thing as those people did fancy and besides that it is unimaginable that in so minute bodies such as those are there should be found various and infinite qualities which we deprehend in the bodies composed of them or if they be without any quality that out of their concourse there should spring forth so many and so various qualities there is yet this very palpable absurdity which is that out of so fortuitous and casuall concourse which is not directed by any Superiour intellect there should be produced a work so admirable as the world is all the parts of which are conformed with such a Harmony and Symmetry that it confounds the thoughts of those who do sedulously consider it and so constant a duration of this order in the perpetuall succession of bodies which we see are formed by nature and again that if by this fortuitous concourse the world hath been so made by the same motion of those Atoms it may likewise be dissolved and so we must imagine in an Eternity an infinite number of worlds made and again dissolved successively one after another by the motion and fortuitous concourse of Atoms and by this is destroyed the pretended Eternity of this world for the defending of which the Atheists do so much trouble themselves CHAP. IIII. A third Argument Drawn from the Difference which is between Vice and Vertue AS in the works of Nature there is that Symmetry and wonderfull disposition so well managed so constant and regular of which hath been spoken in the precedent chapter that it doth clearely evidence to us an admirable and infinite wisdom which is the Author of it so also in humane things even in the actions of men and in the products and emergencies of their intellects and wills we may plainly see an Order and Symmetry so wonderfull that it cannot be conceived to be a product of fate from which nothing but confusion doth proceed This Principally doth appeare in the wisdom and subtlety of a mans Spirit and in the effects of these faculties of his Soule or in the rectitude of his actions flowing from the practicall part of his soul which is called Morall vertue both of which do point at something of Divine in Man and which cannot have its birth from a fortuitous and blinder cause that is supposed to act without Knowledge and from this also is drawn another Argument against Atheisme of which we will treat in its place To this Virtue and Morall good Evill Sin and Vices are opposed which opposition doth not wholy depend on mans Free Will for things of this Nature easily do change and vary but this difference of Good and Evill Vice and Virtue is fixed and altogether immutable and is so deeply tooted in the heart of man who doth naturally know it that all the men in the World cannot alter it and it will be knowne by them even in despight of themselves for the most barbarous and desperate although they be Virtues grand Adversaries cannot but often admire its Excellency and highly value it where shee is found and although they many times know not the Vice which resides in their hearts and the evill Actions which they blinded by their Passions do commit yet they will with facility deprehend it in others and detest and condemn it if especially it turns against their interest and to their prejudice And as all acknowledge the Beauty and Excellency of Virtue and the deformity of its contrary Vice so all agree in this that the former calls for the Love Praise and Commendation of men Contrarily that the latter is worthy of the bitterest hatred and of all mens detestations and ought to draw after it selfe severe punishments as its due from thence we draw another Argument against Atheisme This difference of Good and Evill is not a meer Fancy and Opinion but Essentially reall as in naturall things Black and White Light and Darknesse Neither doth it proceed from any custome that by degrees hath gained upon mens minds for that which comes by custome doth grow by little and little and is weaker in the bud then afterwards may be altered easily and insensibly turnes to nothing which is not seen in the difference of Good and Evill which hath alwaies beene deepely rooted in all mens Hearts at all times and more strong perswasions were there of it in the Beginning then now in this age where the Corruption of men is stronger then ever And this cannot be abolished by any contrary Custome for it alwaies remaines the same in it selfe The Lawes of Magistrates or the Morall Precepts of Philosophers have not given to Virtue its Being they have only apprehended it in the Actions and Deportments of men and according to their apprehensions they have framed their Precepts and Lawes to rule the lives of men and to hinder them from Vice its contrary As we may say of Aristotle That he hath not meerly invented out of his owne Brain the Rules and Precepts of Argumentation but only hath framed them upon the Remarks which he hath made of all mens Discourses and Arguments And upon these Remarkes hath compiled his Organon where the Rules of Argumentation are layd which are neither mutable or arbitrary but certain and unchangeable effected upon the right and Naturall Reason common to all men This Virtue hath its Rise and Foundation in Mans Nature as he is Rationall and endowed with that Will and Understanding which ought to have the Supremacy over the Affections and to hold them in their Right Compasse and this doth consist in the Symmetry and proportion which is in the Rationall Souls Faculties from this doth spring forth the Beauty and Excellency of virtue which doth compel the most barbarous to admire it as in Bodies Works either artificiall or naturall their Beauty proceeds from the due Position of all their parts for the one is no more Arbitrary or Imaginary then the other but both are True and Reall that of Virtue being so much the more glorious as the spirituall exceed the Corporeall in worth and dignity This Virtue as we have described it cannot proceed from a blind fate or fortuitous cause which can produce nothing well regulated but ought to have a most certain constant and invariable Cause which hath in it selfe all manner of virtues in the highest Degree which is the most perfect pattern and the exactest modell of all humane Virtues and which is the Author and efficient cause of it in man seeing it cannot come from any other principle which if it were supposed would be much lesser then its Effect for there is nothing in all that man can imagine in Nature more divine and excellent then Virtue by which man is not only infinitely more excellent then beasts but is in some manner deified and in some respects surpasses himselfe And here we need not to constitute two Principles with the Manichees the one of all good the other of all evill one only being sufficient for as the streight line
