most prone to Idolatry their Kings also and Rulers being most of them Vicious and Idolaters in Times of Peace easily drawn away to follow the Superstition of their Neighbours and at length broken to pieces by a miserable Captivity and even the scatter'd Fragments of their Nation batter'd by a continual series of Calamities and irrepairable Disorders And yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages we find their Religion to have been miraculously preserv'd for the space of Fifteen hundred years For the Law of Moses was never abolish'd nor any new Rites introduc'd by the solemn Decrees of the Sanhedrim so that there was still the Face of a Church and Men rais'd up in an extraordinary manner to support the same by their exemplary Lives and seasonable Instructions all which could not be but by the singular and special Power of Almighty God when for so long a Tract of Time all human Means universally conspir'd to the utter Ruin and Extirpation of it CHAP. XV. Of the Authority of the Old Testament THE Divine Authority of the Books of the Old Testament in which the Jewish History and Religion is contain'd may be demonstrated first from the Matter and Manner of their writing next from Records of human Antiquity And First The Old Testament has singular Advantages above any other Works and Writings whatsoever in respect of its Antiquity It begins with the Creation of the World with a short account of the Antidiluvian Times down to the general Deluge after which time it shews the Re-settlement of Mankind as also what Nations were of greatest Antiquity and then comes more particularly to the Ancestors of the Jewish and describes the plainness of the first Ages in the Lives and Manners of their Patriarchs From thence it descends gradually to the Time of the Jews settling in Egypt in many delectable Passages with some account also of the Neighbouring Nations During their abode in Egypt we have little Account till such time as Moses appear'd to whom the Law was given From Moses downwards we have a more large and accurate History distinguish'd by several Successions of Judges and Kings and the years they govern'd reduc'd to certain Periods of Time even to the Babylonish Captivity we have a particular History also of their Re-settlement and after some intermission we have an Account of their Actions under the Government of their High-Priests during their Wars with the Greeks Not long after which Time followed the Birth of the Messiah In short the Acts and Monuments of the Old Testament are of that Antiquity that even the first Historians amongst the Greeks as Herodotus and Thucydides flourish'd but about the time of Esdras who was one of the last amongst the Jewish Writers In the next Place these Sacred Books have a singular Advantage above all other Writings whatsoever whether we consider the great variety of Matter contain'd in them or the Stile in which they are writ The Stile is for the most part very plain and obvious to all Capacities as Books of this kind ought to be but withal it speaks with that Gravity and Authority as becomes Divine Oracles not insinuating its Precepts by Rhetorical Arts but enjoyning them by a kind of Majesty and severe Commands and yet we have some Descriptions especially amongst the Prophets made with that liveliness of Representation and grandeur of Expression as far exceeds the Raptures of our Modern Poets or those of former Ages What Strains of Wit can draw such an Idea of a Glorious Combatant as that we meet with in Isaiah cap. 63. in the Description he gives us of our Saviour's Bloody but Victorious Conflict upon the Cross Who is he that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah this that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength Answ I that speak in righteousness mighty to save Quest Wherefore art thou red in thy apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-press Answ I have troden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me for I will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiment And I looked and there was none to help and I wondred that there was none to uphold therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me And I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth Can there be form'd a nobler Image of a Conqueror dapled with Blood wreeking with Revenge and panting and bestriding his prostrate Enemy in the sight of two Armies How far short of this is Aeneas's Character in his Combat with Turnus describ'd by Virgil So that Angelus Politianus shew'd a singular delicacy or rather a critical weakness in neglecting to read these Sacred Compositions for fear of debasing his Stile whereas Marsilius Ficinus and John Picus Mirandula Men of greater Parts and Learning delighted in nothing more than in the study of them If we consider the