Assert an Infinite Progress in the Causes of Motion according to Aristotle to assign no Cause thereof at all Epicurus though an Exploder of Qualities forced here to fly to an Occult Quality of Gravity Which as Absurd in Infinite Space and without any Centre of Rest so indeed nothing but to make his own Ignorance and He Knows not Why to be a Cause The Motion of Body from the Activity of something Incorporeal Though Motion taken for Translation be a Mode of Matter yet as it is taken for the Vis Movens a Mode or Energy of Something that is Incorporeal and Self-Active The Motion of the whole Corporeal Universe Originally from the Deity Thus the Ignorance of the Cause of Motion another Ground of Atheism Page 667 669 Thirdly The Atheists also Ignorant of the Cause of that Grand Phaenomenon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regular and Artificial Frame of the Mundane System and of the Bodies of Animals together with the Harmony of all They who boast they can give Causes of all things without a God able to give no Cause of this but onely that it Happened by Chance so to be This either to make the Absence of a Cause a Cause Chance being but the Absence of an Intending Cause or their Own very Ignorance of the Cause and They Know not Why to be a Cause or to make One Contrary the Cause of Another Confusion of Order and Harmony Chance of Art and Skill or Lastly to deny it to have any Cause at all since they deny an Intending Cause Page 669 But here the Atheists make several Pretenâ—es for this their Ignorance First That the World is not so Well Made but that it might have been much Better and many Flaws to be found therein whereas a God or Perfect Being would have Bungled in Nothing but have made all things after the Best manner But this a Twelfth Athâ—istick Argumentation and the Confutation thereof to be expected afterward Reasons why some Modern Theists give Atheists so much advantage here as to acknowledge Things be Ill Made whilst the Ancient Pagan Theists stood their Ground and generously maintained that Mind being the Maker of all things and not Blind Fortune or Chance nor Arbitrary Will and Irrational Humane Omnipotent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Absolutely the Bâ—st in order to the Good of the Whole so far as the Necessity of things would admit the Measure and Rule of Nature and Providence Page 669 670 Again the Atomick and Epicurean Atheists Pretend That though many things serve for Uses yet it does not therefore folâ—ow that they were made Intentionally for those Uses because things that Happen by Chance may have Uses Consequent Thus Lucretius and the old Atheistick Philosophers before Aristotle of the Parts of the Bodies of Animals and all other things The Answer That when things consist of many Parts all Artificially Proportioned together with much Curiosity as for example the Eye no man who considers the Anatomy thereof and its whole Structure can reasonably conclude that it Happened so to be made and the Use of Seeing Followed but that it was made Intentionally for the Use of Seeing But to maintain that not onely Eyes Happened to be so made and the Use of Seeing Followed but also Ears and a Mouth and Feet and Hands and all the other parts Organical and Similar without any of which the Whole would be Inept or Vseless all their several Uses Vn-Intended following Gross Insensibility and Stupidity Galen of the Use of Parts Page 671 672 Democritus his Dotages Countenanced also by Cartesius His Book of Meteors first written with design to Salve all those Phaenomena without a God but Vnsuccessfully Nevertheless we acknowledge That God and Nature doe all things in the most Frugal and Compendious way and that the Mechanick Powers are taken in so far as they will serviceably comply with the Intellectual Platform But Nature not Mechanical and Fortuitous onely but also Vital and Artificial the Archeus of the whole World ibid. Again Atheists further Pretend That though it may well seem strange that Matter Fortuitously Moved should at the very First fall into such a Regularity and Harmony as is now in the World yet not at all strange that Atoms moving from all Eternity and making all manner of Combinations and Contexturâ—s and trying all Experiments should after innumerable other Inept and Discongruous Forms at length fall into such a System as This. They say therefore That the Earth at first brought forth divers Monstrous and Irregular Shapes of Animals some wanting Feet some Hands some without a Mouth c. to which the Ancients added Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's mixtly Boviform and Hominiform Animals Though Epicurus ashamed to own these would seem to exclude them but without Reason But because we have now no such Irregular Shapes Produced out of the Earth they say that the Reason is because none could Continue and Propagate their kind by Generation but onely such as Happened to be fitly made Thus Epicurus and the Atheists before Aristotle They also adde hereunto their Infinite Worlds amongst which they Pretend not one of a Thousand or of Ten thousand hath so much Regularity in it as this of ours Lastly they Presage likewise that this World of ours shall not always continue such but after a while fall into Confusion and Disorder again and then may we have Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's as before Page 672 674 Nevertheless because this Universal and Constant Regularity of things for so many Ages together is so Puzzling they would perswade us that the Sensless Atoms Playing and Toying up and down from Eternity without any Care or Thought were at length Taught by the Necessity of things and driven to a kind of Trade or Habit of Artificialness and Methodicalness Page 674 675 To all which Atheistick Pretences Replied First That this an Idle Dream or Impudent Forgery That there was once an Inept Mundane System and in this World of ours all manner of Irregular Shapes of Animals not onely because no Tradition of any such thing but also because no Reason possibly to be given why such should not be Produced out of the Earth still though they could not Continue long That also Another Atheistick Dream That in this World of ours all will quickly fall into Confusion and Nonsense again And as their Infinite Worlds an Impossibility so their Assertion of the Irregularity of the supposed other Worlds well enough Answered by a Contrary Assertion That were every Planet a Habitable Earth and every Fixed Star a Sun having all more or fewer such Habitable Planets moving round about them and none of them Desert or Un-inhabited there would not be found so much as one Ridiculous or Inept System amongst them all the Divine Act being Infinite Page 675 Again That the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Atoms should in length of Time grow Artificial and contract a Habit or Trade of Acting as Regularly as if directed
debent From the Fortuitous Concretions of Senseless Vnknowing Atoms did rise up afterwards in certain parts of the World called Animals Soul and Mind Sense and Vnderstanding Counsel and Wisdom But to think that there was any Animalish Nature before all these Animals or that there was an antecedent Mind and Understanding Counsel and Wisdom by which all Animals themselves together with the whole World were made and contrived is either to run round in a Senseless Circle making Animals and Animality to be before one another infinitely or else to suppose an impossible Beginning of an Original Understanding Quality in the Matter Atoms in their first Coalitions together when the World was a making were not then directed by any previous Counsel or preventive Understanding which were things as yet Unborn and Unmade Nam certè neque consilio Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locârunt Nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profectó Mind and Understanding Counsel and Wisdom did not lay the Foundations of the Universe they are no Archical things that is they have not the Nature of a Principle in them they are not Simple Original Primitive and Primordial but as all other Qualities of Bodies Secundary Compounded and Derivative and therefore they could not be Architectonical of the World Mind and Vnderstanding is no God but the Creature of Matter and Motion The sence of this whole Argument is briefly this The first Principle of all things in the whole Universe is Matter or Atoms devoid of all Qualities and consequently of all Life Sense and Understanding and therefore the Original of things is no Understanding Nature or Deity XI Seventhly The Democritick Atheists argue further after this manner They who assert a Deity suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole World to be Animated that is to have a Living Rational and Understanding Nature presiding over it Now it is already evident from some of the premised Arguments that the World cannot be Animated in the sence of Platonists that is with an Incorporeal Soul which is in order of Nature before Body it being proved already that there can be no Substance Incorporeal as likewise that it cannot be Animated neither in the Stoical sence so as to have an Original Quality of Understanding or Mind in the Matter But yet nevertheless some may possibly imagine that as in our selves and other Animals though compounded of Sensless Atoms there is a Soul and Mind resulting from the Contexture of them which being once made domineers over the Body governing and ordering it at pleasure so there may be likewise such a Living Soul and Mind not only in the Stars which many have supposed to be lesser Deities and in the Sun which has been reputed a principal Deity but also in the whole Mundane System made up of Earth Seas Air Ether Sun Moon and Starrs all together one General Soul and Mind which though resulting at first from the Fortuitous Motion of Matter yet being once produced may rule govern and sway the Whole Understandingly and in a more perfect manner than our Souls do our Bodies and so long as it continues exercise a Principality and Dominion over it Which although it will not amount to the full Notion of a God according to the strict sence of Theists yet it will approach very near unto it and indanger the bringing in of all the same Inconveniences along with it Wherefore they will now prove that there is no such Soul or Mind as this resulting from the Contexture of Atoms that presides over the Corporeal Universe that so there may not be so much as the Shadow of a Deity left It was observed before that Life Sense Reason and Understanding are but Qualities of Concreted Bodies like those other Qualities of Heat and Cold c. arising from certain particular Textures of Atoms Now as those first Principles of Bodies namely single Atoms have none of those Qualities in them so neither hath the whole Universe any that it can be denominated from but only the Parts of it The whole World is neither Black nor White Hot nor Cold Pellucid nor Opake it containing all those Qualities in its several Parts In like manner the whole has no Life Sense nor Understanding in it but only the parts of it which are called Animals That is Life and Sense are qualities that arise only from such a Texture of Atoms as produceth soft Flesh Blood and Brains in Bodies organized with Head Heart Bowels Nerves Muscles Veins Arteries and the like Sensus jungitur omnis Visceribus Nervis Venis quaecunque videmus Mollia mortali consistere Corpore creta And Reason and Understanding properly so called are peculiar Appendices to humane Shape Ratio nusquam esse potest nisi in hominis figura From whence it is concluded that there is no Life Soul nor Understanding acting the whole World because the World hath no Blood nor Brains nor any Animalish or Humane Form Qui Mundum ipsum Animantem sapientemque esse dixerunt nullo modo viderunt Animi Naturam in quam Figuram cadere posset Therefore the Epicurean Poet concludes upon this Ground that there is no Divine Sense in the whole World Dispositum videtur ubi esse crescere possit Seorsim Anima atque Animus tanto magis inficiandum Totum posse extra Corpus Formámque Animalem Putribus in glebis terrarum aut Solis in Igni Aut in Aqua durare aut altis Aetheris oris Haud igitur constant Divino praedita Sensu Quandoquidem nequeunt vitaliter esse Animata Now if there be no Life nor Understanding above us nor round about us nor any where else in the World but only in our selves and Fellow-Animals and we be the highest of all Beings if neither the whole Corporeal System be Animated nor those greater parts of it Sun Moon nor Stars then there can be no danger of any Deity XII Eighthly the Democritick Atheists dispute further against a Deity in this manner The Deity is generally supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perfectly Happy Animal Incorruptible and Immortal Now there is no Living Being Incorruptible and Immortal and therefore none perfectly Happy neither For according to that Democritick Hypothesis of Atoms in Vacuity the only Incorruptible things will be These three First of all Vacuum or Empty Space which must needs be such because it cannot suffer from any thing since it is plagarum expers Et manet intactum nec ab ictu fungitur hilum Secondly the Single Atoms because by reason of their Parvitude and Solidity they are Indivisible And lastly the Summa Summarum of all things that is the Comprehension of all Atoms dispersed every where throughout Infinite Space Quia nulla loci stat copia certum Quò quasi res possint discedere dissolüique But according to that other Hypothesis of some modern Atomists which also was entertained of old by Empedocles that supposes a Plenity there is nothing
Gods as distinguish'd from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from God or the Supreme Deity were all of them universally Made or Generated But to the end that we may now render this business yet something more easie to be believed that the Intelligent Pagans did thus suppose all their Gods save One to have been Made or Generated and consequently acknowledged only One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Vnproduced and Self-existent Deity we shall in this place further observe that the Theogonia of those Ancient Pagans their Genesis and Generation of Gods was really one and the same thing with the Cosmogonia the Genesis and Generation of the World and indeed both of them understood of a Temporary Production both of these Gods and the World And this we shall first prove from Plato in his Timaeus where he being to treat of the Cosmogonia premiseth this Distinction concerning Two Heads of Being That Some were Eternal and never Made and Some again Made or Generated the former whereof he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Essence the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Generation adding also this difference betwixt them that the Eternal and Immutable things were the proper Objects of Science and Demonstration but the other Generated things of Faith and Opinion only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what Essence is to Generation the same is certainâ—y of Truth or Knowledge to Faith And thereupon he declares that his Reader was not to expect the same Evidence and Certainty of Truth from him where he was now to treat of things Generated namely the Gods and the Visible World as if he had been to discourse about things Immutable and Eternal in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If therefore O Socrates many things having been spoken by many men concerning the Gods and the Generation of the Vniverse we be not able to discourse Demonstratively concerning the same you ought not at all to wonder at it or be displeased with us but on the contrary to rest well satisfied with our performance if upon this Argument we do but deliver Probabilities Where the Gods are by Plato plainly referred to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Generation and not to Eternal or Immutable Essence as they are also joyned with the Generation of the World as being but a Part thereof Neither is this at all to be wondred at in Plato since first the whole Visible World was no less to him than it was to the other Pagans a God he calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Happy God and before it was yet Made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God about to be Made Not as if Plato accompted the Sensless Matter of this Corporeal World whether as perfectly Dead and Stupid or as endued with a Plastick Nature only to be a God for no Inanimate thing was a God to Plato but because he supposed the World to be an Animal endued with an Intellectual Soul and indeed the best of all Animals compounded of Soul and Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore we are thus according to Probability to conclude that this World was really made by the Providence of God an Intellectual Animal whence from an Animal forthwith it became a God So that here we are to take notice of Two Gods in Plato very different from one another One a Generated God this whole World Animated and another that God by whose Providence this World was Generated and thus made an Animal and a God which latter must needs be an Vnmade Self-existent Deity and not belong to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to Generation but to Immutable Essence Again those greater Parts of the World the Sun the Moon and the Stars as supposed also to be Animated with Particular Souls of their own were as well accompted by Plato as by the other Pagans Gods he plainly calling them there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visible and Generated Gods Besides which Celestial Gods the Earth it self also is supposed by him to be either a God or Goddess according to those Ancient Copies of the Timaeus used both by Cicero and Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God Fabricated the Earth also which is our Nurse turning round upon the Axis of the World and thereby causing and maintaining the Succession of Day and Night the First and Oldest of all the Gods Generated within the Heavens Where since that Philosopher seems the rather to make the Earth an Animal and a God because of its Diurnal Circumgyration upon its own Axis we may conclude that afterwards when in his old age as Plutarch records from Theophrastus he gave entertainment also to that other part of the Pythagorick Hypothesis and attributed to the Earth a Planetary Annual Motion likewise about the Sun from whence it would follow that as Plotinus expresseth it the Earth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Stars he was therefore still so much the more inclin'd to think the Earth to be a God as well as the other Planets or at least as the Moon that having been formerly represented in the Orphick Tradition but as another Habitable Earth For these Verses of Orpheus are recorded by Proclus to that purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence whereof is this That God in the Cosmogonia or Cosmopoeia besides this Earth of ours fabricated also another Vast Earth which the Immortal Gods call Selene but mortal men Mene or the Moon that hath many Hills and Vallies many Cities and Houses in it From whence Proclus though as it seems a Stranger to the Pythagorick System yet being much addicted to these Orphick Traditions concluded the Moon to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ethereal Earth After all this Plato that he might be thought to omit nothing in his Timaean Cosmogonia speaks also of the Genesis Ortus or Generation of the Poetick Gods under the name of Demons such as Tethys and Phorcys Saturn and Rhea Jupiter and Juno and the like which seem to be really nothing else but the other Inanimate Parts of the World and Things of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Fictitiously Personated and Deified as is elsewhere declared Which whole business was a Thing set off by those Poets with much Fiction and Physiological Allegory And though Plato out of a seeming compliance with the Laws of his City pretends here to give credit to this Poetick Theogonia as Tradition delivered down from the Sons of the Gods who must not be supposed to have been ignorant of their Parents yet as Eusebius well observeth he doth but all the while slily jear it plainly insinuating the Fabulosity thereof when he affirmeth it to have been introduced not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without necessary Demonstrations but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without so much as Probabilities Nevertheless Proclus suspecting no such
