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Though I am wont, as well as inclinable to spare the present Age; and though my Censures of some reputed Virtuosi that live in it, are written with as harmless and friendly Designs, as was the seeming Rudeness of the Angel to St. Peter, when he struck him on the Side, and hastily rouzed him, but to awake him, to take off his Chains, and to free him from the Dangers that threatned him; yet I shall be more troubled than surprized, if I shall find the following Treatise disliked by divers Persons, that would pass for Virtuosi, and by some that really are so. For some Men, that have but superficial, thô conspicuous, Wits, are not fitted to penetrate such Truths, as require a lasting and attentive Speculation; and divers, that want not Abilities, are so taken up by their Secular Affairs, and their Sensual Pleasures, that they neither have Disposition, nor will have Leisure, to discover those Truths, that require both an Attentive and Penetrating Mind. And more than of either of these sorts of Men there are, whom their Prejudices do so forestal, or their Interest byas, or their Appetites blind, or their Passions discompose, too much, to allow them a clear Discernment, and right Judgment, of Divine Things. Upon which, and other accounts, I shall not think it strange, if what I write shall make no great Impression on Readers thus Qualified, whom to Convert, ‘tis not enough to Convince them: Nor shall I be greatly discouraged, or think much the worse of my Arguments, if they do not make Proselytes of those, whom Sinister Considerations make such Resolved Adversaries to the Truth, that He alone, that can Preach from Heaven, is able to prevail upon them; and they must be Converted, almost as Saul the Persecutor was, by an extraordinary Light from Heaven, and a Power able to strike them to the Ground. But though I am not so little acquainted with the present Age, as to expect to plead for Religion with the Approbation of Atheists, or of Libertines, yet I shall not think my Pains altogether mispent, if what I have written, either Startle any Irreligious Reader so far, as to Engage him to consult abler Assertors of Christianity and Virtue, than I pretend to be; or else prove so happy, as to Confirm and Strengthen, by new Arguments and Motives, those that have heartily embraced the Christian Faith and Morals, though perhaps not upon the firmest Grounds. For it will be no small Satisfaction to me, if, though I cannot Convert the resclvedly Irreligious, I shall at least furnish those that are not so, with Preservatives against them, and hinder their Impiety from being Contagious.
But I fear, that those that are Enemies, both to the Doctrines I propose, and to the Aims I persue, will not be the only Persons that will find fault with the following Tract; since, perhaps, there will not be wanting some Ingenious Men, that expected, as well as desired, that I should never write but as a Naturalist, because they themselves esteem nothing, save the Laws and Phoenomena of Nature, to be Subjects worthy of a Philosophical Pen: As if, because Rational Spirits are Invisible and Immaterial. Beings, all Disquisitions about them must be airy and uncertain Speculations, and, like their Objects, devoid of Solidity and Usefulness. But though among these Ingenious Men there are several, whose Expectations from me I am much more disposed to Gratify, than Disappoint; yet, on such an occasion as this, I must take the liberty to own, That I do not think the Corporeal World, nor the Present State of Things, the Only or the Principal Subjects, that an Inquisitive Man’s Pen may be worthily employed about; and, That there are some Things that are grounded, neither upon Mechanical, nor upon Chymical, Notices or Experiments, that are yet far from deserving to be Neglected, and much less to be Despised, or so much as to be left Uncultivated, especially by such Writers, as being more concerned to act as Christians, than as Virtuosi, must also think, that sometimes they may usefully busy themselves about the Study of Divine Things, as well as at other times employ their Thoughts about the Inspection of Natural Ones. There are some Objects, whose Nobleness is such, that, though we derive no Advantage from them, but the Contentment of knowing them, and that but very imperfectly too; yet our Virtuosi themselves justly think much Pains and Time, and, perhaps, Cost too, well spent in endeavouring to acquire some Conjectural Knowledge of them: As may be instanced in the Assiduous and Industrious Researches they have made about the remote Coelestial part of the World, especially the Stars and Comets that our Age has exposed to their Curiosity. For most of these, though they require chargeable Telescopes, and tedious, as well as unhealthy, Nocturnal Observations, are Objects, of which we can know very little with any Certainty; and which, for ought appears, we can make no useful Experiments with. Since therefore we so much prize a little Knowledge, of Things that are not only Corporeal, but Inanimate; methinks we should not undervalue the Studies of those Men, that aspire to the Knowledge of Incorporeal and Rational Beings, which are incomparably more Noble, than all the Stars in the World, which are, as far as we know, but Masses of Senseless and Stupid Matter. Since also the Virtuosi deservedly Applaud and Cherish the laborious Industry of Anatomists, in their Enquiries into the Structure of dead, ghastly, and oftentimes unhealthfully as well as offensively Foetid, Bodies: Can it be an Employment improper for a Christian Virtuoso, or unworthy of him, to endeavour the Discovery of the Nature and Faculties of the Rational Mind; which is That, that Enobles its Mansion, and gives Man the Advantage he has of the Beasts that Perish?