variety of Matter treated of in these Sacred Writings there is no Collection under Heaven can compare with them what excellent Observations and Instructions have we for Morality in the Books of Ecclesiasticus which without an Hyperbole may be said to be the best in that kind in the whole world as reaching to all the Circumstances of Life The Books of Solomon must tell a Heathen that he was a Man of vast Knowledge His Canticles shew him to have been a Man of a most pregnant Fancy His Ecclesiastes seems to have been a Discourse by way of Dialogue betwixt Wisdom and a Sensual Nature But his Proverbs do declare him to have been both Good and Wise and were writ probably before he was Corrupted The Books of the Prophets shew that they were writ by Men of intrepid Resolutions They reprove without Flattery and touch the Affections to the quick breathing always an Ardent Zeal for Vertue and for the Glory of Almighty God And as for the Book of the Psalms they are a kind of Poem and they must be confess'd of all Hands to flow from an inexhaustible Fountain of Piety and Devotion and teach us how we may Address our selves to God under the several Forms of Confession Petition Supplication Thanksgiving Vows and Praises And truly had David been inspir'd with a Human Spirit he would have employ'd his Poetick Fancy in illustrating some Passages of his own Life viz. His Fights and Victories as a Warriour and particularly his Engagement with Goliah would have afforded noble Matter for an Heroick Poem or else as a Courtier he would have Compos'd some soft Pastoral or Madrigal containing his Amours with Bathsheba or as a Friend he would have exercis'd his Fancy about his more Innocent Love and Affection for Jonathan But we find nothing of this Nature his Subject always is Divine one while as a Suppliant or
nor Zorobabel nor any of the Jewish Worthies be call'd Deliverers God knows they were poor Supplicants and depended wholly upon the Indulgence of the Persians But the Crcumstance of the Gentiles being to be made partakers of these Blessings extends the Benefits of these Prophesies infinitely beyond the Fortune of the Jewish Nation who were ever after but a poor scattered and precarious People As to the Authority of these and many such like Prophesies even Atheism it self cannot question it unless we say That the Jews after the appearance of Jesus Christ did stuff the Old Testament with such Prophetick Passages as made against themselves and their Religion Besides all these Passages being found in the Translation of the Septuagint and considering also with what exactness the Jews kept these sacred Copies even to numbring the very Letters how negligent soever they were in observing the Commandments of the Law 't is utterly impossible such Passages should be foisted in without their knowledge as it is impossible that such certain and punctual Predictions should proceed from any other Mouth but that of Almighty God and this I take to be an Argument ad hominem and such as might convince even Porphyry himself were he now alive And so I have done with the Old Testament CHAP. XX. The Advent of Jesus prov'd from Heathen Predictions BUt besides the Prophesies recorded in Sacred Writings we have other Predictions also out of prosane Monuments which though of an inferiour Authority are very apposite to prove the Verity of Christ's Messiah-ship All the Histories of the Age wherein Christ was Born doe testifie that both Herod as also the Jews were in present Expectation of the Messiah Hence it was that Herod who yielded up himself to the flatteries of his Followers was easily persuaded to think that he himself was the promised Messiah and those who adhered to this Belief were in Scripture called Herodians as is conjectur'd For the Jews finding Herod to be a King of great Power and who rebuilt the Temple also after a most magnificent Form they presently concluded that this was he who was to restore their State and Empire And Herod too was not wanting to himself to improve such favourable overtures upon which account it was that he committed so many Murders even on his own Children also hoping in the general Massacre to extinguish the true Messiah where-ever he was as Josephus tell us we read Jos de lib. Jud. l. 7. c. 7. also in Suetonius in the Life of Vespasian as also in Tacitus how it was the Belief of many in that Age that in the Sacred Monuments of the Priest was registred that out of Judea should come forth those who were to govern the World which was Tacit l. 5. Hister erroneously interpreted of Titus and Vespasian But above all Those famous Monuments of the Sybills are a compleat evidence of this Truth Tully whilst he endeavours Tul. lib. 2. de Divin to evacuate the Credit of these Prophesies reports this Passage out of them That he who was indeed to be our King was to