PHYSICS. deep and unobvious truths. I have, with trouble, obferv'd, that the greater part of the libertines among us, being men of Pilate's humour, (who, when he had fcornfully ask'd, what is truth? would not ftay for an anfwer) with great difdain, decline the ftudy of all truths that require a ferious and fettled application of mind. Thefe men are, for the most part, a fort of fuperficial and defultory wits, who go no further than the outfide of things, without penetrating into the receffes of them; and, being eafily tir'd with contemplating one, pafs quickly to another; the confideration whereof, they, with the fame lightness, forfake. And, upon this account, among others, it is, that fuch men, though often much applauded by others, because the most are but fuperficial, as well as they, almost as feldom make good philofophers, as good chriftians. For tho' all the found arguments, that may be brought to evince the truth of natural and reveal'd religion, be not abftrufe; yet fome of the principal, especially thofe that prove the exiftence and fpecial providence of God, and the immortality of the foul, are, if not of a metaphyfical, yet, at least, of a philofophical nature; and will fcarce be clearly understood, and duly relifh'd, but by a perfon capable of, and accuftom'd to attentive and prolong'd fpeculations. Now, a man addicted to profecute difcoveries of truths, not only by ferious meditation, but by intricate and laborious experiments, will not eafily be deterr'd from effectually pursuing his end, by the toils or difficulties that attend the clearing of thofe notions, and matters of fact, whereon folid arguments for natural, or reveal'd religion, are founded; how remote foever those truths may be from vulgar apprehenfions. In fhort, a fuperficial wit, fuch as is frequently found in libertines, and often helps to make them fuch, may be compared to an ordinary fwimmer, who can reach but fuch things as float upon the water; whilft an experimental philofopher, like a skilful diver, not only obtains thofe things that lie upon the furface of the fea, but makes his way to the very bottom of it; and thence fetches up pearls, corals, and other precious things, that, in fuch depths, lie conceal'd from other men's fight and reach.

Experimental philofophy leads to the chriftian

We have feen, then, that experimental philofophy is, in its own nature, favourable to religion, in general: it alfo greatly conduces to fhew religion, in par- the truth of the chriftian religion, in particular.

ticular.

This excellent religion is recommended to minds rightly difpofed, by a great number of prerogatives, whereof I fhall mention a few.

1. And first, the three grand arguments, that jointly evince the truth of the chriftian religion in general, are, in my opinion, the excellency of the doctrine, which makes it worthy to have proceeded from God; the teftimony of the divine miracles, wrought to recommend it; and the great effects, produced in the world by it. Two of thefe three arguments are bottom'd upon matters of fact, and, confequently, are likely to be the moft prevalent upon those who have a great veneration for experience, and are duly difpofed to frame fuch pious reflections, as it warrants and leads

to.

Now,

of experience.

Now, an experimental philofopher, who is mafter of others experience, PHYSICS. as well as of his own, and duly qualified to reflect upon both, will find ftrong motives to the belief of chriftianity, in the two laft of thefe argu- Different kinds ments of its truth. We muft here obferve, that the word experience may admit of feveral fenfes, whereof one is far more comprehenfive than another; and likewife, of feveral divifions, and diftributions. For, besides its more reftrained acceptation, it is fometimes fet in contra-diftinction to reafon, fo as to comprehend, not only thofe phenomena that nature or art exhibits to our outward fenfes, but the things we perceive to pass within ourselves, and all thofe ways of information, whereby we attain any knowledge that we do not owe to abftracted reafon. So that, without ftretching the word to its utmost extent, and to which it has been enlarg'd, it may be look'd upon as a very comprehenfive term, and fit to be branched into parts. I fhall, therefore, divide it into perfonal, hiftorical, and fupernatural, or theological.

I call that perfonal experience, which a man acquires immediately by Perfonal. himself, and which accrues to him by his own fenfations, or the exercife of his faculties, without the intervention of any external teftimony. "Tis by this experience we know, that the fun is bright; fire, hot; fnow, cold, and white; that, upon the want of aliment, we feel hunger; that we hope for future good; that we love what we judge good, and hate what we think evil; and difcern that there is a great difference between a triangle, and a circle, and can diftinguifh them by it.

By hiftorical experience, I mean that, which tho' it were perfonal in Hiflorical. fome other man, is but by his relation, or teftimony, whether immediately, or mediately conveyed to us. 'Tis by this we know, that there were fuch men as Julius Cafar, and William the conqueror; and that Jofeph knew Pharaoh had a dream, which the Egyptian wife-men could not expound. Theological experience is that, by which we know what (fuppofing a And theological, or fupernatural. divine revelation) God is pleased to relate, or declare concerning himself, his attributes, his actions, his will, or his purpofes; whether immediately, as he fometimes did to Job and Mofes, and conftantly to our Saviour; or by the intervention of angels, prophets, apoftles, or infpired perfons; as he did to the Ifraelites, and the primitive chriftian church; and ftill does to us, by those written teftimonies we call the fcriptures.

By perfonal experience, we know that there are ftars in the heavens; by hiftorical experience, we know that there was a new ftar feen by Tycho, and other aftronomers, in Caffiopeia, in the year 1572; and, by theological experience, we know, that the ftars were made on the fourth day of the

creation.

I do not, therefore, here take experience in the ftricteft fenfe of all, but in a greater latitude, for the knowledge we have of any matter of fact; which, without owing it to our reafoning faculty, we either acquire by the immediate teftimony of our own fenfes, and other faculties, or, it accrues to us by the communicated teftimony of others. And, even in common acceptation, the word experience is not always meant of that which VOL. II. Kk

is

PHYSICS. is immediate, but is often taken in a latitude. As when we fay, experience teaches us, who, perhaps, were never out of England, that the torrid zone is inhabited; and perfuades learned men, who had opportunity to make nice aftronomical obfervations, that ftars may be generated, and perifh; or, at least, begin to appear, and then difappear in the celeftial region of the world. On this kind of hiftorical experience, confifting of the perfonal obfervations of Hippocrates, Galen, and other phyficians, tranfmitted to us, a great part of the practice of phyfic is founded. And the most rational physicians take, as matters of fact, not only what other phyficians have left upon record, but many prefent things, which themfelves can know but by the relation of their patients; as, that a man has a particular antipathy to fuch a thing, which the doctor, perhaps, judges fit for him to ufe; or, that a woman with child, longs for this, or that determinate thing. And, phyficians reduce these, and the like matters of fact, to experience, as to one of the two columns of phyfic, diftinguished from reafon.

Since, then, learned men, as well as cuftom, confine not the application of the word experience, to that which is perfonal, but employ it in a far greater latitude; I fee not, why that, which I call theological experience, may not be admitted; fince the revelations that God makes concerning what he has done, or purposes to do, are but teftimonies of things, most of them matters of fact, and all of them fuch, as, (fo far as they are merely. revelations) cannot be known by reafoning, but by teftimony; whose being divine, and relating to theological fubjects, does not alter its nature, tho' it give it a peculiar and fuper-eminent authority.

To apply this diftribution of experience, to the matters of fact, that recommend the credibility of the chriftian religion, I shall offer my thoughts. in two diftinct propofitions.

PROP. I.

We ought to believe feveral things upon the information of experience, mediate and immediate, which, without that information, we should judge unfit to. be credited; or, antecedently to it, actually judged contrary to reafon.

This propofition may be understood, either of perfons, or of things, and will hold true in both.

And, firft, as to perfons; if our own obfervation of what occurs among mankind, does not fatisfy us, that we are oblig'd, after fufficient tryal, frequently to alter the opinions, which, upon probable reafons, we had before entertain'd, of the fidelity, prudence, juftice, chastity, &c. of this or that perfon; we need only turn to the records of history, or appeal to the tribunals of judges. For, in both we find but too many inftances and proofs from matters of fact, that perfons look'd on, even by intelligent men, as honeft, virtuous, and holy, have prov'd falfe, perfidious, difloyal, unjuft, facrilegious, perjur'd, &c. And, in the courts of juftice, we find a great deal of time employ'd to detect not only civil tranfgreffions;

as

as thefts, cheats, forgery, falfe-witnefs, adultery, and the like, perpetra- PHYSICS. ted by thofe, who, before they were throughly fifted, pafs'd for honeft; but, even fins against nature; as, the murders of parents by their children, and children by their parents, &c. Whence 'tis plain, that we ought, upon the teftimony of experience, to change the opinions we thought we had rationally taken up of perfons. I now proceed to make good the propofition, in the fenfe I chiefly intended, which is, as it relates to things.

If experience did not inform and certify us, who would believe, that a little heap of light, black grains of matter, fhould be able to over-turn ftone-walls, blow up whole caftles and rocks themselves, and do thofe other ftupendous things, that we fee actually perform'd by gun-powder,made use of in ordinance, and in mines? Who would think, that two or three grains of opium, fhould fo ftupify a large human body, as to force a fleep; and often, even without that, fufpend the fharpeft torments in the cholic, gout, and other the moft painful diseases, in patients of quite different ages, fexes, and conftitutions; in whom alfo the difeafes are produc'd by differing, or even by contrary caufes? Who would believe, that the poifon adhering to the tooth of a mad dog, tho', perhaps, fo little, as to be fcarce difcernible by fenfe, fhould be able, after the flight hurt is quite healed, to continue in the warm, perfpirable body of the bitten perfon, not only for fome days, or months, but, fometimes, for very many years? And, after having lurk'd all that while, without giving any trouble to the patient, that it fhould, on a fudden, pervert the whole economy of his body, and produce a madnefs like that of the dog which bit him, difcovering itself by that ftrange and fatal fymptom, an Hydrophobia?

But, befides a multitude of inftances that may be given of truths, which, were it not for experience, we fhould refufe to believe; because the fmall ftrength of fuch agents, feems altogether difproportionate to the effects afcribed to them; many other inftances might be alledg'd, wherein we affent to experience, even when its informations feem contrary to reafon, and that which, perhaps, we did actually, and, without fcruple, take to be true.

Since gravity is the principle, that determines falling bodies to move towards the center of the earth; it feems very rational to believe, with the generality of philofophers, that, in proportion as one body is more heavy than another, fo it fhall fall to the ground fafter than the other. Whence it has been inferr'd, that of two homogeneous bodies, whereof one, for example, weighs ten pounds, and the other but one pound; the former, being let fall from the fame height, and at the fame time with the latter, will reach the ground ten times fooner.

But, notwithstanding this plaufible reafoning, experience fhews us, (and I have purpofely try'd it) that bodies of very unequal weight, let fall together, will reach the ground at the fame time; or fo near it, that 'tis not eafy to perceive any difference in the velocity of their defcent, from a moderate height.

Kk 2

'Tis

PHYSICS.

'Tis generally taken for granted, by naturalifts, as well as others, that ftrong and loud founds, as they are heard much farther off, than fainter; fo, if the fonorous bodies be equally diftant from the ear, the very ftrong found will arrive much fooner at it, than the other; yet, by the experiments of the moderns, about the velocity of founds, (in making many of which, I have endeavour'd at accuracy) it appears, that weaker founds are (at least, as to fenfe) tranfmitted through the air as swiftly as the ftronger. And, indeed, 'tis often obferv'd, that when cannons and muskets are discharg'd together, the reports of both arrrive together at the ear.

It seems irrational to conceive, that a fmaller and weaker load-ftone, should draw away a piece of fteel from a larger and ftronger; yet, my experience (and that of others) proves, that, in fome cafes, this paradox

is a truth.

It has generally, by philofophers, as well as other men, been look'd upon as manifeft, and agreeable to reafon, that cold condenfes water, more or lefs, according to its degree; and, confequently, that ice is water reduced into a lefs bulk. But, 'tis plain, by experiments carefully made, that water is, by glaciation, rather expanded; or, at leaft, that ice takes up more room, than the water did before it was congeal'd. And of this fort of inftances, it were eafy to add a vast number.

And, to extend the force of our arguments, to that experience which is not immediate, or perfonally our own, but communicated by others; provided it be competently attefted, and duly convey'd to us; there will need but a little reflection on what is judg'd reafonable, and freely practis'd, by philofophers themfelves. For, how many conclufions have the modern naturalifts admitted, tho' abftract reafoning never led men to make them, and even while plaufible arguments, and the notions and axioms of the moft generally receiv'd philofophy, were contrary to them? Thus, that in the heavens there fhould be generations and corruptions, was not only unobferv'd before the time of Ariftotle, but is contradicted by his arguments; yet I, with many others, have feen great fpots (perhaps bigger than Europe) generated and diffipated on or near the furface of the fun: and feveral of the modern philofophers and astronomers, having never beheld any of thefe, muft take the phenomena upon the credit of thofe who have obferv'd them. And much more muft they do fo, who, in fpite of the vulgar philofophy, which made all comets fublunary, believe they are celeftial bodies. For, that they appear above the concave of the moon's orb, we credit upon the affirmation of thofe who obferv'd them; which very few have done themfelves. And the height of the famous comet, or difappearing ftar, in Caffiopeia, in the year 1572, whereon fo much ftrefs is laid by our philofophers and mathematicians, is admitted and urged, chiefly from the opinion they have, not only of Tycho's veracity, but his skill in obferving the motions and phenomena of that celestial light; and particularly its having no parallax.