Boyle on Atheism 9781442671553

Table of contents :
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS FOR BOYLE'S WORK
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Boyle's Life
1. Boyle's Headings and Overview
2. Demonstration and Its Difficulties
3. Arguments for God's Existence
4. The Unprevalence of Arguments against God's Existence
5. The Conclusion
APPENDIX A: DATING
APPENDIX B: PEOPLE MENTIONED BY BOYLE IN THIS VOLUME
NOTES
INDEX

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BOYLE ON ATHEISM

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Transcribed and edited by J.J. Macintosh

Boyle on Atheism

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2005 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-9018-4

Printed on acid-free paper Toronto Studies in Philosophy Editors: Donald Ainslie and Amy Mullin

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Boyle on atheism / transcribed and edited by J.J. Macintosh. (Toronto studies in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-9018-4 1. Atheism. 2. Atheism - Early works to 1800. 3. God-Proof. I. Macintosh, J.J. (John James). II. Title. III. Series. BL2747.3.B69 2005

212M

C2005-903206-5

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Vll

ABBREVIATIONS FOR BOYLE'S WORK ix GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Boyle's Life

xiii

3

1 Boyle's Headings and Overview 49 1.1 Boyle's Headings 49 1.2 Boyle's Overview 50 2 Demonstration and Its Difficulties 70 Introduction 70 Boyle - The Manuscript Material 97 2.1 Demonstration 97 2.2 The Nature of God 134 2.3 The Character of the Atheist 162 3 Arguments for God's Existence 171 Introduction 171 Boyle - The Manuscript Material 215 3.1 The Sufficiency of Moral Demonstration 215 3.2 Minor Arguments 217 3.3 Conscience and Christian Morality 223 3.4 Design Arguments 233 3.5 Incorporeality Arguments 246 3.6 Miracles 261

vi Contents 3.7 The Excellency of Christianity 297 3.8 Arguments against the Atheist 305 4 The Unprevalence of Arguments against God's Existence 316 Introduction 316 Boyle - The Manuscript Material 337 4.1 Boyle on Epicurean Atheism 337 4.2 Intellectual Impediments 357 4.3 Mistaken Ideas about the Deity 364 4.4 The Atheist's Failure to Consider Relevant Points 367 4.5 Tu Quoque (the Atheist Has the Same Problems as the Believer) 370 4.6 The Response to the Atheist's Objections 374 5 The Conclusion 383

APPENDIX A: DATING 387 APPENDIX B: PEOPLE MENTIONED BY BOYLE IN THIS VOLUME 411 NOTES 423 BIBLIOGRAPHY 459 INDEX 481

Acknowledgments

Work on this book has been supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council research grant, by a fellowship from the Humanities Institute of the University of Calgary, by a Killam Residence Fellowship at the University of Calgary, and by a sabbatical leave from the University of Calgary. Like every worker on the Boyle manuscripts, I have been helped considerably by the work of Michael Hunter, who has not only provided workers on Boyle with microfilmed versions of the Boyle manuscripts as well as a mass of information about them, but has been constantly generous with his time and expertise on matters concerning both Robert Boyle and the seventeenth century generally. I have received a great deal of help from the librarian and staff of the Royal Society Library in London, and from librarians at the University of Calgary and the University of Auckland. I am grateful to a number of friends and colleagues for helpful suggestions, information, and support: Ron Abbey, Brian Baigrie, Mike Benn, Jim Brown, Clair and Geraldine Chapwell, Andrew Cunningham, Catherine Fried, Lennie Goodings, Rom Harre, James Hume, Margaret Osier, Lawrence Principe, Herman Walde, Haijo Westra, and Ed Zalta. Peter Anstey and Michael Hunter read through an earlier version of the manuscript, and their comments and suggestions have saved me from a number of infelicities and mistakes. For those which remain, I am solely responsible. Students and colleagues at the University of Calgary and the University of Auckland have been a helpful source of information, objections, and provocative queries, as have my research assistants, Windsor Viney, Tricia Leadbetter, and (someone who was more of a coresearcher than a research assistant) Margaret Cook. Above all, this

viii Acknowledgments

work would never have come to fruition without the help and support of Karen Walde. For permission to publish my transcriptions of various items from the Boyle Papers, I am grateful to the Librarian and Fellows of the Royal Society. For permission to make use of a small amount of already published material in the original or (usually) in a somewhat altered form, I am grateful to the publishers and editors of International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Dialogue, Enlightenment and Dissent, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Cambridge University Press.

Abbreviations

Boyle's Works Absolute Rest

Of Absolute Rest in Bodies (1669)

BP

The Boyle Papers in the Royal Society Library

Cold

New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold, or An Experimental History of Cold, Begun (1665)

Colours

Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)

Correspondence

The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, edited by Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzo, and Lawrence Principe, 6 vols.

CPE

Certain Physiological Essays and Other Tracts [including] Absolute Rest in Bodies (1st ed. 1661, 2nd ed., 1669)

Cosmical Qualities

Tracts ... About The Cosmicall Qualities of Things. Cosmicall Suspitions. The Temperature of the Subterraneall Regions The Temperature of the Submarine Regions. The Bottom of the Sea. To which is Pr&fixt, An Introduction to the History of Particular Qvalities (1670)

x Abbreviations CV1

The Christian Virtuoso ... The First Part (1690-1)

CV 1, App

An Appendix to the First Part of the Christian Virtuoso (1744)

CV2

The Christian Virtuoso The Second Part (1744)

Defence

A Defence of the Doctrine touching the Spring and Weight of the Air... Against the Objections ofFranciscus Linus (1662)

Effluviums

Essays of the Strange Subtilty, Great Efficacy, Determinate Nature of Effluviums (1673)

Excellency of Theology

The Excellency of Theology Compar'd with Natural Philosophy (as both are Objects of Men's Study) (1674)

Final Causes

A Disquisition About the Final Causes of Natural Things (1688)

Flame and Air

Tracts ... Containing New Experiments, touching the Relation betwixt Flame and Air. And ... An Hydrostatical Discourse

Forms and Qualities

The Origine of Formes and Qualities (1666)

High Veneration

Of the High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God (1685)

Hydrostatical Paradoxes

Hydrostatical Paradoxes, Made out by New Experiments (For the most part Physical and Easie.) (1666, reported to the Royal Society 1664)

Mechanical Hypothesis

About the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis (1674)

MS

(when followed by a number) The Boyle Notebooks in the Royal Society Library

Notion of Nature

A Free Enquiry Into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature (1686)

Occasional Reflections

Occasional Reflections Upon Several Subjects (1665, written from 1647 onwards)

Abbreviations xi Reason and Religion

Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion (1675)

Saltness

Tracts ... About the Saltness of the Sea ... To ... which is premis'd A Sceptical Dialogue About the Positive or Privative Nature of Cold

Sceptical Chymist

The Sceptical Chymist (1661)

Seraphic Love

Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God (1659)

Spring

New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching The Spring of the Air, and its Effects (1660)

Style

Some Considerations Touching the Style of the Holy Scriptures (1661)

Theodora

The Martyrdom of Theodora (original version, c. 1648-9)

Things above Reason

A Discourse of Things Above Reason (1681)

Usefulness I

Some Considerations touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, Part 1, and Part 2, §1 (1663)

Usefulness II

Some Considerations touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy, The Second Tome, Containing the later Section of the Second Part (1671)

Works

The Works of Robert Boyle, edited by Michael Hunter and Edward B. Davis, 14 vols

Other Works

AT

Oevres de Descartes, edited by Ch. Adam and P. Tannery, 11 vols

Birch 1772

The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle/ by Thomas Birch, in Boyle 1772,1:vi-ccxviii

CSMK

The Philosophical Works of Descartes, translated by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, D. Murdoch, and A. Kenny, 3 vols

xii Abbreviations

Gerhardt 1849

Leibniz, Mathematische Schriften, edited by C.I. Gerhardt, 7 vols

Gerhardt 1875

Die Philosophische Schriften von G.W. Leibniz, edited by C.I. Gerhardt, 7 vols

SCG

Summa Contra Gentiles, by Thomas Aquinas

ST

Summa Theologiae, by St Thomas Aquinas, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 5 vols

General Introduction

The Nature of the Work It was Boyle's intention to publish a treatise on atheism, and he made notes towards such a work throughout his adult life. In Oldenburg's list of Boyle's papers made in March 1677, there appears the title 'Observations upon the causes and Pretences of Atheisme.'3 Again, in a further list compiled in July 1684, we have 'Some Considerations about some causes of Atheism. Also, in a notebook dating from the late 1680s we have 'Considerations about some Causes & Remedyes of Atheism.'0 Finally, in a list of Boyle's unpublished writings dated 3 July 1691, there appears 'An imperfect and mutilated Discourse containing Considerations about some Causes of Atheism.d That matters of religion were important was, for Boyle, almost too obvious to mention: 'Since I suppose my Reader to be an Intelligent Person, I presume 'twere needless solicitously to perswade Him, That the Notions which concern the Grounds and the Mysterys of Religion are one way or other of great Importance, both to Mankind in general, and every man in particular.'6 However, though he published a number of tracts in which theological issues are discussed - particularly Some Motives to the Love of God (Seraphic Love), The Style of the Holy Scriptures, The Excellency of Theology, Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, Things above Reason, The High Veneration Owed to God, and the first part a b c d e

BP 36:89, Works 14:339. BP 36:59, Works 14:341. MS 185.lv, Works 14:345. For the dating see Works 14:xliv. BP 36:72, Works 14:352. BP 7:195.

xiv General Introduction

of the Christian Virtuoso - his intended treatise on atheism did not appear. Boyle expected both charity from his reader, in view of his wellknown tendency to repeat himself, and at least the same degree of application that he felt readers should give his works on experimental philosophy. In particular, he was not interested in the opinions of the coffeehouse wits: / 7:211 / I confess that sometimes the same things in more then one of the following Discourses. But this fault may perhaps be at least extenuated by representing, that these Papers were written at distant times and very differing occasions, and addressd to differing Persons; and that some of them being desired by one friend, and some by another, they were often out of my owne hands, when in penning the later I should have consulted the former. And I hope the Reader will find that most of the things that he will meet with more than once, are not deliverd like bare Repetitions in the same way but what is but touchd upon in one discourse is displayed, made out, or vindicated, in another. And it could scarse other wise fall out but that writeing without consulting what I had written before upon Subjects of much Affinity with one another, resembling thoughts should /'7:212/ sometimes occur, tho the latter were not repetitious of the former but would have been suggested, tho they had never come into my mind before. And since none of my Papers were made publick, nor most of them put into any one hand thought 'twas a very venial fault to borrow of my selfe, and transfer some furniture as occasion served, from one room to another. /7:213/ I do not invite all sorts of Persons, nor even all those that are friends to Vertue and Religion, to be Readers of the ensueing Papers which were not all written for the use of all sorts of Perusers indifferently, but divers of them for intelligent and attentive ones. For tho I have carefully endeavourd to free the thoughts hereafter proposd from all the darkness and difficulties wherewith the affectation, or the unnecessary employment of Schoole Terms has1 been wont to incumber the speculations of such abstruse Subjects; yet sometimes the nature of the thing it selfe is so obscure and so remote from common apprehensions, that I fear no perspicuity of expression will make it clearly explicable to vulgar Capacities; or to any Readers that will not be content to employ a more than ordinary attention. And therefore I have small hopes, that some of the fine Wits that are conversant but about the superficial parts of things, and will seldom allow themselves the patience, and perhaps have not

General Introduction xv alwayes the Capacity, to penetrate into, and enable themselves to judge of, retir'd and difficult Truths, will tire or trouble themselves with the serious Consideration of several things deliverd in these Papers; but will either pass them over unregarded, or judge precipitantly of them. But I hope I shall be excusd by equitable Readers, if the difficulty to be met with in clearly understanding such things, arises from the nature of the subjects, not the manner of handling them; and I may be thought to have tolerably perform'd my part, if what I have deliver'd be understood and approv'd by such as are content to take pains to make enquiry into Truths that are difficult, provided they be also Noble and Important.

We can see fairly clearly from the manuscripts the form Boyle intended his work to have. It was to begin with an account of why a demonstration of God's existence should not be expected, continue with a section devoted to some reasons that would convince the openminded of God's existence, and finish with a section explaining why not everyone would be convinced by these arguments. (For the complete text see 'Boyle's Headings/ §1.1 below.) For this collection I have followed his outline, with certain qualifications. First and foremost, Boyle's interest in miracles was such that we have a number of discussions of their nature, plausibility, and function, with the result that this section is almost a tract in itself. Second, Boyle often forgets that he has begun to argue against atheism as such, and finds himself instead arguing for the excellence of Christianity as against other religions - a point he sees as following on straightforwardly from his points about miracles. Consequently, I have included a section on the truth and excellency of Christianity. 'The Scripture/ for Boyle, 'dos not only shine, but excite: it both Reveals & Suggests.'a Boyle undoubtedly had latitudinarian tendencies, but they did not reach to the kind of global ecumenicism we find proposed by certain theologians today. Boyle was aware that his collections sometimes strayed from the main point: Such reflections as these will I hope keep you from thinking it strang or impertinent if2 in the following collection you meet with notes of Various Sorts &3 differing degrees of moment & among them4 Several that have not a manifest or a direct tendency to establish5 the maine truth to be prov'd Namely That the Christian Religion is from God. For of the Several a BP 4:4; also BP 7:237.

xvi General Introduction sorts of memoirs that6 accompany this Paper the largest is indeed a chaos of Promiscuous Notes Confus'dly thrown together. But the other bundles each consists of 7 Passages that relate to some particular subject on which subjects I either wrote or intended8 Preliminary Discourses which were to be9 like what10 mathematicians call Lemmata that is preparatory truths11 fit to make way for the grand conclusion to be demonstrated. And therefore if in the memoirs contain'd in the chaos or12 in the13 bundles referrd to distinct heads some passages do14 suggest some new argument in favour of the Christian Religion15 other confirm or inforce some argument knowne already others16 /MS 198:9v, p. 14/ Illustrate some mistery or obscurer point of Doctrine others obviate or answer some objection & others soe cautiously word a truth or an argument as to prevent those cavills whereto tis Lyable in the Termes wherein tis wont to be express'd: if I say these notes shall17 prove so happy as to do these things tho not chance18 in so direct a way I hope you & your Learned Friend will not think them all together unservicable to19 Religion & to you in the20 defence of it.21 Upon which hope I22 venture to tender them23 to you24 with all their25 imperfections26 which tho I am sensible that these may even with such favorable Judges as you they may disadvantage27 my reputation yet I shall not28 consider that so much as that on such an occasion as this tis29 enough for30 me to contribute any thing to God.a

Some of Boyle's proposed sections seem to be in simply because others have offered the types of argument they are meant to contain. Boyle has in fact little to say about the proof of God's existence from 'the general Consent of mankind/ or from 'the innate Idea of a Deity,' though such proofs were commonplaces in contemporary sermons. Since Boyle thought these sections important enough to mention in his plan, I have included such manuscript material as there is, but I have amalgamated some of these minor sections. Boyle's interest in Epicureanism, and his need to distinguish his views from classical Epicureanism, led him to discuss in detail the problems faced by classical atomism. I have included this longer piece as 'Boyle on Epicurean atomism' under Boyle's third section on the 'Reasons why the Arguments proposd ... are often unprevalent,' even though a number of other topics are also discussed in it. Finally, I have collapsed four of Boyle's proposed sections on the nature of God and a MS 198 fol. 9r-v, pp. 13-14.

General Introduction xvii the nature of atheists into two: the fragments concerning the vicious habits of atheists and the mental inabilities of atheists are now one section; similarly, I have not attempted to distinguish, in the MSS, sections on the primity and singularity of God. Such expansion and contraction of the manuscript material would not be unusual in a published work of Boyle's, and since the same is true regarding the growth of one or more of the sections, I have not hesitated to include the material on atomism, miracles, and the provable worth of Christianity, even though doing so alters the balance of his proposed 'little tract about atheism' considerably. Here is Boyle making a similar point in a fragment with the marginal insertion 'Preamble to Some Theological Papers': Of the things that I am to offer to the Reader in this Preface, some do particularly concern the following Papers, and some (which make the greater Number) are of a more general Import, and relate to the way of maintaining the Christian Religion against Philosophical Unbeleivers. And the Subject of these last is of such moment, that I hope that among those who are well affected to Truth and Religion this Importance of the Subject will excuse my Lengthening this Preface as much as is necessary to set downe the Cautions and other Particulars, that will make up the greatest part of this Introductory Discourse.3 Boyle was in general more than willing to allow others to usurp his editorial duties. Referring to material intended to form part of The Christian Virtuoso, he wrote: The favourable Reception, that the Publick has been pleas'd to give to the Tract of The Style of the Scripture, as wel in Latine as English, tho it consists in great part of incoheerent notes & other Papers cut out or dismember'd from the rest of the Discourse (that treated of other subjects:) This reception I say, incourages me to hope, that tho the Memoirs that are reposited in the four above mention'd Tomes, are oftentimes Incohaerent, and sometimes Mutilated, yet they may on the account of the dignity & usefulnes of the things treated of, invite some charitable & skilful hand, to lay them together, as little confusedly as may be, to seclude any passages, that thro haste may have been taken in, tho they be not pertinent enough, to put marks to denote & distinguish greater & lesser Chasmes, to annex a BP 7:194.

xviii General Introduction by way of marginal notes such passages as are in part, but not near altogether coincident. [For if any be so, the superfluous are to be laid aside]3 and in short, to do these Papers such a kind service as the learned Publisher did, to those That make up the Style of the Scripture.b

Some of the material on atheism was used by Boyle in various published works, particularly the theological ones mentioned earlier, and some of it has been transcribed and published by others. Where that material is readily available - as is the case with the material published by Hunter and Davis in volumes 13 and 14 of the Works, or by Lawrence Principe in Principe 1998 -1 have in general not included it here. There are some few exceptions where material has been included for the sake of context or continuity. Where the material has appeared in fragmentary form, or in publications not so readily accessible (as with Colic's transcriptions in Colie 1963), I have included it in this volume, since the amount of overlapping text is small, and it seems desirable to have the material on atheism collected together as far as possible. Boyle's manuscript remains were sorted by various subsequent editors (for details see 'Mapping the Mind of Robert Boyle: The Evidence of the Boyle Papers/ in Hunter 2000,119-34), and the result, imposed on Boyle's original collection, has not seemed to most subsequent readers of the MSS to have improved substantially on what was probably an equally chaotic original collection. Nonetheless, Boyle's eighteenthcentury editors did collect most of the clearly theological passages into the first six volumes of the MSS material, and in consequence it is mainly these which I have mined for this collection of Boyle on atheism. I have added to these passages a smaller number of others, both from later volumes of the Boyle Papers and from the notebooks. Because of the way in which the fragments have been sorted, and because of the fact that often what we have are fair copies, with the originals having been lost, no precise dating is possible. Thanks, however, to Michael Hunter's endeavours, we now have a good overall picture of the dating to be ascribed to the hands of Boyle's various amanuenses, and I have included a table of the hands involved as Appendix A. Appendix B gives brief notes on people mentioned by Boyle in these selections. a Boyle's square brackets. b BP 5:94-94v. The Style of the Scriptures was published in 1661. The relevant sections of The Christian Virtuoso were posthumous.

General Introduction xix Boyle's Intentions Boyle's hope was that even if his arguments could not convert the 'resolv'd atheist/3 they might nonetheless help the wavering believer and, even if they were not themselves sufficient, they might yet help others to stronger proofs. This stance was standard at the time. Cudworth, for example, in the True Intellectual System, says explicitly that he does not expect his arguments to convert atheists ('they being sunk into so great a degree of Sottishness'); rather, they were intended 'for the Confirmation of Weak, Staggering, and Sceptical Theists/b In his introductory essay to Certain Physiological Essays Boyle wrote: 'I have met with abundance of Quotations, wherein the Transcriber doth so mistake, or so mis-represent the cited Author's Meaning, sometimes out of Inadvertence, but sometimes too I fear out of Indulgence to his own Hypothesis, that if ever I should be tempted to trouble the World with any of my thoughts, I would beseech my Readers, not to look upon anything as my Opinion or Assertion, that is not deliver'd in the entire Series of my own Words/0 His concern was not misplaced. Here are two examples, one fairly mild, one more severe. The first, which involves two authors, concerns Boyle's view on the passage of light and heat from the sun through glass. Boyle discusses this in two places. In An Examen of the Greatest part of Mr. Hobbes's Dialogus Physicus de Natura Aeris (Works, 3:153, 1:222) he remarks, 'not onely the learned Gassendus, but I know not how may other Atomists (besides other Naturalists) Ancient and Modern, expressly teach the Sun-beams to consist of fiery Corpuscles, trajected through the Air, and capable of passing through Glass; whereby these Authors give an account of those specula ustoria, that burn by reflexion. These things I represent, not that I here intend to adopt the Atomists Opinion of the nature of Fire, of which I am not obliged to declare my thoughts here.' Again, in the Sceptical Chymist (Works 2:296, 1:524), he has Carneades remark: 'because I am not so sure, that when the Fire works upon Bodies included in Glasses, it does it by a reall Trajection of the Fiery Corpuscles themselves, through the Substance of the Glass, I will proceed to what is next to be mention'd/ In the first of these two quotations, a BP 2:63, ch. 5, below, b Cudworth 1678, Preface. c CPE, Works 2:28-9,1:314. Boyle makes a similar point in "The Author's Preface' to Cold, Works 4:219,11:476-7.

xx General Introduction

Boyle explicitly does not adopt the view, and in the second he is equally and characteristically unwilling to commit himself. In his History of Chemistry, J.R. Partington (who refers to both passages) writes: 'Boyle agreed with the ancients and moderns who "teach the sunbeams to consist of fiery particles, trajected through the air, and capable of passing through glass/"3 And referring to the passage in the Sceptical Chemist, Aaron J. Ihde writes: 'Boyle also observed that metals gained in weight when heated in air but he reasoned that the gain was due to the absorption of igneous particles which passed even through glass/b In both cases Boyle's awareness of a possibility is transmuted into an acceptance of a view. Those cases may be merely instances of elevating the non-committal Boyle into a committed Boyle, and Boyle's hesitation concerns the underlying theoretical explanation, not the physical phenomenon itself. Indeed Boyle's assistant, Hugh Greg, in a work formerly attributed to Boyle (Curiosities in Chymistry, London, 1691) but now established by Hunter and Davis (Works l:cv) as being by Greg, remarks (p. Ill) that 'Mr Boyle has undeniably evinced by a great many Experiments' that fire does have the ability to penetrate glass. In the second case, however, Boyle's view is turned around completely. R.D. Stock, commenting on Boyle's view of the Bible in the Style of the Scriptures, writes: 'As early as 1661, at the very dawn of the Royal Society, no less a scientist than Robert Boyle extols the obscurity of the Bible: it becomes not "the Majesty of God to suffer himself to be fetter'd to Humane Laws of Method ... devis'd onely for our own Narrow and Low Conceptions"; a "Complication of ... Rhetorick and Mystery" is a more effective teacher than rational discourse.'0 In fact, as even a casual reading of Style reveals, Boyle is concerned in that work to explain why certain passages of scripture seem obscure to seventeenth-century eyes; while adding that 'as the Knowledge of those Texts, that are Obscure, is not Necessary, so those others, whose sense is necessary to be understood, are Easie enough to be so.d And a b c d

Partington 1961,2:528. Ihde 1964, 29. Stock 1982,106. Boyle's point was common among English Protestants. Earlier in the century, Chillingworth wrote: 'nothing is necessary to be believed, but what is plainly revealed. For to say, that when a place of Scripture, by reason of ambiguous termes, lies indifferent between divers senses, whereof one is true, and the other is false, that God obliges men under pain of damnation, not to mistake through error and humane frailty, is to

General Introduction xxi

those are as much more Numerous than the others, as more Clear. Yes there are shining passages enough in Scripture to light us the way to Heaven, though some unobvious Stars of that bright sphaere cannot be discerned without the help of a Telescope/3 His points are straightforward enough. There are a variety of translation problems to be considered; there is a distinction to be made between 'what the Scripture it self sayes, and what is only said in the Scripture';b passages that were clear to contemporaries of the various books may have become unclear; alternatively, some passages may in fact be intended primarily for future readers, and so may be unclear to current readers. Finally, 'the Omniscient Author of the Scripture foreseeing that it would follow from the condition of mankind that the greatest part of the members of the Church would be no great Clerks, and many of them very weak or illiterate, it was but suitable to his goodness that a great many other passages of the Books designed for them as well as others, should be written in such a plain and familiar way as may befit such Readers, and let them see that they were not forgotten or overlooked by him who truly sayes by the Prophet that all souls are his.c And yet in many even of these Texts which seem chiefly to have been designed to teach the simple, Scholars themselves may find much to learn.'° So far from 'extolling' the obscurity of the scriptures, Boyle is concerned to point out that such obscurity as there is, is explicable,6 and is moreover not a cause for concern: 'the pretended Obscureness of the Bible is a mistaken discouragement from reading it: for the frequency of reading it still lessens that obscurity; which like a Mist seems thicker at a distance than when one enters it, and attempts a passage through it, which in our case many pious Students have done so prosperously, as to find by welcom experience, that what at a distance deterred them, was not intended to frustrate Industry, but punish Lasinesse.'f The pas-

a b c d e f

make God a Tyrant, and to say that he requires us certainly to attain that end, for the attaining whereof we have no certain meanes' (Chillingworth 1638, 92). Style, Works 2:409,11:268. Style, Works 2:398,11:260. Ezekiel 18:4: 'Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.' Style, Works 2:401-2,11:262. Boyle discusses this issue further at BP 5:102, §2.2.45 below, and at BP 16:72-85, printed as 'The Weakness of the Human Understanding Revealed in its Native Light/ Works 14:210-33: see especially p. 222. Style, Works 2:410,11:268.

xxii General Introduction

sage Stock quotes does not in fact deal with the question of obscurity at all; the passage he quotes comes when Boyle had turned his attention to a further objection - that scripture is disjointed. It is then that he remarks that 'the Book of Grace doth but therein resemble the Book of Nature; wherein the Stars ... are not more Nicely or Methodically place'd than the Passages of Scripture'; and it is with reference to this that he remarks that 'it became not the Majesty of God to suffer himself to be fetter'd to Humane Laws of Method.'3 Stock has managed to miss Boyle's point and intent almost entirely, and quotes him out of context to suggest that his view is precisely the opposite of his actual one. Speaking of this 'Compound ... Mixture' of texts which compose the Scripture, Boyle suggests that we should be grateful for what we have: 'sure we should Judge that Man a very Captious Creature, that should take Exception at a Profer'd sum, onely because the Half Crowns, Shillings, and Six pences, were not sorted in Distinct Heaps, but huddled into One.'b Boyle's own method of composition gave rise often enough to a somewhat disorderly collection/ and in the case of his jottings on atheism he seems to have decided to let them stand as such. Sending some loosely connected fragments to an unknown correspondent who had given him a copy of Pascal's Pensees, Boyle wrote: knowing that you, and two or three of your Learned Friends are ingaged in a pious designe to prove & vindicate the truths of Religion, I am emboIden'd to tender you, and thereby to contribute these Mites to so laudable a designe by the hope I have, that in these Papers, you will here & there find at least some hints & sparks of truth, that your Sagacity & Learning will inable you to improve, and blow up into a Shining Flame:d And tho I am sensible that all the Particulars you will meet with are not of equal weight & moment nor soe directly lead to the ultimate Conclusion to be a Style, Works 2:412,11:270. b Style, in Works 2:412,413,11:270. c In the Publisher's 'Advertisement... to the Reader' in Cosmical Qualities we receive the suggestion that, 'since his main Design in these as well as his other Physicall Writings, was to provide Materials for the History of Nature, it would be thought enough that they be substantiall and fit for the Work; in what order or association so ever they should happen to be brought into the Philosophicall Repository' (Works 6:261, III.29091). d Boyle's allusions are to the widow's mites mentioned at Mark 12:41-4 and Luke 21:1-4:; and to the 'shining flame' of Isaiah 4:2-6. e BP 5:22v has 'do' instead of 'so'.

General Introduction xxiii establish'd: yet I despair not, that so favourable, as well as discerning a Peruser, may think them not altogether unserviceable to Theology. For in this spiritual warfar against Atheists and other unbeleivers, Shovels & Pick Axes to clear & smooth the wayes, may in some cases be of use, as well as Swords & Bucklers3

In the same note, he tells his correspondent that although he had originally intended a cohesive work, his Terusall of Mr. Paschals Book put me upon new Reflections/ and 'tho I shall not exercise the vanity of compareing my trifles with the precious fragments of so great a man as Mr. Paschall, yet as my designe was for the maine much the same with his, so the way of writing I employ'd did not seem so disadvantagiously to differ from his as to render my notes unserviceable to Theology/b With this explicit hint from Boyle, I have judged it appropriate to include a number of fragments, as well as some longer, more connected pieces. Boyle's jottings occurred at various times, and since we often have fair copies rather than the originals, we do not always know when, even approximately, a given fragment was first written. In view of this, I have ordered the MSS remains on atheism by content rather than by date and have numbered them accordingly. Some of the following sections are straightforward (as in Boyle's overview, §1.2) and need no introduction. Others, such as the material on demonstration, seem to require some background remarks. Consequently, chapters 2 to 4, but not chapters 1 and 5, have introductions intended to help non-specialist readers set the various fragments in context. Transcription Conventions and Terminology In my transcriptions from the Boyle Papers I have followed most of Michael Hunter's (1995b) suggestions. I show Boyle's insertions in angle brackets (), but relegate deletions and information about simple replacements to endnotes, and print in full standard manuscript shortened forms. Thus instead of 'yV 'ye/ I have printed 'that/ 'the/ and so on. I have retained Boyle's (or Boyle's amanuenses') ampersands and contracted forms that often found their way into a BP 5:29v, Works 14:281. b BP 5:22; Works 14:280, 281.

xxiv General Introduction

print. Where there is doubt as to whether an initial letter is upper or lower case, I have opted for the current (usually lower case) version. Seventeenth-century English had an alphabet of twenty-four letters, with the pairs 'u,' V,' and 'i/ '},' treated as single letters. In transcribing, I have, again following Hunter (1995b), used the modern forms, writing 'have' for 'haue,' and so on. We are now fortunate in having a clearly definitive edition of Boyle's works, edited by Michael Hunter and Edward Davis. Throughout this book, I refer to this edition as the Works. However, many readers will undoubtedly still have access to the formerly most common edition, the six-volume quarto edition of 1772 edited by Thomas Birch. Where my references are to works included in both editions, I refer to the Hunter and Davis edition with the volume number in arabic numerals, followed by the Birch edition reference with the volume number in roman numerals. Where the reference is to Birch's 'Life' in the Birch edition, it is referred to as Birch 1772. Volume and folio number in the MSS are shown between slashes, with recto usually omitted. Thus /'7:165/ refers to Boyle Papers, volume 7, folio 165, recto, while /7:165v/ refers to Boyle Papers, volume 7, folio 165, verso. In general, Boyle's prose is plain and direct, if occasionally somewhat mannered.3 In his early writings we often find him searching for precisely the right phrase or word and being somewhat complacent about his style, but later in life, particularly when his scientific bent is uppermost, his prose becomes more spare as befits 'a Person that Professes not Rhetorick.'b His style has always been subject to comment. In the early eighteenth century, the otherwise obsequious Budgell had this to say: It must... be confessed, that his Stile is far from being correct; that it is too wordy and prolix; and that though it is for the most Part plain and easy, yet, that he has sometimes made use of harsh and antiquated Expressions: Yet under all these Disadvantages, so curious is his Matter, and so solid are his Observations, that the hardest Thing we can say of his most careless Piece, is, That it appears like a beautiful Woman in an Undress. BESIDES his Philosophical Works, Mr. Boyle has wrote several Pieces of Divinity: In these last, he is still more wordy, and makes Use of more Cira On Boyle's style, see Principe 1994 and 1995, and Hunter 1995a. b Style, Works 2:291,11:254.

General Introduction xxv cumlocutions than in the former. To say the Truth, I think his Theological Works, much inferior to his Philosophical ones: It cannot however be denied, That he has often blended Religion and Philosophy happily enough together; and made each serve to illustrate and embellish the other.3

In these shorter fragments, however, there is little room for prolixity - too little, perhaps, for often it would be of interest to see Boyle's argument developed with more care and in more detail. Budgell is right, however, that Boyle sometimes uses 'antiquated Expressions/ Where his terminology seems obscure, I have provided explanations in the footnotes. However, some expressions that Boyle and his contemporaries use commonly should be noted at once. Throughout, Boyle uses 'specious' in a straightforward commendatory sense, not in its current derogatory sense. When Boyle calls an argument 'specious' he is praising it, not disparaging it. Similarly 'paradox' is used in its normal seventeenth-century sense to refer to something surprising but true, something 'above belief,' much as we use terms such as 'incredible' or 'unbelievable.' 'Vulgar' in this period means simply 'common/ and in Boyle's writing 'infers' is used interchangeably with 'implies/b Boyle typically uses the term 'stupid' when referring to matter in the then most common sense of 'insensible' - thus, that matter was, as such, stupid (i.e. non-sensing), was thought worth noting, but not something that needed detailed discussion. Boyle typically uses the term 'wit' pejoratively, as when he castigates those 'Pretended wits [who] are remarkable for no other Talent, then that of exposeing wise men to the Laughter of Fooles and themselves to that of wise men/c When he applies the term to the 'Eloquent Lactantius' and the 'acute St. Austin/ it is in connection with their style of arguing that the Antipodes cannot support life.d Even in the case of Augustine and Lactantius, both of whom he admires, Boyle is impatient with superficial or facetious arguments. 'Proved' is often used in its basic sense of 'tested/

a Budgell 1732,119-20. b These terms are still often used interchangeably, but a more useful convention lets agents infer, and sentences, propositions, or acts (including speech acts) imply, c BP 7:154, §2.3.11 below, d Final Causes, Works 11:113, V:415; Spring, Works 1:295,1:113; BP 6:322, §1.2 below.

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BOYLE ON ATHEISM

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Boyle's Life

Pat: He was an Anglo-Irishman. Meg: In the blessed name of God, what's that? Pat: A Protestant with a horse.3

There is no definitive full-scale biography of Boyle. Readers interested in the full life story should turn first to Hunter 1994b, which contains an excellent introduction by Hunter as well as the best transcription of Boyle's own third-person autobiographical 'An Account of Philaretus During His Minority' (BP 37.170r-184v, with some misordering), written between Boyle's coming of age in January 1648 and July of the following year. Other fairly full accounts are Birch's 1744 Life, Maddison 1969, and More 1944, which is interesting but must be read with considerable care. More often fails to distinguish his own conjectures from Boyle's views, and attributes to Boyle opinions and views for which there is no evidence in either the printed works or the MSS. Recent and reliable accounts of shorter stretches of Boyle's life include Hunter 1993a, 1995a, and 2000, and Principe 1994 and 1995. When considering the background to Boyle's theological views, three periods are of considerable interest: his childhood, the StalbridgeOxford period, and the last decade of his life, when his fears concerning the afterlife led to the series of conversations with Bishop Burnet that are recorded in the Burnet memorandum.13 These periods include, a Brendan Behan, The Hostage, I. b The 'Memorandum' is printed in Hunter 1994b, 26-34; the rationale for dating of the 'Memorandum' to the early 1680s is at xxv-xxvi.