be called also a King in Case we would obtain Salvation This Prophesie was contain'd in the initial Letters of some Verses which for this reason also were called Acrosticks telling us withall that the Prophesies of the Sybills were lockt up and were not to be inspected but by order of the Senate forasmuch as they seem rather to contribute to the Subversion then to the Conservation of Religion there being nothing more odious to the Romans than the thing called King which was legible throughout these Sacred Books And truly so plain did they speak of Christ's Government and Kingdom that even amongst the Sacred Prophets we shall not meet with a Description more apposite then what was transcrib'd by Vergil out of these Sybelline Oracles who by his Intimacy with Augustus obtain'd a sight of them applying in his Genethliacon of Saloninus the Son of Asinius Pollio who was a Favorite of the Emperor's those Passages which in Truth could belong to none but Jesus as appears evidently from this Description The happy Days are come foretold long since Eciog 4. By Cuman Sybills Sacred Song from hence All fature Ages shall there date commence The Virgin too returns the upright raign Of Ancient Saturn now returns again An Off-spring now to us from Heavens sent forth Help chast Lucina this celestial Birth Which puts a Period to the Iron Race And o're the World a Golden one does place Whose heavenly conduct shall mankind deliver From all their Guilt freed from all fears for ever Whose God-like Life shall yet more glorious prove By listing Hero's ' mongst the bless'd above These shall behold him too who never shall cease By 's Fathers Art to rule the World in Peace Such a lofty Description as this could by no means square with the Circumstances of Soloninus who died nine days after he was Born Nay had Augustus himself had a Son I question whether these Characters could have been applied to him even under a Poetick License of Flattery In short they were transcrib'd out of the Sybelline Oracles to which the Ancient Writers of the Church so often appeal'd as to the most uncorrupted Monument of Antiquity Forasmuch as these Books were kept by the Romans with the greatest care imaginable under the Custody of the Colledge of Sacred Rites call'd Quindecem viri and and so impossible to be alter'd by the Christians Nor could these Passages be interpreted of any but of Jesus who being he that was to give Peace to the World was born also under the Reign of Augustus who shutting up the Temple of Janus proclaim'd this Memoriall and glorious Passage that at the time of our Saviour's Birth there was a Universal Cessation of Arms over all the Earth as was predicted and was necessary to introduce this Prince of our Eternal Peace CHAP. XXI Of the Doctrines of Jesus THe second General Argument by which we have propos'd to prove the Truth of Christ's Messiah-ship is taken from his Doctrine as also from the History of his Life and Miracles as they are represented to us in the Writings of the New Testament Now in these Writings there are two things to be consider'd first their Authors secondly their Authority To prove their Authors we have no other way but by humane Authorities but yet such too as are strengthen'd by all the evidence of Reason For if it were rashness unpardonable to question the Truth of Caesars conquering Britain or of his Defeating Pompey and of his being Murdred in the Senate for as much as the Books which report these things are esteem'd to be the Genuine works of those who liv'd in the same Age whose names also are prefix'd to them t is certainly much greater madness to doubt that the Books of the New Testament were writ by the Apostles since we find a more universal and uninterrupted belief hereof in the concurring Voices of an Infinite
Mahometan Invasions till domestick Quarrels and jealousies together with Self-interest made the Europeans abandon such a glorious design and leave all as a Prey to the Ottoman Usurpers which ended in the total Ruine of the Eastern Empire The next thing to be taken notice of is the Ottoman Empire it self which has for a long time been the most potent and is at this day doubtless the greatest in the World if we consider the extent of its Dominions It is a vast Branch or rather the very Body or Trunck of the Mahometan Religion and as being the most bigotted and zealous in the Propagation of the same it will not be improper to make some Reflections upon their Conduct in this particular One of the chiefest Policies or the grand Arcanum of the Ottomans is to keep the common People in Ignorance and to resolve the Exposition of all difficult Cases and the final Decision of their Controversies into the Right Reverend the Mufti who in all matters of consequence depends upon the infallible Oracle the Grand Signiour To this end and purpose