pastoral Care is upon some accounts very deficient, and that there are but too many Enormities, both in Life and Doctrine, committed by some of those who are entrusted in some Office under her, and who ought for the same to be Suspended or utterly Excluded; yet notwithstanding this, her Constitution is truly Excellent and Noble: and seeing it is impossible for Men to Survey the Secrets of each others Hearts, or to fathom their Hypocrisy, the greatest part of these Blemishes and Irregularities, are such as will almost unavoidably creep in to any other Universal Church.  
The great Objections touching Form and Ceremony, are to my thinking no other than unreasonable Prejudices: and should we, to gratify the Humours of some inconsiderate Men, dispense with or lay them aside, I may be bold to presage, with a great Pillar of this Ch— That Religion itself would quickly dwindle into Nothing, and there would be no such thing as a Public Assembly met together for the performance of a Divine Service. As for the Injunction of prescribed Forms to be made use of in our Public Prayers, Praises and Thanksgivings to Almighty God, they have beyond Controversy their proper use and advantage, and will by every impartial Judge be confessed or acknowledged to be excellently designed: for notwithstanding that frivolous and impertinent Objection of the Noncon— that we hereby stint or limit the Divine Spirit, and set Boundaries to its Power, and that a formal Worship was only invented to gratify the lazy Humour of the Priests, we have not, according to my Sentiments, any other way to petition Heaven as we ought, or as becomes the Supplicants to an Alwise Being, unless with our Modern Visionaries we can persuade ourselves, that we enjoy at those Times some Supernatural Accession or Influence to inspire us, and that what we deliver, has no dependence upon our own, either natural or acquired Faculties, but is immediately dictated to our Minds by the Holy Spirit, and conveyed to our Organs by an extraordinary Impulse; for otherwise, whatever peculiar Genius, Gift, Talent, Faculty or Quality some Men are endowed with, of speaking readily without much forethought, there are few such Discourses, however pleasing to Sense and Imagination by the Gesture or Deportment of the Speaker, or by his Air and Manner of Delivery, that will bear the Test of Reason, or be justified for the Sense and Grammar, even by the Author's themselves: and if so, I see not why such Men, who labour under the Infirmity of a mean and imperfect Delivery, a want of thinking rightly, as well as speaking, whose Sermons and Discourses, Prayers and Thanksgivings are incoherent, a Medley of Confusion, made up of a useless redundancy, of insignificant words, of Circumlocution, frivolous Repetition or Tautology, where the whole is downright Nonsense; in such Cases, I say, I am not able to reconcile the Notion of extraordinary Inspiration.  
If we must believe these Men inspired from the Matter or Manner of their Expressions, here are scarce the footsteps of Humane Knowledge, much less the Characters of Divinity; and so far are the Discourses of this Nature from surmounting the Acquirements of Natural Men, or deviating in any thing out of the common Mode of Understanding, that every Profane Hypocrite may play the Counterfeit, and the most extravagant Whim suggested to the Fantasy, has an equal Right of putting in a Plea for Inspiration. If we must believe they speak or teach by the Dictates of the Spirit, on the account of their more than ordinary Probity or Moral Honesty, their Devout, Holy and Exemplary Lives and Conversations, these indeed might sway us, were we not satisfied of the as strict Sanctity, Sincerity, and undissembled Piety of those, who as they pretend not to any special Privilege of Supernatural Inspiration, are utterly averseto Ethusiastic Principles.  
Did true Religion consist in an affected Singularity of Expression, in a rustic or ungenteel Behaviour and Deportment, in the Dreams and Rapts of a deluded Fancy; or (to borrow a Physical term) were its Pathagnomonic Sign any set Garb or Habit, were a green Apron, a Riding Hood, a short Crevat, or a Hanging Coat, the only Characteristic Marks of Christianity, These Men above others, have a just Pretence to the Title of its best and chiefest Votaries: but if the real Acts of Devotion, such as Watchings, Fast, Prayers and Supplications; if Charitable Contributions to the Relief of the Poor and Indigent; if Mortification and Self-denial in worldly Satisfactions, are as conspicuous and apparent, perhaps more in some others than in these, I see not the necessity of admitting them either to speak or act differently from any other pious and devout Person.  
'Tis not the Garb or Habit that makes either the true Gentleman or the true Christian; tho' most certainly, a decent plainness is very becoming, if not absolutely necessary to the Profession of the Gospel.  
The World, who take their Estimate of Things from Sense, are too apt to value one the other upon the Lineaments of the Face, or the propotionate Symmetry of other Parts of the Body, and to measure each others Capacity or Mental Endowments by their outside Apparel: but these were never overrated by the Wise and Prudent. There is indeed an Extreme on either side; and as on the one hand an extravagant Dress looks ridiculous to the Sober and Judicious Man, and is very often the signal of Effeminacy, at best a Shallow Apprehension; so on the other, the stiff and precise Habit is very rarely unattended with a Spiritual Pride, a secret Desire to distinguish ourselves from the rest of Mankind, and an overfondness to value ourselves upon such Indifferencies, and to believe them in time some of the Essentials of Divinity.  
But to return to the prescribed Forms of Religious Worship, and particularly those enjoined by the Liturgy of the English Ch— if we ourselves, through a preconceived Prejudice, or the Influence of a different Education, can think them neither useful nor necessary, nor find ourselves edified by the same, it behoves us however to be so charitable, as not to Condemn or Censure those who do. There is no Person in this Ch— was ever, that I heard of, so Childish as to think the Truth of Religion, or the Advantage to be received by the Practice of its Duties, did consist in the Verbal Recitation of a Creed, in the Repetition of some certain Prayers, or the External Compliance with any other Performance: but since it is by all granted, that true Piety does consist in a hearty Submission and Resignation of our Wills to God, in the most humble Elevation of our Minds to Heaven, and in our most fervent Supplications, Prayers, Praises and Returns of Gratitude: and since it is not only possible but certain, that in these Forms so well adapted and fitted for our Necessities, no truly Religious Person did ever rest upon the Form of Words, but knows his Heart and Tongue must move together; it becomes us to believe that the Prayers, Responses, and every part of the Service of the Ch— are always new to every sincere Christian, and that they lose nothing of their Efficacy by being common. I shall not here insist upon their Usefulness and Benefit to the Ignorant and Unlearned; for notwithstanding we are to believe the God of Heaven will hear our Sighs and short Ejaculations, yet where we have time and opportunity to present our Petitions, to lay open our Wants, to acknowledge our Miscarriages, to beg pardon for our Offences, and Abilities to overcome the Temptations we may meet with; here, I say, it is expedient that we set a Watch upon our Lips, that we utter nothing unbecoming the Supplicants of the Divine Majesty, and that we pray sensibly as well as heartily: if we are so happy as to do this without premeditation, we are all of us left to our Liberty in our private Duties: we may pray either with or without a prescribed Form, which how ridiculous soever it may seem to the Dissenter, 'tis abundantly more so in my Opinion, that those very Men who most of all oppose a formal Prayer, should themselves make use of one; for give me leave to tell you, that little acquaintance I have had amongst the Separatists, has informed me, that for the much greater number, those who are conversant in the private Duties of Family Devotion, do still keep on in the same Road; and tho' it was first an accidental Form of Words they light on without forethought, yet that makes the same no less a Form, which when afterwards by the intervention of wand'ring Thoughts they at any time deflect from, those very Deviations render them uneasy, as any of their Hearers may perceive, and the rest is foreign, incoherent and abrupt, till they fall into their wont method of proceeding. This is so very true, that I can speak it upon my own knowledge, there are some sensible Men, in whose Families I have been for many Months, in some others Years, and all that time the Subject Matter, as well as Manner of Expression in their Prayers have been still the same, and wherever there has happened any little variation by the want of Memory, or the intrusion of other Thoughts, unless they had a singular readiness this way, their Discourse would make their Hearers blush for them, if they did not blush themselves.  
Extempore Discourses, or such as are unpremeditated, are vastly differing in different Men: and even amongst the Enthusiastic Spiritati we find it exactly the same thing, viz. those Men who have the greatest volubility of Tongue, have collected the greatest number of Ideas, and received the largest helps from that Learning they at other times decry, speak the best Sense and most to the purpose; whilst on the other side, such who labour under a want of these, are scarce able to deliver their own Conceptions, or to let us know what they would be at; their Discourse proves burdensome, and very often insupportable to their own Hearers; on which account I have often times admired that there should be so many sensible Men among them, who have not yet discovered the Delusion, but are content to safer such an Imposition upon their Reason.  
Whoever rightly considers the force of Imagination, when it becomes heated by the Frantic Zeal of a mistaken Piety, together with the deep Traces which by the several Objects are drawn out in the Brains of these Men, affording so many ready Inlets to the passage of their Animal Spirits, will the less wonder at their Extravagancies, or be startled at their odd Deportment.  
It is well enough known, that there are many of these Men whose Judgements have been so strangely prevailed on, by the Delusion of some Spiritual Whimsy, that by the continual indulging a particular Thought, the same has at length cut out so deep a Trace, or made so strong an Impression upon their Imagination, that not discovering the Fallacy, they have fallen into a Persuasion of Supernatural Revelations, Visions, Inspirations and Divine Illuminations.  
One of the admirable Instances, and perhaps the most wonderful Precedent of Enthusiasm, or Religious Frenzy that has been heard of, was not long since presented to the World in the Person of Mr. M— n of Water-stratford in Buckinghamshire. This Gentleman growing Hypochondriacal, laboured under so strong a Delusion of his Imagination, as to fancy himself by a Special Revelation from Jesus Christ, to be made acquainted with his sudden coming to Judge the World: upon which when our Saviour (as he thought) had several times appeared to him, and discoursed him face to face, he selected a great number of ignorant People to be his Followers, who disposed presently of what they had, and brought their whole Treasure into the Common Stock. Thus were they to separate themselves from the World, and to spend the very short remainder of their Lives, in Spiritual Hymns and Prayers, in Watchings and Fast, sometimes Singing and Dancing, Playing on Musical Instruments, together with the most unaccountable Behaviour in odd Gestures and Positions of their Bodies.  
Thus they continued several days, till this unhappy Gentleman their Ringleader (whether by the constant Fatigue of his Body, or other ways) was seized, as I have been informed, with a violent Defluxion upon the parts of his Throat, together with an Inflammation on the Muscles of his Windpipe. During his Indisposition, there were some Gentlemen in his Neighbourhood, with no small difficulty admitted to see him, in whose presence he behaved himself as he had always done, with much Sobriety, Gravity and Devotion: his Discourse was Rational, and betrayed no such Deception of Fancy as he was possessed with: He told them with a full assurance, and with all the confidence he was able to express himself, That as sure as Christ had ever been upon Earth, so certainly he had seen him, when perfectly awake, several times not many days before: and that he had discoursed him concerning the approaching Destruction of the Wicked, which they would find fulfilled, and our Saviour in his Glory before the Consummation of many Weeks to come.  
He had as we have reason to believe, no apprehension that his Distemper would be Mortal, but seemed persuaded that he should live to see all this accomplished. But being thus unexpectedly snatched away from his Frantic Congregation, they were shortly after, to their shame and consternation, made sensible that all was the Result of a distempered Brain in their Founder, and that the Infection was communicated to the unthinking Multitude by the Power of Imagination.  
I have thought this Case the more remarkable, because having been acquainted with a neighbour of Mr. M— s, I have received full satisfaction that he was a Man very unblameable in his Life and Conversation, of tolerable Parts, strictly just in his Actions, and every way free from the imputation of an Impostor or designing Counterfeit.  
That we may not wholly pass by the Causes of these strange Phaenomena, without essaying by some means or other an Explication, I shall take the liberty to assert, that however ignorant we may be of the modification of our Souls, or the manner of our Perception, we are arrived to some certain knowledge of what is transacted in our Brains in order to the same: for whatever Objects are represented to our Fancies, the same do make a more or less durable impression thereon; or, in other words, they grave as it were Prints, more deep or superficial, according to our continued view of the said Objects: and hence it follows that our Animal Spirits have not only a more difficult or ready Inlet, into the Traces which are cut out, but also into those Nerves which excite the Motions of our Bodies subservient to us, or by whose assistance we procure to ourselves the desired Object, accordingly as we have indulged the Thought of prosecuting the same. For the better illustration hereof, If at any time we are intent upon, or please ourselves with any lewd Idea, if we keep the whole bent of our Minds upon the same, and are both solicitous to obtain, and uneasy till we have accomplished our impure Designs. We must expect that the same, or the like Object, will make a very durable Print, or very deep Vestigia in our Brains; that the Traces into the same will lie always open, and the said Object is no sooner excited afterwards, but the Spirits as it were of their own accord rush in, and even compel us, almost contrary to our Desires, to will those Motions of our Bodies which were before employed in its prosecution and attainment. This is the true Mechanic Process, the Objects that are about us must excite in us some Sensation or other, and as we pursue or fly its appearance, or more or less keep up the Idea, there will be consequently the firmer or slighter Trace drawn out, and accordingly the same will either continually approach or withdraw from us. So that by the repeated prosecution of the beloved Object, these Vestigia are so very plain, and open, and afford so easy a passage to the income of our Spirits, that it is very much, if for a long time after the same should be obliterated, or the said Avenues blocked up.  
Again, It is by the frequent or reiterated Indulgence of our Thoughts, and cherishing our Ideas, that the Sensitive or Inferior Soul gets the Ascendant over us: 'tis by these means that we contract our Habits, and in this the force of them consists, which when we have done all that lies in our power to heighten and aggravate our unhappy Circumstances, when we have after this manner suffered an ill Habit to get the Victory over us, and to subjugate our Strength, to allure our Passions to its free command, we then cry out of the Frailty of our Natures, exclaim against our Maker, or else justify our detestable Actions, and foolishly please ourselves in thinking, that God Almighty would not have implanted these Appetites within us, if he designed that we should not satiate ourselves in their Enjoyments: if not, they expect that however by their own voluntary Actions, they have with their whole strength heartily embraced the sinful Thought, and as desirously brought the same into a repeated Act, by which means the Traces in their Brains lie so open to receive their Spirits: here, I say, they expect Omnipotence to intervene, and by a Miracle to close up the Prints they have engraven, to snatch from them the Ideas they are hugging with all their might, or to intercept the passages of the Nerves, that their Animal Spirits may not fall into those parts, by which they are to obtain their short-lived Satisfactions.  
Surely there is no reasonable Man will countenance the folly of this Plea; nor can he who rightly considers the Fabric of our Bodies, the Organization of our Brains, and the necessity for sensible Objects to leave their Marks upon the same, think it a fair Impeachment of the Divine Wisdom or Justice, especially if he reflects upon that high Prerogative we enjoy above the sensitive Soul; and that it is within the Sphere of our Reason to obviate these Disorders, to correct the Irregularities of our Senses, and by the practice of contrary Habits to set us out of the reach of those Mischiefs we should be exposed to. How these Disorders may be corrected, and the Vestigia which have been impressed by former Objects wiped out, I have touched upon elsewhere: and indeed, were not Matters thus to be transacted, were our Objects elected to our hands, and we not able of ourselves to choose some and reject others, I see not any business for the Exercise of our Reason, or any advantage we could brag of above necessitated Agents.  
A considerate view of this kind of Imagery, thus transacted in the Brain, will not only inform us of the Mode of Imagination, but will also give us some small insight into the extraordinary Effects of an overheated Fantasy, and direct us to an Explication of some of the prodigious Phaenomena and extravagant Actions of our late Visionaries, or wild Enthusiasts: who, by a constant application of their Minds to some particular Idea, come at length to have the same so strongly impressed upon their Brains, that the whole Systasis of the Soul is taken up as it were a●d loseth itself in its Contemplation: the Vestigia are so deeply cut, and all others at that time effaced, that the tendency of their Spirits altogether is into these Footsteps, the Acts of Reason and Understanding are laid aside, the Result is this, They quickly grow giddy by an uninterrupted Thought upon the same Object, they fall into a sort of Madness and Delirium, at some times dangerous to themselves and those about them: they are possessed with invincible Opinions and Conceits of extraordinary Illuminations, Illapses of the Spirit and Revelations: finally, by the contracted Disorders of the Nervous System, they are often seized with very direful Paroxysms, believe themselves in Rapts and Ecstasies, and when the Fit is over, endeavour to persuade the Bystanders, that they have been the Lord knows where, and received a Divine Mandate or Commission to do the Lord knows what.  
I was never over-credulous in the business of Possessions, but doubtless, according to some very impartial and faithful Accounts, some of these I am speaking of have been pure Daemoniacks, and the unaccountable Phaenomena they have exhibited, have been clear Indications of a Praestigious Delusion or Satanical Power.  
According to the Relation of a Learned Man, my late Acquaintance, whose Residence has been for many years in New-Eng— that Country has been the Stage on which abundance of these Tragae-Comedies (as he was pleased to call them) have been acted. He gave me at our last Conference, a very Rational Account of several Instances of this Nature, particularly two, which I was almost surprised at: their Names I shall designedly forbear to publish. The one had been a particular Acquaintance of this Gentlemans for some years past, He told me he always looked upon him to be as Harmless and Innocent, as he knew him to be Ignorant: but of late he began to retire more than ordinarily from Conversation, and betrayed in all his Actions, in his Gesture, Speech, Motion and Behaviour, all the approaching Symptoms of a mad Enthusiast. It was not long before he betook himself to the Society of half a dozen Women, who seemed to be at first deluded with the appearance of his extraordinary Sanctity; and without these he never stirred abroad. It happened at one particular time that that the Q— r with his Women very ridiculously habited, drew near to my Friend's House, and seeing him at his Door cries out in a frantic manner, Stand still and see Salvation approacheth. The Gentleman, not at all surprised at the Novelty, as having been well acquainted with his Life, and the Whimleys he had been possessed with, makes towards him, accosts him in a Neighbourly manner, bids him welcome to his Seat, and kindly desires him to take a Dinner with him; which t'other, after some little Pause and a deep Expiration, assents to, walks in, and his Women were about to follow him: which my Friend observing, opposed their Entrance, and would by no means admit them in. He told the Q— r that for his part he should be welcome, but he intended not his House, to be a Receptacle for Mad-women, nor such especially as were kept for a Spiritual Fornication. The Man could not at first tell how to resent the Affront put upon his Women; but after some little Pause, walks to them, and orders their tarrying for him not far off: then returns and enters into my Friend's House, where they drank a Bottle of the best his House afforded; and till Dinner was getting ready, he calls for his Violin, begins to tune it, and to strike an Air: which the Enthusiast perceiving was extremely disturbed, and being about to depart, the Gentleman told him he would desist, and play an Anthem upon his Base Viol, which he was sure would not sound harsh: Accordingly he prevails, sets the Instrument and plays a Psalm, when on a sudden the poor Man falls a sighing, sobbing, and roaring out. At length he begins to dance about the Room, and calls for his Women, that they might have the same Spiritual Consolation; for this he said was all Divine, it favoured not as the other did of the Powers of Darkness, or the Carnal Kingdom. By this time Dinner was brought up, the Gentleman could scarce persuade his Guest to leave off running about the Room, and to sit down to Dinner: but at length prevailed; and during the time they were at Dinner, he was continually throwing out Scripture Metaphors, and would have every thing from thence, however foreign to the purpose, to be an exact Simile or perfect Allusion. At length they parted, after a plentiful Repast, with a great deal of Respect.  
