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
Prudence and Reason that in those things which are Fortuitous and Casuall neither Order nor Disposition is perceived but only a confused mixture of things in the other is deprehended Order and Right disposition and a certain Symmetry and composition from which doth proceed an Agreeable and Gracious Beauty and the more the Workman is industrious able and expert the more is seen in his Works Order and due Disposition as for example other are the Magnificent buildings of great Kings and the small Cottages seen in Country Villages or those pastimes of Children who presume to build Castles and Houses of small pieces of brick and chips of wood In the Composure and Edifice of this great Universe and of the liltle World Man one must needs be very blinde who doth not perceive in it an Order a Disposition and Composition of Proportions and Symmetry in all it's parts which is exceeding admirable and hath ravished out of themselves those among the very Heathens who have narrowly considered it and hath forced them to acknowledge a Deity from which this Order is proceeded Such an Order and Disposition and these so wonderfull Proportions can neither be an effect or Production of a blinde and fortuitous fate but we must in this acknowledge a Wisdome Prudence and Industry above any mans reach of apprehension that hath so wisely ordered these things For any Man to say that they have alwayes continued so without any beginning and that therefore they have no Creator is that which we have Confuted in the preceding Chapter and moreover it is that which can neither be comprehended nor imagined that so admirable an Order should not proceed from any cause and were not the product of Superior Wisdom Now what can be this Wisdom but the Deity it self for any man to refer this to a Vertue Physicall Irrationall sui nescia diffus'd and scattered thorough this great Masse of the World as those Philosophers which in another sense did imagine that there was a soul of the World almost like that Power we see seeds to have in producing Plants Trees and Animalls is an error want of right reasoning Petitio Principii for that vertue we deprehend in seeds could not produce effects so wonderfull in the composition and Symmetry of all parts of bodies which spring from thence unlesse it was directed by a Superiour cause most wise and full of admirable industry Since a thing that is irrationall and inanimate cannot be a fit subject of so marvellous a Wisdom and so admirable an industry Again this imaginary soule of the World so diffus'd thorough this vast body must constitute an Animall as man who is composed of body and soule or not If it doth not make an Animall it doth not informe this great and Massie body but hath it's Subsistency by it selfe if it subsists by it selfe here is by their own Concession and Confession a thing im materiall Incorporeall that is infinitely wise and infinitely Powerfull since it produceth so so many and so wonderfull effects and what is that but the Deity of which is our dispute for this soule which is so wise and mighty must of necessity have been from all Eternity and must have made and ordered this World as it 's efficient cause and yet it must be separated from it since it is not the forme that doth animate it as the soule doth the body of Man Now what needs rather to assert that there is such an efficient cause all wise and all mighty which hath from all Eternity made and composed this World and so to cast ones selfe upon the manifold and unavoidable absurdities that do necessarily follow the assertion of the Eternity of the World then with us and the truth to constitute such a cause as hath made this World since only a certain space of time and by that to disintangle ones selfe from those Labyrinths and inevitable absurdities If they say that this supposed soule of the World doth informe its matter and doth constitute a naturall composure such as the soule and body doth constitute a Man then this world must needs be a great vast and Monstrous Animall which is composed of parts that are not organicall as the limbs and parts of a humane body are and must have some correspondency and proportion with the forme and the soule which animates them which is a frantick and wilde imagination unworthy not only of Philosophers such as these would be thought to be but even of men of mean and low capacities but moreover this only followes that according to this supposition and concession of the Atheists we have here a great and almost infinite Animall Eternall Almighty and all wise from which all things that are seen are produced as so many effects of its wisdom and Power Now how neere comes such an imagination to that which we say is the Deity but that it is much more consonant to reason and to that Dignity and Majesty of this wisdome and Power to place it as we do by it selfe and separated from the matter immense infinite subsisting of it selfe and by it self then with them to affirm that it informes so vile and grosse a matter as this of the world is and to shut it up within the precincts of this world without being or subsisting out of it For this is to make it finite and Limited in respect of its extension now if in this respect it is finite and limited why then not also in respect of its duration So that according to the Tenet of those persons we must