he is Infinitely-wise will not do that which implies a Contradiction And it doth not in any wayes avail to object That his Son was generated from everlasting For the Son of God is a true God of the same Essence and Nature with his Father Coeternal and Infinite as God is in whom there is no prius posterius but the World is finite and cannot be otherwise then finite because it is corporeal and cannot be absolutely eternal And if it is asked Why the World hath been Created but five or six thousand years ago I answer that it is Because God would have it so who knows by his Wisdome the Reasons of it which it doth not belong to us to seek after neither ought we to fathom this Abyss And although it had been Created fifty thousand yea five hundred thousand millions of years before yet hath it had a Beginning And if this were granted yet it can no ways further the cause of the Atheists who would have the World to be without a Beginning and who prevail not unless the World is really existent from all Eternity And we may not question whence proceeded this will in God to Create the World for it is not any will which he had in any time He hath willed and decreed from all Eternity to Create the World then and in that moment of time that we may so say which seemed good unto him and when that time is come he hath executed this his will When I say In that point and moment of time which pleased him that must be understood in regard of the Eternity which hath preceded the VVorld for in Eternity there is not to speak properly any points or moments of Time there being in it no prius posterius But this ought to be understood in respect of the Existency of the VVorld which ought necessarily to have had a Beginning since it cannot be from all Eternity as it hath been demonstrated And it is to no purpose to Object That if this was so then there would be some change in God who should have at that time and no sooner Created the VVorld For the VVorld is not in God but out of him and is not an Extract or Product of his Essence but of Nothing and so the change is not in God but out of God because the VVorld which was not before hath began to exist in a certain Time which time as I have said we ought to consider in the existency of the VVorld and hath begun with it for in Eternity there is no Time properly so called And so much for the first Argument For the Second We have heretofore shewed That these pretended disorders exorbitancies which are seen in Nature and in Humane actions and events do in no wise favour the cause of the Atheists yea we have from this drawn an Argument against them because we must acknowledge in this not a blind Fate and Fortune but a wise and superiour Cause which doth regulate these disorders and limits them otherwise all things would return in an horrible and monstrous confusion And although we cannot always perceive the reason of this disorder so wonderfully guided we may not therefore conclude That it is not guided A common Souldier doth not alway understand the reason of his Generals Orders and Commands which yet if he should be so bold as to censure or to accuse his General of insufficiency he should render himself criminal and would betray his ignorance such are these people who do censure the works of God and do attribute them to a blind Fate because they cannot see into the counsels of him who hath so determined of these things The Prosperity of the VVicked and the Afflictions of the Righteous and Good men was not an Argument even to the Heathen themselves That all things were guided by a blind Fate and hazard they themselves in this have acknowledged and demonstrated That there is a Providence which doth so dispose of these things And God in his word doth yet more clearly evidently and distinctly then they give us the Reasons of his Justice Wisdom and Bounty in this his conduct against which all the Reasonings of the Atheists break themselves as a Wave against a Rock and therefore there is no need to enlarge upon this subject since the best Philosophy the evidences of Revelation teach us in this point that from this conduct we ought rather to conclude That there is another life after this then to deny the Providence and Deity So now we come to the Third Argument It is certain that the absurd and extravagant Opinions of the Heathen concerning the Multitude and Diversity of their false Gods the Service they did to them the Fabulous Stories which they made of them and upon which all their Religion was grounded have given to Epicurus and some others with him matter enough of laughter and to jear their Impertinencies to deride their vain Superstitions and despise all their Religion Yea it hath been a stumbling-block to them and hath given them occasion to become Atheists being destitute of the Divine Revelation which affords to us the right knowledge which we ought to have of the Deity In which they are not therefore excusable seeing that they could by the use of right Reason as well as other Philosophers wiser then themselves acknowledge and confess one onely God and that the Cult which is due to him ought to have been somewhat else then the Heathenish Superstitions And we do not deny but that in other false Religions yea even in the Sects and Heresies which are among Christians there are very extravagant and absurd and wild Opinions and Practises in the matter of Religion and it may be that these extravagancies wild practises and opinions in these last days of the Christian Church have given an occasion to Atheism to diffuse it self and to multiply amongst Christians And such absurdities do serve to foment and encrease it as the Authour of the Relation of the Religion of the Western World hath very well and judiciously remarked speaking of the common and ordinary Profaness of the Italians But to this objection I answer two things First That true Christianity hath no such Extravagancies as can startle those who make a right use of their Reason Secondly That Atheism is incomparably more irrational and more to be detested then any of those Extravagancies which they with Reason do reject There is nothing in the true and pure Christian Religion which the word of God onely hath taught us which can or ought to offend any person of good sense and judgement Onely the Mystery of the Trinity and that of the Incarnation is indeed above our apprehension and carnal sense which cannot comprehend the Quomodo of it but yet as both these are simply proposed and laid open to us and as we may gather them from the Revelation which God hath made to us of them in his word they are such as that they are