The more remarkable Instance, this Gentleman gave me at the same time, was of another Q— r in the same Town, who looked upon himself to be of Heavenly Extraction, continually inspired and abounding in Supernatural Visions and Revelations. It was customary with this Person, in whatever place he received either Civility or Disrespect, accordingly to denounce some Blessing or Woe, as if authorized by Heaven for his so doing. At a certain time he made my Friend a Visit, and upon the receipt of some slight Courtesy from him, by way of Requital upon his going forth, fell down on his Back, and there for a considerable time was most cruelly exercised with such violent Distortions and throwing about of his Limbs, such incredible Inflations of the Breast and Belly, such Convulsions of the Muscles of his Face, and forming at the Mouth, that the Gentleman could scarce persuade himself these Effects could proceed from any common Disorder of the Animal Oeconomy, or be the Result of any thing less than a Diabolical Energy. When the Decumbent was almost spent, be lay quiet for a little while; at length starts up, and in the usual accent of the Sect, cries out, The Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the House of God, it shall be erected in thine House, and the Tents of the Lord shall be transplanted hither. My Friend hereupon calmly discoursed him, and desired to know the occasion of his extreme disorder. He replied, He had been all this time in Paradise, that he had discoursed the Lord Face to Face, and had this Message delivered to him.  
This Gentleman and myself had a long Conference upon this Subject, together with the Writings of Mr. B— and Mr. K— some of the former, he said, he had considerately perused in the Latin Tongue. I found by his Discourse that he had formerly been inclining to the Q—rs Opinions; and was told by others that he had been very strict in that way, till finding himself growing: Melancholy, and likely to be seized with a Spiritual Vertigo, he happily threw off the Course of his Life, betook himself to the Study of Metaphysics, and found his Disorder by degrees to wear of, by the help of Physic and the advantage he had of Conversing with Learned and Judicious Men. He was a little surprised when he perceived that I offered any thing in the behalf of Q—sm, and told me, That on what account soever I espoused their Cause, he was satisfied that I could not do it without a manifest Imposition upon my better Judgement. The Experience, saith he, I have had of this People, and the intimate Acquaintance, both with their Principles and Deportment, has enabled me to know thus much, and I am so bold as to establish it for a solid Truth, that the perfect Q— r is either a perfect Lunatic or Daemoniac; and believe me, you will find this occur to your own observation, that the loser the Q— r is, I mean, the less he is tainted with the Rusticity of their Manners, the Stiffness of their Behaviour, and the Ridiculous Gestures that appeared in their Primitive Constitution, if at the same time he be a Man of good Morals, he is vastly preferable in all respects to the Whimsical Precisian.  
There are many (continues he) amongst them that I esteem of, as of the devout and pious Ethnic, they have both of them the same Natural Light to govern themselves by, they are both of them Men of Conscience and Integrity in their Dealings: their Conversation is modest, yet withal pleasant, while they keep within these Bounds; they are some of the best of our Modern Deists; but so soon as ever they betake themselves to extraordinary Illuminations, to speak by Inspiration, and to fancy themselves directed in all things by somewhat differing from the common mode of Understanding, they are involved on a sudden in inextricable Confusion, plunged in Darkness and miserable Delusion, and truly it is the great Mercy of God that no more of them lose their Senses. The Men of Parts and Learning are the least subject to quit their Reason, and to have their Intellectuals blinded: and generally speaking, the Enthusiast is a Man of simple Education, an uncultivated Genius, rude and illiterate, of a sedentary Life, much given to Contemplation, ' tho not able to digest his Thoughts: and 'tis no wonder at all, when such People come to be afflicted with Hypochondriac Melancholy, that they should be seized soon after with a Religious Frenzy.  
As to their peculiar Claim to the Divine Light, we have as little Reason to credit them as in their pretended Revelations. The Holy Spirit can neither be the Author of Absurdity or Incoherency in Discourse, neither yet of Repugnancy in Opinion, Difference between each other and palpable Confusion amongst them all. Those who have the Grace of the Holy Spirit, or the Advantage of the Divine Light, will see a necessity not only to be acted by, but to think more reverently of the true Revelation of Christ Jesus, of his Incarnation and outward Sufferings, as well as of his second Coming to Judge the Quick and Dead. Now whatever these People may insinuate to the World, under the Notion of their Belief, there are notwithstanding several dangerous Heresies got in amongst them. They do most of them at the bottom, set up their own Light and private Inspirations to the written word, which their calling a Dead Letter, Food for Children, of little use to the Regenerate, or such as are grown in Grace, do plainly intimate: there are many of them speak slightingly of the Mosaic History, ridicule the Notion of Original Sin, and disparage or discredit the manner of its Translation. They have none of them any other infallible Criterion or standing Rule of Faith, than a mistaken Conscience, which they Nickname the Divine Light: This is plainly evident by their wild Enthusiams, the gross Immoralities among some of them, and the intestine Janglings amongst them all. They do consult the Scriptures in order to an imitation of the Apostolical Writings; but alas, their high Pretences and Conceits are foiled and quashed so soon as ever we compare them: and notwithstanding their strenuous Pleas, with their seeming assurance that they have the same Prophetic Spirit, and are equally inspired with the Divine Penmen, I defy the whole Body of Queen— sm to produce me one single Instance, of any one of their Prophets that could ever give the Proof and Attestation of their Inspiration, with the Founders of Christianity: when they come to this, they most wretchedly prevaricate, and cry out with Mahomet, There is no need of Signs and Wonders. Believe me Sir, adds he, this late Pretence to Inspiration, is both the most egregious Cheat that was ever put upon the Christian World, and the most dangerous and destructive Fallacy that ever the grand Deceiver could have invented or contrived. Weigh all things fairly and without prejudice, consider all impartially, and give the greatest scope you can to the best of their Arguments, you will find all as pure deception, and as certainly false, as the Divine Illumination of the first Christians was most conspicuous and demonstratively true. If we consider the tendency of this Notion, we shall find, that should the World but once comply with, or countenance the same, the Fundamentals of Government, both Civil and Ecclesiastic, would presently be unhinged, we should have one Revelation in opposition to another; the Gospel of our Saviour, that Divine System of true Religion, would be trampled under soot, we should be exposed in our Fortunes to the State of Levellers, in our Minds to Diabolical Illusions or Phansiful Suggestions: Our Religion would soon grow volatile and fly away into Air and Spirit, a profound Sign o● lamentable Expiration, would be all we should have to do whilst clothed with the Flesh, and all our Religious Duties, for want of the Support of an established Form, would quickly leave us: Our helps to Devotion, such as Watchings, Fast, and servant Prayers, would be quickly laid aside, and in a little tim● we should find ourselves in the midst of a destructive Ignorance and barbarous Confusion. I can the more readily presage this, having been much pestered with these People in some of the Towns of New-Eng— tho' not altogether in such a manner as Germany has been with the frantic Anabaptists. I shall only take notice to you in one word more, that when ever you may happen to discourse these People upon almost any single Article of the Christian Faith, you will find that there are scarce two of them of the same Opinion: Their Ignorance in the Explanatory part of Religion is so great, that for want of a settled Creed or generally established System, they will unavoidably clash and jar with one another: indeed, so far as I perceive, they are capable of arguing nothing solidly but the Principles of Deism: and even their grand Notion of the Light, is as yet unprincipled, and as Mr. Norris says, unphilosophic, notwithstanding the two learnedest Props of their Cause have set it out to the best advantage their Learning could ●nable them. 'Tis true, there are some of the most Judicious, who will talk to the purpose for some little time, but there is no keeping them close to their Argument. The want of Catechistical Exercise to instil their Principles into those under their Care, has rendered their Religion rude and ill-shapen; and to me this seems none of the least Causes that the greater part of them are so very unknowing in Divinity, that they can say nothing for themselves but this, that they have a feeling Sense of an inward Light which is sufficient to direct them.  
Thus ended my Friend's Discourse, which I shall leave with this short Remark, That for the most part his Ideas seem to be clear and Rational, his Judgement sound, and setting aside a little Heat, his Discourse in the main to consist with Truth, or Matter of Fact and Common Observation.  
Whoever consults Antiquity, or the Chronicles of the Times, may find many Histories of this wild Enthusiasm, and the Extravagancies that have attended this Whimsical Pretence to Inspiration.  
In the Reign of Henry the Sixth, 
See Baker's Chron. of the Kings of England, Pag. 184.  one La Pucel a French Maid was burnt at Rouen, she declared that she was sent from God for the good of her Country to expel the English.  
In the Year 1591. and the 34 th' of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign, was memorable the prodigious carriage of one Hackett, born at Oundle in Northamptonshire; a mean Fellow of no Learning, whose first Prank was this, That when in show of Reconciliation to one with whom he had veen at variance, he embraced him, he bit off his Nose: 
Id. p. 181.  and the Man desiring to have it again, that it might be sewed on whilst the Wound was fresh, he most villainously eat it up, and swallowed it before his Face. After this, on a sudden, he took upon him a show of wonderful Holiness, did nothing almost but hear Sermons, got Scriptures by heart, counterfeited Revelations from God, and an extraordinary Calling. Thus he grew to be magnified by certain zealous Ministers, especially of one Edward Coppinger (a Gentleman of a good House) and one Arthington a great Admirer of the Geneva Discipline; insomuch that they accounted him as sent from Heaven, and a greater Prophet than Moses and John Baptist, and finally that he was Christ himself come with a Fan in his hand to judge the World. This they proclaimed in Cheapside, giving out that Hackett participated of Christ's glorified Body, by his especial Spirit, and was now come to propagate the Gospel over Europe, and to settle a true Discipline in the Church of England. Farther, That they themselves were two Prophets, the one of Mercy, the other of Judgement; with many other such incredible Blasphemies: whereupon Hackett was Apprehended, Arraigned, and at last Drawn, Hunged and Quartered; continuing all the time, and at his Death, h●● blasphemous Assertions. Coppinger a while after starved himself to death in Prison. Arthington repented, and made his Recantation in a public Writing.  

P. 403.  In the Third Year of the Reign of King James the First, we have an account of a knavish Counterfeit, one Richard Haidock, who not only pretended to Inspiration, and to enjoy Supernatural Visions, but to preach and pray in his Sleep. This Person was by the King himself detected to be a Counterfeit, and humbly ask forgiveness, had his Pardon granted on Condition that he should publicly and openly acknowledge his Offence. 
* P. 423.  In the Sixteenth Year of this King's Reign John Trask was Censured in the Star-Chamber for depraving the Ecclesiastic Government, and for holding divers Judaical Opinions; as that it was not lawful to do any thing forbidden in the Old Law, nor to keep the Christian Sabbath; for which he was set on the Pillory at Westminster, and from thence whipped to the Fleet, there to remain a Prisoner: but Three years after he writ a Recantation of all his former Heresies and Schismatical Opinions.  

P. 449.  In the Year 1636. in the Reign of King Charles the First, one Leighton a Scotchman, published his Zion's Plea, of a very fiery Nature, exciting the Parliament and the People to kill all the Bishops, and to smite them under the fourth Rib: He bitterly inveghs against the Queen, call her a Daughter of Heth, a Cananite, an Idolatress. For which he was Sentenced to be whipped and stigmatised, to have his Ears cut off, and his Nose to be slit; all which was inflicted upon him.  

P. 629.  In the Year 1656. in Charles the Second Reign, most remarkable was the Trial of James Naylor the great Champion of the Q—rs who having spread his Doctrine, and gained many Proselytes to it in divers parts of the Nation, was more especially taken notice of at Bristol, and from thence was brought up to London, attended by several Men and Women of his Opinion, who all the way they came (especially the Women) are said to have sung Hosanna 's, and to have used the same kind of Expressions towards him, as anciently the People of the Jews did to our Saviour, when he road triumphant into Jerusalem. The Parliament took upon them to judge him themselves, before whom being convened, he was charged with Blasphemy, for assuming to himself Divine Honours, and such Attributes as were due unto Christ only. After he had used many cunning Sophisms and Evasions to clear himself, such as argued him not altogether ignorant of Humane Letters, he was Sentenced by the House to be first at London whipped, pillory'd and stigmatised as a Blasphemer; then to be conveyed to Bristol, there to be also whipped; lastly to be brought back to London, to remain in Bridewell during pleasure: which Sentence was publicly inflicted on him.  
The Insurrection of Thomas Venner (in King Charles the Second 
P. 734.  Reign 1660. ) a Cooper and a Preacher to the Fifth Monarchy Men, is so prodigious an Example of an overheated Imagination, and a pretended Revelation, that I am apt to believe no History can parallel. The madness of these Men (being in all about Fifty or Sixty) extended so far, that they believed themselves, and the rest of their Judgement, were called by God to reform the World, and to make all the Earthly Power, which they called Babylon, subservient to the Kingdom of King Jesus: and in order thereunto, they resolved never to sheathe their Swords till the Carnal Powers of the World became a Hissing and a Curse; and by a misguided Zeal they were so confident in their Undertaking, that they were taught, and believed One should subdue Ten thousand; making account, when they had led Captive Captivity in England, to go into France, Spain, Germany, and other parts of the World, there to prosecute their Holy Design.  
They fought indeed with Courage to admiration, and if they had not been hindered by the Care of the Lord Mayor from increasing their Numbers, a Thousand Men so resolved, might have caused such a Disturbance in the City, as would have had an Influence much farther. Venner himself was very much wounded before he was taken, and about five or six killed that refused Quarter, of which some of them were so obscure as not to have their Names known. About eight or ten days after, Venner with about sixteen or seventeen of the most notorious, were Arraigned at the Old Bailie, found Guilty, and Executed in several parts of London.  
Thus ended (saith the Historian) this desperate Enterprise of a formidable Army of sixty Men, who were insensated to that height of Enthusiastic Valour, that they thought themselves strong enough to Encounter the whole armed Force of one of the greatest and most populous Cities in the World. The Prince's Guards, the General's Troops, the City Trained Bands, were all swallowed up in Conceit by these Men of Might and little Wit; and it is reported, that they were so infatuated with their golden Dreams, and so certain of Success, that they had promised to themselves the Partage of the whole Empire of the World among them: Thirty being designed for the subduing of the Eastern Parts, and Thirty of the Western; but see the Disaster which they met with by the way.  
In Dr. Featly's History of the Anabaptists, 
See the Dippers Dipped, by Dr. Featly.  we have several wonderful Accounts of Enthusiasm, of their strange Frenzies; their wild Preachings and Practices, particularly those of Muncer, John of Leyden, Knipperdoling, with the rest of their Followers: So that altho' at this time the Q—rs alone are looked upon to be the chief Enthusiasts, there being no other Sect besides so particularly pretending to Inspiration and Divine Illumination, yet within the Compass of the two last Centuries, we have had the Apostolians, Augustinians, The Silent'sts, Adamites, Melchiorites, Georgians, Menonists, Catharists, Separatists, Bucheldians, Hutites, etc. who put in for a share of the same Privileges: and indeed it is to be feared, if not unquestionable, that the present Countenancing the pious Whims and Dotages of some Modern Sectaries, who have made such a Noise in the World with their Special Illuminations, Visions and Revelations, has been none of the most inconsiderable Occasions of Scandal and Contempt, amongst unprincipled Men, to the Sacred Writings of the Divine Penmen; on which account it was certainly well worth the pains of the Learned B— p of C— r, to consider and state the Difference between really Divine Communications, Natural Impressions, and Diabolical Illusions, whether by Inspiration, Illapse, Vision, Dream, or Voice: and this, I think, he has admirably done, by showing that there is no proof of any other Revelation than that in the Holy Scriptures. 2. That there is no need of any farther Revelation. And l●stly, That the said Book shuts up all Revelation with itself, so that none other is to be expected beyond it.  

William● ●s first Serm. at Mr. Boyle ●● Lect. An. 1696.  I grant, saith he, that it is as possible in itself for God to reveal himself at some time hereafter, as it was for him to have revealed himself heretofore; but he that will assert the Futurity of this, must have more to prove it than a Possibility. It is certain that God has revealed himself, and that the Gospel was by Revelation from him: but there is nothing of the like Certainty for a Revelation after the Gospel, or in after times of the Gospel, as there is that the Gospel itself was of Divine Revelation; so that altho' I am not positive, but that there may be some particular Revelation or Inspiration with respect to some especial Case, yet it may arise, for aught we know, from bare Imagination, and if not attended with the greatest Caution and Circumspection, may end in the Whims and Frenzies of a Bridget, a Catharina, or a Mother Juliana, and what not: nay, it may proceed to the disannulling the Gospel itself, and to the preferring their own private Inspirations (as they will have it) above it.  
If we consider the Evidence which was given to the Gospel Revelation, we shall find there needs on other Evidence to be given to that Revelation for want of Evidence in this. Our Saviour's Life was a Life of Miracles, as well as Innocence, and wherever he w●●● the Divine Power went along with him, which he extended wherever he came, and as occasion served to the Confusion, if not the Conviction or Conversion of his Adversaries, and all which at last concluded in his own Resurrection, his Ascension into Heaven, and the Effusion of the Holy Ghost which began on Pentecost, but like a Torrent ran through the Apostolical Age, and bore down all manner of Competition, and what then can any Revelation pretend to beyond it, or where can there be any that can be supposed to produce the like Evidence for its Veracity.  
But again, The Scriptures conclude all with this Revelation, and because we have none other besides that written Revelation, we cannot suppose any Revelation beyond it, and much less derogatory to it, or that shall direct us to any other way by which we are to be saved, then that we have already received, and is therein recorded.  
As to the Case of Personal and Occasional Revelation, which may be conceived only to serve to a more spiritual Manifestation of the Revelation already made, I would not altogether deny this, because I know not how far some Persons may, in some Cases, be enlightened by a Spirit of Prophecy, nor what particular directions they may receive in an extraordinary way in some special Cases, with respect to themselves, to others, and to the Church of God: which may be like a special Providence to some particular Persons, but now as a Man must govern himself by the general Rules of Divine Providence, and not by particular: and because he has sometimes met with Deliverances, Supplies and Directions beyond all his own foresight and reasoning, must not forsake his own Reasonings and Care, and wholly rely upon the Extraordinary: so it is to be here. 'Tis not impossible but a Person may have some occasional Revelation, some Divine Inspiration at an especial Season, or in some special case; but if he forsakes the ordinary to depend upon the extraordinary, & expects a Revelation in every case, because he has had it in some Particulars, he will as much be subject to Error, and err no less dangerously than if he wholly relied upon Divine Providence, and forsook all other means whatever; and truly this is a way much liable to be abused to misled Persons, and is very suspicious as also dangerous. It is a Case liable to Imposture and Abuse, forasmuch as those that are under the Influence of such a conception, are not always, if at all, capable of making a certain Judgement of it, for it is all transacted within, and the Imagination may be so much influenced by the Body, and by an Agitation of the Blood and Spirits from an Enthusiastical and even Devout Temper, by prepossessions and fore-conceived Principles, and by the Circumstances of Life, that it may be wholly Natural, as natural as Dreams, or the Deliriums of a Fever, which proceed from an Ebullition of the Humours and such like ordinary Causes.  