at last come again to this that this world hath made it self or rather is risen out of nothing without the helpe of any cause and that in a certain time which is a very wilde and absurd imagination And if this wisdom and Power is infinite in respect of its duration being eternall as they say it is why shall it not also be infinite in respect of its extension and if they say it is infinite as to its extension it exists and subsists without this world and out of it which necessarily we must affirm to be finite seeing there is no body no more then number actually infinite So are they compelled to avouch a Wisdom and Power immateriall infinite in all its acceptions as well in respect of its extension as of its duration subsisting of it self and from all Eternity and separated from all matter which is nothing else but that which every one meanes by a Deity And here we may take notice of the impertinency and absurdity of the opinion of Democritus and of Epicurus after him that would have had this world to have been framed by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms moving themselves casually in an infinite Vacuum and in an infite space of time also for besides the absurdity there is in imagining to ones self small indivisible bodies which neverthelesse have little hooks by which they catch one another and so concurr together in the produceing of any
the air from which proceeds plagues and divers kindes of epidemicall diseases hence proceed thunders and tempests earthquakes and stupendous inundations and a thousand other disorders which are dayly seen in nature Now its necessary that such disorders should have their bounds and limits otherwise what should hinder disorder from growing to the infinite and all things from returning to their first Chaos for to say that these disorders have their naturall causes from which they proceed that is very true but it doth not solve the question and doubt for if there is not some Superior Power and wisdome above nature that doth rule and direct all these disorders and exorbitances of Nature it will inevitably follow that Nature will be turned upside down and wholly confounded and indeed it is not difficult to perceive that these disorders are regulated and governed by an immense wisdom and directed by an evident justice and manifest goodness in token of vengeance against the sins of the one and of bounty for the reward and recompense of others and to refer the administration of these things to a fate and blinde fortune is to deceive ones self wilfully and to put out ones eyes on purpose to see nothing For example what reason is there to referr to a blinde fate the deluge of Noah the subversion of Sodom and Gomorrah the seven yeares famine of Egypt its manifold plagues the pestilences in King Davids dayes the drought in Elias times and a thousand like that happen and may every day be seen in the World This disorder then so regulated as well as the firm and constant order of nature is an Argument of a Deity most wise and Powerfull and Superior to it which hath established this order in it and which doth manage and containe these disorders in their certain bounds and doth direct them wisely justly and mercifully for the punishment of the one and the blessing of the other CHAP. VI. The fifth Argument drawn from a Providence that over-ruleth all humane things WE have in the two last preceding Chapters proved a Deity from the order and disorder which is remarked in the nature of this great World the same may be done from the order and disorder which is seen in the little world man whom we do not now consider as a Physicall or naturall body but as he is a morall creature and endued with reason in which respect we may see in him order and disorder but yet altogether most wisely regulated and from these both is drawn another Argument to prove the Deity And here first we must consider that although all men be of the same nature we see nevertheless in them a wonderfull and almost infinite variety not only of faces and proportions of bodies but also and principally of manners of opinions of manner of living and of languages and also a distinction by families bodies politick Comonalties States Republicks Kingdomes Empires and Monarchies all which distinctions and varieties are not seen in other animals of the same kinde This so wonderfull variety and distinction can proceed but from an infinite Wisdom which is above it which hath been the cause of all these diversities in so admirable an uniformity of Nature chiefly seeing that in these varieties there is a singular Symmetry and disposition of all things so various For to fly for the solution of this to a fate and fortune which hath by meere chance happened upon this order it is a wilfull blindness for order and disposition cannot proceed from that which hath none and which to say truth is nought but a Chimaera and which hath no vertue or efficacy by which it may act or produce any thing And above all we are in all these varieties to consider that of speech which is so great in persons who have all the same use of reason which demonstrateth it selfe by words and all the same organs of the voice from whence according to reason should proceed the same Language the witnesse of all our conceptions as we see in other Animalls that all those that are of the same kinde have the same voice by which they expresse