Impression Thirdly To shew the mistake of those who think that setting aside the Revelation of the word of God those persons viz. The Atheists are not void of Reason and speak not without some warrant For it is here shewed that they oppose Reason and bely it in divers manners Finally This is to beat down in some manner the vain-glory and the profane mockings of those persons who laugh at the simplicity as they think of the World which is of so light a belief as they call it as to give credit to those Writings which are called the Bible without any more warrant of their Belief then the common Report or an hear-say or else the Testimony of some men that take upon them the Authority to give to these Sacred Writings the Credit which it hath amongst us and yet cannot in any other ways shew upon what their Testimony is grounded and thereby do weaken the Faith of those who are taught to attribute more then meer Reason to the Testimony of these Books and Sacred Writers For here it is shewed against the Atheists that they make themselves absurd and ridiculous in doubting without any appearance of Reason of the Authority of these Sacred Books It is now three years ago since this Treatise was dictated to some young Divines in this place without any other Design then their own satisfaction and this was also done at their Request and to be to them as a Basis and Foundation of their Faith and Religion For it is that by which we must begin That there is a God which many do not know but because they have heard other say so without having pondered and examined upon what ground this Common belief is seated But since that time after this small piece had been viewed and approved by able Masters to whose Judgement I as it is my duty do submit I by their perswasions have thought that this being made publick cannot do any harm to any and may profit some And this the rather that I might evidence that we ought to serve God to the utmost of our abilities in maintaining his cause against his most furious Adversaries and that those of our Coat and Profession are not such as some would willingly make the world believe them to be viz. Enemies of God and of his Truth since we do as much as in us lies establish the grounds of it clean contrary to those of their Profession who feigning to lay this Foundation firm do in effect overthrow it setting it upon rotten Pillars and by a secret intelligence with those enemies against which they seem to fight do betray abandon that Truth whereof they would have men believe them to be the Assertours If by the reading of this small Treatise which cannot much divert the Readers from their other employments any find themselves edified and strengthened in the faith and belief of this so important Article which is the Ground of Religion I shall have attained my end and will believe that my Meditation on this point hath not been vain And to God who directs by his Wisdom the thoughts of men to his own Glory and for his own Work be ascribed all Honour Praise and Glory for ever Amen ATHEISME CONVICTED AND PROFANENESSE CONFUTED By the Light of Right Reason and by the Testimony of GOD and MEN. CHAP. I. The reach of Atheisme its first spring divers Branches of this Notorious Infidelity IT is a strange and wonderfull thing that seeing the Knowledge of divine and Celestial matters is far greater and clearer in most of men that are upon the face of the Earth then ever it was we see nevertheless more Atheists and profane persons then ever were even among the Heathen which do appeare by the stupendous wickednesse and abominable Corruption of good manners which is at this day so common among Christians being most true which the Apostle saith That many do acknowledge God with their Lips but by their works do deny him The spring of this Evill is the unlimited Love of the Wealth Pleasures Commodities honours dignities of this present World For men being hurried by their Passions towards these things and neverthelesse having a naturall Resentment of a Deity and some Knowledge of the Difference between Good and Evill Vice and Vertue and of the Punishments and Rewards which they do justly deserve which is to them as most bitter Gall and Wormwood and doth deprive them of the pleasure and content which they do take in glutting themselves with these false and deceiving Goods do endeavour to quench in themselves this strong perswasion they have of a Deity or at the least do frame false Opinions of him and of his Nature that they may go on with more loosenesse lesse Remorse and more pleasure in the Execution of their evill desires and to fortifie themselves in this Opinion they do seek and gather all the Reasons and Arguments which the subtillnesse of their Wits and Parts can furnish them withall Now there are two sorts of Atheists the first are formally and openly so The second are close and reserved Again of these first there are two kinds The first of which acknowledge and professe that there is no God and even do upon all occasions endeavour to make others beleeve the same the other sort is of those which perswade themselves that there is no God and notwithstanding dare not vent that Opinion openly either for fear of the Justice of men which doth most justly chastice and punish this horrible Impiety or for shame of the World which doth abhor and detest such Monsters as these Now they whose profaneness is not so open do indeed acknowledge a Deity but they have erroneous Opinions of it which cannot consist with the Reality of its Nature The God of such persons is nothing else but an Idoll a False God and only a Phantasme of the Deity now he that hath but this is not far from Atheisme Of all these Opinions some are more gross and less agreeing with the Nature of the Deity the other are more subtill and harder to be apprehended which nevertheless do oppugne its Nature and cannot really agree with the true Deity Of the former is the Tenet of Epicurus who did acknowledge a Deity but such a one as had nothing to do with the World and had neither made it nor did governe it and was without any care what was done in it Next to this was the Opinion of the Peripateticks who did hold that there was a first matter but to whom they did attribute only the moving of the Primum mobile and a generall and undeterminated Action without any Cognizance or Government of particular things who was neither the efficient cause of this world which they did assert had beene from all Eternity without any Beginning The same also was the Opinion of the Heathen who did believe a Plurality of Gods either Independent one upon another or generated and procreated the one by the other to which also