4 Boyle on Atheism

respectively, his conversion to committed Christianity, his conversion (or quasi-conversion) to committed experimentalism and the integration of his scientific and theological interests, and, finally, the years before his death when he apparently feared for his soul's salvation. Here I deal principally with the first period of Boyle's life. The other two periods are discussed in detail in Hunter 1995a and Hunter 1993a. His life was no less interesting at other times, but it did not have the same direct relevance to his religious stance. Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, in Ireland, on 25 January 1627. He was his parents' fourteenth, penultimate, child, and the last to survive to adulthood. His mother, {Catherine Fenton Boyle, countess of Cork, died three years later, some nine months after the birth of her fifteenth child. After the birth of her first child most of her pregnancies, according to the figures given by Boyle's father, followed less than twelve months after the birth of her previous child, with the average interval between birth and pregnancy being just over ten months and the longest interval being twenty months. Boyle was the youngest son and, after his sister Margaret died when he was ten, the youngest child of the family. Following is a chronology3 of the births of the Boyle children, with the dates of death and age at death in parentheses. The date to the right of the arrow is the date of birth; the date to the left is nine months earlier and may be taken as the approximate date of conception. The number on the right is the interval, in months, between the conjectured time of conception and the previous birth. Of course, there may also have been unmentioned miscarriages. Portraits show Boyle's mother as somewhat frail, and the list, which reveals that she was pregnant most of her married life, may indicate a possible factor in her early death. 1603: July 25,1603, at about the age of 15, {Catherine Fenton marries Richard Boyle 1606: Roger Boyle (d 10 Oct 1615, 9) 1 Nov 1605 => 1 Aug 1606 1608: Alice Boyle (d 23 Mar 1667, 60) 20 June 1607 =» 20 Mar 1608 10 mos 1609: Sarah Boyle (d 14 July 1633, 24) 29 June 1608 => 29 Mar 1609 3 mos 1610: Lettice Boyle (d 11? Apr 1643, 32/3) July 25,1609 => 25 Apr 1610 4 mos a Based on the account by Boyle's father, Birch 1772,1:x-xi.

Boyle's Life 5

1611: Joan Boyle (d 11 Mar 1656,44) 1612: Richard Boyle (d 15 Jan 1698, 85) 1615: Katherine Boyle (d 23 Dec 1691, 76) 1616: Geoffrey Boyle (d 20 Jan 1617, 9 mo) 1617: Dorothy Boyle (d 26? Mar 1668, 50) 1619: Lewis Boyle (d 3 Sept 1642,23) 1621: Roger Boyle (d 16 Oct 1679,58) 1623: Francis Boyle (d before 19 Apr 1669,45) 1624: Mary Boyle (d 12 Apr 1678,53) 1627: Robert Boyle (d 31 Dec 1691, 64) 1629: Margaret Boyle (d 28 June 1637, 8) 1630: Katherine Fenton Boyle (b 1588?) d 16 Feb 1630

14 Sept 1610 => 14 June 1611 5 mos 20 Jan 1612 =» 20 Oct 1612 7 mos

22 June 1614 => 22 March 1615 20 mos 10 July 1615 => 10 Apr 1616 3 mos 31 March 1617 => 31 Dec 1617 11 mos 23 Aug 1618 => 23 Apr 1619 8 mos

25 July 1620 => 25 Apr 1621 14 mos 25 Sept 1622 => 25 June 1623 17 mos 11 Feb 1624 => 11 Nov 1624 7 mos 25 Apr 1626 => 25 Jan 1627 17 mos

30 July 1628 => 30 Apr 1629 18 mos

The birth date of Boyle's mother is unclear. In 'The Author's Preface' to Medicinal Experiments: or, a'collection of choice and safe Remedies, For the most Part Simple, and easily Prepared: Very useful in Families, and fitted for the Service of Country People Boyle refers to himself as 'the thirteenth or fourteenth Child of a Mother, that was not above 42 or 43 Years old when she dyed of a Consumption.' So, he suggests, "tis no wonder I have not inherited a robust, or healthy Constitution.'3 It seems odd that Boyle was unable to remember (though he was writing towards the end of his life) whether he was the thirteenth or fourteenth child. However, the date fits well with calculations based on other, plausible assumptions (see Canny 1982). Shortly before the death of Katherine Fenton Boyle, her daughter Katherine was married, within a fortnight of her fifteenth birthday, to 'the foulest churl in Christendom, whose a Works 12:210, V:315.

6 Boyle on Atheism

best point was that he was nightly dead drunk and so probably not quarrelsome/3 Boyle was, according to Aubrey, 'nursed by an Irish Nurse, after the Irish manner, wher they putt the child into a pendulous Satchell (insted of a Cradle) with a slitt for the Child's head to peepe out.'b Notwithstanding his birthplace, Boyle was English, or perhaps AngloIrish, not Irish, and at the time he would have been made clearly aware of the difference. The English spoke of 'the wild Irish/ and were concerned to make their lack of civilized manners explicit. Fynes Moryson wrote: Touching the meere or wild Irish... Their wiues living among the English, are attired in a sluttish gowne, to be fastned at the breast with a lace, and in a more sluttish mantell, and more sluttish linnen, and their heads be covered after the Turkish manner, with many elles of linnen, onely the Turkish heads or Tulbents are round in the top: but the attire of the Irish womens heads, is more flat in the top and broader on the sides, not much unlike a cheese mot, if it had a hole to put in the head. For the rest, in the remote parts where the English Lawes and manners are unknowne, the very cheefe of the Irish, as well men as women, goe naked in very Winter time, onely having their privy parts covered with a ragge of linnen, and their bodies with a loose mantell.c

Keith Thomas points out the underlying (if often unconscious), motive for demeaning the Irish: 'The native Irish, thought Sir John Davies in 1610, had failed to exploit the land; "therefore it stands neither with Christian policy nor conscience to suffer so good and fruitful country to lie waste like a wilderness/" Since, like the native Americans, they were ignoring the command to 'replenish the earth and subdue it,' they had no moral title to the land and could be driven off it in good conscience.d Boyle's references to his parents are fond, but he scarcely knew either of them. His mother's death he spoke of as one of the two chief disasters that befell him as a child. He would, he wrote, a Sir John Leeke, in a letter introducing Katherine Boyle to the Verneys, Verney 1892, 1:203; Townshend 1904,234. b Aubrey 1957, article 'Boyle.' c Moryson 1617, pt 3, bk 4, ch 2, 4:236-7. (Since Moryson is available in different editions, I have given references by part, book, and chapter as well as by pages.) d Thomas 1984,15n; Genesis, 1:28.

Boyle's Life 7 ever reckon it amongst the Cheefe Misfortunes of his Life, that he did ne're know her that gave it him: her free & Noble Spirit (which had a handsome Mansion to reside in) added to her kindnesse & sweete carriage to hir owne, making her hugely regretted by her Children, & so lamented by her Husband; that not only he annually dedicated the Day of hir Death to solemne Mourning for it; but burying in her Grave all thoughts of Aftermarriage, he rejected all Motions of any other Match, continuing a constant Widdower till his Death.3 Nor could Boyle have known his father well, though he always spoke highly of him. He was, he tells us, always his father's favourite. His fondness for his father is not matched by all writers on the topic. 'I have never been able to think of the Great Earl of Cork without loathing and without anger/ wrote George Sarton, having told us why a few lines earlier: 'My main quarrel against him is not that he was corrupt and greedy beyond measure but that he was the most sanctimonious devil I have ever heard of.' But the times were not such as to make sanctimony salient.b Boyle learned languages young: As soon as his Age made him capable of (admitting) Instruction, his Father (by a Frenchman & by one of his Chaplaines) had him taught both to write a Faire hand, & to speake French & Latin; in which (especially the first) he prov'd no ill proficient; adding to a reasonable Forwardnesse in Study, a more than usuall Inclination to it.c

a BP 37:173r; Hunter 1994b, 3. b Sarton 1950,158. Boyle's father has often excited dislike in historians, less often an admiration as uncritical as it is unaccountable. A good, and balanced, account of the elder Boyle is given in Canny's The Upstart Earl (Canny 1982), which is also extremely interesting on Robert. Unlike Maddison, Canny highlights the importance of the influence of Boyle's sisters. Boyle's contemporaries were impressed by Boyle's familial background. Henry Power found him 'doubly Honourable (both for his parts and parentage).' (Power 1664, Preface, xviii.) c BP 37:173v; Hunter 1994b, 4. In a note written when Boyle was three-and-a-half (June 30,1630), his father refers to 'Mounsier Frances de Carey, my childrens French tutor (Maddison 1969, 5n).' However, later in life, Boyle told Bishop Burnet that it was in Geneva that 'he acquired the Latin' (Hunter 1994b, 26), and it was indeed there (see below) that he received instruction in Latin ('every morning I teach them the Rhetorike in Latin') from Marcombes.

8 Boyle on Atheism

He had, throughout his life, a speech impediment, which he himself believed to be the result of his imitating some other children, 'whose stuttring Habitude he so long Counterfeited that he at last contracted it/a He was sent off to Eton at 'somewhat past the Eighth yeere of his Age/b He was popular with his first tutor, who wrote to his father: 'Mr Robert ... is growne very fatt and joviall and pleasantly merry, and of the rarest memory that ever I knew;c he prefers Learning afore all other vertues or pleasures; Mr Provost does admire him for his excellent genious/d Even as a child, Boyle, like Matilda's aunt, kept a strict regard for truth. He tells us that his father commended him for his Veracity: of which ... he would often give him this Testimony; that he never found him in a Lye in all his Life time.6 And indeed Lying was a Vice both so contrary to his nature & so inconsistent with his Principles, that as there was scarce any thing he more greedily desir'd then to know the Truth, so was there scarce any thing he more perfectly detested; then not to speake it. Which brings into my Mind a foolish Story I have heard him Jeer'd with, by (his Sister,) my Lady Ranalagh; how she having given strict order to have a Fruit-tree preserv'd for his sister in Law, the Lady Dungarvan, then big with Childe; he accidentally comming into the Garden, & ignoring the Prohibition, did eat halfe a score of them: for which being chidden by his sister Ranalagh; (for he was yet a Childe:) & being told by way of aggravation, that he had eaten halfe a dozen Plumbs; Nay truly Sister (answers he simply to her) I have eaten halfe a Score. So pera Maddison 1969,4. b BP 37:174r; Hunter 1994b, 5. c This may have been mere flattery, but his sister Katherine was also noted for her memory: 'She hath a memory that will hear a sermon and goe home and perm itt after dinner verbatim/ said Sir John Leeke (Verney and Verney 1892-9,1:203). Boyle's many scriptural references in his dictated manuscripts typically come complete with chapter and verse and are almost always accurate. d Maddison 1969, lln. e This is a less all-embracing tribute than it might seem. Boyle's father knew Boyle only as a young child. However, given what we know of Boyle's life and character there seems no reason to doubt either the lasting correctness of his father's early assessment or his own somewhat self-congratulatory self-assessment. In his funeral sermon for Boyle, Bishop Burnet tells us: 'He could neither lie nor equivocate; but could well be silent, and by practising that much, he cover'd himself upon many uneasy Occasions' (Hunter 1994b, 54).

Boyle's Life 9 feet an enemy was he to a Ly, that he had rather accuse himselfe of another fault, then be suspected to be guilty of that.3 At Eton he became a 'passionate ... Friend to Reading' as a result of the accidentall Persusall of Quintus Curtius which first made him in Love with other then Pedanticke Bookes, & conjur'd up in [him] that unsatisfy'd Curiosity of Knowledge, that is yet as greedy, as when it first was rays'd.b Boyle wrote this in his early twenties,0 but the same greedy curiosity remained with him throughout his life. After his death, Burnet wrote: he had the purity of an angell in him, he was modest and humble rather to a fault. He despised all earthly things, he was perhaps too eager in the pursute of knowledge, but his aim in it all was to raise in him a higher sense of the wisdome and glory of the Creator and to do good to mankind, he studied the Scripture with great application and practised universall love and goodnes in the greatest extent possible, and was a great promoter of love and charity among men and a declared enemy to all bitternes and most particularly to all persecution on the account of religion.d While he was at Eton, Sir Henry Wooton attempted to have his speech impediment corrected, and wrote to Boyle's father: 'My good a BP 37:173v; Hunter 1994b, 4-5. Boyle tells this story as though it happened before he went away to Eton on 9 September 1635. Boyle's brother Richard and his wife were in Dublin at the time, having arrived in Ireland on 14 September 1634. Lady Dungarvan gave birth to her first child in 1636. If we assume the incident occurred in August or early September of 1635, Boyle would have been eight, his sister Katherine twenty. b BP 37:175; Hunter 1994b, 7. Quintus Curtius Rufus, first century AD, was the author of Historic Alexandri magni, a biography of Alexander the Great. Boyle may well have read Curtius Rufus in Latin, but an English translation, The Historic of Quintus Curtius, was available at the time. It was later translated by Robert Codrington, who about 1650 dedicated a book to Boyle, and 'received a gratuity' in consequence (Birch 1772, 1:1x1). Readers who would like to see what excited the youthful Boyle may safely turn to John Yardley's Penguin translation (Curtius Rufus 1984). c From internal evidence, after January 1648, and before July 1649. See Maddison 1969, 1, and Hunter 1994b, Ixxx-lxxxi, nlO. d 'A Rough Draught of my own Life,' Foxcroft, Supplement, p. 464, quoted in Maddison 1969,185. It is possible that Boyle's own views were not, for the England of his time, strictly orthodox, although he would certainly have attempted to make sure they were in accord with his reading of Scripture.

10 Boyle on Atheism

Lord, I have commended seriously, and with promise of a good reward, your spirity Robin to the master of our choristers here, who maketh profession (and hath in one or two before given good proof thereof) to correct the errors of voices and pronunciation; for which he shall have fit hours assigned him.' Six months later he wrote that when Boyle's sister Lettice sees him during the long vacation, 'Robert will entertain her with his pretty conceptions now a great deal more smoothly than he was wont.'3 However, when Magalotti visited England in the late 1660s, the problem remained: One could not say so much in praise of this wise and virtuous gentleman that he would not merit much more. He is full of religion towards God, of magnanimous charity towards his neighbour, of generosity, of affability, of courtesy, of gentleness towards all. He is still quite young, but of a constitution so weak that it does not promise him all his days. He speaks French and Italian very well, but has some impediment in his speech, which is often interrupted by a sort of stammering, which seems as if he were constrained by an internal force to swallow his words again and with the words also his breath, so that he seems so near to bursting that it excites compassion in the hearer.b

During Boyle's short time at Eton, a number of incidents occurred that made a considerable impression on his religious sensibility. One ('that Silence must not cover') was that being one Night gone to bed somewhat early; whilst his Brother was conversing with some Company by the fire side; without giving them the least warning , a greate part of the wall of their chamber, with the Bed, Chaires, Bookes & furniture of the next chamber over it, fell downe upon their Heads.c

He escaped, as did the other boys, any serious injury: So sudden a Danger & happy an Escape, Philaretus would sometimes mention with expressions both of Gratitude & Wonder. To which he a Wooton to the Earl of Cork, 6 December 1635 and 6 June 1636, in Smith 1907, 2:359, 2:360. b Magalotti 1980,135. c BP 37:175r; Hunter 1994b, 7.

Boyle's Life 11 would adde the Relation of divers other almost contemporary Deliverances; Of these, one was, that being fallen from his horse, the beast... trod so neare his throate, as within lesse then two inches of it, to make a hole in his band ... An other was, that riding thorou a Towne upon a Nagge of his owne whose starting quality he never observ'd before, his horse upon a sudden fright [did] rise bolt upright upon his hinder feet, & falling rudely backwards with all his Weight against a Wall had infallibly crush't his Rider into Peeces

but for the fact that he cast himself aside and so received only a slight bruise. Finally, on another occasion, an apothecary mistakenly gave him 'a very strong vomit prepared & intended for another' instead of the prescribed 'refreshing Drinke': after a long struggling, at last the Drinke wrought with such violence, that they fear'd, his Life would be disgorg'd together with his Potion. This Accident made him long after apprehend more the Fisitian then the Disease & was possibly the occasion that made him afterwards so inquisitively apply himselfe to the study of Fisicke, that he may have the lesse need of them that professe it. But Philaretus wud not ascribe any of these Rescues unto Chance, but would be still industrious to perceive the hand of Hev'n in all these Accidents: & indeed he would professe that in the Passages of his Life he had observ'd so gratious & so peculiar a Conduct of Providence, that he should be equally blind & ungratefull, shud he not both Discerne & Acknowledge it.a

What is of interest is not that Boyle, like many children, had his share of near escapes from serious injury as a child, but that he should see in this, in retrospect at least, the hand of providence. The notion of being attended by a special providence - or at least talking as if one were - was common enough at the time. As Canny notes, 'The invocation of providence as an explanation for accidental or chance happenings in this life was so commonplace among sincere Protestants in the early seventeenth century that it had come to be considered irreverent or profane not so to attribute them.'b Nor were these attributions a feature of the early seventeenth century alone. That indefatigable traveller, Celia Fiennes (1662-1741), for example, found that practically all a BP 37:175v-176r; Hunter 1994b, 7-8. b Canny 1982, 28.

12 Boyle on Atheism her escapes from accidents were due to special intervention.3 Michael Hunter notes that 'the spiritual autobiography, aimed at chronicling God's purpose for the individual in question by recounting providential escapes, spiritual trials and conversion experiences [was] a characteristic genre of autobiographical writing in seventeenth-century England/b But, though protestations of gratitude were common enough, there is no doubt that, in Boyle's case at least, they were sincere. He continued to believe in this divine attention, though in a more intellectual realm, throughout his life. In 1663 he wrote: And though I dare not affirm ... that God discloses to Men the Great Mystery of Chymistry by Good Angels, or by Nocturnal Visions ... yet perswaded I am, that the favor of God does (much more than most Men are aware of) vouchsafe to promote some Mens Proficiency in the study of Nature, partly by protecting their attempts from those unlucky Accidents which often make Ingenuous and Industrious endeavors miscarry; and partly by making them dear and acceptable to the Possessors of Secrets, by whose Friendly Communication they may often learn that in a few Moments, which cost the Imparters many a Years toyl and study; and partly too, or rather principally, by directing them to those happy and pregnant Hints, which an ordinary skill and industry may so improve as to do such things, and make such discoveries by virtue of them, as both others, and the person himself, whose knowledge is thus encreased, would scarce have imagin'd to be possible: And in effect, the chiefest of the Secrets that have been communicated to me, the Owners have acknowledg'd to me to have been attain'd, rather, as they were pleas'd to speak, by accidental Hints, then accurate Enquiries: confessions of this nature I have divers times met with in the Writings of the more ingenious of the Chymists, and of other Naturalists ... .c a For these 'devout ejaculations' - as her editor, Christopher Morris, calls them (Fiennes 1982,20) - see her account of her journeys, passim. b Hunter 1994b, xx. c Usefulness I, Works 3:276,11:61. Michael Hunter has pointed out the same suggestion coming from Meric Casaubon: 'it is not improbable that divers secrets of [chemistry] came to the knowledg of man by the Revelation of Spirits' (Hunter 1990,398-9), and Debus notes Pagel generalizing the point: 'by means of unprejudiced experiment inspired by divine revelation, the adept may attain his end. Thus, knowledge is a divine favour, science and research divine service, the connecting link with divinity. Grace from above meets human aspiration for knowledge from below. Natural research is the search for God' (Pagel 1935, 98, quoted in Debus 1965,21).

Boyle's Life 13

In 1638, still at Eton, he was Visited with a Tertian Ague' during a trip to London. He 'return'd againe to Eaten' where to divert his Melancholy they made him read the stale Adventures Amadis de Gaule; & other Fabulous & wandring Storys; which much more prejudic'd him by unsettling his Thoughts, then they could have advantag'd him; had they effected his Recovery; for meeting in him with a restlesse Fancy, then made more susceptible of any Impressions by an unemploy'd Pensivenesse; they accustom'd his Thoughts to such a Habitude of Raving, that he has scarce ever been their quiet Master since, but they would take all occasions to steale away, & go a gadding to Objects then unseasonable & impertinent. So great an Unhappinesse it is, for Persons that are borne with such Busy Thoughts, not to have congruent Objects propos'd to them at First. Tis true that long time after Philaretus did in a reasonable measure fixe his Volatile Fancy & Reclaime his Ramage thoughts; by the use of all those Expedients he thought likelyest to fetter (or at least, to curbe/bridel/) the roving wildnesse of his wandring / hagard/ Thoughts. Amongst all which the most effectuall Way he found to be, the Extractions of the Square & Cubits Rootes, & specially those more laborious Operations of Algebra, which both accustome & necessitate the Mind to attention, by so entirely exacting the whole Man; that the least Distraction, or heedlessnesse, constraines us to renew our (Taske &) Trouble, & rebegin the Operation.3

This ague not only, in Boyle's view, initiated those 'raving' thoughts

a BP 37:176r; Hunter 1994b, 8-9. Boyle is not the only thinker to have found such exercises spiritually helpful. Lewis Carroll recommends a similar cure for the same problem: 'Nearly all of the following seventy-two Problems are veritable "PillowProblems", having been solved, in the head, while lying awake at night... Perhaps I may venture, for a moment, to use a more serious tone, and to point out that there are mental troubles, much worse than mere worry, for which an absorbing subject of thought may serve as a remedy. There are sceptical thoughts, which seem for the moment to uproot the firmest faith; there are blasphemous thoughts, which dart unbidden into the most reverent souls; there are unholy thoughts, which torture, with their hateful presence, the fancy that would fain be pure. Against all these some real mental work is a most helpful ally. That "unclean spirit" of the parable, who brought back with him seven others more wicked than himself, only did so because he found the chamber "swept and garnished", and its owner sitting with folded hands: had he found it all alive with the "busy hum" of active work, there would have been scant welcome for him and his seven!' (Carroll 1958, xiii, xv).

14 Boyle on Atheism which would be a lifelong enemy,3 but also gave him his first look at a psychosomatic effect. He was cured of the ague by the Maydes of the House [substituting for the] Potion [a] Syrup of stew'd Prunes; a Liquor so resembling it, that Philaretus (see the force of Fancy) swallow'd it with the same Reluctancy; & found the Taste as loathsome as if't had been the Purge; but being after acquainted with the Cuzenage, whither 'twas that his sicknesse (as having already reach't it's Period) would have expir'd of it selfe, or that his Mirth dispatch't it; I pretend not to determine; but certaine 'tis, that from that Howre to this; Agues & he have still been perfect stranger.b Shortly after writing this, he once again suffered from an ague (in July 1649). Later Boyle was to show himself clearly aware of psychosomatic illnesses as well as cures. At BP 4:49 he reminds himself to remember 'the changes in the body made by the passions of the mind/ and in his published works he records another Observation, imparted to me, a while since, by that excellent and experienc'd Lithotomist, Mr. Hollyer, who told me, that among the many Patients sent to be cured in a great Hospital (of which he is one of the Chirurgeons) there was a Maid of about eighteen Years of age, who, without the loss of motion, had so lost the sense of feeling in the external parts of her Body, that when he had, for tryal sake, pinn'd her Handkerchief to her bare Neck, she went up and down with it so pinn'd, without having a It was, inter alia, in order to avoid such wanderings of the mind that he himself composed his various reflections or meditations, and he recommends others to follow suit. Composing such reflections 'conduces to keep the Soul from Idleness, and Employments worse than Idleness; for while a Man's thoughts are busi'd about the present subjects of his Reflections, our Ghostly Adversary is discourag'd to attempt that Soul, which he sees already taken up, with something that is at least innocent, if not good.' Moreover, this exercise, as it 'will help to keep us from Idleness; so will it, to preserve us from harbouring evil Thoughts, which there is no such way to keep out of the Soul, as to keep her taken up with good ones ...' (Occasional Reflections, Works 5:22-3,11:336) The general question of 'raving' is discussed at length in his early Doctrine of Thinking (Harwood 1991,185-202). For a neutral use of the term in Boyle, see Notion of Nature, Works 10:463, V:175, where Boyle uses the term to describe his thoughts about nature being not 'a real Existent Being,' but rather 'a notional Entity, somewhat of kin to those fictitious Terms, that Men have devis'd, that they might compendiously express several things together, by one Name.' b BP 37:176v; Hunter 1994b, 9.

Boyle's Life 15 any sense of what he had done to her. He added, That this Maid having remained a great while in the Hospital without being cured, Dr. Harvey, out of Curiosity, visited her sometimes; and suspecting her strange Distemper to be chiefly Uterine, and curable onely by Hymeneal Exercises, he advised her parents (who sent her not thither out of poverty) to take her home, and provide her a Husband, by whom, in effect, she was according to his Prognostick, and to many Mens wonder, cured of that strange Disease.3

This particular cure was by no means unique to Harvey. Burton, for example, thought that 'the best and surest remedy of all' for a variety of 'maladies ... incident to young women' was to 'see them well placed, and married to good husbands in due time; hinc illse lachrymse, that's the primary cause, and this the ready cure, to give them content in their desires/b but Harvey was aware of the possibility of a variety of psychosomatic illnesses. Buckle points out that 'Harvey told Bishop Hackett that during the rebellion he had met with more diseases generated from the mind than from any other cause/ Buckle adds: 'a similar remark has been made respecting the great French Revolution/0 and Boyle notes that There are many Instances to be met with in Physitians Books, to shew that Imagination is able so to alter the Imagining person's Body, as [to] work such a disposition in the Spirits, Blood and Humors of it, as to produce the determinate Disease that is excessively feared.'d The caution Boyle displays about jumping to a causal conclusion concerning the potion and the prunes ('whither 'twas ..., or ...; I pretend not to determine') is a constant feature of his later work, as is the emphasis on the fact that, nonetheless, the pretheoretical facts may be taken as established ('but certaine 'tis, that...'). Boyle stayed at Eton not much beneath Foure Yeares;6 in the last of which he forgot much of that Lattin he had gott: for he was so addicted to more reall Parts of Knowledge, that he hated the study of Bare words, naturally; as somea b c d

Usefulness II, Works 3:334,11:92. Burton 1621, 'Symptoms of Maids', Nuns', and Widows' Melancholy/ 1:417. Buckle 1872, 3:631. Usefulness II, Works 3:443,11:174. On the general question of mental illness during this period, see Hill 1972, ch. 13, 'The Island of Great Bedlam.' e At which time his father 'tooke him absolutely away.' BP 37:177r; Hunter 1994b, 10.

16 Boyle on Atheism thing that relish't too much of Pedantry to consort with his Disposition & Desseins: so that by the change of his old Courteous Schoolemaster, for a new rigid Fellow; loosing those encouragements that had formerly subdu'd his Aversion to Verball studys; he quickly quitted his Terence & his Grammar, to read in History their Gallant Acts, that were the Glory of their owne & the Wonder of our Times. And indeed, 'tis a much nobler l for Ambition, to learne to do things, that may deserve a room in History; then onely to learne, how congruously to write such actions, in the Gowne-men's Language.3 However, we have Aubrey's testimony that 'He speakes Latin very well, and very readily, as most men I have mett with. I have heard him say that when he was young, he read over Cowper's Dictionary: wherein I thinke he did very well, and I beleeve he is much beholding to him for his Mastership of that Language./b His linguistic ability, however, may have been due to the later influence of Marcombes: And as for their Learning ... we speake all and allwayes french, wherein Mr Robert is perfect allready and Mr Francis able to expresse him selfe in all companies; besides every morning I teach them the Rhetorike in Latin, and I expound unto them Justin from Latin into french, and presently after dinner I doe reade unto them two chapters of the old Testament with a brief exposition of those points that I think that they doe not understand; and before supper I teach them the history of the Romans in french out of florus and of Titus Livius, and two sections of the Cateshisme of Calvin with the most orthodox exposition of the points that they doe not understand; and after supper I doe reade unto them two chapters of the new Testament, and both morning and evening we say our prayers together, and twice a weeke we goe to church.0 Having left Eton, Boyle spent some time at Stalbridge, where an old Divined instructing our Youth both with care & Civility, soone brought him to renew his first acquaintance with the Roman Tongue, & to improve it so farre that in that Language he could readily enuf expresse himselfe in Prose, & began to be no dull Proficient in the Poeticke straine; a b c d

BP 37:177r; Hunter 1994b, 10. Aubrey 1957,'Boyle.' Marcombes to the Earl of Cork Feb 12,1639/40, quoted in Maddison 1969, 30. MrW. Douch.

Boyle's Life 17 which latter he was naturalarry addicted to, resenting3 a greate deal of Delight in the Conversation of the Muses, which neverthelesse he ever since that time forbore to cultivate ... Yet did he at Idle howres write some few verses both in Franch & Latin: & many Copys of amorous, Merry, & Devout ones in English; most of which, uncommunicated, the Day he came of Age he sacrific't to Vulcan, with a Dessein to make the rest perish by the same Fate, when they came within his Power; tho amongst them were many serious Copys, & one long one amongst the rest, against Wit Profanely or Wantonly employ'd; those two Vices being ever perfectly detested by him in others, & religiously declin'd in all his Writings.1"

Again, we have an early indication of something that stayed with Boyle throughout his life: this perfect detestation of Wit, 'profanely or wantonly employed/ It was to be the wits of the restoration court who gave the early Royal Society as much trouble as they gave Boyle's constant enemy, Hobbes.c 'Wit, sacred Wit, is all the bus'ness here/ wrote Aphra Behn, summing up the stance of which Boyle so heartily disapproved. At this time, Boyle's father, having reluctantly agreed to a marriage between Boyle's brother Francis and Elisabeth Killigrew,d arranged for Francis and Robert to leave for France and a continental tour four days after the marriage. Boyle's father writes, 'his Ma*7 and the queen both staied in the bedchamber till they saw my son & his wife in bed together; and they bothe kissed the bride and blessed them, as I did/6 Boyle comments: But to render this Joy as short as it was Greate, P. & his Brother, were within 4 dayes after commanded away for France, & having Kiss't their Majesties hands; they tooke a differing farewell of all their Friends; the Bridegroome extreamely afflicted to be so soone deprived of a Joy; which he had tasted but just enuf of, to encrease his Regrets, by the Knowledge of what he was forc't from; but Philaretus as much satisfy'd; to see hima Resent: To take or receive in a certain way or with certain feelings; to take well or ill. Obs. (common c 1655-85)' (OED). b BP 37:177r-v; Hunter 1994b, 10-11. c 'The witts at Court were wont to bayte him. But he feared none of them, and would make his part good. The King would call him the Beare: Here comes the Beare to be bayted: (this is too low witt to be published)' (Aubrey 1957, entry 'Hobbes'). d Boyle's father wanted only a marriage contract, but the bride's mother wanted a marriage and, winning the king's approval, carried the day (Maddison 1969, 24n). e Maddison 1969, p 25n.

18 Boyle on Atheism selfe in a Condition to content a Curiosity to which his Inclinations did passionately addict him.3

Francis was fifteen, Elisabeth sixteen at the time. Boyle was twelve, which no doubt provides a partial explanation for his lack of sympathy with his brother, but Boyle, though in many ways both a kind and charitable person, showed throughout his life a certain insensitivity to the condition of others .b Although at first Francis's Mrs Betty was as much afflicted by the parting as Francis himself, and sent him many letters suggesting either that he return or that she should make her way to the continent, the marriage seems not to have been a particularly happy one. As adults the couple spent much of their time apart. Leaving Francis in Ireland, Elizabeth passed her time in London in the company of Charles II and her brother, Thomas Killigrew, director of the King's Company, the first English company to commit what John Evelyn considered the 'atheistical liberty' of allowing an actoress on stage. Killigrew 'had a reputation for wit, debauchery, promiscuity, and irreverence' and was connected with the spy machinery of the time.c Francis and Robert travelled on the continent with their tutor Isaac Marcombes. Marcombes was French by birth, resident in Geneva, and connected by marriage to Jean Diodati, the Swiss theologian and pastor with whom two of Boyle's older brothers, Lewis and Roger, had stayed when they were in Geneva. Madison suggests that 'Diodati may well have been a formative influence in the development of Boyle's deeply religious outlook./d This may be correct - there are very few references by Boyle to Diodati6 - but at least as important would have been the pervasive puritan atmosphere at his father's home, as well as the subsequent influence of his sisters Katherine and Mary, both of whom shared with their brother an outlook steeped in piety. Boyle tells us of Marcombes, that a b c d e

BP 37:179r; Hunter 1994b, 13. For some examples see Macintosh 1996,458-9. Goreau 1980,94; see further Fraser 1984, ch. 21, and Townshend 1904, 340-2,375. Madison 1969,29n. Boyle mentions Diodati's glosses on Psalms 19.1, 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork,' at Works 3:233,11:29, and BP 8:133, Works 13:163, and on I Corinthinians 1 at BP 8:137v, Works 13:169. There is also a reference to him, in a list of 'profound Schollers ... to whome here or abroad I have had the Happinesse to be known,' at BP 7:12, Works 13:181.

Boyle's Life 19 He was a man whose Garbe, his Min[d] & outside, had very much of his Nation: having been divers Yeares a Traveller & a souldier; he was well fashion'd, & very well knew, what belong'd to a Gentleman. His Naturall were much better then his acquired Parts; tho divers of the Latter he possess't, tho not in an Eminent, yet in a very competent Degree: Scholarship he wanted not, having in his greener Yeares been a profess'd Student in Divinity; but he was much lesse Read in Bookes then men. And hated Pedantry as much as any of the seaven Deadly sins.3 In private, Marcombes was cynically2 Dispos'd; & a very nice Critick both of Words & Men; which Humor he us'd to exercise so freely with Filaretus; that at last he forc'd him to a very cautious & considerate way of expressing himselfe; which after turn'd to his no small advantage. The Worst Quality he had, was his Choller, to Excesses of which he was excessively prone: & that being the onely Passion to which Philaretus was (much) observ'd to be inclin'd: his Desire to shunne clashing with his Governor; & his accustomednesse to beare the sudden sallys of his impetuous humor, taught our Youth, so to subdue that Passion in himselfe, that he was soone able to governe it, habitually & with ease. The Continuance of which Conquest he much acknowledg'd to that Passage of St. James; For the Wrath of Man worketh not the righteousnesse of God.b And he was ever a strict observer of that Precept of the Apostles, Let not the Sun go downe upon Your wrath ...c Wooton, who had recommended Marcombes to Boyle's father, remarks of him: 'He seemeth in himself neither of a lumpish nor of a light composition, but of a well fixed mean.'d On the way to Geneva they spent some time in Paris ('that vast Chaos of a Citty') and also Lyons. Paris at this time was more heavily populated than London, and was indeed the largest city in Europe (though London was growing at a faster rate, and would be larger by the end of the century). Estimates of the populations vary. Bernard 1970 (285) suggests a population of Paris 'around 250,000 at the start of the sevena b c d

BP 37:177v-178r, Hunter 1994b, 11. Boyle's marginal note: Jam. 1.20. BP 37:178r, Hunter 1994b, 11-12. Boyle's marginal note: Ephesians 4:26. Sir Henry Wooton to the Earl of Cork, 24 November 1635, quoted in Smith 1907,2:357.

