Power not to have made it place, when he might have crept up and lain warm in her Bofom. QI am in very uneafie Circumstances, by reason of a rash Curfe which I unhappily made : The Cafe was thus: I was pro-ply any thing Unlawful, as the abvok'd to a great degree, and be folute ruining your felf or Family, that was the Occafion of it defir'd 'tis then another Cafe, and you me never to speak to him more,up. ought in our Opinion not to obon which (God forgive me) I ferve it; tho' at the fame time fewifhtGod would Damn my Tongue verely to Repent your firft Rafhaf I did, and be to double the nefs in making it, and humble Curfe anfivered, Amen; I am in your felf before God for having an Employment where it is una- done it. voidable: I defire you, if poffible in your next ORACLE to give me the best Advice you can, for I am extreamly impatient, though refolved through God's Affiftance to hold out to that time. Q. I have had the Advantage of an Ingenious Education, under the Pious Care of very good Parents, and was inftructed in the Rudiments of the Chriftian Religion from my Infancy, but chiefly in thofe relating to good Morals; I was put to School, where I made fome Proficiency; after a few Years (not being dafign'd to continue there) I was put an Apprentice, when having Jometimes a Vacancy from Bufinefs I was minded to improve that Time to my greatest Satif A. You are in great hafte if you'll ftay no longer than the time you have limitted, efpe cially in a matter of fo much Moment. That your Imprecation was rafh and wicked, you your felf are fenfible, though it may oblige to Punishment, fince twas Voluntary: And your good Friend who faid Amen to fo Pi-faction, either in reading fome of ous a Prayer, and Clincht your Curfe, has a fhare in the Guilt of the Action, as well as you; though what Wonder he fhould Curfe you, who had first Curs'd your felf! The Queftion is, VVhat you are now to do, and whether to keep fuch an Oath or break it? (for an Oath it was with a Curfe into the bar gain.) We Anfwer, that though it was indeed a rafh Oath, yet if the Subject of it be po fible and Liwful, and not only inconveni ent, you ought, We think, to obferve it. We fay, an Incon venience only ought not to make you brakit, though a very high ong, (becafe it was in your own the Latin Paets, and others of our own Country, but was very Curious in the Choice of good Books, or in fome other Innocent Sports and Recreations, and kept but little Company: When I came to understand my self a little, I had a mind to enquire into the Nature of fome Things, which to me seem'd of great Concern, and which were commonly taken upon Trust without further enquiry; fuch as the Being of God, the Immortality of the Soul, the Truth of a future State of Retribution, with the Verity of the Christian Faith; these things feem't to me of very great Mment, no left than Eternal, I thought thought might justly deferve my moft ferious Meditations; I began to enquire into its firft Principles, as to the Truth of them, what might perfwade me to believe the Existence of the Deity: I found fome Satisfaction in the Belief of a firft Caufe, upon enquiry into the Nature of things, and for the rest I could not perfwade my Jelf concerning them. I believe thofe Men to be mighty Happy who have a firm Perfuafion of the Truth of these things, and tis to of great use or sweeten our Various Croffes and Misfortunes. I find the Credenda are to me more difagreeable than the Agenda. I have a Natural or acquir'd tendency to Virtue and Innocence, which has gain'd me no fmall Reputation. Imention my Educa tion and way of living, that you may think I have not debaucht my Jelf into thefe Circumstances. Pray, Gentlemen, not only your Thoughts but Directions in this Affair; I am really very ferious, and defire your Speedy Answer; you are the first to whom I have Communicated my Thoughts, which may be of ufe to many others as well as to me? A. The Exiftence of fome Intelligent Author of what we daily fee and Converfe with, is too evi dent for any Man to doubt of, (how much foever the contrary fhould be his Intereft) provided he dares give himfelf the Liberty of thinking, but your Satisfaction in this Point does prevent what might be faid on this Head; 'tis the Immortality of the Soul, the Certainty of future Retributions, whether Rewards or Punishments, that you feem to be diffatisfy'd in, and perhaps you have loft your felf in the fearch of fuch Demonftrations as are neceffary to Convince the Judgment in the other Cafes; 'tis true, the Juftice of God, the Conviction of our own Confciences, Apparitions, with the Natural Expectation of another Life, and the Immortality of the Soul, which are fo deeply imprefs'd upon Mankind, that We find the wifer fort of Heathens, that had no other than this Natural Light, continually affert these things, and with fuch a ftrength of Reafon as fail'd not of Profelyting the Confiderate