these Verses Parcus deorum cultor infrequens Jusanientis dum sapientiae Consultus erre CHAP. VIII The sixth Argument Drawn from the Immortality of the soule THose that do deny a Deity do also consequently deny that there is another life after this and that mans soule is immortall and will acknowledge neither Paradise nor Hell nor Angells nor Devills and these things indeed are so firmely conjoyned together that whosoever denyeth or affirmeth one of them ought also to affirm or deny the rest So that the Sadduces among the Jewes who denyed that there was either Angell Spirit or Resurrection were in effect right Epicures and Atheists like those of these times who for the feare of the Lawes and shame of the World not daring openly to say what they think make an outward Profession of the Religion which is Publiquely received in the Land or State of which they are members though they really believe nothing of it but laugh and gibe at it secretly and hold it to be a meere tale The Reason of this impiety and Prophanesse is that which we have noted in the beginning viz. That these persons are wholy sensuall and carnall bewitched with the pleasures and sweets of this World in which they constitute their supream good happinesse which is that that makes them to hold for Fables all that is said of another Life after this and the Happinesse and Misery which attends men there They hold also that the Soule dyeth and perisheth with the Body neither will they acknowledge that there are any Angells or Devills that so they may not be forced to confesse that the Soule is immortall and that there is an Eternall punishment of the wicked after this Life and by this means they do deny also the Deity and his Providence For they plainly perceive that if there is a God he is a just Judge and a Revenger of the sins and iniquities of men and that the God of Epicurus is in effect nothing but an Idoll and a vain imagination From the Deity they cannot expect or promise to themselves any favour since that they do not love and cherish Virtue but only desire to satisfie their evill Concupiscences in which they think the Summum bonum is contained which is that that makes them to deny the Deity the Immortality of the Soule and another Life where there is a Hell and a Paradise their Conscience telling them that they cannot have a part in the Paradise and that Hell if there is any is for them and their like On the other side if the Soule is immortall there is another Life and in it a place of pleasure or sorrow for man there are also Angels Copartners of this Joy and Devills the Executioners of these Supplices and above all a God who doth justly reward the one and punish the other For if the Soule is immortall being as it is naturally very active it cannot be alwaies without any sentiment and remain so forever for that would be little lesse then death it must needs then follow that it participates of some joy and content or that it is tormented and hath an infinite share of sorrow and that for the Reward of that good or evill vice or virtue to which it hath been addicted in this Life for we have shewed heretofore that Virtue is worthy of Commendation and Reward and Vice of shame and of sorrow Which not being sufficiently according to their merits rewarded in this Life it must needs be rewarded in the other otherwise both vice virtue should be deprived of their due which is against Nature and Right Reason And this is to grant a Paradise and a Hell And if the Soule is immortall there is no reason to deny that there are Angells and Devills since either of them are immateriall spirituall and incorporeall substances And indeed nothing makes these men to deny that there are Angells and Devills but that if they grant this they must also confesse that the soule is immortall and so that there is a Heaven and a Hell which is that which they so much feare and tremble at Now it may be proved both by testimony and by reason that the soule is immortall by the Testimony I say of all men that are or have ever been upon the face of the Earth for if the records of Antiquity be looked into and History both Ancient and Modern be read it will be found that there never was yet neither at this day is there any People or Nation whether civiliz'd or not which doth not acknowledge that the soule of man doth subsist and lives after the death of the body but of the strength of this proofe we will speak hereafter as for the arguments that prove the immortality of the Soule they cannot be a priori for there is none but God that is the cause of it whose existency we are now about to demonstrate These arguments then must be taken a posteriori and we must prove this immortality by the effects of the Soule and indeed they are such effects so great and admirable as cannot proceed from a mortall and materiall cause Now its effects and operations are either internall in the soule it selfe and those either in the Intellect as Knowledge or in the Will as the Virtues or externall as the Speech and the motions of the body and the parts of it whence doe proceed the wonderfull and stupendious works of liberall and mechanicall arts In all the things that are seen in this great World there are severall degrees of the excellency of things the one being above the other by which as by so many Ladders we ascend at last to the knowledge of immateriall and eternall things the lower degree of these is of insensible things that have neither Life nor Motion as Stones Metalls c. The second is of those that have some life by which they grow and are nourished c. The third is of those that besides this kind of life have a sensitive facultie and locall motion by which they are carried from one place to another as all the Animalls Amongst which there are severall degrees of perfection For there are some of them that have only the sense of feeling as Oysters some besides the sense of feeling have the sense of tasting also as Bees and many other Insects Others again have the senses of smelling and hearing as the Moles or Wants And finally these are the most perfect Animalls which have the five externall senses and among these there are some that excell in one sence some in another as the Eagles which have a very quick and sharp sight and the Vultures Wolves and Dogs have a very exqisite faculty of smelling These Senses do receive in them the Spcies and Ideas of the materiall qualities that are inherent in their Subjects from these senses they are afterwards conveyed to the Imagination or common sence which receiveth them and from which doth straightwaies proceed the knowledge of the things