20 Boyle on Atheism

teenth century to double that at its end/ but Mousnier 1978 (159-60) suggests a population of 412,000 to 415,000 by 1637, an estimate that is 'vraisemblable ... sans doute/ For London, Braudel 1981 (1:548) suggests a population of 317,000 in 1632, rising to 700,000 in 1700, but Finlay 1981 (51) suggests a rise from 200,000 in 1600 through 400,000 in 1650, to 575,000 in 1700. Mousnier suggests a population of 270,000 in 1636, and offers a number of other interesting comparative figures: Rome in 1630, 113,000; Naples in 1606, 280,000; and Venice in 1630, 150,000, reduced after the plague to 120,000 in 1643. At any rate, the young Boyle was little acquainted with London and not at all with other large cities, so that Paris, which was both large and crowded, would indeed have seemed a 'chaos' to him. As with pre-1666 London, the streets 'were extremely narrow, some only six-feet wide, and all were lined with medieval houses. Some were half-timbered, with each succeeding floor built out over the other, until the streets seemed tunnels beneath peaked roofs' (Ranum 1968,8), while the markets were crowded, extensive, dirty, and noisy. However, a couple of decades after Boyle passed through Paris Huygens was to find it much more congenial than London. He travelled 'to England in 1661 after his second visit to Paris. He was not very much impressed: the city of London seemed mean and smoky after Paris, and society less pleasing, although the people he met were civil enough, especially those familiar with France.'3 From Lyons they travelled to Geneva, which was just recovering from a four-year bout of the plague, The plague arrived in Geneva in 1636 and lasted until 1640. It was taken, in the usual seventeenthcentury way, to be a punishment from God for what were considered to be the citizens' immoralities: La Consistoire, considerant 1'immoralite, a son avis generale, estima que cette peste etait un chatiment de Dieu. Comme en 1637 une femme avait ete convaincue d'un double adultere, il rappela aux rnagistrats qu'en 1615 une adultere avait ete graciee et que la peste avait fait peu apres de terrible ravages. Le Conseil, tout en felicitant le Consistoire de son zele, trouva etrange qu'une sentence puisse etre dictee a des juges. Neanmoins il condamna la coupable a etre pendue et le Deux Cents lui refusa la grace, que cependant demandait le mari. (Vaucher 1951,350) This sentiment was still abroad during Boyle's adult life, as a glance a Hall 1980,68.

Boyle's Life 21

at Evelyn's Diary makes clear. Defoe has his narrator H.F. catch the tone nicely, concerning the plague of 1665: I should observe that the Court removed early, viz., in the month of June, and went to Oxford, where it pleased God to preserve them; and the distemper did not, as I heard of, so much as touch them, for which I cannot say that I ever saw they showed any great token of thankfulness, and hardly anything of reformation, though they did not want being told that their crying vices might without breach of charity be said to have gone far in bringing that terrible judgement upon the whole nation. (1722,37)

Geneva also provided (in 1632) what Buckle, following Hallam, calls 'probably the last case in "Protestant countries of capital punishment for mere heresy'" (Buckle 1872, 3:558; quoting Hallam's Literature [of Europe], ii.344.). However, the possibility remained in England. In the autumn of 1666, 'the House of Commons cited the atheism of Hobbes and of his friend the Roman Catholic priest Thomas White as a probable "cause" of the Great Fire and Plague of London, and ordered an investigation of their works' (Mintz 1969, 62). It was not until 1677 that heresy in England became punishable by excommunication instead of (as formerly) death by burning, and it was not until 1712 that the last execution for witchcraft occurred. In Geneva, Boyle studied mathematics '& in a few months grew very well acquainted with the most Practicke Part of Arithmetick, Geometry (with it's subordinades) the Doctrine of the Sphere, that of the Globe, & Fortification.'3 It was perhaps at this time that Boyle read Oughtred's Clavis Mathematica, which he 'esteemed a much more instructive way of logic, than that of Aristotle* He mentions these early studies in The Usefulness of Mathematicks to Natural Philosophy, and remarks: 'I have often wish'd that I had imploy'd about the Speculative part of Geometrie, and the cultivating of the Specious Algebra I had been taught very young, a good part of that Time and Industry that I spent about Surveying and Fortification ... and other Practick parts of Mathematicks.'0 Aubrey suggests that Hooke, who as a child 'in one weeke's time made himselfe master of the first VI bookes of Euclid/ as an adult 'read to him (R. B. Esq.) Euclid's Elements, and taught him Des Cartes' Phia BP 37:180; Hunter 1994b, 14-15. b Birch 1772,1:xli. c Usefulness II, Works 6:440,111:426.

22 Boyle on Atheism

losophy.'3 The claim about Descartes is implausible, but the reading of Euclid has a ring of possibility to it. Boyle was, however, extremely interested in certain mathematical results. He is constantly - indeed, almost obsessively - interested in the incommensurability of the side and diagonal of a square; with the relation between denumerable infinities and their denumerably infinite subsets; and with the infinite divisibility of the real line. This fascination with the incommensurability result cuts across differences between Boyle and Aristotle. The pain from thirst/ said Aristotle, 'is opposed to the pleasure from drinking, but there is none opposite to the pleasure from contemplating the incommensurability of the side and the diagonal.'15 In Geneva, Boyle also learned fencing (which, Marcombes wrote, 'he is soe desirous to Learne that I am almost afraid that he should have left a quarell unperfect in England'0), and dancing, 'the former of which Exercises he ever as much affected as he contemn'd the latter./d He remembered as an adult, however, 'the giddines acquir'd by turning on ones Toes,'6 and retained throughout his life a fondness for fireworks ('which I have often seen with pleasure'f). He also improved his French: 'His Recreations during his Stay in Geneva were sometimes Maill, Tennis (a Sport he ever passionately lov'd;) & above all the Reading of Romances; whose Perusall did not only extreamely divert him; but (assisted by a Totall Discontinuance of the English tongue) in a short time taught him a Skill in French (somewhat) unusual to Strangers.'8 a Aubrey, Brief Lives, 'Hooke/ Aubrey may overstate Hooke's proficiency, but it is clear that Boyle was not a mathematician in our sense; indeed, he explicitly pointed out his lack of mathematical ability at the beginning of his scientific career (Spring, Works 1:144,1:2; Works 1:196,1:36). Nonetheless, his interest in mathematics was clear, and Peter Dear's suggestion that Boyle exhibited a 'suspicion of mathematics' (Dear 1995, 227) overstates the case considerably. For other views of Boyle's mathematical ability, see Boas 1958,34-6, and Shapin 1988. b Topics 106a36ff. c Maddison 1969,31n. d BP37:180v. e BP 2:143. f BP2:142v. g BP 37:180v, Hunter 1994b 15. Mall ('Maill') was 'a game practised in Italy, France and Scotland, from the 16th c., and in England in the 17th c., in which a boxwood ball was driven through an iron ring suspended at some height above the ground in a long alley; the player who, starting from one end of the alley, could drive the ball through the ring with the fewest strokes or within a given number of them winning the game' (OED, entry 'pall-mall'). Tennis, for Boyle, would have been real tennis.

Boyle's Life 23

The '(somewhat)' is a piece of characteristic Boyle caution, for he goes on to tell us that his French was proficient enough to let him pass for French 'both amongst them that were so; & amongst Forreiners also/ During this period, Boyle underwent what he clearly felt to be a conversion from nominal or at least unthinking Christianity to committed Christianity. One summer night, about that time of Night that adds most terror to such accidents; P. was suddenly waked in a Fright with such loud Claps of Thunder (which are oftentimes very terrible in those hot Climes & Seasons;) that he thought the Earth would owe an ague to the Aire: & every clap was both preceded & attended with Flashes of lightning so numerous ... & so dazling, that P. began to imagine them the Sallyes of that Fire that must consume the World. The long Continuance of that... dismall Tempest where the Winds were so loud as almost drown'd the noise of the very thunder; & the showres so hideous, as almost quench't the Lightning ere it could reach his Eyes; confirm'd P. in his Apprehensions, of the Day of Judgment's being at hand /come/: Whereupon the Consideration of his Unpreparedness to welcome it; & the hideousnesse of being surprized by it in an unfitt Condition, make him Resolve & Vow, that if his Feares were that night disappointed all further additions to his life shud be more Religiously & carefully3 employ'd. The Morning come, & serener cloudlesse sky return'd he ratify'd his Determination so solemnly that from that Day he dated his Conversion; renewing now he was past Danger, the vow he had made whilst he fancy'd himselfe to be in it: that tho his Feare was (& he blush't it was so) the Rise /occasion/ of his Resolution of Amendment; yet at least he might not owe his more deliberate consecration ... of himselfe to Piety, to any less noble Motive then that of it's owne Excellence.3

Realizing the inefficacy of a promise exacted under duress, Boyle repeated the performance under a serene and cloudless sky. The promise seems never to have been broken, and indeed the later Boyle stressed the need to have an examined faith. Boyle lamented the fact 'that the generality of those that call themselves Christians, assume that title upon motives injurious, and dishonourable, both to themselves, and the religion they make profession of/ and he pointed out that 'usually, such as are born in such a place, espouse the opinions true or false, that obtain there/ indeed, 'the greatest number of those a BP 181r-v; Hunter 1994b, 16.

24 Boyle on Atheism

that pass for Christians, profess themselves such only because Christianity is the religion of their Parents, or their Country, or their Prince, or those that have been, or may be, their Benefactors; which is in effect to say, that they are Christians, but upon the same grounds that would have made them Mahometans, if they had been born and bred in Turky/ Boyle felt that more was required of the thinking believer.3 Locke agreed: often a child's notion of God does more 'resemble the Opinion, and Notion of the Teacher, than represent the True God.'b The point was generally accepted at the time: By education most have been misled; So they believe, because they so were bred. The priest continues what the nurse began, And thus the child imposes on the man.c

Hard on the heels of Boyle's enlightenment, doubts about his faith began to trouble him.d In common with many of his seventeenth-century contemporaries, and in sharp contrast to the eighteenth-century outlook, Boyle found mountains distressing, and their presence was felt by him to be a partial cause of a bout of angst he suffered in the spring of 1641.e 'High Objects/ wrote Dryden, 'attract the sight; but it looks up with pain on Craggy Rocks and Barren Mountains, and continues not intent on any object, which is wanting in shades and greens to entertain it/f James Ho well, writing shortly before Boyle's birth, had a similar reaction: I am now got o're the Alps, and returned to France; I had crossed and clambered up the Pyreneans to Spain before, they are not so high and hida b c d

CV 1, App, Works 12:421, V:712; BP 7:233 (also BP 4:60 - §3.7.5 below). Locke 1975,1.14.13. The Hind and the Panther, in Dryden 1958,3:389. Such doubts were not less common in the seventeenth century than in any other. See, for example, Thomas 1973, 6:4, 'Scepticism/ 198-206. e See Thomas 1984,258 ff, as well as Marjorie Hope Nicolson's standard study Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Nicholson 1959). By the early nineteenth century the reversal was complete. In 1818, Mary Shelley - or at least one of her two best-known characters - found the Alps 'majestic/ 'wondrous/ and 'sublime.' Lamb was a holdout. Writing to Wordsworth (30 January 1801), he said: 'Separate from the pleasure of your company, I don't much care if I never see another mountain in my life.' f Dryden 1667, Dedication (to Anne, Duchess of Monmouth.

Boyle's Life 25 eous as the Alpes; but for our Mountains in Wales, as Eppint and Penwinmaur, which are so much cried up amongst us, they are Mole-hills in comparison of these, they are but Pigmeys compared to Giants, but Blisters compared to Impostumes, or Pimples to Warts: Besides, our Mountains in Wales bear always something useful to Man or Beast, some Grass at least; but these uncouth huge mounstrous excrescences of Nature, bear nothing (most of them) but craggy Stones: the tops of some of them are blanched over all the year long with Snows, and the People who dwell in the Valleys, drinking for want of other, this Snow-water, are subject to a strange Swelling in the Throat, called Goytre, which is common amongst them.a

Boyle had already found 'those ... Mountains where the Rhosne takes it's source' to be 'hideous,/b and now, in April 1641, spending some of the Spring in a Visit to Chambery, (the Cheefe Towne of Savoy) Aix (fam'd for its Bathes) Grenoble the head Towne of Dauphine & Residence of a Parliament, his Curiosity at last lead him to those Wild Mountaines where the First & Cheefest of the Carthusian Abbeys dos stand seated; where the Devil taking advantage of that deep raving Melancholy, so sad a Place; his humor, & the st[r]ange storys & Pictures he found there of Bruno the Father/Patriark/ of that order, suggested such strange & hideous thoughts, & such distracting Doubts of some of the Fundamentals of Christianity/Religion;/ that tho his lookes did little betray his Thoughts, nothing but the Forbiddenesse of Selfe-dispatch, hindred his acting it.c But after a tedious languishment of many months in this tedious perplexity; at last it pleas'd God one Day he had receiv'd the Sacrament, to restore unto him the withdrawne sense of his Favor. But tho since then Philaretus ever look't upon those impious suggestions, rather as Temptations to be suppress't /rejected/ then Doubts to be satisfy'd; yet never after did these fleeting Clouds, cease now & then to darken/ obscure/ the clearest serenity of his quiet: which made him often say that a To Sir J. H.from Lions, 6 November 1621, Howell 1705,62. b BP 37:183; Hunter 1994b, 18. The Alps, he suggests, are a purgatory which has to be 'pass'd over' to get 'to that Paradice call'd Italy.' c In later life Boyle wrote 'Men that from the top of some Pinacle or other high and steep place do look down to the bottome of it are at first very apt by the bare prospect, (which yet convey's nothing into the Body but those images, if yet there intervene corporeal ones in sensation of visible Objects that enter at the Eye) to become so giddy, that they are reduced to turne away their Eyes from the Praecipice for fear of not being able to stand upon their Leggs' (Usefulness I, Works 3:445,11:175-6).

26 Boyle on Atheism Injections of this Nature were such a Disease to his Faith as the Tooth-ach is to the Body; for tho it be not mortall, 'tis very troublesome. However, (as all things worke together to them that love God,) P deriv'd from this Anxiety the Advantage of Groundednesse in his Religion: for the Perplexity his doubts created oblig'd him (to remove them) to be seriously inquisitive of the Truth of the very fundamentals of Christianity: & to peruse what both Turkes, & Jewes, & the cheefe Sects of Christians cud alledge for their severall opinions: that so tho he beleev'd more then he could comprehend, he might not beleeve more then he cud prove; & not owe the stedfastnesse of his Fayth to so poore a Cause as the Ignorance of what might be objected against it. He say'd (speaking of those /Persons/ that want not Meanes to enquire /Convenience]/ & Abilitys to judge) that 'twas not a greater happyness to inherit a good Religion; then 'twas a Fault to have it only by inheritance; & thinke it the best because 'tis generally embrac't; rather then embrace it because we know it to be the best. That tho we cannot often give a Reason for /of/ What we beleeue; we shud be ever able to give a Reason Why we beleeue it. That it is the greatest of Pollys to neglect any diligence that may prevent the being mistaken, where it is the greatest of Miserys to be deceiv'd. That how deare soever things taken up on the score are sold; there is nothing worse taken up upon Trust then Religion, in which he deserves not to meet with the True one that cares not to examine whither or no it be soe.a

Boyle's doubts continued throughout his life, though their nature varied. Michael Hunter notes: Boyle's notes show that, as his death approached, he still struggled with religious doubts, echoing those which he had so graphically described in the aftermath of his conversion experience in his Account of Philaretus. In addition, he clearly shared with many earnest Christians of his day an anxiety that he might have committed the Sin against the Holy Ghost, as described in chapter 12 of St Matthew's Gospel. As his friends saw, there could be no doubt whatever about the genuineness of a faith so repeatedly scrutinised, but it probably made Boyle an uncomfortable colleague. Equally significant is the evidence that exists of Boyle's acute scruples over matters of conscience concerning his own affairs ... the Restoration settlement of impropriations on former church lands ... clearly lay on a BP 37:182r-v; Hunter 1994b, 17-18.

Boyle's Life

27

Boyle's conscience, partly because those in possession of such rights could be regarded as guilty of the sin of sacrilege, and partly because he had had the benefit of perquisites which might otherwise have been used for ecclesiastical ends.3 Leaving Switzerland, Boyle, accompanied by Marcombes and his brother, crossed the Alps and entered Italy in September 1641 where, in Florence, he spent the winter. While there he learned the Italian Tong, in which he quickly attain'd a native accent, & knowledge enuf to understand both Bookes & Men; but to speake & expresse himselfe readily, in that language, was a skill he ever too little aspir'd to ... acquire. The rest of his spare howres he spent in reading the Moderne history in Italian, & the New Paradoxes of the greate Star-gazer Galileo;b whose ingenious Bookes, perhaps because they could not be so otherwise were /confuted/ by a Decree from Rome; his H. the Pope, it seems presuming (& that justly) that the Infallibility of his Chaire extended to determine (as unerringly) points in Philosophy as in Religion; & loath to have the stability of that Earth question'd, in which he had established his Kingdome; /Greatnesse/. Whilst Philaretus liv'd at Florence, this famous Galileo dy'dc within a league of it; his memory being honor'd with a celebrating Epitaph, & a faire Tomb erected for [him] at the Publicke Charges/Cost/.d 'In Italy he read over the lives of the ancient philosophers with the utmost attention/ presumably in Diogenes Laertius. 'The sect, which then struck him most, was that of the Stoics; and he tried his proficiency in their philosophy, by enduring a long fit of the tooth-ach with great unconcernedness/6 Still in Italy he had (in the winter of 41-2) what seems to have been one of the very few sexual encounters of his life: Nor did he sometimes scruple, in his Governor's Company, to visit the famousest Bordellos; whither resorting out of bare Curiosity, he retain'd a Hunter 1994b, Ixxiii-lxxiv. b As mentioned earlier, 'paradox' had not acquired its current technical sense and is here used - as it normally is by Boyle - in the common seventeenth-century sense of 'something strange or surprising, though true.' c 8 January 1641/2. d BP 37:183v-184; Hunter 1994b, 19. e Birch 1772, Irxxvi; CPE, Works 2:86,1:355.

28 Boyle on Atheism there an unblemish't Chastity, & still return'd thence as honest as he went thither. Professing that he never found any such sermons against them, as they were against themselues. The Impudent Nakednesse of vice, clothing it with a Difformity, Description cannot reach, & the worst of Epithetes cannot but flatter. But tho P. were noe Fewell for forbidden Flames, he prov'd the Object of unnaturall ones. For being at that Time not above 15, & the Cares of the World having not yet faded a Complexion naturally fresh enuf; as he was once unaccompany'd diverting himselfe abroad, he was somewhat rudely presst by the Preposterous Courtship of 2 of those Fryers, whose Lust makes no distinction of Sexes; but that which it's Preference of their owne creates; & not without Difficulty, & Danger, forc't a scape from these gown'd Sodomites. Whose Goatish Heates, serv'd not a little to arme Filaretus against such Peoples specious Hyprocrisy; & heightn'd & fortify'd in him an Aversenesse for Opinions, which now the Religieux discredit as well as the Religion.3 Reluctantly leaving Rome ('unwillingly driven thence by his Brothers Disability to support th'encreasing Heates; which there prove often insupportable to strangers'1"), he proceeded slowly through northern Italy towards Marseilles. In France he 'was welcom'd ... by an Accident which ... might have prov'd Tragicall.' Apparently passing a religious procession (the MS is torn), he did not emulate previous Englishmen that... before Philar. thinking as much better as safer [to] take of their hats then to venture their heads, complimented with the Crucifixe: but P. without the least Act of superstition, tho not with ill Words, & worse Menaces,ventur'd & past boldly thorough them all; as ever resolving that the Soul shud not more transcend the Body in it's owne Value, then in his Esteemed Thus, somewhat confusingly, the MS, which seems to suggest that Boyle walked through without offering the crowd 'ill Words, & worse Menaces/ but this is unlikely, for there is no reason to think that Boyle was in a position to offer the crowd 'Menaces.' Presumably the intended sense is that Boyle walked through without 'the least Act of superstition/ but that the crowd did not allow him to pass through a BP 37:184r-v; Hunter 1994b, 20. b BP37:171v; Hunter 1994b, 21. c BP 37:172v; Hunter 1994b, 22.

Boyle's Life 29

without offering him 'ill Words, & worse Menaces/ Travellers at the time were encouraged not to behave like the adolescent Boyle: The Italians say ... These things are required in a Traveller, the eye of a Hawke (to see farre off), the eares of an Asse (to heare the least whispering), the face of an Ape (to bee ready to laugh in soothing), the mouth of a Hogge (to eate whatsoever is set before him), the backe of a Camell (to beare burthens patiently), the legge of a Hart (to flie from danger) a huge great purse top full of gold (because he that hath money, is called Lord). We in England vulgarly say, that a Traveller to Rome must have the backe of an Asse, the belly of a Hogge, and a conscience as broad as the Kings high way.3

On arrival in Marseilles they found that the monies the Great Earl had been in the habit of sending were no longer to arrive and that, indeed, the last quarter's payment (of £250.0.0)° had been held up by Cork's London agent, 'good Mr Perkins.'0 Moreover, there was a letter from the Earl, who was unaware of the mischance affecting the quara Moryson 1617, pt 3, bk 1, ch 3,3:452-3. b By way of comparison, a decade later, in 1658, the legally assessed wages of a 'man servant able to take charge of husbandry' were £4.0.0 per year; a carpenter received 6d a day 'with meate' and \2d a day without; and 'a man for ordinarye labour' received 3d and 6d a day with and without meat during the period 1 May to 29 September, and a penny a day less during the rest of the year (Trotter 1919, Appendix E, 'Labourers and Apprentices'). In London, however, things were different. Some actresses received - although this was thought to be unusually high - 30s per week (Fraser 1984,424), while in 1647 Lely was receiving '£5 for each ritratto or head, and £10 for a portrait down to the knees' (Beckett 1951,11). Beckett continues: 'It does not sound very much, but his income must have exceeded his expenses, for he was already laying the foundations of his great collection.' See further Mitchell 1962. We might also note that on 6 February 1646-7, Parliament granted Katherine Ranelagh £6.0.0 per week 'for the present Support and Relief of the extreme Necessities of herself and her Children' (B.M. Add. MSS 5501, f. 46, quoted in Maddison 1969,67). Contemporaries noted that she had not applied for relief herself. If £6.0.0 per week was reasonable for an adult with children in London, something under £20.0.0 per week for three travellers is not out of line, though we do not know how many attendants accompanied them. By comparison, £7.0.0 was a typical monthly bill for the Pepys household in the 1660s (Picard 1997,147). Things improved financially for the Boyles subsequently. Later in the century, John Aubrey reported Robert Hooke as having seen Boyle's rent roll, which amounted to £3,000 per annum, mostly from Ireland. c Perkins seems not to have profited by his action, since he used the money to pay off the debts of some of Cork's other children, but both Boyle and his father thought his conduct exemplified astonishing 'baseness and infidelity.'

30 Boyle on Atheism terly payment, telling them that, as a result of the rebellion in Ireland, no more money was to be forthcoming: in the 'dangerous and poore estate whereunto by gods providence' he had been reduced, he had 'with much difficulty gott together two hundred and fifty pounds by selling of plate/ but to pay Marcombes's bills punctually as he had in the past 'I am noe waies able/ So he advised Marcombes to use the money to bring the two boys out of some meet port in France to land either at dublin, Corke, or Youghall, (for all other Cities and Sea townes are possessed by the enemy), or else my two sonnes, till this generall rebellion and waste contynues, must of necessitie upon receipt of these my lettres, presently begin their journey from the place where these lettres shalbe delivered you, and travaile into Holland, and putt themselues into entertaynement under the service and conduct of the Prince of Orange; for they must henceforward maintayne themselves by such entertaynements as they gett in the warres ... It wilbe a worke worthy your consideration, how you governe my two sonnes, and how you with their owne consents will dispose of them, either for Ireland or Holland ... in any case, I pray be very circumspect how you spend this last 250h now made over unto you ...a In the event, lacking this last £250, Francis decided to return to Ireland, arriving in time to fight in the Battle of Liscarrol (3 September 1642). Robert decided that his health and lack of money ruled out a return to Ireland, and his age made soldiering in Holland an untempting and indeed implausible prospect.b He therefore decided to accept Marcombes's offer of hospitality in Geneva, and did not make his way to England until the summer of 1644. Before leaving Geneva, Boyle had a conversation with Francois Perreaud (1572-1657), who later wrote Demonographie, ou traite des demons et Sorciersf which Boyle was to arrange to have translated into English by Peter du Moulin (the younger, 1601-84). In a letter prefixed to the English edition Boyle recalled that 'the conversation I had with that pious author during my stay at Geneva, and the present he was pleased to make me of this treatise before it was printed, in a place a Earl of Cork to Marcombes 9 March 1641-2, quoted Maddison 1969,47. b Boyle to his father, 25 May 1642; Maddison 1969, 48-9. c Geneva, 1653, subsequently retitled in the second edition (1656) L'Antidemon de Mascon. The English translation, The Devil ofMascon, is reprinted in Works 13.

Boyle's Life 31

where I had opportunities to enquire both after the writer, and some passages of the book, did at length overcome in me (as to this narrative) all my settled indisposedness to believe strange things.' Acceptance of at least the possibility of diabolic or angelic intervention was common among the intelligentsia in the second half of the seventeenth century. Cudworth pointed out one expedient reason for the belief: [A] 11 these Extraordinary Phenomena, of Apparitions, Witchcraft, Possessions, Miracles, and Prophecies, do Evince that Spirits, Angels or Demons, though Invisible to us, are no Phancies, but Real and Substantial Inhabitants of the World; which favours not the Atheistick Hypothesis; but some of them, as the Higher kind of Miracles, and Predictions, do also immediatly enforce the acknowledgment of a Deity: a Being superiour to Nature, which therefore can check and controul it; and which comprehending the whole, foreknows the most Remotely distant, and Contingent Events*

In a manuscript draft ('Loose papers whence some things are to be extracted for the Discourse of the causes of Atheism'), Boyle considered three objections that might be made against such a belief: the implausibility of the standard means of bringing about such intervention; the unreliability of the witnesses; and the impossibility of incorporeal beings interacting with matter.b He agrees that the first objection, 'urg'd with great confidence, and not without much show of Reason' is a strong one: [T]o discredit all the storys of witchcrafts and apparitions of spirits, we need but to consider, how utterly Improbable it is, that druggs, which are but materiall things, or magicall ceremonies, which are but corporeal motions or actions; should have the power to engage either evill or good Angells, which are granted to be Immateriall beings, to appeare in this or that particular shape, or act after this or that determinate manner. And least of all (say the Objectors) can it be suppos'd that proud spirits, such as the Devills; should submit to be at the becke of a silly and despicable old woman, and at her command doe things extravagant & even ridiculous.0 a Cudworth 1678, 715. Glanville, in Sadducismus Triumphatus (Glanville 1689), argued the same point at length. See further, Hunter 1979, Jacob 1974, and Prior 1932. b See below §3.5.21. c This objection had been strongly urged by Reginald Scot at the end of the previous century in The discouerie of witchcraft (Scot 1584). The subtitle accurately catches the

32 Boyle on Atheism To this Boyle replies we men understand very little of the nature, customes, & government of the Intelligent creatures of the spirituall world: and particularly what concernes the Falne Angells or bad Daemons. And therefore they being themselves invisible to us, and capable of working in wayes that our sences cannot discerne; and being Agents of great craft & long experience; fa's no wonder that many of their actions, tho never so pollytickly /2:101/ contrived & carried on, should seem irrationall to us: who know so little of their particular inclinations & designes, and the subtil & secret methods in which they carry them on. In spite of the community of nature, that is between men; and the knowledg that they cannot but acquire of one another by converseing and observations; that country fellow usually frame but wilde conjectures of the Intrigues of state affaires: and even more knowing men that are not admitted into the secret of them, are often deluded by the blinds of Pollititians and their stratagems. And notwithstanding the Revelations that God hath vouchsaft us about his Providence in the scripture, we find that tis very difficult even for the ablest Divines & Philosophers, to solve the more mysterious conducts of Providence; some of which have seem'd Riddles both to very wise, very holy men; Tho to facilitate the Explication of these we have, an assurance, that however Gods wayes of governing the world may be darke to us, yet he does nothing incongruous either to his wisdom, or his holynes: whereas we cannot tell how far the ambition, the pride, the craft, & the malice of evill spirits may engage & enable to do such things, as to us seem irrational, & perhaps absurd. For we see that among men, whose parts & wickednes are inferior to those of Devills: a very crafty and vindicative person, will oftentimes be able to compasse his ends, by wayes, that to the unskilfull seem very odd or unlikely: and to effect his revenge, will run into dangers & inconveniences very prejudiciall to his Interests, and perhaps destructive of his very life.

tone of the book: Wherein the lewde dealing of witches and witchmongers is notablie detected, the knauerie of coniurors, the impietie of inchantors, thefollie of soothsaiers, the impudent falshood ofcousenors, the infidelitie of atheists, the pestilent practises ofPythonists, the curiositie offigurecasters, the vanitie of dreamers, the geggerlie art of Alcumystrie, The abhomination ofidolatrie, the horrible art of poisoning, the vertue and power ofnaturall magike, and all conueiances of Legerdemaine and iuggling are deciphered: and many other things opened, which have long lien hidden, howbeit verie necessarie to be knowne.

Boyle's Life 33 The second objection he also accepts, though not wholly: If your Erastus had attributed the Incredibility of the Relations he questions to the want of crediblenes, in the witnesses; his objection would seem to me, much more specious, then that he pitch'd upon. For I thinke most of these Relations, are not soe well attested as to inforce, or perhaps deserve, the beliefe of a cautious man. And therefore; tho upon particular & cogent proofe I beleeve some of them to be true, yet I reject or distrust far the greatest part, as not being soe attested. The third objection he rejects as being simply inconsistent, for the human soul is accepted as incorporeal, and it works (though we know not how) on matter. Therefore tho it be true, that most men have greater oppurtunity to be satisfyed, that there are such heteroclite creatures as men, then that there are spirits; that sometimes shew themselves to men; yet that inferrs only, that one may be more easily evinced then the other, but not that one is more possible in respect to God, or more impossible in its own nature, or more intelligible to us, then the other. And they that have had the lucke to see the apparitions, & supernatural feates of spirites, may justly beleeve their Eyes & other Senses; notwithstanding the unaccountablenes of the manner of such things. For God may have endowed other spirits with motive faculties in reference to other bodys, as well as he has allowed humane souls a power to move rightly disposed humane Bodys: and as reason shews, that he may doe it; soe Experience is supposed to attest, that he has done it.a Boyle was in general sceptical about tales of supernatural sightings, but he thought they were certainly possible, and his love of observation was quite strong enough to prevent him from unqualifiedly rejecting any claim that had the testimony of someone of good character.13 Still, he was often cautious. Here are two samples: In the Sceptical Chymist, Boyle has Carneades remark, regarding van Helmont's claim to have a universal solvent: 'I cannot but say on this Occasion what... our friend Mr. Boyle is wont to say, when he is askt his Opinion of any strange Experiment; That He that hath seen it hath more Reason to beleeve it, than He that hath not.'c a BP 2:105 (§3.5.21 below). b See, for example, BP 2:105, §3.5.21 below. c Sceptical Chymist, Works 2:244,1:485-6.

34 Boyle on Atheism

And here is he speaking in propria persona concerning reports of locating metals by dowsing with hazel rods: 'of this Experiment I must content my self to say, what I am wont to do when my opinion is ask'd of those things which I dare not peremtorily reject, and yet am not convinc'd of; namely, that they that have seen them can much more reasonably believe them than they that have not.'3 When Boyle arrived back in England in mid-1644, he was seventeen13 and the Civil War was in progress. Fortunately for him, he was quickly reunited with his sister Katherine, who seems immediately to have readopted the semimaternal role she had no doubt often played after the death of their mother.c She was concerned in a variety of other ways to look after his welfare, both spiritual and worldly. She was, for example, the immediate cause of his getting to know members of the Hartlib circle.d At this time, Boyle's financial situation was, like the times themselves, unsettled. Writing to Marcombes in October 1646, he spoke of 'our miseries here, where every day presents us with much more unusual dispensations of providence,' and went on to remark that he had 'been fain to borrow money of servants, to lend it to men of above 10,000 1. a year.' At that time, he remarked, 'His majesty is still at Newcastle, both discontenting and discontented,' while in Ireland, 'the mere a CPE, Works 2:69,1:343. b 'A forlorn stripling,' More says (More 1944,53), but that is surely a bit extreme. c More says that Boyle suggests that the finding was an accident: 'Boyle made the surprising statement that, on his arrival in London, he met his sister Katherine ... quite accidentally, and that he went immediately to her house where he continued to live for four and a half months' (More 1944,53). But Boyle did not meet Katherine 'quite accidentally,' and there would have been no particular difficulty in discovering her address, nor does Boyle suggest that there was, though he does say that on his arrival in London he did not know her full address and had to inquire for it (Hunter 1994b, 24). Townshend makes a similar claim, with a similar absence of evidence, and adds a flight of fancy: 'He arrived in London an absolute stranger, and by a chance which he always ascribed to the providence of God, he found his sister. One likes to fancy the Diodati family, whom he had known in Geneva, directed him to Milton, and that the poet had the pleasure of reuniting the brother and sister' (Townshend 1904,447). What Boyle was thankful for, and ascribed to the providence of God, was his staying for that period with Katherine, which prevented his going into the army, for despite the presence in it of 'the excellent King himself, and diverse eminent divines, many worthy Persons of several ranks, yet the generality of those he would have been oblig'd to converse with were very debaucht, & apt, as well as inclinable to make others so' (Hunter 1994b, 25). d For further details, see Maddison 1969, 61.

Boyle's Life 35

natives promised themselves ... by this rebellion, to exchange the throne of England for St. Peter's chair; or at least to shake off the English yoke for that of some foreign prince of their own religion ...' Turning to himself, he added: my condition ... truly hath been chequered with a great deal of variety of fortune, and a great many vicissitudes of plenty and want, danger and safety, sickness and health, trouble and ease; wherein I were guilty of an ingratitude great as the favour I have received, if I did not acknowledge a great deal of mercy in God's dispensation towards me; which truly hath been so kind, as oftentimes to work my good out of those things I most feared the consequences of, and changed those very dangers, which were the object of my apprehension, into the motives of my joy. I was once a prisoner here upon some groundless suspicions, but quickly got off with advantage.

As to 'my Irish estate,... I never yet received the worth of a farthing.'a Regarding his spiritual welfare, by contrast, there was little, in the opinion of the times, that needed to be done. Boyle was already interested in both ethics and theology, and was indeed shortly to produce treatises in both fields. Much of his time during the early part of this Stalbridge period was spent in moral philosophy: 'My Ethics go very slowly on/ he wrote to Katherine on 30 March 1646.b He already approximated to the 'lay-bishop' that Anthony Walker (quoted in Aubrey, Brief Lives) was later to find him to be. He was, in fact, a serious, somewhat priggish young man, though no doubt the lightheartedness that kept breaking out in later life was not absent during these up-and-down years. L.T. More suggests, on the contrary, that despite being favoured at Eton, 'the boy did not become a prig/ and goes on to speak, somewhat bizarrely, of Boyle's 'innate manliness/ on the ground that his brother did not object when subjected to Boyle's piety. However, (a) we do not know that his brother found this behaviour unobjectionable; (b) even if he did not, that is scarcely evidence for 'manliness/ innate or otherwise, in the moralizer; and finally, (c) More himself finds some of Boyle's moralizing 'priggish'! At the opposite end of the spectrum, Winton Dean, discussing Theodora, finds 'Boyle's ... prurient selfa Correspondence 1:37-41. b Correspondence 1:34.

