and Phancies This the Fourth Atheistick Argument That to suppose an Incorporeal Mind to be the Original of all things is nothing else but to make the Abstract Notion of a meer Accident to be the First Cause Page 67 IX A Fifth Pretended Ground of Atheism That an Incorporeal Deity being already confuted a Corporeal one may be disproved also from the Principles of Corporealism in General Because Matter being the onely Substance and all other Differences of things nothing but the Accidents thereof Generable and Corruâ—tible no Living Vnderstanding Being can be Essentially Incorruptible The Stoical God Incorruptible onely by Accident Page 69 X. Their further Attempt to doe the same Atomically That the First Principle of all things whatsoever in the Vniverse being Atoms or Corpuscula devoid of all manner of Qualities and consequently of Sense and Understanding which sprung up afterwards from a certain Composition or Contexture of them Mind or Deity could not therefore be the First Original of all Page 70 XI A farther Atheistick Attempt to impugn a Deity by disproving the World's Animation or its being governed by a Living Vnderstanding Animalish Nature presiding over the whole Because forsooth Sense and Understanding are peculiar Appendices to Flesh Bloud and Braines and Reason is no where to be found but in Human Form Page 73 XII An Eighth Atheistick Instance That God being taken by all for a Most Happy Eternal and Immortal Animal or Living Being there can be no such thing because all living Beings are Concretions of Atoms that were at first generated and are liable to Death and Corruption by the Dissolution of their Compages Life being no Simple Primitive Nature but an Accidental Modification of compounded Bodies onely which upon the Disunion of their Parts or Disturbance of their Contexture vanisheth into Nothing Page 75 XIII A Ninth Pretended Atheistick Demonstration That by God is meant a First Cause or Mover and such as was not before moved by any thing else without it but Nothing can move it self and therefore there can be no unmoved Mover nor any First in the Order of Causes that is a God Page 76 XIV Their farther Improvement of the same Principle That there can be no Action whatsoever without some external Cause or that Nothing taketh Beginning from it self but from the Action of some other Agent without it so that no Cogitation can arise of it self without a Cause all Action and Cogitation being really nothing but Local Motion from whence it follows that no Thinking Being could be a First Cause any more than a Machin or Automaton Page 76. XV. Another Grand Mystery of Atheism That all Knowledge and Mental Conception is the Information of the things themselves known existing without the Knower and a meer Passion from them and therefore the world must needs have been before any Knowledge or Conception of it but no Knowledge or Conception before the world as its Cause Page 77 XVI A Twelfth Atheistick Argumentation That things could not be made by a God because they are so Faulty and Ill made That they were not contrived for the Good of Man and that the Deluge of Evils which overflows all shows them not to have proceeded from any Deity ibid. XVII A Thirteenth Instance of Atheists from the Defect of Providence That in Human Affairs all is Tohu and Bohu Chaos and Confusion Page 79 XVIII A Fourteenth Atheistick Objection That it is impossible for any one Being to Animadvert and Order all things in the distant places of the whole world at once But if it were possible That such Infinite Negotiosity would be absolutely inconsistent with Happiness Page 80 XIX Quaeries of Atheists Why the world was not made sooner and What God did before Why it was made at all since it was so long unmade and How the Architect of the world could rear up so huge a Fabrick Page 81 XX. The Atheists Pretence That it is the great Interesse of Mankind There should be no God And that it was a Noble and Heroical Exploit of the Democriticks to Chase away that Affrightfull Spectre out of the world and to free men from the Continual Fear of a Deity and Punishment after Death Embittering all the Pleasures of Life Page 83 XXI The Last Atheistick Pretence That Theism is also inconsistent with Civil Sovereignty it introducing a Fear greater than the Fear of the Leviathan and that any other Conscience besides the Civil Law being Private Judgment is Ipso Facto a Dissolution of the Body Politick and a Revolt to the State of Nature Page 84 XXII The Atheists Conclusion from all the former Premisses as it is set down in Plato and Lucretius That all things sprung Originally from Nature and Chance without any Mind or God or proceeded from the Necessity of Material Motions Vndirected for Ends. And that Infinite Atoms Devoid of all Life and Sense Moving in Infinite Space from Eternity did by their Fortuitous Rencounters and Entanglements produce the System of this whole Vniverse and as well all Animate as Inanimate things Page 97 CHAP. III. An Introduction to the Confutation of the Atheistick Grounds wherein is contained a particular Account of all the Severall Forms of Atheism together with a necessary Digression concerning a Plastick or Artificial Nature I. THat the Grounds of the Hylozoïck Atheism could not be insisted on by us in the former Chapter together with those of the Atomick they being directly opposite each to other with a farther Account of this Hylozoïck Atheism P. 104. II. A Suggestion in way of Caution for the Preventing of all mistakes That every Hylozoïst must not therefore be presently condemned as an Atheist or but a meer Counterfeit Histrionical Theist Page 105 III. That nevertheless such Hylozoïsts as are also Corporealists or acknowledge no other Substance besides Body can by no means be excused from the Imputation of Atheism for Two Reasons Page 106 IV. That Strato Lampsacenus commonly called Physicus was probably the First Asserter of the Hylozoïck Atheism he acknowledging no other God but the Life of Nature in Matter Page 107 V. Further Proved that this Strato was an Atheist and of a different Form from Democritus he attributing an Energetick Nature but without Sense and Animality to all Matter Page 108 VI. That Strato not deriving all things from a meer 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 Hylozoïck Atheist ibid. VII That the Famous Hippocrates was neither an Hylozoïck nor Democritick Atheist but rather an Heraclitick Corporeal Theist Page 109 VIII That Plato took no notice of the Hylozoïck Atheism nor of any other save what derives the Original of all things from a meer Fortuitous Nature and therefore either the Democritical or the Anaximandrian Atheism which Latter will be next
Transmigrate into their respective Bodies or else come from God immediatly who is the Fountain of all and who at first created all that Substance that now is in the World besides himself Now the latter of these was a thing which those Ancient Philosophers would by no means admit of they judging it altogether incongruous to bring God upon the Stage perpetually and make him immediatly interpose every where in the Generations of Men and all other Animals by the Miraculous production of Souls out of Nothing Notwithstanding which if we well consider it we shall find that there may be very good reason on the other side for the successive Divine Creation of Souls namely that God did not do all at first that ever he could or would do and put forth all his Creative Vigour at once in a moment ever afterwards remaining a Spectator only of the consequent Results and permitting Nature to do all alone without the least Interposition of his at any time just as if there were no God at all in the World For this may be and indeed often hath been the effect of such an Hypothesis as this to make men think that there is no other God in the World but Blind and Dark Nature God might also for other good and wise Ends unknown to us reserve to himself the continual exercise of this his Creative power in the successive Production of new Souls And yet these Souls nevertheless after they are once brought forth into being will notwithstanding their Juniority continue as firmly in the same without vanishing of themselves into Nothing as the Substance of Senseless Matter that was Created many thousand years before will do And thus our Vulgar Hypothesis of the new Creation of Souls as it is Rational in it self so it doth sufficiently salve their Incorporeity their future Immortality or Post-eternity without introducing those offensive Absurdities of their Preexistence and Transmigration XXXV But if there be any such who rather than they would allow a future Immortality or Post-existence to all Souls and therefore to those of Brutes which consequently must have their Successive Transmigrations would conclude the Souls of all Brutes as likewise the Sensitive Soul in Man to be Corporeal and only allow the Rational Soul to be distinct from Matter To these we have only thus much to say That they who will attribute Life Sense Cogitation Consciousness and Self-enjoyment not without some footsteps of Reason many times to Blood and Brains or mere Organized Bodies in Brutes will never be able clearly to defend the Incorporeity and Immortality of Humane Souls as most probably they do not intend any such thing For either all Conscious and Cogitative Beings are Incorporeal or else nothing can be proved to be Incorporeal From whence it would follow also that there is no Deity distinct from the Corporeal World But though there seem to be no very great reason why it should be thought absurd to grant Perpetuity of Duration to the Souls of Brutes any more than to every Atom of Matter or Particle of Dust that is in the whole World yet we shall endeavour to suggest something towards the easing the minds of those who are so much burthened with this difficulty viz. That they may if they please suppose the Souls of Brutes being but so many particular Eradiations or Effluxes from that Source of Life above whensoever and wheresoever there is any fitly prepared Matter capable to receive them and to be Actuated by them to have a sense and frution of themselves in it so long as it continues such but as soon as ever those Organized Bodies of theirs by reason of their Indisposition become uncapable of being further acted upon by them then to be resumed again and retracted back to their Original Head and Fountain Since it cannot be doubted but what Creates any thing out of Nothing or sends it forth from it self by free and voluntary Emanation may be able either to Retract the same back again to its original Source or else to Annihilate it at pleasure And I find that there have not wanted some among the Gentile Philosophers themselves who have entertained this Opinion whereof Porphyry is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every irrational Power is resolved into the Life of the Whole XXXVI Neither will this at all weaken the future Immortality or Post-eternity of Humane Souls For if we be indeed Theists and do in very good Earnest believe a Deity according to the true Notion of it we must then needs acknowledge that all created Being whatsoever owes the Continuation and Perpetuity of its Existence not to any Necessity of Nature without God and Independently upon him but to the Divine Will only And therefore though we had nâ—ver so much Rational and Philosophical assurance that our Souls are Immaterial Substances distinct from the Body yet we could not for all that have any absolute certainty of their Post-eternity any otherwise than as it may be derived to us from the Immutability and Perfection of the Divine Nature and Will which does alwaies that which is Best For the Essential Goodness and Wisdom of the Deity is the only Stability of all things And for ought we Mortals know there may be good Reason why that Grace or Favour of future Immortality and Post-eternity that is indulged to Humane Souls endued with Reason Morality and Liberty of Will by means whereof they are capable of Commendation and Blame Reward and Punishment that so they may be Objects for Divine Justice to display it self upon after this Life in different Retributions may notwithstanding be denied to those lower Lives and more contemptible Souls of Brutes alike devoid both of Morality and Liberty XXXVII But if any for all this will still obstinately contend for that ancient Pythagorick and Empedoclean Hypothesis That all Lives and Souls whatsoever are as old as the first Creation and will continue to Eternity or as long as the World doth as a thing more Reasonable and Probable than our Continual Creation of new Souls by means whereof they become Juniors both to the matter of the World and of their own Bodies and whereby also as they pretend the Divine creative Power is made too Cheap and Prostituted a thing as being Famulative alwaies to Brutish and many times to unlawful Lusts and undue Conjunctions but especially than the Continual Decreation and Annihilation of the Souls of Brutes we shall not be very unwilling to acknowledge thus much to them That indeed of the two this Opinion is more Reasonable and Tolerable than that other Extravagancy of those who will either make all Souls to be Generated and consequently to be Corporeal or at least the Sensitive Soul both in Men and Brutes For besides the Monstrosity of this latter opinion in making two distinct Souls and Perceptive Substances in every Man which is a thing sufficiently confuted by Internal Sense it leaves us also in an absolute Impossibility of proving the Immortality of
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
to be perswaded first that the Sensitive Soul in men as well as Brutes is merely Corporeal and then that there is a Material Plastick Life in the Seeds of all Plants and Animals whereby they do Artificially form themselves and from thence afterward to descend also further to Hylozoism that all matter as such hath a kind of Natural though not Animal Life in it in consideration whereof we ought not to Censure every Hylozoist professing to hold a Deity and a Rational Soul Immortal for a mere Disguised Atheist or Counterfeit Histrionical Theist III. But though every Hylozoist be not therefore necessarily an Atheist yet whosoever is an Hylozoist and Corporealist both together he that both holds the Life of Matter in the Sence before declared and also that there is no other Substance in the World besides Body and Matter cannot be excused from the Imputation of Atheism for Two Reasons First because though he derive the Original of all Things not from what is perfectly Dead and Stupid as the Atomick Atheist doth but from that which hath a kind of Life or Perception in it nay an Infallible Omniscience of whatsoever it self can Do or Suffer or of all its own Capabilities and Congruities which seems to bear some Semblance of a Deity yet all this being only in the way of Natural and not Animal Perception is indeed nothing but a Dull and Drowsie Plastick and Spermatick Life devoid of all Consciousness and Self-enjoyment The Hylozoists Nature is a piece of very Mysterious Non-sence a thing perfectly Wise without any Knowledge or Consciousness of it self Whereas a Deity according to the true Notion of it is such a Perfect Understanding Being as with full Consciousness and Self-enjoyment is completely Happy Secondly because the Hylozoick Corporealist supposing all Matter as such to have Life in it must needs make Infinite of those Lives forasmuch as every Atom of Matter has a Life of its own Coordinate and Independent on one another and consequently as many Independent first Principles no one Common Life or Mind ruling over the Whole Whereas to assert a God is to derive all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from some one Principle or to suppose one Perfect Living and Understanding Being to be the Original of all things and the Architect of the whole Universe Thus we see that the Hylozoick Corporealist is really an Atheist though carrying more the Semblance and Disguise of a Theist than other Atheists in that he attributes a kind of Life to Matter For indeed every Atheist must of necessity cast some of the Incommunicable Properties of the Deity more or less upon that which is not God namely Matter and they who do not attribute Life to it yet must needs bestow upon it Necessary Self-existence and make it the First Principle of all things which are the Peculiarities of the Deity The Numen which the Hylozoick Corporealist pays all his Devotions to is a certain blind Shee-god or Goddess called Nature or the Life of Matter which is a very great Mystery a thing that is Perfectly Wise and Infallibly Omniscient without any Knowledge or Consciousness at all Something like to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that vulgar Enigm or Riddle of Boys concerning an Eunuch striking a Bat A Man and not a Man Seeing and not Seeing did Strike and not Strike with a Stone and not a Stone a Bird and not a Bird c. The Difference being only this that this was a thing Intelligible but humoursomly expressed whereas the other seems to be perfect Non-sence being nothing but a misunderstanding of the Plastick Power as shall be showed afterwards IV. Now the First and Chief Assertour of this Hylozoick Atheism was as we conceive Strato Lampsacenus commonly called also Physicus that had been once an Auditor of Theophrastus and a famous Peripatetick but afterwards degenerated from a Genuine Peripatetick into a new-formed kind of Atheist For Velleius an Epicurean Atheist in Cicero reckoning up all the several sorts of Theists which had been in former times gives such a Character of this Strato as whereby he makes him to be a strange kind of Atheistical Theist or Divine Atheist if we may use such a contradictious Expression his words are these Nec audiendus Strato qui Physicus appellatur qui omnem Vim Divinam in Natura sitam esse censet quae Causas gignendi augendi minuendÃve habeat sed careat omni sensu Neither is Strato commonly called the Naturalist or Physiologist to be heard who places all Divinity in Nature as having within it self the Causes of all Generations Corruptions and Augmentations but without any manner of Sense Strato's Deity therefore was a certain Living and Active but Sensless Nature He did not fetch the Original of all things as the Democritick and Epicurean Atheists from a mere Fortuitous Motion of Atoms by means whereof he bore some slight Semblance of a Theist but yet he was a down-right Atheist for all that his God being no other than such a Life of Nature in Matter as was both devoid of Sense and Consciousness and also multiplied together with the several parts of it He is also in like manner described by Seneca in St. Augustine as a kind of Mongrel thing betwixt an Atheist and a Theist Ego feram aut Platonem aut Peripateticum Stratonem quorum alter Deum sine Corpore fecit alter sine Animo Shall I endure either Plato or the Peripatetick Strato whereof the one made God to be without a Body the other without a Mind In which words Seneca taxes these two Philosophers as guilty of two contrary Extremes Plato because he made God to be a pure Mind or a perfectly Incorporeal Being and Strato because he made him to be a Body without a Mind he acknowledging no other Deity than a certain Stupid and Plastick Life in all the several parts of Matter without Sense Wherefore this seems to be the only reason why Strato was thus sometimes reckoned amongst the Theists though he were indeed an Atheist because he dissented from that only form of Atheism then so vulgarly received the Democritick and Epicurean attributing a kind of Life to Nature and Matter V. And that Strato was thus an Atheist but of a different kind from Democritus may further appear from this Passage of Cicero's Strato Lampsacenus negat operâ Deorum se uti ad fabricandum Mundum quaecunque sint docet omnia esse Effecta Natura nec ut ille qui asperis laevibus hamatis uncinatÃsque Corporibus Concreta haec esse dicat interjecto Inani Somnia censet haec esse Democriti non docentis sed optantis Strato denies that he makes any use of a God for the fabricating of the World or the salving the Phaenomena thereof teaching all things to have been made by Nature but yet not in such a manner as he who affirmed them to be all Concreted out of certain
rough and smooth hookey and crooked Atoms he judging these things to be nothing but the mere Dreams and Dotages of Democritus not teaching but wishing Here we see that Strato denied the World to be made by a Deity or perfect Understanding Nature as well as Democritus and yet that he dissented from Democritus notwithstanding holding another kind of Nature as the Original of things than he did who gave no account of any Active Principle and Cause of Motion nor of the Regularity that is in Things Democritus his Nature was nothing but the Fortuitous Motion of Matter but Strato's Nature was an Inward Plastick Life in the several Parts of Matter whereby they could Artificially frame themselves to the best advantage according to their several Capabilities without any Conscious or Reflexive Knowledg Quicquid aut sit aut fiat says the same Authour Naturalibus fieri aut factum esse docet ponderibus motibus Strato teaches whatsoever is or is made to be made by certain inward Natural Forces and Activities VI. Furthermore it is to be observed that though Strato thus attributed a certain kind of Life to Matter yet he did by no means allow of any one Common Life whether Sentient and Rational or Plastick and Spermatick only as Ruling over the whole mass of Matter and Corporeal Universe which is a thing in part affirmed by Plutarch and may in part be gathered from these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strato affirmeth that the World is no Animal or God but that what is Natural in every thing follows something Fortuitous antecedent Chance first beginning and Nature acting consequently thereupon The full sence whereof seems to be this that though Strato did not derive the Original of all Mundane things from mere Fortuitous Mechanism as Democritus before him had done but supposed a Life and Natural Perception in the Matter that was directive of it yet not acknowledging any one Common Life whether Animal or Plastick as governing and swaying the whole but only supposing the several Parts of Matter to have so many several Plastick Lives of their own he must needs attribute something to Fortune and make the Mundane System to depend upon a certain Mixture of Chance and Plastick or Orderly Nature both together and consequently must be an Hylozoist Thus we see that these are two Schemes of Atheism very different from one another that which fetches the Original of all things from the mere Fortuitous and Unguided Motion of Matter without any Vital or Directive Principle and that which derives it from a certain Mixture of Chance and the Life of Matter both together it supposing a Plastick Life not in the whole Universe as one thing but in all the several Parts of Matter by themselves the first of which is the Atomick and Democritick Atheism the second the Hylozoick and Stratonick VII It may perhaps be suspected by some that the famous Hippocrates who lived long before Strato was an Assertour of the Hylozoick Atheism because of such Passages in him as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature is Vnlearned or Vntaught but it learneth from it self what things it ought to do And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature findeth out ways to it self not by Ratiocination But there is nothing more affirmed here concerning Nature by Hippocrates than what might be affirmed likewise of the Aristotelick and Platonick Nature which is supposed to act for Ends though without Consultation and Ratiocination And I must confess it seems to me no way mis-becoming of a Theist to acknowledge such a Nature or Principle in the Universe as may act according to Rule and Method for the Sake of Ends and in order to the Best though it self do not understand the reason of what it doth this being still supposed to act dependently upon a higher Intellectual Principle and to have been first set a work and employed by it it being otherwise Non-sence But to assert any such Plastick Nature as is Independent upon any higher Intellectual Principle and so it self the first and highest Principle of Activity in the Universe this indeed must needs be either that Hylozoick Atheism already spoken of or else another different Form of Atheism which shall afterwards be described But though Hippocrates were a Corporealist yet we conceive he ought not to lie under the suspicion of either of those two Atheisms forasmuch as himself plainly asserts a higher Intellectual Principle than such a Plastick Nature in the Universe namely an Heraclitick Corporeal God or Vnderstanding Fire Immortal pervading the whole World in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seems to me that that which is called Heat or Fire is Immortal and Omniscient and that it sees hears and knows all things not only such as are present but also future Wherefore we conclude that Hippocrates was neither an Hylozoick nor Democritick Atheist but an Heraclitick Corporeal Theist VIII Possibly it may be thought also that Plato in his Sophist intends this Hylozoick Atheism where he declares it as the Opinion of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature generates all Things from a certain Spontaneous Principle without any Reason and Vnderstanding But here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be as well rendred Fortuitous as Spontaneous however there is no necessity that this should be understood of an Artificial or Methodical Unknowing Nature It is true indeed that Plato himself seems to acknowledge a certain Plastick or Methodical Nature in the Universe Subordinate to the Deity or that perfect Mind which is the supreme Governour of all things as may be gathered from these words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature does rationally or orderly together with Reason and Mind govern the whole Vniverse Where he supposes a certain Regular Nature to be a Partial and Subordinate Cause of things under the Divine Intellect And it is very probable that Aristotle derived that whole Doctrine of his concerning a Regular and Artificial Nature which acts for Ends from the Platonick School But as for any such Form of Atheism as should suppose a Plastick or Regular but Sensless Nature either in the whole World or the several parts of Matter by themselves to be the highest Principle of all things we do not conceive that there is any Intimation of it to be found any where in Plato For in his De Legibus where he professedly disputes against Atheism he states the Doctrine of it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature and Chance produced all the first greatest and most excellent things but that the smaller things were produced by Humane Art The plain meaning whereof is this that the First Original of things and the frame of the whole Universe proceeded from a mere Fortuitous Nature or the Motion of Matter unguided by any Art or Method And thus it is further explained in the following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c.
it self devoid of Knowledge and Vnderstanding we shall therefore endeavour to perswade the Possibility and facilitate the Belief of it by some other Instances and first by that of Habits particularly those Musical ones of Singing Playing upon Instruments and Dancing Which Habits direct every Motion of the Hand Voice and Body and prompt them readily without any Deliberation or Studied Consideration what the next following Note or Motion should be If you jogg a sleeping Musician and sing but the first Words of a Song to him which he had either himself composed or learnt before he will presently take it from you and that perhaps before he is thoroughly awake going on with it and singing out the remainder of the whole Song to the End Thus the Fingers of an exercised Lutonist and the Legs and whole Body of a skilful Dancer are directed to move Regularly and Orderly in a long Train and Series of Motions by those Artificial Habits in them which do not themselves at all comprehend those Laws and Rules of Musick or Harmony by which they are governed So that the same thing may be said of these Habits which was said before of Nature That they do not Know but only Do. And thus we see there is no Reason why this Plastick Nature which is supposed to move Body Regularly and Artificially should be thought to be an Absolute Impossibility since Habits do in like manner Gradually Evolve themselves in a long Train or Series of Regular and Artificial Motions readily prompting the doing of them without comprehending that Art and Reason by which they are directed The forementioned Philosopher illustrates the Seminary Reason and Plastick Nature of the Universe by this very Instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Energy of Nature is Artificial as when a Dancer moves for a Dancer resembles this Artificial Life of Nature forasmuch as Art it self moves him and so moves him as being such a Life in him And agreeably to this Conceit the Ancient Mythologists represented the Nature of the Universe by Pan Playing upon a Pipe or Harp and being in love with the Nymph Eccho as if Nature did by a kind of Silent Melody make all the Parts of the Universe every where Daunce in measure Proportion it self being as it were in the mean time delighted and ravished with the Re-ecchoing of its own Harmony Habits are said to be an Adventitious and Acquired Nature and Nature was before defined by the Stoicks to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Habit so that there seems to be no other Difference between these two than this that whereas the One is Acquired by Teaching Industry and Exercise the other as was expressed by Hippocrates is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnlearned and Vntaught and may in some sence also be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-taught though she be indeed always Inwardly Prompted Secretly Whispered into and Inspired by the Divine Art and Wisdom 14. Moreover that something may Act Artificially and for Ends without Comprehending the Reason of what it doth may be further evinced from those Natural Instincts that are in Animals which without Knowledge direct them to Act Regularly in Order both to their own Good and the Good of the Vniverse As for Example the Bees in Mellification and in framing their Combs and Hexagonial Cells the Spiders in spinning their Webs the Birds in building their Nests and many other Animals in such like Actions of theirs which would seem to argue a great Sagacity in them whereas notwithstanding as Aristotle observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do these things neither by Art nor by Counsel nor by any Deliberation of their own and therefore are not Masters of that Wisdom according to which they Act but only Passive to the Instincts and Impresses thereof upon them And indeed to affirm that Brute Animals do all these things by a Knowledge of their own and which themselves are Masters of and that without Deliberation and Consultation were to make them to be endued with a most Perfect Intellect far transcending that of Humane Reason whereas it is plain enough that Brutes are not above Consultation but Below it and that these Instincts of Nature in them are Nothing but a kind of Fate upon them 15. There is in the next place another Imperfection to be observed in the Plastick Nature that as it doth not comprehend the Reason of its own Action so neither is it Clearly and Expresly Conscious of what it doth in which Respect it doth not only fall short of Humane Art but even of that very Manner of Acting which is in Brutes themselves who though they do not Understand the Reason of those Actions that their Natural Instincts lead them to yet they are generally conceived to be Conscious of them and to do them by Phancy whereas the Plastick Nature in the Formation of Plants and Animals seems to have no Animal Fancie no Express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense or Consciousness of what it doth Thus the often Commended Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature hath not so much as any Fancie in it As Intellection and Knowledge is a thing Superiour to Fancie so Fancie is Superiour to the Impress of Nature for Nature hath no Apprehension nor Conscious Perception of any thing In a Word Nature is a thing that hath no such Self-perception or Self-injoyment in it as Animals have 16. Now we are well aware that this is a Thing which the Narrow Principles of some late Philosophers will not admit of that there should be any Action distinct from Local Motion besides Expresly Conscious Cogitation For they making the first General Heads of all Entity to be Extension and Cogitation or Extended Being and Cogitative and then supposing that the Essence of Cogitation consists in Express Consciousness must needs by this means exclude such a Plastick Life of Nature as we speak of that is supposed to act without Animal Fancie or Express Consciousness Wherefore we conceive that the first Heads of Being ought rather to be expressed thus Resisting or Antitypous Extension and Life i.e. Internal Energy and Self-activity and then again that Life or Internal Self-activity is to be subdivided into such as either acts with express Consciousness and Synaesthesis or such as is without it the Latter of which is this Plastick Life of Nature So that there may be an Action distinct from Local Motion or a Vital Energy which is not accompanied with that Fancie or Consciousness that is in the Energies of the Animal Life that is there may be a simple Internal Energy or Vital Autokinesie which is without that Duplication that is included in the Nature of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con-sense and Consciousness which makes a Being to be Present with it self Attentive to its own Actions or Animadversive of them to perceive it self to Do or Suffer and to have a Fruition or Enjoyment of it self And indeed it must be granted that what moves Matter or
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
Exquiliis So great is the number of these Gods that even Hell or the state of death it self Diseases and Many Plagues are numbred amongst them whilst with a trembling fear we desire to have these pacified And therefore was there a Temple publickly Dedicated in the Palace to the Fever as likewise Altars elsewhere erected to Orbona and to Evil Fortune Of the latter Balbus in Cicero Quo ex genere Cupidinis Voluptatis Lubentinae Veneris Vocabula Consecrata sunt Vitiosarum rerum non Naturalium Of which kind also are those Names of Lust and Pleasure and Wanton Venery things Vicious and not natural Consecrated and Deified Cicero in his Book of Laws informs us that at Athens there were Temples Dedicated also to Contumely and Impudence but withal giving us this censure of such practices Quae omnia ejusmodi detestanda repudianda sunt All which kind of things are to be detested and rejected and nothing to be Deified but what is Vertuous or Good Notwithstanding which it is certain that such Evil Things as these were Consecrated to no other end than that they might be Deprecated Moreover as these Things of Natures or Nature of Things were sometimes Deified by the Pagans plainly and nakedly in their own Appellative Names so was this again sometimes done disguisedly under other Counterfeit Proper Names as Pleasure was Deified under the Names of Volupia and of Lubentina Venus Time according to the Opinion of some under the Name of Cronos or Saturn which as it Produceth all things so devours all things into it self again Prudence or Wisdom likewise under the Names of Athena or Minerva For it is plain that Origen understood it thus when Celsus not only approved of Worshipping God Almighty in the Sun and in Minerva as that which was Lawful but also commended it as a thing Highly Pious he making this Reply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We speak well of the Sun as a good work of God's c. but as for that Athena or Minerva which Celsus here joyneth with the Sun this is a thing Fabulously devised by the Greeks whether according to some Mystical Arcane and Allegorical Sence or without it when they say that she was begotten out of Jupiter 's Brain All Armed And again afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it be granâ—ed that by Athena or Minerva be Tropologically meant Prudence c. Wherefore not only according to the Poetical but also to the Political and Civil Theology of the Pagans these Accidental Things of Nature and Affections of Substances Personated were made so many Gods and Goddesses Cicero himself in his Book of Laws approving of such Political Gods as these Benè verograve quod Mens Pietas Virtus Fides consecratur manu quarum omnium Romae dedicata publicè Templa sunt ut illa qui habeant habent autem omnes boni Deos ipsos in animis suis collocatos putent It is well that Mind Piety Virtue and Faith are consecrated all which have their Temples publickly dedicated at Rome that so they who possess these things as all Good men do may think that they have the Gods themselves placed in their minds And himself makes a Law for them in his own Common-wealth but with a Cautionary Provision that no Evil and Vicious Things be Consecrated amongst them Ast olla propter quae datur homini adscensus in Coelum Mentem Virtutem Pietatem Fidem earumque laudum delubra sunto Nec ulla vitiorum Solemnia obeunto Let them also worship those things by means whereof men ascend up to Heaven and let there be Shrines or Temples Dedicated to them But let no Religious Ceremonies be performed to Vicious things Notwithstanding all which according to that Theology of the Pagans which was called by Varro Natural whereby is meant not that which was Physiological only but that which is True and Real and by Scaevola Philosophical and which is by both opposed not only to the Poetical and Fabulous but also to the Political and Civil I say according to this Theology of theirs these Accidental Things of Nature Deified could by no means be acknowledged for True and Proper Gods because they were so far from having any Life and Sense in them that they had not so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Real Subsistence or Substantial Essence of their own And thus does Origen dispute against Minervas Godship as Tropologically interpreted to Prudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Athena or Minerva be Tropologized into Prudence then let the Pagans show what Substantial Essence it hath or that it Really Subsists according to this Tropology Which is all one as if he should have said Let the Pagans then shew how this can be a God or Goddess which hath not so much as any Substantial Essence nor Subsists by it self but is a meer Accidental Affection of Substances only And the same thing is likewise urged by Origen concerning other such kind of Gods of theirs as Memory the Mother of the Muses and the Graces all naked in his First Book where Celsus contended for a multiplicity of Gods against the Jews that these things having not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Substantial Essence or Subsistence could not possibly be accounted Gods and therefore were nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer Figments of the Greeks Things made to have Humane Bodies and so Personated and Deified And we think there cannot be a truer Commentary upon this Passage of Origen's than these following verses of Prudentius in his Second Book against Symmachus Desine si pudor est Geniilis ineptia iandem Res Incorporeas Simulatis Fingere membris Let the Gentiles be at last ashamed if they have any shame in them of this their folly in describing and setting forth Incorporeal things with Counterfeit Humane Members Where Accidents and Affections of Things such as Victory was whose Altar Symmachus there contended for the Restauration of are by Prudentius called Res Incorporeae Incorporeal Things accordingly as the Greek Philosophers concluded that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qualities Incorporeal Neither is it possible that the Pagans themselves should be insensible hereof and accordingly we find that Cotta in Cicero doth for this reason utterly banish and explode these Gods out of the Philosophick and True Theology Num censes igitur subtiliore ratione opus esse ad haec refellenda Nam Mentem Fidem Spem Virtutem Honorem Victoriam Salutem Concordiam caeteraque ejusmodi Rerum Vim habere videmus non Deorum Aut enim in nobismet insunt ipsis ut Mens ut Spes ut Fides ut Virtus ut Concordia aut optandae nobis sunt ut Honos ut Salus ut Victoria Quare autem in his Vis Deorum sit tum intelligam cum cognovero Is there any need think you of any great Subtilty to confute these things For Mind Faith
Relaxation and there-not Mechanical but Vital We might also add amongst many others the Intersection of the Plains of the Equator and Ecliptick or the Earth's Diurnal Motion upon an Axis not Parallel with that of the Ecliptick nor Perpendicular to the Plain thereof For though Carâ—esius would needs imagine this Earth of ours once to have been a Sun and so it self the Centre of a lesser Vortex whose Axis was then Directed after this manner and which therefore still kept the same Site or Posture by reason of the Striate Particles finding no fit Pores or Traces for their passage thorough it but only in this Direction yet does he himself confess that because these Two Motions of the Earth the Annual and Diurnal would be much more conveniently made upon Parallel Axes therefore according to the Laws of Mechanism they should perpetually be brought nearer and nearer together till at length the Equator and the Ecliptick come to have their Axes Parallel to one another Which as it hath not yet come to pass so neither hath there been for these last two Thousand years according to the best Observations and Judgments of Astronomers any nearer approach made of them to one another Wherefore the Continuation of these â—wo Motions of the Earth the Annual and Diurnal upon Axes differâ—nt or not Parallel is resolvable into nothing but a Final and Mental Cause or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was Best it should be so the Variety of the Seasons of the year depending hereupon But the greatest of all the particular Phaenomena is the Organization and Formation of the Bodies of Animals consisting of such Variety and Curiosity which these Mechanick Philosophers being no way able to give an account of from the Necessary Motion of Matter Vnguided by Mind for Ends prudently therefore break off their System there when they should come to Animals and so leave it altogether untouch'd We acknowledge indeed that there is a Posthumous Piece extant imputed to Cartesius and entituled De la Formation du Foetus wherein there is some Pretence made to salve all this by Fortuitous Mechanism But as the Theory thereof is wholly built upon a False Supposition sufficiently confuted by the Learned Harvey in his Book of Generation That the Seed doth Materially enter into the Composition of the Egg so is it all along Precarious and Exceptionable nor does it extend at all to the Differences that are in several Animals or offer the least Reason why an Animal of one Species or Kind might not be Formed out of the Seed of another It is here indeed Pretended by these Mechanick Theists that Final Causes therefore ought not to be of any Regard to a Philosopher because we should not arrogate to Our selves to be as Wise as God Almighty is or to be Privy to his Secrets Thus in the Metaphysical Meditations Atque ob hanc Vnicam Rationem totum illud Causarum genus quod à Fine peti solet in Rebus Physicis nullum Vsum habere existimo non enim absque Temeritate me puto investigare posse Fines Dei And again likewise in the Principles of Philosophy Nullas unquam Rationes circa Res Naturales à Fine quem Deus aut Natura in iis faciendis sibi proposuit admittimus quia non tantum nobis debemus arrogare ut ejus Consiliorum participes esse possimus But the Question is not Whether we can always reach to the Ends of God Almighty and know what is Absolutely Best in every case and accordingly make Conclusions that therefore the thing is or ought to be so but Whether any thing at all were made by God for Ends and Good otherwise than would of it self have resulted from the Fortuitous Motion of Matter Nevertheless we see no Reason at all why it should be thought Presumption or Intrusion into the Secrets of God Almighty to affirm that Eyes were made by him for the End of Seeing and accordingly so contrived as might best conduce thereunto and Ears for the End of Hearing and the like This being so plain that nothing but Sottish Stupidity or Atheistick Incredulity masked perhaps under an Hypocritical Veil of Humility can make any doubt thereof And therefore Aristotle justly reprehended Anaxagoras for that Absurd Aphorism of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Man was therefore the Wisest or most Solert of all Animals because he Chanced to have hands He not doubting to affirm on the Contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was far more reasonable to think that because Man was the Wisest or most Solert and Active of all Animals therefore he had Hands given him For Nature saith he distributeth as a Wise man doth what is suitable to every one and it is more Proper to give Pipes to one that hath Musical Skill than upon him that hath Pipes to bestow Musical Skill Wherefore these Mechanick Theists would further alledge and that wiâ—h some more Colour of Reason That it is below the Dignity of God Almighty to condescend to all those mean and trivial Offices and to do the Things of Nature himself immediatly as also that it would be but a Botch in Nature if the Defects thereof were every where to be supplied by Miracle But to this also the Reply is easie That though the Divine Wisdom it self contrived the System of the whole World for Ends and Good yet Nature as an Inferiour Minister immediately Executes the same I say not a Dead Fortuiâ—â—us and meerly Mechanichal but a Vital Orderly and Artificial Nature Which Nature asserted by most of the Ancient Philosophers who were Theists is thus described by Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature is the Last of all those Causes that Fabricate this Corporeal and Sensible world and the utmost bound of Incorporeal Substances Which being full of Reasons and Powers Orders and Presides over all Mundane affairs It proceeding according to the Magic Oracles from that Supreme Goddess the Divine Wisdom which is the Fountain of all Life as well Intellectual as that which is Concrete with Matter Which Wisdom this Nature always essentially depending upon passes through all things unhinderably by means whereof even Inanimate things partake of a kind of Life and things Corruptible remain Eternal in their Species they being contained by its Standing Forms or Ideas as their Causes And thus does the Oracle describe Nature as presiding over the whole Corporeal Word and perpetually turning round the Heavens Here have we a Description of One Vniversal Substantial Life Soul or Spirit of Nature Subordinate to the Deity besides which the same Proclus elsewhere supposeth other Particular Natures or Spermatick Reasons in those Words of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the first Soul are there particular Souls and after the Vniversal Nature Particular Natures Where it may be
and no further but the Latter into Terrestial also Now Hierocles positively affirmeth this to have been the True Cabala and Genuine Doctrine of the Ancient Pythagoreans entertained afterwards by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And This was the Doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato afterwards declared he resembling Every both Humane and Divine Soul that is in our Modern Language Every Created Rational Being to a Winged Chariot and a Driver or Charioteer both together meaning by the Chariot an Enlivened Body and by the Charioteer the Incorporeal Soul it self Acting it And now have we given a full Account in what manner the Ancient Asserters of Incorporeal Substance as Vnextended Answered that Objection against the Illocality and Immobility of Particular Finite Spirits Demons or Angels and Humane Souls that these being all Naturally Incorporate however in Themselves and Directly Immoveable yet were capable of being in some sense Moved by Accident together with those Bodies respectively which they are Vitally United to But as for that Pretence That these Finite Spirits or Substances Incorporeal being Vnextended and so having in themselves no Relation to any Place might therefore Actuate and Inform the Whole Corporeal World at once and take Cognizance of all things therein their Reply hereunto was That these being Essentially but Parts of the Vniverse and therefore not Comprehensive of the Whole Finite or Particular and not Universal Beings as the Three Hypostases of the Platonick Trinity are the Sphere of their Activity could not possibly Extend any further than to the Quickning and Enlivening of some certain Parts of Matter and the World allotted to them and thereby of becoming Particular Animals it being Peculiar to the Deity or that Incorporeal Substance which is Infinite to Quicken and Actuate All things But it would be no Impertinent Digression here as to the main Scope of our Present Vndertaking should we briefly compare the forementioned Doctrine and Cabbala of the Ancient Incorporealists the Pythagoreans and Platonists with that of Christianity and consider the Agreement or Disagreement that is betwixt them First therefore here is a plain Agreement of these Best and most Religious Philosophers with Christianity in this That the most Consummate Happiness and Highest Perfection that Humane Nature is capable of consisteth not in a Separate State of Souls strip'd Naked from all Body and having no manner of Commerce with Matter as some High-flown Persons in all Ages have been apt to Conceit For such amongst the Philosophers and Platonists too was Plotinus Vnevennes and Vnsafeness of whose Temper may sufficiently appear from hence That as he conceived Humane Souls might possibly ascend to so high a Pitch as quite to shake off Commerce with all Body so did he in the other hand again Imagine that they might also Descend and Sink down so low as to Animate not only the Bodies of Bruits but even of Trees and Plants too Two Inconsistent Paradoxes the Latter whereof is a most Prodigious Extravagancy which yet Empedocles though otherwise a Great Wit seems to have been guilty of also from those Verses of his in Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And amongst the Jews the famous Maymonides was also of this Perswasion it being a Known Aphorism of his in his Great Work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the World to Come or State of Consummate Happiness there shall be nothing at all of Body but Pure Incorporeity Upon which Account being accused as a Denyer of the Resurrection an Article as well of the Jewish as of the Christian Faith he wrote that Book intituled Iggereth Teman purposely to purge himself and to reconcile those Two Assertions together which he doth after such a manner as that there should be indeed a Resurrection at the First Coming of the Jewish Messias of some certain Persons to live here a while upon the Earth Eat and Drink Marry and be given in Marriage and then dy again after which in the World to come they should for ever continue Pure Souls Ununited to any Body In which it may be well suspected that the Design Maymonides drove at was against Christianity which notwithstanding as to this Particular hath the Concurrent Suffrages of the best Philosophers That the most Genuine and Perfect state of the Humane Soul which in its own Nature is immortal is to continue for ever not without but with a Body And yet our High-flown Enthusiasts generally however calling themselves Christians are such great Spiritualists and so much for the Inward Resurrection which we deny not to be a Scripture-Notion also As in that of S. Paul If ye be Risen with Christ c. And again If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead as that they quite Allegorize away together with other Parts of Christianity the Outward Resurrection of the Body and indeed will scarcely acknowledge any Future Immortality or Life to come after Death their Spirituality thus ending in Sadducism and Infidelity if not at length in Down-right Atheism and Sensuality But besides this there is yet a further Correspondence of Christianity with the forementioned Philosopbick Cabbala in that the Former also supposes the Highest Perfection of our Humane Souls not to consist in being Eternally Conjoyned with such Gross Bodies as these we now have Unchanged and Unaltered For as the Pythagoreans and Platonists have always Complained of these Terrestrial Bodies as Prisons or Living Sepulchres of the Soul so does Christianity seem to run much upon the same strain in these Scripture-Expressions In this We Groan Earnestly desiring to be Clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven and again We that are in this Tabernacle do Groan being burdened not for that we would be Vncloathed that is strip'd quite Naked of all Body but so cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life and lastly Our selves also which have the First Fruits of the Spirit Groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption Sonship or Inheritance namely the Redemption of our Bodies That is the Freedom of them from all those Evils and Maladies of theirs which we herely oppressed under Wherefore we cannot think that the same Heavy Load and Luggage which the Souls of good men being here burdened with do so much groan to be delivered from shall at the General Resurrection be laid upon them again and bound fast to them to all Eternity For of such a Resurrection as this Plotinus though perhaps mistaking it for the True Christian Resurrection might have some cause to affirm that it would be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Resurrection to another Sleep the Soul seeming not to be Thoroughly Awake here but as it were Soporated with the Dull Steams and Opiatick Vapours of this gross Body For thus the Authour of the Book of Wisdom The Corruptible Body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly Tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things But the same will further appear from that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no such Solid Body as they might find him to have bidding them therefore handle him to remove that Scruple of theirs As if he should have said Though Spirits or Ghosts and Souls Departed have Bodies or Vehicles which may by them be so far Condensed as sometimes to make a Visible appearance to the Eyes of men yet have they not any such Solid Bodies as those of Flesh and Bone and therefore by Feeling and Handling may you satisfie your selves that I am not a meer Spirit Ghost or Soul Appearing as others have frequently done without a Miracle but that I appear in that very same Solid Body wherein I was Crucified by the Jews by miraculous Divine Power raised out of the Sepulchre and now to be found no more there Agreeable to which of our Saviour Christ is that of Apollonius in Philostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Touch me and Handle me and if you find me to avoid the Touch then may you conclude me to be a Spirit or Ghost that is a Soul departed but if I firmly resist the same then believe me Really to live and not yet to have cast off the Body And indeed though Spirits or Ghosts had certain Subtle Bodies which they could so far Condense as to make them sometimes Visible to men yet is it reasonable enough to think that they could not Constipate or Fix them into such a Firmness Grossness and Solidity as that of Flesh and Bone is to continue therein or at least not without such Difficulty and Pain as would hinder them from attempting the same Notwithstanding which it is not denied but that they may possibly sometimes make use of other Solid Bodies Moving and Acting them as in that famous Story of Phlegons where the Body Vanished not as other Ghosts use to do but was left a Dead Carcase behind Now as for our Saviour Christ's Body after his Resurrection and before his Ascension which notwithstanding its Solidity in Handling yet sometimes Vanished also out of his Disciples sight this probably as Origen conceived was purposely conserved for a time in a certain Middle State betwixt the Craâ—sities of a Mortal Body and the Spirituality of a Perfectly Glorified Heavenly Etherial Body But there is a place of Scripture which as it hath been interpreted by the Generality of the Ancient Fathers would Naturally Imply even the Soul of our Saviour Christ himself after his Death and before his Resurrection not to have been quite Naked from all Body but to have had a certain Subtle or Spirituous Clothing and it is this of St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which being understood by those Ancients of our Saviour Christ's descending into Hades or Hell is accordingly thus rendered in the Vulgar Latin Put to Death In the Flesh bút Quickned in the Spirit In which Spirit also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. So that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirit here according to this interpretation is to be taken for a Spirituous Body the Sense being this That when our Saviour Christ was put to death in the Flesh or the Fleshly Body he was Quickned in the Spirit or a Spirituous Body In which Spirituous Body also he went and preached to those Spirits that were in Prison c. And doubtless it would be said by the Asserters of this Interpretation that the word Spirit could not here be taken for the Soul of our Saviour Christ because this being Naturally Immortal could not properly be said to be Quickned and Made Alive Nor could He that is our Saviour Christ's Soul be so well said to go In this Spirit neither that is In it self the Soul in the Soul to preach to the Spirits in Prison They would add also that Spirit here could not be taken for the Divine Spirit neither which was the Efficient Cause of the Vivification of our Saviour's Body at his Resurrection because then there would be no direct Opposition betwixt Being put to Death in the Flesh and Quickned in the Spirit unless they be taken both alike Materially As also the following Verse is thus to be understood That our Saviour Christ went in that Spirit wherein he was Quickned when he was Put to Death In the Flesh and therein preached to the Spirits in Prison By which Spirits in Prison also would be meant not Pure Incorporeal Substances or Naked Souls but Souls Clothed with Subtle Spirituous Bodies as that word may be often understood elsewhere in Scripture But thus much we are unquestionably certain of from the Scripture That not only Elias whose Terrestrial Body seems to have been in part at least Spiritualized in his Ascent in that Fiery Chariot but also Moses appeared Visibly to our Saviour Christ and his Disciples upon the Mount and therefore since Piety will not permit us to think this a meer Prestigious thing in Real Bodies which Bodies also seem to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luciform or Lucid like to our Saviour's then Transfigured Body Again there are sundry places of Scripture which affirm that the Regenerate and Renewed have here in this Life a certain Earnest of their Future Inheritance which is their Spiritual or Heavenly Body as also the Quickning of their Mortal Bodies is therein attributed to the Efficiency of the Spirit Dwelling in them Which is a Thing that hath been taken notice of by Some of the Ancients as Irenaeus Nunc autem Partem aliquam Spiritus ejus sumimus ad Perfectionem Praeparationem Incorruptelae paulatim assuescentes Capere Portare Deum Quod Pignus dixit Apostolus hoc est Partem ejus Honoris qui à Deo nobis promissus est Si ergo Pignus hoc habitans in nobis jam Spirituales effecit absorbetur Mortale ab Immortalitate Now have we a Part of that Spirit for the Preparation and Perfection of Incorruption we being accustomed by little and little to Receive and Bear God Which also the Apostle hath called an Earnest that is a Part of that Honour which is promised to us from God If therefore this Earnest or Pledge dwelling in us hath made us already Spiritual the Mortal is also swallowed up by Immortality And Novatian Spiritus Sanctus id agit in nobis ut ad Aeternitatem ad Resurrectionem Immortalitatis corpora nostra perducat dum illa in se assuefacit cum Caelesti Virtute misceri This is that which the Holy Spirit doth in us namely to bring and lead on our Bodies to Eternity and the Resurrection of Immortality whilst in it self it accustometh us to be mingled with the Heavenly Vertue Moreover there are some places also which seem to imply that Good Men shall after Death have a Further Inchoation of their Heavenly Body the full Completion whereof is not to be expected before the Resurrection or Day of Judgment We know that If our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we
that there could not possibly be any such Men and Animals as now are Compounded out of them but every Man and Animal would be a Heap of Innumerable Percipients and have Innumerable Perceptions and Intellections whereas it is plain that there is but one Life and Vnderstanding one Soul or Mind one Perceiver or Thinker in every one And to say that these innumerable Particles of Matter Do all Confederate together that is to make every Man and Animal to be a Multitude or Common-wealth of Percipients and Persons as it were clubbing together is a thing so Absurd and Ridiculous that one would wonder the Hylozoists should not rather chuse to recant that their Fundamental Errour of the Life of Matter than endeavour to seek Shelter and Sanctuary for the same under such a Pretence For though Voluntary Agents and Persons may Many of them resign up their wills to One and by that means have all but as it were One Artificial Will yet can they not possibly resign up their Sense and Vnderstanding too so as to have all but one Artificial Life Sense and Understanding much less could this be done by Senseless Atoms or Particles of Matter supposed to be devoid of all Consciousness or Animality Besides which there have been other Arguments already suggested which do sufficiently Evince that Sense and Vnderstanding cannot possibly belong to Matter any way either Originally or Secondarily to which more may be added else where And now from these Two things That Life and Vnderstanding do not Essentially belong to Matter as such and that they cannot be Generated out of Dead and Sensless Matter it is Demonstratively Certain that there must be some other Substance besides Body or Matter However the Anaximandrian and Democritick Atheists taking it for granted that the First Principles of Body are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding must either acknowledge a Necessity of some other Substance besides Body or else deny the Truth of that Axiom so much made use of by thâ—mselves That Nothing can come out of Nothing And this was our Second Vndertaking to shew that from the very Principles of the Atheistick Corporealism represented in the Fifth and Sixth Heads Incorporeal Substance is against those Atheists themselves Demonstrable Our Third and Last was this That there being undeniably Substance Incorporeal the Two next following Atheistick Argumentations built upon the contrary Supposition are therefore altogether Insignificant also and do no Execution at all The first of which being the Seventh Impugning only such a Soul of the World as is Generated out of Matter is not properly Directed against Theism neither but only such a Form of Atheism sometime before mentioned as indeed cometh nearest to Theism Which though concluding all things to have sprung Originally from Sensless Matter Night and Chaos yet supposes things from thence to have ascended Gradually to higher and higher perfection First Inanimate Bodies as the Elements then Birds and other Brute Animals according to the forementioned Aristophanick Tradition with which agreeth this of Lucretius Principio Genus Alituum variaeque Volucres Afterward Men and in the last place Gods and that not only the Animated Stars but Jupiter or a Soul of the world Generated also out of Night and Chaos as well as all other things We grant indeed that the True and Real Theists amongst the Ancient Pagans also held the World's Animation and whosoever denied the same were therefore accompted Absolute Atheists But the World's Animation in a larger Sense signifies no more than this That all things are not Dead about us but that there is a Living Sentient and Vnderstanding Nature Eternal that first Framed the World and still Presideth over it and it is certain that in this Sense all Theists whatsoever must hold the World's Animation But the Generality of Pagan Theists held the World's Animation also in a stricter Sense as if the World were Truly and Properly an Animal and therefore a God Compleated and made up of Soul and Body together as other Animals are Which Soul of this great World-Animal was to some of them the Highest or Supreme Deity but to others only a Secondary God they supposing an Abstract Mind Superiour to it But God's being the Soul of the World in this Latter Paganick Sense and the World 's being an Animal or a God are things Absolutely disclaimed and renounced by us However this Seventh Atheistick Argument is not directed against the Soul of the world in the Sense of the Paganick Theists neither this being as they think already Confuted but in the Sense of the Atheistick Theogonists not an Eternal Vnmade Soul or Mind but a Native and Generated One only such as resulted from the Disposition of Matter and Contexture of Atoms the Offspring of Night and Chaos the Atheists here pretending after their Confutation of the True and Genuine Theism to take away all Shadows thereof also and so to free Men from all manner of Fear of being obnoxious to any Understanding Being Superiour to themselves Wherefore we might here omit the Confutation of this Argument without any detriment at all to the Cause of Theism Nevertheless because this in General is an Atheistick Assertion That there is no Life and Vnderstanding presiding over the Whole World we shall briefly examine the Supposed Grounds thereof which alone will be a sufficient Confutation of it The First of them therefore is this that there is no other Substance in the world besides Body The Second That the Principles of Bodies are devoid of all Life and Vnderstanding and the Last That Life and Vnderstanding are but Accidents of Bodies resulting from such a Composition or Contexture of Atoms as produceth soft Flesh Blood and Brains in Bodies Organized and of Humane Form From all which the Conclusion is that there can be no Life and Vnderstanding in the Whole because it is not of Humane Form and Organized and hath no Blood and Brains But neither is Body the only Substance Nor are Life and Vnderstanding Accidents resulting from any Modification of Dead and Lifeless Matter Nor is Blood or Brains that which Vnderstandeth in us but an Incorporeal Soul or Mind Vitally united to a Terrestrial Organized Body which will then understand with far greater advantage when it comes to be Clothed with a Pure Spiritual and Heavenly One But there is in the Universe also a higher kind of Intellectual Animals which though consisting of Soul and Body likewise yet have neither Flesh nor Blood nor Brains nor Parts so Organized as ours are And the most Perfect Mind and Intellect of all is not the Soul of any Body but Complete in it self without such Vital Vnion and Sympathy with Matter We conclude therefore that this Passage of a Modern Writer We Worms cannot conceive how God can Vnderstand without Brains is Vox Pecudis the Language and Philosophy rather of Worms or Brute Animals then of Men. The next which is the Eighth Atheistick Argumentation is briefly this that whereas