themselves By this Knowledge they are induced to hate or fly from to love or pursue after these very things and to move towards or remove from them But all this Knowledge which consisteth and is seated in the Imagination is only of singular and individuall things and they are also materiall because the qualities which are the Objects of the senses are all materiall and have quantity for their Subject and foundation Above all this is man endowed with Reason of which all other Animalls are deprived and by which he doeth things much more wonderfull then they altogether can For by it he knowes not only singular individuall and immateriall things but also those that are universall And by it he discourses makes Arguments drawes and deduces one thing from another doth dive into the Nature of things and seekes after their Causes from whence the Sciences are raised and the knowledge of Philosophy and of all its parts is attained to to which we can find nothing like among the other Animalls By this same Reason he abstracts quantity from matter by a mentall abstraction be it either Quantit as Concreta or Discreta as they terme it Viz. Numbers Superficies Geometricall Bodies and doth consider their sever all kinds figures qualities properties proportions analogicall c. from whence do proceed the Mathematicall sciences so wonderfull in all their kinds whether they be simple and absolute as Arithmetick and Geometry or compound as Astronomy Opticks Musick c. from the knowledge of which proceed so wonderfull effects that they even ravish out of themselves the very Artists in those Sciences By this same Reason man doth consider the time and place and all things that are done in them and not only those that are present or that are done or happen before his eyes but also those things that are past which he doth keep in his Memory keeps a Register of them often judges of those things that are to come which he doth often fore-see by a Morall conjecture he knowes also the place not only of his Birth and where he dwelleth viz. his house and that which is round about it but also all the Country round about even of all the world so great as it is for he conceiveth it in his mind and gets a certain true Idea of it and by the means of all these things he acquireth so exquisite a wisdome and prudence that he is known to be admirable not only in the administration of his houshold affairs but also of those of entire Corporations Commonalties Cities States Common-wealths Kingdomes and Monarchies to which there is nothing like in any other of the Animalls By this same Reason man comprehendeth that which is infinite conceiving in his mind that which hath no limits either in respect of quantity time or place for he apprehendeth that there is not so great a number but may be made greater and that to the infinite And that there is neither line superficies body or place so great but that it may be extended further and that infinitely And that there is neither time nor duration of great length but that it may be conceived infinite either in regard of that which was before or which is to follow after And so in some sort he comprehends Eternity and Immensity which could not be unlesse his Soule was in some Respect infinite at least in respect of its duration that is to say unlesse it was indeed mortall and immateriall Finally By this same Reason man conceiveth and comprehendeth the things immateriall as Spirits and Intelligences and even the Deity it selfe and doth consider their Properties qualities virtues aftections and actions and reflecting upon its own self and by her proper actions and operations she knowes and judges that she is and ought to be Immortall Immateriall and spirituall which could not be effected by her unlesse that in deed she was such By this Reason man is capable of Virtue which is its owne effect produced in its Will by which Virtue man doth chiefly appear to be more excellent then Brutes and comes nearer to the Deity of which Virtue is a lively Image Virtue which is praised and commended by men and by the Deity it selfe to which is most justly due that Recompense and Reward which is but seldome paid to her in this Life For who knows not that the most honest and virtuous men are often despised and of no Esteem and commonly hated persecuted and tormented by the rest of men Which is the cause that many Heathen of old perceiving how unjustly and ill Virtue was entreated and not being able to comprehend how a wise and just Providence could or should suffer this have rather denyed the Providence and committed the managing of humane affairs to chance and fortune then to tax the Deity of this Errour which they thought could not be avoided if this Providence had any thing to do in this World Whereas they should have rather acknowledged the Immortality of the Soule and that there is another Life then this in which man is to receive that just Recompense due to his works which is more conformable to Reason then to deny the Providence and Deity This Virtue then which is so excellent and which doth in some sort Deifie men and is by all acknowledged to be such cannot be an effect or production of a grosse and corruptible matter but rather of a spirituall and immortall Essence As to the Effects of reason which shew themselves externally and out the Soule there is first the Speech by which man expresseth his Conceptions Passions and Affections and makes it selfe to be understood by others which speech is a proper and incommunicable Effect And this faculty is found to be in no other then in man so that the Jewish Philosophers have alwaies defined a Rationall Animall to be a Speaking Animall for though some Birds may be taught to speak their Speech is nothing but a brutish imitation void and destitute of all Reason and which is in no waies guided by it and though some Animalls have a voice by which they expresse their desire and internall motions that comes nothing near the speech of man by which he expresseth so distinctly and in every particular all his Conceptions therefore the voice of Brutes is an effect proceeding from a much inferiour Cause and altogether of another Nature then that from which proceeds the speech of man The motions of mans body and of all its parts which proceed from the Will and are guided by Reason are such so various and wonderfull in respect of those of Beasts that they give a plain evidence that the Body of man so artificially made and fitted to so many motions is the dwelling of a more excellent Guest then that which carryes and moves the body of Beasts for these admirable works and effects of both Liberall and Mechanicall Arts being seriously considered do argue a cause altogether spirituall and divine and are not the Effects of