It is very certain that abundance of Persons have been imposed on, and taken the Effect of Imagination for Inspiration and Divine Illumination: I am far from condemning all the Instances of this kind of Hypocrisy and a Design to Deceive, like Maria Vesitationis in Portugal; I will rather think more charitably, that very often they have thought themselves thus moved and acted by the Spirit of God, and yet notwithstanding all their pretences, and the opinion others have had of them, it has been afterwards evident, that all has been far short of Divine Infusion or Illumination.  
What shall we think of Teresa, whose Life is full of her Visions and Revelations, and indeed if we did but alter the place, and for the Nunnery conceive her to be in an Hospital, we might take it to be what the Author in a transport sometimes calls it, a Frenzy. What a Legend of Dreams would the World be furnished with, if the Visions and Revelations of these kind of People were bundled up together, as the Miracles of reputed Saints have sometimes been. But they are truly much to be suspected also of Imposture, and that because we read so little of this way in Scripture, even in the Apostles times, and nothing to encourage us in the expectation of it afterwards. We read nothing there of the 
* Vbald. p. 14, 16.  Union of the Soul to the Divine Essence; of its being absorbed and drowned over head and ears, and ingulphed in the depth of Divinity, so that it became one and the same with God by a true Deification. We read there sparingly of some Ecstasies, as one of St. Peter, one or two of St. Paul, but with how much reserve doth the holy Apostle speak, and with how much modesty when he comes to Visions and Revelations of the Lord, when he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a Man to utter, 2 Cor. 12.1, etc. Now what can be greater if these of Teresa be true, and where might we expect to be more entertained with the Relation of such Rap●s than in the Gospel; so that when they are there so unusual, and here so frequent, that even Societies are embodied from them and form, it is very much to be suspected, and the rather, seeing that which is the proper means of judging and of distinguishing Imagination from Revelation, is laid aside, which is Reason, and when all is resolved into the Persons single Testimony.  
We are required in all Cases to search and try, which doth suppose the free Exercise of our Reason; and where this is rejected, 'tis a sign there is no truth in the Thing pretended: but farther, 'tis very suspicious when Men exalt their own private Revelations to the same Authority with the Revelations of holy Writ, and seek to justify the one by the other; when they esteem the way of Religion as described in Scripture, to be mean in comparison of this that they are in, and prefer this way of Contemplation and Inspiration, above the plain Precepts of Christianity; when it is a condescension in them to join in External Worship. A state indeed of Perfection that is above what the Gospel hath described, and is another Gospel than what we have in Scripture received, and which there needs an uncontrollable Evidence for: the want of which increaseth the suspicion. 'Tis certain that there is no Evidence for all this, beyond their own simple Affirmation, and who is there that without good Evidence can believe that those Rapturous Ladies (such as Santa Teresa and Donna Marina d'Escobar) did in Molinos ' s Phrase, hear and talk with God hand in hand, when he reads the Interlocutory Matters that are said to have passed between them.  
The desire of Revelations has so wonderful an Influence over the Souls, especially of such Women, that there is not an ordinary Dream but they will christian with the Name of Vision; and I must needs say, the credulous World has been much imposed on this way: The Pretence abovesaid of Maria Visitationis is an Instance beyond all Exception, who imposed upon her Confessor, (no less a Man than Lewis Granada) the Inquisition, and even the Pope himself, and yet notwithstanding she pretended to somewhat more than Internal, for her Converse with our Saviour, etc. was at last detected of notorious Imposture. But most of the Visionaries we are speaking of, pretended not to so much; and therefore where there is no External Evidence attempted by them, nor that we have the Gift of Intuition to see into their inward and Self-evidence, we have no reason to think otherwise of such Illuminations, Introversions and Interlocutions, than at best the Effects of a distempered Brain; and so much the rather are we to be careful of these Matters, and not to be too easy of belief, because it may be very dangerous in the Consequence of it; for if instead of a Star it should prove an Ig●is fatuus, whether may not Persons be led under the Delusion of it, and what will not be concluded to be lawful, nay a duty, which Revelation shall warrant; and where will this end, if once it be credited, and that we commit ourselves implicitly and blindly to such an uncertain Guide.  

Dr. William's third Sermon, An● 1695.  Now if a Person comes, under pretence of a Revelation, with a Message to others, and requires them, as they tender their Salvation, to receive it and to submit to it, without such Certificates as may give Authority to it, it is like one that shall take on him the Style and Character of an Ambassador, without any Credentials to give him Authority, and deserves no better Acceptance.  
It is by means of Predictions and Miracles that a Prophet must be known to be a Prophet, an Inspiration to be an Inspiration: and by these Characters may we be able to judge of both as to the Authority of the Mission, and the Truth of the Inspiration; where the Evidence was necessary, there was never wanting one or both of these: and tho' John did no Miracle, yet he had the Spirit of Prophecy, the People acknowledged; 
* John ●●. v. 41.  for, say they, all things John spoke of this Man (Jesus) were true. There may, 'tis likely, be Inspiration where there is neither of these or the like Evidences, but there is no Obligation on others to believe it, without the Evidence be sufficient (for such as the Evidence is, such is the Obligation) now the Evidence is not sufficient which rests solely on Humane Authority, and has nothing but the bare word or affirmation of the Pretender to prove it: It is to this purpose that our Saviour speaks, If I bear witness of myself my witness is not true, the Works I do bear witness of me. So that Inspiration is as to others no Inspiration till it be proved: it may for aught appears to the contrary, be no other than Delusion or Imposture. Let therefore the Imagination be never so strong, the Confidence never so great, the Intent never so good, the Question is, whence is this? what Evidence doth the Person bring of his Mission from God? upon what doth it rest? into what is it resolved? what doth he produce more than what may be the fruit of Imagination? it may all be a fit of Enthusiasm. And if a Person will pretend to immediate Inspiration (were it an Age for it) much more if he pretends to it after Inspiration h●s ceased, he must be able to fortify it by such Evidence as can come from none but him from whom the Inspiration came if it be Divine.  
The Case than is to be put upon this Issue, and to be decided by the Measures here laid down, and we may safely venture the whole Cause of Revelation upon it, when there is nothing wanting that can reasonably be desired towards the Justification of its Veracity, and that there is no manner of Pretence for applying the same Terms of Evidence and Sincerity to Imagination, as to Inspiration or to Imposture (whether Enthusiastic or Diabolical) as is to Revelation.  
For when was it known that Imagination or Nature (vulgarly so called) did ever empower Persons to speak all Languages, and to discourse readily at once with the Parthians, Medes and Elamites, etc. in their several Tongues: when did Nature or Imagination enable Persons without any skill to cure Diseases naturally incurable, and such as had no Humane Learning, to talk like Philosophers of the sublimest Arguments, and with as much freedom as they used the Speech of the Foreign Nations they instructed.  
Farther, What Imagination, Nature or Art could inspirit Moses with such a Supernatural Power as to turn his Rod into a Serpent, and to devour those of the Magicians: or by a stroke of it to fetch Water out of a Rock, and to stop the mighty Current of the Sea?  
What Imagination could form such Ideas in the Minds of a Pharaoh and Nabuchadnezzar, or inspire a Joseph or a Daniel to give such an Interpretation as justified itself to be true by the corresponding Event?  
When did Imagination give Life to a Fly, or do the least act out of itself? when did that, or Nature, or Imposture, really and truly raise the Dead with Elisha, call for Fire from Heaven with Elijah, or foretell what shall happen an hundred or a thousand years after, or so much as what a Person shall think to morrow? Here we may challenge all the Magicians, all the Men of Art and Science, all the Enthusiasts and Impostors in the World, to talk as the Persons really inspired did talk, to do as they did, and to produce those Testimonies as they produced in their own Justification, and for the Confirmation of their Mission from God.  
From all which we see, what Evidence we have for the Truth of Revealed Religion by the various ways of its Manifestation, if we had such Inspirations, such Visions of things future and remote, etc. what Evidence could we desire more to attest and bear witness to what we are to believe and receive, and what Absurdities must we be cast upon, if we should venture to call those Matters of Fact in question, which tho' peculiar to those Times, lose not their Force and Evidence, because they are not in our own, nor have been for several Ages, nor are to be again in the Christian Church.  
'Tis true, when a Person is himself the Recipient to whom the Revelation is imparted, there is no absolute need of a Sign of farther Evidence to ascertain the Truth of it to him, when if God so please the Revelation of itself may be made as clear as it can be made by the Sign: but when the Revelation comes at second hand to a Person, and rests on Humane Testimony, on the Ability and Sincerity of the Relator or Person supposed to be inspired, there needs some further Evidence, some Sign or Signs that may show the finger of God, since all Men are Liars, Psalms 116.11. that is, may be deceived, or may deceive, may either be so weak as to be imposed on by their own Imagination, or the Imposture and Practices of Evil Spirits, or so wicked as under the pretence of Revelation and Inspiration to impose upon others. In such a Case, I say, no Man's Affirmation or Pretence is ordinarily to be heeded, any farther than he is able to produce a Testimony as really Divine as he would have his Revelation to be accounted. For as before said, all Revelation must have a sufficient Evidence, and if it be a true Revelation, it will be able to produce the same.  
A Revelation to another, how evidently and convincingly soever it may be represented to him, is nothing to me, unless I am fully assured that he has had such a Revelation: but that I cannot be assured of, unless it be by the like immediate Revelation, or by sufficient and uncontrollable Testimony. Since the former would be absurd, and is not to be expected at all times, it is as reasonable for us to believe, where there are sufficient Motives of Credibility, as if we ourselves were alike actually inspired, as they to whom the Revelation was immediately conveyed: And if I mistake not, these Motives are to be resolved 1. Into the Veracity, Sincerity, and Credibility of the Persons pretending to Inspiration. 2. Into the Matter or Subject of the Revelation. And 3. into the Testimony produced for it. By the Credibility of the Person we understand his Probity and Sincerity, his Capacity, Prudence, and Understanding, which render him worthy of Credit, and are necessary Qualifications of a Divine Missionary: the being a Prophet to others (as those are to whom a Revelation is made, and that are inspired by Almighty God) so as to teach and direct them in the stead as it were of God, whose Mouth and Representatives they are to the People, is an Office of great Dignity, and requires somewhat of the Divine Image, as well as Authority, to recommend them and their Message to others. I grant in the ordinary Cases, as there were Prophets bred up in the Schools or Nurseries of Learning and Morality, there might be such Persons as were employed without a strict regard had to these Qualifications, as Messengers that carried an Errand by the order of their Superiors. I grant also that God might, and did sometimes upon occasion, inspire such Persons as had none of these Qualifications to recommend them, as he did Balaam. But this was no more than when he opened the Mouth of the Ass, to rebuke the madness of that Prophet, and who was so ever-ruled by the Divine Power, as against his will, to bless those whom he came to curse, which was so much the more considerable, as it was the Testimony of an Enemy. But as Revelation is a Divine Communication, and a Mark of Divine Favour, so it doth suppose in the Nature of it, that the Person so dignifyed is duly qualified for it; and which is so requisite, in the Opinion of Mankind, that without it he would rather be accounted an Impostor than a Messenger from God, and ordinarily have no more Reverence paid to his Errand than to his Person.  
What has been thus said in general, as to the Morality and Virtue of the inspired Person, will hold for the most part as to his Prudence and Understanding, which is so necessary a Qualification, that the Divine Election of Persons for so peculiar a Service, doth in that way either find or make them fit.  
Laying all this together, let us see what it amounts to, viz the Capacity, Ability, and Integrity of the Persons to whom this Revelation is made, the Unanimity and Consent of Persons remote and distant in Time and Place; the Usefulness and Reasonableness, the Excellency, Sublimity and Perfection of the Doctrine they taught, the Testimony given to them by such Operations and Productions as exceed the Power of created Causes, and are wholly from the Supreme: where these are concurring, and with one Mouth, as it were, giving in their Evidence, we may say it is the Voice of God, and that it his Revelation which carries upon it the conspicuous Stamp of his Authority.  
I hope these few Passages out of the Writings of this Learned Man, may be a means to establish in you a Belief that the Divine Being has given unto us a Revelation of his Will, and that all other Revelations pretended to by such who cannot give us the same convincing Evidence, are to be looked on as the Effect of a Satanical Delusion, a Distempered Head, or a Knavish Combination: 'Tis indeed so necessary to believe this● that unless we do so, we shall be liable to be carried aside with every Wind of false Doctrine, and our Faith will find nothing certain to take hold and fix on.  
You are well acquainted with a sort of Men, 
For your farther satisfaction you may consult a late impartial Treatise of an Ingenious Author, in his Second Edition of the Snake in the Grass.  I need not name them, who have amused the World as well as themselves, with a confused System of new Principles of Religion: These, in their own Judgement, are arrived at so happy a state as to live and sin not, they carry it seems the Deity always about them, and will neither speak, preach nor pray, without a Divine Mandate; nay farther, their very Words and Expressions (tho' why or upon what account I know not) must be supernaturally forced on them, and they will deliver nothing but in Raptures, Ecstasies, or by Inspirations. If we tax them with Absurdities, want of Sense and Incoherency in their Discourse; or if we tell them that Religion is both a Reasonable and a Divine Service, they presently exclaim against Humane Learning, the Arts and Sciences, and misapply that Scripture Text which they think pat to their purpose, Man's wisdom is foolishness with God. Thus, in the Opinion of these Men, we must shake Hands with our Reason, resign up our Intellectual Faculties, and become a sort of Idiots or insensible Statues: and thus all Religion must be resolved into a Spiritual Delirium or Dotage, a Senseless Stupidity, whilst the Learned Man and the Divine, the Christian and the Philosopher, must be accounted Terms incompatible.  
Whether the Name Enthusiast, is derived from them, or any other Pretenders to Revelation, is not material: but certainly, as they are a People, who above all other Religionists, have abounded in Prophetic Rapts, Predictions, lamentable Expirations, and Denunciations of Public Woes, Calamities and Judgements; so have they for the most part (if not all) been miserably benighted and overshadowed with Darkness: and there have been those amongst them, who when the Cloud has been removed, and their Imaginations freed from the Obscurity, have confessed to the Sense of a Deception, and acknowledged the Delusion.  
'Tis more than ordinarily remarkable it seems of Mr. M— l that he scarce ever speaks amongst them, but in a sort of frantic or wild transport, he is delivering his Prophecies and Prognosticating the certainty of impending Judgements. And indeed Mr. K—th sometime ago took notice to me, that among many hundreds, he had heard him utter, not one had ever come to pass. I speak not this out of any Personal Prejudice, neither yet with a desire that any Man should ridicule and contemn them. I have, I must needs say, too certain a Knowledge of the Honesty, fair Dealing, and Integrity of some in that Persuasion, to tax their Morals: And as for their Divinity, their fundamental Hypothesis of the Divine Light, if they knew rightly to explain it, or to account for the same, either rationally or intelligibly, I am ready to believe it might prove both serviceable and solid. The rest of their Principles have been delivered too loosely to pass for any Regular System, and it may be thought designedly, lest they should be found to clash and disagree. Their late intestine Janglings, their Divisions and Feuds, with their separation into Parties, give us reason, without the help of Revelation, to portend the likelihood of their Extinction; and as they started up at first almost imperceptibly, so may they very probably, within the Compass of another Century, dwindle into nothing again. However, be that as it will, this is certain, They are not the People they were at their first Rise; at least, the greatest part of them: their quitting some of the Marks and Badges of their Profession, and their gradual Conformity to the Habit and Customs of other People, which they now seem to think indifferent, is an Argument of this; and truly, I believe I may not err, if I take three parts of the younger People among them to be but nominal, or to act only in compliance with the Commands of their Governors, on which account I am induced to surmise Q—sm may be but little longer lived than the Supports of their several Parties and Divisions.  
It is not without some Reason, that I impute your present Scepticism to the unhappiness of Circumstances attending your Education: we do not often find that when Men shake of their first imbibed Principles, they stick to any other: the first remove is very commonly to infidelity; and altho' I cannot think you are to be discommended for quitting what you find neither consonant to right Reason nor true Religion, yet in this you are extremely unblamable, and I hope may live to see the danger, that from the madness and folly of some, you should take the Measure of Divinity in general, and hereupon resolve all Religion into a pious Fraud.  
The People of other Churches, even the Church of England itself, meet together (you say) habited fitter for the Theatre than a place of Devotion; They have their Prayer Books brought after them, they fall upon their Knees cry, Lord have mercy on them, they are miserable Sinners: they have done those things, etc. they proceed and say, They believe in God the Father Almighty, and cry out Our Father which art in Heaven, etc. and when this is over (nay a great many of them in the time of repeating their Prayers and Petitions) are viewing each others Dress, taking notice of the Fashions, and reflecting upon each others Deportment: the elder sort are thinking of their worldly Business, who will be their best Chapmen, and how to dispose of their several Commodities: and as soon as all is over, instead of retiring into their Closets, for the sake of private Devotion or Contemplation, they enter into Consult where is the best Wine, what Friends to visit, and to make merry, or where to walk that they may spend their time, as they call it, in some Recreation or Diversion.  
All this I must needs say is too notorious to be evaded, it is indeed as just as miserable a Complaint, and therefore as I shall not go about to extenuate the Errors or Impieties of these Persons, so neither does there seem to want any other Reply than this, That Religion in itself is no more sullied by the Scandal of pretended Devotee's or Irreligious Proselytes, than the truth of any other Science by the Impositions and Cheats of an In-intruding Impostor. You must consider the People you are speaking of have no more Religion than yourself, they go to Church with their Neighbours, whom they think would otherwise take notice of, and Censure them: but for their own parts their Principles are to choose, they never embraced any in such a manner as if they were certainly convinced of their Truth, neither have they any thing to plead for their sometimes frequenting a Religious Assembly, such as their Parish Church, more than the Custom of their Country, and the Necessity that there is of Securing their Reputation. I question not however, but you may find some sincerely Religious, and truly affected with the Divine Service; Men whose Piety is as conspicuous in their Lives and Actions, as in their Words and Expressions, such whose Hearts are fervently affected with the Love of God, and whose whole delight it is, as well as utmost endeavour to live Godlily, Righteously, and Soberly in this present World, in order to the Securing of an Everlasting Happiness in a World to come.  
In a word, all that I have farther to say with reference to Revealed Religion, that complete and settled Standard of Divine Faith, is this, that how diffident soever you may be at present of its Authority, let not the same by any means suffer from your impious Reflections: You are no ways able to disprove the Matters of Fact, they may be true, and you have all the reason in the World to believe they are so: However, in the end, I may securely predict this, That it will be a much less trouble to you, your never looking into those Sacred Volumes, than your searching them with the foolish Patrons of Irreligion, only to furnish yourself with a profane Witticism, or an impious Scoff.  
The folly of such Derision (that I may give you the Sentiments of a Reverend and Devout 
* Bishop of Worcester's Sermon before the King upon Prov. 14.9.  Person) is very conspicuous, in considering to whom the Injury redounds, by men's making themselves so pleasant with their Sins. Do they think by their rude Attempts to dethrone the Majesty of Heaven, or by standing at the greatest Defiance to make Him willing to come to Terms of Composition with them? Do they hope to slip beyond the Bounds of his Power, by falling into Nothing when they die? or to sue out Prohibitions in the Court of Heaven to hinder the Effects of Justice there? Do they design to out-wit infinite Wisdom, or to find such Flaws in God's Government of the World, that he shall be content to let them go unpunished? All which Imaginations are alike vain and foolish, and only show how easily Mens Wickedness baffles their Reason, and makes them rather hope and wish for the most impossible things, than believe they shall ever be punished for their Impieties.  