36 Boyle on Atheism

righteousness ... acutely distasteful/ After Boyle's death, Gilbert Burnet claimed: 'As for Joy, he had indeed nothing of Frolick and Levity in him' - a judgement accepted by Steven Shapin - but this fails to allow for the lighter moments that Boyle undoubtedly enjoyed.a Boyle himself tells us that he was 'a Person, who has made the Indagation of nature somewhat more than a Parergon, and having by a not-lazie nor short Enquiry manifested, how much He loves and can relish the Delight It affords, has had the good Fortune to make some Discoveries in it, and the Honour to have them Publickly, and but too Complementally, taken notice of by the Virtuosi.'13 This light-hearted delight in experimenting comes out clearly in his report of his replication of Archimedes' displacement result, which he reported to the Royal Society in 1664: filling a large and deep glass to a convenient height with fair water, we plac'd in it another deeper glass, shap'd like a Goblet or Tumbler, that it might be the fitter for swimming; and having furnish'd it first with Ballast, and then, for merryment sake, with a wooden Deck, by which a tall Mast, with a Sayle fasten'd to it, was kept upright; we fraughted it with wood, and by degrees pour'd Sand into it, till we had made it sinck just to the Tops of certain conspicuous marks, that we had fasten'd on the outside of the Glass to opposite parts thereof.c

This is not the report of a man who 'had indeed nothing of Frolick and Levity in him.' He was intended by his father to marry 'my Robins yonge Mrs/ Anne Howard, but it is doubtful that Boyle himself was ever in favour of the project, since Katherine was later to write to him: 'You are now very near the hour, wherein your mistress is, by giving herself to another, to set you at liberty from all the appearances you have put on of being a lover; which though they cost you some pains and use of art, were easier, because they were but appearances./d It is not clear, however, why Boyle should have put on these 'appearances.' Nor is it clear whether, supposing the reference to be to Anne a More 1944, 28, 72; Dean 1959, 558; Gilbert Burnet, A Sermon at the Funeral of the Honourable Robert Boyle, in Hunter 1994b, 55; Shapin 1994,187. b Excellence of Theology, Works 8:9, IV:3. c Hydrostatical Paradoxes, Works 5:231,11:763-4. d Correspondence 1:27. Maddison suggests that the occasion of the letter was Anne's marriage to her cousin Charles Howard (Maddison 1969,55).

Boyle's Life 37

Howard, Boyle would have carried his 'pains and use of art' into matrimony if Anne had not married her cousin Charles. After all, he held that 'Marriage is not a bare present but a Legall Exchange of harts/3 so it may be that Katherine's comforting letter should not be taken quite at face value. Writing on 6 June 1648, Boyle breaks off his letter to Sarah Hussey with the excuse that since I began to write ... I had unexpectedly the happines of a longe conversation with the faire Lady that people are pleased to think my Mistress; & truly Madam tho I am as farre from being in Love, as most that are soe are from being wise, yett my hast makes mee gladly imbrace the old excuse of Then to speake sence, were an offence;

to extenuate my haveing hitherto written soe dully & my now concluding so abruptly: for whilst this amorous rapture does possesse, I neither could write sence without being injurious to my passion, nor can any longer continue to write nonsence, without some violation of that profound respect which is ... due to you ...b

Despite the ambiguity of this letter, Boyle wrote 'when he was very young' to his niece Katherine, lady Barrymore, who was a year younger than Boyle and who had heard that Boyle was married, assuring her that it was 'a marriage celebrated by no priest but fame' and, remarking that he 'ever pratefd] of matrimony and amours' with 'pure raillery/ concluded: the little gentleman and I are still at the old defiance. You have carried away too many of the perfections of your sex, to leave enough in this country for the reducing so stubborn a heart as mine, whose conquest were a task of so much difficulty, and is so little worth it, that the latter property is always likely to deter any, that hath beauty and merit enough to overcome a Works 14:95, Lxliii. b Correspondence 1:71. Birch tells us that 'Mr. Evelyn was assured, that he courted the beautiful and ingenious daughter of Gary, earl of Monmouth; and that to this passion was owing his Seraphic Love' (Birch 1772, Lcxxxvii). Evelyn was passing on the gossip at a much later date, after Boyle's death, in a letter to the younger Wooton, 29 March 1696 (Evelyn 1906, 702-5). Seraphic Love was completed during a visit to his sister Mary (at Leese Priory in Essex) in 1648 (Birch 1772,1:xlv.). Evelyn's letter is almost half a century later.

38 Boyle on Atheism the former. But though this untamed heart be thus insensible to the thing itself called love, it is yet very accessible to things very near of kin to that passion; and esteem, friendship, respect, and even admiration, are things, that their proper objects fail not proportionably to exact of me ...a •

'I ... wish/ Katherine wrote, 'you would disapoynt Frank [on whom the estate was entailed] by bringing a wife of your owne to Stalbridge/ but Boyle seems never to have given lessons in experimental philosophy in the Panglossian manner, and if ever he did consider marriage he soon decided against it, 'at first, out of Policy/ as he himself told Bishop Burnet late in life, 'afterwards more Philosophically/15 The ill health that was to follow him throughout his life was already much in evidence. The course of his studies/ Birch tells us, 'was interrupted for some time in the summer of the year 1647, by a severe fit of the stone, to which distemper he was extremely subject/ Throughout his life he was always willing to try on himself a variety of remedies, which were not invariably helpful: 'Dear Count/ he wrote, 'When I should have answer'd Yours by the last Post, some Physicke I had taken the Night before ranging very busily through all my Veines, had so stirr'd up & exasperated my Ill-Humor, that I durst not handle a Pen/c It was not only ill health that hindered. Early in 1647, 'disquietjed]' by 'the Stone' and worried about smallpox (Very rife in these Parts'), he was nonetheless intending to 'court Nature as eagerly as such a disaccomodated Solitude will permit/ and was suffering 'necessitated Idlenesse' while awaiting 'a great earthen furnace' and a number of a Correspondence 1:27. There is a problem about both the date and the recipient of this letter. Birch speaks of the 'lady Barrymore, his niece' as the recipient (Birch 1772, Ircxxxvii). If this is Katherine Barry, it is slightly odd to refer to her as the 'lady Barrymore.' The other possible recipient is Susan Barry, Richard Barry's wife. However, a plausible dating of the letter, in view of its reference to the rumour about Boyle's marriage, is 1645; but Richard did not marry Susan Killigrew until 1649. As Alice Boyle's daughter, Katherine would be Robert's niece, and as Alice's son's Richard's wife, Susan would be his niece by marriage; so either of them could be construed as Birch's 'his niece.' They are also close in age, with Katherine being born in 1628, Susan in 1629. b Correspondence 1:216; Hunter 1994b, 27. c Birch 1772, Lxliv; Correspondence 1:95. Boyle's interest in medicinal recipes appeared early. 'Memorialls Philosophicall. Beginning this First day of the Yeare 1651/52,' BP 25:343-46, is mainly devoted to various medicinal remedies, and BP 25:347-62 also contains a number of such recipes, all written in the hand of the young Boyle. These are now available on-line by following the links at www.bbk.ac.uk.

Boyle's Life 39

associated 'Vulcanian Implements.'3 The furnace was necessary to subject a variety of items to the fire - a standard method for checking the composition of things. In the previous century Peter Severinus had urged his readers to sell your lands, your houses, your clothes and your jewelry; burn up your books. On the other hand, buy yourselves stout shoes, travel to the mountains, search the valleys, the deserts, the shores of the sea, and the deepest depressions of the earth; note with care the distinctions between animals, the differences of plants, the various kinds of minerals, the properties and mode of origin of everything that exists. Be not ashamed to study diligently the astronomy and terrestrial philosophy of the peasantry. Lastly, purchase coal, build furnaces, watch and operate with the fire without wearying. In this way and no other, you will arrive at a knowledge of things and their properties.15

The furnace, one of a number Boyle tried vainly to acquire, duly arrived, 'crumbled into as many pieces, as we into sects/ and 'the fine experiments ... I had built upon its safe arrival, have felt the fate of their foundation/ leaving Boyle to attempt 'such experiments, as the unfurnishedness of the place, and the present distractedness of my mind, will permit me.'c As his comparison suggests, Boyle was troubled throughout his life by the fragmentation of Christianity. Among 'the Giddy Multitude ... this Multiplicity4 of Religions will end in none at all/ he wrote to John Mallet in 1652,d and at the very end of his life he expressed his wish that the Boyle lecturers should, when 'proveing the Christian Religion against notorious Infidels (viz*) Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews and Mahometans, not [descend] lower to any Controversies that are among Christians themselves.'6 a Correspondence 1:49, 50. Boyle's dislike of 'necessitated idleness' was subsequently shared by Sherlock Holmes: 'We can thank our lucky fate which has rescued us for a few short hours from the insufferable fatigues of idleness' (A.C. Doyle, 'The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge/ in His Last Bow). b Petrus Severinus, Idea Medicine Philosophic^ (3rd ed., Hagae Comitis, 1660 (1571)), p. 39, quoted in Debus 1965,20. c Correspondence 1:50. d Correspondence 1:133. See also Underdown 1971,331. e Maddison 1969,274. Hunter points out that the earliest draft mentions only 'Atheists and Theists' (Hunter 1994b, Ixxxiv, n 76).

40 Boyle on Atheism

Eventually a furnace did arrive, and Boyle found himself 'so transported and bewitched [as to] fancy my laboratory a kind of Elysium.... I there forget my standish and my books, and almost all things.'3 Boyle soon became convinced that separation by fire was at any rate not a universally useful method, but at this early period it was of consuming interest.b Further evidence of his early interest in experimenting is found in his friend and neighbour Nathaniel Highmore's dedicatory letter to him in The History of Generation,*2 where Highmore remarks, 'you have not thought your blood and descent debased, because married to the arts. You stick not to trace nature in her most intricate paths; to torture her to a confession, though with your own sweat and treasure obtained.' Highmore was struck by the fact that Boyle was not only indulging in experimental work but was thereby lending respectability to it. Stubbe wrote to Boyle despairing of 'this empirical ignorant age,' but Boyle was partial towards 'sooty Empiricks' and did not despise 'a study which [many Learned Men] scarce think fit for any but such as are unfit for the rational and useful parts of Physiology."1 Boyle was, in fact, already departing radically from standard models of behaviour. Despite the triple handicap of poor eyesight,6 general bad health, and noble birth, he was already actively experimenting, his ingrained honesty leading him to report negative results as a matter of course, and his equally ingrained religious beliefs allowing him to interpret his observations as evidences of God's glory and goodness. Despite his disclaimer to Katherine, his inkstand and his books were not neglected. Notwithstanding his transports of joy (and his poor eyesight), he was also reading/ particularly Gassendi ('a very profound a b c d e

Boyle to Katherine, 31 August 1649, Birch 1772, Irxlv. See further Principe 1998, 35-6. Highmore 1651. Henry Stubbe to Boyle, 17 December 1669, Birch 1772,1:xci; CPE, Works 2:85,1:354. Boyle often mentions his weak eyesight, but although even 'the flame of a Candle/ he wrote, 'is offensive to my weak eyes/ he also used to look at the sun through 'a Telescope ... though thorow a thick, red, or blew glass, to make its splendor supportable' (Colours, Works 4:27, 30-1,1:670, 673). f Indeed, some thought he was reading too much. Sir William Petty, in company with Boyle's brothers Richard and Roger, urged him to cut down on his 'continual reading/ pointing out that Boyle was less likely to acquire worthwhile knowledge in this laborious way' than by his own already acquired 'method of clear and scientifical reasoning.' In the same letter, Petty warns him of the twin dangers of hypochondria and selfadministered medications (Birch 1772, VL138-9). Despite Petty's warning we find

Boyle's Life 41

mathematician, as well as an excellent astronomer/ 'a great favourite of mine'3), and was writing a number of treatises of varying lengths, most of them moral and theological. By the end of 1649 he had already finished or was working on some thirty-six of these pieces, many though not all of which have survived in one form or another. Boyle was always ready, even late in life, to publish even his earliest works: his fundamental views on religious matters seem to have changed little if at all throughout his life, though he did jokingly disclaim responsibility for his youthful mistakes in the preface to Seraphic Love, which appeared eleven years after its first draft was written.b The delay, and the fact that he had been urged to publish by friends who had also read it, did afterwards Promise me these advantages, That notwithstanding my Book's not comming forth sooner, I should not Lose the Excuse of Youth I had, when it was Written: nay, and That the Faulty passages which may be met with in it, will perhaps be charged upon those, that suffered them to passe uncorrected, when they had so absolute a Power to Expunge or Reform them.c

We know that Boyle hunted as a young man, but although he was interested in the details of hunting, noting at an early age that the abilities of the dogs seemed to confirm a corpuscularian view of the sense of smell,d his few remarks about hunting have a somewhat distanced flavour. We should, he notes, 'Reprehend those scepticall witts, that will rather seek Truth than finde it, (like those that hunt foxes, who aime more at the chase than the Game)/e and he remarks that in Hunting and Hawking, the toil that must be undergone is so much an indearment of the Recreation, of which it makes a great part, that when it happens that we do not meet with difficulties enough, we create new ones; as when Hunts-men give the Hare Law, (as they speak) for fear of

a b c d e

Boyle in November, 1665 considering the 'necessary things' of life to be 'Eating, & Sleeping, & Reading and Writing' (Oldenburg 1965,2:603). Boyle to Hartlib, 8 May 1647; Birch 1772,1:xl. See further Principe 1994. Seraphic Love, The Epistle Dedicatory, 1:54,1:244. See the early piece 'Of the Atomicall Philosophy/ BP 26:162-175, especially fols. 1701, Works, 13:229-30. BP 2:143 (also at BP 7:158 and 1:350, §4.5.4 below).

42 Boyle on Atheism killing her, before they have almost kill'd their Horses, and perhaps themselves, in following her.3

In 1648 he spent just over a month in the Netherlands, where, in Leiden, he was impressed by a camera obscura with lens.b It is probable that this trip is the basis for the rumour that he attended the University of Leiden. Anthony a Wood wrote, concerning the occasion of Boyle being given an honorary degree of Doctor of Physic at Oxford (8 September 1665):c Robert Boyle Esq; was created after Edw. earl of Manchester had been incorporated. This honourable person, who was the son of Richard the first earl of Cork, was born at Lismore in Ireland, whence, after he had been well grounded in juvenile learning, he went to the univ. of Leyden, and spent some time there in good letters.*1

Boyle was never a student at a university. Nor was he ever a fellow of an Oxford College, though that too has been claimed on his behalf,6 but it was to Oxford that he removed after his time at Stalbridge, and it was there, too, that he first began serious work on chemistry. Before taking up residence in Oxford however he paid two lengthy visits to Ireland during the early 1650s (for a year from June 1652, and then for eight months from October 1653), and it was from that 'illiterate country' that he wrote to Clodius, probably towards the end of his second Irish visit, in the spring of 1654: For my part, that I may not live wholly useless, or altogether a stranger in the study of nature, since I want glasses and furnaces to make a chemical analysis of inanimate bodies, I am exercising myself in making anatomical dissections of living animals: wherein (being assisted by your fathera Occasional Reflections, Works 5:29,11:341. 'It is,' said Samuel Johnson in the next century, 'very strange and very melancholy that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them' (Piozzi 1974, 288). For a discussion of Boyle's early views on animal suffering, and his later treatment of them as experimental subjects, see Oster 1989 and Macintosh 1996. b CPE, Works 2:13,1:302. c 'I am very credibly inform'd/ Oldenburg wrote on 28 September 1665, 'that you have indulged to the Academicans to degrade yourself to be Doctor' (Oldenburg 1965, 2:524). d Wood 1820,286-7. e Dutton 1951, 20.

Boyle's Life 43 in-law's ingenious friend Dr Petty, our general's physician) I have satisfied myself of the circulation of the blood, and the (freshly discovered and hardly discoverable) receptaculum chyli, made by the confluence of the venae lactae;3 and have seen (especially in the dissections of fishes) more of the variety and contrivances of nature, and the majesty and wisdom of her author, than all the books I ever read in my life could give me convincing notions of .b

It was also during this period - no doubt in large part due to Cromwell's extremely harsh treatment of the Irish0 - that Boyle's Irish properties were made secure and began returning rents to him. The fact that Boyle's friend Petty conducted the survey on which the disposal of the lands was based can hardly have been to Boyle's disadvantage. On 12 October - presumably in 1655, since Boyle was settled in Oxford by 3 March 1655/6 - Katherine was in Oxford investigating the suitability of possible lodgings for Boyle. He was to lodge with the apothecary John Crosse, whom Birch felt worthy of mention because he had 'a great acquaintance with Dr. John Fell,'d and the question was, which was the best room for his purposes, and how was it to be furnished? a The 'freshly discovered ... receptaculum chyli [receptacle of the chyle, also known as the receptaculum commune and the receptaculum Pecqueti] made by the confluence of the venae lactae' is now more commonly known as the thoracic duct. The beginning of this duct is the cisterna chyli. The first publication of the discovery was made by Jean Pecquet (1624-74) in 1651 in his Experimenta nova anatomica, though he remarked that he had made the discovery some years earlier. The following year, Johannes van Horn (1621-70) published the same discovery, having apparently made it independently (Foster 1924, 49). The venae lactae (the 'milky' veins) are the vessels that carry the chyle (lymph given a milky look from the absorption of emulsified fats) from the small intestine to the thoracic duct. (Thanks to Andrew Cunningham for this and other information concerning the history of medicine.) b Correspondence 1:167. c See Barber 1999 for relevant details. Parker 1993 notes that during the Civil War period, about 185,000 people in England and Wales were killed as a result of the fighting and war-related diseases. For Scotland the figure was 88,000. These figures represented a population loss of 3.7 per cent for England and 6 per cent for Scotland. In Ireland, however, the loss was 'perhaps as many as 618,000 out of a total pre-war population of 1,500,000, or 41 per cent population loss' (Parker 1993,24). For comparison, Parker notes that enemy action and war-related diseases during the Second World War resulted in a population loss in Britain of 0.6 per cent. d Birch 1772, Irliv. Fell was the Dean of Christ Church who was unorthodox enough to be 'determined that even the young bloods of the House should work' (Mallet 1924, 2:427, quoted in Cranston 1957, 70). Philosophers remember him as the unfortunate

44 Boyle on Atheism My Brother, It has pleased God to bring us safe to Oxford, and I am lodged at Mr. Crosse's, with design to be able to give you from experience an account which is the warmest room; and indeed I am satisfied with neither of them as to that point, because the doors are placed so just by the chimnies, that if you have the benefit of the fire, you must venture having the inconvenience of the wind, which yet may be helped in either by a folding skreen; and then I think that which looks into the garden will be the more comfortable ...a

The house in question stood on the site where the Shelley Memorial now stands. Boyle's two rooms there seem to have served him admirably, though he later set up a retreat at Stanton St John's, to which he could retire when the press of society grew too great in Oxford. In Oxford, Boyle's tremendous output of published works in philosophy, theology, and experimental philosophy began. It was here that he published New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of Air and its Effects, Certain Physiological Essays, The Sceptical Chymist, Some Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, and a number of others, including The Origine of Forms and Qualities. Boyle's years in London (from 1668 to his death) saw the continuation of his experimental work, along with a number of works on philosophy and theology, including The Excellency of Theology, Compar'd with Natural Philosophy, Considerations About the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis, the Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature, Discourse of things above Reason, Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things, and The Christian Virtuoso, Part I. By the time Boyle moved to London, his interest in writing works of ethics had clearly subsided but his interest in religious matters remained both strong and strongly integrated with his fascination with experimental philosophy which for Boyle, included careful observaand certainly unwilling intermediary in 1684 when the King (or his Secretary of State, in the King's name) determined that Locke, then in voluntary exile in Holland, who 'has upon several occasions behaved himself very factiously and undutifully to the government/ should be deprived of his Studentship, but undoubtedly Fell lives in popular memory as a result of Tom Brown's impromptu rendering of Martial's 'Non amo te, Sabidi' (Epigrammata 1:32) as 'I do not like thee Doctor Fell' (etc.). For details, see Opie and Opie 1951,169. a Boyle 1772, VI:523.

Boyle's Life 45

tion of the world around him. He was not a solitary practitioner, but like a contemporary scientist, he managed a laboratory, often performing experiments himself but equally often assigning tasks to others (who more than once managed through carelessness or inattention to frustrate the attempted observation). Boyle believed that the virtuoso was in a better position than most fully to appreciate the grandeur of God and God's works, and he often thought of his work in natural philosophy as being directed toward this end. On the other hand, we should not ignore the overwhelming evidence that Boyle was not only a Christian virtuoso but was also an investigator who was fascinated by his work for its own sake. Moreover, he obviously made this enthusiasm clear to those around him. As a minor example, consider the following, taken from his account of the matter published in the Philosophical Transactions for 16 December 1672. One night, as he was getting ready for bed, an amanuensis, 'accustomed to making observations/ and obviously knowing Boyle's interests, 'informed me, that one of the servants of the house, going upon some occasion into the larder, was frighted by something of luminous, that she saw (notwithstanding the darkness of the place) where the meat had been hung up before/ Boyle immediately had the meat sent for and recorded all the facts that seemed to him immediately relevant, among them (Boyle's numbering): 1. The meat had 'been bought of a country-butcher on the Tuesday preceding/ 3. A few of the shining spots were 'bigger than the nail of a man's middle finger/ most were smaller; most of them were 'very irregularly shaped.' 5. Their light was strong enough to read by: 'by good fortune, having by me the curious transactions of this month, I was able so to apply that flexible paper to some of the more resplendent spots, that I could plainly read divers consecutive letters of the title.' 6. In the brightest the light was 'a fine greenish blue, as I have divers times observed in the tails of glow worms/ 7. '[Notwithstanding the vividness of this light, I could not, by the touch, discern the least degree of heat in the parts whence it proceeded/ Applying a weather-glass filled with tinted alcohol to the shining parts, 'I... could not satisfy myself, that the shining parts did at all sensibly warm the liquor; but the thermoscope, though good in its

46 Boyle on Atheism

kind, being not fitted for such nice experiments, I did not build much upon that trial/3 8. '[NJeither I, nor any of those that were about me, could perceive, by the smell, the least degree of stink, whence to infer any putrefaction.' 9. The floor of the larder ... is almost a story lower than the level of the street ... and is furnished but with one [small, north-facing] window/ 10. The wind ... was then at south-west, and blustering enough. The air by the sealed thermoscope appeared hot for the season. The moon was passed its last quarter. The mercury in the barometer stood at 29 3/16 inches/ 12. To try, whether I could obtain any juice or moist substance from this, as I have several times done from the tails of glow-worms; I rubbed some of the softer and more lucid parts ... upon my hand, but I did not at all perceive any luminous moisture was thereby imparted/ 14. Boyle put 'a luminous piece of veal into a crystalline phial/ poured alcohol on it, and shook them together: 'in about a quarter of an hour, or less, I found that the light was vanished/ 15. Water, on the other hand, had no effect after more than an hour's immersion - 'probably the light would have been seen much longer if we could have afforded to watch out its duration/ 16. While all the above manoeuvres were being gone through, Boyle had his 'pneumatical engine ... prepared in a room without fire (that the experiment might be tried in a greater degree of darkness/ On the first trial of observing the veal in vacuo there was a possibility that the machine 'having been managed in the dark, had leaked all the while/ A second trial seemed to show, however, that the presence of air was a required factor, and it seemed likely that 'the light would have been much more impaired, if not quite made to vanish' if it could have been left long enough without air. '[B]ut the unseasonable time of the night reducing me at length to go to bed, I could not stay to prosecute this, or any other trial/ 18. The next day Boyle was awakened between four and five to visit a niece 'who was thought to be upon the point of death, and whose almost gasping condition had too much affected and employed me, to leave me any time for philosophical entertainments, that require a a A thermoscope is an air-based device for measuring temperature. One of the earliest was made by Galileo c. 1592. As Boyle says, they are not particularly accurate. Accuracy in these matters had to wait until Fahrenheit's thermometer of 1714.

Boyle's Life 47

calm, if not a pleased mind. Only this I took notice of, because the observation could not cost me a minute of an hour, that whilst they were bringing me candles for to rise by, I looked upon a clean phial, that I had laid upon the bed by me, after a piece of our luminous veal had been included in it, and found it to shine vividly/ 19. Subsequently, when his niece's symptoms had 'considerably abated/ Boyle renewed his observations and found that putrefaction seemed to diminish the shining. Finally, before reporting to the Royal Society, 'where, I doubt not, much more, and more to the purpose, will be said, and considered, than I have vanity to think myself capable of offering/ Boyle noted that the same phenomenon was found in other pieces of veal and chicken, so that the cause was not to be looked for in anything specific to the original calf, though he did not rule out the possibility that it was a causal function of something about the larder. I have reported this account at such length partly out of respect for Boyle's own prescription regarding quotations too selectively truncated, partly because it reveals a great deal about Boyle and his attitude towards natural philosophy. Let us notice a few points: First, Boyle's laboratory and his sleeping quarters were close together. His personal life and his scientific life blended into one another. Moreover, Boyle was a dedicated experimenter. The fact that he was about to go to bed meant nothing when there was the opportunity for some new observations, and clearly, 'those about him' knew that. He was openminded about possible causal factors: the wind, the barometric pressure, the surroundings, all are possibilities which, though they may prove to be irrelevant, should be recorded. It was this recording of facts whose relevance is even remotely possible that mainly occupies him. Here and throughout his career, Boyle's interest lay not at all in trying to fit his observations into a prior theoretical background. His interest was always primarily in the pretheoretical matters of fact, for, as Burns put it, 'Facts are chiels that winna ding, / An' downa be disputed/3 'It was not/ Boyle wrote in 1662, 'my chief Design to establish Theories and Principles, but to devise Experiments, and to enrich the History of Nature with Observations faithfully made and deliver'd; that by these, and the like Contributions made by others, men may in time be furnish'd with a sufficient stock of Experiments, to ground Hypotheses and Theorys on/b This design was maintained throughout a Robert Burns, 'A Dream.' b Defence, Works 3:12,1:121.

48 Boyle on Atheism

his life: 'His books/ as Huygens said in a letter to Leibniz immediately after Boyle's death, 'are full of experiments/ Boyle had a certain missionary zeal in spreading the corpuscularian gospel, but he was not himself interested in detailed system building - a fact that was commonly noted. In the same series of letters (29 December 1691), Leibniz told Huygens that he was 'astonished' that Boyle 'who has so many fine experiments, [had] not come to some theory of chemistry after meditating so long on them. Yet in his books, and for all the consequences that he draws from his observations, he concludes only what we all know, that everything happens mechanically. He is perhaps too reserved. Excellent men should leave us even their conjectures; they are wrong if they wish to give us only those truths that are certain/3 Throughout the entire 'shining veal' episode - indeed, throughout his life - what stands out is the fact that Boyle retained that 'unsatisfy'd Curiosity of Knowledge, that is yet as greedy, as when it first was rays'd/ which he found in himself as an adolescent. Towards the end of his life Boyle's religious views led him - as similar views led so many at the time - into fears about the afterlife, and he spent a great deal of time with Bishop Burnet attempting to have his fears allayed. It is uncertain to what extent he succeeded.13 In December 1691, Katherine died, and Boyle, whose health throughout his life had been poor, died the following week.

a Huygens 1888,10:239,228. b For details of the whole issue, see Hunter 1993a.

1

Boyle's Headings and Overview

1.1 Boyle's Headings /2:76v/a The Heads of the little Tract about Atheism The Observations containd in this Paper are in the Entrance of it reduc'd to three Heads, to which as many Sections are allow'd. In the First of these, the Author represents some Reasons why it should not be thought strange if it be found1 somewhat difficult to demonstrate the Existence of a Deity. 1 The First of these Reasons is, that by reason of the selfe existence and Primity of God, his Essence cannot be Causable. 2 The Vitious Affections & Habits and the depravd frame of mind to be met with in most Atheists do very much indispose them to be convinc'd by the proofes of a Deity that might other wise be sufficient. 3 Since God is a Being whose Nature is the most singular of all, there must necessarily belong to him divers things, not to be paralleld. 4 The Difficulty of such speculations as belong to the Contemplations of Gods Attributes keeps the generality of Atheists & Libertines from being qualifyed for such Enquiries. /2:77/ In the second section haveing premisd, that the foregoing Reasons make it Equitable not to expect metaphysical or rigid Demonstrations of a Deity, but to be content with a moral one, if no a 2:76r reads: A / Papers abt Atheism / Chaos of Fragments / Concerning the Causes of / Atheism./

50 Boyle on Atheism

better can be had, proceeds to the mediums whereof such a Demonstration can be made up. Such as are The innate Idea of a Deity The general Consent of mankind. (To one of which or both may be referrd the Epicurean Anticipation.) The Reproaches2 or Boadings & Disquieting Terrors of a Guilty Conscience The Fabrick & Conservation of the world, especially of Animals The Nature & Propertys of the Soul of Man The Lawes of its Union with the Body The Universal Providence that directs the Affairs of Mankind. Supernatural Effects whether of good or Evil Spirits (as their Apparitions Action Oracles Predictions &c) The Patefactions that God has made of himselfe by true miracles. (To which Prophecies are reduc'd.) The Third section is spent in shewing some of the Reasons why the Arguments proposd in the Second are often unprevalent. 1 And among the Intellectual Impediments the First is, That Atheists often injuriously attribute to the notion of a Deity the fond Opinions or rash Assertions of unskillfull men. 2 Atheists on the other side do3 sometimes no less injuriously father their owne Errors & mistakes on the notion of a Deity. 3 They do not equitably consider the Nature of the Thing to be proved, & the necessity that thence arises, that the Theory of the Divine Attributes should be lyable to specious Objections. 4 They do not duely consider, that their owne Hypothesis is lyable to some of the same difficulties & Objections, and to others that they cannot solve. 5 The Objections are more4 popular & easy that are to be made against the notion of a Deity than the Answers to those Objections & the Arguments which prove that Notion.5 1.2 Boyle's Overview /6:297/6 Observations about some Causes & Remedys of Atheisme7 Sir

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To be obedient to your Commands I must shew my self unkind to the8 Thoughts you require concerning Atheisme; which I can not send you crouded up together in the narrow limits of a Letter, without making them appeare with as much disadvantage, as a suit of hangings does9, when10 they are look'd upon, either whilst they lye folded up, or when they are open'd in a place where they have not roome to be Display'd. But since you will needs have me tell you in a few sheets what I was the other day meditating & observing about Atheism, as 'tis maintain'd by L. C. V. E; and some other Libertines that hant you,111 must endeavour to obey you; & I doe it the rather, because that, of the three heads I am succinctly to treate of, the particulars that belong to the first & to the last may perhaps appeare New to you, as having been suggested to me not by books, but the consideration of the Nature of the subject. In the scheme, according to which I12 intended to say something about Atheisme, I did not pretend to discourse fully of that subject; But chieffly to shew that there are divers Reasons to keepe us from /6:298/ much wondering that there can be Atheists; & yet, that other good Reasons, & even the same; ought to keepe us from being much scandaliz'd that there are Atheists. The prosecution of which design 'twas easy to discerne, would leade me to set down some Remarks & Reflections that had occur'd to me, partly about some Remedys, but chieffly about the Causes and Pretences of Atheisme. And in persuit of this Designe I tooke notice in the first place that The I Part13 Tho it be very difficult even for willing men to bring them selves firmly to beleeve, that there is no God, yet 'tis not so easy as 'tis commonly thought, to force unwilling men to beleeve that there is one; in spite of all the Cavils, which their obstinacy & the subtile Enemy of God & men can furnish them with. /6:299/ This Difficulty that we meet with in convinceing and silenceing Atheists, seems to me to depend upon divers Causes, and particularly such as these. I God being the most Primary Being of all, and therefore SelfeExistent; a Demonstration, that He is, cannot be made a priori; since 'tis repugnant to his Primity, (if I may use that Word) that14 his Essence should be causable. This seems to me to be evident enough by it's owne Light; and may also be the more reasonably urg'd against Atheists, because by their Hypotheses, they must themselves make use of the same way of Argumentation. For if Atomes, or whatever else be the matter of the Uni-

52 Boyle on Atheism

verse, be Eternal, (as must be asserted by those, that deny it to have been created,)15 they would thinke it unreasonable to be pressd to demonstrate a priori, the Existence of what in their Hypothesis, must be too Primary to have been produc'd by any other Being. And therefore, if you aske an Epicurean why he belives there is such a thing as Matter in the World, he will be reducd to tell you, that he feels, and touches, & tasts it; which amounts to this, That he is convinc'd of its Existence KgFp KgFp —> DKgFp D(KgFp -» Fp) DKgFp->DFp Fp -> DFp

God's omniscience p —> Dp, for present tensed p epistemic logic 3, D(p -> q) -> (Dp -> Dq) 1,2,4, syll x 2

One clear way to avoid this unsettling conclusion is to adopt either a truth-gap or a truth-glut solution - that is, to allow that some sentences (in particular future contingents, but also, perhaps, certain selfreferential sentences that otherwise give rise to paradox) have either no truth value, or both truth values. The great thinkers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries such as Aquinas and Ockham were aware of these possibilities (although they took only the truth-gap solution as a real candidate in this area, for they held, against the Averroists, that truth is single, and 'the contrary of a truth can never be demonstrated'1'), but felt that such a solution was ruled out by God's omniscience. There were truths about the future known (now) to God, and so for them the problem was a knotty one. Aquinas saw clearly that the solution he attributed to Aristotle - that future contingents lack a truth value - was at best dubious, given God's omniscience,0 though later thinkers have pointed out that if omniscience amounts to knowing of every true proposition that it is true, then God's omniscience would not be challenged by his failure to know the truth of future claims which, on this reading, would be neia As Prior pointed out, although we say in English things like 'It will be the case that John will be unhappy/ what we mean, and what our logic should reflect, is 'It will be the case that John is [then] unhappy.' Otherwise the 'F' operator takes us to the future, and the future tense takes us still farther into the future, and similarly with past tense assertions. b ST 1:1.8 c. c We should note, however, that Aquinas flirts with a truth-gap solution at ST 2a2ae 171.3 c, where, discussing the 'three degrees of remoteness from human knowing,' he remarks: 'Third, and most remote of all, is that which surpasses the knowledge of all men, because the truths concerned are not knowable; such are future contingents whose truth is not determined [contingentia futura, quorum veritas non est determinata}.' In general, however, he adopts a strict bivalentist line for future contingents as well as for other sentences.

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ther true nor false.a Thomas pointed out explicitly that God's omnipotence is not challenged by his inability to bring about the logically contradictory, but in view of God's eternal nature, a formally similar move regarding omniscience was untempting for him. Moreover, Thomas, like the great logicians of the High Middle Ages, was impressed by the fact that scripture seems to offer a great many cases not only of knowledge of the contingent future but even - in the case of Antichrist - knowledge of a future singular. For Boyle, prescience is both a miracle and a problem. That it was miraculous was part of a long-standing tradition: The future [wrote St Thomas Aquinas] can be known in two ways. First, in its causes; and so future things which come necessarily from their causes can be known with certainty, as that the sun will rise tomorrow. Other things, that come from their causes in most cases, are not foreknowable with certainty but with a measure of probability, as when a doctor forms an opinion of the future health of a patient. And this kind of foreknowledge is found in the angels, and at a higher degree than in man because they know the causes of things more extensively and more thoroughly than we do ... As for events which come from their causes on only relatively few occasions - casual and chance events - these cannot be known beforehand at all. The other way in which future things may be known is directly in themselves; and such knowledge of the future is proper to God alone.b

The reference to 'casual and chance events' is straightforwardly Aristotelian, and in the next century Ockham was to make it clear that all such 'casual and chance events' must 'come from a source that depends on a free agent./c In this tradition, which Boyle accepted, we cannot, and nor can the angels, know future things 'in themselves': 'In themselves things that are future can be known only by God.'d Thus, if someone did predict future contingents accurately (as opposed to making a lucky guess) that person must have been divinely inspired, for a This manoeuvre was rare among mediaeval thinkers, but not non-existent. Copleston points out that 'Abraham Ibn Daud in The Exalted Faith (1161) [took] the somewhat drastic step of subtracting future contingent events from the scope of divine knowledge' (Copleston 1972,135). b STla57.3c. c Ockham 1978,1.6.15, p. 422. d STla86.4c.

