‘TIs the just Grief, and frequent Complaint of those that take to heart the Concerns of Religion, that they see it now more furiously assaulted and studiously undermin’d than ever, not only by the vicious Lives of Men, but by their licentious Discourses. I know, there have been Vices in the World, as long as there have been Men: And ‘tis an observation as old as Solomon, Eccles. 7.10. That Men are apt to look upon their own Times as worse than those that preceded them. And because I remember too, that in reciting this Complaint he disapproves it; I shall not dispute, whether other Ages have been less faulty than this we live in: But this I think I may say with as much Truth as Grief, that, among us here in England, the Times, to which our memory can reach, have been less guilty, than the present Time is, of a spreading and bold Profaneness. For, though many allow’d themselves to court Gold, and Cups, and Mistresses, little less than now they do; yet these were still acknowledg’d to be Faults even by those that committed them, and the Precepts and the Counsels of Religion were neglected or disobeyed, but not their Authority thrown off or affronted; Men retaining yet such a kind of respect for Her, as the elder Son in the Parable did for his Father, when, receiving a command from him to go and work in his Vineyard, he answer’d, I go Sir, though he went not, Mat. 21.30. But now too many of the Vicious do not only scandalously violate the Laws of Religion, but question the Truth, and despise the very Name of it. They rather choose to imitate the Rebels in the other Parable, and say of Religion what they did of their lawful King, when they insolently declar’d, that they would not have him to reign over them, Luke 19.14. They seek not to hide their sins like Adam, but think either to cover or protect all others by that greatest of all, Impiety; and, instead of cheating Conscience into silence, (as sinners, not impudent, are wont to do,) by deceitful promises of repenting hereafter of their sins, they endeavour to stifle or depose it, by maintaining, that Repentance is a weakness of mind, and Conscience ought not to be look’d on as the Vicegerent of a Deity, whose very Existence or Providence they dispute.
And that which more troubled me, and made me most apprehend the spreading of this Impiety, was, that it was propagated in a new way, that made me fear, the Arguments not only of vulgar Preachers, but even of learned Divines themselves, would be much less fit than formerly to give a check to its progress. For, till of late, the generality of our Infidels did, either as Philologers, question the Historical part of the Scriptures, and perhaps cavil at some of the Doctrines; or, if they employed Philosophical Arguments, as Pomponatius and Vaninus did, they borrow’d them from Aristotle, or the Peripatetick School. And against both these sorts of Adversaries, the learneder Champions of the Christian Religion, such as Vives, Mornay, and Grotius, had furnish’d Divines with good and proper Weapons. For, the Historical part of the Scriptures, and especially the Miracles, were strongly confirmable by competent Testimonies, and other Moral Proofs, sufficient in their kind. And Aristotle being himself a dark and dubious Writer, and his Followers being on that account divided into Sects and Parties, which for the most part had nothing to alledge but his single Authority, ‘twas not difficult to answer the Arguments drawn from the Peripatetick Philosophy; and, if that could not have been done, it had not been difficult to reject the Doctrines themselves as false or precarious. But our new Libertines take another and shorter way, (though I hope it will not be a more prosperous one,) to undermine Religion. For, not troubling themselves to examine the Historical or Doctrinal parts of Christian Theology, in such a way as Jews, Pagans, Mahometans, would do; These deny those very Principles of Natural Theology, wherein the Christian, and those other differing, Religions agree, and which are suppos’d in almost all Religions, that pretend to Revelation, namely, the Existence and Providence of a Deity, and a Future State (after this life is ended.) For, these Libertines own themselves to be so upon the account of the Epicurean, or other Mechanical, Principles of Philosophy, and therefore to press them with the Authorities wont to be employ’d by Preachers, is improper, since they are so far from paying any respect to the venerable Fathers of the Church, that they slight the generality of the Heathen Philosophers themselves, judging no Writers worthy of that name, but those that, like Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, &c. explicate things by Matter and Local Motion; and therefore ‘tis not to be expected, that they should reverence any more the Peripatetick Arguments of Scotus or Aquinas, than the Homilies of St. Augustine, or St. Chrysostom; and to give Aristotle himself the Title of The Philosopher, were enough to make some of them conclude the Ascriber were no Philosopher. And this, by the way, may excuse me for not having brought into the following Papers the Sentences of the Fathers or the Moralists, or the Authority of Aristotle, or any of the School-Philosophers, which I should have declin’d to employ, though my frequent removes from place to place, when I was writing these Papers, had not deny’d me the convenience of a Library.
