in defining of it that they will not call it by the name of Aer Ignis or Flamma as some of the ancient vulgar Philosophers did but Flos flammae and yet the Epicurean Poet could use as much Chymistry in exalting his fansy as these subtile Doctors doe and when he would dress out the Notion of it more gaudily he resembles it to Flos Bacchi and Spiritus unguenti suavis But when we have taken away this disguise of wanton Wit we shall find nothing better then meer Body which will be recoiling back perpetually into it's own inert and sluggish Passiveness though we may think we have quicken'd it never so much by this subtile artifice of Words and Phrases a man's new-born Soul will for all this be but little better then his Body and as that is be but a rasura corporis alieni made up of some small and thin shavings pared off from the Bodies of the Parents by a continuall motion of the several parts of it and must afterwards receive its augmentation from that food and nourishment which is taken in as the Body doth So that the very Grass we walk over in the fields the Dust and Mire in the streets that we tread upon may according to the true meaning of this dull Philosophy after many refinings macerations and maturations which Nature performs by the help of Motion spring up into so many Rational Souls and prove as wise as any Epicurean and discourse as subtily of what it once was when it lay drooping in a sensless Passiveness This conceit is so gross that one would think it wanted nothing but that witty Sarcasm that Plutarch cast upon Nicocles the Epicurean to confute it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But because the heavy minds of men are so frequently sinking into this earthly fancy we shall further search into the entralls of this Philosophy and see how like that is to a Rational Soul which it pretends to declare the production of Lucretius first of all taking notice of the mighty swiftness and celerity of the Soul in all its operations lest his Matter should be too soon tired and not able to keep pace with it he first casts the Atomes prepared for this purpose into such perfect Sphaerical small figures as might be most capable of these swift impressions for so he lib. 3. At quod mobile tantopere est constare rotundis Perquam seminibus debet perquámque minutis Momine uti parvo possint impulsa moveri But here before we goe any further we might inquire what it should be that should move these small and insensible Globes of Matter For Epicurus his two Principles which he cals Plenum and Inane will here by no means serve our turn to find out Motion by For though our communes notitiae assure us that whereever there is a Multiplicity of parts as there is in every Quantitative Being there may be a Variety of application in those parts one to another and so a Mobility yet Motion it self will not so easily arise out of a Plenum though we allow it an empty Space and room enough to play up and down in For we may conceive a Body which is his Plenum onely as trinè dimensum being longum latum profundum without attributing any motion at all to it and Aristotle in his De Coelo doubts not herein to speak plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Motion cannot arise from a Body For indeed this Power of motion must needs argue some Efficient cause as Tully hath well observed if we suppose any Rest antecedent or if any Body be once moving it must also find some potent Efficient to stay it settle it in Rest as Simplicius hath somewhere in his Comment upon Epictetus wisely determin'd So that if we will suppose either Motion or Rest to be contein'd originally in the nature of any Body we must of necessity conclude some potent Efficient to produce the contrary or else attribute this Power to Bodies themselves which will at last grow unbounded and infinite and indeed altogether inconsistent with the nature of a Body But yet though we should grant all this which Lucretius contends for how shall we force up these particles of Matter into any true and real Perceptions and make them perceive their own or others motions which he calls Motus sensiferi For he having first laid down his Principles of all Being as he supposeth neither is he willing to leave his Deities themselves out of the number he onely requires these Postulata to unfold the nature of all by Concursus motus ordo positura figurae But how any such thing as sensation or much lesse Reason should spring out of this barren soil how well till'd soever no composed mind can imagine For indeed that infinite variety which is in the Magnitude of parts their Positions Figures and Motions may easily and indeed must needs produce an infinite variety of Phaenomena which the Epicurean philosophy calls Eventa And accordingly where there is a Sentient faculty it may receive the greatest variety of Impressions from them by which the Perceptions which are the immediate result of a Knowing faculty will be distinguish'd Yet cannot the Power it self of Sensation arise from them no more then Vision can rise out of a Glasse whereby it should be able to perceive these Idola that paint themseves upon it though it were never so exactly polish'd and they much finer then they are or can be Neither can those small corpuscula which in themselves have no power of sense ever produce it by any kind of Concourse or Motion for so a Cause might in its production rise up above the height of its own