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only God has the requisite foreknowledge. Boyle points out that the second coming of Christ is not known to humans, 'the angels in heaven, nor ... the Messiah himself, but the Father only/3 Consequently - a point that Boyle makes explicitly - divinely inspired prophecies are a subclass of the miraculous. Boyle was in no doubt that such foreknowledge of God was substantiated by unimpeachable testimony. But it raised a problem: The generality of our Philosophers, as well as Divines, believe, That God has a foreknowledge of all future Contingencies; and yet how a certaine Prescience can consist with the Free-will of Man, (which yet is generally granted him, in things meerly Moral or Civil,) is so difficult to discern, that the Socinians are wont to deny such things, as depend upon the will of free Agents, to be the proper Objects of Omniscience, and the Head of the Remonstrants, though a very subtle Writer, confesses he knows not, how clearly to make out the consistency of Gods Prescience and mans freedome, both which he yet confesses to be Truths, being compell'd to acknowledge the former, (for the latter is evident,) as well by the Infiniteness that must be ascrib'd to Gods Perfections,13 whereby such contingent Events have been actually foretold. And the reconcilement of these Truths is not a difficulty peculiar to the Christian Religion, but concernes speculative0 Men in all Religions, who acknowledge the Deity to be infinitely perfect, and allow Man, as they do, to be a free Agent.d

This difficulty belonged, Boyle thought, to the third group of things above reason. The first group consists of our inability to comprehend the nature of things intellectually superior to us - the angels and, of course, God. The second consists of things which are demonstrable but which leave us shaking our heads in perplexity. Boyle's examples are the infinite divisibility of matter, based on the mathematical proof that between any two points on the real line there is a third, and hence an infinite number - a result that Aristotle treats as a commonplace among mathematicians;6 and the incommensurability of the sides and diagonal of a square. Boyle's third sort of things above reason has to do with things which seem to contradict our reasoning powers. His exama b c d e

CV 1, App, Works 12:401, VL697, cf. Matthew 24:27-36. MS adds here 'as by the Prophetick Predictions.' MS originally had 'rationall/ replaced by 'speculative.' Reason and Religion, Works 8:272-3; also BP 2:49-50. Aristotle, Physics, 200bl9.

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pies, 'the one of a Moral, the other of a Mathematical Nature/ have to do with the apparent incompatibility of human freedom and God's foreknowledge and, on the mathematical side, with the fact that an infinite proper subset may have the same cardinality as its superset (that a line of one inch and a line of two inches can both contain an infinity of points). About the former, he says, 'how a certain foreknowledg can be had of contingent things, and such as depend upon the free will of man, is that which many great wits that have solicitously tryed, have found themselves unable clearly to comprehend, nor is it much to be admired that they should be puzled to conceive how an infinitely perfect Being should want Prescience, or that their will should want that liberty, whereof they feel in themselves the almost perpetual exercise.'a Writing to Molyneux two years after Boyle's death, Locke confessed to the same difficulty: I own freely to you the weakness of my understanding, that though it be unquestionable that there is omnipotence and omniscience in God our maker, and I cannot have a clearer perception of any thing than that I am free, yet I cannot make freedom in man consistent with omnipotence and omniscience in God, though I am as fully perswaded of both as of any truths I most firmly assent to. And therefore I have long since given off the consideration of that question, resolving all into this short conclusion, that if it be possible for God to make a free agent, then man is free, though I see not the way of it.b

Boyle also married God's foreknowledge to God's choice of the laws of the universe, and even to his (standard) solution to the problem of evil: [I]f we set aside the Consideration of Miracles, as Things supernatural, and of those Instances, wherein the Providence of the great Rector of the Universe, and Human Affairs, is pleas'd peculiarly to interpose; it may be rationally said, That God having an Infinite Understanding, to which all Things are at once in a manner Present, did, by vertue of it, clearly discern, what would happen, in consequence of the Laws by Him estaba Things above Reason, Works 9:367-9, IV:407-9. b Locke to William Molyneux, 20 January 1693, Locke 1976,4:625-6. Cf. Descartes, Principles 1.40-41 (AT 8A:20), where Descartes discusses the same issue - without, however, producing a solution.

94 Boyle on Atheism lish'd, in all the possible Combinations of Them, and in all the Junctures of Circumstances, wherein the Creatures concern'd in Them may be found. And, that having, when all these things were in His Prospect, setled among His Corporeal Works, general and standing Laws of Motion suited to His most Wise Ends, it seems very congruous to His Wisdom, to prefer (unless in the newly excepted Cases) Catholick Laws, and higher Ends, before subordinate Ones, and Uniformity in His Conduct before making changes in It according to every sort of particular Emergencies: And consequently, not to recede from the general Laws He at first most Wisely establish'd, to comply with the Appetites or the Needs of particular Creatures, or to prevent some seeming Irregularities (such as Earthquakes, Floods, Famins, &c.) in-commodious to Them, which are no other than such as He foresaw would happen ... and thought fit to ordain, or to permit, as not unsuitable to some or other of those Wise Ends, which He may have in His All-pervading View, who either as the Maker and Upholder of the Universe, or as the Sovereign Rector of His Rational Creatures, may have Ends, whether Physical, Moral, or Political; ... divers of which, for ought we can tell, or should presume, are known only to Himself, whence we may argue, that several Phsenomena, which seem to us Anomalous, may be very Congruous or Conducive to those Secret Ends, and therefore are unfit to be censur'd by us, dim-sighted Mortals.3 Nonetheless, despite all the problems, Boyle was convinced that 'The Divine Wisdom ... may wel be conceiv'd able to foresee the Phenomena that wil be produc'd by the actions & passions of Corporeal Creatures among themselves.'b God's Properties 4: God's Omnipotence Boyle often speaks of God as omnipotent and notes that God is 'as perfect as 'tis possible a Being can be, when all things are duely compar'd & consider'd: and we men clearly can conceive no excellencies greater than those, that, whether men will call them Infinite or no, extend to the utmost possibility of things.' Boyle adds that given this, there are many things that God cannot do, and offers as examples, 'to kill himself; ... to recall the time that is past; because these would ... be really marks of Impotence, rather than Power, as if God could destroy hima Notion of Nature, Works 10:567-8, V:251-2. b BP 4:87, §3.4.37 below.

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self, he would not be a necessary and an eternal Being/3 However, although Boyle is clear at times about the infinite extent of God's power, at other times he lets us see clearly that he finds God's abilities more surprising and more impressive than might be expected from a clear-sighted acceptor of God's omnipotence. Here he is, for example, bemused by God's quickness in creating humans and other animals: As great a Number & variety of parts as a living Humane Body consists of, 'tis highly probable that the Lump of Stupid matter out of which they were fashion'd, was contriv'd into this admirable System; if not in a moment, yet in a very short time. For the sacred story relates, that man was not created till the end of the six dayes work; and since in One day God created all the four footed Beasts, (wilde & tame,) and all the numerous Reptiles that creep upon the Earth after their kind; 'tis no way improbable that among so great a multitude of differing species of Animals, or Living Engines, that were made in one Part of the same sixth day, God should make a Humane Animal in an extreamly short time, not to say in a triced

Again, he notes, concerning his favourite miracle of Pentecost, that the Apostles' 'Hearers ... knew it was naturally possible, that uninspir'd Persons, and especially illiterate Fishermen, should able, in a trice, to make discourses to many differing Nations, in their respective Languages/ repeating both the point and the admiring 'in a trice' on the next folio.c God's producing bread, or at least manna, without troubling to bake it also strikes Boyle as noteworthy: whereas to make Bread according to the natural course of things, one must provide good seed, & have a convenient soyl, & plow the Land, & sow it, and run all the ventures of a bad Harvest, & Crop, & thresh, and grind the Corn, & knead it & bake it, & all this to obtain common bread from the Earth; God did without any of this trouble, give his travelling People Manna, which fell to them from above, and is therefore called Bread from Heaven, and is by the Psalmist Angels food. And this Provision they a BP 5:107, §3.8.3 below, b BP 4:85, §2.2.68 below, c BP 7:99, §3.6.29 below.

96 Boyle on Atheism needed no Waggons or Carriages to transport; their Granarys without that adoe constantly accompanying them. And in effect, if we consider how a company of illiterate Fishermen were in a trice inabled by Revelation to speake of God & Divine things much more truely & worthily, then the sublimest speculations of the Philosophers had qualifyd them to do, you will easily be perswaded, that Docility can teach ordinary Christians nobler Truths, than Contemplation did the Heathen Philosophers.3

Boyle's great interest lay in experimental philosophy, and as a result he had an acute sense of the difficulties to which even apparently simple experiments could give rise. Perhaps as a consequence of this, he was more impressed than more mathematically minded philosophers such as Descartes and Leibniz by the difficulties that the creation and sustaining of the universe would involve.b For example, after noting that 'the Power as well as Wisedom of the Great Creator' is shown by the solar system's having been completely orderly 'for many Ages; during which no Watch for a few hours, has gone so regularly,' despite the 'Wonderfull ... quantity of Motion' and 'stupendously rapid Motions' involved, his own constant intellectual honesty led him to note that the universe as a whole does not seem to be behaving quite so regularly: if the Firmament it self, whose Motion in the vulgar Hypothesis is by much the most rapid in the World, do fail of exactly completing its revolution in 24 hours, that retardation is so regulated, that since Hipparchus's time, who liv'd 2000 years ago, the first star in Aries, which was then near the beginning of it, is not yet come to the last degree of that Sign.c

Here and elsewhere it is clear that Boyle's admiration was excited by the thought that God had done an acceptable, even if not a perfect, job. God's omniscience, too, impresses Boyle. God, he says cautiously, 'may a BP 4:19-20, Works 14:273. b Boyle was to some extent at least aware of this tendency in himself: '[W]hen God had a mind to work those Miracles, we most admire, [he remarked], we Men are apt to imagine that these prodigious Effects must needs cost their Author much, and that he must strain his Power, and be necessitated to a troublesome Exertion of his Omnipotence, to be able to produce them, whereas to that Divine Agent, those things that would be to all others impossible, are so far from being difficult, and the Creatures have so absolute and continual a dependance on him, that 'tis as easie for him to effect the greatest Alterations in them, as to resolve to do so' (Occasional Reflections, Works 5:109-10,11:403). c High Veneration, Works 10:167-8, V:135.

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be able to foresee, and consequently foretell, what such and such of his works, acting to the Powers He has given them, and the Laws He hath established for them, may even at very remote Distances of time, in such and such circumstances, perform or suffer/3 As Daniel Beck remarks in a slightly different context, 'Sprat's view of God as a Latitudinarian gentleman on his country estate has appeared once again.'b

BOYLE - THE MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL 2.1 Demonstration A. The Importance of Proofs and What They Can Achieve 2.1.1 /4:78/ The Existence of God is a Truth so Fundamentall in Religion, and of so great Importance to, and Influence upon, the whole Conduct of our Lives; and for that Reason is so Industriously & craftily oppos'd by the great Enemy of God and Man: that we can scarce ever be sufficiently, & never be too much, convinc'd of it. And therefore no care is to be thought superfluous, that is spent in Adding to, and strengthening, the Reasons that may serve to confirm us in so noble & usefull a Truth. 2.1.2 /1:62/ Those that would1 dexterously propound some mystery's of the Christian Religion, should not only free them from all needles & unsound additions that have been pinn'd on them, and should set them in a true light; but should also take care to interweave them with, & make them appear as genuine parts, or legitimate consequences of, acknowleg'd or demonstrable Truths. 2.1.3 /5:109/ Tis not the most proper way for him that would be satisfy'd about the truth of Christianity, to fall upon particular and difficult Articles of faith; but to consider whether in generall or in gross, the Truth of the Christian Religion may not be sufficiently prov'd. For if the positive Arguments evince it to be true in the bulk, the particular Articles that perplex men, either are erroneously father'd upon this Religion, or else, being real a BP 4:97, §3.4.39 below, b Beck 1986, p. 144.

98 Boyle on Atheism parts of a true Religion, must themselves also be true; and to the being soe, it is not alwayes necessary that a man be able to explain all the difficultys, and directly answer all the objections that relate to it. And this is no more than what Mankind appears to judge fit to be done in the case of Reason. For almost all men agree, on the score of Arguments they think sufficient, that our rational faculty is tru, and when it acts aright, is certain; tho there be few men, if any, that can make cleare and direct answers to the specious and subtil Arguments of those Scepticks, who deny that man can with certainty know any thing. Nor can we fully explain the mystery of the operations of the understanding and will upon each other. And thus2 also admit the certainty of sense duely qualify'd; notwithstanding the difficulties that the Pyrrhoniams3 object4 against it. 2.1.4 /7:206/ If any shall say, that, tho the following Discourses be not short, yet the Notions and Arguments insisted on are but few, I shall not deny what he affirms. For I confess I do not thinke the time mispent that I employ in endeavouring to clear and vindicate even a few Truths, about subjects so sublime and difficult as most of those that are prosecuted in the following Papers. In Philosophy 'tis justly granted, that about Principles scarse any diligence can be superfluous; and if this be true as to Principles of an inferior order twill much more hold5 as to those that concern such difficult and important subjects as the Divine Nature or Attributes, and the Principles and extent of Humane Ratiocinations. Those that have pursued Speculations of this kind to their Springheads, will easily grant, that the grand and primary Truths in Rational Metaphysicks are but few: and I shall add, that therefore it is not to be wonder'd that the mediums by which they may be solidly proved are not many. For the nearer a notion or Proposition lyes to the most simple and primary notions and Axioms, the fewer mediums occurr to those that would solidly prove it.6 Whereas those that are remote from the first Principles, may be demonstrated by a greater number & variety of wayes as in metaphysicks, those Axioms Quodlibet est vel non est; omnis numerus est par aut impar,a lying very near the first & grand Principle, That Contradictorys /7:207/ cannot both be true, can be demonstrated by very few Arguments And Euclide in his first Theorem about Triangles, is fain to fly to a kind of mechanical Demonstration, whereas divers of his remoter Propositions about those Figures have been several other a Anything either is, or is not; every number is either even or odd.

Demonstration and Its Difficulties 99 wayes than his, demonstrated by Geometricians.3 Besides; as 'tis usual to Principles to be but small in number but great in their Consequences so the prime Truths inculcated in the following Papers, may well make amends for their fewness by their importance, if my endeavours to settle them prove successfull. For if men be once satisfyed but of a few such Truths as these, That there are some things that Reason it selfe discerns to be beyond its reach, That a man may rationally assent and conform to a Doctrine that is sufficiently, tho it be not demonstratively, proved; and That the substance of the Christian Religion is capable of being so proved for ought can be urged against it from Right Reason; if I say a few such Truths as these be once made out, they may have so great an Influence both upon the Reasons, the Perswasions, and the Lives of men, that 'twill appear a greater service to Religion and Reason to have establish'd those few but pregnant Truths by a very few solid Proofes, than to have employed many Topical Arguments, more plausible than satisfactory, in favour of more numerous Truths, either confusedly stated or but weakely proved. And if considering men be /7:208/ rationally satisfyed about the freshly nam'd Propositions, these Truths as few as they are will much assist them to answer a great many plausible Sophisms and Objections, not only of witty, but even of Philosophical Infidels As we see that this one grand Principle of the Mechanical Naturalists, That one part of matter acts upon another but by Local Motion and the Consequents of it, has enabled them from time to time to answer multitudes of specious Objections that are framed by the Schoolmen and the Chymists from the various and oftentimes admireable and occult properties of things in favour of substantial Formes and real Qualities; that one Principle holding out, when, to the generality of Philosophers as well as other men, a thousand Phenomena of nature and almost the whole universe it selfe furnish Arguments against it. 2.1.5 /7:197/ I shall not wonder to find it objected especially by some that are conversant with Librarys, and well furnish'd stationers shops, that several of the following Discourses might have been spared; Metaphysitians and Divines haveing already abundantly perform'd that which I endeavour. And I scarse doubt but this Objection will appear a weighty one, to those that are wont to judge of Bookes by a Euclid's 'first Theorem about Triangles' is Proposition I of Book I, 'On a given finite straight line to construct an equilateral triangle.' As Boyle points out, the proof is by construction rather than by argument (and, though Boyle does not mention this, accepting the construction as a proof involves accepting a number of implicit assumptions). For details, see Heath's note to Proposition I in Euclid 1956,1:242-3.

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the Titles and the Subjects, & by the names of the Authors. But I could wish for my owne sake as well as for my Readers, that all that should and can be said to my purposes had been anticipated. But two different sorts of men, whom I was desirous to serve, are I doubt of a very distant Opinion from those I come from speakeing of. For first the Epicureans and most other Philosophical Infidels of our Times, proceeding upon Hypotheses quite differing from those commonly imploy'd by the Schoolmen and Divines Arguments drawn I say not from the bare Authority, but from the Notions and Theorys of the Peripatetick and other received Metaphysicks and Physiology, whether those that urge them be Schoolmen or Fathers, or be called Philosophers or Divines. And therefore a great many fine Discourses and Speculations that seem very subtile and rational to Readers imbued with the more received Principles, are of little or no use either to convince or silence an Infidel, that pretends to be so upon /7:198/ the Epicurean or some such like Principles. For he will confidently, and may sometimes rationally, reject or question, not only the authority of those that he thinkes to have been but very mean or very erroneous Philosophers; but the very Hypotheses and Grounds upon which their Reasons proceed; as things unintelligible impertinent or precarious. And next there is another sort of Philosophical Readers, who, tho they be not Epicureans or Infidels, will not be apt to thinke that vulgar metaphysitians and Divines have prevented those that endeavour to illustrate Principles of natural Religion and humane knowledge, in another way than Scholastical Writers have taken. For the inquisitive Persons I speake of, makeing little scruple to thinke that a subject upon which Volumes have been written may yet have been ill handled, are like to be less pleased with thick Bookes, than with a few intelligible Notions, grounded not upon Authority or Captious Subtleties, but upon a serious Consideration of the Nature of the things treated of. And perhaps these Virtuosi thinke, that tho the Peripatetick Schoolmen and others that proceed upon their Principles, or other that are not much better, have given us pompous systems of metaphysicks perhaps interwoven with natural Theology; yet if the Notions, Fundamental Definitions and Theorems be unintelligible, arbitrary, or both, whatever can be built on Doctrines neither clear nor well settled, will appear to inquisitive Examiners to bring but little or no accession to the Treasury of Solid Knowledge. For tho if names and Definitions be imposd at pleasure by /'7:199 / Aristotle or the Schoolmen to whom God nor Nature gave not the Right to do it, men may indeed draw a

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multitude of Inferences from them; yet7 those Inferences will not give Him any new and true knowledge of the Nature of things themselves, that were not sufficiently consulted with in the frameing of those Doctrines. As for instance, a Peripatetick gives us a Definition of a Substantial Form, and then Learnedly proposes a multitude of Questions about it which he very subtilly resolves, and those solutions with the Discussions of the Texts of Aristotle relateing to them, make8 up a considerable part of the Schoolmens and Peripateticks Natural Philosophy, And yet tho all these mens fine speculations may acquaint us with a multitude of things relateing to substantial Formes upon supposition that there are such, and that9 the Peripatetick Definitions and Hypotheses are10 good; yet if really there be no such things in Nature, as I thinke one may well prove there are not, all these Learned and acute Discourses will give us but a specious Theory of Chymeras or NonEntitys, and leave us as little acquainted with the true workes of Nature, as if we had never heard of Substantial Forms.a A man may, if he please exercise his Wit in treating of the Myriagon, and haveing defind it to be a Figure consisting of ten thousand equal sides and as many Angles, he may demonstrate divers Propositions about it: as that it is divisible into so many equal Triangles; that all its Angles are equal to so many right ones, and many other Affections, some of which it has in common with other regular Polygons, and some peculiar to it selfe wherein it differs from them; and yet a Myriagon being not that we know of, a / 7:200 / thing really existent in nature, all the Discourses that he has made about it will but represent to him the progress and Connection of his owne thoughts, without acquainting him with the nature of any thing that is really existing without him. And so, tho the Theory of Concentrick and excentrick Orbes, and the Epycicles and other Celestial Contrivances that Astronomers and Philosophers, especially Peripatetick, have learnedly proposd and disputed about for divers ages, have afforded us a very Learned Theory of the Planetary Heavens; yet there being really in nature no such solid orbs, the subtile speculations about them will never satisfy a knowing and inquisitive Naturalist. Nor is it alwayes necessary that by learning new Terms of Art, we should learn more of the nature of things; since oftentimes those terms that are admired by men that understand them not, do but disguise or obscure, and not increase the knowledge we have before: As in divers of the Technical words of Herauldry, Faulconry & Hunta In L'Esprit Geometrique (Pascal 1954), Pascal argues for a similar position.

102 Boyle on Atheism ing, he that knows that 'tis held a Propriety to say, a Brace of Partridges, or a Couple of wild Ducks, knows really no more of their Nature, than he that simply calls them two Birds of this or that kind. 2.1.6 /4:6/n It is often easier to know what one ought to beleive, then what Aristotle did believe. For Nature never contradicts herself, but he may in one place contradict what he teaches in another. And if we have any doubts we can ask nature new questions by purposely devis'd experiments, but so we cannot Aristotle. 2.1.7 /7:209/ As for the Style of the following Papers, I scruple not to acknowledge that 'tis plain and unadorn'd; for my design not being to move the Readers Affections, but to inform and convince his Intellect; I thought it became me not only to avoid seekeing Rhetorical Ornaments, but to decline makeing use even of those unsought ones that occurr'd. For in disquisitions of this nature and importance, where the discovery of Truth is or ought to be the Aim both of the Writer and Reader, Perspicuity is more proper than Eloquence, which oftentimes by its Tropes & Figures diverts the mind from things to words, and darkens those Subjects which need the clearest Expressions to help men to understand them. I know that a quick Style (as 'tis call'd) that is full of briske Expressions and acute Antitheses, dos not only much recommend the Writer, but oftentimes the Arguments nor do I at all disapprove employing it on many other occasions: but on such an one as I am speakeing of, I thinke it not so proper, nor like to be so effectuall, as a more clear and significant, tho plain and unfigurd way of speakeing. For the worke that is here to be done being to satisfy or convince the Readers Understanding, and, as an Apostle excellently expresses it, to recommend ones selfe to the Consciences of Men by the manifestation of the Truth* that style which most conduces to the clear discovery of that, is the most sutable to the end; that is to be aimed at. I will not dispute whether those bold and smart expressions, be not too /7:210/ often as rash as witty; and whether to pursue an Allegory, or to compleat an Antithesis men do not usually deviate from rigid Truth or even clash with it: so that oftentimes those pleaseing manners of speakeing seem to have much more in them than indeed they have. But this I shall say, that for my part I would not either surprize or inveigle my Reader by specious Expressions, for fear least when the novelty of them shall12 be over, the Impressions they made on his mind should cease together with it. For I reckon that in serious and a 2 Corinthians 4:2.

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Philosophicall13 subjects that often happens in mens minds that dos in Ballances. For as a lesser weight falling into one of the scales may by the impetuosity of its motion sway the Ballance against the heavyer Counterpoises, yet after a while that which is permanently the greater weight will constantly preponderate; so those smart Impressions, that a briske wit, helped by an eloquent Dress, may make upon the mind, may for a while hurry it on in favour of Religion; but the Assent will scarse be lasting, unless rational Arguments well understood, do bring the assent to settle on Religions side. Besides that 'tis a mistake in many &c. 2.1.8 /5:32/14 That the Author deals roughly with the Profane, with as harmeles & friendly a Designe; as the Angell had that strucke St. Peter on the side to wake him, free him from his chaines & Prison, and rescue him from Death.3 2.1.9 /7:153/15 the Reason of Philosophers and vitious Persons what was16 done to St Peter by the Angel that rescued him from Prison. 2.1.10 /1:28/ Tho Certainty be one of the most endearing Things that can accompany Knowledge, yet oftentimes the Noblenes & Importance of the Subject may make a lesser degree of Certainty more desirable than a greater of Inferiour or unprofitable things. As to know any thing near what is the compass of the Terraqueous Globe, is far more valuable to a Philosophical mind, then to know certainly & precisely the compass of a Field, or the distance between London and Dover. 2.1.11 /1:10/ Tis not in diverse cases near so easy as even learned men imagine, to know determinately so much as the Historicall account of a Body; as may be exemplify'd by the Phenomena of Saturn: which for a long time was thought to have two little Planets attending Him like Sattellites17 of Jupiter; but far nearer to his Body. Then, for a good while He was judg'd to have two little Angulas,b with which in many Schemes, He is delineated. Sometimes also he appear'd quite round, & again there seem'd to be about Him as 'twere a broad flat Ring, inclining to the Eccliptick, that no where touch'd his Body; as the justly famous Monsr. Hugens has ingeniously declar'd.c Now as an Astronomer that had seen Saturn but either with his naked Eye, or thro a good Telescope, in one only of these Forms; might have a See Acts 12:1-18. b ansula = handle. c See Appendix B, 'Huygens.'

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speciously & by Analogy to the rest of the Planets, rationally enough, asserted that which he had seen to be the true Form of Saturn; & yet would have been deceiv'd, as no mean Artists were, in case he had lookt upon this form as permanent & only this Planet18 had; and rejected those that affirm'd it to have a much other appearance: so men sometimes may with probability great enough to excuse them (tho not to evince their opinions) beleive some things in Philosophy to be True & reject others as False & Erroneous, because of their jarring with them; which yet upon a fuller information may be found to deserve new characters, opposite to those under which they past before. 2.1.12 /1:28/ [I write this not only to instruct or convince others, but in great to imploy & satisfy my own mind, by obliging it to dwell long or attentively upon the consideration of the truths, that I would perswade others of, and which I need to have impress'd & inculcated upon my self. To which belongs the Trpoaexeiv our Saviours Parable, and the case of Lydia;3 the subjects being of that worth & Importance, that an attentive Inspection is almost sufficient to work effectually on a duely19 dispos'd mind: as by the manifestation of the truth &c. and 'tis observ'd that the Loadstone reaps an Advantage by the steel it excites, and long impregnates.]20 2.1.13 /5:32/ Those that thinke they can convert Philosophicall Atheists or Unbeleevers at the same rate that they thinke to convert vitious Christians, by a quaint saying, or a flourish of wit, that has nothing of Arsumentative21 in it, instead of employing serious truths and solid Reasons &c. 2.1.14 /1:34/22 Tis not Flashes of wit, nor fine moral sentences that ought to be lookt for in Discourses of this kind; but solid Arguments: and these are not to be estimated by their multitude or speciousnes, but by the correspondency & acceptance they find in the Judicative Faculty23 within us; whose either congenite or at least grand notions & Axioms, are not arbitrary things, but such as it must judge by, when 'tis not vitiated or perverted by strong prejudices, vices, obstinacy, Passion, or Interest. 2.1.15 /7:203/ Tho as to down right Atheists the following Papers do not directly meddle with them, because the Adversaryes there dealt with suppose or grant the Truths of Naturall Religion & a In Acts 16:14 it is reported of Lydia, who was already a God fearer (asfio/j.vsi'ri TOV Osov), that 'the Lord opened her heart, so that she responded to [TTpoasxEiv] Paul's message.'

Demonstration and Its Difficulties 105 Theology, as far as they have generally been acknowledg'd by the Heathen Philosophers themselves; and tho to convert Resolved Atheists in whom the part primarily affected is wont to be the Heart, whence the Disease is communicated to the Head, is the proper worke of him that can from any man take away the Heart of Stone & make him a new Heart? & so conquer not only his Objections but his Obstinacy; yet what is here said may at least serve to disable the grounds whereon the Atheists cheife Arguments are built; and then if it be Error rather than vice that has made him an Unbeleiver, the Innate Idea of a Deity, or the congenite Dispositions to frame it, and the internal voyce of Conscience seconded by external Objects, whose excellent Contrivance proclaims them the Productions of an Intelligent Maker; will highly conduce to bring him to acknowledge so well attested a Truth, now it is freed from those Objections of its being above Reason, or repugnant to it, that induced him to reject it. /7:204/ It had been easy for me to have added some Arguments, and in the opinion of most Readers, strengthend some of those I have alleaged, if I would have allowed my selfe the Liberty I find taken by some late and very Learned Authors; who in their endeavours to convert Atheists & other Infidels, bring in (tho sometimes by stealth) the Authoritys of this Father or that Counsell, which tho they may be of great weight if Christian Philosophers dispute with one another, yet I thinke they ought to make no part of the Premisses, when one of the Partyes is an Unbeleiver. And they that take this improper Course seem (little to the advantage of their Cause) to forget that they employ Principles not agreed on by both sides, against them who will not fail to remember it. /7:205/ But this practice I must more disapprove then I can wonder at it, when I consider both that men are too generally swayed by wordes or Names, and that that which passes but for Philosophy is seldom meerly such. For those that learn Logick, Physicks & Metaphysicks in Christian Schooles, (& especially in Catholick Countryes) are not taught only those Doctrines which Natural Reason uninfluenc'd by Revelation would dictate, but there are some Christian Doctrines, as particularly that of the Creation of the World out of nothing in six dayes; the existence Immateriality &c. of good Angells, & perhaps a 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh' (Ezekiel 36:26).

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some also of the Divine Attributes which are unheededly as it were incorporated into the Philosophy taught in Christian Schooles: And not only Illustrations but Arguments are usually drawn from these, when the subjects treated of, are properly of Philosophy's Jurisdiction. And they that employ these Notions against unbeleivers, thinke they play the part of meer Philosophers, since24 they presume, they make use but of Philosophical Weapons; whereas indeed divers things that have been adopted by the Schoolmen into their Physicks & Metaphysicks are such asa 2.1.16 /1:59/ I shall on this occasion, venture to tell you, that I think one may make a distinction between the Dictates of Metaphysicks themselves, for some of them I think to be primary or absolute which are fram'd immediately by the understanding, as 'tis a rationall faculty, that exercises25 its own Powers upon the nature of things, and acts antecedently to any settled Rules or at least acts without considering them in the case, about which 'tis then conversant. The other Metaphysical Dictates I call Secondary or Organical, because they are deriv'd from the former, and consist26 of certain Notions & Rules that the human Intellect has fram'd for its self and uses as Instruments in most of its Operations in this or that speculation, the primary Dictates are so firm & general, that the System or Aggregate of them may be call'd the Catholick or the absolute Part of Metaphysicks. And the Aggregate or System of the Secondary Order of Dictates, which we have styl'd Organical may be also call'd the respective & derivative Part of Metaphysicks. The Notions & Rules that strictly belong to the primary Part of Metaphysicks may be safely rely'd on, as things that cannot wel be shaken by rational Objections, in regard that themselves are the Principles of all our Ratiocinations which either are deriv'd from them, or suppose the truth of them. But the Secondary or the Organical Dictates of Metaphysicks are not on all occasions so unquestionably to be rely'd on, because 'tis possible that Divine Revelation, sense duely qualify'd, or undoubted experience may discover something to the contrary, and the /5:15/27 Catholick rules of metaphysicks may on such occasions reform and limit the organical part its self. These different exercises of the Intellect which is the Eye of the Soul, may perhaps be illustrated by what happens to the Eye of the body. For 'tis by direction of the visive Faculty that an Artificer makes Telescopes, for instance, and other glasses. But tho when he hath fram'd a The remainder of this section of the MS is missing.

Demonstration and Its Difficulties 107

this organ, he imployes28 it to judge the figures, the Scituations, and distances of objects, yet if he afterwards finds on some occasions that things appear otherwise than they should, he imploys the visive Faculty that resides in his naked Eye to correct his glasses, and forbears to trust them unreservedly: as if he find the object to be represented with vivid colours about the edges, which he can3 discern by his naked eye, he concludes that the glass misrepresents the object for want of being duely figur'd & polish'd and therefore in such circumstances cannot safely be rely'd on/ 2.1.17 /7:118/29 I know it may be objected that tis a disservice to Religion to pretend to demonstrate it by weak or insufficient Arguments since they do but harden Atheists & other Infidels in their unbelief by giveing them a Rise to presume that the arguments whereon our Religion is founded are but weak & such as they are able to answer. But tho I readily grant that he who writing professedly against Atheists & Libertines shal scarce imploy any Arguments save weak ones or shal lay so much stress upon these as to propound them as demonstrations is much to blame in point of discretion: yet when a man writes not barely to confute professed infidels & obstinate Cavilers but partly to confirm those that are true tho not wel instructed & setled belivers & shal propose divers solid & wel weighd Arguments to evince the Truth such a writer I say may be allowed to add now & then to his more weighty Arguments some of less force provided he lay not too much stress upon them & declare he dos not. For by this precaution he wil leave the adversaries no just ground of rejecting or undervalueing the grand proofs of our Religion. And then this inconvenience being obviated the capacitys & the dispositions wether natural or acquird of the minds of men are so various & some of them may be much more impresst on by arguments in themselves weaker than they would be by stronger ones as some patients wil not take the best physick in the form of a potion tho they wil readily swallow it when presented in pills or many refuse or relish the same meat as tis cookt more or less agreable to their palats & stomachs & wil be nourisht by herbs or fruit then Beaf or Mutton And this being so I see not why it may not be allowable to mingle with the more solid Arguments some that are more proportionate to such mens capacitys in writings which are intended not onely to confute infidels but to establish the Faith of believers, many of /7:119/ which are not so fit to understand the more learned sort of a Thus the MS. Presumably 'cannot' is intended.

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Arguments as disposd to be confirmd by some of an inferior but more proportionate to their capacity or more congruous to their personal constitutions of mind. And for ought I know it may be both just & prudent to have regard in our writings less to the resolved infidel then to the weaker believer since we cannot hope to convert the former how cogent soever our reasons be without an extraordinary divine assistance as may appear by the obstinacy of the Jews against the miracles as wel as discourses of our Saviour whereas we may Reasonabley hope to remove the doubts & strengthen the faith & consequently encrease the happiness & piety of those that are in the temper of him that said to the Messias Lord I believe help thou my unbelief & those disciples that prayd that he would encreas their faith.3 2.1.18 /MS 186:89/ Tho the nature of this little30 Tract oblige me to treat of the31 subjects handled in it as a Naturalist yet32 upon this occasion I shal desire you to take notice once for all, that33 Philosophical Arguments are the most usual without being the only ones which34 are imploy'd, that I35 did not think myself36 37 scrupulously to38 forbear to39 use now and then a passage of the Holy Scripture, when I find it very pertinent to my Subject and designe. For there are severall things it may be may be40 prov'd or perswaded by Arguments & motives41 furnisht /89v/ both by nat. Reason & Revelation too. Of which many Instances may be given m Available testimony will ground miracles z/they are possible. 6. -ig —» -im Opponent's point: there are no miracles unless God exists. 7. g Ergo, from 2 to 6 by sentential logic, God exists. a BP 5:107, §3.8.3 below. Boyle offers no suggestions as to which of any given pair of incompatible properties should be dropped, b We cannot, at the moment at least, demonstrate that there are an infinite number of prime couples. Nor can we demonstrate that there are not. It does not follow that both alternatives are possible. The absence of demonstrated impossibility does not license the assumption of possibility.