they discountenance and prohibit all Learning especially Controversial for should they attain to the understanding of Greek and Latin they would quickly read the behaviour and belief of others in the Translations of former Ages and by the Helps and Methods which they find in such Monuments of Antiquity they would attain also to the Art of Reasoning which would draw them insensibly to examine their Religion and discover the gross Absurdities and Contradictions of their Alcoran For so it is that their Religion will not endure the stress of a Disputation upon which account we find that there was never one of this Persuasion of what continuance and how wide soever it is or hath been that did ever offer to defend it by Argument Their next Policy is to probibit the use of Printing For should this get place amongst them new Opinions would quickly be spread abroad which would not only expose their Superstition but make great Convulsions in the very body of their Government 'T was subtilly therefore done of one of their Kaimacans who when a Printer came to Constantinople with his printing Instruments and offer'd to publish some Books very cheap caus'd him presently to be strangled and all his Instruments to be burnt pretending that 't was unjust that one Man for a little gain should take the Bread out of the Mouths of thousands of Families who liv'd by Writing A plausible pretense indeed though the true reason of this severity was that which I am now discoursing of viz. to prevent the Innovations which a liberty of Publication would infallibly introduce Another Policy of the Mahometan Religion consists in their abstaining from all acquaintance with Foreign Nations They never Travel themselves upon any account not even upon the account of Traffick into any Christian Territories by which means they are most grosly ignorant of what is taught or done in Foreign Kingdoms All the knowledge they have is from Renegades and Fugitives which cannot deserve much Credit and in Religious Matters is totally insignificant And as for those who visit their Countries they are but few there being no improvement to be made by an Ingenious and Industrious Traveller which may compensate the Risque and Expence all Foreigners being generally lookt upon by the Turks as Spies and are therefore under a watchfull Eye and in Danger To tamper therefore with them in matters of Religion would prove Pernicious and Fatal And as for our Merchants who resort to them upon the account of Commerce their business is Trade and Gain nor are they admitted but to a very small acquaintance and that only with Persons of the meaner Quality and such with whom their Traffick lies The last Turkish Policy and which seems also to contribute much to the Preservation of their Religion is their constant adherence to their more ancient Habits Customs and Manners of Living so that whosoever does converse with them must in a great Measure conform in these particulars unless he has a Mind to be expos'd to Contempt or perhaps Dangers This one particular how trivial soever it may seem cannot but create in these Musiel-men a wonderfull Opinion of themselves and a kind of scorn and dislike of whatsoever disagrees with them and indeed Inconstancy in such matters cannot but argue much Levity and we may observe our selves what Prejudice may arise from Custom For should a Man walk the Streets with a Sugar-Loaf-Hat with a slasht Doublet and ruffling Ribbons about the waste and knees of his Breeches and with party colour'd Stockings and the like he would be lookt upon as a Fool or Madman and yet such a Garb twenty five years since was very agreeable and Court-like how ridiculous soever it appears at present The same Judgment may pass in another Age upon our present Modes which seem so decent and usefull So much does Custom render things agreeable and familiar In short that the constancy of the Mahometans in their false Worship does not proceed from the Nature of their Religion but from the foremention'd Causes is most demonstrable from those of the Greek Church who though they are in themselves the most unsetled in their Opinions and the most easily won to any Persuasion yet in Muscovy where they live under a Government which neither Countenances Learning Printing Travel nor Foreign Modes we find them as setled and inflexible as the Turks and altogether as gross and ignorant These are some of the Acts and Methods by which the Turks preserve their own Religion and here it will not be improper to take a Transitory view of one point of Conduct by which they so much weaken the Christians They do not make their attempts on it by open Persecution this would carry a show of too much Barbarity and make the Sufferers pass for Martyrs which would not only beget Compassion in the Spectatours but a Jealousie also in them that their