nature and virtue which I think every calm contemplator of Truth will judge impossible for seeing whatsoever any Effect hath it must needs derive from its Causes and can receive no other tincture and impression then they can bestow upon it that Signature must first be in the Cause it self which is by it derived to the Effect And therefore the wisest Philosophers amongst the Ancients universally concluded that there was some higher Principle then meer Matter which was the Cause of all Life and Sense and that to be Immortal as the Platonists who thought this reason sufficient to move them to assert a Mundane Soul And Aristotle though he talks much of Nature yet he delivers his mind so cloudily that all that he hath said of it may passe with that which himself said of his Acroatici Libri or Physicks that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is it likely that he who was so little satisfied with his own notion of Nature as being the Cause of all Motion and Rest as seemingly to desert it while he placeth so many Intelligences about the Heavens could much please himself with such a gross conceit of meer Matter that that should be the true Moving and Sentient Entelech of some other Matter as it is manifest he did not
men made perfect after he had lent him to this unworthy world for about Five and thirty years A short life his was if we measure it by so many years but if we consider the great Ends of Life and Being in the world which he fulfill'd in his generation his great Accomplishments qualifying him for eminent Service and accompanied with as great a Readinesse to approve himself a good and faithful Servant to his gracious Lord and Master in heaven his life was not to be accounted short but long and we may justly say of him what is said by the Author of the Book of Wisdom concerning Enoch that great Exemplar of holiness and the shortest-liv'd of the Patriarchs before the flood for he lived but 365 years as many years as there are daies in one year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He being consummated in a short time fulfilled a long time For as the same Author doth well express it in some * preceding verses Honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that which is measured by number of years But Wisdom is the gray hair unto men and an unspotted life is old age Thus much for the Papers now published There are some other pieces of this Author's both English and Latine which may make another considerable Volume especially if some papers of his in other hands can be retriv'd For my particular I shall wish and endeavour that not the least Fragment of his may be conceal'd which his Friends shall think worthy of publishing and I think all such Fragments being gathered up may fitly be brought together under the Title of Miscellanies If others who have any of his Papers shall please to communicate them I doubt not but that there will be found in some of his Friends a readiness to publish them with all due care and faithfulness Or if they shall think good to doe it themselves and publish them apart I would desire and hope that they would bestow that labour and diligence about the preparing them for publick view and use as may testifie their respect both to the Readers benefit and the honour of the Author's memory And now that this Volume is finished through the good guidance and assistance of God the Father of lights and the Father of mercies whose rich Goodness and Grace in enabling me both to will and to doe and to continue patiently in so doing notwithstanding the many tedious difficulties accompanying such kind of labour I desire humbly to acknowledge now that the severed Papers are brought together in this Collection to their due and proper places as it was said of the Bones scattered in the vally that they came together bone to his bone Ezek. 37. what remains but that the Lord of life he who giveth to all things life and breath be with all earnestness and humility implor'd That he would please to put breath into these otherwise dry Bones that they may live That besides this Paper-life which is all that Man can give to these Writings they may have a living Form and Vital Energy within us That the Practical Truths contained in these Discourses may not be unto us a Dead letter but Spirit and Life That He who teacheth us to profit would prosper these Papers for the attainment of all those good Ends to which they are designed That it would please the God of all grace to remove all darkness and prejudice from the Mind and Heart of any Reader and whatsoever would hinder the fair reception of Truth That the Reader may have an inward Practical and feeling knowledge of the Doctrine which is according to Godliness and live a life worthy of that Knowledge is the Prayer of His Servant in Christ Jesus JOHN WORTHINGTON Cambridge December 22. 1659. In this Epistle pag. vii lin alt for mouth to mouth r. face to face The CONTENTS of the several DISCOURSES in this Volume DISCOURSE I. Of the true WAY or METHOD of attaining to DIVINE KNOWLEDGE SEct. I. That Divine things are to be understood rather by a Spiritual Sensation then a Verbal Description or mere Speculation Sin and Wickedness prejudicial to True Knowledge That Purity of Heart and Life as also an Ingenuous Freedome of Judgment are the best Grounds and Preparations for the Entertainment of Truth Page 1. Sect. II. An Objection against the Method of Knowing laid down in the former Section answered That Men generally notwithstanding their Apostasie are furnished with the Radical Principles of True Knowledge Men want not so much Means of knowing what they ought to doe as Wills to doe what they know Practical Knowledge differs from all other Knowledge and excells it pag. 13. Sect. III. Men may be considered in a Fourfold capacity in order to the perception of Divine things That the Best and most excellent Knowledge of Divine things belongs only to the true and sober Christian and that it is but in its infancy while he is in this Earthly Body pag. 17. DISCOURSE II. OF SUPERSTITION THE true Notion of Superstition well express'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an over-timorous and dreadfull apprehension of the Deity A false Opinion of the Deity the true Cause and Rise of Superstition Superstition is most incident to such as Converse not with the Goodness of God or are conscious to themselves of their own unlikeness to him Right apprehensions of God beget in man a Nobleness and Freedome of Soul Superstition though it looks upon God as an angry Deity yet it counts him easily pleas'd with flattering Worship Apprehensions of a Deity and Guilt meeting together are apt to excite Fear Hypocrites to spare their Sins seek out waies to compound with God Servile and Superstitious Fear is encreased by Ignorance of the certain Causes of Terrible Effects in Nature c. as also by frightful Apparitions of Ghosts and Spectres A further Consideration of Superstition as a Composition of Fear and Flattery A fuller Definition of Superstition according to the Sense of the Ancients Superstition doth not alwaies appear in the same Form but passes from one Form to another and sometimes shrouds it self under Forms seemingly Spiritual and more refined pag. 25. DISCOURSE III. OF ATHEISM THat there is a near Affinity between Atheism Superstition That Superstition doth not only prepare the way for Atheism but promotes and strengthens it That Epicurism is but Atheism under a mask A Confutation of Epicurus his Master-notion together with some other pretences and Dogmata of his Sect. The true Knowledge of Nature is advantageous to Religion That Superstition is more tolerable then Atheism That Atheism is both ignoble and uncomfortable What low and unworthy notions the Epicureans had concerning Man's Happiness and what trouble they were put to How to define and Where to place true Happiness A true belief of a Deity supports the Soul with a present Tranquillity and future Hopes Were it not for a Deity the World would be unhabitable p. 41. DISCOURSE IV. OF
with stubborn and unruly Matter is fain to yield to it and to produce that which answers not her own Idea whence the Signatures and impressions of Nature sometimes vary so much from that Seal that Nature would have stamp'd upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these Melancholick Opinions and disquieting Fears of the Deity mould not the Minds of men into Devotion as finding them too churlish and untameable to receive any such impressions they are then apt to exasperate men against it and stir them up to contend with that Being which they cannot bear and to destroy that which would deprive them of their own Liberty These unreasonable fears of a Deity will alwaies be moving into Flattery or Wrath. Atheism could never have so easily crept into the world had not Superstition made way and open'd a Back-door for it it could not so easily have banish'd the Belief of a Deity had not that first accused and condemn'd it as destructive to the Peace of Mankind and therefore it hath alwaies justified and defended it self by Superstition as Plutarch hath well exprest it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstition afforded the principle of Generation to Atheism and afterwards furnish'd it with an Apology which though it be neither true nor lovely yet wants it not a specious pretence And therefore Simplicius as we heard before calls the Notion of Superstition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having an ill savour of Atheism in it seeing as he gives an account of it it disrobes the Deity of true Majesty and Perfection and represents it as weak and infirme cloth'd with such fond feeble and impotent passions as men themselves are And Dionysius Longinus that noble Rhetorician fears not to challenge Homer as Atheisticall for his unsavoury language of the Gods which indeed was only the Brat of his Superstition If the Superstitious man thinks that God is altogether like himself which indeed is a character most proper to such the Atheist will soon say in his heart There is no God and will judge it not without some appearance of Reason to be better there were none as Plutarch hath discours'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Were it not better for the Gaules and Scythians not to have had any Notion fansy or History of the Gods then to think them such as delighted in the Blood of men offered up in sacrifices upon their Altars as reckoning this the most perfect kind of Sacrifice and consummate Devotion For thus his words are to be translated in reference to those ancient Gauls and Scythians whom almost all Histories testifie to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which horrid and monstrous Superstition was anciently very frequent among the Heathen and was sharply taxed by Empedocles of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This made Lucretius cry out with so much indignation when he took notice of Agamemnon's Diabolicall devotion in sacrificing his Daughter Iphigenia to make expiation at his Trojan Expedition Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum And indeed what sober man could brook such an esteem of himself as this blinde Superstition which overspread the Heathen world and I doubt is not sufficiently rooted out of the Christian fastned upon God himself which made Plutarch so much in defiance of it cry out as willing almost to be an Atheist as to entertain the Vulgar Superstition As for me saith he I had rather men should say that there is no such man nor ever was as Plutarch then to say that he is or was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inconstant fickle man apt to be angry and for every trifle revengefull c. as he goes on farther to expresse this Blasphemy of Superstition But it may not be amisse to learn from Atheists themselves what was the Impulsive cause that mov'd them to banish away all thoughts and sober fear of a Deity what was the Principle upon which this black Opinion was built and by which it was sustein'd And this we may have from the confessions of the Epicureans who though they seemed to acknowledg a Deity yet I doubt not but those that search into their Writings will soon embrace Tully's censure of them Verbis quidem ponunt reipsa tollunt Deos. Indeed it was not safe for Epicurus though he had a good mind to let the World know how little he cared for their Deities to profess he believed there was none lest he should have met with the same entertainment for it that Protagoras did at Athens who for declaring himself doubtfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was himself put to Death and his books burnt in the streets of Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub voce Praeconis as Diogenes Laertius and others record and indeed the world was never so degenerated any where as to suffer Atheism to appear in publick View But that we may return and take the Confessions a little of these secret Atheists of the Epicurean sect and of these Tully gives us a large account in his Books de Finibus and other parts of his Philosophy Torquatus the Epicurean in his first book de Finibus liberally spends his breath to cool that too-much heat of Religion as he thought in those that could not apprehend God as any other then curiosum plenum negotii Deum as one of that Sect doth phrase it Lib. 1. de Nat. Deor. and so he states this Maxim of the Religion that then was most in use Superstitione qui est imbutus quietus esse nunquam potest By the way it may be worth our observing how this monstrous progeny of men when they would seem to acknowledge a Deity could not forget their own beloved Image which was always before their eyes and therefore they would have it as careless of any thing but its own pleasure and idle life as they themselves were So easy is it for all Sects some way or other to slide into a compliance with the Anthropomorphitae and to bring down the Deity to a conformity to their own Image But we shall rather chuse a litle to examine Lucretius in this point who hath in the name of all his Sect largely told us the Rise and Originall of this Design After a short Ceremony to his following Discourse of Nature he thus begins his Prologue in commendation of Epicurus his exploit as he fancies it Humana ante oculos foedè cùm vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Relligione Quae caput è coeli regionibus ostendebat Horribili aspectu semper mortalibus instans Primùm Graius homo mortales tendere contra Est oculos ausus primúsque obsistere contra Quem nec fama Deûm nec Fulmina nec minitanti Murmure compressit Coelum And a little after in a sorry Ovation proudly cries out Quare Relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim Obteritur nos exaequat victoria coelo But to proceed Our Author observing the timorous minds of men to have been struck with this dreadful
and more plainly declares its own high descent to us That it is able to subsist and act without the aid and assistance of this Matter which it informes And here we shall take that course that Aristotle did in his Books de Anima and first of all inquire Whether it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some kind of Action so proper and peculiar to it self as not to depend upon the Body And this soon offers it self in the first place to us in those Elicite motions of it as the Moralists are wont to name them which though they may end in those they call Imperate acts yet have their first Emanation from nothing else but the Soul it self For this purpose we shall take notice of Two sorts of Actions which are obvious to the experience of every one that observes himself according to a double Source emanation of them which a late Philosopher hath very happily suggested to us The first are those Actions which arise up within us without any Animadversion the other are those that are consequent to it For we find frequently such Motions within our selves which first are before we take notice of them and which by their own turbulency and impetuousness force us to an Advertency as those Fiery spirits and that inflamed Blood which sometimes fly up into the head or those gross and Earthly Fumes that disturb our brains the stirring of many