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Of course, the first premise is highly questionable, and some might with reason wonder about lines 5 and 6. But the argument is certainly valid.

BOYLE - THE MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL 3.1 The Sufficiency of Moral Demonstration 3.1.1 /7:153/n There is a great deal of difference between willing to be deceiv'd, & willing to yeild assent to things without perception, sufficently clear to enable a man to judge safely of them. 3.1.2 /1:36X/12 Remember We under-value13 our own (uninstructed or unimprov'd) comprehending Facultys when we follow Reason without diffidence, when it proves by Ecclipses that the Sun is &c. but with diffidence when it proves Astronomically, that it is one hundred & sixty times bigger than the Earth. And so we believe Geometricians when they tell us that the three Angles of every Rectangular Try angle, are equal to two right Angles. But when they deduce from thence incommensurable Lines, of which one consequent is the endles Divisibility of a Line, we presently distrust them, & boggle at what they teach; tho their Demonstrations be as clear & solid as those on whose account we assented to the foremention'd Propositions. Whereas we may safely follow so good a Guide as right Reason, tho it lead us to assent to some thing that we cannot clearly comprehend, provided the Principles be sure, and the Illation evident. Since we can more competently judge of the clearnes & validity of Inferences, then we can comprehend the abstruce nature of some unparallel'd things. 3.1.3 /2:58/a [But here I must mind you that a little above I disclaim'd only the denial of all Arguments a Priori relating to the Deity.]14 For tho the Instances newly given shew that one of Gods Attributes may be deduced from another, in the way of Ratiocinations imploy'd by us men; who by reason of the limitednes & imperfection of our understandings, are not able at once to frame a true & compleat notion of a Being infinitly perfect, such as God is, but are reduced to look upon a Marginal note: 'But here I must mind you that this ought to bee understood in a due & qualified sense.'

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him as made up of Attributes which as it were so many parts we conceive to have among them a connection & dependency: Yet 'twere15 presumptuous as wel as erroneous to say; That in the most simple essence of God wherein all real Perfections are (if I may so speak) more then united, one of them should be truely & properly the cause of another. But to prosecute this speculation were more difficult, and perhaps dangerous than necessary in this place, & therefore I shall proceed to my next observation. 3.1.4 /5:79/ March llth. Natural Religion, even abstracting from Mens personall Errours, infirmities and faults, is lyable to a fourefold Imperfection (viz.) the Uncertainty of the Speculative part. 2. The Incompleatnes or maimedness of the Directive part. 31y. The want of an explicite promise of everlasting life. And 41y. the want of the supernaturall assistance of speciall grace. 3.1.5 /1:37/ Tis not a Ficklenes but a laudable Constitution of the Human understanding, that it changes Opinions according to the Prevalency of the Reasons, or the Arguments that determine it this way or the other, as 'tis not Ficklenes, but a laudable Indifference, in a Beam or Ballance; that it inclines sometimes to one side and sometimes to the opposite; since in these cases 'tis not the Beam that is chang'd, but the differing weights that sway it; the Instrument being alwayes constant to comply with the greatest weight. 3.1.6 /5:32v/ Apply there the consideration of musicall tunes which are not well found by chance or tryalls but by skill, and need not be proved to be good by Arguments but are confess'd to be so upon the bare account of their own sweetness. 3.1.7 /7:168/ Consider the Internall sensation of truth, which tho perhaps Inexplicable to others, is satisfactory to one's selfe; and compare this to the Harmony and concord in Musick. 3.1.8 /7:163/ that we need not imploy metaphysicall arguments to prove a Deity but to defend his exsistance against Metaphysicall objections. 3.1.9 /2:144v/ Diverse of the Objections of Atheists and Libertines being obvious, whereas the arguments to prove a Deity doe most of them require attentive speculation, 'twas perhaps to remidy this inconvenience (among other ends)16 that God was pleas'd to give the world a contrivance so conspicuously admirable that the proofe of his existence should be as obvious, as the objections that Atheists make against it. 3.1.10 /5:32v/ The friends of Christian Religion must vary their

Arguments for God's Existence 217 Arguments & methods, and make them appropriate to the differing principles of Adversaries, & the differing dispositions of men in severall times & places. To make what they say appear more pertinent, & prove more effectually we must now exchange the Battering17 Rams us'd by our Ancestors, for Cannon, & Bowes and Arrowes, for muskets & Pistolls. And to cure the distempered minds of men in this age we must give Aloes18 in tincture or salt. 3.1.11 /5:78/ One of the best wayes of glorifying God is to convert souls that will glorify him to all eternity. 3.1.12 /5:32v/ God19 has vouchsafed men evidence enough of the truth of Christianity, to convince prudent men; tho not to satisfy the Scepticks and silence Cavillers. 3.2 Minor Arguments A. The Innate Idea of God 3.2.1 /2:58/ But that which seems to me to have occasiond the mistake about this matter is this, That we overlook the difference that is between perceptions, as20 ought not to be confounded. For the mind of man is naturally prone to look upon all Causes & Effects as things out of her self, as indeed almost all of them are; and therefore considers her self as a percipient Being, that is only to discern & judge of the Relation of Cause & Effect that things have to one another, but not to her,21 who takes herself to be but a spectator. Whereas indeed the Rational soul with her faculties, being admitted by the Cartesians to be a creature of God, she must be then be confess'd to belong to the List of those Effects, whereof he is the Primary and Universal cause. So that to prove the Existence of God from the Idea he has impress'd on the mind is not to prove it really a Priori; since that Idea is not the cause but the Effect of the Divine Existence: tho I am willing to grant that in a qualify'd sense, this knowledg we have of God by this Idea or stamp may be said to be a Priori; in regard that we obtain it not by the consideration of those Effects or Productions of God that are without us, and make up the visible world. From the contemplation of whose vast Extent, regular motions, & admirable contrivance; Philosophers & other considering men have in all Ages, as from so many manifest Effects, inferr'd the Existence of a first & Divine cause and consequently have drawn their conclusion by that way of Argumentation that all men allow to be fram'd a Posteriori.

218 Boyle on Atheism B. General Consent of Humanity

3.2.2 /5:46/ An infinitely perfect Creator and his Rational Creature being suppos'd, the duties of Natural Religion do naturally, and as it were spontaneously, result from the respective natures of God and Man, or any other Rational Creature: as supposing the sun, and a looking glass rightly plac'd, the exhibiting of the suns Image, and the Reflection of his Beams at determinate Angles, do naturally result from the Relation wherein the Luminary and the Mirrour stand to one another. And so in numbers and lines, determinate Proportions & Mathematical Affections, do naturally result from the respect they have to one another, when they are compar'd & consider'd together. 3.2.3 /7:163/ that if the Atheist pretend that our arguments are not Cogent, because the objectors are not perswaded by them; much less should the Atheist's arguments be lookt upon as Cogent; since almost all mankind has not onely not been perswaded by them, but after hearing them, has rejected if not exploded22 them. C. God's Providence and the Problem of Evil

3.2.4 /1:19/ Many of23 the Cartesians that the Human Mind itself is not endow'd with an inherent Power to move the Limbs, or other parts of the Body she is united to; but that supposing the Body to be in a due disposition, when she wills that the Hand (for instance) or Tongue be mov'd after this or that manner, those Motions are produc'd, by the power of the Supream Cause, that united the Soul and Body according to certain Laws;25 one of which this Connection of an Act of Will in the mind and a consequent motion of this or that Limb. Now if by us as well as by them, this be granted;26 it will follow, that the Divine Providence & Concourse must be vastly diffus'd, and exceedingly watchful over (at least) a great part of the actions & concerns of many Millions of men.3 To which 'twil be highly congruous to think, that Providence, which we acknowledg to reach to Innumberable Persons & actions of men, should likewise extend to an Inestimable Multitude of other Particulars, Subjects, Actions and Events from time to time occurr in the world. a Boyle's uncertainty about God's omnipotence and omniscience is again to the fore here. He allows the possibility that God is watchful over all the actions of humans but only claims God's awareness of 'a great part' of those actions.

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3.2.5 /2:143v/ Remember To show in the Paper, that in some Dispensations the conduct of Divine Providence lyes deep, and tho very wise yet not at all obvious but to a hasty or superficiall beholder they appeare to be, either useless or even contrary to what he presumes to be the designe of Providence. Thus a person unskill'd in Physicke will be apt to wonder, and probably to censure the method of a Physitian when he sees him let a Patient blood to cure him of bleeding, which the unskillfull man thinks ought to be done only by stopping the blood of which the Patient hath lost but too much already without the Chirurgeons Lancet. To the same purpose may be applyed the Practise of cureing fluxes by Purges, and vomiting by infusions of Crocus metallorum3 or other Hemetick27 Medicines. 3.2.6 /1:24/ Tis not the same thing to know in general that God is, for instance perfectly or infinitely wise, and to know in particular whether this or that Contrivance or Conduct or management dos best become his wisdom, or is most suitable to his Ends or Designs, for on the very score of the greatnes of his wisdom, He may have Ends that are unknown to us, and on the same score, he may have such wayes & means of compassing his Ends, as we are not at all aware of, and he may also obtain his ends by some wayes (assisted by the management of his infinite wisdom) that appear not to us to have any direct tena Crocus metallorum (an oxysulphide of antimony) was a strong emetic in common use. Reviewing Thomas D'Urfey's play, Don Quixote in 1698 Jeremy Collier wrote: 'Crocus metallorum will scarce turn the stomach more effectively' (Rigg 1983,82). Boyle was interested in its effects. Noting that after two ounces of crocus metallorum had been injected into a dog, 'he vomited up life and all, upon the straw, whereon they had laid him/ Boyle propos'd, That if it could be done, without either too much danger or cruelty, tryal might be made upon some humane Bodies, especially those of Malefactors. And some Moneths after a foreign Ambassador, a curious Person, at that time residing in London, did me the Honor to visit me, and inform'd me, That he had caus'd tryal to be made, with infusion of Crocus Metallorum, upon an inferior Domestick of his that deserv'd to have been hanged; but that the fellow, as soon as ever the Injection began to be made, did (either really or craftily) fall into a Swoon; whereby, being unwilling to prosecute so hazardous an Experiment, they desisted, without seeing any other Effect of it, save ... that it wrought once downward with him, which yet might, perhaps, be occasion'd for fear or anguish. (Works, 3:328-9,11:89) The foreign ambassador was the French ambassador, the Due de Bordeaux. The experiment took place in 1667 (Timothy Clarke to Oldenburg, April/May 1668, Oldenburg 1965,4:357,366). For further details see Frank 1980, ch. 7, 'Oxonians on Animal Heat and the Nature of the Blood 1656-1666.'

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dency to those ends, or perhaps seem to be incongruous to them. And in effect we see that even learned, wise & orthodox men, as eminent Divines, Astronomers, Anatomists &c. dispute whether such a thing be agreeable to the Divine wisdom, or whether at least such another thing may not become it better. 3.2.7 /5:83/ If any Men are born for themselves, and, as Men, may be allow'd to satisfy their inclinations independently from Laws, (whether Divine or Humane;) the same claim may be lay'd by28 slaves &c. which would introduce anarchy and confusion into all sorts of Government, and to the perpetual disturbance if not ruine of mankind. 3.2.8 /5:43/ Remember that God will have us venture somewhat and trust his Providence as well for the Blessings of Heaven attainable by faith, and moral Dutys, as for the Fruits of the Earth, venturing to plow and sow. &c. D. Arguments from Infinity 3.2.9 /1:67/ It seems that the Divine Power, tho boundlesse, cannot assigne the Number of all the Parts, into which a Body is divisible; not out of want of Omnipotence in God, but because 'tis repugnant to the nature of a Body to be divided into Parts so small, but that each of them having Extension, must also itself be divisible: Whence it seems to follow, that there may be a Power, (such as in our Case, a Divisibility) that can never be fully reduc'd in Act, by any Agent whatsoever. 3.2.10 /1:67/ There are diverse things whose Truth we may be sure of, which yet we think not conceivable, unless accompany'd with this or that particular Modus: which Modus may yet be lyable to Objections or difficultys that we confess to be insoluble, or at least such as we cannot directly or satisfactorily solve. Instances of this may be taken from This, that the World, as Aristotle held, or at least the matter of it, is Eternal:29 &30 yet the receiv'd Notion of Eternity, is incumberd31 with insuparable32 difficultys. Consider also to this purpose, the Origine of Local motion. 3.2.11 /1:51/ Tho our Finite Intellects, however we may flatter our selves, are disproportionate to Objects whereto Infinity belongs; yet it is not, as some great Witts presume, left to our liberty, whether we will acknowledg any thing to be Infinite, and so, expose our understandings to be overpower'd by the Subjects they contemplate. For Instance, the eternal duration of something, whether God, or the

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world, or matter, a parte ante, (as they speak) cannot by a considering man be deny'd; since if there ever was a time when nothing did exist, there could never have been, nor at this time can be, any thing, since it must have been produc'd out of nothing without any Existing Cause or Agent, which is utterly Inconceivable. But if the world, or the matter of it, be Eternal, it must have lasted for Numberles Years, Day's and hours, before the year of the Christian account 1680. and yet in this Year 1685. it must have lasted five Years longer then it did in that newly nam'd: But the former Years were Innumerable or Infinite, therefore five years being added to them, one Infinite must be greater than another, which is generally held to be repugnant to the very notion of Infinite Quantity. And the same Inference may be drawn from this, that in the year 1680 the world must have lasted not only Innumerable hours & dayes, but also Innumerable Years: and yet even children know that there are twenty four hours in a day, and above three hundred dayes in a year, so that the infinite Number of hours must vastly exceed the number of Years, which yet must be granted to be Infinite. 3.2.12 /2:144/ Remember in the Paper to show that though a Duration that never had a begining, must of necessity be allowed to something; whether God or matter; yet the questions that may be made about Duration (and particularly that of the whole compared to a third part or halfe of it cannot be satisfactorily answered nor the Objections, that may be made against the Theory of it clearly solv'd. 3.2.13 /1:71/ Tis no wonder to me, that the vulgar notion of Eternity has puzl'd many Christians, and shock'd33 divers Philosophers; since, indeed, 'tis wont to be so intricately stated, as to be scarce explicable, if not Inconsistent with the common grounds of Reason: whereas if the notion were truely & dextrously propos'd, I see not anything in it, that is either self-repugnant, or Unconceivable. E. Pascalian Considerations

3.2.14 /4:62/34 The preface to the Collections about the Truth of the Christian Religion. Those whom a happier Nature, or an improving Education, have rais'd above the Level of common Spirits, cannot but frequently observe, how transient the life of Man is wont to be at the best, and how often and much 'tis shorten'd by Sicknes, and other casualitys; which naturally excites in them solicitous and perhaps anxious Thoughts what will become of them, when this transitory life is ended, during

222 Boyle on Atheism

those numberles ages in which their souls, conscious to their own Immortality expect to survive their Bodys. And such elevated minds as I am speaking of, justly esteem the short time of their mortal life inconsiderable in respect of that endles space of Time, which is to succeed it, feel themselves strongly inclin'd to cast about, whether or no there be any way of obtaining for their Souls an happy estate of Being after Death, that will last as long as themselves? And such a state being propounded by Religion, especially by that which is call'd Christian, considering and forecasting, Men are naturally inquisitive about Religions: and indeed tho we should suppose Men not to be imbued with any great knowledg or love of God, provided they do beleive there is a Deity and a Providence, yet any of them acting as a mere Rational Man, ought to look upon a sober and impartial Inquiry into Religion as one of the most important Employments about which he can busy himself, as well as one of the worthiest objects of his Curiosity. For if upon a studious and unbyass'd search, he find cause to beleive that there is some Religion true, and consequently some way that may lead him to a state of Felicity hereafter, when Death shall have made him uncapable of injoying any here, he will make a Discovery more valuable to him, than that of the Indys could be to Columbus, and if he find no cause to think any Religion true, he will at least gain the invaluable ease of being freed from the disquieting apprehensions of Eternal Misery, and obtain the inward and quieting satisfaction of having us'd the best Endeavors whereto his Reason could direct him to secure himself of a happy state after Death, and from the danger of a wretched one. 3.2.15 /1:57/ Shew in the paper the Folly of those, who doe and venture all things to eternize their names, and yet take not care to eternize their happiness. 3.2.16 /5:44/ Tis true, that here below, Familiarity oftentimes breeds Contempt or Weariness. But when the mind is conversant about divine objects, the Infinite and (as to our way of apprehension) Manifold are such both for Excellency and number, that the Mind can never exhaust that Fountain of Rational and perhaps Exstatical delights: but finds in that most glorious, & in a sound sense most various object, new causes of pleasure and a Boyle accepts the standard view that God is simple, and hence that these 'manifold attributes' owe their apparent multiplicity to us and not to God. See also BP 7:250, §2.2.39 above, and BP 1:8, §2.2.62 above.

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motives of veneration; as she considers it under This or That aspect; as a rich Diamond cut in Facettes, appears with new & vary'd beauty and luster, as its parts & motions are consider'd in this or that Position & Light, and tho the blessed Angels have ever since the begining of the world been imploy'd in contemplating, celebrating, & serving God; yet far from being weary of those blessed Employments they discover stil in that boundles Ocean of Perfections; Things fit to highten their wonder and their veneration. F. A Consideration from Morality

3.2.17 /1:110/ For if the world were eternal, as Aristotle is by his Followers granted positively to affirm, and which he boasts of as a Truth by him discover'd against the contrary receiv'd opinion of Philosophers: and if what he calls nature (for 'tis not as35 easy to know what it is, as that he distinguishes it from God) performs all things that are done here below, which he ascribes to Her, scarce mentioning God as interposing in sublunary things, if, I say, this be soe, that we are not beholding to God either for our Original Beings, or our subsequent Preservation, and much less for less immediate Benefits; the Foundation of our Gratitude to God as our Maker, and of our Obedience to him, as He is also our great & continual Benefactor, who on both those accounts has also a right to give us Obligatory Laws is exceedingly weaken'd, if not quite subverted. 3.3 Conscience and Christian Morality A. Conscience

3.3.1 /1:125/36 It ought not to be look't upon, as a Disparagement, but an Advantage to the cause of the Asserters of a Deity, that it draws Arguments from the Testimony of Conscience, and a Sensation37 or perception of what passes in the mind itself. For 'tis true indeed that the grounds of these Arguments have no novelty to indear them but then it ought more to recommend them then novelty could doe, that they were alwayes congruous to the mind, (or radicated in it,) and are as it were Twins to humane nature: being either of the number of Congenite Notions or Impressions, or else very near of kin to them; since, as the understanding is naturally furnish'd with some Theoretical Ideas and notices; so the will is furnish'd with some

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Practicall ones, and perhaps the mind with some that naturally result from both. 3.3.2 /2:139/ If we seriously consider the shortness and uncertainty of our Life, how little we can be sure that it will last some hours, and how sure we are that it will end after some years, we must exercise but little foresight or be guilty of great stupidity if we be not very solicitous what shall become of us after this transitory Life is ended. And the Resolution of this grand point must have so great and universal an Influence on the Actions of a considering man, that (like the Pole Star to the Pilot who strives to have it frequently in his eye and steers his whole course by it,) it will regulate not only his particular actions but the Designe and Scope of his whole Life. And therefore whatever others may thinke of men that are called Polititians and Wise Men, for my part I cannot but thinke every man a fool that dos not seriously endeavour to satisfy himselfe whether or no a future state ought to be expected by him. For if it appear that the Souls and Bodys of men must, like those of Beasts, dy and perish together, then this Life being the only portion that nature allots us, the sensual, tho sinfull, pleasures of it ought as far as health & safety will allow, to be greedily pursued and freely enjoyed without being disturbd by the groundless checks, or impertinent Clamors of Conscience: but if one sees cause to beleive a future state wherein the Actions of this Life must be accounted for and according to their demerit be recompencd or punishd, a man ought to be very carefull how he leads a life here he is to answer for hereafter, and ought to looke upon a Solicitous Inquiry into /2:140/ that future state as one of the cheifest of his concerns. For 'tis a great folly in an Affair of that moment to remain unresolved; since thereby we gratify neither our Appetites nor our Consciences but deny ourselves many of the Pleasures of this Life without so much as probably provideing ourselves amends in the Joyes of another in case there be one. I know tis possible that a man may inquire without attaining a clear Resolution; but I am sure he is wanting to himselfe & cannot answer it to his owne Reason, if he do not rather try whether a Resolution may be obtained, then take it for granted it will not For tho he may miss of the Truth, yet he will not of the satisfaction of haveing done what became him as a Rational Man, and will at least escape the great aggravation of his Infelicity to have drawne it upon himselfe by his negligence or Lazyness. Now if haveing inquired a man shall (as if he have duely inquired he will) see cause to conclude a future state that it selfe will suffice, if he be a considering man, to make him extreamly solicitous what shall

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become of him dureing those numberless Ages that his soul, whether without or with his Body will outlast this Transitory Life, whose duration tho it should reach to a hundred years, will be altogether inconsiderable in comparison of the endless state that is to follow. And since Religion, & Religion only, promises us a way to secure our Condition in that future state, and not only to escape those dreadfull Evils that both the Opinions of most men, and which is more the Remorses and Presageing Terrors of our owne Consciences when offended threaten us, but attain to a positive Felicity as lasting as our souls themselves, it cannot but concern us even in the highest degree to make a diligent and deliberate Inquiry whether we ought to beleive there is a true Religion, and if there be one, which of all the pretending Religions ought to be judgd the true. 3.3.3 /1:35/38 Nature, that is true and loyal to her Author, bears witnes against the Atheist, not only Internally by her voice in his own Conscience, but externally, both when she acts freely according to her wonted Course; and when she is captivated & forc'd out of her ordinary course, by a supernatural power disclosing it39 self in Miracles. 3.3.4 /1:48/40 Religion to the Conscience of vicious Persons it would convert, is like Light to the Eye of those that come out of a Dark Prison: it troubles them at first, and makes them shed Tears; but afterwards makes them an advantageous amends, by the Discoverys and the other benefits it affords them. 3.3.5 /1:2/ A Man may be sure, that he tasts and relishes Honey, Sweet-meats &c; tho One in a Feavor, may judge them bitter and disgustful. And so a vertuous man, may be justly satisfy'd that the Acts of vertue are delightful, and the applauses of conscience full of Joy; tho to a vitious and distemper'd mind, they do not seem at all pleasant. 3.3.6 /3:150/ Those internal applauses of vertue beyond which41 the most Heroical Heathens did42 not aspire, make43 but a pledge & earnest of the pious Christians happines, the testimony of conscience being44 by far so great a blessing on the Score that45 conscience is a Domestic Judge, as on This, that46 'tis Gods vice-regent in the soul, & /[right column]/.promises Man47 a much higher recompence from God, then vertue is able to give him, or man to give himself. 3.3.7 /5:81v/48 Whereas49 valour makes men expose their Lives, justice oftentimes procurres them enemies and liberality wastes their Fortune; temperance is a vertue soe harmeles to our selves & others; that it neither prejudices or endangers us, nor offends them.50 3.3.8 /5:35v/ That Scrupulounes of Conscience is no duty or

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command of Christianity; and tho it be oftentimes a good signe, yet 'tis really an Infirmity or distemper of the mind. That a conscience as tender as Religion requires doth not hinder any truly worthy action. But it doth oftentimes ingage us to, and positively injoine Acts of Heroick vertue. 3.3.9 /'7:159/ that there are some vertues in men which cannot belong to God, and indeed cannot be ascrib'd to him without derogation or disparagement; (nor is sincerity that I remember expressly ascrib'd to him in the scripture)a which is the less to be wonder'd at since there are some vertues that belong to man only in his Mortall and Infirm Condition. B. Christian Morality

3.3.10 /4:63/51 The Lawes of the Christian Morals are far better qualify'd to make men pious and virtuous, than those of Heathen Legislators such as Solon, Lycurgus, Confucius &c. For the Lawes of these men serve but to regulate the actions of the outward man, which alone fall under the Law-givers cognizance, and therefore are fitted indeed to keep men Innocent or rather Harmles, then to make them virtuous.52 For most of them are of a negative nature, & working on men, but by the fear of punishments that are threaten'd against their violation. But as they reach not to the faults of the inward man, which yet besides their own proper Inordinancys are usually the springs of outward actions & consequently of crimes, so their punishments are far inferior to those that are threaten'd to sinners by the Gospel. For these do not only reach unmanifest crimes & punish them by Inflictions which tho not seen are severely felt, but reserves for obstinate offenders greater punishments by far after the persons are beyond the reach of those of the Magistrate, whereas Death, which is the greatest evil Human Lawes can inflict, dos itself secure the Offender against any other that he can afterwards be sensible of; may be no such great terror, if any at all to those that despise it as being weary of life, or hope by their power or policy to secure themselves from it. /4:64/ a Cf. 2 Corinthians 1:12. 'For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world ...' New English Bible notes 'by sincere and godly singleness of mind' as an alternative reading.

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Tho the Christian morals deliver'd in the Scripture be not so set off, as the Philosophers Ethicks, with the Rhetorical Ornaments, yet 'tis not destitute of true Eloquence or Fitnes to perswade, as may appear by the Efficacy & Success of the New Testament, preach'd or written, by the first Promulgators of the Gospel. And indeed the majesty, the plainnes, the candor & the authority of the Style, has to transform the minds of its Readers, than all the Tropes and Figures & other Embellishments of the smoothest orators. But tho the style were less perswasive or efficacious then indeed it is, yet if the Christian Morals that are here & there disperst in the writings of the New Testament skilfully drawn together & orderly brought into one Body, I think such a System would furnish us with far better Morals then most Christians without excepting Scholers seem to have been aware of: and would be found to be not only in some regards distinct From, but far better Than the Ethicks of Heathen Philosophers.3 The Excellency & Preheminence of the Christian Morals, may be justly grounded on these53 things not excluding others. Andjst.54 The Christian Doctrine is more compleat then that of Aristotle and others, shewing Diverse things to be great Dutys,55 some whereof Heathen Legislators & Philosophers did not prescribe as Dutys and others they did but lightly mention without laying any stress on them, as our Saviour and his Apostles do of the former sort of the love of ones enemys self denial, joy in Tribulations & Persecutions, suppressing the first Motions of Sin, & of concupiscence, repenting for not having been careful to suppress them &c. Of the latter sort, may be an ardent love of God, a zeal to promote his Glory & Interests in the World, an unweary'd endeavour to propagate Divine & Salutary Truths accompany'd with a Disposition to suffer the greatest pains & hardships and even Death it self /4:64v/ for the defence of it, a Fraternal Charity towards good men especially good Christians, and a great Philanthropy & defusive beneficence towards men in general. 21y. Many parts of the Christian Morals are grounded upon Considerations peculiar to the Christian Religion, most of the Greek Mysterys and other important Doctrines contain the Sentiments quite opposite to those of the Gospel, having a great (tho sometimes not a a There is currently less confidence in Boyle's position. For a dissenting view based on a close reading of the Synoptic Gospels, see Robinson 1964, especially ch. 2, §8, 'Religion.' For dissent from a different perspective and for very different reasons see Sanders 1975.

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manifest)56 connexion with the dutys of a Christians Life which are strongly influenc'd by those Sublime & Mysterious Truths that we must owe to Divine Revelation, Human Philosophy having been wholly unacquainted with them. 31y. The Christian Doctrine furnishes us with higher aimes & motives to Piety & Vertue than the Heathen Ethicks, such as are the desire of pleasing, of imitating, & of resembling God or,a /4:65/ 41y The Christian Doctrine gives greater helps and encouragements to the practise of Piety, and all sorts of vertues then Heathen Moralists could afford their Disciples, for it presents us with the glorious examples of the Prophets & Apostles, and all the pious Kings & Heroes of the Old & New Testament and with their Common Master Jesus Christ. And it doth not only afford us all the motives to a vertuous life that the Ethnick Philosophers have pompuously displayd in their Writings: many of which Motives are propos'd in the New Testament with peculiar advantages, but it supplys us with the powerful & supernatural1" of the Holy Spirit of Grace, which exceeds the highest helps that mere morality can afford & are sufficient to elevate the true Christians mind to an Heroick pitch of Vertue, & enable him to say with an Apostle, I can do all things thro Christ that strengthens me.c 51y The Christian Doctrine proposes higher recompences to pious & vertuous men than the Heathen Legislators or Philosophers were able to give, or had the confidence to offer, such are the being adopted the children of God,d to have our vile Bodys /4:65v/ rais'd into transfigur'd & glorious Ones,6 to be here made Partakers of the Divine nature, having escap'd the Corruption &c. and hereafter eternally happy both in Soul & Body in the ful fruition of God & of our Redeemer, and in the blessed Society of Angels & perfected Saints. 3.3.11 /5:45/ Christs Influence & his example are such, that his Graces assist us to attain the highest degree of human vertue and yet leave those attainments inestimably beneath his example: His assistances enable us to overcome the greatest difficulties to be met with in a course of piety: And his transcendant excellencies enable us to sura This paragraph breaks off in midsentence. b Thus the MS, in both copies. The sense of the text seems to require a phrase such as 'but it supplys us with the knowledge of the powerful & supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit of Grace.' c Philip 4:13. d See for example, Luke 20:36, Romans 8:16, Galatians 3:26. e Philip 3:21,1 Corinthians 15:44.

Arguments for God's Existence 229 mount the temptation we may have to be prov'd of our vertues, by shewing us how much they are surpass'd by his Perfections. He enables us to imitate them whilst he shews we cannot equal them which hinders us not from being capable of attainments whereby we may surmount not only our own passions & vices, but the vertues of the Pagan Philosophers and Heroes.57 The58 noblest subjects of Speculation do both elevate and enlarge the soul59 since the mind by degrees, is as it were assimilated to the object it frequently & delightfully converses with We all beholding as in a glass &c.a and it requires & argues some skill in musick and perspective, to be able to relish as well as discern, masterpieces Inferiour & as it were Private Customes to be met among Particular Bodies, whether Kinds or Individuals. And here I presume to lay down this Proposition, That Miracles, such as I am discoursing of, do not destroy the Essential Nature of Things, & so are not really & in strictness repugnant to it. 3.6.3 /7:112/a Loose papers belonging to my Sentiments about Miracles.283 Sr I284 perceive that you have been lately told by N.N. and his Friend, that I have some uncommon sentiments about divers of the Miracles recorded in the Holy Scriptures; and that I look upon severall of those supernatural Phenomena, as not being so Repugnant to the Laws of Nature, or perhaps not Receding so far from them, as men are wont to conceive. Wherefore I hope you will allow a Person, that is highly concern'd to stand right in your opinion, to give you himself a. summary Account of his present Thoughts, whereby you may know what credit to give to the Relations you have receiv'd from others: especially, ther[e] being few men so knowing, so impartial, and so candid, [as] not sometimes to mistake, or, which is worse, to misrepresent, the notions they are unaccustom'd to; particularly about nice and dark subjects, that require much Attention] of Mind, as being of difficult speculation. And I hope I shall find my work somewhat [the] more easy, because not only N.N.and his Friend, [but] you your self also, are Embracers of the Cartesian [Philosophy: since on this account I may expect to fin[d you] both less prejudic'd against my Opinions for their being uncommon, and more willing, as well as more able, to examine them. /7:113/ In285 the first place I shall inform you that by the word Miracles, that you will often meet with in the following Discourse, I understand those strange & wonderful Operations, Productions, and Phenomena, a Many of the following folios are torn at the right edge; conjectural readings are in square brackets.

264 Boyle on Atheism that surpass the setled or common Course of Nature in some such manner, as that upon the whole matter they cannot justly be attributed either to Nature left to her self, or to the skill, Power, frauds, mistakes, or credulity of men. I begin with this Declaration, partly to decline being unnecessarily engag'd to dispute about the Distinction between Divine Miracles strictly so call'd, and other stupendious things that to most men seem to be supernatural; and partly that by explaining what I mean, I might obviate that Darknes and those mistakes, which I have observ'd to proceed from the very confus'd notion Men commonly have of Miracles. In the next place I desire you would take notice th[at I] do not at all deny, but that there may be, nay and h[ave been,] Divine Miracles properly so call'd, that is such as cannot with probability be suppos'd to proceed from any other than the Fir[st] cause, that is from God. For, that the Supream Being may, if he thinks fit, perform things above the Powers, and contrary to the Laws, of Corporeal Beings, tho befriended by Man himself; I think may be justly inferr'd from the Consideration of the Boundles Perfectnes, and (if I may so speak) of the Primenes of his nature. For, as he is the Creator of Matter, and the sole Introducer of local Motion into it, so all the Laws of that Motion were at first arbitrary to him; and depended upon his Free Will: on whose account he might if he had pleas'd, have infus'd into, or (if you please) confer'd on, the whole mass of matter that he created, either a farr greater, or a far less, measure of Motion, than now it has. And he might also have setled other Laws of the Communication or Transmission of Motion from Body to Body, than those that now obtain in the Univers. As, instead of a hard Bodies /7:113v/ communicating it's whole Motion to another Body equal to it, that it hits against, and finds lying at rest; he might have appointed that the Movent should impart but halfe it's Motion to the Moveable. Wherefore tho the supream Author of things, has by establishing the Laws of Nature determin'd and bound up other Beings to act according to them, yet he has not bound up his own hands by them, but can envigorate, suspend, over-rule, and reverse any of them as he thinks fit.3 I know there have been of late two or three Persons, much cry'd up by some witty men, who admitting a Deity and a Providence, do yet deny that there have been, or can be, any true Miracles; grounding their denial on this; That it would a Boyle makes a similar point at High Veneration, Works 10:173^1, V:139-40.

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argue want of wisdom and foresight in God, to establish such Lawes as he might afterwards be oblig'd, or see cause, to make void or alter. I might to this Objection very speciously oppose the concurrent suffrage that has for many Ages, and is stil given to that which it impugns, by the Generality of men of almost all Religions; Christians, Jewes, Pagans and Mahometans. But, tho I look upon this, in this particular case, as no despicable Argument; yet I have other Reasons to alleage for the Opinion attack'd by the propos'd objection. I say then, as has been already noted, that God is a most free Agent, and his Divine Wisdom does accompany all that he does, in such a manner, as not impair his Freedom; but concur to accomplish the Exertions or Issues of it, in the best manner that is possible. And, tho I do not only grant, but have elsewhere endeavour'd to prove, That God may have made some things in the world for some Ends among others that are knowable by Us;a yet I think we dim-sighted men presume too much of our own Abilities, if we dare, as some do, magisterially determine; That the great God, the most Free & Omniscient Author of Things, can have no Ends, to which it may be congruous, that some of the arbitrary Laws he has establish'd, in that little portion of his Workmanship that we men inhabit, should now & then, (tho very rarely,) be control'd or receded from.286 /7:114/ I come now to that which I mainly intended to observe, which is, That God being as well the Author of the Laws and course of Nature, as of those supernaturall Phenomena usually call'd Miracles: it becomes the profound veneration we ought to have of the Divine wisdom, so to interpret the passages of the holy scripture, wherein these wonders are recorded; as to make the natural order of things no more overrul'd, surpass'd, or receded from, then is absolutely necessary to make out the truth of the Relations, as they are delivered by the inspir'd Historians. This consideration appeares so congruous to reason it self, that many would think it an impertinence if I should lanch out into a great discourse, to prove it. And indeed; as 'tis generally and justly granted, that God being a most wise as well Supream Legislator, dos not work miracles, (which do as it were repeal, or controul, or suspend, the Laws which he him [self] establish'd in Nature) without weighty reaa In A Disquisition About the Final Causes of Natural Things, Boyle offers an affirmative answer to the question 'Whether, generally or indefinitely speaking, there be any Final Causes of things Corporeal, knowable by Naturalists?' (Final Causes, Works 11:85, V:394).