it they be such as have overwhelmed and drowned their reason in carnall delights and pleasures and who are like a Malefactor who makes himselfe drunk in the prison whilest the Sentence is pronouncing against him But all their reason and subtileness will never perswade it to those that are perplexed and tormented within themselves by the guilt of their crimes and they themselves very often are not free from the scourges of these Furies which in spite of them do sometimes give them terrible checks which is an invincible argument of this great truth naturally imprinted in the hearts of men that there is a just Judge and a severe Revenger of their sins which he never leaves unpunished It is also a poor evasion to say that such are not bred in the Schole of Epicurus whose followers and disciples laugh at these phantasmes and Chimeras For first experience sheweth that they themselves are not exempted from these terrours of conscience and I think they will grant Caligula and such like Monsters were of their tribe who yet have felt these compunctions and terrors Secondly every one through the corruption of his Nature and his strong inclinations to evill is to himselfe a Master of Epicurism and a professor of Atheism and would if he could perswade this to himselfe that so he might with more freedom let the reins loose to all his passions And though it may be those that have these alarums and terrours are not open and professed Atheists yet they are so in their will and desires and nevertheless they cannot do so much as to free themselves from these fears and to loose the opinion they have of a Deity and of a Providence which will avenge it self of their crimes which doubtlesse they could easily do since they defire and endeavour after it if this opinion was false and vaine and did proceed from nothing but from a vaine institution or the phansy of some that should at first have taught it And it is much to be wondered at if the opinion of the Atheists be true how those that have rid Common wealths of Tyrants and oppressors have been commended by all have had their Statues erected and Panegyricks have been composed to praise them and extoll them unto Heaven whereas if Epicurus in Athens or Lucretius in Rome had ascended the Theatre to perswade men to their opinion and to free them from these Tyrannicall insulting and by them pretended Panicall terrors of Conscience which do perplex and torment the soules of men instead of being applauded they had been stoned and branded with the execrations and curse of every one And although all those that are laden with vices and enormous crimes are not vexed or tormented by these Furies yet this is not an argument to evince that therefore these terrours are vaine no more then because all here below do not receive the just punishment due to their crimes is an argument that there is no Providence that taketh notice of them but is rather a clear evidence of the sottishness and brutishness of men which drown their reason in the torrent of their vices and the remorses and worme of conscience in the rest are sure proofes and effects of the Deity which never leaves it self without a witness in man whose conscience is his own accuser witness judge and executioner altogether If man knowes and is certain of the evill that he doth and if his conscience accuses and affrights him he knowes also and is very certain of the good he doth and that knowledge that he hath of his innocency and good life doth cause in him a great rest and quietness and a wonderfull tranquillity of minde which he values and esteemes more and which makes him more happy and content then wicked men are with the enjoyment of all their goods honors pleasures and riches And of this felicity and content which honest men do partake of more then the wicked men the writings of heathen Philosophers themselves are full without excepting even Epicurus who hath been forced to acknowledge this truth which is a strong argument that vertue hath a more reall and nobler recompense in it selfe then that happiness which is pretended to consist in the goods honours pleasures of this life and that it carries along with it selfe its own reward and expects another somewhere else then in this life and that cannot be altogether the praise and esteem of men and the posterities romembrance of their good works because most commonly vertue and vertuous men are deprived of this which shewes unto us its excellency above vice and an infinite distance between her and evill Moreover when men are wrongfully and unjustly blamed their goods life and laudable actions calumniated and their persons abused and diffamed they justifie and defend themselves as much as they can and passionately and vehemently endeavour to prove their innocency and this very thing do the Atheists against whom we dispute if they are at any time calumniated or blamed without a cause Why this I pray unlesse there was a vast difference between good and evill vice and vertue unlesse the one was worthy of praise the other of disgraces the one of punishment the other of reward I say what need they care to be praised or vilified if these praises or disgraces are in effect but imaginary things without any reall ground and if all this doth confist but meerly in fancy and opinion These pretended strong wits should laugh at all the ill opinion that men can have of them for their crimes and should not put themselves to the trouble of making any Apologies then when they are wrongfully accused for why should one trouble himself for a false imagination that hath no real and solid foundation And this is an Argument to prove that those men maugre themselves are forced to acknowledge even against their own Maxims what a vast difference there is between good and evill vice and virtue the recompense due to the one and the punishments which the other doth deserve Again experience teacheth us that when men are violently and unjustly oppressed without any means or hopes to revenge themselves they have recourse to the Deity from whose Justice they expect and promise to themselves the revenge of that wrong which is done to them Which Tertullian doth remark very well in his Apologetick against the Heathen and saith that if any one of them was oppressed he did cry out Deus videt Deus reddet God sees and God will render it and that in saying so he did not look towards the Capitoll where was the Temple of Jupiter but toward Gods Throne and he adds that it is an evidence of a Soul really Christian For this motion doth not proceed from a preconceived opinion of a Deity which hath been imprinted in a mans soul by education but which proceeds from his conscience and from the bottom of his heart and from the judgement of his best and purest reason which dictates and suggests to him