other Humours which beget within us Grief Melancholy Anger or Mirth or other Passions which have their rise from such Causes as we were not aware of nor gave no consent to create this trouble to us Besides all those Passions and Perceptions which are begotten within us by some externall motions which derive themselves through our Senses and fiercely knocking at the door of our Minds and Understandings force them sometimes from their deepest debates musings of some other thing to open to them and give them an audience Now as to such Motions as these are it being necessary for the preservation of our Bodies that our Souls should be acquainted with them a mans Body was so contrived and his Soul so united to it that they might have a speedy access to the Soul Indeed some ancient Philosophers thought that the Soul descending more deeply into the Body as they expresse it first begot these corporeal motions unbeknown to it self by reason of its more deep immersion which afterwards by their impetuousness excited its advertency But whatsoever truth there is in that Assertion we clearly find from the relation of our own Souls themselves that our Soul disowns them and acknowledgeth no such Motions to have been so busy by her commission neither knows what they are from whence they arise or whither they tend untill she hath duly examined them But these Corporeal motions as they seem to arise from nothing else but meerly from the Machina of the Body it self so they could not at all be sensated but by the Soul Neither indeed are all our own Corporeal actions perceived by us but only those that may serve to maintain a good correspondence intelligence between the Soul and Body and so foment cherish that Sympathy between them which is necessary for the subsistence and well-being of the whole man in this mundane state And therefore there is very little of that which is commonly done in our Body which our Souls are informed at all of The constant Circulation of Blood through all our Veins and Arteries the common motions of our Animal spirits in our Nerves the maceration of Food within our Stomachs and the distribution of Chyle and nourishment to every part that wants the relief of it the constant flux and reflux of more sedate Humours within us the dissipations of our corporeal Matter by insensible Transpiration and the accesses of new in the room of it all this we are little acquainted with by any vital energie which ariseth from the union of Soul and Body and therefore when we would acquaint our selves with the Anatomy and vital functions of our own Bodies we are fain to use the same course and method that we would to find out the same things in any other kind of Animal as if our Souls had as little to doe with any of these in our own Bodies as they have in the Bodies of any other Brute creature But on the other side we know as well that manythings that are done by us are done at the dictate and by the commission of our own Wills and therefore all such Actions as these are we know without any great store of Discoursive inquiry to attribute to their own proper causes as seeing the efflux and propagation of them We doe not by a naked speculation know our Bodies first to have need of nourishment and then by the Edict of our Wills injoyn our Spirits and Humours to put themselves into an hungry and craving posture within us by corroding the Tunicles of the Stomach but we first find our own Souls sollicited by these motions which yet we are able to gainsay and to deny those petitions which they offer up to us We know we commonly meditate and discourse of such Arguments as we our selves please we mould designs and draw up a plot of means answerable thereto according as the free vote of our own Souls determines and use our own Bodies many times notwithstanding all the reluctancies of their nature onely as our Instruments to serve the will and pleasure of our Souls All which as they evidently manifest a true Distinction between the Soul and the Body so they doe as evidently prove the Supremacy and dominion which the Soul hath over the Body Our Moralists frequently dispute what kind of government that is whereby the Soul or rather Will rules over the Sensitive Appetite which they ordinarily resolve to be Imperium politicum though I should rather say that all good men have rather a true despotical power over their Sensitive faculties and over the whole Body though they use it onely according to the laws of Reason and Discretion And therefore the Platonists and Stoicks thought the Soul of man to be absolutely freed from all the power of Astral Necessity and uncontroulable impressions arising from the subordination and mutual Sympathie and Dependance of all mundane causes which is their proper notion of Fate Neither ever durst that bold Astrologie which presumes to tell the Fortunes of all corporeal Essences attempt to enter into the secrets of man's Soul or predict the destinies thereof And indeed whatever the destinies thereof may be that are contained in the vast volume of an Infinite and Almighty Mind yet we evidently find a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberty of Will within our selves maugre the stubborn malice of all Second Causes And Aristole who seems to have disputed so much against that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Souls which his Master before him had soberly maintained does indeed but quarrel