Things being at this pass, though the Title of this Discourse acknowledges the Author of it to be a Layman; yet I shall not beg pardon for the ensuing Papers as for an intrenchment upon the Ecclesiasticks. For besides that, though I know some Functions, yet I know no Truths, of Religion, that have the peculiarity of the Shew-bread under the Law, Mat. 12.4. with which it was lawful only for the Priests to meddle; I will not so far mistrust the Charity of Churchmen, as not to suppose, that they will rather thank than blame any man, that being not altogether a stranger to this warfare, offers them his assistance against the common Enemy in so important a quarrel, and so great a danger. The Fathers, and other Divines, being wont to compare the Church Militant to a ship, ‘twill not be an improper extension of the Comparison, to say, that, when the Vessel is threatned with shipwrack, or boarded by Pyrates, it may be the Duty not only of profess’d Seamen, but any private Passenger, to lend his helping hand in that common danger. And I wish, I were as sure, that my endeavors will prove successful, as I am, that such Churchmen as I most esteem will think them neither needless nor unseasonable. Nay, perhaps my being a Secular person, may the better qualifie me to work on those I am to deal with, and may make my Arguments, though not more solid in themselves, yet more prevalent with men that usually (though how justly, let them consider,) have a particular pique at the Clergy, and look with prejudice upon whatever is taught by men, whose interest is advantag’d by having what they teach believed. And I was the more invited not to be a meer Spectator, or a lazy Deplorer of the danger I saw Religion in, because it seem’d not unlikely, that Philosophical Infidels, as they would be thought, would be less tractable to Divines, though never so good Humanists and Antiquaries, than to a person that reasons with them upon their own grounds, and discourses with them in their own way, having had a somewhat more than ordinary curiosity to acquaint himself with the Epicurean and Cartesian Principles, and exercise himself in that Philosophy, which is very conversant with things Corporeal, and strives to explain them by Matter and Motion, and shakes off all Authority (at least that is not infallible.) Vpon such Considerations as these, I comply’d with an occasion I had of solemnly asking Reason the Question, that Joshua once ask’d the Angel that appear’d to him in the Plains of Jericho, Art thou for us, or for our Adversaries? Josh. 5.14; and of committing to Paper those thoughts that should occur to me on that Subject. And this I the rather did, that I might thereby as well contribute to my own satisfaction as to that of my Friends. For, as I think, that there is nothing that belongs to this life, that so much deserves our serious care as what will become of us when we are past it; so I think, that he who takes a resolution either to embrace or reject so important a thing as Religion, without seriously examining why he does it, may happen to make a good Choice, but can be but a bad Chooser. And that I might not exclude, by too early a method, those things, that, for ought I knew, might hereafter be pertinent and useful, I threw my Reflections into one Book, as into a Repository, to be kept there only as a heap of differing materials, that, if they appear’d worth it, they might be afterwards review’d, and sorted, and drawn into an orderly Discourse. But, before I began to do what I intended, a succession of accidents, (wherewith ‘twould not be proper to trouble the Reader,) quite diverted me to employments of a very distant nature; so that these Papers, being thrown by, did for divers years lie neglected, with many others, till at length the person, for whose perusal I in the first place design’d them, join’d with some other intelligent Friends to urge me to send them abroad, though I was not in a condition to give them the finishing strokes, or so much as to fill up several of the Blanks, my haste had made me leave to be supply’d when I should be at leisure. And indeed, notwithstanding the just aversness I had from letting a piece so incomplete and uncorrected appear in this Critical Age; yet the hopes, they confidently gave me, that this piece, such as it is, might not be unacceptable nor useless, were not, I confess, altogether groundless.