own Religion was not of a Divine Extraction which requir'd such bloody Executions for its defence from hence naturally would spring a Curiosity of enquiring into the Nature both of one and of the other Religion which could not but bring over great numbers of Proselites to the Christian and which could not but be attended also with important Alteration No no they proceed another way viz. by a sort of Toleration which is nothing but a more lingring and artificial Cruelty making Men to taste gradually that bitterness of which a sudden blow would take away all Sense and perhaps all Fears They suffer the Christians I say to enjoy the Liberty of their Religion but then by their exactions in Tribute both of their Children and Estates by barring them from all Offices either of Credit or Profit by remisness of Justice on their behalf and by treating them frequently with terms of Ignominy and Scorn and by exposing them to the right worshipfull the Mobb they so enervate and debase their Spirits
those for which some of the Ancients were Deified Their Number as Varro Reports amounted to no less than Thirty thousand and so Prodigious are the Stories that are reported of them that even the false Deities seem to be both Infinite and Incomprehensible no less than the True one Not therefore to run our selves into a Labyrinth of endless and headless Fables we may cursorily observe that as all the Heathen Gods had their Original assign'd them so also that they were Mortal too and that the Foundation upon which after Ages built their Worship of them was laid in the Opinion they had of the Benefits Men receiv'd from them whilst they lived on Earth Thus Bacchus Serapis and Ceres were held for Deities as being reported to have been the first Planters of Corn and Wine or such who in Times of Plenty laid up those Provisions by which future Dearths were supply'd All Inventions of Arts and Manufactures were ascrib'd to Mercury and Vulcan of Navigation to Neptune and of Poetry and Musick to Apollo Upon which account also it was that the Egyptians Consecrated so many Beasts believing that the Benefit they receiv'd from them did proceed from a certain kind of Vertue or Divinity by which they were animated or directed Amongst which there was none held in greater Veneration than the Bird Ibis for shape much like a Crane for so it was that these Birds fed altogether upon the Serpents which the African Winds at certain Seasons brought in vast quantities from the Deserts of Lybia We ought furthermore to Consider the Authors from whom we have these Traditions of the Heathen Gods viz. The Ancient Poets such as Orpheus Homer Hesiod Aratus Theognis c. All which were by after Ages called Vates or Enthusiasts as pretending to speak by Rapture and with a Poetick Spirit by which they mixt any Extravagant Fictions of their own furious Brains with whatsoever former Ages had convey'd to them So that to beget the greater Admiration they thought it proper to invent such Stories as should seem most Prodigious Now these Poets being the only Writers in whose Monuments is Register'd whatsoever relates to the Histories of the Gods 't was no wonder that so great a medly of Fictions and Incongruities should cast such a Mist on future Ages as the Wit and Industry of the most Learned Men could never dissipate but by their Comments Conjectures and various Readings they have rather rendred former Traditions more incredible and perplex'd Of all the Heathen Gods Jupiter was esteem'd Supream as being the Father of most of them and the Fountain of that Power and Vertue for which every one of them was worshipped We read also of many Jupiters but of two more Eminent than the rest of which one was born upon the Mountain of Ida in Creete as some or upon the Mountain Dictamnus as others affirm The other Jupiter was born in Arcadia and Educated upon the Mountain Olympus so that the Actions of the one being frequently attributed to the other has been the occasion of great Confusion However he of Creete seems to have been the so much Celebrated and to have appropriated the Atchievments of all the other Jupiters He was said to have been the Son of Saturn and Rhea and to have deliver'd his Father from the Oppressions of the Titans nevertheless Saturn upon the Prediction of the Oracle that he should be depos'd by his Sons thought to have destroy'd them and of this Resolution Jupiter having notice he depos'd his Father which Poets express'd by thrusting him into Hell After this Jupiter and his two Brethren Neptune and Pluto made a Tripartite distribution of the Empire Jupiter as being the strongest chose the Eastern Parts which was called Olympus or Heaven Pluto had the Western which in the Fiction of the Poets regarded the setting Sun or Region of Night and was called Inferi whilst Neptune had the middle or