do testifie that all those places do swarm with them and that there is scarce one which hath not his Daemon and Familiar spirit That Aignan of the people called Toupinambous and the Demons which preside over other Barbaro us people and which do torment and perplex them most greivously is a sufficient argument that they be none but evill spirits And it is to be noted that where there is none or very small knowledge of the true God there it is where the Devils have more power over men and where they do also most commonly appear as having in those places a greater Liberty from God who gives them power to Tyrannize and domineer over those who know not their Creatour and Benefactour The Religion of those of China and of most part of the Indians is nought else but an open profession that they make of adoring the Devil whom they reverence and honour that he may do them no harm thinking that the Deity hath no need of such services and that being perfectly good it will never do them any hurt and will without all these services do them good whensoever they need it The multitude of Gods which anciently the Greek and Roman Heathens did adore and that distinction which they made of them in deos majorum minorum gentium of Gods Demi-gods Heroes of divers sorts Satyres Fauns Pans Aegypans Nymphs of all sorts Joves Vejoves all this in effect was nothing but a distinction of Daemons which did veile themselves under these names and so caused themselves to be adored by men And their books are full of these Daemons and all or the most part of their superstitions were brought up by the commands of these false Gods which did speak and had society with these superstitious persons and which were adored by them as if indeed they had been Gods Their Oracles also so famous among them and so much taken notice of in divers places are so many Testimonies of this truth that there are Daemons and immaterial spirits these Oracles being nothing else then the utterings of these evill spirits by which they did maintain the Heathens in their superstitions and Idolatries All these things do plainly shew that there are ' Daemons and consequently a Deity which is above them as heretofore it hath been demonstrated CHAP. XI Wherein are answered all the Objections that are brought against the foregoing Argument MAN who is ingenious enough in his own destruction doth here endeavour to deceive himselfe and to enervate the strength of the forementioned argument There are some that think that all things that are reported of Witches and Magicians and of all their wonderfull and prodigious Effects are old wives Fables and meer inventions and the ground of their opinion is because say they notwithstanding that they have desired looked after such things and having for these ends made their addresses to those that were reputed famous and notable Magicians and Witches and having desired and solicited them with promises of great Rewards to shew them something extraordinary and strange they could never obtain it of them notwithstanding all their intreaties but these men do not consider that if what they say is true it is a plot of Sathan who to confirm them in their erroneous Opinion and by these means to make them surer to himself hath declined to satisfie their curiosity on purpose being rather willing to have such perfect Atheists then to deterr them and make them quit their Errours by affrighting and amazing them with those things that they had seen Others say that there are many fabulous things reported of such persons and of their Effects and of the Apparitions of Spirits and from this they take an occasion not to believe any thing that is said of them as if they were all forgeries But although there be many things falsly reported of them and that many do delight in inventing such things we may not therefore conclude that all things that are said of them are false and that there are no such persons nor Daemons Nay we may conclude to the contrary that such stories could not be raised if there was no ground for them For who would believe any such things if there had never been any apparitions of Spirits nor any strange Effects caused by Witches For falshood is in some manner a consequent of Truth and can finde no admittance in mens beliefs but under some colour of Truth Vnless there were a Physical Virtue in Plants Stones Metals and Natural bodies to produce severall wonderfull effects there could not be so many Fables of their Powers as we read in Solinus Pliny and such Writers One must indeed with judgement and discretion discern in such things that which is fabulous and untrue from those that are averr'd and attested by Experience and irrefragable Witnesses of which we have an infinite number but one may not therefore presently condemn all things that are said and writ by credible persons without making any difference between that which is false and that which is true Especially when such men have no by-end in relating these things For if it were so we might not upon the same account believe that there ever were such men as Regnault and Roland because there have been many Romances and Tales made of them Those who are the Wizards Patrons think to excuse them First By saying that all things which are told of their Sabbaths or Conventicles and of all those things that are done there is nought but a meer imagination and a troubled brain and no real truth which they maintain to have been verified in that there have been some who believing and maintaining that they have been so transported and reporting what they had seen and done have for all that been found lying in their Beds at that very time or lying as if they had been dead altogether insensible and in an Extasie Whence they conclude that all those transports are meerly imaginary Secondly As to those harms they think to do as for example to raise storms and to send the Vermin into fields and houses to cause a Rot to fall upon the cattell and to inflict grievous diseases upon those men that they bewitch their Abettors think to excuse them in saying that the Devill fore-seeing these things to come perswades these execrable people that they are the cause of all these things and that they do all by their Sorceries and charms although there is no power or virtue in the charms themselves But first by saying thus they grant that which we would have viz. that there are Daemons whence we infer that there is also a God to restrain them and they must of necessity grant it For how can those people without the help of the Devill foresee those storms and tempests those Vermin and those Mortalities to come And if they did prophesie those things by natural causes why should they endeavour to make them come to pass by their Sorceries why should they fancy to 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