vastly Gigantean men as could stride over Seas and take up Mountains in their Clutches and turn the Heavens about with the strength of their arms Against all which notwithstanding he gravely gives such a Reason as plainly overthrows his own Principles Res sic quaeque suo ritu procedit omnes Foedere Naturae certo discrimina servant Because things by a certain Covenant of Nature always keep up their Specifick Differences without being confounded together For what Covenant of Nature can there be in Infinite Chance or what Law can there be set to the Absolutely Fortuitous Motions of Atoms to circumscribe them by Wherefore it must be acknowledged that according to the genuine Hypothesis of the Atomick Atheism all Imaginable Forms of Inanimate Bodies Plants and Animals as Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's are producible by the Fortuitous Motions of Matter there being nothing to hinder it whilst it doth Omnimodis coire atque omnia pertentare Quaecunque inter se possint congressa creare Put it self into all kind of Combinations play all manner of Freaks and try all possible Conclusions and Experiments But they Pretend that these Monstrous Irregular Shapes of Animals were not therefore now to be found because by reason of their Inept Fabrick they could not propagate their kind by Generation as neither indeed Preserve their own Individuals Thus does Lucretius declare the sence of Epicurus Quoniam Natura absterruit auctum Nec potuere cupitum aetatis tangere florem Nec reperire cibum nec jungi per Veneris res And that this Atheistick Doctrine was older than Epicurus appeareth from these words of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When Animals Happened at first to be made in all manner of Forms those of them only were preserved and continued to the present time which chanced to be fitly made for Generation but all the others perished as Empedocles affirmeth of the Partly-Oxe-and-Partly-Man-Animals Moreover the ancient both Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheists concluded that besides this One World of ours there were other Infinite Worlds they conceiving it as absurd to think there should be but One only World in Infinite Space as that in a vast plowed and sowed Field there should grow up only One Ear of Corn and no more and they would have us believe that amongst these Infinite Worlds all of them Fortuitously made there is not One of a Thousand or perhaps of Ten thousand that hath such Regularity Concinnity and Harmony in it as this World that we chanced to emerge in Now it cannot be thought strange as they suppose if amongst Infinite Worlds One or Two should chance to fall into some Regularity They would also confidently assure us that the present System of things in this World of ours shall not long continue such as it is but after a while fall into Confusion and Disorder again Mundi naturam totius aetas Mutat ex alio terram status excipit alter Quod potuit nequeat possit quod non tulit antè The same wheel of Fortune which moving upward hath brought into view this Scene of things that now is turning round will sometime or other carry it all away again introducing a new one in its stead and then shall we have Centaurs and Scylla's and Chimera's again all manner of Inept Forms of Animals as before But because men may yet be puzzled with the Vniversality and Constancy of this Regularity and its long Continuance through so many Ages that there are no Records at all of the contrary any where to be found the Atomick Atheist further adds that the Sensless Atoms playing and toying up and down without any care or thought and from Eternity Trying all manner of Tricks Conclusions and Experiments were at length they know not how Taught and by the Necessity of things themselves as it were Driven to a certain kind of Trade of Artificialness and Methodicalness so that though their Motions were at First all Casual and Fortuitous yet in length of Time they became Orderly and Artificial and Governed by a certain Law they contracting as it were upon themselves by long Practice and Experience a kind of Habit of moving Regularly or else being by the meer Necessity of things at length forced so to move as they should have done had Art and Wisdom directed them Thus Epicurus in his Epistle to Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It must be held that Nature is both Taught and Necessitated by the things themsâ—lves Or else as Gassendus interprets the words quadam veluti Naturali Necessariaque Doctrina sensim imbuta by little and little Embued with a certain kind of Natural and Necessary Doctrine To which Atheistick Pretences we shall briefly reply First that it is but an Idle Dream or rather Impudent Forgery of these Atheists that hereâ—ofore there were in this World of ours all manner of Monstrous and Irregular Shapes of Animals produced Centaurs Scylla's and Chimâ—ra's c. and indeed at first none but such There being not the least footstep of any such thing appearing in all the Monumentâ— of Antiquity and Traditions of Former times and these Atheists being not able to give any manner of reason why there should not be such produced as well at this Present time however the Individuals themselves could not continue long or propagate by Generation or at least why it should not Happen that in some Ages or Countreys there were either all Androgyna of both Sexes or else no Animal but of One Sex Male or Female only or lastly none of any Sex at all Neither is there any more reason to give credit to these Atheists when though enemies to Divination they would Prophesie concerning Future times that in this World of ours all shall sometime fall into Confusion and Nonsence again And as their Infinity of Worlds is an Absolute Impossibility so to their Bold and Confident Assertion concerning those Supposed other Worlds as if they had travelled over them all that amongst Ten Thousand of them there is hardly One that hath so much Regularity in it as this World of ours it might be replied with equal Confidence and much more Probability of Reason That were every Planet about this Sun of ours an Habitable Earth and every Fixed Star a Sun having likewise its sâ—veral other Planets or Habitable Earths moving round about it and not any one of these Desert or Vninhabited but all Peopled with Animals we say were this so extravagant Supposition true That there would not be found any one Ridiculous or Inept System amongst them all but that the Divine Art and Wisdom which being Infinite can never be Defective nor any where Idle would exercise its Dominion upon all and every where Impress the Sculptures and Signatures of it self In the next place we affirm That the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Atomi trying never so many Experiments and Conclusions and making Minds when they apply their own Properties to things without them and think because
Spectators of a Picture who condemn the Limner because he hath not put bright Colours every where whereas he had suited his Colours to every part respectively giving to each such as belonged to it Or else are we like those who would blame a Comedy or Tragedy because they were not all Kings or Heroes that acted in it but some Servants and Rustick Clowns introduced also talking after their Rude fashion Whereas the Dramatick Poem would neither be Compleat nor Elegant and Delightful were all those Worser Parts taken out of it Again We cannot certainly conclude that the Works of God and his Creation do not transcend those narrow Limits which Vulgar Opinion and Imagination sets them that commonly terminates the Universe but a little above the Clouds or at most supposes the Fixed Stars being all fastned in One Solid Sphere to be the Utmost Wall or Arched Roof and Rowling Circumference thereof Much less ought we upon such Groundless Suppositions to infer That the World might therefore have been made much Better than it is because it might have been much more Roomy and Capacious We explode the Atheistick Infinity of Distant Worlds nor can we admit that Cartesian seemingly more Modest Indefinite Extension of one Corporeal Universe which yet really according to that Philosophers meaning hath Nullos Fines no Bounds nor Limits at all For We perswade our selves that the Corporeal World is as Uncapable of a Positive Infinity of Magnitude as it is of Time there being no Magnitude so Great but that more still might be Added to it Nevertheless as we cannot possibly Imagine the Sun to be a Quarter or an Hundredth Part so big as we know it to be so much more may the whole Corporeal Vniverse far transcend those narrow Bounds which our Imagination would circumscribe it in The New Celestial Phaenomena and the late Improvements of Astronomy and Philosophy made thereupon render it so probable that even this Dull Earth of ours is a Planet and the Sun a Fixed Star in the Centre of that Vortex wherein it moves that many have shrewdly suspected that there are other Habitable Globes besides this Earth of ours which may be Sayled round about in a year or two as also more Suns with their respective Planets than One. However the Distance of all the Fixed Stars from us being so Vast that the Diameter of the Great Orb makes no discernible Parallax in the Site of them from whence it is also probable that the other Fixed Stars are likewise vastly distant from one another This I say widens the Corporeal Vniverse to us and makes those Flammantia Moenia Mundi as Lucretius calls them Those Flaming Walls of the World to fly away before us Now it is not reasonable to think that all this Immense Vastness should lie Waste Desert and Vninhabited and have nothing in it that could Praise the Creator thereof save only this One Small Spot of Earth In my Father's House saith our Saviour are Many Mansions And Baruch Chap. 3. appointed by our Church to be read publickly O Israel how great is the House of God and how large is the place of his Possession Great and hath no End High and Vnmeasurable Which yet we understand not of an Absolute Infinity but only such an Immense Vastness as far transcends Vulgar Opinion and Imagination We shall add but one thing more That to make a right Judgment of the Ways of Providence and the Justice thereof as to the Oeconomy of mankind we must look both Forwards and Backwards or besides the Present not only upon the Future but also the Past Time Which Rule is likewise thus set down by Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither is that Doctrine of the Ancients to be neglected that to give an Account of Providence we ought to look back upon former Periods as well as forward to What is Future Indeed he and those other Philosophers who were Religious understood this so as to conclude a Pre-Existent State of all Particular Souls wherein they were at first Created by God Pure but by the Abuse of their own Liberty Degenerated to be a Necessary Hypothesis for the Salving that Phaenomenon of the Depraved State of Mankind in general here in this Life And not only so but they endeavoured in like manner to give an account also of those Different Conditions of Particular Persons as to Morality from their Infancy and their other different Fates here deriving them all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their several Demeanors heretofore in a Pre-Existent State And there have not wanted Christian Doctors who have complied with these Philosophers in both But our Common Christianity only agrees thus far as to suppose a Kind of Imputative Pre-Exstence in Adam in whom all were created Pure and so consequently involved in his after miscarriage to salve the Pravity of Humane Nature upon which account we are all said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Nature Children of Wrath. But as for the different Conditions of Persons and their several Fates more disadvantageous to some than others this indeed the Generality of Christian Doctors have been content to resolve only into an Occult but Just Providence And thus does Origen himself sometimes modestly pass it over As in his Third Book against Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It happeneth to many so to have been brought up from their very Childhood as that by one means or other they could have no opportunity at all of thinking of the Better things c. And it is very probable that there are Causes of these things in the Reasons of Providence though they do not easily fall under Humane Notice But there is yet a Third Atheistick Objection against Providence behind That is is impossible any One Being should Animadvert and Order all things in the Distant places of the world at once and were this possible yet would such Infinite Negotiosity be very Vneasie and Distractious to it and altogether Inconsistent with Happinâ—ss Nor wâ—â—ld a Being Irresistibly Powerful concern it self in the Good or Welfare of any thing else it standing in Need of nothing and all Benevoleâ—ce and Good will arising from Indigency and Imbecillity Wherefore such a Being would wholy be taken up in the Enjoyment of it self and its own Happiness utterly Regardless of all other things To which the Reply is First That though our selves and all Created Beings have but a Finite Animadversion and Narrow Sphere of Activity yet does it not therefore follow that the Case must be the same with the Deity supposed to be a Being Infinitely Perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath no manner of Defect either of Knowledge or Power in it But this is a meer Idolum Specus an Idol of the Cave or Den Men Measuring the Deity by their own Scantling and Narrowness And indeed were there Nothing at all but what we our selves could fully Comprehend there could be no God Were the Sun an Animal and had Life
of the Creation of Humane Souls which salves their Immortality without Preexistence is Rational 35. A new Hypothesis to salve the Incorporeity of the Souls of Brutes without their Postexistence and successive Transmigrations 36. That this will not prejudice the Immortality of Humane Souls 37. That the Empedoclean Hypothesis is more Rational than the Opinion of those that would make the Souls of Brutes Corporeal 38. That the Constitution of the Atomical Physiology is such that whosoever entertains it and thoroughly understands it must needs hold Incorporereal Substance in five Particulars 39. Two general Advantages of the Atomical or Mechanical Physiology first that it renders the Corporeal World intelligible 40. The second Advantage of it that it prepares an easie and clear way for the Demonstration of Incorporeal Substance 41. Concluded That th◠ancient Moschical Philosophy consisted of two Parts Atomical Physiology and Theology or Pneumatology 42. That this entire Philosophy was afterwards mangled and dismembred some taking one part of it alone and some the other 43. That Leucippus and Democritus being Atheistically inclined took the Atomical Physiology endeavouring to make it subservient to Atheism and upon what occasion they did it and how unsuccessfully 44. That Plato took the Theology and Pneumatology of the Ancients but rejected their Atomical Physiology and upon what accounts 45. That Aristotle followed Plato herein with a Commendation of Aristotle's Philosophy THEY that hold the Necessity of all humane Actions and Events do it upon one or other of these two Grounds Either because they suppose that Necessity is inwardly essential to all Agents whatsoever and that Contingent Liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Thing Impossible or Contradictious which can have no Existence any where in Nature The sence of which was thus expressed by the Epicurean Poet Quòd res quaeque Necessum Intestinum habeat cunctis in rebus agendis c. That every thing Naturally labours under an Intestine Necessity Or else because though they admit Contingent Liberty not only as a thing Possible but also as that which is actually Existent in the Deity yet they conceive all things to be so determin'd by the Will and Decrees of this Deity as that they are thereby made Necessary to us The former of these two Opinions that Contingent Liberty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a Thing as can have no Existence in Nature may be maintained upon two different Grounds Either from such an Hypothesis as this That the Universe is nothing else but Body and Local motion and Nothing moving it self the Action of every Agent is determined by some other Agent without it and therefore that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Material and Mechanical Necessity must needs reign over all things Or else though Cogitative Beings be supposed to have a certain Principle of Activity within themselves yet that there can be no Contingency in their Actions because all Volitions are determined by a Necessary antecedent Understanding Plotinus makes another Distribution of Fatalists which yet in the Conclusion will come to the same with the Former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man saith he will not do amiss that will divide all Fatalists first into these two General Heads namely That they derive all things from One Principle or Not The former of which may be called Divine Fatalists the latter Atheistical Which Divine Fatalists he again subdivides into such as First make God by Immediate Influence to do all things in us as in Animals the Members are not determined by themselves but by that which is the Hegemonick in every one And Secondly such as make Fate to be an Implexed Series or Concatenation of Causes all in themselves Necessary whereof God is the chief The Former seems to be a Description of that very Fate that is maintained by some Neoterick Christians the Latter is the Fate of the Stoicks Wherefore Fatalists that hold the Necessity of all Humane Actions and Events may be reduced to these Three Heads First such as asserting the Deity suppose it irrespectively to Decree and Determine all things and thereby make all Actions necessary to us Which kind of Fate though Philosophers and other ancient Writers have not been altogether silent of it yet it has been principally maintained by some Neoterick Christians contrary to the Sence of the Ancient Church Secondly such as suppose a Deity that acting Wisely but Necessarily did contrive the General Frame of things in the World from whence by a Series of Causes doth unavoidably result whatsoever is now done in it Which Fate is a Concatenation of Causes all in themselves Necessary and is that which was asserted by the Ancient Stoicks Zeno and Chrysippus whom the Jewish Essenes seemed to follow And Lastly such as hold the Material Necessity of all things without a Deity which Fate Epicurus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fate of the Naturalists that is indeed the Atheists the Assertors whereof may be called also the Democritical Fatalists Which three Opinions concerning Fate are so many several Hypotheses of the Intellectual System of the Universe All which we shall here propose endeavouring to shew the Falseness of them and then substitute the true Mundane System in the Room of them II. The Mathematical or Astrological Fate so much talked of as it is a thing no way considerable for the Grounds of it so whatsoever it be it must needs fall under one or other of those two General Heads in the Plotinical Distribution last mentioned so as either to derive all things from one Principle or Not. It seems to have had its first Emersion amongst the Chaldaeans from a certain kind of blind Polytheism which is but a better sort of disguised Atheism but it was afterwards Adopted and fondly nursed by the Stoicks in a way of subordination to their Divine Fate For Manilius Firmicus and other Masters of that Sect were great Promoters of it And there was too much attributed to Astrology also by those that were no Fatalists both Heathen and Christian Philosophers such as were Plotinus Origen Simplicius and others Who though they did not make the Stars to necessitate all Humane Actions here below yet they supposed that Divine Providence fore-knowing all things had contrived such a strange Coincidence of the Motions and Configurations of the Heavenly Bodies with such Actions here upon Earth as that the former might be Prognosticks of the latter Thus Origen determines that the Stars do not Make but Signifie and that the Heavens are a kind of Divine Volume in whose Characters they that are skilled may read or spell out Humane Events To the same purpose Plotinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Motion of the Stars was intended for the Physical Good of the whole but they afford also another Vse collaterally in order to Prognostication namely that they who are skilled in the Grammar of the Heavens may be able from the several Configurations of the Stars as it were Letters to spell out future Events
Proprietaries in this Philosophy but that Protagoras though not vulgarly taken notice of for any such thing being commonly represented as a Sophist only was a sharer in it likewise which Protagoras indeed Laertius and others affirm to have been an Auditor of Democritus and so he might be notwithstanding what Plutarch tells us that Democritus wrote against his taking away way the Absolute Natures of things However we are of Opinion that neither Democritus nor Protagoras nor Lencippus was the first Inventour of this Philosophy and our reason is because they were all three of them Atheists though Protagoras alone was banished for that Crime by the Athenians and we cannot think that any Atheists could be the Inventours of it much less that it was the Genuine Spawn and Brood of Atheism it self as some conceit because however these Atheists adopted it to themselves endeavouring to serve their turns of it yet if rightly understood it is the most effectual Engin against Atheism that can be And we shall make it appear afterwards that never any of those Atheists whether Ancient or Modern how great Pretenders soever to it did throughly understand it but perpetually contradicted themselves in it And this is the Reason why we insist so much upon this Philosophy here not only because without the perfect knowledge of it we cannot deal with the Atheists at their own Weapon but also because we doubt not but to make a Sovereign Antidote against Atheism out of that very Philosophy which so many have used as a Vehiculum to convey this Poyson of Atheism by IX But besides Reason we have also good Historical probability for this Opinion that this Philosophy was a thing of much greater Antiquity than either Democritus or Leucippus and first because Posidonius an Ancient and Learned Philosopher did as both Empiricus and Strabo tell us avouch it for an old Tradition that the first Inventour of this Atomical Philosophy was one Moschus a Phoenician who as Strab◠also notes lived before the Trojan Wars X. Moreover it seems not altogether Improbable but that this Moschus a Phoenician Philosopher mentioned by Posidonius might be the same with that Mochus a Phoenician Physiologer in Jamblichus with whose Successors Priests and Prophets he affirms that Pythagoras sometimes sojourning at Sidon which was his native City had converst Which may be taken for an Intimation as if he had been by them instructed in that Atomical Physiology which Moschus or Mochus the Phoenician is said to have been the Inventour of Mochus or Moschus is plainly a Phoenician Name and there is one Mochus a Phoenician Writer cited in Athenaeus whom the Latin Translator calls Moschus and Mr. Selden approves of the Conjecture of Arcerius the Publisher of Jamblichus that this Mochus was no other than the Celebrated Moses of the Jews with whose Successors the Jewish Philosophers Priests and Prophets Pythagoras conversed at Sidon Some Phantastick Atomists perhaps would here catch at this to make their Philosophy to stand by Divine Right as owing its Original to Revelation whereas Philosophy being not a Matter of Faith but Reason Men ought not to affect as I conceive to derive its Pedigree from Revelation and by that very pretence seek to impose it Tyrannically upon the minds of Men which God hath here purposely left Free to the use of their own Faculties that so finding out Truth by them they might enjoy that Pleasure and Satisfaction which arises from thence But we aim here at nothing more than a Confirmation of this Truth That the Atomical Physiology was both older than Democritus and had no such Atheistical Original neither And there wants not other Good Authority for this That Pythagaras did borrow many things from the Jews and translate them into his Philosophy XI But there are yet other Considerable Probabilities for this that Pythagoras was not unacquainted with the Atomical Physiology And first from Democritus himself who as he was of the Italick Row or Pythagorick Succession so it is recorded of him in Laertius that he was a great Emulator of the Pythagoreans and seemed to have taken all his Philosophy from them Insomuch that if Chronology had not contradicted it it would have been concluded that he had been an Auditour of Pythagoras himself of whom he testified his great admiration in a Book entitled by his Name Moreover some of his Opinions had a plain Correspondency with the Pythagorick Doctrines forasmuch as Democritus did not only hold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Atoms were carried round in a Vortex but also together with Leucippus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Earth was carried about the Middle or Centre of this Vortex which is the Sun turning in the mean time round upon its own Axis And just so the Pythagorick Opinion is expressed by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Earth as one of the Stars that is a Planet being carried round about the Middle or Centre which is Fire or the Sun did in the mean time by its Circumgyration upon its own Axis make day and night Wherefore it may be reasonably from hence concluded that as Democritus his Philosophy was Pythagorical so Pythagoras his Philosophy was likewise Democritical or Atomical XII But that which is of more Moment yet we have the Authority of Ecphantus a famous Pythagorean for this that Pythagoras his Monads so much talked of were nothing else but Corporeal Atoms Thus we find it in Stobaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecphantus who himself asserted the Doctrine of Atoms first declared that the Pythagorick Monads were Corporeal i. ◠Atoms And this is further confirmed from what Aristotle himself writes of these Pythagoreans and their Monads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They suppose their Monads to have Magnitude And from that he elsewhere makes Monads and Atoms to signifie the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It s all one to say Monades or small Corpuscula And Gassendus hath observed out of the Greek Epigrammatist that Epicurus his Atoms were sometimes called Monads too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XIII But to pass from Pythagoras himself That Empedocles who was a Pythagorean also did Physiologize Atomically is a thing that could hardly be doubted of though there were no more Proof for it than that one Passage of his in his Philosophick Poems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature is nothing but the Mixture and Separation of things mingled or thus There is no production of any thing anew but only mixture and separation of things mingled Which is not only to be understood of Animals according to the Pythagorick Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls but also as himself expounds it Universally of all Bodies that their Generation and Corruption is nothing but Mixture and Separation or as Aristotle expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concretion and Secretion of Parts together with Change of Figure and Order It may perhaps be objected that Empedocles held four