I am content, that merely Natural Philosophy should often Employ my Thoughts, and my Pen; but I cannot consent it should Engross them, and hinder me from being Conversant with Theological Subjects. And since, among my Friends, I have some, (and those not Inconsiderable for their Number, and much less for their Merit,) that press me to Treat of Religious Matters, as well as Others, that would have me addict myself to Cultivate Physical Ones; I, who think myself a Debtor to Both these sorts, am willing to endeavour to Gratify Both; and having already, on many Occasions, presented the later sort with large, as well as publick, Effects of my Complaisance for them, I hope, they will not think it strange, that I should now and then have Regard to the former sort, too; especially, since I had higher Motives, than Complaisance ought to be, to induce me to Treat sometimes of Things that might be grateful to those Friends, that are much so to Religious Composures.
I presume, it will be taken notice of, that, in the following Treatise, as well as in divers of my other Writings, especially about Subjects that are purely, or partly, Philosophical; I make frequent use of Similitudes, or Comparisons: And therefore I think myself here obliged to acknowledge, once for all, that I did it purposely. And my Reasons for this Practise, were, not only because fit Comparisons are wont to delight most Readers, and to make the Notions, they convey, better kept in Memory; whence the best Orators and Preachers have made great and successful use of Metaphors, Allegories, and other Resemblances; but I was induced to employ them chiefly for two other Reasons: 1. That though I freely confess, that Arbitrary Similitudes, and likewise Those that are Foreign to the Subject treated of, such as are most of the Vulgar Ones, that are usually borrowed from the Fictions of the Poets, and from the uncertain, and often ill-applied, Relations of Pliny, Aelian, and other too frequently Fabulous Writers, are scarce fit to be made use of but to Vulgar Readers, or Popular Auditories; yet Comparisons fitly chosen, and well applied, may, on many occasions, usefully serve to illustrate the Notions for whose sake they are brought, and, by placing them in a true Light, help Men to conceive them far better, than otherwise they would do. And, 2. Apposite Comparisons do not only give Light, but Strength, to the Passages they belong to, since they are not always bare Pictures and Resemblances, but a kind of Arguments; being oftentimes, if I may so call them, Analogous Instances, which do declare the Nature, or Way of Operating, of the Thing they relate to, and by that means do in a sort prove, that, as ‘tis possible, so it is not improbable, that the Thing may be such as ‘tis represented: And therefore, not only the Illustrious Verulam, though not more a Florid, than a Iudicious, Writer, has, much to the satisfaction of his Readers, frequently made use of Comparisons, in whose Choice, and Application, he was very happy; but that severe Philosopher Monsieur Des Cartes himself somewhere says, that he scarce thought, that he understood any thing in Physiques, but what he could declare by some apt Similitude; of which, in effect, he has many in his Writings; [As, where he compares the Particles of fresh Water, to little Eels; and the Corpuscles of Salt in the Sea-water, to little rigid Staves; and where, after the Stoicks, he compares the Sense of Objects by the intervention of Light, to the Sense that a blind Man hath of Stones, Mud, &c. by the intervention of his Staff.] To which I shall add, That proper Comparisons do the Imagination almost as much Service, as Microscopes do the Eye; for, as this Instrument gives us a distinct view of divers minute Things, which our naked Eyes cannot well discern; because these Glasses represent them far more large, than by the bare Eye we judge them; so a skilfully chosen, and well-applied, Comparison much helps the Imagination, by illustrating Things scarce discernible, so as to represent them by Things much more familiar and easy to be apprehended.
I confess, I might, on some Occasions, have spoken, not only more Positively, and Boldly; but, as to many Learned Readers, more Acceptably, if I would have discoursed altogether like a Cartesian, or as a Partizan of some other Modern Sect of Philosophizers. But, besides that, I am not minded to give myself up to any Sect, I thought it convenient, that a Discourse, designed to work on Persons of differing Persuasions about Philosophical Matters, should not declare itself dogmatically, or unreservedly, of a Party, but employ rather the Dictates of Reason, or Principles either granted, or little contested, than proceed upon the peculiar Principles of a distinct Party of Philosophizers.
If now and then I have insisted upon some particular Subjects, more than appears absolutely necessary, I did it, because that, though I wrote this Treatise chiefly for my Friends, yet I did not write it for them only; but was willing to lay hold on some of the Occasions that the Series of my Discourse offered me, to excite in myself those Dispositions that I endeavoured to produce in others: And, by insisting upon some Reflections, impress them more deeply upon my own Mind; especially when I was Treating of some Points, either so Important, or so Opposed, or Both, that they can scarce be too much inculcated.
The Name of the Person, to whom the following Papers were address’d, not being necessary to be made Publick; some Reasons made it thought convenient, that it should remain unmentioned.