It is well (says the same Judicious Man) in the Age we live, that we have the Judgement of former Ages to appeal to, and of those Persons in them whose Reputation for Wisdom is yet unquestionable, otherwise we might be born down by that Spiteful Enemy to all Virtue and Goodness, the Impudence of such, who it is hard to say, whether they show it more in committing Sin, or in defending it: Men, whose Manners are so bad, that scarce any thing can be imagined worse, unless it be the Wit with which they use to excuse them: Such who take the Measure of Man's Perfections downwards, and the nearer they approach to Beasts, the more they think themselves to act like Men. No wonder that among such as these the Differences of Good and Evil be laughed at, and no Sin thought so unpardonable as thinking there is any at all: the utmost these Men will allow in the Description of Sin, is, That it is a thing that some live by declaiming against, and others cannot live without the practice of. But is the Chair of Scorners at last proved the only Chair of Infallibility? Must those be the Standard of Mankind, who seem to have little lest of Humane Nature, but laughter and the shape of Men? Do they think that we are all become such Fools to take Scoffs for Arguments, and Raillery for Demonstration? He knows nothing at all of Goodness that knows not that it is much easier to laugh at than to practise it; and it were worth the while to make a mock at Sin, if the doing so would make nothing of it: but the Nature of things does not vary with the Humours of Men: Sin becomes not at all the less dangerous, because some Men have so little Wit to think it so; nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the World, because the greatest Enemies of that are so much to themselves too, that they have learned to despise it, but altho' that scorns to be defended by such Weapons whereby her Enemies assault her (nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion, than to make itself cheap by making others laugh) yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves, as to attend with patience to what is serious, there may be yet a possibility of persuading them that no Fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into Misery, and none so certainly do so as those who make a mock at Sin.  

vid. Bentlys first Serm. at Mr. boil's Lecture.  It may be not unlikely thought by some the Interest of Mankind, that there should be no Heaven at all, because the Labour to acquire it, is more worth than the Purchase, God Almighty, if there be one, having much overvalued the Blessings of his Presence; so that upon a fair Estimation, 'tis a greater Advantage to take ones Swinge in Sensuality, and have a glut of Voluptuousness in this Life, freely resigning all Pretences to Future Happiness, which when a Man is once extinguished by Death, he cannot be supposed either to want or desire, than to be tied up by Commandments and Rules so thwart and contrary to Flesh and Blood, and refuse the Satisfaction of Natural Desires. This indeed is the true Language of Atheism, and the Cause of it too; were not this at the bottom, no Man in his Wits could contemn and ridicule the Expectation of Immortality; and yet I may be bold to say, it is a plain Instance of the Foily of those Men, who whilst they repudiate all Title to the Kingdom of Heaven, merely for the present pleasure of Body, and their boasted Tranquillity of Mind, besides the extreme Madness in running such a desperate hazard after Death, they unwittingly deprive themselves here of that very Pleasure and Tranquillity they seek for, there being nothing more certain than this, that Religion itself gives us the greatest Delights and Advantages even in this Life also, tho' there should prove in the Event to be no Resurrection to another: 
* Prov. 3.17.  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. But the truth of our future Existence has had the Attestation of the Learned and Judicious in all Parts of the World. I have elsewhere taken notice of it, and must again inculcate to you, That Religion is somewhat more than a childish unaccountable Fear of any pretended invisible Power, and that the Terrors it strikes us with are vastly different from those Tales about Spectres, which do at some times frighten pusillanimous Minds: those that do arise from our knowledge of having offended the Divine Being, or from the just fear of his Anger and Indignation, are such as do not only disturb some small Pretenders and puny Novices, but do approach even the profoundest Rabbis, or Masters of Atheism, it being well known both from Ancient and Modern Experience, that the very, boldest of them, out of their Debauches and Company, when they chance to be surprised with Solitude or Sickness, are the most suspicious, timorous, and despondent Wretches in the World: and the boasted happy Atheist in the indolence of the Body, and an undisturbed Calm and Serenity of Mind, is altogether as rare a Creature as the Vir Sapiens was amongst the Stoics, whom they often met with in Idea and Description, in Harangues and in Books, but freely owned that he never had or was likely to Exist actually in Nature. Believe me, my good Friend, here is more in this than Prepossession of Fancy or Disease of Imagination; and if you object that had we not been told of these things by designing Men, 
See the Discourse of Rational and Irrational Souls.  we should never have thought on them ourselves; the Answer is ready, who told these designing Men? if they thought of these things, without being told, why may not others do so too? It is manifest enough to every Man, that his Soul, whilst in the Body, is capable to retire itself from Corporeal Images, and to be busy with Ideas of another Nature, which no Corporeal Impression could possibly make; and hence also it is as clear, that our Souls may operate and be capable of Pleasure and Pain when separated from Body. For if the Soul were no more than a Crasis of the Body, it would be capable of no other Distemper than what arises from the Compression or Dilatation of Matter, or from the Obstruction and Turgescency of Humours. Since therefore we find it subject to Maladies, which spring merely from Moral Causes, and which are no more curable by the Prescripts of Physicians, than the Stone or Gout are to be removed by a Lecture in Philosophy, we have sufficient Cause to believe it of an Incorporeal Nature. Farther, The Essences of Things are best known by their Operations, and the best guess we can make of the Nature and Condition of Being's, is from the Quality of their Actions, while therefore by contemplating ourselves, we find that we do elicit Actions, which do exceed the Power of Matter, and the most subtle Motion of Corporeal Particles, we have all imaginable ground to think that we are possessed of a Principle Immaterial as well as Intellectual.  

Vide Interest of Reason in Religion.  He who considers that there is not one perfect Organ in the Humane Body, but the Parallel of it is to be met with in the noblest sort of brute Animals, and yet that there are divers Operations performed by Men, that no Beast whatever is capable of doing the like, must need apprehend that the Rational Soul is not a Corporeal Faculty, nor a Contexture of Material Parts. To prove this, we have already instanced in the Acts of Intellection; viz. 1. The Acts of simple Apprehension. 2. Acts of Judgement. 3. Acts of Ratiocination. 4. Acts of Reflection. 5. Acts of Correcting the Errors and Mistakes of the Imagination. And lastly, Acts of Volition, or those whereby we choose and refuse by a Self-determinating Power, according as things are estimated, remaining exempt from all Coaction and Necessitation by the Influence of any Principle foreign to it. All these are impossible to Matter, because that acts always according to the swing of Irresistible Motion; nor can it be courted or solicited to Rest when under the forcible Impulse of a stronger Movent. So that whatever insensibility you may fancy of a Soul divested of Corporeal Organs, you will experience, that as the Body is unconcerned in any thing but Sensation, there will remain a Power of Exerting those Superior Acts and Faculties which have no relation thereunto, and consequently a Capacity to suffer Pain or Pleasure, the Rewards and Punishments of a well or ill spent Life, for it is not Sense but Reflection that wounds the Conscience: Sense, it's true, may divert the Pain, but can never make it; and when Death puts an end to sensible Diversions, the neverdying Worm may lash without control. In fine, if bad Men were sure to undergo no other Pains or Horrors, and if the good were sure to receive no more Joys or Pleasures till the Resurrection, than proceed out of the Heaven or Hell they carry with them, and from the certain and constant Expectations of another, that might be sufficient, if well considered, to deter Men from Vice, and to encourage them to Righteousness: but the Scriptures intimate more, and plainly inform us, that the Souls of bad Men are immediately upon Death translated to a place of Torment, and the Souls of the Good to a place of Joy and Happiness; whether those Places are what we generally understand by Heaven and Hell, or whether or no the Completion of our Happiness or Misery shall precede the ultimate Judgement, will not certainly be determined till we make the Experiment.  
Thus Sir, having given you my own, together with the more weighty Opinions of other Men, as to the Business of Religion, I hope the Light set up in your Understanding will put you upon Embracing what upon a serious attention to the same you find unquestionable. I am far from insinuating the Necessity of an implicit Faith, or persuading you to shut your Eyes, and leave the rest to your Guide: God Almighty has made you a reasonable Creature, and if you make a right use of that Divine Prerogative, you need not fear a secure Passage into the Harbour of solid Happiness. What pains soever some may take absolutely to exclude Reason from having any thing to do in Divinity, or however lightly they may esteem it, this will be found certain, that we have no surer Pilot when we first set out, to keep us from the Rocks of Atheism on the one side, and from Superstition, Polytheism, and Idolatry on the other: or indeed any other Director to secure us from making Shipwreck of our Faith, than the pure Acts of our unprejudiced Understandings, which I call right Reason.  
A Superficial Knowledge, may raise some unhappy Doubts, and a light smattering, especially in some kinds of Philosophy, may draw us into the danger of Infidelity, with respect to our Immortality: but all this we may be freed from by the Exercise of a true Judgement, and a solid Enquiry in Physics, or after the Nature and true Causes of Things, will with no other difficulty more than serious attention and application help us to dispel those Errors of our Intellects.  
It is not enough what some Men think, that a Man is able to account for some of the Appearances in Nature, by the Aristotelian Doctrine of Qualities and Forms, or the Cartesian of Geometric Principles, and then in a foolish Exultation to cry out Inveni, or boast that there is nothing so abstruse, but will admit of a Mechanic Explanation. To give an Instance, 'Tis not sufficient that out of a Lecture upon the Optics, we explicate the manner of Vision, by saying that 
* See Sir Samuel Morland's Urim of Conscience  the Figure and Colour of a visible Object make the Base of an imaginary Cone, which is composed of a multitude of visual Rays, and instantly conveyed through a lucid Medium to the Superficies of the Beholder's Eye, where a Section of the Apex of that Cone is refracted by the several Waters and Tunics, and the Figure of the said Object, being inverted by the Crystalline Humour, is in the same posture lodged in the Retina, from whence it is conveyed into the common Sensory. Again, It suffices not that in hearing we judge that different Percussions do beget infinite Spheric Figures of Aerial Motions, which every where spread themselves till they meet with some harder Body that makes resistance, which suppose to be the Ear, in the Cavity of which the foresaid Figures of Aerial Motions, suffer several reverberations, and then make a percussion upon the Tympanum or Drum (a nervous and pellucid Membrance of exquisite Sense) and from thence are conveyed into the Brain. However consentaneous these Conjectures may be to the Truth, they are all, I say, too short of Satisfactory or Complete Accounts: there are yet insuperable Difficulties behind, and we must expect perpetual Disputes about the Matter and Modification, both of the visible and audible Species: But admitting these also were fairly decided, that Light, Colours and Images are the same Substance, that the Rays which cause the visible Species, are either certain Particles or Effluvia's darted from a lucid Body, repercussed in their going forth, and reflected variously here and there, according to Gassendus, or that these Particles beaming forth from the same lucid Body, move other Particles of a Nitro-sulphureous Quality implanted in the Air, and as it were by enkindling them render them luminous, and these at length others, and that so a diffusion on every side of Light or Images is propagated by a certain Undulation, which is the more probable Opinion, if we may credit Dr. Willis. Farther, Admitting in the Case of Hearing, that the audible Species or Sonorisick Particles are a kind of Saline little Bodies, after the manner described, or some other way stirred up into act for the production of Sound: in a word, admitting the rest of the Senses, the Touch, the Smell and Taste, and all other Phaenomena relating to the Humane Body, might after some such manmer be explored by the Corpuscular Philosophy; yet all this will not direct us to a knowledge of the Substance and Condition of our own Souls, the Speculations of this Nature may indeed inform us that the Being which exerts such admirable Powers, and judges so tightly of each of these Sensations, must itself be independent both of Matter and Mechanism. How then is it possible for any Man, without a wilful blindness or debauch of his Understanding, when he has made this Enquiry, and satisfied himself in the wonderful and divine Contrivance of Structure in the several Organs destinated for so many Functions: how is it, I say, that this should incline a Man to Atheism, unless, contrary to the Dictates of his own Conscience, he were resolved that way: or how can we conceive a reasonable Creature so strangely degenerate from the rest of Mankind, as to imagine where there can be nothing more conspicuous than the Workmanship of a most powerful and most intelligent Being, that the same at first proceeded either from no Cause at all, or one no better, viz. Chance or Fortune. So that to deal freely, I can do no less than believe, with a Modern Philosopher, That whoever does profess Philosophy, and thinks not rightly of God, may be judged not only to have shaken hands with Religion, but with his Reason also, and that he hath at once put off Philosophy as well as Christianity. The sum of this Argument lies here, That no Man can indeed scarce Reason at all, or to be sure cannot Reason rightly and be Irreligious: On the other hand, to be truly and indeed Religious is to be truly Reasonable: So that to put the Cause upon this Issue, let us examine what it is that Right Reason teaches us, whether it be to do Good or Evil: Let us consider whether it point out unto us a direct and sure way to future Happiness, or engage us in the Paths that lead to Destruction. For if in effect it be Reason that imprints upon our Minds any Notion of Irreligion, or that in any manner inclines us to Vice, we ought undoubtedly to reject it without the least Hesitation: but if on the contrary it appear, that true Reason be the only Foundation both of true Piety and real Virtue, and that any Pretence, either to the one or to the other, not built on Rational Principles, may in truth be no other than the Effect of Superstition or Hypocrisy, th●n certainly 'tis our Duty to use our Reason as well in Matters of Religion as in any thing else. It is this which must direct us in our Search of Holy Scriptures; 'tis this must guide us in our Enquiry after the Founder of the Christian Religion; and when by our Reason we are persuaded of the Authority of the Sacred Writings, and that the Penmen thereof were Supernaturally Inspired, which as is intimated before, we have abundant Reason to believe, we must then let our Faith take place, and not only assent unto those things which we can account for, but even of those also, which tho' not contrary to, are above our Reason, and must be acknowledged to surmount our Apprehension.  
The Belief of a God, of his Providence, and of future Rewards and Punishments, is that Faith which is the true and only Foundation of all Religion, but the Foundation of that Faith lies in the Perception we have of the Truth of those Things, by that general Light or Capacity of discerning which is imparted to all Mankind.  
All the Certainty, saith the pious Father Malebranch, which we can have in Matters of Faith, depends upon that Knowledge which we have by reason of the Existence of a God, and thus we see one inestimable Advantage derived to us by the right use of our Reason, and a powerful Argument in favour of this Opinion, That it is by Reason only we are made capable to lay the first Foundation of all Religion, which is the certain Knowledge of the Existence of the Divine Being.  
If you expect any Definition or Explication of this word Reason, I may answer with a very Ingenious 
* In his Treatise of Humane Reason.  Man, That by Reason, is to be understood that steady, uniform Light that shines in the Minds of all Men; that Divine Touchstone or Test by which all Men are enabled (so far I mean as they are able) to discern the Congruity and Incongruity of Propositions, and thereupon to pronounce them true or false.  
There are indeed different degrees of Clearness in the Intellectual Perception of different Men, occasioned by the different Degrees of Attention in themselves, and the different Representation of Things from without; but the Light by which all things are discerned, is universally one and the same.  
The Uniformity of this Light is the ground of all Intellectual Communication between Man and Man: for if different Men saw always the same things in different Lights, it would be impossible for one Man, by any Representation whatsoever, to raise the same Conceptions in another Man's Mind that he has in his own; and therefore it is that whatever extraordinary Illumination some Men may enjoy, it can only be of authority and useful to themselves; or at most, it can be only so far useful and of authority to others, as those that enjoy it are able to give extraordinary proof of it.  
All Matters of Religion, even as all other Affairs of Humane Life, are to be handled by Men (in reference to one another) in methods conformable to the Universal and Uniform Light of all Mankind.  
By Religion I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God, and the sense and practise of those Duties that result from the Knowledge we have of Him, of ourselves, and of the Relation we stand in to Him, and to our fellow Creatures. The Existence of a God is demonstrable from the Necessity of admitting some first Cause of all Things; whatsoever that Cause be, I call it God: and the Idea that we have of this powerful ●●cing, arises from the Contemplation of those innumerable Perfections that we discern in the Things that are: for he that gave those Perfections unto these Things, must needs have an inexhaustible Fountain of Perfection in Himself. By the Being then of God, I mean the first Principle of all Things, He that made all Things what they are, and endowed them with all their different Powers and Virtues, from whence I conclude him to be a Being absolutely perfect. My own Existence is a Self-evident Principle: No Reflection can give unto a Philosopher any greater Assurance of his own Existence, than the intimate Persuasion that every Ploughman has of his without Study or Meditation. Now the Idea that Men have of themselves is twofold, Material and Immaterial: The Material part of Man is his Body, which is evidently subject to the general Laws of Matter, and liable to all the Mutations that are incident to other Material Being's. The Immaterial part is his Mind, which discovers itself in his Capacity of Thinking and Reasoning: for Thought exceeds the power of Matter, that therefore which thinks, viz. the Mind or Soul of Man, is not material, and by consequence not subject to the Laws of Matter, nor liable to the Mutations that are incident to Matter, but capable of a Subsistence, notwithstanding any Alteration or Dissolution that shall happen to the parts of his Body.  
This Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, has been understood and believed by the generality of Heathen Philosophers in consequence of their own Reflections and Ratiocinations, long before the Evidence that has been since given of it unto Mankind by the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: And therefore the Belief that the ancient Philosophers had of the Soul's Immortality, is an undeniable proof that it is a Notion discoverable by the Light of Nature, because they who had no other Light could not otherways have discovered it.  
The Relation that Men stand in towards one another, is chiefly observable in the mutual Necessity that all Men have of one another's Assistance and Succour; it being hardly possible for any Man to subsist at all, but absolutely impossible to subsist comfortably without borrowing Help from others.  
These are the Circumstances in which Mankind is born into the World, and we are placed in these Circumstances by God Almighty, the Universal Cause and Principle of all Things: so that whatsoever we are led unto by the Necessity of these Circumstances, is in effect a Duty imposed on us by the Eternal and Unalterable Law of God: towards whom we stand first related as to a Benefactor, from whom we have received our Being, together with our present Enjoyments, and our Capacity of any farther Enjoyment whatsoever. Next as to a Lawgiver or Governor, by whom we are obliged to the observance of certain Rules or Ordinances unto which he has subjected us.  
If we consider singly the Idea that we have of our own Being, the Rule that Results from thence for our Conduct, is, That we must not degenerate from the Dignity of our Nature, but must therefore bridle and govern all the Appetites and Passions that arise from our Corporeal Constitutions, according to the genuine Dictates of those nobler Faculties of Ratiocination and Judgement wherewith our Maker has endowed our Minds. If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards one another, the Law of God obliges us indespensably to Truth, Equity, Charity, Benevolence, and to every thing which tends to the Settlement of Societies, or to the general Welfare of Mankind; for every particular Man's greatest Interest being involved in the Interest of the whole, the Observance of such Things, as tend to the general Good, is every particular Man's Duty, and is not to be transgressed for the sake of any lesser or private Advantage.  
