Greek or Latine this also would be to us a Miracle or Effect Supernatural for so is the Apostles speaking with Tounges accounted and yet in Demoniacks is this sometimes done by Evil Demons God only Permitting Such also amongst the Pagans was that Miraculum Cotis as Apuleius calls it that Miracle of the Whetstone done by Accius Navius when at his command it was divided into Two with a Razor But Secondly there is another sort of Miracles or Effects Supernatural such as are above the Power of all Second Causes or any Natural Created Being whatsoever and so can be attributed to none but God Almighty himself the Author of Nature who therefore can Controul it at pleasure As for that late Theological Politician who writing against Miracles denies as well those of the Former as of this Latter Kind contending that a Miracle is nothing but a Name which the Ignorant Vulgar gives to Opus Naturae Insolitum any Vnwonted work of Nature or to what themselves can assign no Cause off as also that if there were any such thing done Contrary to Nature or Above it it would rather Weaken than Confirm Our Belief of the Divine Existence We find his Discourse every way so Weak Groundless and Inconsiderable that we could not think it here to deserve a Confutation But of the Former Sort of those Miracles is that to be understood Deuter. the 13. If there arise among you a Prophet or dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or Wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods and serve them thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet or Dreamer of Dreams for the Lord your God Proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your Soul For it cannot be Supposed that God Almighty would himself purposely Inspire any man to exhort others to Idolatry and immediatly assist such a one with his own Supernatural Power of doing Miracles in Confirmation of such Doctrine But the meaning is that by the suggestion of Evil Spirits some False Prophets might be raised up to tempt the Jews to Idolatry or at least that by Assistance of them such Miracles might be wrought in Confirmation thereof as those sometimes done by the Egyptian Sorcerers or Magicians God himself not interposing in this case to hinder them for this reason that he might hereby Prove and Try their Faithfulness towards him For as much as both by the Pure Light of Nature and God's Revealed Will before confirmed by Miracles Idolatry or the Religious Worship of any but God Almighty had been sufficiently condemned From whence it is evident that Miracles alone at least such Miracles as these are no sufficient Confirmation of a True Prophet without consideration had of the Doctrine taught by him For though a man should have done never so many true and real Miracles amongst the Jews and yet should perswade to Idolatry he was by them confidently to be condemned to death for a false Prophet Accordingly in the New Testament do we read that our Saviour Christ forewarned his Disciples That False Prophets and False Christs should arise and show great Signs or Wonders in so much that if it were possible they should seduce the very Elect. And St. Paul foretelleth concerning the Man of Sin or Anti-Christ That his coming should be after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and Wonders or Miracles of a Lye For we conceive that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place are not properly meant Feigned and Counterfeit Miracles that is meer Cheating and Jugling tricks but True Wonders and Real Miracles viz. of the Former Sort mentioned done for the Confirmation of a Lye as the Doctrine of this Man of Sin is there afterwards called For otherwise how could his coming be said to be According to the Working of Satan with all Power In like manner also in St. John's Apocalypse where the coming of the same Man of Sin and the Mystery of Iniquity is again described we read Chapter 13. of a Two Horned Beast like a Lamb That he shall do great wonders and deceive those that dwell on the Earth by means of those Miracles which he hath power to do in the sight of the Beast And again Chapter 16. Of certain unclean Spirits like Frogs coming out of the mouth of the Dragon and of the Beast and of the False Prophet which are the Spirits of Devils working Miracles that go forth to the Kings of the Earth And Lastly Chapter 19. Of the False Prophet that wrought Miracles before the Beast All which seem to be understood not of Feigned and Counterfeit Miracles only but of True and Real also Effected by the Working of Satan in Confirmation of a Lye that is of Idolatry False Religion and Imposture God Almighty permitting it partly in way of Probation or Tryal of the faithfulness of his own servants and partly in way of Just Judgment and Punishment upon those who receive not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved as the Apostle declareth Wherefore those Miracles pretended for divers Ages past to have been done before the Relicks of Saints and Images c. were they all True could by no means justifie or warrant that Religious Worship by many given to them because True and Real Miracles done in order to the promoting of Idolatry are so far from Justifying that Idolatry that they are themselves Condemned by it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Miracles of a Lye done by the Working of Satan But as for the Miracles of our Saviour Christ had they been all of them only of the Former Kind such as might have been done God permitting by the Natural Power of Created Spirits and their Assistance yet for as much as he came in the Name of the Lord teaching neither Idolatry nor any thing contrary to the clear Light and Law of Nature therefore ought he by reason of those Miracles to have been received by the Jews themselves and owned for a True Prophet according to the Doctrine of Moses himself Who both in the 13. and 18. Chapter of Deuter. plainly supposeth that God would in no other Case permit any False Prophet to do Miracles by the assistance of Evil Spirits save only in that of Idolatry and which is always understood of what is plainly Discoverable by the Light of Nature to be False or Evil. The reason whereof is manifest because if he should this would be an Invincible Temptation which it is inconsistent with the Divine Goodness to expose men unto And our Saviour Christ was unquestionably that One Eximious Prophet which God Almighty by Moses promised to send unto the Israelites upon occasion of their own desire made to him at Horeb Let me not hear again the voyce of the Lord my God nor let me see this great Fire any more that I die not Whereupon the Lord
THE True Intellectual System OF THE UNIVERSE THE FIRST PART WHEREIN All the REASON and PHILOSOPHY OF ATHEISM is Confuted AND Its IMPOSSIBILITY Demonstrated By R. CVDWORTH D. D. Origenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for Richard Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY MDCLXXVIII VICTORY Aristotle 〈◊〉 Pythagoras THEISTS 〈…〉 CONFUSION 〈◊〉 Epicurus Aâ—â—â—â—mandes ATHEISTS 〈…〉 â—â—LIGION 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato L. 10. de leg To the Right Honourable HENEAGE LORD FINCH BARON of Daventry Lord High CHANCELLOVR of England and one of His MAJESTIE's most Honourable Privy Council MY LORD THE many Favours I have formerly Received from You as they might justly challenge whenever I had a fit opportunity a Publick and Thankfull Acknowledgment so have they encourag'd me at this time to the Presumption of this Dedication to Your Lordship Whom as Your Perspicacious Wit and Solid Judgment together with Your Acquired Learning render every way a most Accomplish'd and Desirable Patron so did I persuade my self that Your Hearty Affection to Religion and Zeal for it would make You not Unwilling to take that into Your Protection which is written wholly in the Defence thereof so far forth as its own Defects or Miscarriages should not render it uncapable of the same Nor can I think it probable that in an Age of so much Debauchery Scepticism and Infidelity an Undertaking of this kind should be judged by You Useless or Unseasonable And now having so fit an Opportunity I could most willingly expatiate in the large Field of Your Lordship's Praises both that I might doe an Act of Justice to Your self and provoke others to Your Imitation But I am sensible that as no Eloquence less then that of Your own could be fit for such a Performance so the Nobleness and Generosity of Your Spirit is such that You take much more pleasure in Doing Praise-worthy things then in Hearing the Repeated Echo's of them Wherefore in stead of pursuing Encomiums which would be the least pleasing to Your self I shall Offer up my Prayers to Almighty God for the Continuation of Your Lordship's Life and Health That so His MAJESTY may long have such a Loyal Subject and Wise Counsellour the Church of England such a Worthy Patron the High Court of Chancery such an Oracle of Impartial Justice and the whole Nation such a Pattern of Vertue and Piety Which shall ever be the Hearty Desire of MY LORD YOUR LORDSHIP' 's Most Humble and most Affectionate Servant R. Cudworth THE PREFACE TO THE READER THOVGH I confess I have seldom taken any great pleasure in reading other mens Apologies yet must I at this time make some my self First therefore I acknowledge that when I engag'd the Press I intended onely a Discourse concerning Liberty and Necessity or to speak out more plainly Against the Fatall Necessity of all Actions and Events which upon whatsoever Grounds or Principles maintain'd will as We Conceive Serve The Design of Atheism and Vndermine Christianity and all Religion as taking away all Guilt and Blame Punishments and Rewards and plainly rendring a Day of Judgment Ridiculous And it is Evident that some have pursued it of late in order to that End But afterwards We consider'd That this which is indeed a Controversy concerning The True Intellectual System of the Universe does in the full Extent thereof take in Other things the Necessity of all Actions and Events being maintained by Several Persons upon very Different Grounds according to that Tripartite Fatalism mentioned by us in the beginning of the First Chapter For First The Democritick Fate is nothing but The Material Necessity of all things without a God it supposing Sensless Matter Necessarily Moved to be the onely Original and Principle of all things Which therefore is called by Epicurus The Physiological by us the Atheistick Fate Besides which The Divine Fate is also Bipartite Some Theists supposing God both to Decree and Doe all things in us Evil as well as Good or by his Immediate Influence to Determine all Actions and so make them alike Necessary to us From whence it follows That his Will is no way Regulated or Determined by any Essentiall and Immutable Goodness and Justice or that he hath nothing of Morality in his Nature he being onely Arbitrary Will Omnipotent As also That all Good and Evil Morall to us Creatures are meer Theticall or Positive things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Law or Command onely and not by Nature This therefore may be called The Divine Fate Immorall and Violent Again There being other Divine Fatalists who acknowledge such a Deity as both suffers other things besides it self to Act and hath an Essentiall Goodness and Justice in its Nature and consequently That there are things Just and Unjust to us Naturally and not by Law and Arbitrary Constitution onely and yet nevertheless take away from men all such Liberty as might make them capable of Praise and Dispraise Rewards and Punishments and Objects of Distributive Justice they conceiving Necessity to be Intrinsecall to the Nature of every thing in the Actings of it and nothing of Contingency to be found any-where from whence it will follow That nothing could possibly have been Otherwise in the whole World then it Is. And this may be called The Divine Fate Morall as the other Immorall and Naturall as the other Violent it being a Concatenation or Implexed Series of Causes all in themselves Necessary depending upon a Deity Morall if we may so speak that is such as is Essentially Good and Naturally Just as the Head thereof the First Contriver and Orderer of all Which kind of Divine Fate hath not onely been formerly asserted by the Stoicks but also of late by divers Modern Writers Wherefore of the Three Fatalisms or False Hypotheses of the Universe mentioned in the beginning of this Book One is Absolute Atheism Another Immorall Theism or Religion without any Naturall Justice and Morality all Just and Unjust according to this Hypothesis being meer Theticall or Factitious things Made by Arbitrary Will and Command onely The Third and Last such a Theism as acknowledges not onely a God or Omnipotent Understanding Being but also Natural Justice and Morality Founded in him and Derived from him nevertheless no Liberty from Necessity anywhere and therefore no Distributive or Retributive Justice in the World Whereas these Three Things are as we conceive the Fundamentals or Essentials of True Religion First That all things in the World do not Float without a Head and Governour but that there is a God an Omnipotent Understanding Being Presiding over all Secondly That this God being Essentially Good and Just there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Something in its own Nature Immutably and Eternally Just and Unjust and not by Arbitrary Will Law and Command onely And Lastly That there is Something 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or That we are so far forth Principles or Masters of our own Actions as to be Accountable to
to quarrel with that of our Lord I am in the Father and the Father in me objecting How is it possible that both the Former should be in the Latter and the Latter in the Former Or how can the Father being Greater be received in the Son who is Lesser And yet what wonder is it if the Son should be in the Father since it is written of us men also That in him we Live and Move and have our Being In way of reply whereunto Athanasius first observes that the Ground of this Arian Cavillation was the Grossness of their Apprehensions and that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conceive of Incorporeal things after a Corporeal manner And then does he add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Father and Son are not as they suppose Transvasated and Poured out one into another as into an Empty Vessel as if the Son filled up the Concavity of the Father and again the Father that of the Son and neither of them were full or perfect in themselves For all this is proper to Bodies wherefore though the Father be in some sence Greater than the Son yet notwithstanding may he be in him after an Incorporeal manner And he replieth to their Last Cavil thus That the Son is not so in the Father as we our selves are said to Live and Move and Be in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For he himself from the Fountain of the Father is that Life in whom all things are quickned and consist neither does he who is the Life live in another Life which were to suppose him not to be the Life it self Nor saith he must it be conceived that the Father is no otherwise in the Son than he is in holy men Corroborating of them for the Son himself is the Power and Wisdom of God and all Creatâ—d Beings are sanctified by a Participation of him in the Spirit Wherefore this Perichoresis or Mutual In-being of the Father and the Son is to be understood after a Peculiar manner so as that they are Really thereby One and what the Son and Holy Ghost doth the Father doth in them accordig to that of Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Godhead of the Son is the Godhead of the Father and so the Father exercises a Providence over all things in the Son Lastly the same Athanasius in sundry places still further supposes those Three Divine Hypostases to make up one Entire Divinity aftâ—r the same manner as the Fountain and the Stream make up one Entire River or the Root and the Stock and the Branches one Entire Tree And in this sence also is the whole Trinity said by him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Divinity and One Nature and One Essence and One God And accordingly the word Homousios seems here to be taken by Athanasius in a further sence besides that before mentioned not only for things Agreeing in one Common and General Essence as Three Individual men are Coessential with one another but also for such as concurrently together make up One Entire Thing and are therefore Joyntly Essential thereunto For when he affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Tree is Congenerous or Homogenial with the Root and the Branches Coessential with the Vine his meaning is that the Root Stock and Branches are not only of One Kind but also all together make up the Entire Essence of One Plant or Tree In like manner those Three Hypostases the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not only Congenerous and Coessential as having all the Essence of the Godhead alike in them but also as Concurrently Making up one Entire Divinity Accordingly whereunto Athanasius further concludes thâ—t these Three Divine Hypostases have not a Consent of Will only but Essentially one and the Self Same Will and that they do also joyntly produce ad extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and the Self-same Energy Operation or Action nothing being Peculiar to the Son as such but only the Oeconomy of the Incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Trinity is like it self and by Nature Indivisible and there is One Energy or Action of it for the Father By the Word In the Holy Ghost doth all things And thus is the Vnity of the Holy Trinity conserved and One God preached in the Church Namely such as is Above all and By or Through all and In all Above all as the Father the Principle and Fountain Through all by the Word and In all by the Holy Spirit And elsewhere he writeth often to the same purpose Thus have we given a true and full account how according to Athanasius the Three Divine Hypostases though not Monoousious but Homoousious only are Really but One God or Divinity In all which doctrine of his there is nothing but what a True and Genuine Platonist would readily suâ—scribe to From whence it may be concluded that the right Platonick Trinity differs not so much from the Doctrine of the Ancient Church as some late Writers have supposed Hitherto hath the Platonick Christian endeavoured partly to Rectifie and Reform the True and Genuine Platonick Trinity and partly to Reconcile it with the Doctrine of the Ancient Church Nevertheless to prevent all mistakes we shall here declare that wheresoever this most Genuine Platonick Trinity may be found to differ not only from the Scripture it self which yet notwithstanding is the sole Rule of Faith but also from the Form of the Nicene and Constantinopolitane Councils and further from the Doctrine of Athanasius too in his Genuine writings whether it be in their Inequality or in any thing else is there utterly disclaimed and rejected by us For as for that Creed commonly called Athanasian which was written a long time after by some other hand since at first it derived all its authority either from the Name of Athanasius to whom it was Entituled or else because it was supposed to be an Epitome and Abridgement of his Doctrine this as we conceive is therefore to be interpreted according to the Tenour of that Doctrine contained in the Genuine Writings of Athanasius Of whom we can think no otherwise than as a person highly Instrumental and Serviceable to Divine Providence for the preserving of the Christian Church from lapsing by Arianism into a kind of Paganick and Idolatrous Christianity in Religiously Worshipping of those which themselves concluded to be Creatures and by means of whom especially the Doctrine of the Trinity which before fluctuated in some loose Uncertainty came to be more punctually Stated and Settled Now the Reason why we introduced the Platonick Christian here thus Apologizing was First because we conceived it not to be the Interest of Christianity that the ancient Platonick Trinity should be made more discrepant from the Christian than indeed it is And Secondly because as we have already proved the Ancient and Genuine Platonick