Maritime Parts for his Lot The Power of Jupiter's first Government in suppressing the Petty Tyrants which were also called Giants as also his Justice in the Sanction of wholsom Laws was that which made him to be worshipped for a God in after Ages Notwithstanding being for some time settled in the Throne he indulg'd himself in all Sensual Pleasures and Passions and committed infinite Rapes and Disorders as appears from the Records of the Poets Amongst those who have written of the Heathen Gods some there are who make their History to be symbolical and to represent Nature By Jupiter understanding Aether by Neptune the Element of Water by Vulcan Fire and the Earth by Ops or Cybele though others whilst they make Saturn or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Son of Coelum or Vesta seem to pitch upon the better Original of the Heathen Gods as also of all other Natural Productions whatsoever But waving the Fancies of Poets and Mythologists this is certain that as Men did express their Adoration by some certain Rites and Mysteries of Religion so we still find them Invoking Jupiter as the Author of all their Blessings and as the Supream Protector and Governour of all human Affairs Upon which account it was that the Ammonii a People of Lybia represented Jupiter with Rams Horns on his Head which Fiction of theirs had its Original from the Egyptians of which the Ammonii were a Colony who in their Hiroglyphick Devices made the Ram to be the Symbol of Fecundity and Strength which suited well with the Notions they had of the Strength and Power of Jupiter and of the Benefits and Plenty deriv'd from him But as Men began to be more improv'd by Knowledge and to be more reform'd and polish'd in their Lives in the same measure still we may observe them to have been more and more averse to the Stories and Traditions of their Gods Upon which Account it was that Diagoras and Lucian were branded with the Character of Atheists not because they did disbelieve the Existence of a Deity but because they derided those who were falsly accounted Gods in the Age wherein they liv'd But Socrates being in high Esteem for Wisdom and more Eminent for his Dis-belief of the Heathen Gods was put to Death for his Opinion so that 't is no wonder if Plato and those who follow'd him having such an Example of Athenian Cruelty before their Eyes became more Timorous and Cautious in expressing their own Sentiments for the most part speaking of God under the Name of Jupiter to avoid the Punishments of the Bigotted Magistrate And although Plato in his Books de Legibus which were to be communicated to the Vulgar spake after the Stile which was then in use yet writing to Dionysius he tells him how he should know when he was serious or no For when I Epis 13. am serious says he I always preface my Writings by the Invocation of one God but when otherwise of many He frequently calls God the Father of the Universe the Beginning and End by whom and
for whom all things are made the Supreme Governour of all things which are or shall be and the Idea of all that 's Good As for the Romans they us'd more liberty and boldness than the Greeks in these Discourses so that Tully who was an Academick or one of Plato's School never uses the Name of Jupiter but tells us That God himself cannot otherwise be understood of us but as a certain Spirit free Lib. 1. Tusc Quaest segregated from all mortal Composition such as understands and moves all things being it self also endow'd with an eternal Activity In like manner Seneca one of the greatest Luminaries amongst the Stoicks never talks of Jupiter but uses the word Deus or God always in the singular Number God says he has the Exemplary of all things within himself comprehending in his Seneca Epis 65. Mind both the Number and Measures of whatsoever things are to be done And a little after shewing that God is the Original and Author of all things so the End propos'd by him is nothing but his Goodness and from thence concludes That he hath made every thing the best that might be From which and many the like Passages we are made to understand that the Notions they had of God were true and solid being taken from those Incommunicable Attributes or Properties which are essential to the Divine Nature CHAP. III. Of the Attributes of God NOw the Attributes of God are either absolute or such without which the Divine Nature cannot be apprehended to subsist or Relative and such as regard his Creatures Amongst his absolute Attributes or Properties the first is his Eternity or his being without beginning or end For should he have a beginning then could he not be God but must be inferiour to and after that from whom he had his beginning but this includes a Contradiction therefore the Antecedent also is impossible And as the Nature of God excludes all possibility of having