Novelty being a thing very acceptable in this age, and particularly to the persons I am to deal with, to whom perhaps ‘tis none of the least endearments of their Errors, I despair not, that ‘twill somewhat recommend these Papers, to which I designed to commit not Transcripts of what I thought they may have already met with in Authors, but such considerations, as a serious attention, and the nature of the things I treated of, suggested to me; so that most of the things will perhaps be thought new; and some few things coincident with what they may have elsewhere met with, may possibly appear rather to have been suggested by considering the same subjects, to other Authors and to me, than to have been borrowed by me of them. But some few things, I confess, I employ, that were commonly enough employed before, and I hope, I may in that have done Religion no disservice; For having taken notice, that some of the more familiar Arguments had a real force in them, but had been so unwarily proposed as to be lyable to exceptions that had discredited them; I made it my care, by proposing them more cautiously, to prevent such objections, which alone kept their force from being apparent.
I was not unmindful of the great Disadvantage this Tract was likely to undergo, partly for want of a more curious method, and partly because my other occasions required, that if I Published it at all, it must be left to come abroad uupolish’d and unfinished. But though this Inconvenience had like to have supprest this Discourse; yet the force of it was much weaken’d by this consideration, that this immethodical way of Writing would best comply with what was designed and pretended in this Paper, which was, not to write a compleat Treatise of the Subject of it; but only to suggest about it some of those many considerations, that (questionless) might have occurred to (what I do not pretend to) an Enlightned and Penetrating Intellect. And the Loadstone, divers of whose Phenomena are mention’d in the body of this little Tract, suggested somewhat to me in reference to the Publication of it, by exciting in me a hope, that, if this Discourse have any thing near as much Truth as I endeavour’d to furnish it with, that Truth will have its operation upon sincere Lovers of it, notwithstanding the want of regularity in the method: As a good Loadstone will not, by being rough and rudely shap’d, be hinder’d from exercising its Attractive and Directive powers upon Steel and Iron.
As for the Style, I was rather shy than ambitious of bringing in the Thorns of the School-men or the Flowers of Rhetoric: For, the latter, though they had of their own accord sprung up under my Pen, I should have thought improper to be imployed in so serious and Philosophical a Subject: And as to the former, I declin’d them, in complaisance to the humor of my Infidels, who are generally so prejudic’d against the School-men, that scarce any thing can be presented them with more disadvantage than in a Scholastick dress; and a Demonstration will scarce pass for a good Argument with some of them, if it be formed into a Syllogism in mode and figure. That therefore, which I chiefly aim’d at in my expressions, was significancy and clearness, that my Reader might see, that I was willing to make him judge of the strength of my Arguments, and would not put him to the trouble of divining in what it lay, nor inveigle him by ornaments of speech, to think it greater than it was. I was also led by my Reason, as well as by my Inclination, to be careful not to rail at my Infidels: And though I have some cause to think, that many of them had their understandings debauch’d by their lives, and were seduc’d from the Church not by Diagoras or Pyrrho, but by Bacchus and Venus; yet I treat them as supposing them to be what they would be thought, Friends to Philosophy: And being but a Layman, I did not think my self obliged to talk to them as out of a Pulpit, and threaten them with Damnation unless they believ’d me, but chose to discourse to them rather as to erring Virtuosi, than Wicked wretches.
This moderation that I have us’d towards them, will, I hope, induce them to grant me two or three reasonable requests; whereof the first shall be, that they would not make a final judgment of these Papers till they have perus’d them quite through; especially having in their Eye what is declar’d in the Preamble, where both the design and scope of the whole discourse, and what it does not pretend to, is exprest. The next thing I am to request of them, and my Readers, is, that they would not have the meaner thoughts of my Arguments for not being propos’d with the confidence, wherewith many Writers are wont to recommend weaker proofs. For I wrote to intelligent Men, and, in the judgment of such, I never observ’d that a Demonstration ceas’d to be thought one for being modestly propos’d; but I have often known a good Argument lose of its credit by the invidious Title of a Demonstration. And I must further beg my Readers, to estimate my Design in these Papers by the Title of them, in which I do not pretend to make Religion trample upon Reason, but only to shew the Reconcileableness of the one to the other, and the friendly agreement between them. I am a person, who looking upon it as my Honour and Happiness to be both a Man, and a Christian, would neither write nor believe any thing, that might misbecome me in either of those two capacities. I am not a Christian, because it is the Religion of my Countrey, and my Friends; nor, because I am a stranger to the Principles either of the Atomical, or the Mechanical Philosophy. I admit no mans Opinions in the whole lump, and have not scrupled, on occasion, to own dissents from the generality of learned men, whether Philosophers or Divines: And when I choose to travel in the beaten Road, ‘tis not because I find ‘tis the Road, but because I judge ‘tis the Way. Possibly I should have much fewer Adversaries, if all those that yet are so, had as attentively and impartially consider’d the Points in Controversie as I have endeavour’d to do. They would then, ‘tis like, have seen, that the Question I handle, is not whether Rational Beings ought to avoid Vnreasonable Assents, but whether, when the Historical and other Moral Proofs clearly sway the Scales in favour of Christianity, we ought to flie from the Difficulties that attend the granting of a Deity and Providence, to Hypotheses, whether Epicurean or others, that are themselves incumber’d with confounding Difficulties: On which account I conceive, that the Question between them and me is not, whether They, or I, ought to submit to Reason (for we both agree in thinking our selves bound to that;) but whether They or I submit to Reason the fulliest inform’d, and least byass’d by Sensuality, Vanity, or Secular Interest.