they attributed humane Passions and Affections as Anger Envy Carnall Lusts Joy and Sorrow The second sort of false Opinions more cunning and subtile is of those who cannot think that God is infinitely just or infinitely mercifull but beleeve that he pardons Sin without punishing of it and that he doth punish it only because it is his pleasure seeing that he could abstain from the punishing of it if he would and that he could if he pleased be unwilling to punish it Which Opinion carries this with it that Good and Evill are not so in their Nature but only as it pleaseth God to command the one and forbid the other and hence it followes that he could forbid the Good and command the Evill and this doth transforme God in the Principle of the ancient and abominable Heretick Manes who because of the difference of Good and Evill did constitute two Principles of them the one good and the other evill nay these do worse then him since they holding one Principle make it susceptible of both viz Good and Evill Those also that will not acknowledge that God is such as he hath revealed and made himself known in his word viz. One in three distinct persons and by his Eternall word Jesus Christ his Son who was incarnate and dyed for to save the world such are those ancient Hereticks who have resisted the most holy and most happy Trinity and our Saviours Incarnation together with the Disciples and followers of Mahomet who is by them preferred before Christ For all such persons under a false pretence they have of maintaining the Unity of God do annihilate him as much as in them lyes in crying down his Power and Eternall Wisdome which are the Son and the Holy Ghost and would have them to be only bare names phantasmes or meer creatures There might be added many other opinions Ancient and Modern as namely that of old of the Anthropomorphites that thought God to be corporeall and that he was furnisht with Armes Leggs and Eyes like a man From whom do not go very far those who erect Images of the Holy Trinity to adore and serve it All such Opinions are intirely unworthy and alienated from the Infinite Excellency of God do beget in the Spirits of men a false apprehension and a meer Phantasme of the Deity and do avert men from the true Feare Respect Obedience Piety and Honour which his Creatures are bound to pay him There is also another Rise and Root of this Prophaneness and as it is more hid and subtle so it is more generall and common viz. of those who do indeed acknowledge a Deity and have no erroneous opinions of its Nature but nevertheless would be very glad and willingly could wish that there were no God and that for the same end and reason as those have who endeavour to perswade themselves that there is none to wit that they may more licentiously follow their evill desires and Concupiscences And this Wickedness is so common that there are none but the truly faithfull and those who are regenerated by the Spirit of God that are wholly free from this and also to these somt mes such thoughts come into their Hearts when they are tempted and enticed by their own Lusts which is like a Spring of Gall spouting on high with which they are defiled which they resist as much as they can by the efficacy of the Spirit of God CHAP. II. Two Waies of Convincing Atheisme viz. by Arguments and Authority I. Argument Drawn from this viz. That the World hath had a Beginning THere are two waies of handling a subject the first to prove positively that it is and what it is the second to confute that which may be brought against it We purpose to our selves here only to prove against Atheists that there is a God not to answer to all the perversness and subtilty of humane reason ingenious prone to its own Ruin can bring to perswade it selfe the contrary because that as there are common Truths so clear and evident that no Sophisme or Paralogisme can make us to swerve from it though it may be we cannot dissolve and untie the Knot of the Sophisme so this truth that there is a God being well and solidly proved and demonstrated there will be no Argument though never so artificiall that shall make us to decline it albeit we could not clearely see which way we might dis-intangle our selves and come out from these Labyrinths Unlesse we perchance were of the number of those of whom we have heretofore spoken who should be very willing that there were no God For we gladly beleeve and easily perswade our selves that which we desire we our selves give weight and strength to those Arguments which do inforce it upon us and contrarily weaken as much as in us lies those that oppose them Hence cometh to pass that this day so many give ear to Atheisticall Doctors and are easily perswaded to credit their abominable discourses which is prejudiciall to themselves and an Argument of the weakness of their cause for it is no wonder easily to beleeve that which is vehemently desired Now there are two wayes of proving a thing The first by Reason The second by Testimony and Authority The last is more curt and easie but sometimes more doubtfull and less certain and that it may be made valid and firm it must be demonstrated that he who gives this Testimony first knowes and understands well what he saith Secondly That he is true and faithfull and that he is neither able or willing to lye and deceive and that there is no reason to suspect him of ignorance and malice and in this case the proof is certaine and evident And of this kind of Testimony we shall say something towards the end of this Discourse The Deity may be proved by many Reasons of which we shall select some of the most common upon which we neverthelesse will not more enlarge then it shall suffice to shew the force and validity of them Among all those Reasons that prove a Deity this may be the first To wit That this World necessarily hath had a Beginning and consequently a Maker which hath produced it and hath given it its Being which cannot be supposed to have been any other but God There are two Wayes of proving a thing by Reason First is That which Philosophers call a Priori in coming down from the Cause to the Effects and demonstrating the Effects by the Causes The second a Posteriori ascending from the Effects to the Cause and proving the Cause by the Effects This first kind of Demonstration cannot be here admitted for there is nothing above or before God by which its Being may be demonstrated it cannot therefore be proved but by his Effects only And here we may take notice of Epicurus his mistake who did acknowledge a Deity but which was neither the Cause of this Universe nor did any wise Governe it For from whence could he
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
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
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