and Evil and therefore the Allowance of it is contradictious to Civil Sovereignty and a Commonwealth There ought to be no other Conscience in a Kingdom or Commonwealth besides the Law of the Countrey the allowance of Private Conscience being ipso facto a Dissolution of the Body Politick and a Return to the State of Nature Upon all these accounts it must needs be acknowledged that those Philosophers who undermine and weaken Theism and Religion do highly deserve of all Civil Sovereigns and Common-wealths XXII Now from all the premised Considerations the Democriticks confidently conclude against a Deity That the System and Compages of the Universe had not its Original from any Vnderstanding Nature but that Mind and Vnderstanding it self as well as all things else in the World sprung up from Sensless Nature and Chance or from the unguided and undirected Motion of Matter Which is therefore called by the Name of Nature because whatsoever moves is moved by Nature and Necessity and the mutual Occursions and Rencounters of Atoms their Plagae their Stroaks and Dashings against one another their Reflexions and Repercussions their Cohesions Implexions and Entanglements as also their Scattered Dispersions and Divulsions are all Natural and Necessary but it is called also by the name of Chance and Fortune because it is all unguided by any Mind Counsel or Design Wherefore Infinite Atoms of different sizes and figures devoid of all Life and Sense moving Fortuitously from Eternity in infinite Space and making successively several Encounters and consequently various Implexions and Entanglements with one another produced first a confused Chaos of these Omnifarious Particles jumbling together with infinite variety of Motions which afterward by the tugging of their different and contrary forces whereby they all hindred and abated each other came as it were by joint Conspiracy to be Conglomerated into a Vortex or Vortices where after many Convolutions and Evolutions Molitions and Essays in which all manner of Tricks were tried and all Forms imaginable experimented they chanced in length of time here to settle into this Form and System of things which now is of Earth Water Air and Fire Sun Moon and Stars Plants Animals and Men So that Sensless Atoms fortuitously moved and Material Chaos were the first Original of all things This Account of the Cosmopoeia and first Original of the Mundane System is represented by Lucretius according to the mind of Epicurus though without any mention of those Vortices which yet were an essential part of the old Democritick Hypothesis Sed quibus ille modis conjectus material Fundarit coelum ac terram pontÃque profunda Solis lunaï cursus ex ordine ponam Nam certè neque consilio primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locarunt Nec quos quaeque dárent motus pepigere profectò Sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum Ex infinito jam tempore percita plagis Ponderibúsque suis consuerunt concita ferri Omni'modisque coire atque omnia pertentare Quaecunque inter se possent congressa creare Proptereà fit utì magnum volgata per aevum Omnigenos coetus motus experiundo Tandem ea conveniant quae ut convenere repentè Magnarum rerum fiant exordia saepe Terraï Maris Coeli generÃsque Animantum But because some seem to think that Epicurus was the first Founder and Inventor of this Doctrine we shall here observe that this same Atheistick Hypothesis was long before described by Plato when Epicurus was as yet unborn and therefore doubtless according to the Doctrine of Leucippus Democritus and Protagoras though that Philosopher in a kind of disdain as it seems refused to mention either of their Names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Atheists say that Fire Water Air and Earth i. e. the four Elements were all made by Nature and Chance and none of them by Art or Mind that is they were made by the fortuitous Motion of Atoms and not by any Deity And that those other Bodies of the Terrestrial Globe of the Sun the Moon and the Stars which by all except these Atheists were in those times generally supposed to be Animated and a kind of Inferiour Deities were afterwards made out of the foresaid Elements being altogether Inanimate For they being moved fortuitously or as it happened and so making various commixtures together did by that means at length produce the whole Heavens and all things in them as likewise Plants and Animals here upon earth all which were not made by Mind nor by Art nor by any God but as we said before by Nature and Chance Art and Mind it self rising up afterwards from the same Sensless Principles in Animals CHAP. III. An Introduction to the Confutation of the Atheistick Grounds in which is contained a particular Accompt of all the several Forms of Atheism 1. That the Grounds of the Hylozoick Atheism could not be insisted on in the former Chapter together with those of the Atomick they being directly contrary each to other with a further Accompt of this Hylozoick Atheism 2. A Suggestion by way of Caution for the preventing of all mistakes That every Hylozoist must not therefore be condemned for an Atheist or a mere Counterfeit Histrionical Theist 3. That nevertheless such Hylozoists as are also Corporealists can by no means be excused from the Imputation of Atheism for Two Reasons 4. That Strato Lampsacenus commonly called Physicus seems to have been the first Asserter of the Hylozoick Atheism he holding no other God but the Life of Nature in Matter 5. Further proved that Strato was an Atheist and that of a different Form from Democritus he attributing an Energetick Nature but without Sense and Animality to all Matter 6. That Strato not deriving all things from a mere Fortuitous Principle as the Democritick Atheists did nor yet acknowledging any one Plastick Nature to preside over the Whole but deducing the Original of things from a Mixture of Chance and Plastick Nature both together in the several parts of Matter must therefore needs be an Hylozoick Atheist 7. That the famous Hippocrates was neither an Hylozoick nor Democritick Atheist but rather an Heraclitick Corporeal Theist 8. That Plato took no Notice of the Hylozoick Atheism nor of any other then what derives the Original of all things from a mere Fortuitous Nature and therefore either the Democritical or the Anaximandrian Atheism which latter will be next declared 9. That it is hardly imaginable there should have been no Philosophick Atheists in the World before Democritus and Leucippus there being in all Ages as Plato observes some or other sick of the Atheistick Disease That Aristotle affirms many of the first Philosophers to have assigned only a Material Cause of the Mundane System without either Efficient or Intending Cause They supposing Matter to be the only Substance and all things else nothing but the Passions and Accidents of it
That the first Elements Fire water Air and Earth were all made by Nature and Chance without any Art or Method and then that the bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars and the whole Heavens were afterward made out of those Elements as devoid of all manner of Life and only fortuitously moved and mingled together and lastly that the whole Mundane System together with the orderly Seasons of the year as also Plants Animals and Men did arise after the same manner from the mere Fortuitous Motion of sensless and stupid Matter In the very same manner does Plato state this Controversie again betwixt Theists and Atheists in his Philebus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether shall we say O Protarchus that this whole Vniverse is dispensed ond ordered by a mere Irrational Temerarious and Fortuitous Principle and so as it happens or contrariwise as our fore-fathers have instructed us that Mind and a certain Wonderful Wisdom did at first frame and does still govern all things Wherefore we conclude that Plato took no notice of any other Form of Atheism as then set on foot than such as derives all things from a mere Fortuitous Principle from Nature and Chance that is the unguided Motion of Matter without any Plastick Artificialness or Methodicalness either in the whole Universe or the parts of it But because this kind of Atheism which derives all things from a mere Fortuitous Nature had been managed two manner of ways by Democritus in the way of Atoms and by Anaximander and others in the way of Forms and Qualities of which we are to speak in the next place therefore the Atheism which Plato opposes was either the Democritick or the Anaximandrian Atheism or else which is most probable both of them together IX It is hardly imaginable that there should be no Philosophick Atheists in the world before Democritus and Leucippus Plato long since concluded that there have been Atheists more or less in every Age when he bespeaks his young Atheist after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The full sence whereof seems to be this Neither you my Son nor your friends Democritus Leucippus and Protagoras are the first who have entertained this Opinion concerning the Gods but there have been always some more or less sick of this Atheistick Disease Wherefore we shall now make a diligent search and enquiry to see if we can find any other Philosophers who Atheized before Democritus and Leucippus as also what Form of Atheism they entertained Aristotle in his Metaphysicks speaking of the Quaternio of Causes affirms that many of those who first Philosophized assigned only a Material Cause of the whole Mundane System without either Intending or Efficient Cause The reason whereof he intimates to have been this because they asserted Matter to be the only Substance and that whatsoever else was in the World besides the substance or bulk of Matter were all nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 different Passions and Affections Accidents and Qualities of Matter that were all Generated out of it and Corruptible again into it the Substance of Matter always remaining the same neither Generated nor Corrupted but from Eternity unmade Aristotle's words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Most of those who first philosophized took notice of no other Principle of things in the Vniverse than what is to be referred to the Material Cause for that out of which all things are and out of which they are first made and into which they are all at last corrupted and resolved the Substance always remaining the same and being changed only in its Passions and Qualities This they concluded to be the first Original and Principle of all things X. But the meaning of these old Material Philosophers will be better understood by those Exceptions which Aristotle makes against them which are Two First that because they acknowledged no other Substance besides Matter that might be an Active Principle in the Universe it was not possible for them to give any account of the Original of Motion and Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though all Generation be made never so much out of something as the Matter yet the question still is by what means this cometh to pass and what is the Active Cause which produceth it because the Subject-matter cannot change it self As for example neither Timber nor Brass is the cause that either of them are changed for Timber alone does not make a Bed nor Brass a Statue but there must be something else as the Cause of the Change and to enquire after this is to enquire after another Principle besides Matter which we would call that from whence Motion springs In which words Aristotle intimates that these old Material Philosopers shuffled in Motion and Action into the World unaccountably or without a Cause forasmuch as they acknowledged no other Principle of Things besides Passive Matter which could never move change or alter it self XI And Aristotle's second Exception against these old Material Philosophers is this that since there could be no Intending Causality in Sensless and Stupid Matter which they made to be the only Principle of all things they were not able to assign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Cause of Well and Fit and so could give no account of the Regular and Orderly Frame of this Mundane System 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That things partly are so well in the World and partly are made so well cannot be imputed either to Earth or Water or any other sensless Body much less is it reasonable to attribute so noble and Excellent an Effect as this to mere Chance or Fortune Where Aristotle again intimates that as these Material Philosophers shuffled in Motion into the world without a Cause so likewise they must needs suppose this Motion to be altogether Fortuitous and Unguided and thereby in a manner make Fortune which is nothing but the absence or defect of an Intending Cause to supply the room both of the Active and Intending Cause that is Efficient and Final Whereupon Aristotle subjoyns a Commendation of Anaxagoras as the first of the Ionick Philosophers who introduced Mind or Intellect for a Principle in the Universe that in this respect he alone seemed to be sober and in his wits comparatively with those others that went before him who talked so idly and Atheistically For Anaxagoras his Principle was such saith Aristotle as was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once a cause of Motion and also of Well and Fit of all the Regularity Aptitude Pulchritude and Order that is in the whole Universe And thus it seems Anaxagoras himself had determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaxagoras saith that Mind is the only Cause of Right and Well this being proper to Mind to aim at Ends and Good and to order one thing Fitly for the sake of another Whence it was that Anaxagoras concluded Good also as well as Mind to have been a Principle of the Universe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
thence by Rarefaction and Condensation Thus we see it is plain that Anaximander's Infinite was no Infinite Mind which is the true Deity but only Infinite Matter devoid of any Life or Active Power Eusebius is more particular in giving an account of Anaximander's Cosmopoeia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaximander affirms Infinite Matter to be the only Cause of the Generation and Corruption of all things And that the Heavens and Infinite Worlds were made out of it by way of Secretion or Segregation Also that those Generative Principles of Heat and Cold that were conteined in it from Eternity being Segregated when this World was made a certain Sphere of Flame or Fire did first arise and incompass the Air which surrounds this Earth a sa Bark doth a Tree which being afterwards broken and divided into smaller Spherical Bodies constituted the Sun and Moon and all the Stars Which Anaximandrian Cosmopoeia was briefly hinted by Aristotle in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some Philosophers Generate the World by the Secretion and Segregation of inexistent Contrarieties as Anaximander speaks And elsewere in his Metaphysicks he takes notice of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaximander 's Mixture of things Whence we conclude that Anaximander's Infinite was nothing else but an Infinite Chaos of Matter in which were either Actually or Potentially conteined all manner of Qualities by the Fortuitous Secretion and Segregation of which he supposed Infinite Worlds to be successively Generated and Corrupted So that we may now easily guess whence Leucippus and Democritus had their Infinite Worlds and perceive how near a kin these two Atheistick Hypotheses were But it will not be amiss to take notice also of that Particular Conceit which Anaximander had concerning the First Original of Brute Animals and Mankind Of the Former Plutarch gives us this account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the First Animals were generated in Moisture and encompass'd about with certain Thorny Barks by which they were guarded and defended which after further growth coming to be more Dry and Cracking they issued forth but lived only a short time after And as for the first Original of Men Eusebius represents his Sence thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men were at first generated in the Bellies of other Animals forasmuch as all other Animals after they are brought forth are quickly able to feed and nourish themselves but Man alone needs to be nursed up a long time and therefore could not be preserved at first in any other way But Plutarch expresseth this something more particularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaximander concludes that Men were at first Generated in the Bellies of Fishes and being there nourished till they grew strong and were able to shift for themselves they were afterward cast out upon Dry Land Lastly Anaximander's Theology is thus both represented to us and censured by Velleius the Epicurean Philosopher in Cicero Anaximandri opinio est Nativos esse Deos longis Intervallis Orientes Occidentésque cósque innumerabiles esse Mundos sed nos Deum nisi Sempiternum intelligere quî possumus Anaximander 's Opinion is that the Gods are Native rising and vanishing again in long Periods of times and that these Gods are Innumerable Worlds but how can we conceive that to be a God which is not Eternal We learn from hence that Anaximander did indeed so far comply with Vulgar Opinion as that he retained the Name of Gods but however that he really denied the Existence of the thing it self even according to the judgment of this Epicurean Philosopher Forasmuch as all his Gods were Native and Mortal and indeed nothing else but those Innumerable Worlds which he supposed in certain Periods of Time to be successively Generated and Destroyed Wherefore it is plain that Anaximander's only Real Numen that is his First Principle that was Ingenerable and Incorruptible was nothing but Infinite Matter devoid of all Understanding and Life by the Fortuitous Secretion of whose inexistent Qualities and Parts he supposed First the Elements of Earth Water Air and Fire and then the Bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars and both Bodies and Souls of men and other Animals and lastly Innumerable or Infinite such Worlds as these as so many Secundary and Native Gods that were also Mortal to have been Generated according to that Atheistical Hypothesis described in Plato XXIV It is certain that the Vulgar in all Ages have been very ill Judges of Theists and Atheists they having condemned many hearty Theists as guilty of Atheism merely because they dissented from them in some of their Superstitious Rites and Opinions As for example Anaxagoras the Clazomenian though he was the first of all the Ionick Philosophers unless Thales ought to be excepted who made an Infinite Mind to be a Principle that is asserted a Deity according to the true Notion of it yet he was notwithstanding generally cried down for an Atheist merely because he affirmed the Sun to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mass of Fire or a Fiery Globe and the Moon to be an Earth that is because he denied them to be Animated and endued with Understanding Souls and consequently to be Gods So likewise Socrates was both accused and condemned for Atheistical Impiety as denying all Gods though nothing was pretended to be proved against him but only this that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teach that those were not true Gods which the City worshipt and in the room thereof introduce other new Gods And lastly the Christians in the Primitive times for the same reason were vulgarly traduced for Atheists by the Pagans as Justin Martyr declares in his Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are called Atheists and we confess our selves such in respect of those Gods which they worship but not of the true God And as the Vulgar have unjustly condemned many Theists for Atheists so have they also acquitted many Rank Atheists from the Guilt of that Crime merely because they externally complied with them in their Religious Worship and Forms of Speech Neither is it only the Vulgar that have been imposed upon herein but also the Generality of Learned men who have been commonly so superficial in this business as that they have hardly taken notice of above three or four Atheists that ever were in former times as namely Diagoras Theodorus Euemerus and Protagoras whereas Democritus and Anaximander were as rank Atheists as any of them all though they had the wit to carry themselves externally with more Cautiousness And indeed it was really one and the self-same Form of Atheism which both these entertained they deriving all things alike from Dead and Stupid Matter Fortuitously Moved the Difference between them being only this that they managed it two different ways Anaximander in the way of Qualities and Forms which is the more Vulgar and Obvious kind of Atheism but Democritus in the way of Atoms and Figures which seems to be a more learned kind of