I reverence and cherish Reason as much, I hope, as any of them; but I would have Reason practise Ingenuity as well as Curiosity, and both industriously pry into things within her sphere, and frankly acknowledge (what no Philosopher that considers will deny) that there are some things beyond it. And in these it is, that I think it as well her Duty to admit Revelation, as her Happiness to have it propos’d to her: And, even as to Revelations themselves, I allow Reason to judge of them, before she judges by them. The following Papers will, I hope, manifest, that the main difference betwixt my Adversaries and me is, that they judge upon particular Difficulties and Objections, and I, upon the whole matter. And to conclude; as I make use of my Watch to estimate Time, when ever the Sun is absent or clouded, but when he shines clearly forth, I scruple not to correct and adjust my Watch by his Beams cast on a Dial; so, wherever no better Light is to be had, I estimate Truth by my own Reason; but where Divine Revelation can be consulted, I willingly submit my fallible Reason to the sure Informations afforded by Celestial Light.
I should here put an end to this long Preface, but that to the things, which have been said concerning what I have written of my own, I see ‘tis requisite that I add a few words about what I quote from other Writers; especially because in this very Preface I mention my having intended to entertain my Friend with my own Thoughts. Of the Citations therefore that my Reader will meet with in the following Papers, I have this Account to give him: (1.) That I had written the Considerations and Distinctions to which they are annexed, before I met with these cited Passages, which I afterwards inserted in the Margent, and other vacant places of my Epistle. (2.) That these Passages are not borrow’d from Books that treat of the Truth of the Christian Religion, or of Christian Theology at all, but are tak’n from Authors that write of Philosophical Subjects, and are by me apply’d to Mine, which are usually very distant from Theirs. (3.) If you then ask me, why I make use of their Authority, and did not content my self with my own Ratiocinations? I have this to Answer; that my design being to convince another who had no reason to look upon my Authority, and whom I had cause to suspect to have entertain’d some prejudices against any Reasons that should come from one that confessedly aim’d at the defending of the Christian Religion, I thought it very proper and expedient to let him see, that divers of the same things (for substance,) that I deliver’d in favour of that Religion, had been taught as Philosophical Truths by Men that were not profess’d Divines, and were Philosophers, and such strict Naturalists too, as to be extraordinarily careful not to take any thing into their Philosophy upon the account of Revelation. And on this occasion let me observe to you, that there are some Arguments, which being clearly built upon Sense or evident Experiments, need borrow no Assistance from the Refutation of any of the Proposers or Approvers, and may, I think, be fitly enough compar’d to Arrows shot out of a Cross-Bow, or Bullets shot out of a Gun, which have the same strength, and pierce equally, whether they be discharg’d by a Child, or a strong Man. But then, there are other Ratiocinations, which either do, or are suppos’d to depend, in some measure, upon the judgment and skill of those that make the Observations whereon they are grounded, and their Ability to discern Truth from Counterfeits, and Solid things from those that are but Superficial ones: And these may be compar’d to Arrows shot out of a Long-Bow, which make much the greater impression, by being shot by a strong and skilful Archer. And therefore when we question, what Doctrines ought or ought not to be thought Reasonable, it do’s not a little facilitate a Propositions appearing (not Contrary, but) Consonant to Reason, that ‘tis look’d upon as such by those that are acknowledged the Masters of that Faculty.
Contents · Some Considerations About the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion →