The Preface
ding to the Scripture Advice) will make it more Firm and Stedfast; and the better able to resist those Assaults of Sophisticall Reasonings, that shall be made against it.
In this Fifth Chapter, as sometimes elsewhere, we thought Our selves concerned, in Defence of the Divine Wisdome, Goodness, and Perfection, against Atheists, to maintain, (with all the Ancient Philosophick Theists,) the Perfection of the Creation also; or that the Whole System of things taken all together, could not have been Better Made and Ordered then it is. And indeed, This Divine Goodness and Perfection, as Displaying and Manifesting it self in the Works of Nature and Providence, is supposed in Scripture, to be the very Foundation of our Christian Faith; when that is Defined, to be the Substance and Evidence Rerum Sperandarum; that is, of Whatsoever is (by a Good man) to be hoped for. Notwithstanding which, it was far from our Intention, therefore to Conclude, That Nothing neither in Nature nor Providence, could be Otherwise then it is; or, That there is Nothing left to the Free Will and Choice of the Deity. And though we do in the Third Section, insist largely, upon that Ancient Pythagorick Cabbala, That Souls are always United to some Body or other; as also, That all Rationall and Intellectuall Creatures, consist of Soul and Body; and suggest several things, from Reason and Christian Antiquity, in favour of them both: yet would we not be Understood, to Dogmatize in either of them, but to Submit all to better Judgments.
Again, we shall here Advertise the Reader, (though we have Caution'd concerning it, in the Book it self) That in our Defence of Incorporeal Substance against the Atheists, However we thought our selves concerned, to say the utmost that possibly we could, in way of Vindication of the Ancients, who generally maintained it to be Unextended, (which to some seems an Absolute Impossibility;) yet we would not be supposed Ourselves, Dogmatically to Assert any more in this Point, then what all Incorporealists agree in, That there is a Substance Specifically distinct from Body; namely such, as Consisteth Not of Parts Separable from one another; and which can Penetrate Body; and Lastly, is Self-Active, and hath an Internal Energy, distinct from that of Locall Motion. (And thus much is undeniably Evinced, by the Arguments before proposed.) But whether this Substance, be altogether Unextended, or Extended otherwise then Body; we shall leave every man to make his own Judgment concerning it.
Furthermore, We think fit here to Suggest, That whereas throughout this Chapter and Whole Book, we constantly Oppose the Generation of Souls, that is, the Production of Life, Cogitation and Understanding, out of Dead and Sensless Matter; and assert all Souls to be as Substantiall as Matter