themselves that their Charms are the cause of them Add to this that these stormes and Tempests are most commonly so terrible and furious and the Effects of them so strange and wonderfull that it plainly appears that these things do not proceed meerly from Natural Causes but that there is with them something supernatural which gives them their so strange vigour and motion And as to those harms which these persons confesse themselves to be guilty of Albeit their Inchantments had not that power as to cause them it cannot therefore follow that they are not guilty because they will and intend to do it and to this purpose they make Compact with the Devill to help them This evill purpose joyned with this Compact renders them wholly inexcusable Even as he is not to be pardoned who not thinking himselfe able to kill his Enemy doth implore the help of another to effect it These Sorceries therefore being the signes of the Compact they have made with the Devil and sufficient proofs of their ill Will and of the endeavours to bring it to passe do render them wholly guilty and the lesse strength and Physicall Virtue their Sortileges have the more clearly it s seene that there is some supernaturall Cause that produces these Effects which Cause can be none other but the Devill with whom they have made an agreement to do it And if there is some Physical Virtue in any of those things that they use to cause strange diseases and those Plagues which they afflict men withall they must needs have been taught to use them by the Devil they not being able to know these Virtues by any Study or Experience or the power of any thing they use in their Sorceries being that they be all or most of them rude illiterate ignorant and stupid persons But besides this we must necessarily grant that Sathan hath a great power over the ' Diviners and Magicians who do prophesie and reveal things to come and things occult which they cannot do by any art and which cannot be known to them but by the help of the Devils The like doth appear in those monstrous and strange things which those that make their addresses to these Magicians do see feel and hear For these things cannot be by any art effected but proceed meerly from the power and efficacy of the Daemons As to the extasies of Witches during which they really think themselves to be carried to their Sabbaths or meetings and there to see feel and do many strange and monstrous things although their transport was not real and corporeal but only an imagined one to which many Relations of the Reality of them and which also are verified are directly contrary they nevertheless are highly guilty because such Extasies and all those things they think they do and see at that time proceeding from the Devil with whom they have made a Contract cannot have their Rise from any Physical and ordinary cause since that Natural Causes do not operate at mans will and pleasure For those Extasies come to them when they lift and do not at all happen unless they have a minde to it Finally there are some who pretend that whatsoever wonders are spoken of Witches Diviners Magicians and possessed persons do or may proceed from Natural Causes And there are subtile men and great Philosophers which have employed all their parts and abilities to demonstrate this and to this end do instance in several wonderfull effects which proceed meerly from Physical Causes It is very true that in Natural bodies there are wonderfull qualities and proprieties both manifest and occult which produce Effects to the amazement of those that are ignorant of their Causes And those that have diligently enquired into the secrets of Nature have written something of Natural Magick where they muster many examples of such strange effects and proprieties but all that they have writ comes nothing near to that which the Witches Magicians and Diviners do bring to pass and in this we must acknowledge that those people have another guess Master then these viz The Devil himselfe For such people being all or most of them Rude Illiterate and unexperienced men cannot have learned of themselves to do these wonderfull things by any acquired Knowledge of the Virtues and Proprieties of Natural things of which they cannot discourse nor render any pertinent Reason Which doth evidently shew that what they do is not by any profound Knowledge that they have of the occult virtues of Naturall things but that all these things proceed from the ministry and help of the Devill who doth not teach them these Virtues of Natural things neither but only imploy them as persons with whom he hath made a Contract to the end they may practise such wicked things the causes of which they knew not at all All Natural Bodies are so composed that they have qualities and proprieties by vvhich they do act one on the other or do mutually suffer some alterations the one by the other whence the naturall Sympathies and Antipathies do arise From these virtues and proprieties proceed all the alterations and changes transmutations and effects which are seen in nature And if one could exactly know all these virtues and qualities and should apply them exactly agentia patientibus he would doubtless produce very strange Effects and wonderfull to those that should be ignorant of their Causes All which the Devils knowing exactly and being able to do these things they I say having an almost-perfect knowledge of Nature and of the Qualities Vertues Proprieties of natural things and applying them fitly by their activity and motion which is not at all perceptible to us it is no wonder if they do by the hands of Witches Diviners and Magicians so many strange things which make men to wonder at them even to an amazement It is commonly held and it may be not without reason That all the operation of Daemons doth consist in their local motion By which First they are carried from place to place though never so farr distant almost in a moment or imperceptible space of time Secondly they move and transport Physical bodies though never so great or heavy with an incredible strength Thirdly They mix and compound diverse bodies together by their strength and power Fourthly they mix and as it were incorporate themselves in those bodies and thereby make them to act as they please Fifthly they stupisie diminish strengthen augment and animate the virtues and proprieties of all things For they knowing all the virtues and Proprieties of all bodies being able through their activity and local motion to apply quodlibet agens cuilibet patienti they easily do all those things which are reported of the Diviners Wizards and Magicians And in this sense we may say that all these things are done by Natural Causes because as it hath been said before they are done by the application of Natural Causes but this application of Causes Natural is not nor cannot be done