If we consider the Relation that we stand in towards God, his Law requires our Acknowledgement, Gratitude, Love, Dependence, Submission, or in one word, our humblest Adoration of his Infinite Perfections. The Observance of these Rules is a Duty Incumbent upon Mankind by the said Law of God; the breach of any of them is a breach of God's Law, an Offence against the Lawmaker, or a Sin. Laws are of no vigour unless enforced by Rewards and Punishments, which are therefore to be proportioned to the Nature and Degree of the Observance and Transgression of the Laws. The Observance and Transgression of God's Laws by M●n (whose Bodily Actions depend upon the inward Motions of his Mind) consist not in any Machinal Acts of the Body, but in the voluntary Motions and Intentions of the Mind; and therefore the Rewards or Punishments of such Observance and Transgression are chiefly to be conferred or inflicted upon the Mind or Soul of Man, and that after the full Course of his Actions, either good or bad, is accomplished, which is to say, in the future state of the Soul after its Separation from the Body.  
In the Belief and Sense of these general Truths, and in the Practice of the Duties that result from them, according to their full Extent and Tendency, consists all true Religion: Whatsoever else is introduced into any Religion, either National or Practical, I say, whatever does not necessarily flow from some of these Branches, or tend to enforce the Observance of them, is no essential part of true Religion, but rather the product of Design and Folly.  
Every Man than is answerable unto God, the Supreme Lawgiver, for his own particular Conduct in every Branch of these Duties, as they relate either to God, to his Neighbour, or to himself.  
This I take to be the pure Language of Impartial Reason, unassisted by Revelation; and they seem indeed to be the most Natural Inferences which can be drawn from truly Rational Propositions: whatever false Deductions or Conclusions some men's false Judgements have invented for the support of their wretched Cause, the Fallacy is soon detected, and a stricter Inquisition will soon lay open the grand Absurdities of their mischievous Opinions. But truly 'tis plain enough, tho' some Men may be reputed a sort of Reasoning Atheists, yet the much greater part of them are Infidels by Imitation, and so far from being able to oppose the Truth of the Divine Being, the Certainty of Revealed Religion, or their own Immortality, that they scarce ever gave themselves time to consider seriously the meaning of the Words. These have no quarrel with Religion on the Account of its Truths, not being firmly enough established; but their Pique proceeds from hence, that they fear it will lay them under a Necessity of putting a Check to their Exorbitant Desires, and hinder them in the Pursuit of their Vicious Inclinations.  
To Conclude, If after all that can be said, however Rational or true, you will notwithstanding go about to persuade yourself that all is but a mere Dream or Imposture, that there is no such Excellent Being as is supposed to have Created and to Preserve us, 
See Bently's first Serm. at Mr. boil's Lecture.  but that all about us is dark, senseless Matter, driven on by the blind Impulse of Fatality, that Men at first sprung up out of the Slime of the Earth of their own accord, and that all their Thoughts, and the whole of what they call Soul, are only various Action and Repercussion of small Particles of Matter kept a while moving by some Mechanism or Clockwork, which finally ceases and perishes by Death. If contrary to the Evidence in your own Understanding, you can listen with Complacency to these Horrid Suggestions, if you can willingly and with Joy let go your Hopes of another Life, and entertain the Thoughts of Perdition with Triumph and Exultation: If you can glory in debasing and villanising the rest of Mandind to the Condition of Brute Beasts, and permit your Folly to baffle all Arguments, to be proof against the clearest or most perspicuous Demonstration: what would you have us think better or more favourably than this, that you resolve to carry your Atheism with you to the Grave, and that the Infernal Horror and Despair must be alone sufficient to Rectify your Mistake, or to Convince you of your Error.  
I have nothing more in this, but to intimate my Request to you, that you would consider what has been said, with that Attention which becomes the Subject; and if you can object nothing against the Fundamental Parts of the Discourse, let not the Arguments, here borrowed, by any means suffer from any disorderly Management committed by  
London, Febr. 20. 1691. Yours, etc.    

The Appendix. Concerning the Corruption of Humane Nature, and the Necessity of Divine Grace, etc. To Mr.—  
THere remains, my Friend, as a necessary Supplement to what has been so lately delivered, that we make a short Enquiry into the Nature of the Divine Grace; I mean, that we consider whether or no there is an absolute Necessity of any Extraordinary or Supernatural Accession of Aid or Assistance to the Security and Confirmation of our Faith and Practice, or if with Pelagius, we are to conceive ourselves able, by the natural Powers of our own Souls, or the free Exertion of our Rational Faculties (exclusive of this extraordinary Co-operation) to obtain the same, and that Grace (according to this Heretical Opinion) consists only in the free Pardon of our Sins through the Mediator, and the Doctrine and Persuasions only to a Holy Life, for the time to come, with God's ordinary Concurrence.  
If the former of these Opinions be true, that there is somewhat necessary which is independent on the Powers of our own Souls, we may be able to satisfy ourselves, in that it is possible to give credit to the Truths of Religion, and yet at the same time to neglect their Practice; but if the latter be the most consonant to the Truth, it will be then, as I imagine, scarce conceivable that any Man, who is satisfied in the Verity of Religion, should at the same time be negligent or remiss in the performance of what his Faith requires, or deflect out of the Paths which he knows will conduct him to his greatest Happiness. At this rate, we must think every Man who believes does practice accordingly, and that whatever Verbal Confessions we may meet with of their Creeds, yet if they act not steadily in conformity to the same, we are to suppose there is a certain Diffidence intermixed with their Faith, a sort of Disbelief, or at the least, a distrust of the Certainty of Religious Truths, which they think may be no more than empty Notions.  
But this Opinion seems so directly opposite both to right Reason and the Experience of Mankind, that to admit it we must Exclude the whole Creation from any just Claim to future Happiness, and take for granted that there never was such a Thing as a Religious Man, or a true Believer in the World. On the contrary, as we have no reason to question, but that there have been vast numbers, both of Men and Women, who have been as convincingly satisfied of the Truth of the Supreme Being, and their Soul's Incorruptibility, as of any thing whatever: so may we safely assert, that there never was any one of these, who has not at certain times been an actual Transgresor, or a Trespasser against his Faith. And farther, that in whatever State of Purity the first Man was created, yet since the Lapse or Degeneracy of Humane Nature from its Primitive Perfection, there is no Man able, without the Concurrence of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Divinium aliquid we are treating of, to live in a real Contempt of the present World, or to disregard its manifold Temptations.  
It is besides my Intention to make a scrutinous Enquiry, How the first Man came to fall from Original Righteousness, or how this Degeneracy comes to be derived from him to his Posterity. It seems hard indeed to persuade ourselves that the Rational Soul is immediately contaminated with this Sin, but is so necessarily, so soon as we become capable of sinning: so that according to a right Notion of the Matter, the Damage we have sustained proceeds from our first Parents unhappy Forfeiture of Immortality; since which it is impossible, without Divine Assistance, for Mankind, thus propagated in the constant Methods of Nature, to secure themselves from Falling, and from rendering themselves obnoxious to a Transgression of the Laws of God.  
I know the Atheist does here wonderfully pride himself, in having found out an Objection impossible to be resolved by our finite Understandings: For, saith he, if the Grace of God be sufficient for all Men, and that the Co-operation of Man's Will to sufficient Grace, is to be conceived the Cause of his Election, why did not God so constitute Mankind, as that all should Cooperate to this sufficient Grace, and consequently be Elected to Everlasting Bliss? To this I say, when they have met with no other Reply, than that s●ch was God's Eternal Will, they presently attack the Divine Being, and in their own Conceits immediately displace him from his Throne and Government.  
'Tis here likewise that the Deist struts and exalts the lucky hit of his Fancy, 
See the Oracles of Reason, p. 89.  thinking himself more knowing than the whole World besides, in that he has now found out the Juggle, as he calls it, of Christianity. 'Tis first, saith he, unnecessary that there should be a Mediator, the Mercy of God being sufficient for his Justice. 2dly, God must appoint this Mediator, and so was reconciled to the World before. And 3dly, a Mediator derogates from God's Infinite Mercy equally, as an Image does from his Spirituality. And thus the mighty Monster lays his Plot against the Redemption of Mankind, looks big upon the Contrivance, and doubts not but with these three strokes he does the Christian's Business. His next Onset is upon our Immortality, or Separate Existence of the Soul, which he gradually lessens by insinuating that Brutes are ejusdem Rationis Participantes, or endowed with the same Reason as Man, tho' not altogether in the same degree. Indeed 'tis great pity that those who are debasing Mankind at this ridiculous rate, should be looked upon otherwise than the more sensible Beasts, or be defined otherwise than as a kind of two legged Animals without Feathers. Thei● last Assault is against Heaven itself, or the Divine Being, whom they first seek to discredit by the multitude of anomalous Accidents which they say could never come to pass if an Intelligent Being were the Director; their Conclusion (tho' perhaps not so plain) is this, that we need believe nothing but what we ourselves are able to account for, which in other words is to believe our own Understandings to be infinite, and that is to believe we are so many Gods ourselves.  
Whoever looks upon our Modern Deism any otherwise than disguised Atheism, will find himself deceived: for my own part I never yet heard of any one of them that could forbear, at one time or other, giving us to understand that he was the modester sort of Infidel; and whatever advantage it may be to their Principles, this is certain, that there is scarce a Profane, Irreligious Person or Libertine about the Town, who pretends not to be a very devout Deist.  
As to their wild Rave against the Christian Religion, we have no occasion to reply other ways than this; That had Christianity been all transacted behind the Curtain, or in the Clouds; had its Founder been as invisible as the King of the Pharies; or were the History of Christ no better attested than those of the Mythologists, who talk of once upon a time, and the Land of Utopia, we should then, I say, have no small grounds for our Hesitation: but since we find it otherwise, and that all was acted openly at Noonday, before the Face of the Multitude; since not only the Names of Christ and his Apostles, but their Lives and stupendious Actions, together with a Narrative of their Sufferings and Deaths, are delivered to us by as undoubted Testimony as it is possible for any other Matters of Fact to be, and stand upon perpetual Record: their Adversaries will be looked upon as a brainsick People, and no Man in his Wits will think this Religion soiled, till it is unquestionably proved, that there never were such Persons on the Earth as our Saviour and his Disciples; or that they never performed those works of which it is reported they were the Authors; till they can do this, it signifies nothing at all that they cannot reconcile the want of a Mediator, or the Mystery of Man's Redemption by the Sufferings of Christ, to their own crack-brained Fancies, or to their own Notions of the Divine Attributes. 'Tis generally observed, that by an immoderate Curiosity in searching after the Divine Arcana, instead of enlightening others, Men do but stagger and confound themselves; which if they rightly considered the certain Limits of their own Capacities, they might with less difficulty be dehorted from this dangerous Extravagance, and calmly acquiesce in the revealed Will of God. But to return to the present Corruption of our Natures, and the Necessity of Divine Assistance to concur with our own Natural Power, we have an intelligible account of the former in one of the Articles of the Church of England, where it is said that Sin, viz. Original, is the Fault and Corruption of the Nature of every Man that naturally is engendered of the Offspring of Adam; whereby Man is far removed from his first Righteousness, and is of his own Nature inclined to evil: so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit, and in every Person born into this world, deserveth the Divine Indignation; and this Natural Infection doth remain even in them that are Regenerate, whereby the Lust of the Flesh, called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which some expound the Wisdom, some the Affection, some Sensuality, others the desire of the Flesh, is not subject to the Law of God.  
The Learned Orator Dr. 
* In his Serm. on Phil. 3.18.  Allestry speaks to this purpose upon this Argument: Our Saviour (saith he) suffered on the Tree, that we might be renewed into that Constitution, which the Tree of Knowledge did disorder. Before Man eat of that, his lower Soul was in perfect Subordination to his Mind, and every Motion of his Appetite did attend the Dictates of his Reason, and obey them with that resignation or ready willingness, with which our outward Faculties do execute the Will's Commands: then any thing, however grateful to the Senses, was no otherwise desired than a● it served to the regular and proper ends and uses of his making: there was a rational harmony in the tendencies of all his parts, and that directed and modulated by the Rules and Hand of God that made them; in fine th●●, Grace was Nature, and Virtue Constitution.  
Now to reduce us to this state, as near as possible, is the Business of Religion; but this it can in no degree effect, 
See the Discourse of Rational and Irrational Souls, by M.S.  but as it does again establish the Subordination of the Sensual to the reasonable part within us: that is, till by denying Satisfaction to the Appetite (which is now irregular and disorderly in its desires) we have taught it how to want them, and to be content without them, and by that means have subdued its Inclinations.  
According to this great Man, the Corruption of our Nature does not lie in the Mind, but only in the lower Soul; and Regeneration is no more than the reducing that lower Soul to obedience to its superior, the Mind: but because this plain Point has been made a mighty Mystery by some People, I shall yet farther explain it. When Man by his Fall had incurred the Penalty of Death, and became a Mortal Creature, he thereby ushered in Diseases and Infirmities, the Forerunners of Death and Dissolution, and therefore propagated unequal Mixtures and Constitutions, which naturally, according to the prevailing part of the Mixture, raises powerful and pressing Lusts and Passions, which not only make violent and repeated storms upon Reason, but they also interrupt her Operations in other Duties, by the frequent touches of the Animal Spirits, upon that Image in the Brain of the Beloved Action, and intrudes it among our Thoughts whether we will or no: and for this cause (tho' in other things we are reasoning Men) when the Tender is touched, we can scarce understand a plain Conclusion from plain Premises; till the gratifying of the prevailing Lusts has wasted many of our sensible Spirits, and then Reason freed from Violence puts on Shame and Remorse for her Defeat: but no sooner is Nature recruited than Reason is pressed to forget her Repentance. And this is the best of our degenerate Condition: for in most Men, either through the want, or the abundance, or irregular Motions of the Animal Spirits, the reasoning Faculty is generally obstructed, and they reason weakly in every thing: nay, sometimes this power is quite blocked up, and some Men become distracted, others mere Changelings. But besides that, in the best of us the Reasoning Power is often obstructed, and has forcible Inclinations to deal with: the work of Reason in general, is by the first Apostasy abundantly increased: She must maintain Patience and Submission under Diseases, Pains, Infirmities, Poverty, Loss of Parents, Husbands, Children and Friends: She must maintain Charity and Humility in the Rich and Wise, command Visits to the Sick, Assistance to the Prisoner, Fatherless and Widows: but in the State of Innocence there were no Objects for the Exercise of these and many more Virtues, nor no Provocations to the contrary Vices: all these are the Natural Consequences of Dust thou art, and to Dust thou shalt return; and of that Curse which was the Consequence of Man's Transgression. It is here that we see the Reason why the first Covenant was peremptory, The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, because Man was blessed with an ability to keep his Covenant with God: but through the greatness of Mercy in the Second, we are promised the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and when we fall (as the best of us must with our utmost care) God is pleased to accept of our Repentance, knowing it impossible for Man, under his present Circumstances, and the manner of his Multiplication, to keep himself free from Sin. To be short, in the State of Innocence Constitutions were regular, and therefore Reason was strong and uninterrupted in her Operations, and her Work was short and easy; but by the Apostasy they became irregular, the strength of Reason was impaired, her Operations interrupted, and variety of hard Works, which were not in the primitive State, are now become our Reasonable Service.  
I must confess myself better pleased with this account, than many others I have met with, and chiefly for its placing the Corruption of our Nature in the sensitive or inferior Soul: for notwithstanding Cartes and his Followers have disallowed the Division, and will by no means comply that there should be any more than one and the same Soul, and that those Intestine Conflicts between the Flesh and Spirit, which we do all at sometimes experience, do arise only from a determination of the Spirits by the Will one way, and from another determination of them by the Corporeal Appetite, yet the Explanation elsewhere given, as it is more consistent with holy Writ, so it is likewise with the Belief of the greater number of Learned Men, who have solidly established this Doctrine of a Duality of Souls in every individual Man. But leaving this, we must all grant him to be a Creature endowed with Reason, and supposing him to be such, it will be now worth the Enquiry how it comes to pass that he should be so very incident to Failings, and to act even against the clearest and most demonstrative Reason. There have been several Attempts made to explain this Matter, by several Men: some of which will have the Cause to proceed from certain Errors or Mistakes in Judgement, for, say they, since it is impossible that Man, as he is endowed with Reason, should appetere Malum, qua Malum, whatever he makes choice of, tho' in itself never so great an Evil, must be offered to his Appetite under the Disguise of some certain good of which he believes himself to stand in need: and thus, through the want of due Consideration, or Errors of our Understanding, the Bonum apparens takes place of the Bonum real; and thus likewise it happens that the Bonum vicinum puts in before the Bonum remotum.  
The Understanding, Mr. Lock on the other side is of opinion, that it is neither an appearing Good, nor yet the greatest positive Good, but always some pressing and prevailing Uneasiness that Influences our Action's. It seems (saith 
* Lock's Essay of Humane Understanding.  he) so established and settled a Maxim by the general Consent of Mankind, that Good, or the greater Good determines our Wills: that I do not at all wonder, that when I first published my Thoughts upon this Subject, I took it for granted: and I imagine, that by a great many I shall be thought more excusable for having then done so, than that now I have ventured to recede from so received an Opinion, but yet upon a stricter Enquiry I am forced to conclude, that Good, even the greatest Good, tho' apprehended and acknowledged to be so, does not determine the Will, until our desire proportionally raised to it, makes us uneasy in the want of it.  
Convince a Man never so much, that Plenty has its Advantages above Poverty; make him see and own that the handsome Conveniencies of Life are better than nasty Penury; yet as long as he is content with the latter, and finds no uneasiness in it, he moves not, his Will is never determined to any Action that shall bring him out of it. Let a Man be never so well persuaded of the Advantages of Virtue, that it is as necessary to him who has any great aims in this World, or Hopes in the next, as Food to Life; yet, till he hungers and thirsts after Righteousness, till he feels an uneasiness in the want of it, his Will is not determined to any Action in pursuit of this confessed greater Good, but any other uneasiness he feels in himself, shall take place, and carry his Will to other Actions. Let the Drunkard see that his Health decays, his Estate wastes, Discredit and Diseases, and the want of all things, even of his beloved Drink, attends him in the Course he follows; yet the Returns of Uneasiness to miss his Companions, the habitual thirst after his Cups at the usual time, drives him to the Tavern, tho' he hath in his view the loss of Health and Plenty, and perhaps of the Joys of another Life: the least of which is no inconsiderable Good, but such as he confesses is far greater than the tickling his Palate with a Glass of Wine, or the idle Chat of a soaking Club. 'Tis not for want of viewing the greater Good, for he sees and acknowledges it, and in the Intervals of his drinking Hours, will take Resolutions to pursue the greater Good: but when the Uneasiness to miss his accustomed Delight returns, the greater acknowledged Good loseth its hold, and the present Uneasiness determines the Will to the accustomed Action, which thereby gets stronger footing to prevail again the next occasion: tho' he at the same time make secret Promises to himself, that he will do so no more: this is the last time he will act against the attainment of these greater Goods: And thus be it from time to time in the state of that unhappy Complainer, Video Meliora, proboque, Deteriora sequor; which Sentence, allowed true, and made good by constant Experience, may this, and possibly no other way, be made easily intelligible.  
If we inquire now into the Reason, of what Experience makes so evident in fact, and examine why 'tis Uneasiness alone operates on the Will, and determines it in its Choice, we shall find that we being capable but of one determination of the Will to one action at once, the present uneasiness that we are under, does naturally determine the Will in order to that Happiness we all aim at in all our actions; forasmuch as whilst we are under any Uneasiness, we cannot apprehend ourselves happy, or in the way to it. Pain and Uneasiness being by every one concluded and felt to be inconsistent with Happiness, spoiling the relish even of those good things we have: a little Pain serving to mar all the Pleasure we rejoiced in, and therefore that which of course determines the Choice of our Will to the next Action, will always be the removing of Pain as long as we have any left, as the first and necessary step towards Happiness. Another Reason why it is uneasiness alone determines the Will, may be th●●, because that alone is present, and 'tis against the nature of things, that what is absent should operate where it is not. I know it may be said that absent Good may, by Contemplation, be brought home to the Mind, and made present; the Idea indeed may be in the Mind, and viewed as present there, but nothing will be in the Mind as a present good, able to counterbalance the removal of any Uneasiness we are under, till it raises our Desire, and the Uneasiness of that has the prevalency in determining the Will. Till then, the Idea in the Mind, of whatever Good is there only like other Ideas, the Object of bare unactive Speculation, but operates not on the Will, nor sets us on Work, the Reason whereof I shall show presently.  
How many are to be found that have had lively Representations set before their Minds, of the unspeakable Joys of Heaven; which they acknowledge both possible and probable too, who yet would be content to take up with their Happiness here, and so the prevailing Uneasiness of their Desires, let loose after the Enjoyments of this Life, take their turns in determining their Wills, and all that while they take not one step, are not one jot moved towards the good things of another Life, considered as never so great. Were the Will determined by the view of Good, as it appears in Contemplation greater or less to the Understanding, which is the state of all absent Good, and that which in the received Opinion the Will is supposed to move to, and to be moved by: I do not see how it could ever get loose from the infinite Eternal Joys of Heaven, once proposed and considered as possible; for all absent Good, by which alone barely proposed and coming in view, the Will is thought to be determined, and so to set us on Action, being only possible, but not infallibly certain: 'tis unavoidable that the infinitely greater possible Good should regularly and constantly determine the Will in all the successive Actions it directs; and then we should keep constantly and steadily in our course towards Heaven, without ever-standing still, or directing our Actions to any other end: the Eternal Condition of a future State infinitely outweighing the Expectation of Riches or Honours, or any other Worldly Pleasures we can propose to ourselves, tho' we should grant these the more probable to be attained; for nothing future as yet in possession, and so the Expectation even of these may deceive us: if it were so that the greater Good in view determines the Will, so great a Good once proposed cannot but seize the Will, and hold it fast to the Pursuit of this infinitely greatest Good, without ever letting it go again; for the Will having a power over and directing the Thoughts, as well as other Actions, will hold the Contemplation of the Mind fixed to that Good. This would be the state of the Mind and regular tendency of the Will in all its determinations, were it determined by that which is considered and in view the greater Good: but that it is not so, is visible in Experience, the infinitely greatest confessed Good being often neglected to satisfy the successive uneasiness of our Desires, pursuing trifles. But tho' the greatest allowed, even everlasting unspeakable Good, which has sometimes moved and affected the Mind, does not steadfastly hold the Will; yet we see any very great and prevailing Uneasiness, having once laid hold on the Will, lets it not go, by which we may be convinced what it is determines the Will: thus any vehement Pain of the Body, the ungovernable Passion of a Man violently in Love, or the impatient Desire of Revenge keeps the Will steady and intent; and the Will thus determined, never lets the Understanding lay by the Object, but all the Thoughts of the Mind and Powers of the Body are uninterruptedly employed that way, by the determination of the Will influenced by that topping Uneasiness, as long as it lasts; whereby it seems to me evident that the Will or Power of Setting us upon one Action in preference to all other, is determined in u● by Uneasiness, and whether this be not so, I desire every one to observe in himself.  
Thus far, that great Master of Humane Understanding, and truly if we behold Man as merely in a state of Nature, on every side surrounded with sensible Objects, he seems to have well characterised our miserable Condition. It is something extraneous to our own Power and Faculties, that must help us to suppress those inordinate Desires which occasion this Uneasiness; 'tis that which must heighten in us a desire of a more durable Happiness, and Content, and render us dissatisfied till we have conquered our unruly Appetites, and brought them into subjection to the Will of Him who made us. It is neither a bare knowledge of the ill Tendency of our Designs or Actions, 'tis neither want of Consideration nor Deliberation neither, but the overlooking the Necessity of a Supernatural Concurrence, a disregard to the Divine Grace, and a total Dependence upon the Powers of our own Souls, that principally occasions our repeated Failings, even against our clearest Knowledge and Intentions of doing otherwise. A due Reflection and deliberate Attention to what we are about to act, will, I grant, be very serviceable to suspend the Execution of our Designs for some little time, and to keep our Minds, as it were, in Aequilibrio: but if we are remiss in seeking for Additional Strength beyond our own, or if we depend upon our own Sufficiency, 'tis a very great Chance but our Sensations will over-set us, and the Impetuosity of our Passions prevail upon us. We may set ourselves upon a Contemplation of those solid Truths, which present themselves to our most serious and abstracted Speculations, but our sensible Ideas are so continually crowding in upon us, and fill up so great a part of our Minds, by the Sensations they excite, which are always present to us, that it is but seldom that we finish our Meditations without some sensible Interruption: or if we do, it is not long before some pressing and importunate Desire of Sense intercepts the Light of our Understanding, and we are brought into a slavish Vassalage, by the gratifying its Desires; so that however light we make of it, or how much soever we contemn it, there is nothing can secure us in the Prosecution of our greatest Good or Happiness, but a just regard to, and a continued Consultation with the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But for the better establishment of this necessary Truth, I shall insert some of the Sentiments of the Devout Malebranch, who in a Discourse of the great Advantages our Sensations have over the pure Ideas of the Mind, expresses himself as follows.  
It seemeth Evident that our Knowledge consists only in a clear view of the Relations that things have to one another: 
Maleb. de Verit. inquirend.  therefore when it happens, as in difficult questions, that the Mind must see at one view a great number of Relations, which two or more things have amongst themselves, it is evident also, that if it has not considered these things with much attention, and only knows them confusedly, it will be impossible for it to perceive distinctly their Relations, and consequently to form a solid Judgement of them. One of the chief Causes then of a want of Application of Mind to abstracted Truths, ●s that we see them at a distance, and things which are nearer are continually represented to our Minds. A great Attention of Mind approaches, if I may so say, to the Ideas of Objects, with which it is affected: but it often happens, that when we are attentive upon Metaphysical Speculations, we are diverted from them, because some Sensation comes upon the Soul, which is nearer to it than those Ideas: the least Pain or Pleasure is sufficient to effect this: the reason of it is Pain and Pleasure, and generally all Sensations, are within the Soul itself, they modify and affect it much nearer than the simple Ideas of Objects of pure Intellection, which, tho' present to the Mind, do not modify it. Thus the Soul being on the one hand very narrow, and on the other not being able to hinder Pain, Pleasure, and other Sensations, its capacity is filled with them, and it cannot at the same time be sensible of any thing, and think freely of all other things of which it cannot be sensible. The buzzing of a Fly, or some other little noise (supposing it to be communicated even to the chief part of the Brain, so that the Soul perceives it) is capable, notwithstanding all our Efforts to the contrary, of hindering us from considering abstracted and elevated Truths; because all abstracted Ideas do not modify the Soul, tho' all Sensations do. It is this which causes a Stupidity and Dulness of Mind, in respect of the great Truths of Christian Morality: Hence it is that Men only know them after a speculative and unfruitful manner, without the Grace of Jesus Christ.  
The whole World, I may say, knows that there is a God, that he must be adored or worshipped, but who is it that serves and worships him without Grace? which makes us taste a sweetness and pleasure in all our Duties. There are very few who are not sensible of the Emptiness and Instability of the Goods of this World, and who even are not touched with an abstracted and always with a very certain and evident Conviction that they deserve not our Application and Concern; but where are those that practically despise these Goods, and who are not anxious and careful to obtain them? 'Tis those only who perceive some bitterness and disgust in their Enjoyment, or else by the Grace of God are made sensible of a Spiritual Good, by an inward Delight which God hath joined to them, who overcome the impressions of their Senses, and the Efforts of Concupiscence. The bare Contemplation of the Mind does not therefore make us ever resist these Efforts as we ought to do, unless an internal Motion of the Heart does also second it. It is this Light of the Mind only which is, as some say, a sufficient Grace, enabling us to condemn ourselves, informing us of our own Weakness, and that we ought to have recourse by Prayer to Him, who is our Power. This inward Sentiment of Heart is a lively Grace, which operates; 'tis this which affects and fills us, which persuades the Hearts of Men, and without which there are none of them can think heartily.  
All the most constant Truths of Morality lie hid in the secret Recesses and Windings of the Mind, and so long as they stay there, are barren and without any Power: since the Soul does not taste them, but the Pleasures of the Senses are nearer the Soul, and it being impossible that it should not be sensible, and love its Pleasure with a natural Love, (for one may hate Pleasure with a hatred of Choice) its impossible to be freed from the World, and shake off the Charms of its Senses by its own Power, because a Love of Choice cannot long refrain from conforming to a Natural Love.  
I deny not that the Righteous, whose heart hath been livelily turned towards God by prepossessed Delights, cannot without this particular Grace, do some deserving Actions, and resist the Motions of Concupiscence. There are some that are generous and constant in the Law of God, by the Power of their Faith, by an assiduous privation of sensible things, and by a Contempt and Disgust of all temptations. There are some who act for the most part without tasting preventing and unthought of Pleasure, the only Joy which they find in acting piously, is the Pleasure alone they are sensible of; and this Pleasure is sufficient to stay them, in that Estate, and to confirm the disposition of their Heart.  
Those who begin their Conversion have commonly need of a prepossessed and an indiliberate Pleasure, to free them from their sensible Goods to which they are united by other preventing and indeliberate Pleasures. Sadness and Remorse of Conscience is not enough, and they do not yet taste any Joy: But the Just can live by Faith, and in Want: and it is even in this Condition that they deserve more, because Men being reasonable, God will be loved by them with a Love of Choice, rather than with a Love of Instinct, or an indeliberate Love, like that by which they love sensible things, without knowing them to be good otherwise than by the Pleasure which they receive from them. However, the greatest part of Men have little Faith, and being continually led to taste Pleasure, they cannot long preserve their Elective Love for God against a Natural Love for sensible Goods, if their delight in the Divine Grace does not uphold them against the Efforts of Pleasure; for it is this delight that both begets, preserves and increases Charity as sensible Pleasures do Desire.  
It is plain from what has been said, That Men being never without some Passion, or agreeable or disagreeable Sensations, much of the Capacity and Extension of their Minds is taken up with them, and when they are willing to employ the rest of their Capacity to examine some Truth, they are often diverted by some new Sensation, or by a Disgust which they find in this Exercise, and by an inconstancy of the Will, which agitates and runs the Mind from one Object to another, so that unless they have accustomed themselves to overcome these Oppositions from their Youth, as I have elsewhere explained, they will at last be incapable of penetrating into any thing that is a little difficult, or which requires a little Application.  
The Operation of Divine Grace, upon the Souls of those who are qualified for its Reception, is so invisible, and so insensibly communicated, that the Irreligious and Profane have hence taken an occasion to ridicule and contemn it, and as far as lies in their Power to explode the very Notion out of the World. These will allow of no other Grace than the force of certain Habits, by which Men suffer themselves to be governed, and which are for the most part the Result of their Education. We must own indeed that the Efficacy of this Grace, above the Prevalency of Habits, however deeply radicated or woven into the Constitution, or the Difference between one and the other, is certainly known by none but the Regenerate Man: Those who are never so intimately acquainted with the Nature and Powers of the Mind, know how the Vestigia of Sensible Objects come to be impressed and drawn out upon the Brain, or after what manner, not only Imagination, but the pure Acts of the Understanding are performed: Those, I say, who know all this by the clearest Ideas, together with the whole Process of the common Mode of Natural Understanding, can at best but guess, and that very faintly, at this Divine Influence, which must cooperate even with such Persons, whose Habits of Goodness are as deeply rooted as possible, if they receive a solid Pleasure and Satisfaction in its Practice.  
Mere Habits of Moral Goodness, may be in many respects, very serviceable, and an occasion of securing, us from an limitation of the Practices of Wicked Men; from being at all times overpowered by the Storms and Tempests raised in our own Breasts: They may keep us from being extremely injured by the Precepts of such, by whose evil Communication our Manners would be corrupted, and our Minds debauched; They may serve to render us somewhat the more impregnable, and better fortified against the treacherous Assaults of those, who endeavour to frame and model us into the same temper with themselves. In a word, they may place us in a State of some little Security, against these and the like Adversaries ready to b●set us, but they will never be able of themselves to give us any sensible fruition of the Divine Goodness, or to crown our Desites with an Eternal Felicity.  
Now if true Piety be an empty and a useless Sound, if neither that nor the Divine Grace have any other. Being in the World than what proceeds from a contracted or long continued Habit: if Conversion of the Heart to God, Contrition for past Offences, if Renovation or Regeneration have no better Ground for their Support and Truth, than merely natural Habit, how come● it to pass that some Men; who have been throughly hardened in Iniquity, by the force of an obdurate habit of Impiety, should be at some times so sensibly touch with a sudden Horror, as presently to awaken out of their Dreams of Carnal Security, and by a refulgent Ray of the Divine Light, to have their Souls so strangely illuminated, as that they have often found themselves, even contrary to their own natural Inclinations, put upon impeaching their formerly beloved Lusts and darling Satisfactions, and also upon an open Confession of their desperate Madness, in having so long pursued them. The Instances of this Nature are very numerous, some of them I have already mentioned, and more might be here inserted if I thought it necessary, not only of those whose Understandings being weak or shallow, we might believe imposed on; but even of the most acute and profound Desperadoes in all sorts of Villainy, Men who have undauntedly bid open Defiance to Heaven, and admired how the silly World should be frighted with that Childish Whim (as they have termed it) of their Immortality: But leaving these, I shall take notice, that as on the one hand there are some who will allow of no Grace at all, so on the other we find those, who reckon every several Virtue to be a distinct Grace; thus there must be a Grace of Temperance, a Grace of Chastity, a Grace of Patience, a Grace of Charity; and so in like manner, there is nothing more common than to hear them talking of Restraining Grace, Preventing Grace, Saving Grace, Renewing Grace, Persevering Grace, Regenerating Grace; as if these were so many several Graces, and not one and the same Grace of God. Thus others of them will have the Divine Light▪ the Spirit of God, the Grace of God, and the Grace of Jesus Christ, to differ essentially; which improper ways of speaking, have, for want of Explanation, been the occasion of lessening and obscuring the Fundamental Notion, as well as of Contempt to the profane Jesters at all things S●c●ed.  
I remember sometime since, before I made my first Visit to the Reverend Dr. H— k, I sent him a long Epistle containing my own Sentiments of Divine Matters; and desired him to inform me wherein he dissented. There were some particular Queries therein relating to this Subject last mentioned, which, as I find them in the Copy of my Letter, I shall here Transcribe.  
Query 1. Whether there be any thing essential to Salvation, but a holy or good Life, or a Conscience kept without Offence towards God and Man. Granting this, 2dly, Whether it is not possible for this happy Man to be found under any Christian Communion. 3dly, Whether this State of true Felicity and content is to be attained by any surer Method than that of a due attendance upon the Divine Monitor which is planted in our Souls, I mean the Divine resplendent Light of the Archetipal World, as explicated by Father Malebranch, and after him by Mr. Norris: for however inconsiderate Men may cavil at the Notion as a Principle of Q—sm, I am satisfied we do all receive a certain secret irresistible Reproach from this faithful Monitor, when we have thought of, or committed any unworthy Action: and an inexpressible Satisfaction from our doing Good. I desired, with submission, to be farther informed whether or no these words, the Grace of God, the Spirit of God, or Jesus Christ, have any other true import than that of this Divine Manifestation to the Soul: or if to say (commonly speaking) such a Person is endowed with the Grace of God, does not bear a strict Analogy with his being more than ordinarily attentive to this Lux Divina: it seems hard indeed to conceive any other different Degrees of Grace, than there are different Degrees of Reflection upon, or attention to the silent Admonitions of this Invisible Being: and surely it can be nothing but the want of this Reflection and Attention to which our present Infidelity owes it Rise. I know Mr. Norris will have this Light in some degrees thereof, to be not only the same with what we call the Grace of God, but that it is also in a more inferior acceptation, the common Mode of the Humane Understanding: I desire to know in what you descent herefrom, as likewise your Explication of the word Conscience; it seems to me but little short of an Absurdity, that there should be any other Sense presiding in the Soul over all her Actions, than what is communicated from the Supreme Being. Moreover, I would gladly be informed, whether any Man has the power, as of himself, heartily to believe that which at sometimes he confesseth with his Mouth. The Rehearsal of a Creed is no difficult matter, but a solid Conviction, that what we do rehearse, is apparently clear to us as Mathematical Demonstration, is very rarely to be met with. It is surely impossible for any Man, who limits his Faith within the narrow bounds of his Reason, to submit an entire assent to those Propositions, which tho' perhaps necessary to be credited, he himself cannot account for: I have often thought this the Infirmity of the Supplicant in Holy Writ, when he cried out, Lord, I believe, Lord help my unbelief: for it is otherways very difficult to conceive how a vicious Life can consist with a full Conviction of the Divine Existence, and our own Separate Being's. 6thly, What you think of Inquiries into Nature, whether they prove not to some the Causes of Modern Deism, and to others of pure Scepticism. I have been often apt to imagine that there are no Natural Phaenomena, which may not admit a Solution from those two grand Principles of Matter and Motion, or by Axioms deduced from the Corpuscular Philosophy: and I doubt not but 'tis our resting in an ability to discuss the same by this kind of Disquisition, has been the occasion that the prime or supreme Cause of all, has been veiled from our Eyes. Curiosity is so natural to the Soul of Man, and the seeming Satisfaction that does at sometimes attend a Philosophic Enquiry, is so great as to render the same to some sort of People a dangerous Temptation; it is not that I think the Enquiry of itself such, but the resting in the simple knowledge that such or such Productions must be the Result of such and such Causes, without reflecting upon the first and chiefest which puts these upon concurring, must certainly be so: and truly, 'tis very seldom that the generality of Men make any farther Appeal, unless it be to Fate, Fortune, Chance, Destiny, or some such like unaccountable Chimaera which they substitute in the room of an all-powerful, infinite and intelligent Being. Lastly, I desire you would send me your Thoughts of the especial Providence of God, and your Opinion of Mr. B—▪ late Draught of the Q—rs Principles.  
In some few Days after the receipt of my Letter, the good Doctor was pleased to return his Answer in these words:  
SIR,  

Dr. H— ks first Let●●r.  I Do charitably believe, etc. (but waving the Introduction he proceeds)  
A pious Life and holy Conversation, are without peradventure the principal things aimed at in the Gospel of Jesus Christ: but since we are there told that there are such things as dangerous, and damnable Heresies, the Fundamental Doctrines which all Christian Churches have believed, it is our duty sincerely and conscientiously to receive; and whoever does so, will find them very excellent Motives to the practice of Religion.  