of Darkness Another God makes a World out of it c. And again afterwards he writes further to the same purpose Discat ergò Faustus Monarchiae Opinionem non ex Gentibus nos habere sed Gentes non usque adeò ad Falsos Deos esse dilapsas ut Opinionem amitterent Vnius Veri Dei ex quo est Omnis qualiscunque Natura Let Faustus therefore know that We Christians have not derived the Opinion of Monarchy from the Pagans but that the Pagans have not so far degenerated sinking down into the Worship of false Gods as to have lost the Opinion of One True God from whom is all Whatsoever Nature XIV It follows from what we have declared that the Pagan Polytheism or Multiplicity of Gods is not to be understood in the sence before expressed of Many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many Vnproduced and Self-existent Deities but according to some other Notion or Equivocation of the word Gods For God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of those words that hath been used in many different sences the Atheists themselves acknowledging a God and Gods according to some Private Sences of their own which yet they do not all agree in neither and Theists not always having the same Notion of that Word Forasmuch as Angels in Scripture are called Gods in one sence that is as Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men Immortal Holy and Happy and the word is again sometimes carried down lower to Princes and Magistrates and not only so but also to Good men as such when they are said to be Made Partakers of the Divine Nature And thus that learned Philosopher and Christian Boethius Omnis Beatus Deus sed Natura quidem Vnus Participatione verò nihil prohibet esse quamplurimos every Good and Happy man is a God and though there be only One God by Nature yet nothing hinders but that there may be Many by Participation But then again all Men and Angels are alike denied to be Gods in other Respects and particularly as to Religious Worship Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou Serve Now this is that which seems to be Essentially included in the Pagan Notion of the word God or Gods when taken in general namely a Respect to Religious Worship Wherefore a God in general according to the sence of the Pagan Theists may be thus defined An Vnderstanding Being superiour to Men not originally derived from Sensless Matter and look'd upon as an Object for mens Religious Worship But this general Notion of the word God is again restrained and limited by Differences in the Division of it For such a God as this may be either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ingenerate or Vnproduced and consequently Self-existent or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Generated or Produced and Dependent on some Higher Being as its Cause In the former sence the Intelligent Pagans as we have declared acknowledged only One God who was therefore called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that of Thales in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the oldest of all things because he is Vnmade or Vnproduced and the only thing that is so but in the latter they admitted of Many Gods Many Vnderstanding Beings which though Generated or Produced yet were Superiour to Men and look'd upon as Objects for their Religious Worship And thus the Pagan Theists were both Polytheists and Monotheists in different Sences they acknowledged both Many Gods and One God that is Many Inferiour Deities subordinate to One Supreme Thus Onatus the Pythagorean in Stobaeus declares himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seemeth to me that there is not only One God but that there is One the Greatest and Highest God that governeth the whole World and that there are Many other Gods besides him differing as to power that One God reigning over them all who surmounts them all in Power Greatness and Vertue This is that God who conteins and comprehends the whole World but the other Gods are those who together with the Revolution of the Vniverse orderly follow that First and Intelligible God Where it is evident that Onatus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Many Gods were only the Heavenly Bodies or Animated Stars And partly from those words cited but chiefly others which follow after in the same place that will be produced elsewhere it plainly appears that in Onatus his time there were some who acknowledged One Only God denying all those other Gods then commonly Worshipped And indeed Anaxagoras seems to have been such a one forasmuch as asserting One Perfect Mind Ruling over all which is the True Deity he effectually degraded all those other Pagan Gods the Sun Moon and Stars from their Godships by making the Sun nothing but a Globe of Fire and the Moon Earth and Stones and the like of the other Stars and Planets And some such there were also amongst the Ancient Egyptians as shall be declared in due place Moreover Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus tells us that there hath been always less doubt and controversie in the World concerning the One God than concerning the Many Gods Wherefore Onatus here declares his own sence as to this particular viz. that besides the One Supreme God there were also Many other Inferiour Deities that is Vnderstanding Beings that ought to be Religiously Worshipped But because it is not impossible but that there might be imagin'd One Supreme Deity though there were many other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnmade made and Self-existent Gods besides as Plutarch supposed before One Supreme God together with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Irrational Soul or Daemon Vnmade Inferiour in power to it therefore we add in the next place that the more Intelligent Pagans did not only assert One God that was Supreme and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Powerful of all the Gods but also who being Omnipotent was the Principle and Cause of all the rest and therefore the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Vnproduced and Self-existent Deity Maximus Tyrius affirms this to have been the general sence of all the Pagans that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One God the King and Father of all and many Gods the Sons of God reigning together with God Neither did the Poets imply any thing less when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so often called by the Greeks and Jupiter by the Latins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Hominum Pater atque Deorum or Hominum Satórque Deorum and the like And indeed the Theogonia of the ancient Pagans before mention'd was commonly thus declared by them universally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Gods were Generated or as Herodotus expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every one of the Gods was Generated or Produced which yet is not so to be understood as if they had therefore supposed no God at all Vnmade or Self-exâ—stent which is Absolute Atheism but that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the
matter but taking Plato in all this to have been in very good earnest interprets these Poetick Gods or Demons mentioned by him to be the Gods below the Moon notwithstanding that the Earth was mentioned before by Plato calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gods that cause Generation and seeming to understand thereby the Animated Elements Jupiter being here not taken as he is often elsewhere for the Supreme God but only for the Animated Ether as Juno for the Animated Air. And upon this occasion he runs out into a long Dispute to prove that not only the Stars were Animated but also all the other Sublunary Bodies or Elements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if the whole World be a Happy God then none of the Parts of it are Godless or devoid of Providence but if all things partake of God and Providence then are they not unfurnisht of the Divine Nature and if so there must be some peculiar Orders of Gods presiding over them For if the Heavens by reason of particular Souls and Minds partake of that one Soul and one Mind why should we not conclude the same concerning the Elements that they also by certain intermedious Orders of Gods partake of that One Divinity of the whole World Wherefore a little before the same Proclus highly condemns certain Ancient Physiologers whom he supposeth Aristotle to have followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Elements were thought by most of the Ancient Physiologers to be Inanimate and to be moved Fortuitously without Providence For though they acknowledged the Heavenly Bodies by reason of that Order that appears in them to partake of Mind and Gods yet they left this Sublunary World or Genesis to Float up and down without Providence And these Aristotle afterwards followed appointing immoveable Intelligences to preside over the Celestial Sphears only whether Eight or more but leaving all the lower Elements Dead and Inanimate Lastly besides all those other Mundane Gods before mentioned as Generated together with the World though Proclus seem to be of another Opinion yet it is manifest that Plato doth not there in his Timaeus altogether forget those properly called Daemons elsewhere so much insisted upon by him but in the very next following words he plainly insinuates them after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gods which appear visibly to us as often as they please or which can appear and disappear at pleasure speaking also of their Genesis or Generation as part of the Cosmogonia and then again afterwards calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Junior Gods he describes them as those whose particular Office it was to superintend and preside over Humane Affairs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to govern this mortal Animal Man after the best manner possible so that he should no otherwise fail of doing well or being happy than as he became a cause of Evil and Misery to himself by the abuse of his own Liberty And thus much out of Plato's Timaeus but the same thing might be proved also out of his other Writings as particularly from that Passage in his Tenth Book of Laws where he takes notice again of the Theogonia of the Ancients and that as it had been depraved and corrupted by a great mixture of Impious and Immoral Fables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are saith he extant amongst us Athenians certain stories and traditions very ancient concerning the Gods written partly in Metre and partly in Prose declaring how the Heaven and the other Gods were at first made or Generated and then carrying on their fabulous Theogonia farther how these Generated Gods afterward conversed with one another and ingendring after the manner of men begat other Gods Where that Philosopher taking off his vizard plainly discovers his great dislike of that whole Fabulous Theogonia however he acknowledges elsewhere that it did contain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Physiological Allegories under it as a thing that was destructive of all Piety and Vertue by reason of its attributing all Humane Passions and Vices to the Gods However it plainly appears from hence that the Theogonia and the Cosmogonia were one and the same thing the Generation of the Gods being here the Generation of the Heaven and of the Sun Moon and Stars and the like Moreover this same thing is sufficiently manifest also even from Hesiod's own Theogonia which doubtless was that which Plato principally aimed at and if it were not absolutely the First yet is it the most ancient Writing now extant in that kind For there in the beginning of that Poem Hesiod invokes his Muses after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvete natae Jovis date verò amabilem cantilenam Celebrate quoque immortalium divinum genus semper existentium Qui Tellure prognati sunt Coelo stellato Noctéque caliginosâ quos item salsus nutrivit Pontus Dicite insuper ut primùm Dii Terra facti fuerint Et Flumina Pontus immensus aestu fervens Astraque sulgentia Caelum latum supernè Et qui ex his nati sunt Dii datores bonorum Where we see plainly that the Generation of the Gods is the Generation of the Earth Heaven Stars Seas Rivers and other things begotten from them as probably amongst the rest Demons and Nymphs which the same Hesiod speaks of elsewhere But immediatly after this Invocation of the Muses the Poet begins with Chaos and Tartara and Love as the First Principles and then procedes to the Production of the Earth and of Night out of Chaos of the Ether and of Day from Night of the Starry Heavens Mountains and Seas c. All which Genesis or Generation of Gods is really nothing but a Poetical Description of the Cosmogonia as throughout the Sequele of that whole Poem all seems to be Physiology veiled under Fiction and Allegories And thus the Ancient Scholia upon that Book begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must know that the whole Doctrine of the Theogonia contains under it in way of Allegory a Physiological Declaration of things Hesiod's Gods being not only the Animated Parts of the World but also all the other Things of Nature fictitiously Personated and Deified or Abusively called Gods and Goddesses Neither was this only the Doctrine of the Greeks that the World was thus Made or Generated and that the Generation of the World was a Theogonia or a Generation of Gods the World it self and its several Parts being accounted such by them but also in like manner of the other Barbarian Pagans For Diogenes Laertius hath recorded concerning the Persian Magi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they did both assert the Being and Generation of Gods and also that these Gods were Fire and Earth and Water that is That the Animated Elements were Gods as Proclus also before declared and
we mention any in way of Proof we shall premise this Observation or rather Suspicion of our own That there seem to be some Orphick Verses supposititious as well as there were Sibylline they being counterfeited either by Christians or Jews For we must freely profess for our own part that we cannot believe all that to be genuine which is produced by ancient Fathers as Orphical that is either to have been written by Orpheus himself or else by Onomacritus or any other Pagan of that Antiquity according to the Orphick Cabala or Tradition As for example this concerning Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt habet sermo antiquorum ut Ex-aqua-ortus descripsit Acceptâ divinitùs Lege quae Duplicia Praecepta continet And this that is commonly understood of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non enim quispiam mortalium videre posset eum qui hominibus imperat Nisi Vnigenitus quidam profectus ab antiqua origine Gentis Chaldaeorum Sciebat enim astri cursum The manifest Forgery of which might make one suspect also some other Passages such as this concerning the Divine Logos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it being not ingenuous to lay stress upon that for the Proof of any thing which our selves believe not to be sincere and genuine we shall here cite no Orphick Verses for the acknowledgment of One Supreme Deity but only such as we find attested in Pagan Writings As first of all that Copy produced by Proclus upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this Sence Wherefore together with the Vniverse were made within Jupiter the Heighth of the Ethereal Heaven the Breadth of the Earth and Sea the great Ocean the Profound Tartara the Rivers and Fountains and all the other things all the Immortal Gods and Goddesses Whatsoever hath been or shall be was ot once conteined in the Womb of Jupiter Proclus understands this of the Idea's of all things being in God before the World was produced that is in order of Nature only he supposing them in time Coeve However it is plain that all things are said to be conteined in the Womb and Fecundity of One Self-originated Deity not only all the other Gods and Goddesses but every thing else whatsoever Again Proclus in the same place ushers in another Copy of Orphick Verses which are also found in the Writer de Mundo after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Demiurgus or Maker of the World being full of Ideas did by these comprehend all things within himself as that Theologer also declareth in these following Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which likewise in plain Prose is this The high-thundering Jove is both the First and the Last Jove is both the Head and Middle of all things All things were made out of Jupiter Jove is both a Man and an Immortal Maid Jove is the Profundity of the Earth and Starry Heaven Jove is the Breath of all things Jove is the Force of the untameable Fire Jove the Bottom of the Sea Jove is Sun Moon and Stars Jove is both the Original and King of all things There is one Power and One God and one great Ruler over all Where though there be many strange Expressions yet this seems to be the strangest of them all that Jupiter should be said to be both a Man and an Immortal Maid But this is nothing but a Poetick Description of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and Female together And it was a thing very familar with all the Mystical Theologers amongst the Pagans to call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Male and Female together they signifying thereby Emphatically The Divine Fecundity or the Generative and Creative Power of the Deity that God was able from himself alone to produce all things Thus Damascius the Philosopher writing of this very Orphick Theology expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Orphick Theology calls the First Principle Hermaphroditick or Male and Female together thereby denoting that Essence that is Generative or Productive of all things And that Learned and Pious Christian Bishop Synesius it seems thought the Expression so harmless that he scrupled not himself to make use of it in those elegant and devout Hymns of his to God Almighty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tu Pater Tu es Mater Tu Mas Tu Foemina Besides these there are also certain other Orphick Verses scatter'd up and down in Proclus but cited altogether in Eusebius out of Porphyrius in which the whole World is represented as One Great Animal God being the Soul thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Omnia Regali sunt haec in corpore clausa Ignis Vnda Terra Aether cum Nocte Dieque Consilium Primus Genitor cum Numine Amoris Juppiter immenso sub Corpore cuncta coerect En hujus Caput Eximium Vultúsque decoros Vndique resplendens Coelum cui pendula circum Aurea Caesaries Astrorum lumina fundit Sunt oculi Phoebus Phoeboque adversa recurrens Cynthia c. Where probably that one Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though truly Orphical and indeed Divine it signifying that Mind and Love were the First Begetters and Original of all things was notwithstanding clap'd in unduly out of some other place But from all these Citations it plainly appears that according to the Orphick Theology though there were many Ghds and Goddesses too admitted yet there was One Original and King of them all One Supreme Deity acknowledged We are not ignorant that some of the ancient and learned Fathers conceiving it contradictious for Orpheus at the same time to assert both Many Gods and One God apprehended this to be a convenient Salvo for this Difficulty to suppose that Orpheus had by Fits and Turns been of different Humours and Perswasions First a Rank Polytheist asserting Three Hundred Gods and more and then afterwards a Converted Monotheist they being the rather led into this Opinion by reason of certain Counterfeit Orphick Verses in Aristobulus made probably by some ignorant Jew wherein Orpheus is made to sing a Palinodia or Recantation for his former Error and Polytheism But we must crave lieve with all due respect to dissent from Reverend Antiquity in this it plainly appearing from that First Orphick Exception in Proclus that Orpheus at the same time acknowledged both One Vnmade Deity the Original of all