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sons: [so] 'tis rational to conceive that he dos not even in working miracles, over-rule or exceed those Lawes any further, then is necessary for the production of the supernatural effects design'd: since any further recession from those Laws, seems, for so much, not to be accounted for, by the same weighty reasons that may be given for the Miracle it self, abstracted from the additional recess newly mention'd. And to this opinion I am much the more inclin'd, because I observe, that in divers passages of scripture, where Miracles are registred, God has been pleas'd to express a manifest regard to the stated Lawes, and usual course of things: and seems as it were to husband his omnipotence, by suffering naturall causes to performe some part of the work (and perhaps as much of it as they are able) and /7:114v/ forbearing to display his Almighty power, save in those parts of it, that must necessarily be miraculous, because they require a power surpassing that of ordinary nature. Thus when he would bring innummerable swarmes of Locusts to infest, and punish Egypt, he brought an East wind upon the Land for a whole day & night, and the East wind brought the Locusts. And when upon Pharao's submission and Moses's intercession, he was pleas'd to remove that pest; the text informes us that he did not annihilate them, but sent a mighty strong west wind, which took away the Locusts, and cast them into the Red Sea: whereas when he took away the frogs, that were unfit to be so carryed away, he caus'd them to dye in the houses, and the Fields, and left it to the Egyptians to rid themselves of their carcases: which they could not so do, but that, as the text relates, the Land stank. Thus when God divided the Red Sea to make it afford passage to his people, he employ'd a stronge East wind that blew all that night to divide the waters.3 /7:115/ And here I desire it may be considerd,287 that even among those things which men agree in judging to be done according to the ordinary course of Nature, severall things come to pass, otherwayes then would be perform'd by vertue of the Mechanical Laws that obtain among things meerly Corporeal. This, tho perhaps you have not hitherto heeded it, if you reflect upon what your Friends the Cartesians teach, about the Operation of the rational soul or mind, upon the humane Body. For tho they forbear, (as indeed Experience compells them,) to ascribe to the mind a power of exciting Local Motion in matter, or communicating it to the Body; yet they give it a Power to determine & direct the Motions of the Animal a See Exodus 8,10, and 14 for the frogs, locusts, and the parting of the Red Sea.

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Spirits and by their intervention of divers of the Limbs and other parts of the Body. But I confess I see not by what Mechanical Law or power an immaterial creature can at pleasure alter the determination of the motion of a Body; and make it move forwards, backwards, upwards, downwards, to the right hand, to the Left and in a word, in I know not how many differing wayes. [For] the determination of a Body in motion, is as naturally the Effect of Mechanical Laws as the motion it self: and cannot according to the Course of things meerly Corporeal, be altered, but by the scituation and the resistance of some Body that it meets with in its way: And consequently, if it be otherwise chang'd, it must be so, by some other power then meerly Mechanical: and such various determinations of motion as men arbitrarily make, when they draw289 Pictures, or trace the Letters or Characters belonging to differing Languages; as Hebrew, Greek, Arabick &c. do curb and over-rule the motions which the Perm or Pencill would have, if the humane mind, tho an incorporeal substance, did not interpose. /7:116/290 That the Regular Operations of nature are by the most wise Creator directed to Determinate Ends, I have in another Paper endeavour'd to evince. But tho I there acknowledg, and am stil of Opinion, that severall of those Operations are so excellently fitted to those Ends, that divers of the Purposes of God are discoverable or knowable by Men; yet I think we presume too much of our own abilities if we imagine that the Omniscient God can have no other Ends in the framing and managing of Things Corporeal, than such as we men can discover. And therefore I cannot look upon it as either respectfull or safe,291 to conclude, that God can propose to himself no Ends that would not be incongruous to his wisdom, capable of inducing him to alter the orderly course that himself has establish'd among Natural Things. The unsearchable wisdom of God, being alwayes accompanyed with his Almighty Power, may have Reaches, if I may so speak, far beyond what we purblind mortals are able to discover. And therefore in this case it is more safe, as modest to conclude Affirmatively than Negatively; and to say that such a thing is one of Gods Ends, as for instance That the Manifestation of his Glory, and the Communicating of his Goodnes are some of his Ends in creating the world, & Man in it, the means being so very Apposite for those Ends; than it is to say That God cannot recede from the Laws he has once setled in Nature, and so, that he cannot work any Miracles because we see not for what Rational End it could be that he should recede from those Laws, by Repealing, Suspending, or otherwise Altering them.

268 Boyle on Atheism 3.6.4 /4:49/ Remember the Ecclipse at Easter/ the possess'd swine,b Aarons Budding Rod,c and perhaps the changes in the Body made by the Passions of the Mind.d 3.6.5 /4:4/292 Some Miracles do not only transgress the Lawes or Course of Nature, but surpass the Power of Nature; if not of all created Beings too. 3.6.6 /1:46/ Diverse things may be miraculous upon the score of the manner of their Production, that are not so barely upon that of the nature of the things produc'd: as, that water may be turn'd into wine, by becoming the aliment of a vine and of Grapes, and by being thence prest out & fermented, is natural: But that by a bare volition of Christ's, water should in a trice be transmuted into wine; as 'tis recorded to have been in Canaa of Galilee,6 is miraculous. And to this way may be referr'd the Manna in the wildernes, which was doubled each Sabbath day/ the Starr that led the Wise Men.8 &c. 3.6.7 /MS 199:126v/ I am not ignorant that most men are wont to think, that Miracles & Things contrary to the Laws of Nature are of the same extent, & therefore they scruple not to employ those Terms promiscuously293, as equivalent. But for my part I think, that they hereby confound Things that294 on divers occasions ought to be distinguish'd. For, if I mistake not, there are divers Miraculous Operations recorded in the holy scripture, that are rather Preternatural or Supernatural, than (if I may so speak) Contra-natural. So that the295 the Miracles presum'd to be of this last sort, may in my opinion be much lessen'd, by sundry wayes of considering the 296 of Scripture that make Relation of Miracles. Of which Wayes of considering these Passages, I shall by way of Instance mention these that follow. First I take notice, that some Miraculous Things were perform'd by the immediate action of Immaterial Spirits upon the Minds of Men. Of this sort were the297 Discoveryes that were made from time to time to Elisha, of the most secret Consults & Debates of the Syrian a b c d

Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23. Matthew 8, Mark 5, Luke 8. Numbers 17:8. Quite apart from what he considered ordinary mind/body interaction, Boyle was aware of less common psychosomatic effects from a young age, as noted in the introductory section on his life, above. e John 2. f Exodus 16. g Matthew 2.

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King.a And to this sort may be also refer'd the Discovery that God was pleas'd /126r=58/ to make to Daniel, & he to Nebuchadnezzar of that Monarchs Prophetic & forgotten Dream.b And to this kind of Miracles the attentive peruser of the Scriptures, may easily 298discerne that divers other supernatural Effects recorded there, may be conveniently enough refer'd. In these there is no cause to pretend that the Laws of Nature among Things Corporeal were violated. A second way by which Miraculous things may be perform'd, without repugnancy to the Catholic Laws of the Universe, when either God himself, or (which is probably much more frequent) some Good Spirit by his Command, or some Evil one by his Permission, makes such Changes in that part or region of the Brain wherein the Soul principally resides, as would be made by these outward Objects, that the Spirit intends should be represented to the Minds of Men. To this I am apt to think referable that which happen'd by Elisha's Prayers at Dothan & Samaria, at the former of which Places Elisha's Servant saw his Master surrounded with a numerous quantity of Horsesc & Chariots of Fire, & at the latter the whole Army of the Syrians thought a 2 Kings 6:8-12: 'Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.' b Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that he forgot. He demanded of his wise men that they should tell him what his dream had been, and what the correct interpretation of his was. The wise men pointed out, plausibly enough, 'it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon' (Daniel 2:11-12). However 'the secret [was] revealed unto Daniel in a night vision' (Daniel 2:19), and Daniel duly reported and interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:31-45). c Margin: '2 Kings Ch. 6, vers. 19 & 20.' The relevant texts are: And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

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they saw them selves in another Place when they were in the midst of Samaria. And299 the /125v=59/ Pharaohs & Nebucchadnezars Dreams, that seem plainly enough to belong to this Head, perhaps Jeremiahs & Ezekiels Transportations,3 & many Passages of the Apocalypse, may not improbably be refer'd to it. A third Way by which the Number of Miracles presum'd to be300 repugnant to the Laws of Nature may be lessen'd, is, by supposing301 a Preparation or Change of Disposition, in the Matter302 of the Bodyes wherein the Miracle is conceiv'd. For the same Masse remaining, a convenient Change of Structure or Texture among the Parts may give it a Modification, on whose account it may be capable of doing severall things, & some of them strange ones too, for which it was unfit before. Thus God may have given to the Effluvia of St Pauls body, that impregnated the Napkins & Handkerchiefs that had long touch'd it, a Sanative & Antidotal Efficacy against Diseases, as divers good Authors assure us, & it has been confirm'd to me by Travellers into those Parts; that at Grand Cairo (in Egypt) where the Plague ravages most, as soon as the Nile begins to overflow, either the Steams that it emits, or those that accompany it, are so powerfully sanative that they /124r=60/ not only put a sudden check to the progress of the Plague, but cure those that are already sick of it. I will not now enquire, whether the swiming of Elisha's Iron, may not be refer'd to some such change made in the Wood, cast by the Prophet into the Water that cover'd it,b tho I know that a very sudden & invisible change of texture, & that too produc'd but by Effluvia, can make a Body Magnetical & fit to attract Iron, & afterwards in a trice deprive it of that Magnetism. The fourth and principal way whereby Miraculous things may be perform'd, without violating the fundamental Laws of Nature, is, by And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria (2 Kings 6:17-20). a Jeremiah passim; Ezekiel 37. b 2 Kings 6:5-7: 'As one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.'

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determining some Motions already existent in Matter, according to the Direction of good or evill Spirits. This Power of theirs303, wherewith God is pleas'd to invest them, may be of three sorts,304 negative, & the two others positive. By Negative I understand the Power that Spirits have to make such a Diversion of the Motions of Bodies whether they be External in reference to Men, especially to their Brains, or Internal in the /124v=61/ Seat of the Soul, or in the Organs & Instruments of Perception, as amounts to a Cohibition. To this sort305 may belong our Saviour & St Peters walking on the Water.3 3.6.8 /MS 198:22, p. 39 / I do not deny but that there have been Divine Miracles properly so call'd. For I take the Creation of the Rational Souls that are daily United to Humane Embryo's to be a Work of an Almighty Power. And I take the Raising of Lazarus from the Dead to be Miracles of the same sort: not merely because there was in them a Regress, as they speak, from a total Privation to a Habit, or to speak more clearly because the Organization of the Body that is absolutely necessary to Life was destroy'd, but because I see not how any Corporeal306 Power, or any other than a Divine one, could reunite to a dead /198:22v, p. 40/ Humane body for want of the307 Requisites absolutely necessary to Vital Union, was quite separated from it & had passd into a new State, which makes the Resurrection of a Dead Man quite another thing308 incomparably more difficult than the Reviving of a Dead Dog or a Wither'd Tree309 at lest to the latter of them there needs nothing but a Restitution of the former Mechanism of the Organiz'd Body, or so much of that Modification as is necessary to make it pass for a Living Tree.310 B. The Function of Miracles

3.6.9 /7:159/ Those311 miracles that have been able to conquer Nature; may well be allow'd to conquer mans Incredulity. 3.6.10 /5:68/ If any or Doctrine be blameles in other respects; and only questionable for its authority, it may sufficiently a Matthew 14:25-29; Mark 6:47-51; John 6:19. Presumably in the case of Christ's walking on water, the 'Cohibition' in question would be a restraint on the normal motions of the water, so that it would be effectively solidified. Folio 124v ends here with 'This sort may be' deleted one-third of the way down the page.

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clear the authority to be from God, that he sends a Doctrine (or suffers it to come) to us, recommended by the Testimony of Miracles. 3.6.11 /1:73/312 Tho the two cheef Arguments to evince the truth of the Christian Religion be drawne from the nature of the Doctrine deliver'd in it, & the miracles that bore wittness to that Doctrine3; yet very good Auxiliary313 proofes to confirm Christianity may be drawne from divers of those other heads that manifest the Excellency of the Christian Religion. For by these Topicks, especially if they be consider'd altogether & as it were in their Result, it will to Equitable Judges appear, that a314 Religion so calculated to bring Glory to God, & to make men good & happy, & so wonderfully propagated among them; is most likely to have been instituted by him, that requires & deserves mens highest veneration, & is the great Lover as well as Author, of mankind. 3.6.12 /7:124/ I preferr the Proofe of the Christian Religion drawne from Miracles (tho I doe not at all undervalue other Arguments much less exclude them) principally for these Reasons. 1st Because Miracles (under which I comprehend true & supernaturall Prophesies of future Contingents) are the proper Testimonies of the Divinity of a Religion that being not taught Men by Nature pretends to Divine & Positive Institution, & tho holyness of Doctrine & a Consistency with undepraved Reason should not, nor indeed cannot be separated from a Religion that is Attested by true & uncontrould Miracles, yet the Doctrine without Miracles will only shew that a Religion may be instituted by God (as containeing nothing unworthy of him,315 & ennobled by somethings suitable with the Notions Men have of the Attributes of the Deity) yet without Miracles twill be scarce possible to prove that it really Is Soe. 2dly The Argument from Miracles was that which Christ himselfe, & his Apostles cheifely insisted on & which they employed the most successfully. 3dly The Argument from Miracles is more easily apprehended in its full Force by the Generallity of men then divers others, some of which a In The Christian Virtuoso, Part I, Boyle added a third argument: 'the three grand Arguments, that conjointly evince the Truth of the Christian Religion in general, are (at least in my opinion) the Excellency of the Doctrine, which makes it worthy to have proceeded from God; the Testimony of the Divine Miracles, that were wrought to recommend it; the great Effects produc'd in the World by it. Two of these three Arguments (for the first is of a more Speculative nature) are bottomed upon matters of fact' (CV I, Works 11:306, V:524).

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require either much Learning, or a Logicall Head to discern or judge of their Efficacy. 4thly (& cheifely) The Argument from Miracles has this great Advantage above others, that it proves not only the preferableness of the Christian Religion to all others, but it proves the Truth of the Fundamentalls of Religion in generall, which must be, as it were, the Praecognita or Postulata, or at least the Lemmata of every Particular Religion, & consequently of the Christian; which is that there a God, th[at h]is Providence reaches to mankind, /7:125/ and that he has by Revelation appointed the Way wherein he will be worship'd. Of all Miracles I pitch upon that of the Gift of Tongues at the feast of Pentecost because, 1st It was the most Publick & unquestionable of the New Testament. 2dly Because It alone bares a full & sufficient Testimony to the Fundamentall Articles of the Christian Religion, since it proves not only that there is a God & a Providence, & that he reveal'd his will formerly to the Jewish Prophets, but that Christ is the Messias, and a Prophet sent from God to promulgate the Religion that all Mankind ought to imbrace, that he did many Miracles to confirm his Doctrine, that he was wrongfully put to Death by the Jewes, that he was by God miraculously raised316 from the Dead, (& consequently declared perfectly just & acquitted from whatever Debt he took upon him) & promoted to the Supream Dignity next himselfe, that after his Death he had power of conferreing Miraculous Gifts on others, that there are three Authors of the Christian Religion, Father, Son, & Holy Ghost, that there is another Life after this, that the Church of God is noe longer to be confin'd to the Jewish Nation, that the Apostles to whom the Gift of Tongues was given to preach to all Nations, are thereby made such Authentick Preachers, that they ought to be believed both as to the Doctrines they promulgate, & as to the Truth of the miracles recorded by them concerneing the life of their Master, which Doctrine & Historicall Part of the New Testament, soe far forth as 'tis ratifyed by this miraculous Gift of Tongues dos (tho we admir'd noe parts of the New Testament then what are penn'd by those whom their Gift commission'd)317 will confirm all the Necessary Points of the New Testament & [Chrjistian Religion. 3.6.13 /7:105/a Religion is a thing of that Importance to the highest Interests of men, a BP 7:105-11 (misattributed to BP 3) are printed in Colie 1963, 211-13.

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that no diligence in makeing Inquiry into the Arguments whereon we build our choyce of it is to be esteemed superfluous, and therefore I neither wonder at, nor blame, your318 Curiosity, (which is not yours alone), to know what moved me when I was confin'd to one Argument in favour of the Christian Religion, to make choyce of that which may be drawne from the Miracles that attested it. I mention my being confin'd to One, that you may not suspect that I would either deny, or in the least derogate from, the validity of those other Arguments, that have been judiciously urgd by the more learned Champions of Christianity. But the Occasion of my Discourseing of this subject, restraining me to select some one among the several Proofes, that may be rationally offer'd for the Christian Religion, I thought none fitter than that drawne from Miracles. And indeed; That the Consideration of Miracles is an Employment that well deserves a great measure of Attention, will not be difficultly granted by him that shall observe that Philosophers themselves, do justly esteem the study of Nature above most other Sciences: and yet the Objects of Physicks are but the workes of Nature, whereas true Miracles are Operations Supernatural. Nor are they only more sublime than the Objects of Naturall Philosophy, but of greater Importance to us, since the knowledge & use of Corporeal things dos chiefly relate to our Bodies, & usually reaches but to this Life. Whereas to have a right Judgement of Miracles & their consequences is of very great moment, if not /7:106/ necessity, to direct us securely in makeing our Choyce of Religion which is the importantst action of our Understanding, & on which very much depends, besides the solid Happiness of the Soul in this Life, the endless felicity of the whole man in the Life to come. I therefore looke upon Miracles as Subjects exceeding worthy of a deliberate Inquiry, as well as the attentive Consideration of them is a Taske difficult enough to exercise our most serious thoughts.319 But the subject being too large & difficult to be fully treated of without lanching into Philosophical Speculations, & perhaps Controversies too; I, who am sensible of my want as well of ability, as leasure, to exspatiate into so comprehensive a Subject, will, in compliance with both, confine my selfe, as I lately intimated I would, to consider Miracles only as they are alleagd (as Proofes) in favour of the Christian Religion. Nor shall I undertake to say all that may be pertinently said on this subject it selfe; but shall only tender to you those Thoughts of mine, that may be conveniently enough referd to three or four Heads, my Designe in this Essay being but, (1) to shew you, why I thought fit to pitch upon the Argument from Miracles

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rather than any other (2) By selecting one miracle, among many that offerd themselves, to give you a320 instance of the force of the Argument that may be built on the numerous Miracles of Christ & his Apostles. And then (3dly) To vindicate the way of Probation it selfe, or the Argument built on Miracles, from some Objections whereto it may seeme lyable. I will begin then with the Motives that indued me to make choyce of the Argument drawne from Miracles, & tell you that I was invited to prefer it before any other [jointly]321 by the ensueing Considerations. /7:107/ 1 And first; True Miracles are the proper & greatest Proofes, that the Message or Doctrine that is attested by them, is indeed a Divine Revelation. For natural Theology convinceing us of the Goodness, Providence, & Veracity of God, those Attributes will not suffer us to beleive, that he would permit a Falsity, & that such an one as the Publishers of it ascribe to his Inspiration to be ratifyd by so extraordinary a Testimonial, as a Miracle wrought in confirmation of it. And if we shall suppose the Doctrine or Message proposd to proceed really from God, what more proper course shall we thinke on to procure it the assent & entertainment it deserves, than his authorizeing of it by the supernatural Effects of his Power,322 especially since the Wise & Immutable Author of Nature cannot reasonably be presum'd to alter the Course & breake the Lawes of it, but for some particular end which is usually declared, either by the Native tendency of the Miracle, or by the Person employd to worke it. 2 I consider in the next place, that to informe men by Miracles, is a way of Teaching men worthy of God. For great Monarchs & Lawgivers are not wont to speake to their subjects (like323 a Master to his Scholars, or a Philosopher to his Disciples) For these inferior Instructors are faine to employ Syllogisms & Perswasions to those they address themselves to, because they have not any more forceible Arguments to worke on them, and therefore their Auditors have a right to employ the like Arguments, & some times stronger, against their Instructors. But the Argument from Miracles is a Demonstration of so high a kind, that it can be made use of by none but God, or those whom he immediately Commissions & enables. All rational] Creatures may instruct one another /7:108/ by the Productions of their Reason, but the Creator only can teach by a Production of Omnipotence. And therefore it may be justly askd in Elihu's phrase who teaches like Him?a And the Apostle, a Marginal note: 'Job, 36.22'.

276 Boyle on Atheism writeing to his Corinthians might warrantably postpose (as he did) the perswasive Arguments of Humane Wisdome, to that way of Preaching employd by him, where the Doctrine he taught them was attended & attested by the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost on which account, he stiles that way of Preaching a Demonstration of the Spirit & Power? (the genitive there denoteing the Agent) and justly adds, that by this meanes twas intended that the Faith of Beleevers should not be founded on the Reason of man, but on the Power of God.324 3 I farther consider that Miracles are not only proper & noble Instruments whereby [to] authorize an instituted Religion, but are /7:109/ necessary ones to evince, that it proceeds from God. For tho tis not to be denyed, that there is a natural Religion, whose Principles being congenite with us, or easily deduceible from the Contemplation of the Universe & our selves, has no need of Miracles to recommend it; yet since an Instituted Religion as such, pretends to be founded upon supernatural Revelation, & comprises not only a discovery of Truths relateing to the Object of Worship, but Rites of Worship, if not also Rules of Life; tis plaine that there must be some supernatural way to ascertain wary men (& there is nothing wherein wise & good men will be more wary than in the choyce of their Religion) that this way of honouring God is really instituted by him. For tho the Holyness or Goodness of the Doctrine, & some other Excellencies that ennoble the Institution, may well be allowd to make it probable, that a325 Religion may proceed from God; yet since we know not how far Vertuous Principles & Intellectual Indowments may by Morality & Philosophy, be improved to frame excellent Institutions; it cannot without Miracles be proved that it dos326 proceed from God And the Establishing of Religion being the great act of Legislation exercisd by God towards men, tis hard to conceive how the Promulgation of his positive Lawes can be authentickly made without a Supernatural Testimony to convince those that are to receive and obey them. 4 This Consideration prompts me to inforce it with another, which is, that men seem, as it were naturally, to expect Miracles from those that pretend to establish [a] new Religion; since almost all Religions [that] have pretended to Divine Institution] have also (tho most of them very falsly) /7:110/ pretended to Miracles or Divine Revelations, which themselves indeed are Miracles, being supernatural Operations designd to acquaint men with something about the mind of God, a Marginal note: 'Cor 2.4.5' (i.e., 1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

Arguments for God's Existence 277

which otherwise they would not have certainly knowne. And this Pretense of Religions to the haveing been authorizd by Miracles, might be easily shewne by the Enumeration of divers Ethnick, & other, wayes of Worship, if I thought that needfull to be done. 5 I consider in the next place, that the Argument from Miracles, is a most proper way for the Divine Wisdome & Goodness to employ in reference to the differing Capacities of Men For Religion being designd by the Author & Lover of Mankind for the benefit of the Generality of men, tho some other kind of Proofes might have been proper for some sorts of men, yet those same Arguments would have been improper for others. Had the Heralds of the Christian Religion for instance employed metaphysical Speculations or sublime Philosophical Discourses; they might indeed have pleasd & convinc'd some Philosophers, but could not have been understood by far the greater part of mankind, who for that very reason would have been tempted to mistrust them of some conceald Fallacy. Besides that the various Prejudices, Passions, &c even of Learned Men are such, that tis very hard to convince them indefinitely even of divers Natural Propositions, which one would thinke to be very demonstrable, & which eminent writers pretend to have been actually demonstrated. For oftentimes what one [takes] to be a manifest Truth; another lookes [upon] but as a meer Hypothesis; a third [as an] Error; & a fourth perhaps as an /7:111/ Absurdity. And if the Promulgators of the Gospel had employed only Popular Arguments, those might have prevaild with the ignorant & illiterate vulgar, but would too often have been despisd & exposd to be cavill'd at by Learned & Subtile Men. But Miracles are such Proofes of the Truth of what they attest, that ordinary & even mean Capacities are capable of discerning the force of them: and the greatest Scholars & Wits cannot but submit to it. For in altering the Course, & surpassing the Power, of Nature, Gods Interposition is too conspicuous not to be seen even by vulgar Eyes & rever'd by the most piercing and Lyncean ones. 6 And to proceed now to another Consideration, this fitness of Miracles to worke on Mankind, is little more acknowledgd by them that beleeve them, than by those that oppose them. For if Miracles have no great Efficacy to prove the Doctrines whereto they give Suffrage, whence is it, that Atheists & Infidels doe so studiously & Industriously Endeavour to take off the Credit of the Historical Narratives of them; & busy themselves much more to prove the matter of fact to be false & Incredible, than the Inference they afford in favor of Religion to be illegitimate.

278 Boyle on Atheism C. Miracles and Testimony

3.6.14 /4:51/ Moses's Miracles and our Saviours, as they are agreeable to their respective ministrations; so they intimate the differing natures of their work. For Moses his miracles were (if I may so call them) of a Political kind, such as became a Civil Soveraign or Legislator & a deliverer of his Country-men. And accordingly he miraculously rescu'd them from Egyptian bondage, led them dry foot thro the red sea, provided them Manna to eat, and water out of the Rock to drink, defeated Amaleck by his Prayers inflicted a terrible death upon Corah & his company for their rebellion.3 And tho some of these were Types of better things, yet 'tis a great question whether the Spectators understood a Designe so remote from the present wonders that busy'd, & perhaps ingross'd their attention. But the Miracles of Christ, were such as became a Heavenly Benefactor & Spiritual Saviour, that came to save his People from their Sinns, the stubborn'st and the worst of Enemys; & accordingly his miraculous Power was imploy'd to enlighten the Blind (both with outward & inward Light) to open the Ears of the Deaf, to untye the Tongues of the Dumb, to inable the Lame to walk, to restore the Paralytic to the use of their Limbs, to bring the Distracted to their right witts, to cleanse the Lepers, to cast out devills & to raise the dead.b 3.6.15 /4:49/ Remember That not near so many Miracles, as Men think, are recorded. 3.6.16 /4:7/ When by the concurrent Testimony of Learned men, Euclid, Archimedes or some other Person is affirm'd to be a great Mathematician and rigid Demonstrator, even Learned & Cautious Men scruple not to beleive. D. Prophecy

3.6.17 /4:5/ Consider how far the Predictions, made by Moses and our Saviour, of Miracles to be done by false Prophets, may themselves be reckon'd among Miracles. 3.6.18 /4:48/327 Make out the Harmony of the Prophets by those Expressions of the Scripture, wherein 'tis said, that God spake by the a See Numbers 26. b These miracles are reported at various places in the New Testament, but for two lists that include those which Boyle mentions see Matthew 11:5 and 15:30.

Arguments for God's Existence 279 mouth of all his Holy Prophets* (as if they had all but one mouth) and that God spake to the Fathers by the Prophets?* which last Expression shews that they were only the Organs or Instruments and that God himself was the Author and Speaker of the things they deliver'd. 3.6.19 /1:72/ There are some Proofs of the Truth of the Historicall Part of the Christian Religion that are not to be met with in other Histories. For among other Relations some of the Authors have recorded Prophecies deliver'd either by themselves, or by some others that they speak of. And some of these Prophecies having been fulfill'd perhaps no lesse than several Ages after they were deliver'd, and some of them also being yet accomplishing from time to time, these differing completions do not only bear witness to the veracity & faithfulness of the Relator, but give an eminent Authority to the History itself as containing Particulars of a Supernatural kind. This may be illustrated by supposing that an Historian should in the same Book wherein he records that some Ecclipses of the Sun & Moon happen'd at such and such times, should also deliver Predictions of Ecclipses to happen at this and that time in future Ages. For by the accomplishment of those Predictions the Truth of the former Relations may be examin'd & confirm'd; and it may also appear, that the Writer was indow'd with a skill superiour to any knowledg that belong'd to him, as he was barely an Historian. 3.6.20 /1:68/ By the Catholick Rules of Reason, one may lawfully judge of the Affinities, Repugnances, and divers other Habitudes of several of those things, whereof we owe the first knowledg to Revelation: as, tho the Dimensions and Contrivances of Noah's Arke, and those of the Tabernacle in the Wildernes, were made known to Men by Gods extraordinary Institution or Patefaction; yet when once the Fabric of them was deliver'd, 'twas lawful for an Architect to speculate upon the Excellent Symmetry of the Parts of those structures &c.c E. Propagation of the Gospel 3.6.21

/5:82/

The Institutions of Philosophers & Legislators were

a Zachariah 8:9, Luke 1:70, Acts 3:18. b Hebrews 1:1. c Notice further Boyle's view that 'the native light of the mind may enable a man, that will make a free and industrious use of it, both to pass a right judgment of the extent of those very Dictates that are commonly taken for Rules of Reason, and to frame others on purpose for privileg'd things, so far forth as they are so' (Things Above Reason, Works 9:413, IV:461-2).

280 Boyle on Atheism

but like Brooks or rivers, that water'd but some little Portion of Land; or at most extended their Improvements but to the neighbouring parts of some Province or kingdom. But the Christian Religion is fitted to make a Great & General Reformation of the world. And accordingly it did in good measure do so; and reclaime those parts of mankind where it was received: being like that fertilizing mist mention'd in Genesis, which before there was Raine or Clouds, cover'd the whole face of the earth (or ground) and water'd all the Plants that grew upon it.a 3.6.22 /3:84/328 There is another Reason why the wonderfull propogation of the gospell should be annexd to the Argument drawn from miracles in favour of the Christian Religion. For the Preachers329 of it both pretended & appeald to miracles as Proofs of the Truth of their doctrine: if we consider the great disadvantages they lay under & the powerfull oposition of all sorts that they met with & surmounted, it cannot reasonably be thought that such unlikely men should so successfully preach so uninviting330 a doctrine unless it were confirmd by conspicuous miracles. Or at lest if so uneasy & persecuted Religion was propogated without miracles that propogation it self (as one of the fathers wel observes) may justly pass for a miracle & be no less fit to confirm the Religion so admirabley propogated. 3.6.23 /46.12/331 Another thing that is presupposd to reveald religion in generall is that332 there is some way 333 distinguish a Revelation that is truely divine334 from any thing that pretends to be335 soe for a man may be 336 there is a God337 whom tis his duty to believe to reverence and to obey in case he shall declare and comand any thing and yett may strongly338 doubt whether God have de facto reveald any thing in a supernaturall way nor 339 this man340 thinke himselfe obleig'd to any particular creed or way of worship as reveal'd tell he be341 competently satisfied that among the various religions that pretend to be instituted by God tho342 there must be divers false ones (since they contradict /46:12v/ and condemn each other) yet there is some one that is true as haveing belonging to it the343 write markes of a divine revelation. Now what these markes are must be determined by wright reason344 which in such cases is very usefully assisted by Phylosophy and other parts of humane learning and I shall confirme this by the unanimous practice of the primitive champions of Christianity such as a Genesis 2:6.

Arguments for God's Existence 281 Justin Marter, tertullion Origen Arnobius Lactantius &ca who asserted the truth of the reveald religion they professd and confuted the errors and superstitions of the heathens by proving that there owne Religion had a Divine originall and that of the Pagans tho pretending to the same Honour was divis'd by men or /46:13/ Daemons. Nor will it satisfie the person we are speaking of, that a theologer345 shall tell him that he may superceed the use of his reason as to what is by346 offer'd as a Revelation since this Revelation is authoriz'd by Miracles themselves for tho the alegation347 were admitted yett348 reason must be allow'd to judge both whether and how far Miracles349 to be allow'd as cogent and sufficient Profes of a Ravelations being Divine And this leads me to take notice of a further service that reason dos350 for whereas that part of our Religion that is aded to Naturall Religion and makes it properly Christian is profesd to be built on devine Revelation and whereas if we consider the matter attentively we shall find the four351 maine Proofes whereon352 the beleife of the Christian353 /46:13v/ Revelation354 we embrase can be rationally founded and355 the Miracles that weare356 wrought to authorize it the prophesies that belong to it357 the excellency of the things themselves that are said to have been reveald 358 all these must be made out to him that either disbeleives or doubts them by the negotiation of reason for not only reason is necessary but Phylosophy359 alsoe is either necessary or highly usefull to show that the miracles pleaded360 by Christians are indeed Divine Maracles and361 uncommon workes of meere nature or surprizing effects of naturall Magick, or the impostures or collusions of Crafty cheats (such as I363 take364 most of the pretended miracles of the heathens and especially of their oracles to have been) or demoniacall works365 performd by /46:14r/ Magicians or witches by the help of evill Spirits, such as ware done by the Egyptian sorcerersb (if they were not only trikes of a Arnobius (d. c330) is not mentioned in Boyle's printed works, though he uses the name for one of the speakers in his dialogue, 'Advices in Judging of Things Said to Transcend Reason' (Works 9:395-424). Arnobius also appears (as do Tertullian and Lactantius) as one of the authors in the 'list of books provided & to be provyded for the Collection making by Mr Boyle of books tending to the proofe & defence of the truth of the Christian Religion' (MS 187:30). Justin Martyr (clOO-c!65), Tertullian (cl60-c220), and Origen (185-254) all appear in various published works of Boyle. b Exodus 7-11. Cf. BP 7:122-3, §3.6.30 below.

282 Boyle on Atheism

Legerdemain or illusions) or the powerfull application of the secre[t]est name of God to which some of the jews fondly impute the Miracles of Christ,366 or a367 sanative Ideosyncrasie368 or peculiar temperament that difference I say of the Miracles whereon the Christian faith relies from these that are pretended by369 erronious religions tis the proper worke of reason to manifest and soe it is to discarminate the prophesies of the old and new Testament from Astrologicall predictions and other kinds of naturall Divination370 as alsoe from those other371 foretellings of future things which pretend372 or truely to be supernaturall such as were the responses give it delphos and other heathen oracles.374 Then the excellency of the things reveald375 to the376 Prophets Apostles and other377 athentick teachers of Christianity tis plain that reason must argue and compare things with the nature of God and that of man with one another to be able to378 show that the doctrines379 peculiar to Christianity contain sublime truths, worthy to be reveald by God and divers380 of them not otherwise knowable by man that the precepts are soe holy soe good in themselves and soe advantagious to mankinde that they deserve to be thought the laws of a most holy being and the lover as well as the author of mankind and the381 promises and threatinings are such that they are very fitt to have /46:15r/382 been delivered by God who alone is able to make them good and very unfitt to have been devis'd by383 deceitfull men. Anda as for the last argument for Christianity drawn from the admirable Propogation of it since the idolitrous Religion of the Zabians long overspared384 the East in soe much that the great Rabbi maimonides and our learned Seldon have (and as I think rightly) conjectured that divers385 precepts of the Ceremoniall Law of Moses (as the Prohibition of seithing a kid in his Mother's Milk and of sowing a feild with differing sorts of seed) were meant in oposition to the Magicall and superstitious rites of the Zabians. And since after our Saviours comeing the Mahometan sect has been and is at this day spread far and wide and that in divers Countrys that were once intirely Christian since ! say we have these and other examples of the great success of Erronious Religions the argument pleaded (and I think386 very justly) by the Christians from the wonderful /46:15v/ propogation of there faith will not be made good without the peculiar assistance of reason and a The Notion of Nature contains a considerably altered version of this paragraph (Works 10:471, V:180-l).