part of their Hearers; but thefe Arguments are not so much to be infifted on, as the great one of Revelation, which gives us not only the beft Knowledge of our felves, but affures us of the certainty of what is here called in doubt; if the Chriftian Religion be true, all this is true; and that it is fo, we have all certainty that the Nature of the thing will admit of, and we might eafily challenge all that doubt of thefe Truths, To lay down what Arguments they would admit of as Conclufive, and fufficient to Convince their Fudgment, upon fuppofition that thefe things were true; and we doubt not but there are already produc d better than any Deift can or could poffibly do, if it were his Intereft to prove fuch a thing himself. To enter upon particulars in this matter, would be too tedious in this place, we choose rather to refer all dillatisfy'd Perfons to a fmall Trea tifed printed 1677. Entituled, 4 Letter to a Deift,in Answer to feveral Objections against the Truth andAuthority of theScriptures: As alfo Hugo Grotius of the Truth of the Chriftian Religion. These two Treatifes are fufficient to convince any Perfon that pretends to Senfe and Reafon and 'tis only this way of of Arguing that is Safe, and Unexceptionable, viz. To prove the Truth of the Chriftian Religion, and then all the reft are prov'd at once. we think,bind you to performance; Q: My Father fufpecting me to have a kindness for a Gentlewoman, he had no other Reason to except against fave only her disparity in Fortune, was pleas'd upon his Death-bed to lay a ftrict Injunction upon me never to marry her; He urged his Charge fo home upon me, that I made him a folemn Promife Inever would. This Promife I would not willingly have made, if I could fairly have avoi-conveniencies, which Experience ded it. But it being peremptori would foon inform you of, who ly demanded by my Parent, whom is call'd indeed the Mitress of the I was unwilling to disturb in his Wife, but Men must have been a Illness, and whofe difpleasure I pretty while in her School, before was afraid would very confidera- they deferve the Title, and have bly affect my Fortune; I thought a quite different one at their first I could not refuse it, in either admittance. Duty or Intereft. And as I then thought my felf obliged in Duty to make this Promife,and in Confcited, and living with Relations ence to keep it inviolable, fo nei ther had I at the fame time the leaft intention at all to the contrary: Quere,Whether (this Promise notwithstanding) I may not Innocently marry the Gentlewoman? Q. Whether any Perfon of either Sex, well Born and Educa and Friends fuitable, in a good Conversation, and after left under ftreights, or no Fortune, as many are,and have a Principle ofConfcience not allowing them to do any known ill, and a Principle of Ho nour that cannot stoop to mean things, nor may be able if they could fubmit; Whether fuch Perfons may lawfully maintain themfelves or Family by Play, that is, Gaming,by Cards or Dice, playing on the Square justly and honeftis, but by Skill being almost affured they shall be Gainers? A. If you ever made your Ad. dreffes to the Lady, and they proceeded fo far as to any Promife of Marriage on your part, or what may have been equivalent (for Actions fometimes (peak, and that louder and clearer than Words) then your Promife to your Father was both unlawful and null'd, by your prior Obligation. But if no fuch former Promise to the Lady, that to your Father, tho' it appears fevere in him to exact it, (unless he might have fome Rea-ly it leads People to Paifion fons for't that you are ignorant of) and Coveting ones Neighbours yet being in a lawful matter, does, A. We need not endeavour to prove the ill Confequence of fuch a Practice to Wife Perfons, it being well known how natural Goods: Goods: Tho' were it poffible for a Man of a Cool Temper to a void thefe Evils, yet it gives him fuch a Levity of Mind as unfits him for a virtuous Course of Life; upon these and many other Confiderations, it's abfolutely unlawful to make a Livelihood of what is only allowable fometimes to be ufed for the Refreshment of our felves, when tired with Bufinefs. And it's much more lawful and honourable for Man to ferve for his Bread, than to live by any fuch indirect Means. Q. How that Text in Ezekiel, and many others, that faith, the Son fhall not bear the Iniquity of the Father, can be reconciled with the Second Commandment, that faith, God will vifit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children, unto the third and fourth Generation? A. In after Retributions, the Child fhall undoubtedly be either rewarded or punifh'd according to his own, and not his Parents Actions here; tho' a good Son may receive a temporal Mercy or Affliction as an effect of the Parents virtuous or wicked Life. Q. David faith in the Thirty Seventh Pfalm, he never faw the Righteous forfaken, nor bis Seed begging their Bread; whether it was fo happy in his days literally or comparatively? Because we fee infinite Numbers in all Ages of the Gofpel, under great neceffity, that are very pious Perfons, and have never by any Improvidence brought themselves into that Condition, and there are many Promifes in Scripture, that fuch fhall not want any thing that is good,and fhalt inherit the Earth? 