things and Many Generated Gods and Goddesses that were all conteined in it Having now made it sufficiently evident from such Orphick Fragments as have been acknowledged by Pagan Writers and by them cited out of Orpheus his Hymns and Rapsodies that the Opinion of Monarchy or One Self-existent Deity the Original of all things was an Essential Part of the Orphick Theology or Cabala we shall here further observe that besides this Opinion of Monarchy but consistently with the same a Trinity also of Divine Hypostases Subordinate was another part of this Orphick Cabala Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus making an Enquiry into Plato's Demiurgus or Opifex of the World gives us an accompt amongst other Platonists of the Doctrine of Amelius who was contemporary with Plotinus and who is said to have taken notice of what St. John the Evangelist had written concerning the Logos as agreeing with the Platonick and Pythagorick Hypothesis after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Passage being very remarkable we thought fit to set it down at large and shall here translate it Amelius makes a Threefold Demiurgus or Opifex of the World Three Minds and Three Kings Him that Is Him that Hath and Him that Beholds Which Three Minds differ thus in that the First is Essentially that which he is or all Perfection The Second Is its own Intelligible but Hath the First as something distinct from it and indeed partakes thereof and therefore is Second The Third Is also that Intelligible of its own for every Mind is the same thing with its correspondent Intelligible but Hath that which is in the Second and Beholds the First For how much soever every Being departs from the First so much the Obscurer is it After which Proclus immediately subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amelius therefore supposeth These three Minds and Demiurgick Principles of his to be both the same with Plato 's Three Kings and with Orpheus his Trinity of Phanes Uranus and Chronus but Phanes is supposed by him to be principally the Demiurgus Where though Proclus who had some Peculiar Phansies and Whimseys of his own and was indeed a Confounder of the Platonick Theology and a Mingler of much Unintelligible Stuff with it does himself assert a Monad or Vnity Superior to this Whole Trinity yet does he seem nevertheless rightly to contend against Amelius that it was not the First Hypostasis neither in the Platonick nor Orphick Trinity that was chiefly and properly the Demiurgus or Opifex of the World but the Secâ—nd And thus Proclus his Master Syrianus had before determined that in the Orphick Theology the Title of Opifex did properly belong to Orpheus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or First-begotten God which was the same with Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Divine Intellect Agreeably whereunto Proclus his Conclusion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much may suffice to have declared who is the Demiurgus of the World namely that it is the Divine Intellect which is the proper and immediate Cause of the whole Creation and that it is one and the same Demiurgical Jupiter that is praised both by Orpheus and Plato Now besides this it is observable that Damascius in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Concerning the Principles not yet published giving an account of the Orphick Theology tells us amongst other things that Orpheus introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Triform Deity To all which may be added what was before cited out of Timotheus the Chronographer That God had Three Names Light Counsel and Life and that all things were made by one Deity under these Three several Names Where Cedrenus the Preserver of that excellent Fragment of Antiquity concludes in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things Timotheus the Chronographer wrote affirming Orpheus so long ago to have declared That All things were made by a Coessential or Consubstantial Trinity Which though otherwise it might be looked upon suspiciously because that Timotheus was a Christian especially in regard of that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet by comparing it with what we have before alledged out of Pagan Writers it appears that so far as concerns an Orphick Trinity it was not altogether vainly Written or without Ground by him But we have not yet done with Orpheus and the Orphick Theology before we have made one further Reflection upon it so as to take notice of that strong and rank Haut-goust which was in it of making God to be All. As for example if we may repeat the forecited Passages and put in the Name of God instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Vniverse and all things belonging to it were made within God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things were contained together in the Womb of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the Head and Middle of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God is the Basis of the Earth and Heaven God is the Depth of the Sea God is the Breath of all or the Air that we breath God is the Force of the Vntameable Fire God is Sun Moon and Stars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is One Kingly or Divine Body and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For All these things lie in the Great Body of God And thus was the Orphick Theology before represented also by Timotheus the Chronographer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things were made by God and Himself is All Things But further to prove that the ancient Greekish Pagans were indeed of such a Religious Humour as this to resolve All Things into God and to make God All we shall here cite a Remarkable Testimony of Plutarch's out of his Defect of Oracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereas there are Two Causes of all Generation the Divine and the Natural the most ancient Theologers and Poets attended only to the more excellent of these Two the Divine Cause resolving all things into God and pronouncing this of them universally That God was both the Beginning and Middle and that all things were out of God Insomuch that these had no regard at all to the other Natural and Necessary Causes of things But on the contrary their Juniours who were called Physici or Naturalists straying from this most excellent and Divine Principle placed all in Bodies their Passions Collisions Mutations and Commixtures together Where by the most ancient Theologers and Poets Plutarch plainly meant Orpheus and his Followers it being an Orphick Verse that is here cited by him whereby he gives also an acknowledgment of their Antiquity But by their Juniors who are called Physici he could understand no other than those First Ionick Philosophers Anaximander Anaximenes Hippo and the rest whom those Degenerate Italicks afterward followed Atomizing Atheistically Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus So that here we have another Confirmation also of what was before asserted by us that the Ionick
high Encomium for their Sanctity and Herodotus affirmeth of them that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exceedingly more Religious and more Devout Worshippers of the Deity than all other Mortals Wherefore they were highly celebrated by Apollo's Oracle recorded by Porphyrius and preferred before all other Nations for teaching rightly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hard and difficult way that leadeth to God and Happiness But in the Scripture Aegypt is famous for her Idols and for her Spiritual Whoredoms and Fornications to denote the uncleanness whereof she is sometimes joyned with Sodom For the Egyptians besides all those other Gods that were worshipped by the Greeks and other Barbarians besides the Stars Demons and Heroes and those Artificial Gods which they boasted so much of their power of making viz. Animated Statues had this peculiar Intoxication of their own which render'd them infamous and ridiculous even amongst all the other Pagans that they worshipped Brute Animals also in one sence or other Quis nescit Volusi Bithynice qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colat Crocodilon adorat Pars haec illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin Concerning which Origen against Celsus thus writeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that cometh to be a Spectator of the Egyptian Worship there first offer themselves to his view most splendid and stately Temples sumptuously adorned together with solemn Groves and many pompous Rites and mystical Ceremonies but as soon as he enters in he perceives that it was either a Cat or an Ape a Crocodile or a Goat or a Dog that was the Object of this Religious Worship But notwithstanding this multifarious Polytheism and Idolatry of these Egyptians that they did nevertheless acknowledge One Supreme and Vniversal Numen may first be probably collected from that great Fame which they had anciently over the whole World for their Wisdom The Egyptians are called by the Elei in Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisest of Men and it is a commendation that is given to one in the same Writer That he excelled the Egyptians in wisdom who excelled all other Mortals Thus is it set down in the Scripture for Moses his Encomium that he was learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians and the Transcendency of Solomon's Wisdom is likewise thus expressed by the Writer of the Book of Kings that it excelled the Wisdom of all the Children of the East-country and all the Wisdom of Egypt Where by the Children of the East are chiefly meant the Persian Magi and the Chaldeans and there seems to be a Climax here that Solomon's Wisdom did not only excel the Wisdom of the Magi and of the Chaldeans but also that of the Egyptians themselves From whence it appears that in Solomon's time Egypt was the chief School of Literature in the whole World and that the Greeks were then but little or not at all taken notice of nor had any considerable fame for Learning For which cause we can by no means give credit to that of Philo in the Life of Moses that besides the Egyptian Priests Learned men were sent for by Pharaoh's Daughter out of Greece to instruct Moses Whereas it is manifest from the Greekish Monuments themselves that for many Ages after Solomon's time the most famous of the Greeks travell'd into Egypt to receive Culture and Literature as Lycurgus Solon Thales and many others amongst whom were Pythagoras and Plato Concerning the former of which Isocrates writes that coming into Egypt and being there instructed by the Priests he was the first that brought Philosophy into Greece and the latter of them is perstringed by Xenophon because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not contented with that simple Philosophy of Socrates which was little else besides Morality he was in love with Egypt and that monstrous Wisdom of Pythagoras Now as it is not probable that the Egyptians who were so famous for Wisdom and Learning should be ignorant of One Supreme Deity so is it no small Argument to the contrary that they were had in so great esteem by those Two Divine Philosophers Pythagoras and Plato We grant indeed that after the Greeks began to flourish in all manner of Literature the Fame of the Egyptians was not only much eclipsed so that we hear no more of Greeks travelling into Egypt upon the former accompt but also that their ardour towards the liberal Sciences did by degrees languish and abate so that Strabo in his time could find little more in Egypt besides the empty Houses and Pallaces in which Priests formerly famous for Astronomy and Philosophy had dwelt Nevertheless their Arcane Theology remained more or less amongst them unextinct to the last as appears from what Origen Porphyrius and Jamblichus have written concerning them The Learning of the Egyptians was either Historical or Philosophical or Theological First the Egyptians were famous for their Historick Learning and Knowledge of Antiquity they being confessed in Plato to have had so much ancienter Records of Time than the Greeks that the Greeks were but Children or Infants compared with them They pretended to a continued and uninterrupted series of History from the Beginning of the World downward and therefore seem to have had the clearest and strongest Perswasions of the Cosmogonia Indeed it cannot be denied but that this Tradition of the World's Beginning was at first in a manner Universal among all Nations For concerning the Greeks and Persians we have already manifested the same and as Sancuniathon testifieth the like concerning the Phenicians so does Strabo likewise of the Indian Brachmans affirming that they did agree with the Greeks in many things and Particularly in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the World was both Made and should be Destroyed And though Diodorus affirm the contrary of the Chaldeans yet we ought in reason to assent rather to Berosus in respect of his greater Antiquity who represents the sence of the Ancient Chaldeans after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there was a time when all was Darkness and Water but Bell who is interpreted Jupiter cutting the Darkness in the middle separated the Earth and Heaven from one another and so framed the World this Bell also producing the Stars the Sun and the Moon and the five Planets From which Testimony of Berosus according to the Version of Alexander Polyhistor by the way it appears also that the Ancient Chaldeans acknowledged One Supreme Deity the Maker of the whole World as they are also celebrated for this in that Oracle of Apollo which is cited out of Porphyry by Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Chaldeans are joyned with the Hebrews as worshipping likewise in a holy manner One Self-existent Deity Wherefore if Diodorus were not altogether mistaken it must be concluded that in the latter times the Chaldeans then perhaps receiving the Doctrine of Aristotle did desert and abandon
upon all of the like kind And there are several other Instances of this Poets using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods for God But it is possible that Hesiod's meaning might be the same with Plato's that though the Inferiour Mundane Gods were all made at first by the Supreme God as well as Men yet they being made something sooner than Men did afterwards contribute also to the Making of men But Hesiod's Theogonia or Generation of Gods is not to be understood universally neither but only of the Inferiour Gods that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter being to be excepted out of the number of them whom the same Hesiod as well as Homer makes to be the Father of Gods as also the King of them in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And attributes the Creation of all things to him as Proclus writeth upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By whom all Mortal men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom all things are and not by chance the Poet by a Synechdoche here ascribing the making of all to Jupiter Wherefore Hesiod's Theogonia is to be understood of the Inferiour Gods only and not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter who was the Father and Maker of them though out of a Watery Chaos and himself therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-existent or Vnmade In like manner that Pindar's Gods were not Eternal but Made or Generated is plainly declared by him in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnum Hominum Vnum Deorum genus Et ex Vnaspiramus Matre utrique There is one kind both of Gods and Men and we both breath from the same Mother or spring from the same Original Where by the common Mother both of Gods and Men the Scholiast understands the Earth and Chaos taking the Gods here for the Inferiour Deities only and principally the Stars This of Pindar's therefore is to be understood of all the other Gods That they were made as well as men out of the Earth or Chaos but not of that Supreme Deity whom the same Pindar elsewhere calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Powerful of the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of all things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of every thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God who is the best Artificer or was the Framer of the whole World and as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Vniverse Which God also according to Pindar Cheiron instructed Achilles to worship principally above all the other Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence of which words is thus declared by the Scholiast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he should honour and worship the Loud-sounding Jupiter the Lord of Thunder and Lightning transcendently above all the other Gods Which by the way confutes the Opinion of those who contend that the Supreme God as such was not at all Worshipped by the Pagans However this is certain concerning these Three Homer Hesiod and Pindar that they must of necessity either have been all absolute Atheists in acknowledging no Eternal Deity at all but making sensless Chaos Night and the Ocean the Original of all their Gods without exception and therefore of Jupiter himself too that King and Father of them or else assert One only Eternal Unmade Self-existent Deity so as that all the other Gods were Generated or Created by that One. Which latter doubtless was their genuine sence and the only reason why Aristotle and Plato might possibly sometime have a suspicion of the contrary seems to have been this their not understanding that Mosaick Cabbala which both Hesiod and Homer followed of the World's that is both Heaven and Earth's being made at first out of a Watery Chaos for thus is the Tradition declared by St. Peter Ep. 2. Ch. 3. There might be several remarkable Passages to the same purpose produced out of those two Tragick Poets Aeschylus and Sophocles which yet because they have been already cited by Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus and others to avoid unnecessary tediousness we shall here pass by Only we think fit to observe concerning that one famous Passage of Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vnus profectò Vnus est tantùm Deus Coeli solique machinam qui condidit Vadumque Ponti coerulum vim Spiritus c. There is in truth One only God who made Heaven and Earth the Sea Air and Winds c. After which followeth also something against Image-worship That though this be such as might well become a Christian and be no where now to be found in those extant Tragedies of this Poet many whereof have been lost yet the sincerity thereof cannot reasonably be at all suspected by us it having been cited by so many of the Ancient Fathers in their Writings against the Pagans as particularly Justin Martyr Athenagoras Clemens Alexandrinus Justin Martyr Eusebius Cyril and Theodoret of which number Clemens tells us that it was attested likewise by that ancient Pagan Historiographer Hecataeus But there are so many Places to our purpose in Euripides that we cannot omit them all In his Supplices we have this wherein all mens Absolute Dependence upon Jupiter or one Supreme Deity is fully acknowledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miseros quid Homines O Deûm Rex Pater Sapere arbitramur Pendet è nutu tuo Res nostra facimusque illa quae visum tibi We have also this excellent Prayer to the Supreme Governour of Heaven and Earth cited out of the same Tragedian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tibi Cunctorum Domino Vinum Salsamque Molam fero seu Ditis Tu sive Jovis nomine gaudes Tu namque Deos Superos inter Sceptrum tractas Sublime Jovis Idem Regnum Terestre tenes Tu Lucem animis infunde Virûm Qui scire volunt quo sata Mentis Lucta sit ortu Quae Causa Mali Cui Coelicolûm rite litando Requiem sit habere laborum Where we may observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter and Pluto are both of them supposed to be Names equally belonging to One and the same Supreme God And the Sum of the Prayer is this That God would infuse Light into the Souls of men whereby they might be enabled to know What is the Root from whence all their Evils spring and by what means they may avoid them Lastly there is another Devotional Passage cited out of Euripides
which Mind is the same with God Thus Themistius speaking of Anaxagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was the first that is amongst the Ionick Philosophers who brought in Mind and God to the Cosmopoeia and did not derive all things from Sensless Bodies And to the same purpose Plutarch in the Life of Pericles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other Ionick Philosophers before Anaxagoras made Fortune and blind Necessity that is the Fortuitous and Necessary Motions of the Matter to be the only Original of the World but Anaxagoras was the first who affirmed a pure and sincere Mind to preside over all Anaxagoras therefore supposed Two Substantial Self-existent Principles of the Universe one an Infinite Mind or God the other an Infinite Homoiomery of Matter or Infinite Atoms not Unqualified such as those of Empedocles and Democritus which was the most Ancient and Genuine Atomology but Similar such as were severally endued with all manner of Qualities and Forms which Physiology of his therefore was a spurious kind of Atomism Anaxagoras indeed did not suppose God to have created Matter out of nothing but that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principle of its Motion and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regulator of this motion for Good and consequently the Cause of all the Order Pulchritude and Harmony of the World for which reason this Divine Principle was called also by him not only Mind but Good it being that which act the Sake of Good Wherefore according to Anaxagoras First the World was not Eternal but had a Beginning in time and before the World was made there was from Eternity an Infinite Congeries of Similar and Qualified Atoms Self-existent without either Order or Motion Secondly The World was not afterwards made by Chance but by Mind or God first moving the Matter and then directing the Motion of it so as to bring it into this orderly System and Compages So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind the first Maker of the World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind that which still governs the same the King and Sovereign Monarch of Heaven and Earth Thirdly Anaxagoras his Mind and God was purely Incorporeal to which purpose his words recorded by Simplicius are very remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind is mingled with nothing but is alone by it self and separate for if it were not by it self secrete from Matter but mingled therewith it would then partake of all things because there is something of all in every thing which things mingled together with it would hinder it so that it could not master or conquer any thing as if alone by it self for Mind is the most Subtil of all things and the most Pure and has the knowledge of all things together with an absolute Power over all Lastly Anaxagoras did not suppose a Multitude of Unmade Minds coexistent from Eternity as so many partial Causes and Governours of the World but only One Infinite Mind or God ruling over All. Indeed it may well be made a Question whether or no besides this Supreme and Universal Deity Anaxagoras did acknowledge any of those other Inferiour Gods then Worshipped by the Pagans because it is certain that though he asserted Infinite Mind to be the Maker and Governour of the whole World yet he was accused by the Athenians for Atheism and besides a Mulct impos'd upon him Banished for the same the true ground whereof was no other than this because he affirmed the Sun to be nothing but a Mass of Fire and the Moon and Earth having Mountains and Valleys Cities and Houses in it and probably concluded the same of all the other Stars and Planets that they were either Fires as the Sun or Habitable Earths as the Moon wherein supposing them not to be Animated he did consequently deny them to be Gods Which his Ungodding of the Sun Moon and Stars was then look'd upon by the Vulgar as nothing less than absolute Atheism they being very prone to think that if there were not Many Understanding Beings Superiour to Men and if the Sun Moon and Stars were not such and therefore in their Language Gods there was no God at all Neither was it the Vulgar only who condemned Anaxagoras for this but even those Two grave Philosophers Socrates and Plato did the like the First in his Apology made to the Athenians where he calls this opinion of Anaxagoras Absurd the Second in his Book of Laws where he complains of this Doctrine as a great In-let into Atheism in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When You and I endeavouring by Arguments to prove that there are Gods speak of the Sun and Moon Stars and Earth as Gods and Divine Things our young men presently being principled by these new Philosophers will reply that these are nothing but Earth and Stones Sensless and Inanimate Bodies which therefore cannot mind nor take notice of any Humane affairs Where we may observe these Two things First that nothing was accounted truly and properly a God amongst the Pagans but only what was endued with Life and Vnderstanding Secondly that the taking away of those Inferiour Gods of the Pagans the Sun Moon and Stars by denying them to be Animated or to have Life and Understanding in them was according to Plato's Judgment then the most ready and effectual way to introduce Absolute Atheism Moreover it is true that though this Anaxagoras were a professed Theist he asserting an Infinite Self-existent Mind to be the Maker of the whole World yet he was severely taxed also by Aristotle and Plato as one not thorough-paced in Theism and who did not so fully as he ought adhere to his own Principles For whereas to assert Mind to be the Maker of the World is really all one as to assert Final Causality for things in Nature as also that they were made after the Best manner Anaxagoras when he was to give his particular account of the Phaenomena did commonly betake himself to Material Causes only and hardly ever make use of the Mental or Final Cause but when he was to seek and at a loss then only bringing in God upon the Stage Socrates his discourse concerning this in Plato's Pâ—aedo is very well worth our taking notice of Hearing one sometime read saith he out of a Book of Anaxagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mind was the Orderer and Cause of all things I was exceedingly pleased herewith concluding that it must needs follow from thence that All things were ordered and disposed of as they should and after the best manner possible and therefore the Causes even of the things in Nature or at least the grand Strokes of them ought to be fetched from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Absolutely the Best But when afterwards I took Anaxagoras his Book into my hand greedily reading it over I was exceedingly disappointed of my expectation finding therein no other Causes