by the Magicians and Diviners without the help of Devils First because the said persons being commonly rude illiterate and ignorant men they cannot have any knowledge of these Natural things and Secondly though they had an hundred times more knowledge and experience then indeed they have yet it should not be sufficient to produce those Effects And again had they such a knowledge yet could not they apply agentia patientibus with that promptness and ability which is requisite in the production of those Effects So that we may conclude that it is necessary that the Daemons should have some influence in the production of these Effects For example By what Natural Cause can a Diviner know those things which are hidden and the which he reveales and which have been done in a time and place utterly unknown to any but the Authours of those actions as the revealing of Murthers Poysonings Adulteries Rapes Thefts c and by what natural cause could the two horsemen in the shape of Castor and Pollux bring tidings to the Romans in their publique place of the Victory their Consul had gained in Macedonia but a few hours before And by what natural means can a foot-man go in few hours four or five hundred miles which the best Posts can scarce do in many dayes and a thousand like wonderfull effects So then it appears from that we have shown that they are Witches and Magicians which do these things that they are Devils which are the true causes of these effects and whose Instruments the Witches are Now if there are evil spirits there is no reason to deny that there are good ones too For good doth precede the evil evil being nothing but the corruption of goodnesse Whence it necessarily followes that these evil spirits were good at first but that they have corrupted themselves afterwards And if there are good and evil Angels we must conclude that there is a Deity above them from which they have had their being and which doth conduct the one and restrain the other For were it not so that incessant jarring and contrariety which would be among them would necessarily cause the ruine and subversion of all the World and of all the bodies over which they have so much power Again what reason is there to deny there is a Deity if it is once granted that there are good and bad Angels which are spiritual immaterial invisible immortal powerfull and intelligent substances For above these there is nought but the Deity of whose Nature they do very much participate and which doth excell them only in that it is Infinite Immense and Eternal Again if there are evil Spirits or Devils there is an Hell where they are placed which is their prison and the prison of those wicked and abominable ones which do follow and imitate them in their wickedness And if there are good Angels there is a Paradise for their Mansion and for the dwelling of those good and virtuous persons which are like unto them and above all a God a righteous Judg which avengeth the one and rewardeth the other CHAP. XII The ninth Argument drawn from the Universal Consent of the World That there is a Deity THe second kind of Reasoning against the Atheists is from Authority or Record which is two-fold Divine or Humane I call that Divine Testimony which is drawn from the holy Writ I call that Humane but yet unquestionable Testimony the Consent of all the men in the world all of which do naturally acknowledge that there is a Deity and Providence And here we must take notice First that the most ancient Philosophers and the most eminent and illustrious persons in Learning and Virtue of whom any mention is made in History have acknowledged a Divine Providence which seeth knoweth and rules all things rewards the one and punisheth the other Secondly all the People and Nations of the Earth which are or ever have been have acknowledged this same truth Which is evident because there was never any that hath not professed some Religion or instead of it an open and manifest communion and a familiar conversation with evill spirits as these savage and brutish Nations have viz. the Toupinambous Margajas Caribes Cannibales Patagons and the like and those Septentrional Nations which are neerer to our Arctick Pole in Europe Asia and the New world as it appears by the Relations of them which at this day are common and vulgar Now we have proved heretofore that if there are Devils there is a Deity and consequently those Nations acknowledging that there are Daemons by that commerce which they have with them do also tacitely acknowledge and are forced to grant that there is a Deity Every Religion also doth imply that there is a Deity For it is wholly imployed in the service and adoration of it and to make it propitious and mercifull to men and to obtain from it either the fruition of those things that are desired or an immunity from those evils that are feared or suffered either in this life or in the other and this is done either by Prayers Invocations Acknowledgements Thanksgivings or by Sacrifices and other Ceremonies This is the end of all Religions Since therefore that there hath been no People or Nation whether civilized as in old time the Heathen Romans and Graecians the Chaldaeans Babylonians Assyrians and Persians Syrians Phaenicians Aegrptians or barbarous as the Scythians Africans and infinite others that hath not had and professed some Religion it 's evident that all have with one consent acknowledged a Divine Providence As to the strength and validity of this Argument it is as hath been said not to be doubted of especially if it may be shown that there is no just Cause or Reason to doubt of this Testimony Let 's then see whether any may justly doubt of it One may be induced to believe a false opinion three manner of waies First By affection and desire that we have it should be so Secondly By Authority Thirdly By specious and deceiving Arguments But none of these waies can agree with that which is now in question As to the first There is such a Connexion between the Intellect and the Will that as the Will alwaies follows the Dictates of the Understanding so it doth desire that which the Intellect judges to be good So also we easily perswade our selves that which we desire with Passion man being inclined by this desire to seek all the Reasons that may be to perswade himselfe of the truth and goodness of that which he desireth and giving weight unto them by this strong and vehement affection But here it cannot be said that men perswade themselves that there is a God because they do desire it but contrariwise the most part of men would that there were none because they fear him as a Judge There is therefore much more Reason to suspect that the opinion of the Atheists is false and justly to object against them that they perswade themselves there is