their passions and the motions of their affection For to referr this to the free will of men who would have it so and have of themselves framed so many and so various idioms there is no probability for what reasonable end could they propose to themselves in such a design especially since this diversity of Languages doth greatly hinder the mutuall commerce and communication of one with another by which the Society of all humane kinde to which nature its selfe hath framed us and powerfully enclines us is wonderfully interrupted and hindered so that there is no reason or likelihood that men would consent of themselves to a diversity so prejudiciall to them and contrary to the end towards which they all naturally tend which is a mutuall Society and Communication Moreover this diversity either hath been in an infinite space of time if the World hath had no beginning or else this said variety hath had some beginning there is no reason to say that it hath had no beginning yet being repugnant to the uniformity of Nature which is in all men to say also that it hath had some beginning there is no reason For why should men after an infinite space of time in which they are supposed to have all spoken one and the same Language have changed in an instant their idiom without any reason or necessity and against the end to which they all naturally do tend It is then necessary to acknowledge here a Power and Superior Wisdom that for certain reasons best known to it self beyond and against the intention of men hath brought to passe this admirable variety of idioms each one of which hath its elegancies proper and peculiar to its self and which men could not have foreseen or conceived in their mindes this very thing surpassing farr all that ordinary wisdom which is seen in men the wisest of which cannot with all his wit and industry frame a Language in which there may be found so much elegancy and grace as there is in either of those that are now in use in the World which manifestly evinces that a Wisdom more then humane and truely divine hath so wisely distributed in each of these Idioms all the words that make it up with all the flourishes and elegancies which we see in them The distinction of men in Bodies Commonalties States Republicks Kingdomes Empires and Monarchies doth necessarily bring us to the acknowledgement of this Providence and Deity and likewise shewes the World not to be Eternall It is a thing that Nature teacheth viz. that Fathers ought to command govern and have the care of their children and Grandfathers of their Grand-children and so confequently that Ancestors have and take the care of their Progeny and if this order was unchangeable and duely kept among men that might in some manner be referred to the regulated dispensations
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
yea makes him in effect to acknowledge that there is a Deity and Providence which seeth from above the wrongs that are done here below and takes notice of them to the end that they may be revenged and innocence defended For it would be a poor refuge and a small comfort to have then and in such a case recourse unto a false perswasion which should have no other foundation then the authority and institution of a man that should have invented and given for currant so gross a falshood such as the Atheists would have the opinion of the Deity to be It is true indeed that in things where we have no interest we are sometimes perswaded by those persons that are eminent either in learning or Authority and do believe things the falshood of which we cannot easily discover but in those things that do so nearly relate to us that are so important and that do excite in us so violent motions and passions we do not rest upon those perswasions that have so groundless a foundation By all this it doth appear that man hath not only an acquired but also a naturall knowledge of the Deity and Providence and of the reall and essentiall difference there is between good and evill vice and virtue his own conscience and reason dictating and perswading him both the one and the other Again experience shews us that man hath a natural knowledge and resentment of the Deity and his Providence for when he is surprized in a moment by a manifest evident and unavoidable danger of death as if a bouse falls upon him in an instant or that he sall into a precipice c. he lifts up presently his heart and minde towards Heaven and in this extremity and distress hath his recourse to the Deity and prays unto it that it would aid and succour him and casts himself in the arms of his protection as a child doth in the arms of his father Likewise the firmness constancy and quietness of minde of the truly-faithfull and Christians when they did depart from this World as also the constancy of the holy Martyrs of the Lord Jesus and the hope which they have of a better life is an evident testimony of this truth For then and in that place it is not a time to sooth ones self and feed ones hopes with Fables And how could the imagination of a meer Chimara cause in them so wonderfull a resolution and so great tranquillity of minde If the perswasion of a Deity did meerly proceed from Institution and Authority which should make us believe it without any ground of Reason it would not doubtless make so deep an impression in our Souls and would quickly vanish of it self at deaths