time place and likelihood that they could be made to believe forged Tales and could he take them to witness those things which they never saw nor knew Will it be said That he never made this Sermon That we only suppose it to be so That he hath not writ these Books Or That these Writings so replenished of Fabulous Stories have been hid for a long time and have not been published of a great while after he was dead when the Memory of those things which happened at the going out of Egypt and in the Desart was past and abolish'd in this people which was very glad and content to receive and believe these fine Tales as tending to the Honour of their Nation Or else will it be objected That some body after his death hath framed and published these Books under his Name First This is objected without the least Colour Appearance or Ground in Reason Secondly This is against the Testimony of the most ancient Monuments of History which father these Books upon none other then Moses and accuse no body of having compiled them for him Diodorus Siculus writeth that Moses gave the Jews their Laws and that he received them from the God called Jaoh which is the proper Name of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly The Authour of those Books doth not flatter that Nation but represent it to us as the most perverse and stiff-necked in the World Fourthly How could these pretended impostures have so universally in so many Ages taken so deep a rooting in the spirit of this Nation Fifthly The best part of their Laws and Political and Ecclesiastical Constitutions are grounded and have their Foundation upon these Narrations which these men do pretend to be fabulous These I say are wholy built upon them as the Pass-over the Feast of Tabernacles the Jubilee the year of Release c. Again The Tabernacle so splendid so ingeniously and artificially erected so divine and admirable by whose Model and Pattern Solomon that glorious and magnificent King hath afterwards builded his Temple that stupendious and wonderfull piece of workmanship to which the most sumptuous Buildings which the Vanity Power and Riches of the most potent Monarchs have erected is nothing comparable with all its Services and the Order of its Ceremonies which is so admirable where all the Mysteries of Christian Faith and Religion are seen pourtraied and as it were drawn to the Life as we know it by the Relation which the Sacred Writers of the New Testament do make and in their imitation the Fathers and Doctours of the Church could this be an Invention and Chimara of Moses's own fancying or of some body else after him Could he have divined so many Ages before all that our Lord Jesus Christ should do teach and suffer for the Salvation of men and accordingly erect this Tabernacle with all its Ceremonies and Appertenances which were so perfect and accomplished a Model of these things Now since there is no ground to doubt that Moses hath invented these things which he writeth of the Children of Israel's deliverance of their going out of Egypt or their going through the Red Sea of their Adventures through the Desart for the space of fourty years since he relates these things himself to a multitude of six hundred thousand men which could have given him the lye if he had forged these things Why should not he be believed in all those things which he recites to us in the Histories of Abraham Isaac Jacob and his Children of the Deluge of the Tower of Babel of Sodom and to go yet higher of the Creation of the World What is in all this more incredible then the History of the Children of Israel in Egypt and in the Desart The same may be said of all that which is recited to us in the Books of Joshua of the Judges and of the Kings for all this is not more incredible then this History of Egypt and of the Desart and it hath an indissoluble connexion with all the Narrations of Moses And why shall we esteem them past belief since they are represented to us as the Works and Effects of a God which is Eternal Infinite Almighty All-good All-wise Infinitely-exalted above Nature seeing it is he who hath given its being to Nature And that we have shewed by so many preceding Arguments that above this Nature there ought to be such a Deity the Cause and Rise of it Again It cannot be denyed but that Moses and the Prophets have promised and fore-told that the Messias should come and he came The Jews expected him they thinking that his time was come or near at hand For to this very day they are forced to confess that that time is past by above fifteen hundred years And when they are urged upon this Confession they have presently recourse to a pitifull and impertinent evasion to wit that this time hath been prolonged because of their sins and that the coming of the Messias hath been retarded upon this account although they are not able to shew what great sin they have committed that may have been the cause of this delay and of so signal a Desolation in their Nation And the Apostles and Christians do evidently prove that this promised Messias is come in the time prefixed by their Prophets and that this is Jesus Christ whom they have rejected upon no other account but that they falsly imagined to themselves that the Messias was to be a Great and Potent Monarch who was to free them from the slavery they suffered under the Romanes and give them Domination over all other People of the Earth An imagination quite contrary to the intention of the Spirit of God which the Prophets were inspired withall Neither can it be denyed but that Moses and the Prophets and Jesus Christ and his Apostles after them have fore-told the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple by the Romanes and that miserable Dispersion of the Jewish Nation wherein they have been for so many Ages their Rejection their Exclusion from the Covenants of God and the Vocation of the Gentiles in their stead and their being brought to the Service of the God of Abrabam Isaac and Jacob who is Creatour of Heaven and Earth with the utter abolishing of all the Heathenish Superftition All which hath came to pass since these sixteen hundred years as it was fore-told by them which is an invincible Argument that these Predictions were not made at adventure neither can they be any product of Humane Wit which cannot dive so far into Future Events nor foretell so certainly and constantly by so many different person those wonderfull Effects which so many Ages since have came to pass To these we might add the Miracles of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles which the Jews themselvs though they be their sworn enemies do not deny although they falsly and foolishly impute them to I know not what imaginary Virtue of the Name of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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