The Preface
of Religion, are Intimated by the Authour to the Hebrews, in these Words; He that Cometh to God, must Believe that He Is, and That He is a Rewarder of those who seek him out. For to Seek out God here, is nothing else, but to Seek a Participation of his Image, or the Recovery of that Nature and Life of his, which we have been Alienated from. And these Three Things, namely, That all things do not Float without a Head and Governour; but there is an Omnipotent Understanding Being Presiding over all: That this God, hath an Essentiall Goodness and Justice, and That the Differences of Good and Evil Morall, Honest and Dishonest, are not by meer Will and Law onely, but by Nature; and consequently, That the Deity cannot Act, Influence, and Necessitate men, to such things as are in their Own Nature, Evil: and Lastly, That Necessity is not Intrinsecall to the Nature of every thing; But that men have such a Liberty, or Power over their own Actions, as may render them Accountable for the same, and Blame-worthy when they doe Amiss; and consequently, That there is a Justice Distributive of Rewards and Punishments, running through the World; I say, These Three, (which are the most Important Things, that the Mind of man can employ it self upon) taken all together, make up the Wholeness and Entireness of that, which is here called by us, The True Intellectual System of the Universe; in such a Sense, as Atheism may be called, a False System thereof: The Word Intellectual, being added, to distinguish it from the other, Vulgarly so called, Systems of the World, (that is, the Visible and Corporeal World) the Ptolemaick, Tychonick, and Copernican; the Two Former of which, are now commonly accounted False, the Latter True. And thus our Prospect being now Enlarged, into a Threefold Fatalism, or Spurious and False Hypothesis of the Intellectual System, making all things Necessary upon several Grounds; We accordingly Designed the Confutation of them all, in Three Several Books. The First, Against Atheism, (which is the Democritick Fate) wherein all the Reason and Philosophy thereof is Refelled, and the Existence of a God Demonstrated; and so that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or Material Necessity of all things, Overthrown. The Second, For such a God as is not meer Arbitrary Will Omnipotent, Decreeing, Doing, and Necessitating all Actions, Evil as well as Good; but Essentially Moral, Good and Just; and For a Natural Discrimen Honestorum & Turpium; whereby another Ground of the Necessity of all Humane Actions will be Removed. And the Third and Last, Against Necessity Intrinsecall and Essentiall to all Action; and for such a Liberty, or Sui-Potestas, in Rational Creatures, as may render them Accountable, capable of Rewards and Punishments, and so Objects of Distributive or Retributive Justice:
