created from Eternity but to prescribe the divine Creation so short an Epocha as the limits of Six Thousand Years 't is what I never durst I had rather leave that together with several other Things amongst the hidden secrets of God Now these short Annotations upon the Account Moses gives us of the first Creation of Things seems to imply that it was not this Sacred Author's design to represent the beginning of the World exactly according to the Physical Truth which would have been of no use to the common People who were uncapable of being made Philosophers but to expound the first Originals of Things after such a method as might breed in the Minds of Men Piety and a worshipping of the true God And forasmuch as all the ancient Nations viz. the Chaldaeans Phaenicians Aegyptians c. had each of them their several Accounts of the Creation of the World placed as an introduction before their Histories or Systems of Divinity so Moses in like manner being to write Laws and Institutions for the Israelites thought it convenient also to prefix as an introductory Preface an Account not only of the Original of his own Nation but even of the whole World However whereas the Heathens Accounts of the Creation were frequently stuffed with Fables and I know not how many Gods and Goddesses to the very great Corruption of Religion he laying aside all those Fooleries has handled this Subject with a great deal of Purity and Innocence When that he might tear up the very Roots of Idolatry he represented the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars which were the chief Deities of other Nations not as eternal or created on their own account but as subservient to this sublunary World as well as to the use of Mankind This to me seems the Scope of our Holy Writer but if we seek only after pure naked Truth and a physical Theory we must go quite upon another Foundation that is we must if I am not mistaken suppose the World which began near upon six Thousand Years ago to have been no other than the sublunary Orb or our Earth together with its Sky and that Chaos from whence it arose not to have been universal or diffused over the vast spaces of the Heavens but contained within the aforesaid bounds which are whatever is below the Moon Likewise the Primitive Earth did not arise out of that Chaos in the same Form as Mâ—ses had represented it For his Description of it was just according to what the People had before their Eyes which was the Post diluvian and modern one nor could he without a great many far fetched obscure terms and a long Chain of Arguments have ascended to its first Form and have brought the Thread of both down to his own Times In short neither the Sun nor Stars were composed out of this terrestrial Chaos but Moses having made Man to be the Head and under God the supream Lord of all things he represented the whole Universe as it were created and compiled purely for his sake This to me seems the Reason of both the physical and ethical Account of the Creation for so I call the Mosaical Relation since it seems not to have been Instituted so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the mean time if to other Peoples Optics this appears in a different view I do not desire to trouble or disturb any one in their Opinion Let every one please and hug himself in his own But we are all bound to make use of that Portion of Reason God Almighty has distributed to each of us till we have some more clear Light to illuminate us from Above AN APPENDIX Concerning the Modern BRACHMINS IN THE INDIES Together with their generally received Opinions HAving already spoken of the Modern Brachmins in the Indies whom besides the near resemblance of their Studies and Customs we have several other Arguments to show they are descended from the ancient Race I think it may be neither impertinent nor unpleasant to add some few Words here by way of Appendix about their Opinions concerning the Originals and Revolutions of Things which Opinions are 't is true neglected by most People because they are delivered in a mythological way and that Truth is very much clouded with Fables Under the name of Indies we here comprehend besides the Chineze Empire and Kingdom of Indostan or Dominion of the Great Mogul the Kingdoms of Siam of the Malabars of Cochinchina of Coromandel and whatever others are known to us in the East that have in some measure shaken off their Barbarity Now in each of these are a certain sort of Philosophers or Divines and in the Kingdoms of Indostan Siam and the other adjacent Parts there are some who seem to be the Progeny of the ancient Brachmins being different and distinguished from the rest of the People by their Manner and Way of Living as well as by a Doctrin and Language wholly peculiar to themselves They have a certain Cabala or Body of Learning which they receive by Tradition from one to the other Now this Body of Learning does not treat of each little Point or Nicety in Philosophy as our modern Philosophers used to do but like the natural Theology of the Ancients it treats of God of the World of the Beginning and Ending of Things of the Periods of the World of the Primitive State of Nature together with its repeated Renovations All which Opinions are by some more plainly by others more obscurely and fabulously delivered but that they were of old spread amongst these Nations is plain from several Footsteps of them at this day remaining For a Specimen whereof we will give you some short Remarks out of our late Voyages upon several Heads of this now barbarous Theology or Philosophy Nor is it of Moment with what Kingdom or Country we begin The Mogul's Kingdom call'd Indâ—stan is extreamly large and has been visited by several Europeans whose Credit and Authority are sufficient to make them be believed There are in this Kingdom besides Mahometans those they call Gentiles or Pagans among which Gentiles is a certain Tribe or Order of Men who bear the Title and perform the Offices of Sâ—ges Priests or Philosophers They have a Language peculiar to themselves which they call Hanscrit or the pure Tongue in this Language they have some very ancient Books which they call Sacred and say were given by God to the Great Prophet Brahma as formerly the Law of the Israelites was to Moses Athan Kircher gives you an Alphabet of this Brachmin's Language written by the Hand of Father Henry Roth who for several Years in the Indies apply'd himself to the Learning of Brachmins And in this they not only write and conceal their Divinity but also their Opinions in Philosophy of all Kinds besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Opinions of a very ancient Date They likewise Philosophize after the manner of
he was very strong and lusty he fled to the East of Eden where he associated himself with a pack of Lewd Fellows he set up for the Trade of Padding then married a Wife begot a Son and built a City Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his Gods for that his Mistress Eugenia being perjured kept the same Face which she had before or rather became fairer and fairer The same is also the constant complaint of the Elect in Scripture That the Wicked prosper so much in this World Wherefore to me it seems certain that the Imputation of Adam's Sin is no ways an occasion of our Sufferings I know there are some affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd Men should never have died as if Immortality and Eternal Life which nothing but a New Creation could beget should have been bestow'd on Men by Vertue of the First Creation which by its own Nature is subject to Death and Corruption And that those Men should not have died who as the Schools say are naturally Corruptible and were created Mortal Some will here object and say God told Adam That on the Day he eat that Fruit he should die the Death from whence they gather That if Death was given as a Punishment to Adam on that Day wherein he trangress'd the Law of God then surely Adam would never have died if he had never sinn'd But that Consequence I deny for although they die which kill yet they who do not kill are not Immortal Besides to conclude this point 't is altogether inconsistent with God's Attributes of Mercy and Justice to punish all Mankind for one single Persons sin which we could no ways prevent or hinder nor any but God himself who permitted that Evil Spirit to Reign in him The Roman Schools affirm the first Motions of Concupiscence to be no sin because they are involuntary and come upon us whether we will or no then why should they think Original Sin to be really and truly a Sin in us which is altogether as involuntary and unchosen by us as Concupiscence For how can anothers sin wherein we have no hand be imputed to us Eternal Death was not threatned to Adam for his sin and therefore could not from him descend upon us for that which was none of ours The Death that Adam's Sin introduced is such as could have a Remedy or Recompence by Christ but eternal Death hath no Recompence nor can ever be destroy'd whereas temporal Death shall If God should impute Adam's Sin so as to damn us for it then all our Good we receive from God is much less than the Evil saith Dr. Taylor If God will not give Men Heaven by Christ he will not throw them into Hell by Adam if his Goodness will not do the First his Mercy and Justice will not suffer him to do the Last Nor did any Church ever enjoyn Pennance or Repentance for Original Sin wherefore it seems preposterous and unreasonable that any Man should be damn'd for that which no Man is bound to Repent However I do no way find that Dr. Burnet does absolutely declare against Original Sin but rather the contrary acknowledging the Degeneracy of Mankind from its primitive State which must be redeem'd by the Seed of a Woman All Extreams are dangerous as walking upon the Brink of a Precipice or the like and if he be not so violent in this Point what others may only think he wants in Piety may perhaps be really supplied in Charity And what they only fancy they have in Piety may be truly defective in Charity An honest Augure is ever in most danger of his own Fraternity But to proceed it hath been a point very much disputed among several Politicians in the Commonwealth of Learning who was the real and true Author of the Pentateuch A late and great Modern Philosopher of this Nation declares It is not an Argument sufficient to prove those Books were written by Moses because they are call'd the Five Books of Moses for as much as Books often take their Titles from their Subject as well as from their Authors It 's true the History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Tamberlain is denominated from the Subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 6 th concerning the Sepulcher of Moses that no Man knoweth his Sepulcher to this Day that is to say to the Day wherein those Words were written wherefore it is manifest that those Words were written after his Interment But it may perhaps be alledged That the last Chapter only and not the whole Pentateuch was written by some other hand and the rest by Moses Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis cap. 12. v. 6. and Abraham passed through the Land to the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the Land which must be the Words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the Land and consequently not of Moses who died before he came into it Likewise Numb 21. v. 14. the Writer citeth another more ancient Book entituled the Book of the Wars of the Lord wherein were Registred the Acts of Moses at the Red-Sea and at the Brook of Amon which he would never have mention'd of himself but could as well have given us an account himself of what he did in those places Wherefore it is evident That the Five Books of Moses were written by another Hand after his Decease But yet it is rational to believe that Moses wrote the Volume of the Law contain'd in the 11 th of Deuteronomy and the following Chapters to the 27 th which he commanded to be written on Stones in Entry into the Land of Canaan Also Moses himself deliver'd it to the Priests and Elders of Israel to be read every seventh Year to all Israel at their Assembly in the Feast of Tabernacles as we may find in the 31 st Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 9 th Nay it may be also question'd whether the aforesaid was that very Law which Moses delivered since having been a long time lost Helkiah pretended to find it again and so sent it to King Iosias 2 Kings 22.8 and the 23.1 2 3. so that we have only Helkiah's Word for it The Book of Ioshua was also written long after Ioshua's time which may be gather'd out of many places of the Book it self Ioshua had set up twelve Stones in the midst of Iordan for a Monument of their Passage of which the Writer saith Ioshua 4.9 They are there unto this day which Expression Vnto this day is a Phrase that signifieth a Time past And the same is manifest by like Arguments of the Books of Iudges and Ruth that they were written long after the Captivity Iudges chap. 1.21 26. chap. 6.24 chap. 10.4 chap. 15.19 chap. 17.6 and Ruth chap. 1.1 but especially Iudges 18.30 Now the Reason why I make mention of these things is only to shew That our most Reverend
twice in one and the same part of its circuit These and the like Phaenomenaes of the Heavens can hardly without using some violence to the Laws of Nature be reduced to an Epocha of six thousand years We should much rather confess that our Earth had not the same Original nor is of the same age with the whole Universe whether Intellectual or Corporeal Nor is it to be wondered at that Moses did not distinguish them or treat of the Original of the Universe apart from that of our Sublunary World since the common people never distinguish these things nor have any separate Idaea of them The greatest part of Mankind esteems the remaining part of nature and of the Universe only as an Appendix of our World or Earth worth nothing of it self but created meerly for our use and benefit 'T was therefore not without much reason that our most wise Law giver left it to the Philosophers as their business that when human understanding was through age use and observations come to a greater maturity they might digest the Works of God into another Method adapted to the Divine perfections and nature of things But enough of this Subject let us now proceed to something else Thirdly Moses in his Hexaemeron mentions a famous Phaenomena whereof we have not any appearance I mean his Waters above the Firmament in the making or disposing of which he tells us God spent one entire day which is no less time than he imployed about the Sun Moon and all the Host of Heaven 'T is true these Noble Bodies deservedly claim to themselves twentyfour Hours labour but to an obscure unknown thing we cannot but grudg so much work Let us make a search therefore after these invisible Waters let us enquire what are the places they now possess or where they have formerly resided Moses says they were placed above the Firmament but the Sun with the rest of the Stars he makâ—s to be in the Firmament Thus he places those Waters above all the Stars and the Starry Heaven nevertheless of these and all things else he supposes the Earth to be the Center but since the Waters are heavier than the Coelestial Matter and than even the very air it self how is it possible for them to stay in the highest Regions not being sustained by any intermediate Bodies of a grosser kind St. Austin in this matter forbids us having recourse to the Divine Omnipotence when in treating on the same subject he thus very gravely and much to the purpose admonisheth us neither let any one say that according to the Almighty Power of God to whom all things are possible we ought to believe that the Waters thus heavy as we know and feel them to be are diffused above the Heavenly Body in which are the Stars for now we ought to examin by his Scriptures how God has instituted the natures of things not how he is pleased to operate according to his Miraculous Omnipotence and this agrees with what he has more generally taught us elsewhere God does after such manner administer all the things he has Created that he suffers them to be exercised and governed by their own motions Let your judgment then go according to these Rules Besides suppose these I know not what kind of Waters had been above the highest Heavens what had it signified to the people to know this Mystery 't is remote from Moses's custom and what he proposed to himself to relate in his Hexaemeron invisible abstruse things which were of no use when known He in that only traces the Phaenomenaes of the visible World which strike upon the eyes of all people and make them sensible that there must be a Creator whereas those things which are no way apparent as they need no Author so neither do they require any explanation And therefore some have thought it proper to interpret these Waters above the Firmament as it were watry Clouds and to that end they establish two Firmaments an upper and a lower the former is that where the Stars reside the latter that wherein the Vapours Clouds and Meteors roul about that is to say they call by the name of Firmament the space that lies between the Earth and the middle Region of the air But according to this solution pray what did God Almighty create the second day a little extension or space The distance which is between us and the Clouds but that distance did before exist being not only extended to the middle Region of the Air but even to the very highest Heaven whether you suppose the newly Created Light or the Chaos to have been interposed What a business then is it to create distance besides to create distance the second day which did exit the first Neither is there according to this Proposition any solid fence or enclosure admitted in the fluid Heavens But that we may further confute this Interpretation let us hear Moses's own words The second day says he God said let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters that is the Superiour from the Inferiour these Waters therefore as well the one as the other did exist before this Interaqueous Firmament was made For there can be no bound or seperation but of things that do already exist Tell me then what or where were these Superiour Waters before this Seperation was made they seem to have before been one continued Mass and after to have been by this partition divided into two different Stories But before all this there were neither Rain nor Clouds if therefore you will have these to be the Superiour Waters this does not answer Moses's words Finally 't would be preposterous to suppose Clouds before the Earth or to imagin these coagulations of Vapours which perish and are renewed each day considerable enough to take up the sixth part of the Almighties vast Work The thing in short comes to this the vulgar do not comprehend the natural Generation of Rain by the condensation of Vapours but fancies rain is sent down from Heaven by a Divine Impulse or comes immediately from God Moses to favour this opinion goes and makes a common Receptacle for the Waters above the Heavens so that God by opening or shutting his Flood gates might at his pleasure keep up or let down the Rain this I take to have been the mind and intent of the Sacred Author as to his Super coelestial Waters And this is the best way to keep up the dignity of Moses if whenever he deviates from the Physical Truth we suppose him to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adapting his History of the Creation to the capacity and use of the common people Thus also when he treats of light in the first day of the Creation that Phoenomena is equally uncapable of being explained by any Physical reason but least God should seem to work three days in the dark Moses thought it was convenient to produce light at the
the necessity of a Mediator was the foundation of the Heathen Idolatry they could not go to the fountain of Good it self The Popish Religion stands on the same foundation whereas the greatest goodness is the most accessible which shews that Popery was a Religion accommodated to the Sentiments of Mankind from precedent Religions and not to Infallible Reason drawn from the eternal respects of things and Reason being the first relation of God is first to be believed not depending on doubtful fact without us but full of its own light shining always in us 3 dly It was the common sence of the wisest Philosophers that things were good antecedent to all human Compacts and this opinion Pyrrho in Sextus Empericus argues against also Mr. Hobbs hath of late revived in the world Pyrrho's Doctrin tho without reason for as there are immediate Propositions to which the understanding sine discursu assents as soon as proposed so are there things good and just which they will at first view without deliberation approve of and chose also viz. the Veneration of an Almighty invisible Being referring of our selves to him with a fiat voluntas tua abhorrence of breach of contract with man of a lye as a violation of truth so as in my judgment there is a sanction arising from the nature of things before any Law declared amongst men that there is a generosum bonestum hid in all our Souls is plain from the Epicurean Deists themselves for they labour to have their Vices imputed rather to a Superiority of their reason above that of others than to a servitude of their reason to their own passions which shews vice is naturally esteemed a base and low thing This appears from the Legislators of the world as Numa Zamloxâ— c. Ã Iove Principium there they did begin well knowing human compacts were too weak to ballance and restrain the passions of human nature offenders presuming to escape unpunished and rightly enough were all Laws but human compacts In two cases which ordinarily happen in human life viz. when the fact is unevident or when the Magistrate is too weak to punish Hence is Grotius his description of the law of Nature Lex est c. The Law is a combination of the Vertuous to punish the Vicious Here the Obligation must be lodged and this appears in the Satyrs of the Poets in the complaints of the Philosophers and in the several ages of the World against the manners of Mankind for without Vertue God is only a name amongst men and no man without it can hope well of God 4 ly I remember Plutarch speaking of Aristides's Justice complains thus men have commonly three Affections or Opinions of the Gods the first that they think them blessed the second that they fear them and the third that they reverence them They account them blessed because they 're Immortal they fear them because of their Power and reverence them because of their Justice yet of these three men most desire Immortality whereof our nature is uncapable Also Power which dependeth upon fortune the only Divinity man is capable of they neglect and undervalue in that God is inimitable by us And this is the difference betwixt Corporeal and intellectual Love If the object of my Love be external beauty a person or a face that I cannot imitate but if an Idea of Perfection and Intellectual Beauty that I may be assimulated to and partake of besides the soul in Intellectual love suffers not with the object it loves as in a Corporeal love it doth because that its object the Soveraign God never suffers and this is the chief true conversion which frees us from all evils the Mors Philosophorum which Porpheryâ—peaks â—peaks of Others are rolled as upon Cylinders from one appearance of good to another and live in a perpetual storm for 't is not the change but the choice of our Object that makes us happy 5 ly Antoninus says if the question be put to us what is thy art or profession our Answer should be to be good as God made the world not for his own good who was infinitely happy before but for his Creatures good So our Religion must necessarily be this to do good to his Creatures for therein we concur with the will of God and it is a grand truth very proper for the Immortal Deist to consider that all vice and wickedness is but a denial and disowning of God to be the Supreme Infinite Good my Pride denies he has ever been good to me my lust believes the low and base matter can with its pleasures make me happier than he can with all his goodness my envy would not have him good to others but would have him contract and shrink up himself from his Creatures and lastly my malice and revenge hates his Creatures if they be but once imagined my Enemies and would destroy those whom his goodness first and would have still to exist 6 ly and Lastly Campanella in his Book De Sensu Rerum observes Aristotelem dicentem Deum non habere cum hominibus amicitiam quoniam non est proportio finiti ad infinitum Majestatem non bonitatem Dei considerasse For Mr. Hobbs to be left with Mr. Crook a Bookseller at the Sign of the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar near St. Clements-Church Ludgate-Hill 1678. Concerning the Arrians Trinitarians and Councils SIR BY your Permission and Mr. Crook's Favour I have had the Happiness to peruse your incomparable Treatise of Heresie in Manuscript wherein you have certainly given us a more accurate and faithful Account of the Nicene Council together with their particular Grounds and Reasons for each distinct Article of their Faith in the Nicene Creed than is any where else to be met with How grateful this Discourse of yours will be to the Quicunque Men I shall not presume to determine since I am sure Mr. Hobbs is as much above their Anger as they are below his Resentments You your self have very well observed when Reason is against a Man a Man will be against Reason and therefore 't is no wonder to see from several Interests so many several Opinions and Animosities arise This made the Arrians and Trinitarians so zealously endeavour to supplant one another this made Constantine at first espouse the Arrian Interest to Mount the Throne as the present Lewis XIV did the Interest of the Hugonots and afterwards thinking to weaken or at least to ballance that Power that raised him strike in with Athanasius and the Trinitarians for a time as our presâ—nt Lewis hath since done the like with the Popish and Jusuitical Party against his Protestant Subjects For Mankind ever lived and died after one and the same Method in all Ages being governed by the same Interests and the same Passions at this time as they were many Thousand Years before us and will be many Thousand Years after us It must be confessed the Arrians were so powerful a Sect in the Roman Empire
thing doth she how is she employ'd or if there be none of all this in her what Good can there be without the same Again I wonld fain know where she resides after her Departure from the Body and what an infinite multitude of Souls like shadows would there be in so many Ages as well part as to come Now surely these are but fantastical foolish and childish Toys devised by Men that would fain live always the like foolery is there in preserving the Bodies Nor was the vanity if Democritus less who promis'd a Resurrection of the Body and yet himself could never rise again But what a folly of follies is it to think that Death should be the way to a second Life what Repose what Rest could ever the Sons of Men have if thier Souls did remain in Heaven above with sense whil'st their shadows tarry'd beneath among the infernal Spirits certainly these sweet Inducements and pleasing Persuasions this foolish Credulity and easiness of Belief destroyeth the benefit of the best gift of Nature Death It likewise doubleth the pains of a Man that is to dye if he does but consider what is to become of him hereafter how much more easie and greater security were it for each Man to ground his Reasons and Resolutions upon an Assurance that he should be in no worse a condition than he was before he was born Now these my Lord with what others I have mention'd in my Anima Mundi are the chief Opinions of the Moralists among the ancient Heathens In Answer to which some of our Moderns argue That if the Soul be not immortal the whole Universe would at this time be deceiv'd since all our Laws do now suppose it so But to this it has been reply'd That if the whole be nothing but the parts as must be allow'd then since there is no Man who is not deceiv'd as Plato saith it is so far from an Offence that it is absolutely necessary to grant either that the whole World is deceiv'd or at least the greater part of it for supposing that there be but three Laws viz. that of Moses that of Christ and that of Mahomet either all are false and so the whole World is deceiv'd or only two of them and so the greater part is deceiv'd But we must know as Plato and Aristotle well observe That a Politician is a Physician of Minds and that his Aim is rather to make Men good than knowing wherefore according to the deversity of Men he must render himself agreeable to the diversity of humors for the attainment of his end Now there are some Men so ingenuous and good-natur'd that they are induc'd to Virtue by the meer excellency thereof and withdraw themselves from Vice purely for the sake of its own deformity and these are Men the best disposed thoâ— rarely to be met with Others who are worse enclined notwithstanding the beauty of Virtue and turpitude of Vice do still practice virtuous things and refrain from those that are vicious meerly out of Rewards Praises Honours Punishments and Dispraises whom we may enrol in the second Rank Again others for hope of some good as well as for fear of corporal punishment are made virtuous wherefore Politicians that they may attain such virtue allure them with the hopes of Riches Dignity and Command at the same time to prevent their committing Vice they terrify them with some punishment either in Purse Honour or Body But others out of a savageness and ferocity of Nature are moved with none of these things as daily experience sheweth wherefore for such they have proposed to the Virtuous Rewards in another Life and to the Vicious Punishments which do most of all terrify since the greater part of Man if they do good do it rather out of fear of eternal Loss than hope of eternal Gain forasmuch as we have a more sensible Idea of Suffering and Losses than of Elyzium and the good entertainment there Now because this last Expedient may be profitable to all Men of what condition soever Lawgivers considering the proneness of Men to evil and themselves aiming at the Public Good establish'd the Immortality of the Soul perhaps at first not so much out of a regard to Truth as to Honesty hoping thereby to induce Men to Virtue Nor are Politicians to be so much blamed herein more than Physicians who many times for the benefit of their Patients are compell'd to feign and pretend divers things since in like manner Politicians devise Fables only to regulate the People notwithstanding in these Fables as Averroes saith Prolog in 3. Phys. there is properly neither Truth nor Falsehood Thus Nurses bring their Children to those things which they know are good for them after the like manner whereas if the Man or the Child were either sound in Body or Mind neither would the Physician or the Nurse stand in need of such contrivances Likewise if all Men were in that first Rank abovemention'd tho' we should admit the mortality of the Soul they would yet perhaps be virtuous and honest but such are rare to be found and therefore it is necessary to use other Expedients neither is there any Absurdity therein since almost all humane Nature is immerst in matter and partaketh but little of the Intellect whence Man is more distant from Intelligences than a sick Man from him that is sound or a Fool from a Wiseman so that it is no wonder if a Politician makes use of such ways or means for the publick establishment of good manners And therefore my Lord besides the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as also the innumerable other Arguments which may be deduc'd as well from Philosophy as Reason to prove the Immortality of the Soul together with its Rewards and Punishments tho' I determine not their duration yet there is no Argument of greater weight with me than the absolute necessity and convenience that it should be so as well to compleat the Justice of God as to perfect the happiness of Man not only in this World but in that which is to come And for this very Reason when I hear Seneca the Philosopher and others preaching up the Doctrine of the Souls Immortality with a Quid mihi Curae erit transfuga Tackt to the end of it nothing under Heaven to me seems more unaccountable or contradictory For as to suppose a huâ—-drum Deity chewing his own Nature a droning God sit hugging of himself and hoarding up his Providence from his Creatures is an Atheism no less irrational than to deny the very essence of a Divine Being so in my Opinion to believe an Immortality of the Soul without its due Rewards and Punishments is altogether as irrational and useless as to believe the Soul itself to be mortal by such a Faith we rob the Soul of its best Title to Immortality for what need is there of an Executor where there are no Debts to pay nor any Estate to inherit But Pomponatius and especially Cardan in
forbidding them to converse or marry with strangers as also that they afterwards to revenge their Banishments invaded Egypt putting the Egyptians and their King to flight as they did in all this I say most of the ancient Egyptian Writers agree as we may gather from Iosephus his own Writings The Tradition of the Memphites concerning Moses's passing the Red Sea was That Moses being well acquainted with the condition of the place observed the Flux and Reflux of the Waters and so brought over his Army by dry Land However had this been wrought immediately by God we need not says Iosephus so much wonder at it for that the Pamphyliam Ocean did the same to Great Alexander of Macedon and gave way to him and his Followers the Waves themselves marking out a Path rather than any thing should hinder the Design which God had purposed to them viz. to overthrow the Kingdom of Persia and this Iosephus in these very words records so that by lessning the Miracle he destroys it making it cease to be a Wonder while he strives to make it fit to be believ'd Abraham and Moses seem'd first to institute Religious Worship and both of them were well skillâ—d in Egyptian Learning which gave occasion for some to think that Moses and the Iews took divers of their Customs from the Egyptians as for Instance their Circumcision because Herodotus says that the Phaenicians and Syrians in Palestine which must be the Iews since none else us'd it in Palestine took their Circumcision from the Egyptians also says he they confess the same themselves nor does Iosephus deny as much only says without giving any reason why that he doubts whether they learnt it of the Egyptians and Ethiopians or whether the Egyptians and Ethiopians learnt it of them but does not affirm or deny either Ioseph Cont. Apâ— However Bochartus in his Phaleg as well as Dr. Stillingfleet in his Origines Sacrae affirm the latter not to mention Theophilus Gale and other Gleaners upon the same Subject The Article of one true God was common both to Iews and Gentiles even before their Reception the universality of Religious Worship consisting in the practice of Virtue and Goodness we may find also common to the Gentiles as well as to the Iews or if it be said that Precept in the Decalogue That we should make no graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath was particular to the Iews it will be found that whatsoever they said thereof the Persians and other neighbouring Nations concurred therein as also in the rest of the Commandments thus Feriari Deo is a kind of Sabboth-keeping The ancient Iews and modern Christians have many Rites and Ceremonies common with the Gentiles which is more than our vulgar Divines do imagine Most of the Iewish Laws and Rites were practised among the Gentiles indifferently or at least did not much vary from them as the diligent Searchers into Antiquity well know The Gentiles as well as the Iews held the most substantial parts of Moses his Doctrines without differing in much more than certain parcicular Laws more proper for that Country than any other as their not eating Swines flesh their making Adultery death c. since as the Notions of God and a good Conscience are written in our Souls at this day so we cannot justly think any of our Forefathers among the Gentiles were deprived of them But when all is done SIR these Relations of Trogus Tacitus and the rest are only the uncertain Accounts of partial Authors since the best and only History extant to be rely'd on for this Subject is the Holy Scriptures dictated as every good Christian ought to believe by the Holy Spirit therefore tho' I send you these other Accounts to gratify your Curiosity yet referring you to these for matter of Truth I shall give you no farther trouble than to assure you I am without Reserve SIR Your unfeigned Friend And faithful humble Servant BLOUNT Decemb. 12. 1692. To his Friend Torismond to Iustifie the Marrying of two Sisters the one after the other SIR ACcording to your Letter I find the Objections urged against your marrying Eugenia your Ladies Sister are chiefly these three 1. That you being her Brother in Law by having formerly married her Sister it would be not only a Violation of the Canon Law but also of the Levitical and consequently a sin 2. That it is against the known Laws of the Land and so might be dangerous and troublesom to you both 3. And Lastly That such a match being a thing unusual and contrary to custom it might reflect upon your Honours All which Objections I do conceive so easily to be answered that were it not too great a confidence in any man to say so with that little knowledge I have either in Civil Canon or Common Law I would assert it to be lawful and accordingly enter the Lists of Argument against any Levitical or Canonical Gamester whatever upon that Subject in the mean time what I have briefly collected for your service upon this occasion is as follows 'T is confessed the 99 th Canon of the Church of England is positive in its determination that no man shall marry within the Degrees prohibited by the Laws of God and expressed by a Table fet forth by Authority Anno Dom. 1563. in the 17 th particular of which Table it is declared that a man may not marry his Wives Sister the foundation of which Prohibition both in the Canon and Table is this viz. Kindred and Affinity forbidden to marry by the Laws of God So that the Prohibition as well in the Canon as in any part of the Table seems to be no farther obliging then as it is forbidden by the Laws of God and the same dependance likewise have our Statute Laws in this Case to which they wholly refer The first Text of Scripture which is commonly urged in this Case is that of marrying a Brothers Wife which seems to be forbidden where by a side wind they would bring in that of marrying a Wives Sister as a parallel saying ubi eadem Ratio ibi idem Ius But with their pardon the simile does not run upon four feet the Reason is not the same For the words in Lvit. 18. and 16. which forbid the marrying a Brothers Wife say because a man thereby uncovers his Brothers Nakedness which seems not at all to be a good Reason against marrying the Wives Sister because every man is supposed to have discovered his first Wives Nakedness before any such marriage with her Sister Besides all Penal Laws such as Moses's are in this Chapter which concern Life Limb nay and the very Soul too in this case are no where construed by Parallels but straitly tyed up to the very express Letter of the Law or else no man would be safe if he were liable to hang'd by way of comparison for a similitude or being like the Picture of a Traytor and