I deny not the possibility of a Man's being devout and holy by himself, i.e. without attending upon the Public Offices of Religious Worship; yet since such Assemblies are not only commanded, but of great use and even necessity in the Christian Church, it behoves us to join with some one or other of them: and among these, I see not how any Man can reasonably or justly quit a National Church, on any other account than that of its obliging him to a breach of the Divine Commands, or enjoining him to any thing which is manifestly sinful.  
Grace, and Divine-Light, and the Spirit of God, etc. are the same in effect. It is the Holy Spirit which both gives us Grace, and enlightens our Minds by a Divine Manifestation to our Souls. Every true Christian is in some ●egree a partaker hereof: for without it we can neither believe, nor obey, nor as we ought rely upon the Promises of our God. It is this which we receive upon our earnest and fervent Prayer, and it is th●● which doth excite both our Attention and pious Resolution: which as the same produces in us lesser or greater Effects, or different degrees of Love, Obedience, Self-denial, etc. so these are called the Degrees of the Divine Grace, as our endeavours are either weaker or stronger, uneven or steady, inconstant or more constant: and as our Self-denial rises to a higher or a lower pitch. Now to secure us from the danger of a mad Enthusiasm, from the disorder of Imagination, the deception of Fancy, or the delusion of Evil Spirits, in the business of private Inspiration and pretended Revelations, we are most certainly to bear in mind that the Holy Spirit and the revealed Will of God, do exactly at all times correspond: so that whatever Light we pretend to, which contradicts, or is not justifiable by the written Word, the same is most certainly either Design or Delusion, and always false and counterfeit.  
For my own part, I am not against the Notions either of Father Malebranch or Mr. Norris, provided their Hypotheses do not dishonour God, by supposing Him in any manner the Author of our Sins: however, there were very good Christians in the World, before either of them spun Philosophy to so fine a Thread.  
To believe in God, and that he inspects the most secret of our Actions: to be truly sensible of the Love of the blessed Jesus, and to expect a Life hereafter: to believe what the Gospel delivers to us, so as to be acted by those Principles: to become truly penitent, meek and humble, patient and charitable, and ready unto every good word and work: in a word, to be sincere and constant and faithful unto death, this is to be a Religious Man and a true Christian, an Heir to Heaven, and a much happier Man than all the Masters of Philosophy can make you.  
In order to this Attainment, we are to quit anticipated Prejudices, instilled either by Education or our own false Reasonings: and we may much shorten the trouble by seriously resolving to ourselves this single Query, viz. Whether the Matters related in our Saviour's Gospel are certainly true: if they be, there is nothing in this World must hinder us from a serious and conscientious Practice, and from living up to those holy Rules and Precepts as far as we are able. For the Promises and threatenings, if true, are things of that consequence, that all is to be laid aside for to gain the promised Blessings, and to avoid the threatened Misery.  
I doubt not but a Person of, etc. must have had a liberal Education; and altho' a superficial or slight knowledge in Physics, may dispose to Scepticism, yet you have doubtless by your Profession, a very great advantage; for however it may be abused, a profound Judgement and substantial Knowledge, must undoubtedly lead us to very great Devotion: and the more tightly curious the Anatomist is, the greater Reason will he have, if he abuse not his Understanding, to adore and admire the Infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness of his great Creator, and consequently to worship, to love, and to obey him.  
If you believe Revealed Religion, which was never so questioned or refuted as to deserve the Answer of any soberly learned Man, you must believe the Truth of God's particular Providence, altho' you cannot reconcile every particular Phaenomenon, either to your own Reason, or the Corpuscular Philosophy. The holy Scriptures are a System of Divine Philosophy, and I should think that the Assertions of the Almighty aught to be received by Rational Men, before the seeming clearness of any mere Humane Hypothesis. Alas! how little is it that we know; and granting the Supreme Being to have made our World in the Nature of a Clock, is this an Argument that its first Fabrication, or the Motions bestowed upon its several Parts, can result from any thing short of an Almighty and Divine Power, but our Philosophy is unable to inform us, of all the Wheels, the Pius, and several Motions of this stupendious Frame: 'tis true, we set it move according to Mechanic Laws, but there may be many thousand Motions in it, of which we are ignorant. Let us bless our God for the Revelation which he has given us, and let us (as most certainly it behoves us) rely upon his special Providence, whoever does so, will in the event find Comfort and Satisfaction: nor do I see how a good Man can have any real Happiness or Consolation without it.  
As for Mr. B— s Divinity, I must own there are many things in it, both Rational and Solid; but when he comes to spiritualise the Divine Ordinances and Institutions of Christ and his Apostles, he not only sets himself up in opposition to the Churches of Christ, to the Sense and Practice of the Primitive Christians (as I am able to prove) but exposes a want of knowledge in Scripture Interpretation. The Novelty of the Sect, and the dangerous tendency of their pretended Inspiration, is argument enough to ●●e of their Inconsistency with themselves and true Religion: and surely we ought to be extremely cautious how we side with such whimsical upstart Opinions, till we can reconcile the Possibility for Divine Goodness and Mercy, to suffer Christendom to lie in Ignorance for Sixteen hundred years, and that the Churches immediately planted by the Apostles, should make Mistakes of that vile Consequence (even when their Founders were present to set them to rights if they had done so) as we must believe they did, if Q—sm be true.  
A well-grounded knowledge in the Primitive Christianity, which may be truly fetched out of Ecclesiastic History and the Fathers of the Church, will give you this Satisfaction, that the holy Ordinances from the first promulgation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, such I mean as Water-Baptism, and the Eucharist, have been practised even to this day, by all good Christians by the use of the outward Elements in their Administration. I deny not but there have been both great Abuses, Misapprehensions and Mistakes, in the performance of them, or in the manner of their Reception, and I think I may say there are 〈◊〉 more egregiously absurd, than some of those derived from the Chair of supposed Infallibility: but this will by no means extenuate our Crimes of neglecting their use, or making light of putting them at all in practice. I desire you at your leisure to consider well Mr. B— s Comment upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, on which he lays a very great stress: and if you compare it with some of those Places in Holy Writ, which clearly justify this manner of Baptismal initiation into Christ's Church, you will find it so gross a Metaphor, that neither Grammar, Rhetoric, nor the Rules of Logic, neither (which I prefer to them all) the Reason of an understanding Man will ever be able to countenance.  
We may set into what Absurdities, even Learned Men are betrayed, when they too much rely upon their own Judgements, when they set up for new Discoveries, and impose their own Phant●sies for Divine Revelations.  
If you please to send me, what you think the sufficient Proofs which this Learned Man has excogitated for the support of his new Religion, I will, if God enable me, give you my impartial Thoughts: for I must seriously profess to you, I see nothing in his Works which ought to sway any true Christian, to leave any Protestant Church for the sake of Q—sm. I have formerly been in Mr. B— s Company, but could never discover any thing like fair Argumentation: I must own him to have been a Man of very considerable parts; yet his Scripture Quotations were for the most part manifestly wrested, and his general Discourse a pure Invective, or downright Raillery against the Church of England, at which, I must confess, I was very much surprised, having framed to myself other Notions of the Man before. I left him with this undoubted satisfaction in myself, that the Spirit of Self-conceit, of Pride and Bitterness, must needs be very re●●te from the true Spirit of Christianity.  
I thank you for your Discourse, concerning the Natural Power of Spasms or the Disorders of the Nervous System: but as to what you say about Daemoniacs, Fascination, and the Operation of Evil Spirits, I must refer my Opinion to a time of greater leisure, or till you please to visit me; in the mean time I pray God more and more to enlighten your Understanding, etc.  
I am your real Friend, A. H.  
Some little time after this, I received a Second Letter from that sincerely Religious and most excellent Divine, by way of Answer to one that I had sent him, which as I find it amongst my Papers, begins thus:  
SIR,  

Dr. H— ks second Letter.  I Rejoice with you, that it hath pleased our good God to confirm in you such a Belief of his Existence, and your own Creation after the Divine Image, as may secure to you a Remembrance of the Duty incumbent on you: and put you both upon a constant and fervent Prayer for the supply of Divine Grace, together with a steady and devout Submission to, and Dependence upon his especial Providence.  
I do look upon your last Letter to be the Picture of your Mind, and bating the Ceremony, I find no other fault than this, that how lamentably true soever your Remarks may be upon the present Age, for the most part; yet I am free to acquaint you with my Thoughts, that there are a much greater number of good People amongst us than you imagine. I may say (blessed be our God for it) I have the personal knowledge of many whom I can call truly pious and sincere Christians: Some of them such, who as they by no means value themselves upon their Humane Acquirements, are yet able to silence the Calumnies of the Profane even by their own Weapons of Humane Reason. I speak not this to show my own good liking, of such for the most part vain and unprofitable Argumentations; but yet I think it no disserviceable Office to Religion, neither yet to the Cause of our great Creator, that some Men have left both the Atheist, and his Friend the Deist, without Excuse: and that they may see their Condemnation heightened by their obstinate disbelief of the Christian Religion, contrary to the natural unprejudiced Light of Reason, as well as the Extraordinary of Divine Faith.  
Your Character of Mr. B— l I think no whit too large, nor do I dislike your Thought of his being designed by Providence, as a demonstrative and clear Evidence to satisfy the doubting World, that the larger portion of right Reason or solid Knowledge a Man is endowed with, the clearer prospect he enjoys of the Truth and Certainty of Divine Revelation: and that it is not only unlikely, but impossible to philosophise as becomes reasonable Men, without thinking venerably of Almighty God, and his Son Christ Jesus.  
The true Christian Vertuoso is indeed not often met with, and whether the Character of a practically Religious Man, and at the same time a very great Philosopher, suits any Man so well as it did the deceased B— l, may very well be made a Question.  
For my own part, I the less value the Attempts or Endeavours of Men philosophising about Religion, being persuaded that there are not many sincerely pious Converts made thereby. Religion wants not the Rhetorical Flourish of fine Language; Airy Notions and School Distinctions render her but confused, and are really Blemishes to her Purity and Simplicity. Her Paths are plain and easy; in her Natural Dress she is all over amiable, and wants not the embellishment of Philosophic Lustre.  
There are Arguments enough already from the Storehouse of Humane Reason, to silence the Complaints of Atheism; it is not Reason that will satisfy the unreasonable Infidel: and I am persuaded, were there no Mortification or Self-denial in the Case, no Restraint to be laid upon the brutish Appetite, the Truths we plead for would be clear enough to the Unbeliever. The depth of their Philosophy lies here, they will not believe in God, because he has not made them irrational or brute Creatures, which since they came not such out of the hands of their Maker, they resolve to make themselves so, and then foolishly please themselves with the Childish Expectation of escaping Divine Judgement, because they have so long suffered themselves to be acted by what they call the irresistible impulse of their sensitive Appetites, and wilfully indulged Passions.  
What every good Man glories in (viz.) that he is endowed with Reason and a Capacity to shun the Evil, and to choose the Good, is the greatest Misery of these Men: who finding themselves able to dishonour their Creator, to turn their backs upon Religion, and to do despite unto the Spirit of Grace; since there is a possibility for them left to blaspheme their God, to trample upon all things Sacred, and that they are not hereupon immediately destroyed by the Divine Anger and Indignation; they grow hardened in their Vices, their continued Habits are at length woven into their Constitutions, and they act indeed but little differently from Irrational Agents.  
Right Reason, or Philosophy, will do but little good with such, the Reformation, if at all, is owing to the hand of God: it is beyond the skill of Man to enlighten our Understandings, in such a manner as to give us a taste of the Divine Goodness. We may frame to ourselves some speculative Notions, we may confess with our Mouths, as finding ourselves unable to resist or to hold out any longer; but it is the Grace of Jesus Christ that must complete our Conviction, and cooperate with our Souls in a perseverance to the end.  
This is a Truth so clear to me, that I am firmly persuaded you will find no sincerely pious or true practical Christian of a differing Opinion: the worldly wise Man may despise and contemn us; the Libertine may scoff at us, and impute all to our want of Knowledge, to Fancy or Prepossession: let them mock on, and mark the end: it is sufficient for us, and will recompense to us these Indignities, if we are happy in the Grace of our Lord Jesus.  
I commit you to his protection, and remain  
Your faithful Friend to serve you, A. H.  
POSTSCRIPT.  
I Can by no means think well of those you have taken notice of, neither do I think it becomes any Man to dogmatise concerning the Creation, or to ridicule the Mosaic History: if we can't content ourselves with what is there delivered, it is true we may please ourselves with new Theories of our own erecting, but must not expect to find out any such as Mankind will comply with, or perhaps such as will please ourselves much better than that of the Historian in Sacred Writ, which we find fault with, because, in some things, disagreeable to Modern Discoveries. In these things every Man may think as he pleases, provided he think not to the dishonour of Almighty God: but let no Man publish to the World for truth, the uncertain, even very uncertain Conjectures of his own Mind.  
I had not been long acquainted with this Reverend Divine, before his fatal Distemper deprived me, with many others, of the advantage of his Conversation: and it is the least respect I can pay his Memory, in public to acknowledge my own belief, that he was a Man of undissembled Piety, strictly holy and devout in his Life and Converse, laborious and painful in his Ministry, of very easy access, and ready to succour all Men to the utmost of his Capacity: He was a Man universally respected by Persons of different Persuasions, and I have reason to surmise that he died as generally lamented. He always expressed himself with a more than common earnestness, and had something in his Air and Mein, so soberly grave and modest, yet withal so pleasant, that I never met with in any other Person. He had nothing of Affectation, of a precise or reserved Temper, and so little regarded a Courtly Demeanour or Ceremonial Deportment, that I have heard it objected as the greatest of his Faults, that he was ungenteel, and too negligent in his manner of Address: but least this should be taken for his full Character, which makes so small and even so inconsiderable a part thereof, I shall for the present leave it, whilst I pursue my Argument of the Nature and Necessity of the Divine Assistance, to the Completion of Man's Eternal Happiness; something more particularly relating to which Theme, I find so pertinently handled by the Author of Reason's Interest in Religion, that I care not to pass it by without taking notice and considering upon the same.  
As nothing (saith this Author) but charming Lusts, 
The Interest of Reason in Religion.  false Delusions, carnal Interests, foolish Prejudices, indulging the Appetites of the Animal Life, and attending to the titillations of the Flesh, can hinder Men from the performance of what God, in subserviency to his communicating of Grace (at least in his ordinary dispensing of it) doth require: so the being in the Exercise of those Means, and in the Discharge of those Duties which God prescribes and enjoins, doth not only take us from, and prevent those Sins, which would render our Conversion difficult, if not impossible, but they are further useful as Means appointed and blessed of God unto such an end.  
Tho' our Obedience hath neither any Physical Efficiency upon our Regeneration, nor is Grace bestowed in the Consideration of any previous Merit that is in our Performances, yet it is neither superfluous nor vain, much less doth it lie in any repugnancy to our Conversion, being only perfected by an effectual subjective Work of the Spirit of God. This Doctrine is not only opposed by Pelagius and Socinus, but of late by Mr. Hobbs, whom we may very well allow to combat the Grace of God, having beforehand listed himself in opposition to the Divine Being.  
Now having lost the Divine Image and our Integrity by the Fall, we not only contend that there is the Efficacy of an External Agent, necessary for the recovering it, and that he who imprinted the Image of God upon Humane Nature in the first Creation of Man, must again restore it in his Regeneration: but we affirm withal, that till the Sanctifying Spirit effectually, infallibly, and by an unresisted Operation, transforms us into the Divine Nature, and communicates to us a Vital Seed, we remain polluted, unholy, and uncapable of doing any thing with all that duness' of Circumstances, as may commend us or our Performances to God's Acceptance: Not but that antecedently to the Holy Ghost's renewing us, by a Communication of Grace to us, we may both dogmatically believe the Doctrines of the Scripture, and be found in the discharge of the Material Parts, not only of Natural Duties, but of the Acts of Instituted Religion; but to say that we ought thereupon to be denominated Holy, is to remonstrate to the Scriptures in a thousand places, and to overthrow the very Tenor and design of the Gospel. While we remain thus unholy, we are so far from being actually united unto Christ, or capable Subjects of Justification or Forgiveness, that till we are actually made Partakers of the Washing of Regeneration, and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost, we cannot possibly have any Union with Him, or a Right to Pardon of Sin, or any thing that ensues or depends thereupon by him.  
There is nothing hath, at least ought to have the true denomination of Holiness, but what proceeds from the Spirit of Christ in us, and Principles of Grace by Infusion communicated to us, which are the Foundation, Matter, and Bond of our Union with Him, and under whatever Gloss or Varnish, we or our Works appear to the World, yet without such a Relation to Christ we are none of his, nor are our Duties, as to the Principles and Circumstances of them, acceptable to God: The Obligation upon Men to Obedience in what state soever we suppose them, the consistency of God's right to command them, with our contracted inability to the yielding of due Obedience: the Capacity that all Men remain in, notwithstanding any congenite Impotency for the performing many External Duties good in themselves, and in the Matter of them, with the Subservience of these Performances to Conversion, as they are Means appointed of God in order thereunto: all these I in some measure understand, and can reconcile with the Oeconomy of the Gospel: But that our Lives can be holy, till our Hearts be so through the Renewing of the Holy Ghost, or that our Works can be adequately good antecedently to our Reception of Supernatural Grace, I do in no wise understand, nor can I conceive the same can be made intelligible without imposing Paelagianism upon us.  
But farther, The Gospel acknowledgeth no Acts of true Holiness performed by any, where there is not, antecedently at least, in order of Nature, a Principle of true Holiness in the Persons performing them; no Acts, Operations or Duties of ours, are in the Esteem of the Gospel, holy, but what proceed from, and are done in the Virtue, Power and Efficacy of Grace, previously derived from and communicated to us by Jesus Christ: there is prae-required to all Acts of Gospel Obedience, a new real Spiritual Principle, by which our Nature is renewed, and our Souls rendered habitually and subjectively holy. Grace is not the Effect and Product of any previous good Action of ours (whatever Subserviency through the appointment and dispose of God, they may lie in as to his bestowing of it) but all Acts and Operations truly good are the Fruits of Divine Grace; to talk of sincere Obedience precluding our antecedaneous Adeption of a new Principle, and the Communication of a Divine Vital Seed to us, is to impose Paelagianism upon us, and that in a more fulsome way, and in ruder terms than many of his Followers used to declare themselves.  
I deny not the things revealed and commanded in the Gospel, being both good in themselves, and suited to the Reason and Interest of Mankind; and also enforced by the most attractive Motives which we can either desire or imagine; but that Men in the alone strength of their Natural Faculties, may perform many External Duties, and in that manner also, that we who judge only according to appearance, are thereupon to account them holy, yea, that nothing but Supineness, lustful Prejudice, consuetude in Sin, and a being immersed into the Animal Life, can hinder them from so doing; but I deny that any Act or Duty hath the proper Form or Nature of Holiness, or is so denominated in the Scriptures, but both what proceeds from an antecedent Habit or Principle of Holiness in the Persons by whom they are performed, and an immediate Influence from Christ, in the virtue of our Union with him, as our quickening Head, vital Root and living Spring in the actual performance of them; so that tho' no Physical Efficiency is to be ascribed to the Gospel, yet besides a Moral Efficacy, which through its own frame and complexion it hath to reform Mankind (beyond what any Declaration of God and ourselves that ever the World was made acquainted with had) there is a Physical efficacious Operation of the Spirit of God accompanies it, on the score of God Almighty's having in infinite Wisdom ordained it as a means for the communicating of Grace; but still it is not the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are united to: 'tis true that it is both by the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are brought to be united to Christ; and it is also true that whosoever are united to Him, have the Doctrine of the Gospel, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as an ingraffed and incorporated Word, and are moulded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, into the form of its Doctrine: but yet 'tis not the terminus of the Relation of Union which intervenes betwixt Christ and them, nor (whatsoever may be the Opinion of some) is it that which they are united to.  