in his Panegyrick Oration Parens Hominum Deorumque Optimi prius deinde Maximi nomine colitur The Father of Men and Gods is worshipped under the Name first of the Best and then of the Greatest Moreover Servius Honoratus informs us that the Pontifices in their publick Sacrifices were wont to address themselves to Jupiter in this Form of words Omnipotens Jupiter seu quo alio nomine appellari volueris Omnipotent Jupiter or by what other name soever thou pleasest to be called From whence it is plain that the Romans under the name of Jupiter worshipped the Omnipotent God And according to Seneca the ancient Hetrurians who are by him distinguished from Philosophers as a kind of Illiterate Superstitious persons in these words Haec adhuc Etruscis Philosophis communia sunt in illo dissentiunt had this very same Notion answering to the word Jupiter namely of the Supreme Monarch of the Universe For First he sets down their Tradition concerning Thunderbolts in this manner Fulmina dicunt à Jove mitti tres illi manubias dant Prima ut aiunt monet placata est ipsius consilio Jovis mittitur Secundam quidem mittit Jupiter sed ex Consilii sententiâ Duodecim enim Deos advocat c. Tertiam idem Jupiter mittit sed adhibitis in Consilium Diis quos Superiores Involutos vocant quae vastat c. The Hetrurians say that the Thunder-bolts are sent from Jupiter and that there are three kinds of them the First Gentle and Monitory and sent by Jupiter alone the Second sent by Jupiter but not without the counsel and consent of the Twelve Gods which Thunderbolt doth some good but not without Harm also the Third sent by Jupiter likewise but not before he hath called a Council of all the Superiour Gods and this utterly wasts and destroys both private and publick States And then does he make a Commentary upon this old Hetrurian Doctrine that it was not to be taken literally but only so as to impress an awe upon men and to signifie that Jupiter himself intended nothing but Good he inflicting evil not alone but in partnership with others and when the necessity of the case required Adding in the last place Ne hoc quidem crediderunt Etrusci Jovem qualem in Capitolio in caeteris aedibus colimus mittere manu sua sulmina sed eundem quem nos Jovem intelligunt custodem rectoremque Vniversi Animum ac Spiritum Mundani hujus operis Dominum Artificem cui nomen omne convenit Neither did these Hetrurians believe that such a Jupiter as we worship in the Capitol and in the other Temples did sling Thunderbolts with his own hands but they understood the very same Jupiter that we now do the Keeper and Governour of the Vniverse the Mind and Spirit of the whole the Lord and Artificer of this Mundane Fabrick to whom every name belongeth And lastly that the vulgar Romans afterwards about the beginning of Christianity had the same Notion of Jupiter as the Supreme God evidently appears from what Tertullian hath recorded in his Book ad Scapulam that when Marcus Aurelius in his German Expedition by the prayers of the Christian Soldiers made to God had obtained refreshing showers from Heaven in a great drought Tunc Populus adclamans JOVI DEO DEORVM QVI SOLVS POTENS EST in Jovis nomine Deo nostro testimonium reddidit That then the people with one consent crying out thanks be to JUPITER THE GOD OF GODS WHO ALONE IS POWERFVL did thereby in the name of Jove or Jupiter give testimony to our God Where by the way we see also that Tertullian was not so nice as Lactantius but did freely acknowledge the Pagans by their Jupiter to have meant the True God As nothing is more frequent with Pagan Writers than to speak of God Singularly they signifying thereby the One Supreme Deity so that the same was very familiar with the Vulgar Pagans also in their ordinary discourse and common speech hath been recorded by divers of the Fathers Tertullian in his Book De Testimonio Animae and his Apologet. instanceth in several of these Forms of Speech then vulgarly used by the Pagans as Deus videt Deo commendo Deus reddet Deus inter nos judicabit Quod Deus vult Si Deus voluerit Quod Deus dederit Si Deus dederit and the like Thus also Minutius Felix Cum ad Coelum manus tendunt nihil aliud quà m Deum Dicunt Et Magnus est Deus Verus est c. vulgi iste Naturalis sermo an Christiani consitentis oratio When they stretch out their hands to Heaven they mention only God and these forms of speech He is Great and God is True and If God grant which are the natural language of the vulgar are they not a plain confession of Christianity And lastly Lactantius Cum Jurant cum Optant cum Gratias agunt non Deos multos sed Deum nominant adeò ipsa veritas cogente natura etiam ab invitis pectoribus erumpit When they swear and when they wish and when they give thanks they name not Many Gods but God only the Truth by a secrt force of nature thus breaking forth from them whether they will or no. And again Ad Deum confugiunt à Deo petitur auxilium Deus ut subveniat oratur Et si quis ad extremam mendicandi necessitatem redactus victum precibus exposcit Deum Solum obtestatur per ejus divinum atque unicum Numen hominum sibi misericordiam quaerit They fly to God Aid is desired of God they pray that God would help them and when any one is reduced to extremest necessity he begs for Gods sake and by his Divine power alone implores the mercy of men Which same thing is fully confirmed also by Proclus upon Plato's Timaeus where he observes that the One Supreme God was more Universally believed throughout the World in all ages than the Many Inferiour Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And perhaps you may affirm that Souls do sooner lose their knowledge of those things which are Lower and Nearer to them but retein a stronger remembrance of those Higher Principles Because these do act more vigorously upon them by reason of the Transcendency of their Power and by their Energy seem to be present with them And the same thing happens as to to our bodily Sight for though there be many things here upon earth which none of us see yet every one observes that Highest Sphere and takes notice of the Fixed stars in it because these strongly radiate with their light upon our eyes In like manner does the Eye of our Soul sooner lose the sight and remembrance of the Lower than of the Higher and Diviner Principles And thus all Religions and Sects acknowledge that One Highest Principle of all and mâ—n every where call upon God for their Helper but that there are Gods after and below
that Highest Principle and that there is a certain providence descending down from these upon the Vniverse all Sects do not believe the reason whereof is because The One or Vnity appears more clearly and plainly to them than The Many or a Multitude Moreover we learn from Arianus his Epictetus that that very Form of Prayer which hath been now so long in use in the Christian Church Kyrie Eleeson Lord have mercy upon us was anciently part of the Pagans Litany to the Supreme God either amongst the Greeks or the Latins or Both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invoking God we pray to him after this manner Lord have mercy upon us Now this Epictetus lived in the times of Adrian the Emperour and that this Passage of his is to be understood of Pagans and not of Christians is undeniably manifest from the context he there speaking of those who used Auguria or Divination by Birds Moreover in the writings of the Greekish Pagans the Supreme God is often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord. For not to urge that passage of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Asclepian Dialogue cited by Lactantius where we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord and Maker of all Menander in Just. Martyr stileth the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most Vniversal Lord of all And Osiris in Plutarch is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of all things And this is also done Absolutely and without any Adjection and that not only by the Seventy and Christians but also by Pagan Writers thus in Plutarch's de Iside Osiride we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The knowledge of the first Intelligible and the Lord that is of the Supreme God And Oromasdes is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord in Plutarch's Life of Alexander as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Aristotle that is the Supreme Ruler over all Thus likewise Plato in his Sixth Epistle ad Hermiam c. styles his First Divine Hypostasis or the Absolutely Supreme Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father of the Prince and Cause of the World that is of the Eternal Intellect The LORD Again Jamblichus writeth thus of the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confessed that every Good thing ought to be asked of the Lord that is the Supreme God which words are afterwards repeated in him also p. 129. but depraved in the printed Copy thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that the Supreme God was called not by one only name but by divers diversly namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either the One or the Good or Mind or the very Ens or the Father or the Demiurgus or the Lord. Wherefore we conclude that this Kyrie Eleeson or Domine Miserere in Arrianus was a Pagan Litany or Supplication to the Supreme God Though from Mauritius the Emperors Stratagemata it appears that in his time a Kyrie Eleeson was wont to be sung also by the Christian Armies before Battel And that the most Sottishly Superstitious and Idolatrous of all the Pagans and the Worshippers of never so many Gods amongst them did notwithstanding generally acknowledge One Supreme Deity over them all One Vniversal Numen is positively affirmed and fully attested by Aurelius Prudentius in his Apotheosis in these words Ecquis in Idolio recubans inter sacra mille Ridiculosque Deos venerans sale caespite thure Non putat esse Deum Summum super omnia Solum Quamvis Saturnis Junonibus Cytheraeis Portentisque aliis sumantes consecret aras Attamen in Coelum quoties suspexit in Vno Constituit jus omne Deo cui serviat ingens Virtutum ratio Variis instructa Ministris We are not ignorant that Plato in his Cratylus where he undertakes to give the Etymologies of words and amongst the rest of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writeth in this manner concerning the First and most Ancient Inhabitants of Greece That they seemed to him like as other Barbarians at that time to have acknowledged no other Gods than such as were Visible and Sensible as the Sun and the Moon and the Earth and the Stars and the Heaven Which they perceiving to run round perpetually therefore called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to run But that when afterward they took notice of other Invisible Gods also they bestowed the same name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon them likewise Which Passage of Plato's Eusebius somewhere would make use of to prove that the Pagans universally acknowledged no other Gods but Corporeal and Inanimate plainly contrary to that Philosophers meaning who as he no where affirms that any Nation ever was so barbarous as to worship Sensless and Inanimate Bodies as such for Gods but the contrary so doth he there distinguish from those First Inhabitants of Greece and other Barbarians the afterward Civilized Greeks who took notice of Invisible Gods also However if this of Plato should be true that some of the ancient Pagans worshipped none but Visible and Sensible Gods they taking no notice of any Incorporeal Beings yet does it not therefore follow that those Pagans had no Notion at all amongst them of One Supreme and Vniversal Numen The contrary thereunto being manifest that some of those Corporealists looked upon the whole Heaven and Ether Animated as the Highest God according to that of Euripides cited by Cicero Vides Sublime fusum immoderatum aethera Qui tenero terram circumvectu amplectitur Hunc Summum habeto Divum hunc perhibeto Jovem As also that others of them conceived that Subtil Fiery Substance which permeates and pervades the whole World supposed to be Intellectual to be the Supreme Diety which governs all this Opinion having been entertained by Philosophers also as namely the Heracliticks and Stoicks And lastly since Macrobius in the Person of Vettius Praetextatus refers so many of the Pagan Gods to the Sun this renders it not improbable but that some of these Pagans might adore the Animated Sun as the Sovereign Numen and thus perhaps invoke him in that Form of Prayer there mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Omnipotent Sun the Mind and Spirit of the whole World c. And even Cleanthes himself that Learned Stoick and Devout Religionist is suspected by some to have been of this Perswasion Nevertheless we think it opportune here to observe that it was not Macrobius his Design in those his Saturnalia to defend this either as his own opinion or as the opinion of the Generality of Pagans That the Animated Sun was Absolutely The Highest Deity as some have conceived nor yet to reduce that Multiplicity of Pagan Gods by this device of his into a seeming Monarchy and nearer compliance with Christianity he there plainly confining his Discourse to the Dii duntaxat qui sub Coelo
by Rabbi Solomon and others Psal. 65.6 where God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Confidence of all the Ends of the Earth and of them that are afar off in the Sea that is even of all the Pagan World Thus we see plainly that the Hebrew Doctors and Rabbins have been generally of this perswasion that the Pagan Nations anciently at least the Intelligent amongst them acknowledged One Supreme God of the Whole World and that all their Other Gods were but Creatures and Inferiour Ministers which were worshipped by them vpon these Two Accounts either as thinking that the Honour done to them redounded to the Supreme or else that they might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Mediators and Intercessors Orators and Negotiators with him Which Inferiour Gods of the Pagans were supposed by these Hebrews to be chiefly of Two Kinds Angels and Stars or Spheres The Latter of which the Jews as well as Pagans concluded to be Animated and Intellectual For thus Maimonides expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stars and Spheres are every one of them Animated and endued with Life Knowledge and Vnderstanding And they acknowledge him who commanded and the World was made every one of them according to their degree and excellency praising and honouring him as the Angels do And this they would confirm from that place of Scripture Neh. 9.6 Thou even thou art Lord alone Thou hast made Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host the Earth with all things that are therein the Seas and all that is therein and Thou preservest them all and the Host of Heaven Worshippeth Thee The Host of Heaven being commonly put for the Stars XXXI But Lastly this same thing is plainly confirmed from the Scriptures of the New Testament also That the Gentiles and Pagans however Polytheists and Idolaters were not unacquainted with the knowledge of the True God that is of the One only Self-existent and Omnipotent Being which Comprehendeth all things under him From whence it must needs follow that their other Many Gods were all of them supposed to have been derived from this One and to be Dependent on him For First St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans tells us that these Gentiles or Pagans did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold the Truth in Vnrighteousness or Vnjustly Detain and Imprison the same Which is chiefly to be understood of the Truth concerning God as appears from that which follows and therefore implies the Pagans not to have been unfurnshed of such a knowledge of God as might and ought to have kept them from all kinds of Idolatry however by their Default it proved ineffectual to that end as is afterwards declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They liked not to retain God in the Agnition or Practical Knowledge of him Where there is a distinction to be observed betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Knowledge and the Agnition of God the former whereof in this Chapter is plainly granted to the Pagans though the Latter be here denied them because they lapsed into Polytheism and Idolatry which is the meaning of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They changed the truth of God into a lye Again the same Apostle there affirmeth That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be Known of God was manifest within them God himself having shewed it unto them There is something of God Vnknowable and Incomprehensible by all Mortals but that of God which is Knowable his Eternal Power and Godhead with the Attributes belonging thereunto is made manifest to all mankind from his works The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World being clearly seen and understood by the things that are made Moreover this Apostle expresly declareth the Pagans to have known God in that Censure which he giveth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when they Knew God they Glorified him not as God because they fell into Polytheism and Idolatry Though the Apostle here instanceth only in the Latter of those Two their changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible man and to birds and beasts and creeping things The reason whereof is because this Idolatry of the Pagans properly so called that is their worshipping of stocks and stones formed into the likeness of Man or Beast was generally taken amongst the Jews for the grossest of all their Religious Miscarriages Thus Philo plainly declareth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whosoever worship the Sun and Moon and the whole Heaven and World and the chief Parts thereof as Gods do unquestionably Err they honouring the subjects of the Prince but they are guilty of less iniquity and injustice than those who form wood and stone gold and silver and the like matters into Statues to worship them c. of which assertion he afterwards gives this account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because these have cut off the most excellent Fulcrum of the Soul the perswasion of the Everliving God by means whereof like unballasted ships they are tossed up and down perpetually nor can be ever able to rest in any safe harbour And from hence it came to pass that the Polytheism of the Pagans their worshipping of Inferiour Gods as Stars and Demons was vulgarly called also by the Jews and Christians Idolatry it being so denominated by them à famosiore specie Lastly the Apostle plainly declares that the errour of the Pagan Superstition universally consisted not in worshipping Many Independent Gods and Creators but injoyning Creature-worship as such some way or other with the Worship of the Creator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words are either to be thus rendred They religiously worshipped the Creature Besides the Creator that Prepositon being often used in this sence as for example in this of Aristotle where he affirmeth concerning Plato that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not make Numbers to be the Things themselves as the Pythagoreans had done but Vnity and Numbers to be Besides the things or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numbers to exist by themselves Besides the Sensibles He by Numbers meaning as Aristotle himself there expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ideas conteined in the First Intellect which was Plato's Second Divine Hypostasis as also by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Ipsum Unum or Vnity which gives being to those Ideas is understood Plato's First Divine Hypostasis Or else the Words ought to be translated thus And worshipped the Creature Above or More than the Creator that Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sometimes used Comparatively so as to signifie Excess as for example in Luke 13.2 Think that these Galileans were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinners beyond all the Galileans And ver 4. Think you that those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debters above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem According to either of