4. By the righteous Man, David there means the good Man, fuch an one as is charitable to his Neighbour, as appears by those Verfes that both precede and follow this. And common experience fhows us that those Perfons that have made it their bufinefs to do good to others, have not only been bleft (for the generality) in their Pofterity, but alfo in their Eftates ; whenas many religious Perfons thro' the defect of this Duty, which is the greatest Teltimony of a good Chriftian, have by fome accidental means wafted in their fubftance, and not having made themfelves Friends during their Plenty, muft neceffarily reduce their Pofterity to want. And God Almighty having found them fuch ill Stewards, transfers the truft to fuch as may make a better ufe of it. QPray favour me with the folution of the following Question, Whether all Men that hang themfelves are not distracted? The reafon of my Sending is this, becaufe in any fuch cafe, the Fury confult together whether fuch a perfon mere diftracted or no? A. To your Queftion, the very Terms of it, we think, imply its Anfwer; for if a Jury confults whether fuch a Ferfon were diftracted, it implies that fometimes fuch Perfons are not diftracted, for if always fo, what need of Confultation? Thus much indeed must be granted, that fuch a thing may be, and that it often is, and it can't be deny'd, that it has been the Opinion of great Men, Divines and others, that no Man cou'd poffibly offer Violence to himfelf, were he not at lealt in the very Act, under a fit of Distraction: But however this may hold in femme Intances, the the contrary may, we think, be made good in many, if not in moft. For if we confider, thofe among the Romans, who when Fortune frown'd upon 'em, out of a mistaken Bravery, or rather Impotence of Mind, threw a way their Lives, with what calmnefs and temper did they often do it, and cou'd Anfwer with an-Imperator bene fe habet, even in the Agonies of Death. And much the fame has been obferved of many of thofe loft Perfons, who have gone the fame way in our Age and Nation, fome of whom have taken their leaves of all their Friends, adjudg'd all their Accounts, which require Sedatenefs and Calmness of Mind, before they have gone about the bufinefs. But befides all this, did not the Wisdom of our Laws fuppofe the fame thing, they wou'd never have stampt fuch a Brand of Infamy on the Bodies of thofe who have this way come to their Ends, as well as taken away the Eftate from their Relations. The Civil Law goes yet | higher, as 'tis quoted by Bishop Barlow on a Question near a-kin to this, Miles, &c. The Soldier who hath laid violent Hands on himfelf, but not accomplish'd the Fact, unless he did it from Impatience of Pain, or Difeafe, or Grief, or fome fuch other Caufe, fhall be punifh'd with Death. Whereas the Reverend Bishop obferves, the very attempt of Self murther is punishable, and that too, with Capital Punishment. 'Tis true, there are fo many Exceptions in the Law, that wou'd perfuade one to be lieve 'twas only made in Terrorem, but if any thing at all be intend by it, that Impatience, &c. muft be conftru'd as high as Distracti on, tho' even then they were to be ignominioufly difimift from their Employment: Cum ignominia mittendus eft. Q. Whether there are any fuch things as connate or innate Ideas? A. By Mr.Lock's leave, we give our Judgment that there are fuch things, and that these are the firft Principles both of Science and Practice; which we fhall endea-. vour to make good, from thefe following Arguments. 1. If there are fuch Principles offelf-evident Truths, wherein all Men agree, unlefs fuch as are vifibly blinded with Prejudice or Folly, and that without the af fiftance of Argumentation, or deductions from Reafon, or the inftruction of others, then there are Innate Idea's-But fuch there are- -Ergo. To prove there are fuch Truths we'll inftance in three fuch, one in Practice, the other two in Science. The first Specu lative Idea is, That there is a GOD, which we fhall diftinctly prove in answer to the next Question, to be naturally infcrib'd on the Minds of Men. The fecond we'll inftance in fhall be that self-evident truth, That a thing can't be, and not be at the fame time, which as foon as a Man understands, the Terms must be affented to by any thing that's Rational, becaute no other than what he feels to be true in his own Mind, without any Inftruction from others. No Man need inform another in the truth of fuch a propofition; nor does he deduce it from Reafon, fince there is no prior Principle whereby to prove |