Arguments for God's Existence 283 humane learning Especially in History.387 For tis by the intervention of these that it must be shown that there is noe need of admitting a supernaturally Devine agencie in the success of Religions that comply'd with the Corrupt interests388 of men or were promoted by power and established by the sowrd whereas the Christian Religion tought men to 389 to depend for happiness upon a crucified Master to deny for him these lusts themselves too to follow stricter courses of vertue then Jewish pharises or390 the heathen Philosophers and this391 Doctrine so uneasie to be beleivd & obey'd and so repugnant not only to the vitious but in divers cases to the Naturall inclinations and interests of men tho393 preach'd by persons most of them illiterate all of them of mean quallity394 made a scruple to perswade there395 hearers by retoricall florishes or Phylosophycal396 suttleties did yet in a very short time prosilite varst multitudes of people of differing397 nations Religions & conditions in spite of all the oposition which the argouments of Philosophers the eloquence of398 Jurators399 & the bloody persecutions of the400 Roman Emperors401 and Persian Kings the greatest monarchs402 in403 the world whose cruelty tho it sacrifis'd incredible numbers404 of Christians made incomparably more than it destroy'd405 at length left the Christians406 masters of a great part of the world divers of them injoying Royall Crownes where there predicessors had receiv'd Crowns of Marterdome. 3.6.24 /5:79/ The church like Trees graft on, or inoculated; gets new, and perhaps nobler Trees, by its wounds.3 F. Miracles and Possibility 3.6.25 /3:109/407 The Method, Theophilus, I have hitherto follow'd, leads me now to the Consideration of what your freind alledges against the Possibility of the Miracles recorded in the Gospell. And408 this if I mistake not, is indeed That the clearing of which would the most conduce, either to convert or at least to convince him. For I have severall times observ'd, (& soe perchance have you,) that as our Criticall & Philologicall Infidells, are wont to make their cheif Exceptions at the way or manner wherein the miracles that beare witnes to the Chrisa Boyle liked this comparison, which also appears in BP 3:102, §3.6.31 below, at BP 2:434, printed in Reason and Religion, Works 8:289, IV:181, and in CVI App, Works 12:125, VL715.

284 Boyle on Atheism tian Religion are deliver'd & attested; soe the more Philosophicall & Atheisticall Enemy's of Religion, are wont to make it their grand objection, & upon which they principally rely, that the things themselves recorded are impossible; & therefore ought to be look'd upon as incredible? And indeed I cannot wonder that they bend their cheifest Endeavours to make good this Assertion; it being both their last Refuge & their strongest Hold. For the more considering sort of these Unbeleivers discerning well enough (& comonly farre better than other Infidells,) the Cogency of the Argument drawne from Miracles, & its Advantages above most if not all other Arguments usually imploy'd to assert Religion: there is nothing that they appeare more concern'd & industrious in, than to enervate /3:110/ this Argument; because whatever may be say'd touching the Inferences from it in favour of the Christian Religion in particular,409 the Admission of miracles would justify Religion in generall & conclude against the Atheists who reject both all Religions & all supernaturall Powers. Now considering men, (such as your friend would be thought) can scarce misse discovering, that nothing of any great moment can be answer'd to the Plea from Christs and his Apostles miracles but one of these two things, either, That though they may be true they are incompetently attested, or els, That they cannot rationally be thought true, whatever testimony they come attended with: I meane (that expresse this yet more plainly) either First That the narratives are not to be beleiv'd, because the Testimony of the Relators is not such as is sufficient in the nature of a Testimony to bring credit to things that though not impossible are exceeding strange. But because it seems very unsafe to venture their cause upon the hope of disproving soe full & strong a Testimony the Philosophicall Atheists chuse rather to fly to the other member of the Distinction, namely, That (21y) the Testimony though competent in its kind, & fit to exact an Assent to things that were possible; is not here to be beleiv'd; because the things related were impossible to be done: and consequently, with whatever recommending Circumstances the Testimony comes attended, may justly conclude that the Relators either had a mind to deceive others, or were themselves deceiv'd410: Since what is impossible to be done is unfit to be beleiv'd whoever they be that pretend they have seen it done. And the ground of this Impossibility is, that tis confess'd on all-hands, that to the working of miracles there is requir'd the imediate operation either of a God, or of some intelligent & potent supernaturall Agent; a Cf. CV I App, Works 12:396-7, VL693-4.

Arguments for God's Existence 285

which there should exist or be, is, according to the objectors, an utter Impossibility. G. Pentecost

3.6.26 /5:71/ To411 the advantage of Christianity may be inferr'd from this, that Christ foretold, not only his own Resurrection, and the time of it, but that such Illiterate men as were most of his Apostles, should work Miracles, and that greater ones (some of them) then he himself had wrought. For St. Peter cur'd the sick even by his shadow passing over them.a Others needed but Handkerchiefs that had touch'd the Body of St. Paul.b Both those Apostles had the power of Inflicting great & miraculous punishments upon the enemies of the Gospel, as St. Peter punish'd Ananias & Saphira with Deathc; Paul struck Elymas the Sorcerer Blind,d and & the same Person412 deliver'd up some Enormous Transgressors to be bodily posses't by the Devil; (as some of the Ancient Fathers, probably interpret the Phrase of delivering up to Satan.e) And all the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, had the gift of Tongues perfectly enough to preach in them to variety of nations; which was a Power that their Master himself is not recorded to have display'd. 3.6.27 /4:50/ Consider that the gift of Tongues was distributed with that partiality [at the Feast of Pentecost]413 that among the vast multitude of Persons of several Nations that were there present, none but the Apostles and Disciples of Christ had any share of it, which argues that it could not be ascrib'd to chance, but from a Cause (whatever that were) that would put a distinguishing mark upon the Christians there present and with Congruity to this the Apostle Paul in his short Expostulation with the Galations inferrs the Christian before Mosaick dispensation from hence that those to whom he writes had

a b c d e

Acts 5:15. Acts 19:12. Acts 5:1-10. Acts 13:8-11. 1 Timothy 1:18-20: "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.'

286 Boyle on Atheism

receiv'd miraculous Powers and Gifts not on the account of the latter but of the former Dispensation.3 3.6.28 /4:5/ I therefore414 prefer the Miracle at Pentecost to any one other, because it evinces among other Truths, that of the Resurrection itself: which is tho preferable to any of the rest. 3.6.29 /7:95/b Circumstances to be consider'd in the Miracle at Pentecost The time when the story was written. The time when the Miracle was wrought. The place where. The Multitude of the Witnesses The quallitys & prejudices of the Witnes. The Antecedent Prediction. The Number of the Persons inspyr'd. The Unexampled Novelty of the Miracle The Discriminating partiallity of the Effusion. The success. Inferences deducible from the miracle at Pentecost That there is a God. That souls of Men survive their Bodys. That God concerns himselfe in the government of humane affaires. That God has appointed a Religion according to which he will be worshipped and serv'd (Of these foure Propositions, the three first containe the Principles of Naturall Religion, and the fourth is as it were a Bridge by which men pass from Naturall to reveal'd Religion both which are connected by it.) That there is a Trinity in the Diety. That the Old Prophets were divinely inspyr'd That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the promis'd Messias That his Person & Doctrine were highly acceptable to God and approv'd by him. That there is a Resurrection of the Dead. That Christ is able & carefull to performe his Promises though very unlikely ones. That God & Christ commission'd the Apostles to teach others. That God & Christ intended Christian Religion should be that of a See Galatians 3, especially verses 1-9. b BP 7:95 is written in two columns, one headed 'Circumstances to be consider'd in the Miracle at Pentecost/ the other 'Inferences deducible from the miracle at Pentecost.'

Arguments for God's Existence 287

Mankind, & to that and should be promulgated & receiv'd by all to whom tis preached. /7:96/ About the Miracle wrought on Whit-Sunday415 Among the many Arguments that are fit to recommend the Christian Religion to considerate and unbyass'd416 Men, there is not any (in my opinion) of greater use & necessity, (tho not perhaps to perswade vertuous men, yet) to convince gainesayers, then the proofe that is drawn from the Miracles that were wrought to attest it. since other arguments may indeed perswade unprejudic'd417 Persons, that the Christian Doctrine is worthy to have proceeded from God: But that it actually did so, requires to be evinc'd by Miracles. But these things having418 already419 endeavour'd to make out, in a distinct paper written for that purpose; I shall now proceed to take notice, that tho I observe the best Champions for the Christian Religion, to have made choice among all the Miracles that bear witnes to it, of our Saviours Resurrection from the dead; and tho I take that illustrious & unparallel'd Miracle, to be a solid proofe of the truth of the420 Religion he instituted: yet, to manifest that we Christians have more powerfull weapons then one, to defend our cause and attaque421 Infidels; I shall make choice of another Miracle as such a second to that newly nam'd, as I am apt422 to thinke may, on some accounts, be at least as properly imployable against Cavillers; and by its circumstances & the Inferences423 that may be drawne from it, will attest the truth of most of the grand Articles of the Christian Faith. The Miracle I mean, is that which was wrought soon after our Saviours ascension, by the Effusion of the supernaturall gifts of the Holy424 ghost, on the day of Pentecost, upon the Apostles of Jesus Christ. About which Miracle, I shall consider first /7:96v/ some circumstances that belong'd to it, and next some corollaries that may be drawn from it. The first Circumstance I shall take notice of, is the time wherein this relation was written. For it appears plainly, both by divers passages in the Acts of the Apostles,3 and by Historicall Testimonies of other a Marginal note: 'Acts 20th.v.5.13. / Acts 21.V.1.15.17.' The relevant texts are: 'These going before tarried for us at Troas. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes, and from thence unto Patara. And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem. And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.' In fact, neighbouring texts other than those Boyle mentions make his point more clearly.

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Ancient Books, that the Evangelist Luke was a Companion of St. Paul in many of his travells; and particularly went with him to Jerusalem. So that, if he was not himself present at this Miracle, at least he was at Jerusalem when Multitudes were yet alive there, that were old enough to have been at Man's estate when the Miracle we treat of was done. And425 Ancient Authors informe us, and the very nature of the thing may perswade us, that St. Luke wrote426 at a time when great Numbers of Persons must have been alive, that were able upon their owne knowledg to contradict what he related, if it had not been notoriously true. And427 those that know that our Historian was by profession a Physitian, and have observ'd how elegantly he has written in the Greek tongue, and consider what excellent Morall precepts & examples of Veracity & other vertues may well be suppos'd to have been given him by his constant fellow-Traveller St. Paul; will not be apt to suspect, that such a Person should have so little conscience, or so little witt, as to lay the scene of that, which, if it had been a fiction, must have been one of the improbablest that could be devis'd, in a place, and at a time, where it could not possibly escape the contradiction of some hundreds, if not thousands, of surviveing witnesses. /7:97/ For, in the next place, it may be observ'd, that the Miracle we are discourseing of, was not, (as St. Paul speaks in another case,) done in a corner*; but very publickly, in the famous citty of Jerusalem, and, (which I add in the 3d place;) at the great solemnity of Pentecost. For at that time, not only the Body of the Jewish Nation, was by Law or Custom wont to convene at Jerusalem; but, as appears by the story and may be gather'd also out of Josephus; a great number of Proselites us'd to resort to worship the only true God. And perhaps this confluence was the greater, because of the Expectation, that was then generally spread over the East, as Suetonius and other heathen Authors tell428 us, That out ofjudea should arise a great Monarch that should sway the Universe which the Jews apply'd to their long'd for Messias; as may be gather'd from severall passages, both in the Gospels and in other Authentick writeings. And it may not be inconsiderable, at least in reference to the Jews, that anciently the Divine Law was given on Mount Sinai at the feast of Pentecost. So that devout men, both Jews and Gentiles, being met together at Jerusalem, to pay their solemn worship to the true God, by the celebration of that Illustrious Feast, expressly instituted by him, and honoured by so miraculous & majestick a proa Acts 26:26.

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mulgation of his Laws, there was no place on Earth, nor no time of the year, where 'twas less likely that the Infinitely good and wise God, would have suffer'd a false Miracle, and which pretended to establish a new Doctrine, to be wrought in his name. That this wonder was not such, may appeare (in the fourth place,) by the Number and qualifications of the Persons concern'd in it. /7:98/a That the former was very considerable, may appear, not only by the name of Multitude given to those that flock'd together, and by the strangenes & novelty of the occasion that assembled them; but also by this, that no less than five thousand were made Proselytes, by those that alledg'd that Miracle to convince them; tho probably these converts made but a part, and that far enough from being the greatest, of those whom the Apostles speeches were address'd. And this last circumstance will appear the more perswasive if429 we consider, how much the greatest part by far of the Auditory, were indispos'd to receive from such men as the Apostles, such a Doctrine as they then promulgated. For those that knew them not, had so little reverence for them, as to be ready, it seems, to think they were drunk: and most of those that did know them, look'd on them a[s] illiterate Fishermen, and, as they are in this very Book o[f] the Acts call'd, Ideots.b And 'tis like, that all in generall took them at first for men, whose weak parts, as well as their me[an] condition, made them very unlikely to be expressly employ'd by the great God of Heaven & Earth, upon so weighty430 an Errand, as the reforming a Religion once establish'd by himself, and confirm'd from time [to] time by Prophecy's & Miracles: especially considering the receiv'd opinions among the Jews, concerning the Qualifications requir'd in Persons fit to become Prophets; as besides Probity of manners, a clear understanding, a contempt of the World, and a competent Fortune. But the Prejudices that lay against the Preachers, were much inferiour to those that the Auditory had entertain'd against the Doctrine itself. /7:99/ a Folio 98 and some of the following folios have a torn right edge; conjectural readings are in square brackets. b An asterisk after 'call'd' refers to a marginal note: 'iSuorai / Acts 4:13'. In the English of Boyle's time, 'idiot' had both the meaning of lay, or uneducated, person that Acts 4:13 requires and the meaning of a mentally deficient person that we find, for example, in Locke's Essay, 2.11.13: 'Idiots make very few or no Propositions, and reason scarce at all.' There is no suggestion of anything as extreme as the latter in the Greek term.

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Having, I hope, by the foregoing Arguments sufficiently evinc'd, that the Narrative of the Miracle recorded in the second chapter of the Acts, was historically true, 'tis now seasonable to consider, what Dogmatical Inferences may be justly drawn from it. And this I think the more worthy to be solicitously don, because the Circumstances of this Miracle are such for Quality and Number, that the greatest part of the Fundamental, and some others of the more important Articles of the Christian Religion, may from this one Miracle be fairly deduc'd, or strongly confirm'd. And j. we may infer from more than one part of this History, the Existence of a Deity. For the Apostles, that manifested by their way of Preaching that they were supernaturally both enlightned and commissioned, do expressly acknowledg, or rather profess, that they receiv'd these supernatural gifts from God; which their Hearers were the more easily convinc'd of, because they knew it was naturally possible,431 that uninspir'd Persons, and especially illiterate Fishermen, should grow432 able, in a trice, to make discourses to many differing Nations, in their respective Languages.3 /7:100/ Tho it was not the busines of the Historian in this Narrative, to prove the Existence, or declare the Nature of God; yet we may rationally deduce from what he transiently delivers, both that there is a most excellent Being, of a Nature superiour to that of Man, and that this Being has divers of those Property's or Attributes, that the Light of Natural Reason taught Philosophers to ascribe to God. j For jst his Unity or Onelynes is fairly intimated by this, that tho the Heathen generally, and even the Philosophers, were wont to speak of the Deity in the Plural Number; yet the Apostles speak of him alwayes in the singular number: and they would probably have more expressly declar'd themselves in this Point, but that the Unity of God was unanimously taken for granted by their Auditors, whether Jews or Proselytes. 2 This only Gods great & supernatural Power was manifestly declar'd, by his having rais'd a Crucify'd Persofn] from the Dead, and impower'd him in his new state, to enab[le] his Disciples to do wonderful things. 3 The great knowledge & wisdom of this God may be infer'd, from a As noted in the introduction, Boyle is aware that an exactly similar point is argued in favour of Islam, but simply denies the premise that the Koran is such a miracle.

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his having so aptly brought the differing Passions and Interests of the Jews & Gentiles, to minister to his Design of compassing Mankinds Redemption. And the Divine knowledge, yet more manifestly appears, by Gods having in a trice endow'd illiterate Fishermen with various Languages, and by the Prescience he exercis'd in predicting, as well by the Mouth of Ancient Prophets, as by that of Jesus himself, such unlikely things; as, that the holyest person that ever was, should by the only peculiar people God had upon the Earth, be ignominiously crucify'd, as an Imposter and a Malefactor, and should afterwards be rais'd from the state of Death, to that of a new & glorious life. 4 The Justice of this God was conspicuous, in his having rewarded the spotles Innocence, & meritorious sufferings, of Jesus, who was thus cruelly persecuted for constantly asserting the Truths, God had commission'd & commanded him to /7:101/ Preach with a Recompence that was almost as great & peculiar, as were his obedience, and Piety that receiv'd it. 5433 Of the Fidelity, if I may so speak, of God, or his Faithfulnes to perform his Promises & Predictions, we have an illustrious Instance in the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; who, as a Person commission'd by God, plainly & expressly foretold it; as did also long before, tho in a dark & prophetic way, his Ancestor David, and some others of the inspir'd writers; whose Predictions, as coming from himself, God appear'd so concern'd to verify, that he wrought a stupendious Miracle (Christs Resurrection) to make them good, nay Peter scruples not to affirme that 'twas not possible Jesus should be detain'd like other men in the state of death because434 6 And the mercifulnes of God was display'd, in that he vouchsaf d not only some means, but miraculous ones, of Repentance & of Pardon, nay and salvation too, to those bloody Jews, that had so unjustly, & so barbarously, kill'd the only begotten & beloved Son of God, the Prince of Life,435 their own true Messiah, that had to very many of them been, in an eminent degree, both an Instructor & a Benefactor; and went about doing good, Informing the Ignorant, undeceiving the Erroneous, converting the Impenitent, Feeding the Hungry, Curing the Sick, raising the Dead, and (which are yet greater Benefits) casting out Devils by Divine Power, and with divine Efficacy preaching the Gospel. /7:102/ If it should be here objected, that these consequences are not all of them cogent: It may be represented, that it ought to be no wonder, tho some of the consequences should be but highly probable, since the Evangelists Narrative does, as was436 formerly intimated, suggest

292 Boyle on Atheism them but as it were incidentally; his chief & primary scope, & that also of the Apostle Peter, not being to treat expressly of the Divine Attributes, which by the Auditory, as well as themselves, were taken for granted, but to convince them, that God had made that same Jesus whom they had crucify'd both Lord & Christ, that is had constituted and declar'd him to be the promised Messiah. /7:103/ The next consectary afforded by the Miracle we are considering, is, that the souls of men survive their Bodies. For by this story it manifestly appears, that Jesus of Nazareth, who was a true man, truely and really3 crucifyed and put to death by the Romans, had not his Rational Soul or Mind (for even the Epicureans distinguish between Anima and Animus] destroyd by death, but that his soul or rather mind was so reunited to his Body, (which was after that Reunion tangible, visible, and capable of walking, eating, drinking, and speaking) that he perfectly remember'd what he had don in his former state, could remind his Disciples of what he had then told them, could reason with them about sublime & mysterious subjects, and explain to them the dark Prophecyes of the old Testament; all which are proper Operations, and consequently Arguments, of a truely Rational Soul. Congruously to which the Evangelist Mathew, one of these inspir'd Preachers, leaves it upon record in his Gospel, that Jesus of Nazareth declares that day (viz. of their death by Crucifixion) the Penitent Thief should be with him in Paradise,b a place or state of bliss; which could not be understood of their Bodies, since Christ remain'd in the Sepulcher, not only that day, but the next, and part of the third; and the repenting Thieves was to continue there til the worlds end. And 'twas no wonder St. Peter should talk of his Lord as surviving his Body, who had been expressly taught by his Master, not to fear those that could but kill the Body, and then could do no more, in comparison of God that could destroy both Body & Soul.c And, tho I deny not, that from what has been said, an absolute Immortality or Deathlesness of the Soul cannot a Boyle's footnote reads V.22.23.' The reference is presumably to Acts 2:22-24, which reads: 'Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.' b Luke 23:42. c Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:4.

Arguments for God's Existence 293 demonstrably be concluded, because, as the last mention'd words of Christ seem to intimate, God has a power to act upon Human Souls at another rate than Human /7:104/ Agents can; and there is no just cause to deny but that by his absolute power, commonly call'd his Omnipotence, he may, by withdrawing his continual supporting Influence, annihilate a Rational Soul, as well as any other of his Creatures. But yet from what has been above deliver'd, we may justly infer, that the Rational Soul is a substance distinct from the Human Body, and therefore naturally fit to survive it, and is not under the necessity of dying or perishing with it. And this is as much Immortality as Natural Reason, abstracting from Divine Revelation, can arrive at the certain discovery of. And therefore Mr. Des Cartes himself, tho at first the Title of one of his Books was, a Demonstration of the Immortality of the Soul, yet he was so ingenious as to acknowledg, that he imploy'd the word Immortality in much a like sense to that which we have newly declar'd. And such a conditional Immortality the ancient Philosophers mainly contended for against the Epicureans, who affirm'd that even the Rational Soul, being but either the Flower or finer part, or else a modification of the Human Body, perish'd with it at the Animals death By which Tenent they deny'd, even to the mind of Man, all future state, as well as an endles one. In opposition to which Error, their Adversaries thought it enough to prove, that the Soul did not naturally dye with the Body. For, that after their Separation God would imploy his irresistible power to destroy the Soul, was a thing that they were not fearful of, seeing no Reason or Example of his abolishing any Substance, nor having any Revelation that he purpos'd to annihilate so noble a one. 3.6.30 /7:120/ If it be objected, that by thus distinguishing Miracles into true or false, according to the Nature of what they are brought to bear witness to, & by chooseing what kind of Miracles we would be convinc'd by, we do in effect make the Argument drawne from Miracles insignificant or useless I answer, that in regard divers (for I say not all) of those supernatural things that are wont to be accounted Miracles, may proceed from two extreamly differing Causes, namely God & the Divel, it is necessary to consider the nature of the Doctrines for which Miracles are vouch'd, that we may not perniciously mistake Diabolical workes for Divine Miracles. And if it be replyed, That however by [this] way of proceeding, we do not judge of a D[octrine] by the miracles That attest it, but we judge [of] the Miracles by the Doctrine whereunto it bea[rs] witness I rejoin that this Objection is grounded upon a mistake. For I do not thinke we should determine that this, or that, determinate

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matter of Fact is to be asserted or denyed upon the account of the Doctrine tis employed to attest; nor yet, that a Miracle, competently attested, ought to have its authority rejected because it agrees not with this or that particular Article of this or that particular Religion: But I thinke the use we ought to make of a Doctrine in judgeing of a miracle is not to deny the Historical part, if it be substantially attested, but to distinguish whether it be likely to come rather from some evill Spirit, than from God. Nor do I hereby evacuate the use of Miracles; for I allow all those that can be made out to have God for their Author, all the authority that their divine extraction can confer /7:121/ on them, and I allow them (both) to determine my choice, as to the main of Religion, as Christianity, Mahometism, Heathenism &c. and to command my assent to the particular Articles that are manifestly containd in the main of the Religion these Miracles bear witness to. But tho till I be duely satisfyed that the Miracles themselves are Divine and not Diabolical, I must in reason refrain from acknowledgeing them; yet I pretend not to judge which of these two the Miracle is by the Articles of any particular instituted Religion, as the Christian, the Jewish, or the Mahometan; because that Religion it selfe must be proved by miracles to have been divinely instituted. But for this examination I take only the General Principles of Natural Reason & Religion, which teaching me antecedently to all particular Revelations, That there is a G[od;] That he is, & can be, but One; That [he] is Just, Wise, Good, Gracious &c.; and That he has the Care and Government of Humane Affairs; if a Supernatural Effect be wrought to authorize a Doctrine that plainly contradicts these Truths, I cannot judge such a Miracle to be divine, and therefore am not bound to suffer my selfe to be swayed by it. But if the Revelation backd by a Miracle proposes nothing that contradicts any of these Truths, taught us before hand by right Reason; & much more if it proposes a Religion that illustrates and confirms them; I then thinke my selfe oblig'd to admit both the Miracle, and the Religion it attests. And upon the Score of the Truth of a Religion so authoriz'd, and so indeed upon the score of God's Veracity, I embrace all the particular Articles & Propositions, that I find to be manifestly contain'd in the Revelations /7:122/ whereof that Religion consists. Thus I first assent to a Natural Religion upon the score of Natural Reason antecedently to any particular Revelation. And then; if a Miracle be wrought to attest a particular Doctrine concerning Religion, I endeavor according to the Principles of Natural Religion & right Reason, to discover whether or no this proposd Doctrine be such, that I ought to looke upon a Miracle that is vouch'd for it, as comeing from

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God or not. And lastly if I find by the Agreeableness of it to the best notions that natural Theology gives us of God & his Attributes, that this Religion cannot in reason be doubted to come from him; I then judge the Body of the Religion to be true. And if in any thing that is obscure or doubtfull in that Religion, a miracle should be wrought to decide the difficulty, I would submit to that Decision, and not judge the miraculous matt[er] of Fact, competently attested, to be false; [bejcause 'tis repugnant to some preconceived Opinions of mine about this or that disputable Article of that Religion. But this is to be understood of the miracles that are wrought in favor of a Religion when 'tis first proposd to be embrac'd, especially if that Religion be for the main the Antientist, or the first that was Authorized by Miracles. For when a Religion has been once solidly establish'd by a competent number of true & uncontroald Miracles, then I have a new Criterion to judge of a subsequent miracle by; for the Veracity of God being founded upon his Justice & Goodness (Three Attributes knowable to us by the Light of Natural Reason) it is not to be supposd that he would contradict himselfe, and so reveal his will to mankind as, inevitably / 7:123/ to lead them into inextricable difficulties concerning it: And therefore also, 'tis not to be suppos'd, that the subsequent miracle proceeds from him unless it be control'd by a greater miracle: as in the case of the Egyptian Sorcerers and Moses; Simon Magus and the two Apostles, Peter & John; or unless God permit it to try men, which may be reasonably presum'd in case some express prediction were made that such Lying Miracles should be sufferrd to be wrought for that end. And upon that ground it might reasonably be said by Paul (the Apostle of him that had foretold, that false Christs & other Seducers should arise with lying wonders* to seduce if it were possible the choicest Christians) to the Galatians, that if either he or an Angell from heaven should teach them another Gospell, that is another Religion for the main; then [he] had taught them, and then was, as is intimated in the same Epistle, Authoriz'd among them by signs & wonders &c, they should reject him,b knowing that (as the same Apostle elsewhere speakes,) even Satan may, by God's permission, transform himselfe into an Angel of Light.c 3.6.31 /3:102/ Show in the Paper against Spinosa that we ought not to confound all things that may be effected with mechanicall Powa 2 Thessalonians 2:9. b Galatians 1:8, 9. c 2 Corinthians 11:14.

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ers whatever the Agents be that sett them on worke and that we cannot conclude a thing to be no miracle meerly because tis possible to be produc'd by matter & motion. And illustrate that by white thornes that are by the Gardiners art made to beare plumbes and other fruit (437 whose cyence3 or buds are grafted or enoculated upon it which by the course of nature they never would beare).b And soe a watch may be made to stricke one immediately after it has strucke438 twelve, or twelve immediately after it has strucke one, tho according to the course of nature in the watch or if you please according to the genuine constitution or disposition of the Engine this will never happen for tho the effect be produc'd by the locall [motion] of the wheels & other parts of the watch congruously to its contrivance yet such a motion had never been produc'd in it if the regular motion had not been over rul'd by the efficatious action of a designeing Agent. 3.6.32 /3:102/ Tis much less rationall to argue thus Miracles cannot be true because there is noe God (by whom they must be wrought) then to argue439 thus wee see that Miracles are wrought therefore there must be a God (or a supernaturall & intelligible being) to worke them. For the first ratiocination supposes something that cannot be prov'd but by metaphysicall or other difficult and at least very questionable arguments, whereas the latter ratiocination supposes nothing but what men generally grant namely that our sences are to be trusted about their proper objects and that there is a common degree of morall honesty to be met with among men in things where 'tis not their interest to be dishonest. 3.6.33 /3:102v/ They that owning the scripture deny there can be miracles contradict those many passages wherein miracles are urged by Christ himselfe and his Apostles as fit Instruments to convince men of the truth of the doctrine and as grounds whereon their Incredulity may be justly aggravated and reproach'd. To which may be added that God himselfe sent Moses with a signe to convince Pharao. 3.6.34 /3:102v/ The grand objections against our Miracles are, That there can be no true miracles because there is noe God who is suppos'd to have wrought them; That if there were miracles 'twould not be possible to distinguish the true from the false not consequently prove a particular Religion by them; That the Christian Religion wants the proofe affordable by miracles (supposeing there be true ones.) a That is, 'scions'. b As noted above, Boyle liked this comparison. See footnote to §3.6.24.

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3.6.35 /3:102v/ As for those Christian writers that oppose the Argument from Miracles, besides what I elsewhere answere to their objections, I shall here observe that they doe not properly reject all probation drawne from Miracles but only that which is drawn by Heretickes or Magicians against a truth already sufficiently prov'd & solidly establish't. For when they say that 'tis foretold that Antichrist & some Impostors will worke Miracles to severall men from the truth, and that therefore we are not to beleeve them for the sake of the signes they show us I observe (without questioning at present the sence of the Texts they alleage) that those very predictions whereto their argument shows that they scruple not to give their Assent are themselves miraculous things since supernaturall knowledge and I say further that tis easy to perceive that their Arguments supposes the / 3:103/ Religion from which they ought not to let Miracles seduce them to have been already so firmely establisht that nothing ought to be able to pervert them from it. But so establish't, it was not, nor indeed could have been without the seal of true miracles as well as the congruity of the Doctrine with the Tightest notions that Reason can furnish us concerning God and Divine things. Soe that the Adversaries I now speake of, reject not the power from miracles indefinitely, and on the same ground that Infidells doe since they admit them as good Arguments at the first establishment of reveal'd Religion which being once settled upon the Testimony of Miracles and right Reason, they thinke it is not just that miracles alone should withdraw men from a Religion so evinc'd to another Religion that will have alwayes somewhat in it, repugnant to some Dictate of right Reason, especially considering that such subsequent miracles, haveing been foretold with warneing given men to beware of them, such wonders may well be looked on not as effects of the primary intention of Divine Providence but as tryalls of mens faith, constancy & watchfulness. 3.7 The Excellency of Christianity A. The Heads of the Discourse

3.7.1 /4I67/440 The Heads of the Discourse of the Excellency of Christianity. 1. Of the Excellency of the Author of the Christian Religion, as he was God and the Mediator. 2. Of the worthynes of the Apostles.

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3. Of the Truth of the Doctrine. 4. Of the Sublimity of the Mysteries. 5. Of the Excellency of the Precepts, as to the Holynes, Reasonablenes and usefulnes of them. 6. Of the Preciousnes of the Promises; and Terriblenes of the Threats. 7. Of the Prophecys of the old and new Testament. 8. Of the Miracles that bear witnes to the Christian Religion. 9. Of External Testimonies that favour the Christian Religion. 10. Of the Efficacy & success of the Christian Doctrine where 'tis cordially recieved. 11. Of the manner of the Propagation of the gospel. 12. A short comparison between the other Religions & the Christian. Devotion Philosophical leads the way. The next dos Peitys true joyes display The Third the mischiefs dos of Vice expose The Fourth, That Peity's practicable shews The Fifth the Scripture witnes dos maintain The Sixth confesses, all Bad things are vain. B. The Author of the Christian Religion 3.7.2 /5:79/441 The Christian Religion discloses its Author by its nature & its end. For 'tis most probable, that an Institution is deriv'd from the Author of Human Nature, that is excellently to raise it to its highest Perfection, and to make it capable of that Inesti Felli of resembling and injoying God. C. The Value of Christianity and the Value of Converting Non-Christians 3.7.3 /5:86/ Sir The knowledge I have of your goodness allows me to hope, that you will neither be displeas'd nor surpriz'd to receive from me, together with the enclosed Papers3 which you desir'd of me this confession, or if you please, Declaration That tho I do not think the various differences of Religion here consider'd, ought to lessen our Faith; yet I think they ought to increase our charity: and whilst the consideration of them confirm us in the Truth of the Christian Religion, it ought to make a Marginal note: These papers treated of the Diversity of Religions.' See Works 14:23764.

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us compassionately wish, that the Dissenters from it were Embracers of it. You need not apprehend to find here display'd at large, all that I could say of the subject I am about to discourse of. for I designe not to write a Book, but a Letter; wherein I shall content my self to propose three Inducements to invite you to contribute your endeavours to the charitable work I am to recommend. Of which motives, the first shall be taken from the Glory of God: the second from the Good of Others; the third from the benefit that may thereby accrew to the Person himself that promote the other two. /5:87/ To begin with the first of these, namely, That to indeavour the conversion of Infidels is well pleasing to God, as it promotes his Glory; tho the glorifying of God, be that which in our age has been very much talk'd of, and, as I charitably think, has been really aimed at by many; yet I doubt no small part of those that have made a noise about, and perhaps seriously intended, the advancement of it; have not well known in what it consists, nor what are the best means to be taken by442 men of their condition, to promote it. But I think it so great pitty, that men of pious aimes should be mistaken about points of such importance, that I cannot but think it were a happines to contribute to the rectifying of their mistakes.443 The glorifying of God, as it signifies something that may accrew to him from men; (for he needs nothing without himself to be a glorious as well as happy Being; and if he could444 that there is a God. And if it be objected that these Bodyes, I answer that however, they performe Animall Actions without animal organs. 61y. That there is noe such great Reason for men to exspect to know the nature of God perfectly, that know but very imperfectly the nature of obvious things. And that there is noe great Reason for the Atheisticall Naturalists, to be so491 proud of their doctrine, or for others to be frighted out of their Religion by it. For the example of the paine wee feel in burning by discourse, & by the confession of Des-Cartes, Gassendus & Mr492 Hobbs, the imperfection of our knowledge is argu'd. Nor has a Naturalist much more Reason to be an Atheist, then has a watchmaker. That the fundamentall Hypothesis of most of the Modern Naturalists that nothing is mov'd but by a Body contiguous & mov'd either infers a God, as the Cartesians acknowledge, or is demonstrably false as 'tis propos'd by Mr a Cf. Usefulness I, Works 3:258,11:46-7.

310 Boyle on Atheism Hobbs, & that the vastness of the sunne, & the smalness of /3:113/ Atoms being neither Imaginable, seem to some493 as little conceivable by a Corporeall Soule, as an corporeall Soule seems to others. IV. That there are positive Reasons afforded by Philosophy to prove a Deity, namely [notably]494 the Cartesian Idaea, the Originall of Motion, the use of Parts in Animalls, especially the Eye, the valves of the heart, the musculi perforantes & perforati,3 & the temporary [parts]495 of a foetus