encounter Chap. X The eighth Reason drawn from Wizards Magicians Enchantours and from all the Heathens Idolatry and Superstition IT is a certain thing which the experience of our days and that of all ages doth averr which the Monuments of History both antient and modern confirm and that the Writings as well of Heathens as Christians certifie That there are and have been at all times in the World Witches Magicians Diviners Enchantours and such like notoriously-wicked people that have a familiar communication and a frequent commerce with the Devils by whose help power they do many strange and prodigious things above and beyond all human wisdome All which consequently doth inferr that these things proceed from a supernatural and immaterial cause such as the Daemons be The Laws made and promulgated in all wel-governed States and Common-wealths as well that of the Jews by Moses as those of the Christians and of the Heathens themselves do evidence this to us The executions and supplices which justice doth frequently inflict upon such persons their Processes the Relations and Informations that are made about them do assure as of this and leave no doubt of it The damnable curiosity of many persons which every day have recourse to such as they to know see and do those things that cannot be done by any other means doth also confirm this The writings of the Heathens as well Greeks as Romans are full of instances of such persons and of their effects which are stupendious and wonderfull So that a man must wholly renounce his reason and believe nothing of those things that are done if he will not also believe that there are such persons which is true and manifest by all those kinds of Testimonies and Monuments which may induce us to believe any thing Now if there are any Witches Enchantours c. it necessarily followes that there are Daemons by whose help and power they cause these prodigious effects to come to pass which men do wonder at and look upon with horrour and amazement it being not possible that these things should be done by any humane Power The Histories therefore and writings of all Nations and even of the Heathen themselves are full of examples of the Devils apparitions and of their strange effects The Sybills so much taken notice of among the Heathen are a clear testimony of this seeing their Predictions could not proceed but from a Deity or from some Daemon that did possess them Now if there are any Daemons as cannot be denied it followes that there is a Deity above them which doth restrain them so as that they shall not overthrow all things by their might for they have strength and malice enough to do it The Sacred and Ecclesiastical History which is in this conformable to dayly experience teacheth us that there have been in former ages and that there are now persons possessed by Devils which is evident and clear and plainly appeareth by the strange effects which proceed from them This same Sacred History lets us know that there have been Magicians and Enchantours as it appears by the History of Moses and the Magicians of Egypt by the History of Saul who went to consult with a woman who had a Familiar spirit and by that of the maid of whom mention is made in the book of the Acts of the Apostles But of the truth recorded in these Sacred writings something may be spoken hereafter The books which since have been written of these Diabolical and Magical Arts and which are to be got too easily even among Christians whose damnable curiosityleads them to this The publique profession of such Magical Arts which hath been sometimes tolerated in some of the most samous Universities of Christendom to the great dishonour of Christianity The common distinction of black and white Magick which hath been invented by some antient Philosophers of the Sects of Plato and Pythagoras who would have found a way by which they might have subjected the good Daemons to them and reconcile them to themselves and which hath from them passed to the Jewish Cabalists and from them to the Christians are an invincible argument that there are Magicians and Daemons The certain and averr'd Relations of the Northern Countries and of both the Indies
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
them that give them so much credit as to build their Faith upon their bare word acknowledge that this is no better then to bring themselves insensibly to direct Atheism CHAP. XV. Wherein is contained a Confutation of the Atheists Arguments WE must now examine the Reasons of these persons to see whether they can out-ballance those which we have alleadged against them And in this we are forced to be brief For seeing that we are not God be thanked bred in the Schole of such people and having no converse with them and they not putting to light their Arguments in their defence either for shame or for fear or cowardliness unworthy that greatness of Wit and Parts which they boast to have above all men whom they count in this point worse then children or rather because they are conscious of their own weakness I cannot divine their thoughts nor what these pretended strong Reasons should be upon which they ground themselves And I am forced to mention onely three which some may use in their own defence and which may come in many mens thoughts The First is taken from the Eternity of the World which they think must needs have existed from