The way and manner how the Spirit assists us in the Spiritual Understanding of Things, is either through its immediate indwelling (if I may so speak) or through the communication of new Principles, a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an ablation of every thing extraneous; a dissipation of those fuliginous Vapours that both obnubilate the Mind, and do imbuere objectum colore suo: by the Purification of the Heart the Understanding is clarified: By the Spirit of Life in the new Birth the Subject is elevated and adapted to the Object; the Divine Grace renders the Mind idoneous for and consimilar to the Truth. And farther, there is a suggesting of Media for elucidating the Truth, there is also frequently an irradiation of the Word itself, an attiring and clothing it with a Garment of Light, and upon the whole, the Soul both feels and is transformed into what it knows, its apprehensions are no longer dull and languid, but vigorous and affective.  
This Mystical Union of the Soul of the true Believer with Jesus Christ, however difficult it may appear, and hard to be reconciled to the Natural Understanding, ought not to be debated or disinherited by us, upon the account of our Ignorance in the manner of it. We do assent to the Continuity and Adhesion of one part of Matter to another, notwithstanding the Difficulties that encounter us about its Mode; and tho' there be not yet any Philosophic Hypothesis, that can resolve us how it comes to pass that one part more indiscerptibly cleaves to another, than if they were fastened together by Adamantine Chains: and therefore there is no Reason why the incomprehensibleness of the Manner of our Union with Christ, should any ways obstruct or weaken our belief of it, having all the assurance that Divine Revelation can give us concerning our being united to Him: as we assent to an evident Object of Sense, or to that which is plainly demonstrated by Reason, tho' there occur many things in the manner of their Existence, which are unconceivable, so the Quod sit and Reality of our Union with Christ, being attested by him who cannot lie, it becomes us to embrace it with all steddiness of Belief, tho' we cannot conceive the Quo modo or manner how it is; we have reason to think, that through our Maker's leaving us posed and nonplussed about the most ordinary and certain Natural Phae●omena, he intended to train us up to a mancipation of our Understandings, to Articles of Faith, when we were once assured that He had declared them, tho' the Difficulties relating to them were to us unaccountable.  
Nor is the manner of the coherence of the Parts of Matter the only Difficulty in Nature relating to Union, that perplexes and baffles our Reason; but the Mode of the Mystical Incorporation of the Rational Soul with the Humane Body, doth every way as much entangle and leave us desperate as the former. That Man is a kind of Amphibious Creature allied in his constituent Parts, both to the Intellectual and Material Worlds, and that the several Species of Being's in the Macrocosm, are combined in Him as in a System, Reason as well as Scripture instructs us. That we have a Body, we are fully assured by its Density, Extension, Impenetrability, and all the Adjuncts and Affections of Matter; and that we have an Immaterial Spirit, we are demonstratively convinced by its reacting on itself, its consciousness of its own Being, and Operations: not to mention other Mediums whereof we have spoken elsewhere, and that those two are united together to make up the Composition of Man, is as plain from the influence that the Body hath upon the Soul in many of its Perceptions, and which the Soul hath upon the Body in the Motions of the Spirits and Blood, with all that ensues and depends thereupon. Nor could the Affections and Adjuncts of the Material Nature, nor the Attributes and Properties of the Immaterial, be indifferently predicated of Man, were not the Soul and Body united together in the Unity of Man's Person. But now how this can be, is a knot too hard for Humane Reason to untie. How a pure Spirit should be cemented to an earthly Clod, or an immaterial Substance coalesce with Bulk, is a Riddle that no Hypothesis of Philosophy can resolve us about. 1. The Aristotelick substantial Uniter will not do; for besides its repugnancy to Reason, that there should be any Substantial Ingredient in the Constitution of Man, save his Soul and Body, the un●●ion of itself with the Soul, supposing it to be Material, or with the Body, admitting it to be Incorporeal, will remain unintelligible, and to affirm it to be of a middle Nature, partaking of the Affections and Adjuncts of both, is that which our reasonable Faculties will never allow us to subscribe to; the Ideas which we have of Body and Spirit having no Alliance the one with the other, and to style it a Substantial Mode, is to wrap up Repugnancies in its very Notion; for tho' all Modes be the Modification of Substances, yet they are predicamental Accidents, and how essential soever this or that Modification may be to a Body of such a Species, yet it is wholly extrinsical and accidental to Matter itself. In brief, the voluminous Discourses of the Aristotelians, both about Union in general, and the Union of the Rational Soul to the Organical Humane Body in particular, resolve themselves either into idle tattle and insignificant words, or obtrude upon us Contradictions and Nonsense. 2. To preclude all Union betwixt the Soul and Body on Supposition that they are distinct constituent parts of Man, is plainly to despair of solving the Difficulty for not to dispute whether the Soul and Body may, in Philosophic rigour, be called Parts; or whether Man, in reference to them, may be styled a Compositum: 'tis enough that the one is not the other, but that they are different Principles; and that neither of them, considered separately, is the Man. Tho' the Soul and Body be perfect Substances in themselves, and tho' the Soul can operate in its disjunct State, and in its Separation, will be no less a Person than Soul and Body now together are, yet there are many Operations belonging to the Soul in this Conjunct State, of which it is incapable in the Separate; and there are many things predicable of the Soul and Body together, which cannot be affirmed of them asunder. How close and intimate soever the Union betwixt the Soul and Body be, and how great soever in their mutual Dependencies in most of their Operations upon one another; yet not only the Intellectual Spirit, and the duly organised Matter, remain even in their Consociation classically different, (their Essences, Affections and Operations admitting a diversity as well as a distinction) but there are some Operations belong to each of them, upon which the other hath no influence. For as the Mind is Author of many Cogitations and Conceptions, to which the Body gave no occasion; so the Body is the Spring and Fountain of several Functions, over which the Soul hath no Dominion, nor any direct influence, they remain as much distinct, notwithstanding the Union which intercedes between them as they would have done, should we suppose them to have had an Existence previous to their Confederations, or as they shall be after the dissolution of the L●●gue between them.  
From all which it may be Scientifically concluded, That they are distinct and different Principles in Man's Constitution, but whether thereupon he ought to be called a Compositum, or they to be styled Parts, will be resolved into a mere Longomachy or Chat about Words; tho' to speak my own Mind, I see no Cause why Man may not properly enough obtain the Appellation of Compositum, and the Soul and Body be allowed for Constituent Parts.  
Nor thirdly, doth the Cartesian Hypothesis, tho' the most ingenious and best contrived of any hitherto thought upon, fully satisfy an inquisitive Mind in the Matter before us: their Hypothesis is briefly this, That God in his infinite Wisdom chose to create three distinct and different kinds of Being's: 1. Some purely Material, which through difference of the Figure, Size, Number, Texture, and Modification of their Parts, come to multiply into many different Species. 2. Some purely Immaterial, among whom, whether there be any Specifical Difference, is Pro and Con disputed. 3. Man, a Compositum of both, having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joined to an Organical Body: Now, say they, God having in his Sovereign Pleasure thought good to form Man such a Creature, he hath not only by an uncontrollable Law confined the Soul to an intimate Presence with, and constant Residence in the Body, while it remains a fit Receptacle, or till he give it a discharge, but withal hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their Operations; and in this mutual dependence of one upon the other, with respect to many of their Operations, they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist: for through the Impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sense, there result in the Soul certain Perceptions; and on the other hand, through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul, there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits, and thus, say they, by the Action of each upon the other, and their Passion from one another, they are formally united. But all this, instead of losing the Knot, serves only to tie it faster: For 1. this Mutual Dependency, as to Operation of one upon the other, cannot be apprehended, but in Posteriority of Nature to Union, and consequently the formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it. 2. There are Cases wherein neither the Impressions of outward Objects upon the Sensory Nerves, beget or excite any Perceptions in the Soul (which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind, or intense Contemplation, alike answers my drift) and also Cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind, make not any sensible Impressions upon the Body (as in Ecstasies) and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved, which argues that it imports more than either an intimous Presence, or a Dependence between them in point of Operation. 3. 'Tis altogether unintelligible, how either a Body can act upon a Spirit, or a Spirit upon a Body. I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so, but the manner of doing it, or indeed how it can be done, is not intelligible. That a Tremour begot in the Nerves by the jogging of Particles of Matter upon the Sensory Organs, should excite Cogitations in the Soul, or that the Soul by a mere Thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits, and determine through what Meatus' they are to steer their Course, is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly nonplussed. How that which penetrates a Body without giving a jog to, or receiving a shove from it, should either impress a Motion upon, or receive an impression from it, is unconceivable: so that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal Action upon, and Passion by and from one another, is to fix it in that which supposeth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be.  
Now if common Unions, of whose Reality and Existence we are so well assured, be nevertheless, with respect to their Nature, not only so unknown, but unconceivable: we may lawfully presume, if their lie nothing else against the immediate Union of Believers with Christ, save that it cannot be comprehended, that this is no Argument why we should immediately renounce the Belief of it. If we can but once justify that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians, the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith, if we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason, as to the reality of other Unions, whose Modes are as little understood, I see no cause why the Veracity of God, provided we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony, should not satisfy us as to the Reality of the Union; tho' the manner how it is were a question we could not answer; and indeed, if Men will not be huffed and talked out of the persuasion of those things, of whose Existence their Senses and Reason ascertain them, tho' they cannot answer all the Difficulties they are accosted with in their Inquiries about them, much less ought Christians to be hectored out of the Belief of the Doctrines of Faith, because of the Entanglements which attend the Conception of them; 'tis the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God, tho' it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are: the highest Assurance of the Reality of any thing is God's affirming it, and what he asserts, we are with all reverence to assent unto its Truth, tho' we can frame no adequate Idea of it, nor fathom it in our own Conceptions: Our Saviour himself hath adjourned the perfect knowledge of this Mystery till the glorified state, in these words, 
* Joh. 14.20.  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  
Thus far you have had the Thoughts of the beforementioned Author, which I shall leave you to consider seriously at your leisure; the Subject is indeed noble, how despicably soever it may be treated by the Libertine, whose Belief is staggered, because he himself is not possessed of what he has slighted and contemned, and for that he finds himself at liberty to live as he listeth.  
I must own indeed that it is scarce possible, for one Man to infuse such Ideas into another, as may be able to persuade that other, that he himself is a Partaker of such a Spiritual Refreshment and Divine Consolation, as nothing less than the Divine Gaace can communicate to his Soul; and on this account I have the less admired that both Paelagius, Socinus, and their Adherents, have gained so great footing in the World, and that the Doctrine of the Divine Grace should be rediculed by them, and esteemed little otherwise than as a senseless Notion: the Opinions of these Men run so smooth to the sense of the Natural Understanding, that so long as Men are careless and unwilling to look farther, they are constrained to make their Reason the positive and adequate Rule, both of their Morality and Divinity. But for my own part, I should not so much dispute with them this Mysterious Co-operation or Divine Concurrence, provided they could but show me any true Practical Christian, one who is so in Deeds, as well as Words, who has espoused their Opinions: I may be free to say, I know nothing like one, nor do I think it possible to meet with a sincerely devout Convert, or Regenerate Person, who is not ready to acknowledge that of himself he was able to do nothing as he ought, and that the Renovation or happy Change of his Mind was purely owing to the Adeption of a new Principle, or to a Union with the Divine Spirit of Jesus Christ.  
'Tis true, amongst the Followers of Pelagius and Socinut, there are those who understanding the Verity of their Opinions, would be measured by their Practices, have been more than ordinarily exemplary in their Conversation with the World, and their Self-denial of some Temporal Enjoyments: Men who have kept themselves to a constant attendance upon Religious Worship, and set those about them an extraordinary Pattern, for the practice of private Duties, and all these we may readily grant the possibility of their attaining, by the mere strength of their Natural Faculties, or the Powers of their own Souls, independent of the Divine Grace: these, however necessary, were never looked on by considerate Men for more than the Introduction or Outside of true Religion; but altho' there are amongst them Persons so very circumspect in their Deportment or Behaviour, yet the greatest part of them are such as wholly devote themselves to disputation in mixed Companies, where they continually gain Proselytes among loose People, such, who as they never could reconcile themselves to the practice of Religion, are very glad to find the same resolved into Matter of Speculation, by which means every Man may have an opportunity to raise a suitable Theory to his own Inclinations. Now I must confess, that which has principally induced me to descent from the Principles of these Men, is a consciousness I have had that it is not only possible, but certain, that Men may have an Historical Faith, and that they may believe or assent to the Truth of the Revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet at the same time to show themselves as if wholly unconcerned in their Lives and Practices, whether the things delivered in that Gospel be true or not, which I think is hardly reconcileable even to our own Reason, nor can be otherwise ascribed than to the want of that Supernatural and Divine Aid I plead for.  

The Interest of Reason in Religion.  Upon the other Extreme, as these we were just now speaking of (many of them at least) will not allow any such Doctrine as that of the Divine Grace, so there have been those who have affirmed, that a Person may by Philosophy and Contemplation, attain such a Degree of Union with the Divine Being, as to know and understand things by a Contactus or Conjunction of Substance with the Deity: The Passages (saith my Author) which occur in Plotinus, Porphirius, Jamblicus and Proclus (all great and famous Platonists) of such a tendency, are numerous and need not to be here transcribed. This Imagination was espoused by the Arabian Philosophers, and had it been entertained by the Contemplative Heathen only, we might have taken the less notice of it; but it was imbibed, and that very timely by Origen himself, and from him the Ferment or Leaven thereof was derived to the ancient Monks, from all, or some of these, it spread amongst the Romish monastics, such of them as are called Mystic Theologues; nothing more frequent with that sort of Men than a Tattle of an intime Union with God, whereby the Soul becomes Deified; and from them the Weigelians and Familists borrowed their Magnificent Language of being Godded with God, and Christed with Christ.  
The adventurous Determinations of the Schoolmen, concerning the beatifical Vision, smell rank of the same blasphemous nonsensical Figment; for by their contending that the Divince Essence is immediately united as an intelligible Species to the Intellect of the blessed, and that this Species, and the glorified Understanding do not remain distinct things, but become identified, they do in effect affirm the Soul to be transubstantiated into God, and to be really deified: and seeing it's a Matter of easy Demonstration, that the Knowledge which we shall enjoy of God in Heaven, differeth only in degree from that which we possess here (otherwise it is both altogether unintelligible and uncapable of Rational Explication) it will follow by a short Harangue of Discourse, either that Believers have no Knowledge of God at all in this Life, or else that their Soul's become Deified and Essentially united to God by knowing him. I shall not name here the admired Nonsense and highflown Canting of some Modern Enthusiasts, which carry a broad-faced Aspect this way, 'tis easy for us to instruct ourselves, from what Springs these, with the like Visionaries, have drawn the putrid Conceits which they propine to the World. 'Tis enough for us that we believe the Person of Christ, and the Persons of Believers to remain distinct after all the Union that intercedes between them: Let us be thankful for the Influences of his Grace, and for the In-dwellings of his Holy Spirit; but let us detest those swelling Words of Pride and Ignorance, of being Christed and Deified; for whatsoever be the nature and kind of the Union between Christ and Christians, that the same should by Hypostatical, cannot without Blasphemy be imagined.  
And thus, my Friend, I hope I have with no unpardonable Prolixity, gone over these very weighty Subjects; I pray God we may all of us have right Notions of them fixed on our Hearts: and that they may be attended with the Fruits of a sincere Repentance and Amendment of our Lives. I shall endeavour to conclude all with the most suitable Advice I can, and in order to the same, would wish and desire you to think often and seriously upon the certainty of your Death (for whatever you may think of an Immortality hereafter, 'tis manifest you can obtain none here) consider what Thoughts will be most likely to intrude upon you, what Business you will principally be employed about (should you have time allotted you for such a purpose) the Conflicts and Consternation you must encounter, the Confusion of your last Minutes, the Agony of your Soul in the moment of its flight: For let me tell you, however you may please yourself in this time of Health and Vigour, that an approach of a privation of your present Life will not surprise you, that you shall be able to Philosophise sedately and unconcernedly concerning the Condition of your Soul, and that whatever fearful Apprehensions may assault you, your beloved Music will charm them into Silence, and the well-struck Instrument shall lull you into an Abyss of Darkness and Oblivion; notwithstanding these airy Notions and unlucky Fancies, believe me, your Thoughts of other Matters will prevail and interpose, your perplexed Soul will be too restless and uneasy, uneasy to be stupefied by the Power of such sensible Delights and Satisfactions: And in a word, in opposition to this pretended Strength (unless you are arrived to a brutish Insensibility) your forepast Life will come in view, and you yourself must differ from the rest of Mankind, if you wish not that you could but die the death of the Righteous, and that your latter end were like unto his.  
Febr. 28. 169●. I am your Friend and Servant, etc.  
THE END.   

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THE Person upon whose Account these Letters were first written, not having thought fit to return any material Answer, the Author has been prevailed with to print them by themselves; but lest it be thought designedly to give them the fairer show of Demonstration, or by the want of any weighty Objection, to procure to them the greater Esteem in the World, he does promise, That if any one does object against, or can confute the main Points herein debated, if the same be done with that Sobriety and Seriousness which becomes the Subject of such Inquiries, and sent to the Publisher of these Printed Letters, the same shall be faithfully published, with a Reply annexed. And to render such an Undertaking the less laborious, if the Arguments of the first Letter, particularly those of Mr. Bently and Mr. Lock, are found to be fairly overthrown, or any new Hypothesis advanced which will intelligibly solve the Cosmical Mechanism, and make it clear to us that Perception, Volition, and Ratiocination, can derive their Source from any thing short of that First, Supreme, Intelligent, or Alwise Being we call God: if this, I say, be once performed, the rest, such as our Belief of Providence, our Immortality, and the Divine Grace, shall be readily given up. Till this be done, he will not think himself concerned to answer every petulant Cavil which may be raised against these Sacred Truths, by Men devoted to Scepticism and Irreligion: for if after all they have said, they find themselves constrained to grant there must be one First, Supreme, and Powerful Being, who made the World, the same Consideration, if carried a little farther, will show them the Necessity of the same Power to continue and preserve its several Parts from a ruinous Destruction, which is, tho' in other words, to allow a Providence. And farther, since 'tis apparent that this Almighty Being has bestowed upon Man a Principle of Freedom, or a Capacity to Will and Reason, which is vastly different from, and Superior to his Fellow Creatures, it would be very strange, allowing the common Attributes of the Divine Being, if he should be unaccountable to his Maker for the Abuse of these Endowments. In a word, whatever Pains may be taken to extinguish this Natural Light of the Understanding, yet since it is found so very hard, I had almost said impossible, for any considerate Man to be diffident in the first Article, viz. the Belief of a God, it will be at best the most dangerous Presumption, or downright Madness to discredit either his Providence or our own Immortality.  
Farewell.   

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