a Superiour from whom it may derive its being so also do's it exclude all possibility of ending For whatsoever should put an end to its being must have greater power and strength than it self and consequently the latter Power must be greater than that of God but this is also impossible In the next place 't is essential to the Divine Nature to be infinite in Perfection For should his Perfection be finite and bounded he might yet be more perfect by having further degrees of Perfection superadded for to whatsoever is finite there may be made Addition Since therefore there can be no Addition made to God's Perfections they must be infinite nothing but what is infinite being uncapable of further addition or access Another Property essential to the Divine Nature is his Immensity or his being of a Nature which cannot be circumscrib'd by any imaginary space how vast soever For should there be any Ambient or Imaginary space surrounding God then would he cease to be most perfect For should he fill all Spaces he would be more powerful and perfect than when he is confin'd to some as we see the Imperial Power is greater than the Regal as extending it self over a wider Circuit Now that any thing should be more perfect than God or that he might be more perfect than he is is utterly inconsistent with the very Nature and Being of God And as he is Immense so must he be Omnipresent since there can be no imaginable space whatsoever assignable which he do's not fill and then if he be Omnipresent he must also be Omniscient there being nothing done or possible to be done in any point of space whatsoever to which he is not present nay he must have a Knowledge or Prescience of all future Actions whatsoever For all future Actions must derive their Being from him first so that God having a fore-knowledge of whatsoever he himself shall hereafter do must have the same fore-knowledge also of whatsoever thing shall require his Concurrence Now that God has a fore-knowledge of whatsoever he himself shall do is evident otherwise something might fall out contingently and unexpected to him which implies Imperfection and Ignorance and so not consistent with the Nature and Essence of God The last Property essential to the Divine Nature is That he must be One For should there be more One could not be of infinite Perfection as wanting the Perfection of the other Nay it could have no Divine Perfection the other having an infinite and consequently all Perfection The Relative Attributes of God being such as regard his Creatures are his Goodness his Justice his Veracity and the like all which being agreed to by all to appertain to the Divine Nature in the highest perfection possible and being ever attributed by the Heathens to their Deities how false soever they were there is no Place left for Reason to prove what by its own clearness is as undemonstrable as any first Principle whatsoever These then are some of the Attributes of the Divine Nature To enumerate all is past the Abilities of any poor mortal and finite Creature for they are indeed above number only such as I have already touch'd upon are sufficient to evince the Truth of his Existence to whom they do belong and of those which may be rank'd under this Head the first and principal which does occur to our Consideration is that Noble Attribute of Gods being the Creator of all things CHAP. IV. Of Gods Creative Power AS for those who held the Eternity of the World or of matter we may observe of Aristotle that in the Course of his Reasonings how much soever he did comply with the Customs of the times he liv'd in and with his own private Passions he was forc'd to resolve the Operations of Nature into a first Mover And in his Book De Mundo written in his riper Age and dedicated to Alexander he tells us That the World and Order of the Universe was conserv'd by God and that there was nothing in the World of which he stood in need that he was the Father of the Gods as well as of Men and the Producer as well as the Preserver of all those things of which the World was made not by way of commixture with them but that this Power and Providence of his residing in the Heavens extended it self to all things and mov'd the Heavens with the Sun and Moon ballancing and sustaining the Earth and providing that every thing should act according to its Nature In like manner Epicurus his Opinion was as unstable and fluctuating as his Atoms For even Lucretius his best Commentator was forc'd to acknowledge that the World had a beginning for had it been Eternal we must needs have met with Monuments of greater Antiquity than the Siege of Troy or the Theban War Now let us see whether what these Men granted of an Eternal Infinite and Invisible Framer of the Universe be consistent with that Eternity of matter of which they dreamt 't was made Had there been