everlasting because there is not any thing that can be produced out of Nothing and cannot as they think return into Nothing according to the saying of some one of their Masters Ex nihilo nihil in nihilum nil posse redire The Second That there are so many Exorbitances in Nature as the Monsters so many Disorders in it so many things of no Use and against Reason either in the Constitutions of the Bodies of Plants and Animals or in the disposition of the World and of the Earth as great Rocks in a fair Meadow or in a fertile Field or the Rain falling unprofitably upon the Sea upon the Sands of Lybia and upon the Rocks and a thousand like things So that it seems that these things do not proceed from some wise Providence that hath so disposed of them but from the Fate and Hazard that hath ordered them so at an adventure There are so many Evils Disasters Mishaps which befall those that do less deserve it so much Good and Prosperity which happeneth to those that do better deserve all manner of supplices so much VVickedness which remains unpunished All which could not come to pass if the VVorld was guided by a Providence And Finally That there are in all the Religions of the World so many strange and absurd Opinions and practises so contrary to right Reason and to true VVisdom that we must acknowledge they are not grounded in the truth Of all which absurdities the Atheism as they say is free As to the First of these Arguments which is the chiefest they have If the Deity had a limited power strength and power as the strength and power of Nature is then they would have reason to say that there is not any thing which can be made of Nothing there being an infinite distance between meer Nothing and that which Is. And therefore Naturally Nothing can be produced out of Nothing and so it is that in all the productions of Nature there is alway some certain matter which is the Subject of it and from the power of which all those Forms which we see to succeed one to the other are educed But God being necessarily Infinite is it any waies against Reason yea is not it very agreeable to Reason that by his Virtue and Power which is Infinite and without any limits he should create out of Nothing Something that may replenish this Vacuum or Infinite distance which is between being Something and Nothing The Effect of a Finite Power ought to be Finite but that of an Infinite one may and ought to be Infinite also Now the Production of the World is extracted out of Nothing by the Infinite Power of God I say that it is an Infinite Effect not in respect of its Subject which is Finite there being no body which can be actually Infinite but in regard of its Production and the means of it as it is a product from a meer Nothing which hath no Intrinsecal Cause or Virtue there being none such in Nothing but by an Extrinsecal virtue which is unlimited and such necessarily is God For God being without any beginning or ending otherwise he could not be God it must of necessity follow that to subsist of himself from all Eternity to all Eternity by an infinite space of time so as we can comprehend Eternity he hath in himselfe a Virtue and Power altogether Infinite and unlimited by which Power he hath been able to Create and in effect hath Created out of Nothing this World which although it is very great and in a manner infinite in respect of us is nevertheless very small and less then a point in respect of God who in respect of the extent of Places and Spaces is also Infinite as he is in respect of Time and Duration Not that there can be attributed to God to speak properly any Time or Place for in Time and Place there is pars extra partem and prius posterius whereas in the Eternity of God there is no prius posterius Neither in his Immensity is there pars extra partem for he hath no Extension as Bodies have for there is no Quantity in God But because we are corporeal and do reason by the help of corporeal senses we do conceive the Eternity and Immensity of God under that which we call Time and Place as if Eternity was an Infinite Time and Immensity a Place and Space Infinite though Reason in effect doth judge that there cannot be any Place or Time actually Infinite God then being of necessity actually Infinite and his Power also Infinite and since the World cannot have existed from all Eternity as we have heretofore demonstrated it must needs follow That it hath been Created by him out of Nothing and there is no Reason to wonder at this since his Power is Infinite So we have laid their stout Achilles down There are some Christian Philosophers that dare not say That the World is from all Eternity because the Scripture doth expresly signifie to us its Beginning and Creation but they hold nevertheless that the World could have been created by God from all Eternity if it had pleased him so to do because an Effect may be of the same standing with its Cause as the Light is as ancient as the Sun and the print of ones foot on the sand may be as old as the foot which stamped it But the Arguments by which we have evidenced That the World is not Eternal do absolutely convince us of this Truth and consequently that it was not Created ab aterno And the Reason Why God cannot have created the World ab aeterno is not for any want of Power to do this but because such an Effect cannot be nor cannot have had anexistence without a Beginning And God being as