Gods placed in the â—ighest Aether Plato thinks to be true incorporeal Animal without beginning or end Eternal happy in themselves without any external good The Parent of which Gods who is the Lord and Author of all things and who is alone free from all bonds of doing and suffering why should I go about in words to describe him since Plato who was endued with most Heavenly eloquence equal to the Immortal Gods does often declare that this Highest God by reason of his excess of Majesty is both ineffable and Incomprehensible From which words of Apuleius it is plain that according to him the Twelve Consentes and all the other Invisible Gods were derived from One Original Deity as their Parent and Author But then if you demand what Gods of Plato these should be to which Apuleius would here accommodate the Civil and Poetick Gods contained in those Two Verses of Ennius Juno Vesta Minerva Ceres Diana Venus Mars Mercurius Jovi ' Neptunus Vulcanus Apollo and the rest of this kind that is all their other Gods properly so called Invisible We reply that these are no other than Plato's Ideas or First Paradigms and Patterns of things in the Archetypal World which is the Divine Intellect and his Second Hypostasis derived from his first Original Deity and most Simple Monad For as Plato writeth in his Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Sensible World must nâ—eds be the Image of another Intelligible one And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Animal was the Pattern according to whose likeness he that made this great Animal of the World framed it certainly we must not think it to be any Particular Animal since nothing can be perfect which is made according to an imperfect copy Let us therefore conclude it to be that Animal which containeth all other animals in it as its Parts For that Intelligible World containeth all Intelligible Animals in it in the same manner as this Sensible World doth us and other sensible animals Wherefore Plato himself here and elsewhere speaking obscurely of this Intelligible World and the Ideas of it no wonder if many of his Pagan followers have absurdly made so many Distinct Animals and Gods of them Amongst whom Apuleius accordingly would refer all the Civil and Poetick Gods of the Pagans I mean their Gods properly so called Invisible to this Intelligible world of Plato's and those several Ideas of it Neither was Apuleius singular in this but others of the Pagan Theologers did the like as for example Julian in his Book against the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato indeed speaketh of certain Visible Gods the Sun and the Moon and the Stars and the Heaven but these are all but Images of other Invisible Gods that Visible Sun which we see with our eyes is but an Image of another Intelligible and Invisible One so likewise the Visible Moon and every one of the Stars are but the Images and Resemblances of another Moon and of other Stars Intelligible Wherefore Plato acknowledged also these other Invisible Gods inexisting and co-existing with the Demiurgus from whom they were generated and produced That Demiurgus in him thus bespeaking these Invisible and Intelligible Gods Ye Gods of Gods that is Ye Invisible Gods who are the Gods and Causes of the Visible Gods There is one common maker therefore of both these kinds of Gods who first of all made a Heaven Earth Sea Stars in the Intelligible World as the Archetypes Paradigms of these in the Sensible Where S. Cyril in his Confutation writeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our excellent â—â—lian by his Intelligible and Invisible Gods seems here to mean 〈◊〉 ideas which Plato sometimes contends to be Substances and to subsist alone by themselves and sometimes again determineth to be nothing but Notions or Conceptions in the mind of God But however the matter be the skilful in this kind of learning affirm that these Ideas have been rejected by Plato 's own Disciples Aristotle discarding them as Figments or at least such as being meer notions could have no real causality and influence upon things But the meaning of this Pagan Theology may be more fully understood from what the same St. Cyril thus further objecteth against it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sence whereof seems to be this Julian addeth that the God of the Vniverse who made Heaven and Earth is alike the Demiurgus both of these Sensible and of the other Intelligible things If therefore the Ingenit God be alike the Creator of both how can he affirm those things that are Created by him to co-exist with and inexist in him How can that which is created co-exist with the Ingenit God but much less can it inexist in him For we Christians indeed affirm that the Vnmade Word of God doth of necessity co-exist with and inexist in the Father it proceeding from him not by way of Creation but of Generation But this defender of Platonick trifles acknowledging the Supreme God to be Ingenit affirmeth notwithstanding those things which were Made and Created by him to inexist in him thus mingling and confounding all things Where notwithstanding Julian and the Platonick Pagans would in all probability reply that those Ideas of the Intelligible and Archetypal World which is the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intellect proceeding from the Highest Hypostasis and Original Deity by way of Necessary and Eternal Emanation are no more to be accounted Creatures than the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore might with as little absurdity be said to exist With and In the First Original Deity But besides the same Julian elsewhere in that Book of his accommodates this Platonick Notion also to the Pagan Gods in Particular in like manner as Apuleius had done before he writing of Aesculapius after this canting way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jupiter amongst the Intelligible things generated out of himself Aesculapius and by the Generative Life of the Sun manifested him here upon Earth he coming down from Heaven and appearing in a Humane Form first about Epidaurus and from thence extending his salutary power or vertue over the whole Earth Where Aesculapius is First of all the Eternal Idea of the Medicinal Art or Skill generated by the Supreme God in the Intelligible world which afterward by the Vivifick Influence of the Sun was Incarnated and appeared in a humane form at Epidaurus This is the Doctrine of that Julian who was so great an Opposer of the Incarnation of the Eternal Logos in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Neither was this Doctrine of Many Intelligible Gods and Powers Eternal of which the Archetypal World consisteth first invented by Platonick Pagans after the times of Christianity as some might suspect but that there was such a thing extant before amongst them also may be concluded from this passage of Philo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though God be but one yet hath he about himself Innumerable Auxiliatory
the Ruling or Governing Principle being put for the Effect or that which was Ruled and Governed by it And thus was War frequently styled Mars and that of Terence may be taken also in this Sence Sine Cerere Libero friget Venus And Plutarch who declares his great dislike of this kind of Language conceives that there was no more at first in it than thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As we when one buyes the Books of Plato commonly say that he buyes Plato and when one acts the Plays of Menander that he acts Menander so did the ancients not spare to call the Gifts and Effects of the Gods by the names of those Gods spectively thereby honouring them also for their Vtility But he grants that afterward this Language was by ignorant Persons abused and carried on further and that not without great Impiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their followers mistaking them and thereupon ignorantly attributing the Passions of Fruits their Appearances and Occultations to the Gods themselves that preside over them and so not only calling them but also thinking them to be the Generations and Corruptions of the Gods have by this means filled themselves with absurd and wicked Opinions Where Plutarch well condemns the Vulgar both amongst the Egyptians and Greeks for that in their mournful Solemnities they sottishly attributed to the Gods the Passions belonging to the fruits of the earth thereby indeed making them to be Gods Nevertheless the Inanimate Parts of the World and Things of Nature were frequently Deified by the Pagans not only thus Metonymically but also in a further Sence as Cicero plainly declares Tum illud quod erat à Deo natum Nomine ipsius Dei nuncupabant ut cum Fruges Cererem appellamus Vinum autem Liberum Tum autem Res ipsa in qua Vis inest Major sic appellatur ut ea ipsa Res nominetur Deus Both that which proceeds from God is called by the name of a God as Corn is sometimes thus called Ceres and Wine Liber and also whatsoever hath any greater Force in it That thing it self is often called a God too Philo also thus represents the Religion of the Pagans as first Deifying Corporeal Inanimate Things and then bestowing those Proper Personal Names upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Some have Deified the Four Elements the Earth the Water the Air and the Fire Some the Sun and the Moon and the Planets and Fixed Stars Others the Heaven others the whole World But that Highest and most Ancient Being the Parent of all things the Chief Prince of this great City and the Emperour of this invincible Army who governeth all things salutiferously Him have they covered concealed and obscured by bestowing Counterfeit Personal Names of Gods upon each of these things For the Earth they called Proserpina Pluto and Ceres the Sea Neptune under whom they place many Demons and Nymphs also as his Inferiour Ministers the Air Juno the Fire Vulcan the Sun Apollo the Moon Diana c. and dissecting the Heaven into Two Hemispheres one above the Earth the other under it they call these the Dioscuri feigning them to live alternately one one day and the other another We deny not here but that the Four Elements as well as the Sun Moon and Stars were supposed by some of the Pagans to be Animated with Particular Souls of their own which Ammianus Marcellinus seems principally to call Spiritus Elementorum the Spirits of the Elements worshipped by Julian and upon that account to be so many Inferiour Gods themselves Notwithstanding which that the Inanimate Parts of these were also Deified by the Pagans may be concluded from hence because Plato who in his Cratylus etymologizeth Dionysus from Giving of Wine and elsewhere calls the fruits of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gifts of Ceres doth himself nevertheless in compliance with this Vulgar Speech call Wine and Water as mingled together in a Glass or Cup to be drunk Gods where he affirmeth that a City ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so temper'd as in a Cup where the furious Wine poured out bubbles and sparkles but being Corrected by another Sober God that is by Water both together make a good and moderate Potion Cicero also tells us that before the Roman Admirals went to Sea they were wont to offer up a Sacrifice to the Waves But of this more afterward However it is certain that meer Accidents and Affections of Things in Nature were by these Pagans commonly Personated and Deified as Time in Sophocles his Electra is a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Time is an easie God and Love in Plato's Symposium where it is wondred at that no Poet had ever made a Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Love being such and so great a God Though the same Plato in his Philebus when Protarchus had called Pleasure a Goddess too was not willing to comply so far there with Vulgar Speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My fear O Protarchus concerning the Names of the Gods is extraordinary great Wherefore as to Venus I am willing to call her what she pleases to be called but Pleasure I know is a Various and Multiform thing Wherefore it cannot be denied but that the Pagans did in some sence or other Deifie or Theologize all the Parts of the World and Things of Nature Which we conceive to have been done at first upon no other Ground than this because God was supposed by them not only to Permeate and Pervade all things to be Diffused thorough All and to Act in and upon All but also to be Himself in a manner All things which they expressed after this way by Personating the Things of Nature Severally and bestowing the Names of Gods and Goddesses upon them Only we shall here observe that this was done especially besides the Greater Parts of the World to Two Sorts of things First such in which Humane Vtility was most concerned Thus Cicero Multae aliae Naturae Deorum ex Magnis Beneficiis eorum non sine causa à Graeciae Sapientibus à Majoribus nostris constitutae nominataeque sunt Many other Natures of Gods have been constituted and nominated both by the wise men of Greece and by our Ancestors meerly for the great Benefits received from them The Reason whereof is thus given by him Quia quicquid magnam Vtilitatem generi afferret humano id non sine Divina Bonitate erga homines fieri arbitrabantur Because they thought that whatsoever brought any great Vtility to mankind this was not without the Divine Goodness Secondly such as were most wonderful and Extraordinary or Surprizing to which that of Seneca seems pertinent Magnorum Fluminum Capita Veneramur Subita ex abdito vasti amnis eruptio Aras habet Coluntur Aquarum Calentium Fontes Stagna quaedam vel Opacitas vel immensa Altitudo
accordingly Manilius Quâ pateat Mundum Divino Numine verti Atque Ipsum esse Deum Whereby it may appear the World to be Governed by a Divine Mind and also it self to be God As likewise Seneca the Philosopher Totum hoc quo continemur Vnum est Deus est This whole World within which we are contained is both One thing and God Which is not to be understood of the Meer Matter of the World as it is nothing but a Heap of Atoms or as endued with a Plastick and Sensless Nature only but of it as Animated by such a Soul as besides Sense was originally endued with perfect Understanding and as deriving all its Godship from thence For thus Varro in St. Austin declares both his own and the Stoical Sence concerning this Point Dicit idem Varro adhuc de Naturali Theologia praeloquens Deum se arbitrari esse Animam Mundi quem Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hunc ipsum Mundum esse Deum Sed sicut Hominem Sapientem cum sit ex Corpore Animo tamen ab Animo dici Sapientem ita Mundum Deum dici ab Animo cum sit ex Animo Corpore The same Varro discoursing concerning Natural Theology declareth that according to his own sence God is the Soul of the World which the Greeks call Cosmos and that this World it self is also God But that this is so to be understood that as a Wise man though consisting of Soul and Body yet is denominated Wise only from his Mind or Soul so the World is denominated God from its Mind or Soul only it consisting both of Mind and Body Now if the Whole Animated World be the Supreme God it plainly follows from thence that the Several Parts and Members thereof must be the Parts and Members of God and this was readily acknowledged by Seneca Membra sumus Corporis magni We are all Members of One great Body and Totum hoc Deus est Socii ejus Membra sumus This whole World is God and we are not only his Members but also his Fellows or Companions as if our Humane Souls had a certain kind of Fellowship also with that Great Soul of the Vniverse And accordingly the Soul of the World and the whole Mundane Animal was frequently worshipped by the Pagans in these its several Members the chief Parts of the World and the most important Things of Nature as it were by Piece-meal Nevertheless it doth not at all follow from thence that these were therefore to them Really so many Several Gods for then not only every Man and every Contemptible Animal every Plant and Herb and Pile of Grass every River and Hill and all things else whatsoever must be so many several Gods And that the Pagans themselves did not take them for such Origen observes against that Assertion of Celsus That if the Whole were God then the Several Parts thereof must needs be Gods or Divine too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From hence it would follow that not only Men must be Divine and Gods but also all Brute Animals too they being Parts of the World and Plants to boot Nay Rivers and Mountains and Seas being Parts of the World likewise if the Whole World be God must according to Celsus needs be Gods also Whereas the Greeks themselves will not affirm this but they would only call those Spirits or Demons which preside over these Rivers and Seas Gods Wherefore this Vniversal Assertion of Celsus is false even according to the Greeks themselves That if the whole be God then all the Parts thereof must needs be Divine or Gods It following from thence that Flyes and Gnats and Worms and all kind of Serpents and Birds and Fishes are all Divine Animals or Gods Which they themselves who assert the World to be God will not affirm Wherefore though it be true that the Pagans did many times Personate and Deifie the Chief Parts of the World and Things of Nature as well as they did the Several Powers and Vertues of the Mundane Soul diffused through the whole World yet did not the intelligent amongst them therefore look upon these as so many True and Proper Gods but only worship them as Parts and Members of One Great Mundane Animal or rather Worship the Soul of the whole World their Supreme Deity in them all as its various Manifestations This St. Austin intimates when writing against Faustus the Manichean he prefers even the Pagan Gods before the Manichean Jam verò Coelum Terra Mare Aer Sol Luna caetera sydera omnia haec manifesta oculis apparent atque ipsis sensibus praesto sunt Quae cum Pagani tanquam Deos colunt vel tanquam PARTES VNIVS MAGNI DEI nam universum Mundum quidam eorum putant MAXIMVM DEVM ea colunt quae sunt Vos autem cum ea colatis quae omninò non sunt propinquiores essetis Verae Pietati si saltem Pagani essetis qui Corpora colunt etsi non colenda tamen vera Now the Heaven Earth Sea and Air Sun Moon and Stars are Things all manifest and really present to our senses which when the Pagans Worship as Gods or as PARTS OF ONE GREAT GOD for some of them think the Whole World to be the GREATEST GOD they Worship things that are so that you worshipping things that are not would be nearer to true Piety than you are were you Pagans and worshipped Bodies too which though they ought not to be worshipped yet are they True and Real Things But this is further insisted upon by the same St. Austin in his Book De C. D. where after that large Enumeration of the Pagan Gods before set down he thus convinces their Folly in worshipping the Several Divided Members Parts and Powers of the One Great God after that manner Personated Haec omnia quae dixi quaecunque non dixi non enim omnia dicenda arbitratus sum Hi omnes Dii Deaeque sit Vnus Jupiter sive sint ut quidam volunt omnia ista Partes ejus sive Virtutes ejus sicut eis videtur quibus eum placet esse Mundi Animum quae sententia velut magnorum multorumque Doctorum est Haec inquam si ita sint quod quale sit nondum interim quaero Quid perderent si Vnum Deum colerent prudentiori Compendio Quid enim ejus contemneretur cum ipse coleretur Si autem metuendum sit nè Praetermissae sive Neglectae Partes ejus irascerentur non ergo ut volunt velut Vnius Animantis haec tota vita est quae Omnes simul continet Deos quasi Suas VIRTVTES vel MEMBRA vel PARTES sed suam quaeque Pars habet vitam à caeteris separatam si praeter alteram irasci altera potest alia placari alia concitari Si autem dicitur Omnia simul id est Totum ipsum Jovem potuisse offendi si PARTES ejus non etiam
the Intelligible or Archetypal World as making Apollo for Example to be the Intelligible Sun the Idea of the Sensible and Diana the Intelligible Moon and the like for the rest Lastly it hath been observed also that the Egyptian Theologers pretended in like manner to Worship these Intelligible Gods or Eternal Ideas in their Religious Animals as Symbols of them Philo indeed Platonized so far as to suppose God to have made an Archetypal and Intelligible World before he made this Corporeal and Sensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God intending to make a Visible World first formed an Intelligible One that so having an Incorporeal and most God-like Pattern before him he might make the Corporeal World agreeably to the same this Younger an Image of that Older that should contein as many Sensible kinds in it as the other did Intelligible But it is not possible saith he to conceive this World of Ideas to exist in any place Nay according to him Moses himself philosophized also after the same manner in his Cosmopaeia describing in the First Five Verses of Genesis the making of an Intelligible Heaven and Earth before the Sensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Creator first of all made an Incorporeal Heaven and an Invisible Earth the Ideas of Air and Vacuum Incorporeal Water and Air and last of all Light which was also the Incorporeal and Intelligible Paradigm of the Sun and Stars and that from whence their Sensible Light is derived But Philo does not plainly make these Ideas of the Intelligible and Archetypal World to be so many distinct Substances and Animals much less Gods though he somewhere takes notice of those who admiring the Pulchritude of both these Worlds did not only Deifie the whole of them but also their several Parts that is the Several Ideas of the Intelligible World also as well as the Greater Parts of the Sensible an Intelligible Heaven and Earth Sun and Moon they pretending to worship those Divine Ideas in all these Sensible things Which high-flown Platonick Notion as it gave Sanctuary and Protection to the grossest and foulest of all the Pagan Superstitions and Idolatries when the Egyptians would worship Brute Animals and other Pagans all the Things of Nature Inanimate Substances and meer Accidents under a pretence of worshipping the Divine Ideas in them so did it directly tend to absolute Impiety Irreligion and Atheism there being few that could entertain any thoughts at all of those Eternal Ideas and scarcely any who could thoroughly perswade themselves that these had so much Reality in them as the Sensible things of Nature as the Idea of a House in the mind of an Architect hath not so much Reality in it as a Material House made up of Stones Mortar and Timber so that their Devotion must needs sink down wholly into those Sensible Things and themselves naturally at length fall into this Atheistick Perswasion That the Good Things of Nature are the only Deities Here therefore have we a Multitude of Pagan Gods Supermundane and Eternal though all depending upon One Supreme the Gods by them properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligible or the Divine Ideas And we cannot but account this for another Depravation of the ancient Mosaick Cabbala of the Trinity that the Second Hypostasis thereof is made to be the Archetypal World and all the Divine Ideas as so many distinct Substances Animals and Gods that is not One God but a whole World of Gods But over and besides all this some of these Platonists and Pythagoreans did further Deprave and Adulterate the ancient Hebrew or Mosaick Cabbala of the Trinity the certain Rule whereof is now only the Scriptures of the New Testament when they concluded that as from the Third Hypostasis of their Trinity called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First Soul there were Innumerable other Particular Souls derived namely the Souls of all Inferiour Animals that are Parts of the World so in like manner that from their Second Hypostasis called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First Mind or Intellect there were innumerable other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Particular Minds or Intellects Substantial Derived Superiour to the First Soul and not only so but also That from that First and Highest Hypostasis of all called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The One and The Good there were derived likewise many Particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnities and Goodnesses Substantial Superiour to the First Intellect Thus Proclus in his Theologick Institutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the First One and from it there are many Particular Henades or Vnities after the First Intellect and from it many Particular Noes Minds or Intellects after the First Soul many Particular and Derivative Souls and lastly after the Vniversal Nature many Particular Natures and Spermatick Reasons Where it may be obiter observed that these Platonists supposed below the Vniversal Psyche or Mundane Soul a Vniversal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Substantial Nature also but so as that besides it there were other Particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seminal Reasons or Plastick Principles also As for these Noes and that besides the First Vniversal Mind or Intellect there are other Particular Minds or Intellects Substantial a Rank of Beings not only immutably Good and Wise but also every way Immovabl◠and therefore above the Rank of all Souls that are Self-moveable Beings Proclus was not singular in this but had the concurrence of many other Platonists with him amongst whom Plotinus may seem to be one from this Passage of his besides others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Souls are Immortal and every Mind or Intellect we have elsewhere largely proved Upon which words Ficinus thus Hîc suprà infrà saepè per verba Plotini notabis Plures esse Mentium Animarumque Substantias inter se distinctas quamvis inter eas Vnio sit Mirabilis Here and from many other places before and after you may observe that according to Plotinus there are many Substantial Minds distinct from Souls though there be a wonderful Vnion betwixt them Moreover that there was also above these Noes or Immovable but Multiform Minds not only one Perfect Monad and First Good but also a Rank of Many Particular Henades or Monades and Agathotetes was besides Proclus and others asserted by Simplicius also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Highest Good saith he produceth all things from himself in several Ranks and Degrees The First the Middle and the Last or Lowest of all But the First and the next to himself doth he produce like himself One Goodness Many Goodnesses and one Vnity or Henade Many Henades And that by these Henades and Autoagathotetes he means Substantial Beings that are Conscious of themselves appears also from these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those Beings which are first produced from the First Good by reason of their Sameness of Nature with him are
such as made the World to be the Third God Such a Trinity a Confounding of God and Creature together Page 551 552 And that this an Adulterated Notion of the Trinity evident from hence because no Reason why these Philosophers should stop here since the Sun Moon and Stars and their other Generated Gods differ not in Kind but onely in Degree from the World Page 552 Neither will this excuse them that they understood this chiefly of the Soul of the World Since if there were such a Mundane Soul as together with the VVorld made up One Animal this it self must needs be a Creature also ibid. This probably the Reason why Philo though acknowledging the Divine Word as a Second God and Second Cause yet no-where speaketh of a Third God lest he should thereby seem to Deify the whole Created World Though he call God also in some Sense the Soul of the World too whether meaning thereby his First or his Second God So that Philo seems to have acknowledged onely a Duality and not a Trinity of Divine Hypostases Page 552 553 Another Depravation of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theology of Divine Tradition or Cabbala of the Trinity That some of these Platonists and Pythagoreans concluding all those several Idea's of the Divine Intellect or Archetypall World to be so many distinct Substances Animals and Gods have thereby made their Second Hypostasis not One but a Heap of Innumerable Gods and Hypostases and consequently destroyed their Trinity Page 553 Though Philo again here Platonized so far as to suppose an Incorporeal Heaven and Earth and an Intelligible Sun Moon and Stars to have been made before the Corporeal and Sensible yet does he no-where declare them to be so many distinct Substances and Animals much less Gods but on the contrary censures that for Pagan Idolatry This Pretence of worshipping the Divine Idea's in all Sensible things that which gave Sanctuary and Protection to the Foulest and Sottishest of all the Pagan Idolatries The Egyptians worshipping Brute Animals thus and the Greeks the Parts of the World Inanimate and Natures of Things Page 554 A Third Depravation or Adulteration of the Divine Cabbala of the Trinity by Proclus and other latter Platonists asserting an innumerable Company of Henades Particular Unities Superiour to the First Nous or Intellect their Second Hypostasis as also innumerable Noes Substantiall Minds or Intellects Superiour to the First Psyche their Third Hypostasis Page 555 These Noes seem to be asserted by Plotinus also as likewise the Henades and Agathotetes were by Simplicius Page 555 556 A Swarm of Innumerable Pagan Gods from hence besides their Intelligible Gods or Idea's Particular Henades and Noes Unities and Intellects ibid. Now since these Particular Henades and Noes of theirs must needs be Creatures the Trinity of Proclus and such others nothing but a Scale or Ladder of Nature wherein God and the Creature are Confounded together the Juncture or Commissure betwixt them being no-where discernible as if they differ'd onely in Degrees A gross Mistake and Adulteration of the Ancient Cabbala of the Trinity Page 556 557 This that Platonick or rather Pseudo-Platonick Trinity by us opposed to the Christian viz. such a Trinity as confounds the Differences betwixt God and the Creature bringing the Deity by degrees down lower and lower and at length scattering it into all the Animated Parts of the World A Foundation for Infinite Polytheism Cosmolatry or World-Idolatry and Creature-Worship Hence the Platonists and Pythagoreans the Fittest men to be Champions for Paganism against Christianity Page 557 558 Concerning the Christian Trinity Three things to be Observed First that it is not a Trinity of meer Names and Words nor Logicall Notions or Inadequate Conceptions of God this Doctrine having been condemned by the Christian Church in Sabellius and others but a Trinity of Hypostases Subsistences or Persons Page 558 559 The Second thing Observable in the Christian Trinity That though the Second Hypostasis thereof were Begotten from the First and the Third Proceedeth both from the First and Second yet neither of them Creatures First because not made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or from an Antecedent Non-existence brought forth into Being but both of them Coeternall with the Father Secondly because all Necessarily existent and Un-Annihilable Thirdly because all of them Universall or Infinite and Creatours of all other Particular Beings Page 559 The Third Observable as to the Christian Trinity That the Three Hypostases thereof are all Truly and Really One God not onely by Reason of Agreement of Will but also of a Mutuall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Permeation of each other and Inexistence Though no Instance of the like Unity to be found elsewhere in Nature yet since two distinct Substances Corporeal and Incorporeal make one Man and Person in our Selves much more may Three Divine Hypostases be One God ibid. Though much of Mystery in the Christian Trinity yet nothing of plain Contradiction to Reason therein that is no Nonsense and Impossibility The Ill Design of those who represent the Christian Trinity as absolutely Contradictious to Reason that they may thereby debauch mens Vnderstandings and make them swallow down other things which unquestionably are such Page 560 The Christian Trinity much more agreeable to Reason then the Pseudo-Platonick in the Three Particulars before mentioned First its making their Third Hypostasis the Animated World or Mundane Soul Which not onely too great a Leap betwixt the Second and Third but also a gross Debasement of the Deity and Confounding it with the Creature a Foundation for World-Idolatry and worshipping Inanimate Things as Parts and Members of God ibid. God to Origen but Quasi Anima Mundi As it were the Soul of the World and not Truly and Properly such All the Perfection of this Notion to be attributed to God but not the Imperfection thereof Page 560 561 Certain that according to the more refined Platonists their Third Divine Hypostasis not a Mundane but Supra-mundane Soul and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Opificer of the whole World So to Amelius Porphyrius and Plotinus A Double Soul of the World to Plato likewise The Third Hypostasis to these no Creature but a Creatour Page 562 So in their Second Particular whereby the forementioned Pseudo-Platonick Trinity no Trinity its making all the Idea's and Archetypal Paradigms of things so many Hypostases Animals and Gods This a Monstrous Extravagancy Not to be doubted but that Plato well understood these Idea's to be Nothing but Noemata or Conceptions of the Divine Mind existing no-where apart by themselves however called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essences or Substances because not such Accidental and Evanid things as our Humane Thoughts are they being the Standing and Eternall Objects of all Science As also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Animals to signify that they were not meer Dead Forms as Pictures upon Paper or Carved Statues And thus did not onely Amelius understand S. John
Know Man according to this Rule That he is such a thing as hath Nothing to do with Absolute Truth and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We know nothing Absolutely concerning any thing and all our Knowledge is Opinion Agreeably to which he determined that mens Knowledge was diversified by the Temper of their Bodies and the Things without them And Aristotle Judiciously observing both these Doctrines That there is no Errour or False Judgment but every Opinion True and again That Nothing is Absolutely True but Relatively only to be Really and Fundamentally One and the same imputeth them both together to Democritus in these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Democritus held that there was Nothing Absolutely True but because he thought Knowledge or Vnderstanding to be Sense therefore did he conclude that whatsoever Seemed according to Sense must of necessity be True not Absolutely but Relatively to whom it so Seemed These Gross Absurdities did the Atheistick Atomists plunge themselves into whilst they endeavoured to Salve the Phaenomenon of Cogitation Mind or Vnderstanding agreeably to their own Hypothesis And it is certain that all of them Democritus himself not excepted were but meer Blunderers in that Atomick Physiology which they so much pretended to and never rightly Understood the Same For as much as that with Equal Clearness teaches these Two things at once That Sense indeed is Phantastical and Relative to the Sentient But that there is a Higher Faculty of Vnderstanding and Reason in us which thus discovers the Phantastry of Sense and reaches to the Absoluteness of Truth or is the Criterion thereof But the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists will further Conclude that the only Things or Objects of the Mind are Singular Sensibles or Bodies Existing without it which therefore must needs be in Order of Nature before all Knowledge Mind and Vnderstanding whatsoever this being but a Phantastick Image or Representation of them From whence they Infer that the Corporeal World and these Sensible things could not possibly be Made by any Mind or Vnderstanding because Essentially Junior to them and the very Image and Creature of them Thus does Aristotle Observe concerning both Democritus and Protagoras that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suppose the only Things or Objects of the Mind to be Sensibles and that this was the Reason why they made Knowledge to be Sense and therefore Relative and Phantastical But we have already Proved that Mind and Vnderstanding is not the Phantastick Image of Sensibles or Bodies and that it is in its own Nature not Ectypal but Archetypal and Architectonical of all That it is Senior to the World and all Sensible Things it not looking abroad for its Objects any where without but containing them within it self The first Original Mind being an Absolutely perfect Being Comprehending it self and the Extent of its own Omnipotence or all Possibilities of things together with the Best Platform of the whole and poducing the same accordingly But it being plain that there are besides Singulars other Objects of the Mind Vniversal from whence it seems to follow that Sensibles are not the only Things some Modern Atheistick Wits have therefore invented this further device to maintain the Cause and carry the Business on That Vniversals are nothing else but Names or Words by which Singular Bodies are called and Consequently that in all Axioms and Propositions Sententious Affirmations and Negations in which the Predicate at least is Vniversal we do but Add or Substract Affirm or Deny Names of Singular Bodies and that Reason or Syllogism is Nothing but the Reckoning or Computing the Consequences of these Names or Words Neither do they want the Impudence to Affirm that besides those Passions or Phansies which we have from things by Sense we know Nâ—â—hing at all oâ— any thing but only the Names by which it is calâ—â—d Then which there cannot be a greater Sottishness or Madness For if Geometry were nothing but the Knowledge of Names by which Singular Bodies are called as it self could not deserve that Name of a Science so neither could its Truths be the same in Greek and in Latine and Geometricians in all the several distant Ages and Places of the World must be supposed to have had the same Singular Bodies before them of which they Affirmed and Denied those Vniversal Names In the Last place the Epicurean and Anaximandrian Atheists agreeably to the Premised Principles and the Tenor of their Hypothesis do both of them endeavour to Depreciate and Undervalue Knowledge or Vnderstanding as a thing which hath not any Higher Degree of Perfection or Entity in it than is in Dead and Sensless Matter It being according to them but a Passion from Singular Bodies Existing without and therefore both Junior and Inferior to them a Tumult raised in the Brain by Motions made upon it from the Objects of Sense That which Essentially includeth in it Dependence upon Something else at best but a Thin and Evanid Image of Sensibles or rather an Image of those Images of Sense a meer Whifling and Phantastick thing upon which account they conclude it not fit to be attributed to that which is the First Root and Sourse of all things which therefore is to them no other than Grave and Solid Sensless Matter the only Substantial Self-Existent Independent thing and Consequently the most Perfect and Divine Life and Vnderstanding Soul and Mind are to them no Simple and Primitive Natures but Secondary and Derivative or Syllables and Complexions of things which Sprung up afterwards from certain Combinations of Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions or Contemperations of Qualities Contextures either of Similar or Dissimilar Atoms And as themselves are Juniors to Sensless Matter and Motion and to those Inanimate Elements Fire Water Air and Earth the First and most Real Productions of Nature and Chance so are their Effects and the Things that belong to them comparatively with those other Real Things of Nature but Slight Ludicrous and Vmbratil as Landskip in Picture compared with the Real Prospect of High Mountains and Low Valleys Winding or Meandrous Rivers Towering Steeples and the Shady Tops of Trees and Groves as they are accordingly commonly disparaged under those Names of Notional and Artificial And thus was the Sence of the Ancient Atheists represented by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They say that the Greatest and most Excellent Things of all were made by Sensless Nature and Chance but all the Smaller and more Inconsiderable by Art Mind and Vnderstanding which taking from Nature those First and Greater Things as its Ground-work to Act upon doth Frame and Fabricate all the other Lesser Things which are therefore Commonly called Artificial And the Mind of these Atheists is there also further declared by that Philosopher after this manner The First most Real Solid and Substantial things in the whole World are those Elements Fire Water Air and Earth made by Senslâ—ss Nature and Chance without
any Art Mind or Vnderstanding and nâ—xt to these the Bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars and this Terrestrial Globe produced out of the foreâ—aid Inanimate Elements by Vnknowing Nature or Chance likewise without any Art Mind or God The Fortuitous Concourse of Similar or Dissimilar Atoms begetting this whole System and Compages of Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that afterwards Art or Mind and Vnderstanding being Generated also in the last place out of those same Sensless and Inanimate Bodies or Elements it rising up in certain Smaller Pieces of the Universe and Particular Concretions of Matter called Animals Mortal from Mortal things did produce certain other Ludicrous things which partake little of Truth and Reality but are meer Images Vmbrages and Imitations as Picture and Landskip c. but above all those Moral Differences of Just and Vnjust Honest and Dishonest the meer Figments of Political Art and Slight Vmbratil Things compared with Good and Evil Natural that consist in nothing but Agreement and Disagreement with Sense and Apppetite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as for Things Good and Honest those that are such by Nature differ from those which are such by Law but as for Just and Vnjust there is by Nature no such thing at all The Upshot and Conclusion of all is That there is no such Scale or Ladder in Nature as Theists and Metaphysicians suppose no Degrees of Real Perfection and Entity one above another as of Life and Sense above Inanimate Matter of Reason and Vnderstanding above Sense from whence it would be Inferred that the Order of things in Nature was in Way of Descent from Higher and Greater Perfection Downward to Lesser and Lower which is indeed to Introduce a God And that there is no such Scale or Ladder of Perfection and Entity they endeavour further to prove from hence because according to that Hypothesis it would follow that every the Smallest and most Contemptible Animal that could see the Sun had a Higher degree of Entity and Perfection in it than the Sun it self a thing ridiculously Absurd or else according to Cotta's Instance Idcircò Formicam anteponendam esse huic Pulcherimae Vrbi quòd in Vrbe Sensus sit nullus in Formica non modo Sensus sed etiam Mens Ratio Memoria That therefore every Ant or Pismire were far to be preferred before this most beautiful City of Rome because in the City there is no Sense whereas an Ant hath not only Sense but also Mind Reason and Memory that is a certain Sagacity superiour to Sense Wherefore they conclude that there is no such Scale or Ladder in Nature no such Climbing Stairs of Entity and Perfection one above another but that the whole Vniverse is One Flat and Level it being indeed all Nothing but the same Vniform Matter Under several Forms Dresses and Disguises or Variegated by Diversity of Accidental Modifications one of which is that of such Beings as have Phancy in them commonly called Animals which are but some of Sportful or Wanton Natures more trimly Artificial and Finer Gamaieus or Pretty Toys but by reason of this Phancy they have no Higher Degree of Entity and Perfection in them than is in Sensless Matter as they will also be all of them quickly transformed again into other seemingly dull Vnthinking and Inanimate Shapes Hitherto the Sense of Atheists But the Pretended Grounds of this Atheistick Doctrine or rather Madness have been already also confuted over and over again Knowledge and Vnderstanding is not a meer Passion from the thing Known Existing without the Knower because to Know and Vnderstand as Anaxagoras of old determined is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Master and Conquer the thing Known and consequently not meerly to Suffer from it or Passively to Lie Under it this being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Mastered and Conquered by it The Knowledge of Vniversal Theoremes in Sciences is not from the Force of the thing Known existing without the Knower but from the Active Power and Exerted Vigour or Strength of that which Knows Thus Severinus Boetius Videsne ut in cognoscendo cuncta Suâ potius Facultate quà m Eorum quae Cognoscuntur Vtantur Neque id injuria nam cum omne Judicium Judicantis Actus existat necesse est ut suam quisque Operam non ex Alienâ sed ex propriâ Potestate persiciat See you not how all things in Knowing use their own Power and Faculty rather than that of the thing Known For since Judgment is the Action of that which Judgeth every thing must of necessity perform its own Action by its own Power Strength and Faculty and not by that of another Sense it self is not a meer Passion or Reception of the Motion from Bodies without the Sentient for if it were so then would a Looking-Glass and Other Dead things See but it is a Perception of a Passion made upon the Body of the Sentient and therefore hath something of the Souls own Self-Activity in it But Vnderstanding and the Knowledge of Abstract Sciences is neither Primary Sense nor yet the Fading and Decaying Remainders of the Motions thereof but a Perception of another kind and more Inward than that of Sense not Sympathetical but Vnpassionate the Noemata of the Mind being things distinct from the Phantasmata of Sense and Imagination which are but a Kind of Confused Cogitations And though the Objects of Sense be only Singular Bodies Existing without the Sentient yet are not these Sensibles therefore the only Things and Cogitables but there are other Objects of Science or Intelligibles which the Mind Containeth within it Self That Dark Philosophy of some tending so directly to Atheism That there is Nothing in the Mind or Vnderstanding which was not First in Corporeal Sense and derived in way of Passion frrom Matter was both Elegantly and Solidly Confuted by Boetius his Philosophick Muse after this manner Quondam Porticus attulit Qui Sensus Imagines Credant Mentibus imprimi Mos est aequore paginae Pressas Figere literas Nihil motibus explicat Notis subdita Corporum Rerum reddit imagines Cernens omnia Notio Aut quae cognita dividit Alternumque legens iter Nunc decidit in Infima Veris falsa redarguit Longe Causa potentior Impressas patitur notas Et Vires Animi movens Cum vel Lux oculos ferit Tum Mentis Vigor excitus Ad Motus similes vocans Obscuros nimium Senes E Corporibus extimis Vt quondam Celeri stylo Quae nullas habeat notas Sed Mens si propriis vigens Sed tantum patiens jacet Cassasque in Speculi vicem Vnde haec sic animis viget Quae vis singula prospicit Quae divisa recolligit Nunc Summis Caput inserit Tum sese referens sibi Haec est Efficiens magis Quam quae Materiae modo Praecedit tamen Excitans Vivo in corpore Passio Vel Vox auribus instrepit Quas intus species tenet Notis applicat exteris