no man can fully mis-believe any of these fooleries, it bare Possibility may have the least power of turning the Scales this way or that way. For none of these, nor a thousand more such like as these, imply a perfect and palpable Contradiction, and therefore will put in for their right of being deemed possible.
4. But we are not to attend to what is simply possible, but to what our Natural Faculties do direct and determine us to. As for example, Suppose the question were, Whether the Stones in the street have sense or no; we are not to leave the point as indifferent, or that may beheld either way, because it is possible, and implies no palpable Contradiction, that they may have sense, and that a painfull sense too: but we are to consult with our Natural Faculties, and see whither they propend; and they do plainly determinate the controversy, by telling us that what has sense and is capable of pain ought to have also progressive Motion, to be able to avoid what is hurtfull and painfull, and we see it is so in all Beings that have any considerable share of Sense. And Aristotle, who was no doter on a Deity, yet frequently does assume this Principle, Ἡ φύσις οὐδὲν μάτην ποιεῖ, That Nature does nothing in vain. Which is either an acknowledgment of a God, or an appeal to our own Rationall Faculties, and I am indifferent which, for I have what I would out of either; for if we appeal to the naturall suggestions of our own Faculties, they will assuredly tell us There is a God.
5. I therefore again demand, and I desire to be answered without prejudice, or any restraint laid upon our Natural Faculties, To what purpose is this Indeleble Image or Idea of God in us, if there be no such thing as God existent in the world? or who seal'd so deep an impression of that Character upon our Minds?
If we were travelling in a desolate Wilderness, where we could discover neither Man nor House, and should meet with Herds of cattel or Flocks of Sheep upon whose bodies there were branded certain Marks or Letters, we should without any hesitancy conclude that these have all been under the hand of some man or other that has set his name upon them. And verily when we see writ in our Souls in such legible Characters the Name, or rather the Nature and Idea, of God, why should we be so slow and backward from making the like reasonable inference, Assuredly, he whose Character is signed upon our Souls has been here, and has thus marked us, that we and all may know to whom we belong, That it is he that has made us, and not we our selves; that we are his people, and the sheep of his Pasture. And it is evidently plain from the Idea of God, which includes Omnipotence in it, that we can be made from none other then he; as I have ** See the foregoing Chap. Sect. 7, 8, 9. before demonstrated. And therefore there was no better way then by sealing us with this Image to make us acknowledge our selves to be his, and to doe that Worship and Adoration to him that is due to our mighty Maker and Creator, that is, to our God.
Wherefore things complying thus naturally and easily together, according to the free Suggestions of our Naturall Faculties, it is as perverse and forced a businesse to suspend assent, as to doubt whether those Roman Urnes and Coins I spoke of, digg'd out of the Earth, be the works of Nature, or the Artifice of Men.
